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of real, vital knowledge among large classes to wliicli not 

 many years ago a taste for personal scientific investigation 

 was altogether foreign. Of those papers which I have had 

 the pleasure of hearing read, since I have been a member of 

 the Society, I trust I shall not be accused of any unkindly 

 feelings towards members of the Society, when I say that, 

 comparing them with the papers w^hich I have been accustomed 

 to hear read before other scientific bodies, they seem to me 

 rather the expression of an amiable scientific sentiment, that 

 of serious scientific industry. It has particularly struck me. 

 since my arrival here, that the Society during the years of its 

 existence has neither, produced itself, nor been the means of 

 prompting others to any systematic work either on the natu- 

 ral phenomena which surround us, or on the history of the 

 Colony, which if it dees not present like the history of Ceylon, 

 many events of interest to archaeologic and antiquarian stu- 

 dents, has still had, from its various vicissitudes of fortune, 

 many periods full of picturesque and romantic interest. The 

 object therefore of this meeting is, to invite the cooperation 

 of members in such a work, as shall give to those that seek it, 

 if not complete, at least authentic information concerning the 

 natural phenomena, past and present, of the island, and the 

 social and political history of the Colony. As a model of the 

 work which we have to do, I think we might take Sir Emer- 

 son Tennent's Ceylon, though in order to compensate for 

 many objects of interest which must naturally be wanting in 

 an account of Mauritius, it would be well I think to develop 

 more fully thb picturesque capabilities of our subject or sub- 

 jects : and this not only in the way of plates and illustrations, 

 but in the general style of our work. 



" I need not dwell at any length on the advantages which 

 such an undertaking, if carefully conducted, would briag with 

 it : but I may perhaps be allowed to give prominence to a 

 point of view, which the nature of my duties in the colony 

 naturally leads me towards. I think that if the youth of our 

 colony had within their reach a repertory (in the strictest 

 sense of the words ubi omnia reijeriri possint a repertory of 

 useful knowledge regarding all the objects which come eonti- 



