414 : Proceedings. 
German, owing to the general want of interest felt by the Germans in their 
studies, and so they adopted Latin as the medium of communication with 
those who could understand and appreciate them. Thus Germany was the 
last of the nations of Europe to foster native learning and talent. We all x 
know how the Germans have since sprung forward to the front ranks in all 
kinds of mental culture ; but for a long time they were retarded in their 
onward course by the indifference and want of sympathy among the people. 
Traces of the old leaven and of the idea thus engendered—that all refinement 
was only to be sought for in foreign countries—may still be perceived even in 
the latter part of this last century. Familiar instances will occur to every 
one; French teachers were retained in noble families for the instruction of 
their children ; Frederick the Great wrote French with greater ease than 
German ; all his works, I believe, and they are tolerably voluminous, were 
written in French. He surrounded himself with men of learning, not from 
Germany, but from France— Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Maupertius, and 
others. It was the fashion of the time— a fashion which had arisen, T believe, 
from a habit of disregarding the more humble efforts to contribute to the 
cause—that of relying on foreign aid, rather than of fostering and encouraging 
native talent and forming a native school of learning. What was the result ? 
The barrier which was raised between the learned and the unlearned, instead 
of causing literature and science and art to flourish, caused them to decay and 
languish. I do not think that we have to fear any danger of this kind. We 
exclude none from our body who are anxious to join in promoting the cause 
in which we are engaged. But if we are free from the charge of exclusiveness 
in this particular, I am not sure, if I may be permitted to say so, that we are 
altogether secure from exclusiveness of another kind. 
We have four classes of objects which we wish to cultivate: science, 
literature, art, and the development of the industrial resources of the Province. 
Now, it appears to me that of these four we have hitherto paid attention to 
only one, viz., science, by which is to be understood physical science—that is to 
say, as I understand it, the observation of natural objeets. In a new country, 
no doubt, this is a study which ought to engage a very large portion of our 
attention, but, if we devote our efforts exclusively to this branch of learning, 
we shall be neglecting those studies which are of no mean value in developing 
the faculties, in disciplining the mind, in training the intellect, and refining the 
taste, and so aiding the prosecution of studies connected with the cause of 
science itself. We have, as yet, done nothing for the advancement of literature, 
nothing for the advancement of art, although we have within our reach, as a 
stimulus to its cultivation, that magnificent donation to the Museum by 
Mr. Gould ; nor, lastly, have we as yet applied ourselves to the development 
of the industrial resources of the Province, notwithstanding the liberal 
