478 Proceedings. 



the mercury in the tube be equally supported by the weight of the atmo- 

 spheric column, then, as we decrease the height and weight of that column, by 

 ascending a mountain, the mercury ought to fall. Accordingly, he ascended 

 the Puy de D6me, taking with him what we may now call a mercurial 

 barometer, which he found to fall as he ascended, and rise again as he 

 descended, with perfect regularity. 



Now, although we cannot hope to match the grand discoveries which I 

 have just described, let this "Society and others connected with the New 

 Zealand Institute comfort and animate themselves with the reflection that we 

 enjoy as the scene of our operations a new country and a comparatively 

 unexplored field ; and not only may we add materially to the common stock 

 of scientific knowledge, but we may exercise a uiuch more useful function — 

 we may each in our humble sphere of life aid in the extension and diffusion 

 of scientific knowledge among those who by their practical skill are best able 

 to turn it to profitable account. 



Another word of encouragement to those who are actively" engaged in the 

 ordinary business of life. The highest attainments of science have not been 

 confined to those who have devoted themselves exclusively to scientific 

 pursuits. Merchants^ bankers, clergymen, lawyers, musicians, medical men — 

 actively engaged in their respective professions and callings — have rendered 

 themselves eminent in science by study during their hours of leisure. Lord 

 Bacon, a lawyer and Lord High Chancellor of England, is considered the 

 founder of the inductive philosophy, the true method of " interrogating 

 nature," to use his own expression. David Ricardo, author of the " Principles 

 of Political Economy and Taxation," was an active and successful member of 

 the Stock Exchange. Thomas Tooke, the author of the " History of Prices," 

 and a scientific writer on currency, was a Russian merchant, and at a time, 

 too, when merchants had a prejudice against the science. George Grote was a 

 banker when he commenced his truly philosophical " History of Ancient 

 Greece," and became an active member of Parliament during the progress of 

 his work. John Stuart Mill, when he wrote his admirable " System of Logic, 

 Hatiocinative, and Inductive," and his " Principles of Political Economy," was 

 a laborious officer of the East India Company. It is only his recent works 

 that can be considered as the fruit of " a learned leisure." His philosophical 

 works are enough for a long life of thought, and yet between thirty and forty 

 years of that life were occupied in a laborious and responsible ofiSce. The 

 power-loom was invented by the He v. Edmund Cartwright — a country clergy- 

 man. The great bell at the New Houses of Parliament w^as planned, and the 

 casting thereof superintended, by a barrister and a clergyman — E. Becket 

 Denison and the Bev. "W. Taylor j and it is a curious coincidence that the 

 first bell ever cast in England was cast by Turketel, a monk, Chancellor to 



