143 [Assembly 



the infinity which belongs to it; although it is presented to us in 

 every natural formation, and set forth in every combination 

 which we make in our laboratories. 



The fulfilment of the duties thus virtually imposed upon us for 

 the acquisition and difi'usion of knowledge, require an unceasing 

 industry in seizing on the facts and circumstances at the moment. 

 This immediate attention is further implied in the portrait which 

 the aii'^ients liaye left us of opportunity, who is painted with a 

 profusion of locks over his forehead, but with not one solitary 

 tress behind ! It is left to us sir, to supply the moral. 



" I pity the man," say Sterne, '-who can travel from Dan to Beer- 

 sheba, and cry it is all barren !" Nor was the satirist unjust in 

 this observation, for it would be difficult to fix upon any man, 

 whatever his grade in education or society, but who must from 

 repeated opportunities of observation have possessed himself of 

 some points of knowledge worth imparting as new^, or not gene- 

 rally known. It is the determination to record the facts that we 

 have gathered in our progress through life, the waifs and strays 

 floating on the current of our existence, which every man is 

 bound in the common feelings of humanity to secure and con- 

 tribute to the general stock of information ; and which, though 

 not perhaps immediately available for practical purposes, should 

 nevertheless be recorded, for the hour will certainly arrive, and 

 generally when we are in least expectation of it, when it must 

 necessarily be observed in principle ! Tlie Chinese have a max- 

 im, the gist of which it would be as well for some who pride 

 themselves as more enlightened to remember; "That something 

 is learned, that is by the thinking and considerate, every time a 

 book is opened !" and another sentiment of that proverbial na- 

 tion reads, " with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes 

 satin ! The same people call pen, ink, paper, and marble, as 

 the medium for recording their thoughts and observations, 

 Pau-tsee, i. e. the four precious things ! Gentlemen the Chinese are 

 much wiser in their philosophy than the western world has been 

 in the habit of supposing. 



Our industry, however, must have an end and object in its design ^ 

 or we shall vitiate the results we desire to establish ; and though 



