28 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



vanced character are established in every important centre. 

 We should, further, do what we can to promote the estab- 

 lishment of district museums, with collections illustrative of 

 the mineralogy and natural history of the locality, supple- 

 mented as time goes on by further illustrative specimens from 

 other localities, starting from our own as a basis. We should 

 thus, by increasing the facilities available for the study of 

 science to the young and rising generation, largely add to 

 the number of future workers in her cause. 



Let us, in addition to taking action in the practical direc- 

 tions which I have indicated, do all we can to impress upon 

 those around us that there is nothing of more importance to 

 humanity at large than that we should increase our knowledge 

 of Nature's laws and of their operation and application to 

 our needs. It is abundantly evident that ' the greater know- 

 ledge in this respect wliich the present century has produced 

 has led to an enormous increase in the wealth of the world, 

 by facilitating and enlarging both the production and distri- 

 bution of commodities, and has also largely contributed to 

 the comfort, and prolonged the duration, of human existence. 

 I cannot refrain from here quoting, although the passage 

 is doubtless familiar to many of you, what Macaulay says 

 in his Essay on Bacon, of the philosophy based on obser- 

 vation, of which that great man was, if not the author, at 

 least one of the ablest exponents. He says, "It has lengthened 

 life : it has mitigated pain : it has extinguished diseases : 

 it has increased the fertility of the soil : it has given new 

 securities to the mariner : it has furnished new arms to the 

 warrior: it has spanned great rivers and estuaries with bridges 

 of form unknown to our fathers : it has guided the thunder- 

 bolt innocuously from heaven to earth : it has lighted up 

 the night with the splendour of the day : it has extended 

 the range of human vision : it has multiplied the power of 

 the human muscles : it has accelerated motion : it has 

 annihilated distance : it has facilitated intercourse, corre- 

 spondence, all friendly offices, all despatch of business : it 

 has enabled men to descend to the depths of the sea, to soar 

 into the air, to penetJ'ate securely into the noxious recesses 

 of the earth, to traverse the land in cars which whirl along 

 without horses, and the ocean in ships which sail against the 

 wind. These are but a part of its fruits, and of its first 

 fruits — fruits of a philosophy which never rests, which has 



