Anniversary Address. 11 



Let any one avIio denies this read a pamphlet lately circu- 

 lated, setting forth the claims of the Eevcrend Mr. Clarke, 

 of New South Wales, in connection Avith the opening up of 

 the mineral riches of Australia, -wherein is clearly shown how 

 valuable was this gentleman's geological skill in directing the 

 first miners aright ; how little even of the poor guerdon of 

 thanks he has received from those who rushed afterwards to 

 profit by his lessons. 



Or to cite a less familiar instance. Look at one of the 

 greatest boons conferred on all in these Colonies — the 

 shortening of the voyage between them and the INIother 

 Country. Is this due, as might naturally be inferred, to the 

 practical navigator ? Was it effected by chance or rule of 

 thumb ? On the contrary, the credit belongs almost solely 

 to Lieutenant ]\Iaury, of the L^nited States Observatory at 

 Washington, by means of whose Wind and Current Charts, 

 in which the laborious records of innumerable voyages are 

 compiled, the average passage to Australia was almost im- 

 mediately reduced from 124 to 97 days. I might allude, if 

 time allowed, to the Electric Telegraph, and more especially 

 to the Submarine Cable, inventions which could never have 

 extended their incalculable blessings to our very shores, had 

 the Science of Electricity not been brought to its present 

 advanced state by the labors and experiments of unremem- 

 bered and unrewarded savans ; but I proceed to a third class 

 of objectors to the study of Natural Philosophy, more diffi- 

 cult to deal with still, because theii* objections are founded on 

 a vague though conscientious apprehension that it leads to 

 scepticism in matters of religious belief. 



This scruple is not new. It once extended even to the 

 study of the Bible itself. Bacon found occasion to write — 

 " Let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill- 

 applied moderation, think to maintain that a man can search 

 too far, or be too well studied in the Book of God's AVords, or 



