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wise the theories are hut of slight value. In other words (to follow the Duke of 

 Argyle's formula in his definition of law) we must determine the "what" first, ere we can 

 aspire to know the "how" or the "why." We, in this Society, can scarcely, perhaps, 

 profess to he more than mere fact-collectors — sometimes hazarding a theory or a specula- 

 tion, grasping, as the human mind ever tends to do, at the "how" and the "why ;" hut 

 endeavouring always to collect and verify facts of the physical world, which facts may 

 perhaps prove of value in the hands of some other member of this Society, or of some 

 other person of more extended scientific knowledge. And let no one depreciate the mere 

 fact-collector. One well authenticated fact, though it cannot alone sustain, may over- 

 throw a brilliant — it may be, even an accepted — theory. We ask, then, all to join us 

 who are willing to observe and record facts coming under their observation, accurate 

 observation being at the foundation of all scientific knowledge. And here, I may remark, 

 that it seems to me too little attention is paid to the cultivation of the faculty of observa- 

 tion amongst our children. Were we to attend more to the cultivation of this faculty, 

 we should find that what is an effort to us, would soon become a habit with them, and 

 great results, would, I venture to say, flow from such a course, especially in a community 

 like our own, where rapid change seems to be an essential element of existence — where 

 the workman of to-day is the capitalist of to-morrow — where new faces are constantly 

 usurping the place of the old around us — where a very few years consign to privacy 

 or oblivion our public men, and supply their places, not by a succeeding generation, but 

 by a new race. I say, in such a community, it especially becomes us to cultivate the 

 habit of observation of facts as they pass before us, and to cultivate, moreover, the habit 

 of recording these facts for the assistance and guidance of our successors, who may never 

 have the opportunity of observing what we have observed. 



Need I ask you to look at how little has been done during the nearly thirty years' 

 existence of our colony in the way of determining such patent facts as the geography, the 

 botany, the zoology, the geology of our country — not that we need expect a few years — 

 no, not even a few lifetimes — to exhaust the stores which even in these respects are open 

 to our view. But had any number of our colonists during these thirty years devoted 

 themselves to observing and registering facts which have come under their observation, had 

 we each one in his own little circle done so, how great would now the mass of ascertained 

 facts be available to the world, to our fellow-colonists, and to those whose habits and 

 powers of mind could have reduced those facts into order, grouped them under their 

 appropriate laws of how they came thus to exist, or even aspired to the higher flight of 

 mind in pointing out why they have been so caused to exist, and how their existence 

 might be turned to beneficial account. 



Youth, gentlemen, is especially the time for acquiring the habits of observation, as 

 well as ail other habits, and I desire earnestly to impress upon you," and upon all who 

 have the training of the young, that, if ever scientific knowledge is to take a proper 

 position in our midst, as it is doing in the rest of the world, it must be through training 

 our youth to habits of correct, accurate, and minute observation. I call it a habit rather 

 than a power of mind, and I think that any of you who have been in the company o a 

 trained mind in any branch of science will readily admit the superiority — the vast 

 superiority — of the trained over the untrained, in this apparently simple matter of 

 observation. And let us, gentlemen, endeavour to disabuse our minds of the common 

 idea that a fact to be worth recording must be something new, great, important, or 

 peculiarly striking. The most important discoveries of science have had their origin in the 

 observation of common, simple, overlooked facts. The waifs of ocean have told of worlds 

 beyond, and of the winds and currents of the mighty deep ; the boiling tea-kettle was the 

 germ from which have resulted those mighty engines which have revolutionised industry 

 and locomotion ; and it was from the simple fall of an apple that Newton's master mind 

 deduced the great law of gravitation. The apparent smallness of a fact is no criterion of 

 its value. The want of a single nail in the construction of a mighty ship — the absence of 

 a single stone in a great building — may endanger the safety of the whole structure. He 

 who records a previously unobserved or unregarded fact, however small, has contributed 

 one stone, which, in the hands of a master builder, may yet become the very keystone of 

 an arch in the great temple of knowledge, but which, we may be sure, wdl find its 

 appropriate place in that mighty building. 



Let this thought, then, encourage some to contribute to our stores who might other- 

 wise fear to do so. For, whilst there is nothing in nature so great, no laws so hidden that 

 science dares not to grapple with and search after, still there is nothing so patent or so 

 insignificant as to be unworthy of her attention. I would, therefore, earnestly urge you 

 gentlemen, who have not yet taken an active part in our meetings by contributing the 

 results of your observations or experience, to do so. Your mite may not be the least 

 valuable of our stores. And, while directing your attention to the importance of 

 cultivating habits of observation, even of the most trivial facts, and of the importance of 

 recording them, I would also call your attention to the exceeding value of systematic 

 observation — the observation of sjjecial classes of phenomena. In order to develope any 



