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Proceedings. 



tion. It will perhaps be objected that in a colony the daily tasks of life 

 leave men little leisure for intellectual pursuits ; but some of the busiest 

 men have been eminently devoted to science and literature : witness Lord 

 Bacon, and in our times Lord Brougham, the late Lord Derby, Mr. Gladstone, 

 and many others. The fact is that such men resort to science and literature 

 as a recreation, and the change from the active business and contests of life 

 is found to be a refreshment. Until lately we could only look back with 

 regi'et at the educational advantages which we seemed to have forfeited by 

 leaving our homes. Happily we may now congratulate ourselves on the 

 advancement which has been made here towards providing facilities for 

 obtaining a superior education. However our legislators may differ on the 

 subject which is exciting so much agitation in England as well as here, as 

 to whether national education should be denominational, unsectarian, or 

 secular, all are agreed that the utmost facilities should be afforded for educating 

 the youth of both sexes and of all classes. The apathy on this subject which 

 at first prevailed, and which was perhaps not unnatural, considering the 

 difficulties which the early settlers had to encounter, has given place to an 

 earnest desire, not only to place general education within the reach of all, 

 but also to open the way, by scholarships and other inducements, for those 

 who are desirous of advancing to the higher branches of science and 

 literature. 



Independently of the value of knowledge for its own sake, to which I have 

 very inadequately adverted, there never was a time when eminence in science, 

 literature, or art, was more appreciated or more amply rewarded than now. 

 Among the many instances which will occur to you as immediately within 

 our own time, I need only mention the names of Humboldt, Herschel, 

 Faraday, Murchison, Playfair, Niebuhr, Carlyle, Tennyson, and Landseer. 

 Such men are not only claimed with pride by their own countrymen, but are 

 admired and welcomed by the most gifted men of every civilized nation. 



Although I fear I have already occupied too much of your time, I am 

 unwilling to conclude my address without saying a few words upon a subject 

 which seems to me of very great importance. Until lately an impression, 

 more or less general, prevailed, that the tendency of the study, of science was 

 to lead men to conclusions at variance with revelation. This fallacy is well 

 nigh exploded, and it is indeed singular that it should ever have been 

 supposed that anything in nature could be at variance wdth the revelation 

 which proceeded from the God of nature. If the student of science should 

 meet with difficulties which he may be unable to reconcile with God's word, 

 surely it would be more reasonable to attribute them to his own limited and 

 imperfect conceptions of truth than to conclude that they are irreconcileable. 

 We do not really know the cause of anything in nature. We only know that 



