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essential. The wants of such are amply met in the instruction 

 there given. To those Avho see in the observation of Nature's 

 wonders and secrets something which makes humanity better, 

 happier, and wiser, abundant opportunities are offered of studying 

 and investigating the laws and beauties of physical science. And 

 to those who love art tor its own sake, and take pleasure in 

 delineating the beauties of form with which we are surrounded, 

 means are provided for so doing with all the aids which modem 

 advancement and knowledge supply, combined with examples of 

 those miraculous works of art which have made the names of 

 ancient Greece and Home immortal. 



During the evening an interesting address was dehvered by 

 Mr. Benjamin Lomax on 



A Cup of Tea. 



Mr. Lomax said that the "cup of tea" was the one 

 institution about which all the civilized world agreed. The lady 

 of fashion entertained her friends at a " drum " with a harlequin 

 " cup of tea ; " and the old woman in the almshouses chatted over 

 the same stimulant. In Australia the bushmen had for breakfast 

 damper, mutton, and tea ; for dinner mutton, tea, and damper ; 

 and for supper tea, damper, and mutton. When a bushman 

 travelled he carried tea ; if he entered a house he was offered 

 tea ; and if '•' at night he sleepless lay " he rose to smoke and take 

 "a cup of tea." For all this it was a fact that few knew a good 

 cup of tea when they tasted it, and still fewer knew how to make 

 it or even to drink it. Tea, as we had it, was the leaf of a 

 Chinese shrub. Other countries drank other infusions — coffee. 

 math, &c., — but all were chosen for the presence of one 

 ingredient, called by the chemist, theine. 



In England we were content with its weak presence in an 

 infusion, but other people boiled it out, or ate the tea leaves ; a 

 sure, if unpleasant method of extracting the virtues and vices of 

 this aromatic principle. The peculiar flavour of tea was due to 



