474 president's address. 



Some may urge that the place which the natural sciences occupy- 

 in our University education, is at least an evidence of popularity. 

 But the place they take is a small one. The little that has to be 

 known of these matters at matriculation, seems to me insufficient 

 to create a taste for them, and with the exception of those whose 

 professional studies require it, they are not followed subsequently. 



The circumstances of young colonies are so peculiar and 

 exceptional that it would not be fair to compare our literature or 

 our studies with those of any old established country. Of course 

 we should suffer much by the comparison. Our habits and our 

 institutions are not those of a studious people. Men of real 

 learning have no place amongst us, and are consequently rarely 

 to be found. This is why, perhaps, sO much of the public 

 utterance of our speakers and writers are greatly below the 

 standard in breadth and depth. It would be out of place for me 

 to remark this, even casually, were it not that it trenches on the 

 fact I am now referring to. Natural sciences have become 

 strangely mixed up with some of the most important questions of 

 religion and philosophy. They have been so mixed, to some 

 extent, in every age, but never so much and so injuriously as 

 now, and the problems are being worked out carefully and well 

 by those who are the real masters of the points in dispute, and 

 with a cautious yet most untiring spirit of inquiry and with a 

 conscientious determination to record facts without prejudice or 

 favour. Of these the most illustrious has been Dr. Charles 

 Darwin. Differing as many of us do from the conclusions at 

 which he has arrived, I cannot help adding my humble tribute 

 of admiration for his philosophical methods of inquiry in which 

 he has set so beautiful, so illustrious an example. With such 

 methods and in such hands the interests of truth are safe in the 

 long run. Charles Darwin has revolutionised the science of 

 zoology more by his ingenious and conscientious methods than by 

 his conclusions. What the ultimate conclusions will be it would 

 be premature to predict ; but how they will be established cannot 



