8o JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



of long words and classifying terms, and so explained that all may 

 understand. The lectures before such a society as ours should be of 

 this nature, explanatory and pleasing, yet possessing instruction, for 

 pedantic illustrations never carry an audience with them. 



Then^ there is a difference again between literature and science. 

 The former holds a certain attitude ot conservatism, the latter is 

 essentially revolutionary. In a few years hence the theories and 

 writings of scientists of the present day, on many points, will be laid 

 on the' shelf, and like coral insects, those who built the science of 

 to-day, will be dead from the moment that their successors have 

 raised over them another inch of the interminable reef. They will 

 have lived their day and done their work in paving the way and lay- 

 ing foundations for fresh lines of thought, for new theories of specu- 

 lations, and whilst we at times feel a disposition to smile at what we 

 are pleased to term " exploded ' ideas and chimerical deductions, 

 we must realize that what we ourselves accept as established facts 

 will in all probability, under the kaleidoscopic revolutions of science, 

 raise in future generations another smile at our want of penetration. 

 The nebula we describe may turn out a star cluster, the aurora may be 

 traced to far other causes than those we now assign to it, whilst the 

 adaptability to navigation and other practical arts of the wild effusions 

 of a Jules Verne may prove not in themselves a wonder, but a won- 

 der why their adaptability lay so long unnoticed nor made use of. 



