30 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



On all grounds, therefore — material, mental, and moral — 

 the study of science should be encouraged to the utmost of 

 our power. And the range of science is illimitable. Not- 

 withstanding the accumulated knowledge of Nature's laws, 

 and of their application to our needs, which the world now 

 possesses, thanks to the work of those great men, past and 

 present, who have devoted themselves to the cause of science, 

 and for the result of whose labours the world cannot be too 

 thankful, still, what Newion calls "the vast ocean of truth" 

 lies practically unexplored around us. Every item of know- 

 ledge we obtain only shows us how much there is to know ; 

 and, while many departments of human life and interest may 

 always remain beyond the power of man to fathom, the pos- 

 sibilities disclosed by recent discoveries are such as to suggest 

 that the future may have in store discoveries still more 

 startling and brilliant, in the light of which our knowledge 

 of to-day will appear but pale and dim in the eyes of 

 posterity. 



