JOHN CAMERON, M.L.a. vil 
treatment of all those commodities which are the primary base 
of the secondary manufactures. The application of science to 
these things has made the output so enormous that the 
incredible labour said to have been incurred in the erection of 
the Pyramids, if conducted under modern scientific conditions, 
could have effected the same object in a few paltry weeks. 
The more we consider this thing, and the more we go into 
details, the more astounded do we become at the results 
revealed, but I do not intend to take you over the whole 
field of scientific achievements as embodied in modern com- 
mercial developments. I have endeavoured merely to give 
you some brief outline of results to date, of their incalculable 
effects on human progress and happiness, and their still further 
incalculable aid in developing the human race. That develop- 
ment is covered by the generic term commerce. Our social 
existence 1s very bare, very meagre, it is a mere cornice 
round the great temple of commerce. Yet it is true that even 
in our social relation, this pert miss, science, will poke her 
busybody nose. She is ready to help us all; the palace 
and the mansion are literal repositories of her gallant doings. 
In every direction she puts nature to confusion, not only 
can she imitate, but she can even outdo her natural mother. 
Little indeed do the gay denizens of the fashionable ballroom 
understand to what extent the laborious researches of unos- 
tentatious students have contributed, and still are contributing 
to their life and enjoyment. From the perfume which 
exhales from the handkerchief of the coquette, to the silent 
electric fan which is agitating the bosom of the atmosphere, 
causing mimic gales to flood the room, all is the result of 
science. 
You will agree that I have taken you over a fairly com- 
prehensive field, yet all the matters upon which I have touched 
really go to make up that great thing which we call commerce. 
Ordinarily, we are disposed to consider commerce as the 
mere huxtering which goes on between buyer and seller, 
without any relation to the tremendous forces which enable 
those two interesting individuals to carry on their operations. 
In the lengthening of time, and, as we all know, time is money, 
science by so much has added to the potentiality of that 
jnvaluable element. Therefore it has enabled the science of 
commerce to be carried on in a much more effective and compre- 
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