static __get function

Hi all... I'm trying to build a simple configureation class (using the singleton pattern). Using PHP5, I want to use the __get and __set methods to access configuration settings for my site. However, they don't work :P Here's my class definition: class Configuration { static private $ConfigSettings; private function __construct() { } public static function __get($Setting) { if (!is_array(self::$ConfigSettings)) { require_once(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../configs/Framework.conf.php'); } if (isset(self::$ConfigSettings[$Setting])) { return self::$ConfigSettings[$Setting]; } return NULL; } public static function __set($Setting, $Value) { self::$ConfigSettings[$Setting] = $Value; } } However, instead of doing something like: Configuration::DbType = 'mysql'; I have to use: Configuration::__set('DbType', 'mysql'); It works, yes, but not quite like I want it to - it just seems 'ugly' to me. This is using PHP5 RC1 on Apache 2.0.49 (linux). Any suggestions? Dave