Magic Methods not working

I have a class which instantiates other classes, and has a magic method like this: function _get($classname) { return $this->instantiate($classname); } Obviously, the class also has an instantiate method which does what it says. Here's the problem: When I call the instantiate method, it works fine, like this: $db = $sc->instantiate('database'); But when I do the following, it *doesn't* work: $db = $sc->database; In fact it does not call the instantiate() method; I've placed a print statement in the instantiate() method which fires at then end of the routine. That statement doesn't fire with the above code. The docs on magic methods are pretty slim, so I'm not sure what it is I'm missing. Can someone enlighten me? Paul -- Paul M. Foster