Auckland Institute. 547 
received a development so enormous in its extent and so fruitful in its influences on our 
Civilization as to be unparalleled in the history of mankind. So multitudinous are the 
facts observed, so numerous the generalizations formed, and so fertile the deductions 
made therefrom in suggesting fresh enquiries, that the subdivisions have become special 
studies. Division of labour has become essential to further progress. Never before have 
the sayings and doings of scientific men had so large an auditory, or received more 
enlightened attention. It is true that the bold theories and far-reaching generalizations 
which have been put forth in some departments have caused uneasiness and opposition 
on the part of many. Especially is this the case in biology, in the well known 
THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 
I will only say in passing that it is vain to object. to the indulgence in theory. No 
one can intelligently observe natural phenomena without theorizing or endeavouring to 
conceive the mode in which they have been brought about. Following after the prelimi- 
nary collection of facts, theory offers a connecting link, a centre of aggregation, round 
which other facts may be orderly grouped, or their divergence be clearly perceived. Let 
hypothesis be freely submitted to the scorching heat and glare of criticism, to the crucial 
test of comparison with the manifold facts and observations of keen and competent men, 
ectly or indirectly thereon, and truth, which should be ever welcome, will be 
the resultant. Should the hypothesis fail to account for, or be in accord with, all the facts, 
then must it be discarded for a better. That which is true will stand, while that which is 
false will be done away. But even if a theory which at first appeared plausible has to be 
modified or set aside, it may have subserved a useful tite in stimulating and guiding 
enquiry, concentrating attention, and methodizing observatio 
To revert to the theory to which I have just alluded, it get be admitted by candid 
minds that the intense activity displayed in the field of biology is limited at two import- 
ant points. On the one hand there is the gap between the inorganic and organic forms of © 
matter, the production of that protoplasm which is the basis of all living bodies, with its 
wonderful potential qualities, The general testimony of science is that the innumerable 
forms of existing life spring only from antecedent life; that there is no such thing as 
spontaneous generation from dead matter; that no chemical attractions or affinities can 
i 
matter in its independence of extension in space, 80 widely apart from the objective phe- 
nomena of the external world, and so evidently antecedent to the sensations which they 
produce within it—this, notwithstanding elaborate groupings of words in explanation, is 
ie likely to remain an insoluble mystery, and defy conception to the present powers of man. 
GROUPS OF SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 
From a colonial point of view, there are two groups of scientific subjects that may 
engross our attention, which, apart from the relative interest derivable from their pursuit, 
present differences in the facilities for their study, and the original or intrinsic value of © : 
their results. In the first, we may place botany, zoology, geology, mineralogy, melee ae 
