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be expected to say something on an occasion like this, 

 than to find himself surrounded by both natural and pro- 

 fessional scientists, whose experience and wits have been 

 sharpened to the highest point by the study and acquisition 

 of all kinds of scientific knowledge. I think, sir, that 

 we have a slim chance, in such an audience, of expressing 

 ourselves so as to appear either easy or interesting. A 

 professional man has the advantage, for if he ever finds 

 himself embarrassed in speaking, either in public or pri- 

 vate, he can at once retire under the umbrella of his 

 specialty and escape from the effects of any passing 

 shower of general criticism. Should he be a geologist, 

 he has but to commence on ichthyolites, oolites, sienites 

 and granites, and his listener will never attempt to storm 

 his fortress. If he be a physician, he can do the same 

 thing, only substituting the tibia, fibula, scapula and 

 aorta. The chemist fares equally well in his defence, 

 when diving into the great sea of oxygen, nitrogen, and 

 sometimes hydrogen, with a profusion of alternatives of 

 nitrates, sulphates and bi-sulphates ever ready ; while the 

 mathematician or the astronomer can at once successfully 

 and defiantly flee to the realms of space, talking of re- 

 volving worlds, of spheres and hemispheres, of constella- 

 tions and occultations ; and if sometimes it reaches aberra- 

 tions, his listener, through a want of technical knowledge, 

 may not be the wiser. But it is not so with the layman. 

 To be at all happy in his position, he must have seen and 

 known much of many things ; in fact, often it seems as 

 though he was expected to have been everywhere and 

 possessed himself of all knowledge, without which he is 

 reckoned uncultivated and behind the times. He is ex- 

 pected perhaps to consider himself fortunate, if perchance 

 sometimes he is needed as a flux or is honored as. the 

 slag of science. But, sir, your Institute is progressing 



