202 Canadian Record of Science. 



how softly and fittingly falls upon the ear the accent of 

 science, the friend of that art, and the guide of that industry ! 

 Here where Priestley analysed the air, and Watt obtained 

 the mastery over steam, it well becomes the students of na- 

 ture to gather round the standard which they carried so far 

 into the fields of knowledge. And when on other occasions 

 we meet in quiet colleges and academic halls, how gladly 

 welcome is the union of fresh discoveries and new inventions 

 with the solid and venerable truths which are there trea- 

 sured and taught. Long may such union last ; the fair 

 alliance of cultivated thought and practical skill ; for by it, 

 labour is dignified and science fertilised, and the condition 

 of human society exalted.' These were the words of a man 

 who, while earnest in the pursuit of science, was full of 

 broad and kindly sympathy for his fellow-men and of hope- 

 ful confidence in the future. We have but to turn to the 

 twenty Eeports of this Association, issued since 1865, to see 

 the realisation of that union of science and art to which he 

 so confidently looked forward, and to appreciate the stu- 

 pendous results which it has achieved. In one department 

 alone — that to which my predecessor in this chair so elo- 

 quently adverted in Aberdeen, the department of education 

 in science — how much has been accomplished since 1865. 

 Phillips him>elf lived to see a great revolution in this res- 

 pect at Oxford. But no one in 1865 could have anticipated 

 that immense development of local schools of science of 

 which your own Mason College and your admirable tech- 

 nical, industrial, and art schools are eminent examples. 

 Based on the general education given by the new system of 

 Board schools, with which the name of the late W. E. Por- 

 ster will ever be honourably connected, and extending its 

 influence upward to special training, and to the highest uni- 

 versity examinations, this new scientific culture is opening 

 2)aths of honourable ambition to the men and women of En- 

 gland scarcely dreamed of in 1865. I sympathise with the 

 earnest anpeal of Sir Lyon Play fair, in his Aberdeen ad- 

 dress in favour of scientific education ; but visiting England 

 at rare intervals, I am naturally more impressed with the 

 progress that has been made than with the vexatious delays 



