30 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



a child first learns to walk how proud he is of it! How he struts 

 about from place to place, thumping his little feet down with 

 an air of profound self-conceit almost as if he had been the first 

 one who had discovered the art of walking, and then how much 

 he has to learn! He has to learn that fire is hot and ice is cold, 

 that some things will hurt him and that others will give him 

 pleasure, that somethings are right and others wrong. He has 

 to learn to use his judgment, upon which he liitle knows what 

 a heavy draw there will be through the whole of his life. He 

 must first judge of heights and distances and of the hundreds of 

 causes and effects by which we are surrounded. If a person 

 blind from birth, should have his sight restored he would find 

 himself in utter confusion on all these matters. For sometime 

 he would not be able to distinguish between objects that were 

 close to him and those more remote. He might reach out his 

 hand to touch an object which in reality was a long distance from 

 him, and he might be surprised at coming immediately upon 

 that which to him appeared to be at the other side of the room. 

 Indeed it is doubtful whether he might not fancy at first sight 

 that he could lay his hand upon the moon. This, and numerous 

 other things of a like kind, shows us that nature is not idle in 

 what seems to be the long process of infantile growth. Many 

 of the most useful properties and qualities of life are being 

 developed by means of a steady and patient process. 



Nor, as I have already intimated ,does it stop here. Every 

 phase of life brings something new to us. Life is a big school 

 and we are all attending it. It is full of lessons, rewards and 

 punishments ; it is full of successes and failures, of hope and 

 despair, yet on the whole it is leading us all onwards and up- 

 wards, pointing to something higher which yet has to be en- 

 countered and learned. 



What more important subject conld there be than for us to 

 consider, whether religiously or scientifically, than education ? 

 The very word science is derived from a Latin word which 

 means "I know." It opens up a vast thought before us, indeed 

 an endless field. Nothing makes a man realize more keenly the 

 brevity of his life than a mere glimpse at the world of science. 

 If nature has smiled upon him and given him means and leisure 



