126 president's address — section e. 



No one present, I trust, will object to a reference to the 

 imperishable Volume in which is recorded the creation, not 

 only of this speck we call the earth, but of the entire universe. 



Finite man in his ignorance thought to centralize liis race 

 in such a way as to avoid being " scattered abroad on the 

 face of the whole earth," (Gen. xi., 4), and thus he would 

 have failed to fulfil the command given in Gen. i., 28, to 

 " subdue the earth and have dominion over the fish of the 

 sea." But the beneficent Creator — the Infinite One — who 

 knows the end from the beginning, mercifully frustrated that 

 exercise of folly by confounding language and "scattering 

 them abroad on the face of the whole earth." This was the 

 Alpha of Geographical Science. For the families of mankind 

 being divided, their pursuits and interests were no longer 

 identical : thus circumstances not of their own creation led 

 them to regard the commodities of their neighbours as 

 necessaries to be acquired ; and this, in due course, would 

 give birth to commercial enterprise. 



In the infancy of the human race men were ignorant of 

 their own planet being a sphere, but regarded it as a flat 

 disc, — as I have heard aborigines in Australia explain their 

 ideas in that respect when I have endeavoured to show them 

 that the earth is round and turns on its axis, which makes the 

 other heavenly bodies appear to rise and set. The primitive 

 child of the soil replied, " that only white-fellow fashi )n, 

 but not that way along a black-fellow." He further thought 

 the sun very cunning, as he would deceitfully creep along 

 the sky all day very slowly, but directly he sank below the 

 horizon he hastened along all night, while we sleep, to be 

 ready in the morning to resume his former slow pace. 



But to subdue the earth and have dominion over the fish 

 demanded the cultivation of the science of navigation, which 

 was essential to the extension of geographical knowledge ; 

 and though for a considerable period the knowledge of the 

 habitable globe was limited to the countries lying around the 

 Mediterranean, in due time, either from curiosity or cupidity, 

 seamen boldly faced the Atlantic, and, following the coast line 

 northerly, viewed what they appropriately named the " Land's 

 End," or Cape Finisterre. The name of that Cape possesses 

 a historical interest which is rarely conveyed by teachers of 

 geography. 



The early Egyptians, soon after that country became a 

 monarchy, Robertson the historian tells us, carried on a 

 trade between the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea and the 



