106 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



now, and all "will be so with succeeding generations. The diffi- 

 cult v with them is the self-sufficiency and scepticism they 

 engender, and to restrain their assertion within the bounds of 

 propriety. Science and religion ought to dwell in perfect har- 

 mony. True science can do no more than accommodate each to 

 each by the operation of the laws of eternal truth. This is being 

 done gradually but surely. If some of the most celebrated 

 searchers into nature of our own day could wake up a century 

 hence, they would, without doubt, be as much astonished at the 

 stride of knowledge meanwhile, and the consequent disturbance 

 of previous belief, as those would be who have lived a century 

 before our eia, could they now start into living consciousness of 

 the past and present. 



It may excite a smile that I should imagine so curious an 

 event ; but we may still consider it certain, that a comparison of 

 notes would realize to all their minds the practical truth enun- 

 ciated by one of the wisest among them, as true as when it was 

 uttered, as to all that has been done, to wit : that we are only as 

 children picking up pebbles from the shore, while the great ocean 

 of truth lies unexplored before us. 



But it is time that I should come nigher home. In Nova Scotia, 

 within ten days' distance by steam of the mother country, and 

 adjoining the great republic, — where we have unsurpassed facil- 

 ities for acquiring a knowledge of and utilizing the latest scien- 

 tific progress and discoveries, — it might be supposed that we 

 would be practically acquainted with and profit by them, and 

 with everything recognized as improvement. The necessit} T , 

 however, is conceded but slowly, and we have not much to boast 

 of in this respect. Our scientific pursuits are nearly all limited 

 to a college curriculum, — to a course of chemistry, electricity, 

 botany and cognate sciences. This is doubtless an excellent 

 preparation, but as yet, so far as we know, no further fruits have 

 been produced. It is a college education — nothing more. There 

 may be various reasons for this. Nova Scotia, though early set- 

 tled, has never been very well known in the world, especially 

 in the world of science. Capital and enterprise have not been 

 1 v employed to call her material resources (not to mention 

 those which are inert) into active operation. She has looked to 

 other means of wealth which were more readily procurable, but 

 which, whatever they may have been, arc not now steadily 

 profitable She is, in fact, so far as science is concerned, much 

 behind the age. The urgency is, however, being rapidly forced 

 upon her, that resources but partially used, or not used at all, 



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