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faculty to a high degree of perfection, it is necessary to apply it — not to everything that 

 comes within its range, but in the first instance to a certain limited sphere. Trained to 

 proficiency within that sphere it becomes capable of applying itself successfully to other 

 and wider spheres. So with the faculty of observation. He who attempts to observe 

 everything that comes within his range of vision, will, if he truly aspires to proficiency, 

 soon be disheartened by his failure — his little progress. With less ambition, or more 

 self- complacency, he may be a general observer, but he will be but a superficial one, an 

 inaccurate one, a mere smatterer in that branch of knowledge. 



There cannot be in science an admirable Crichton — a man equally well versed in 

 every branch of scientific knowledge. Nature is too large, man's life too small in its 

 present state. The duration of man's life itself sets a limit to the comprehension of the 

 little that is known in all the departments of science, even to the most gigantic intellect. 

 We cannot conceive of a man combining in himself the knowledge of Herschel and Hooker, 

 Lyell and Faraday, Humboldt and Bunsen. To great minds alone it is given to be 

 proficient in one branch of science, and so to be able to seize and accept the results of 

 other labourers in other branches, but without being able to follow them in all their 

 processes. To ordinary minds, even when trained, it is only given to have sound 

 knowledge, though neither extensive nor minute, in one branch, and a general knowledge 

 of the results attained to in other branches. But common minds untrained can attain to 

 but a superficial smattering of scientific knowledge, sufficient for conversation perhaps, 

 but of little practical value, insufficient to enable them to be contributors to the great 

 onward march of science. To become accurate observers and correct recorders, you must 

 devote yourselves to some special class of phenomena. By so doing, you will soon find 

 that the faculty thus concentrated has increased in power, and may be applied — nay, wdl 

 involuntarily apply itself — to a wider sphere, instead of being weakened by a diffusion 

 over too large a field at first. 



But I feel the thought cross the mind of some of my hearers, ' ' Well, I should like to 

 contribute my quota, however small, to the objects of this Society ; but what can I do ? 

 Worried with business, the cares of my office, or my shop, or my family, leave me no 

 time to devote to the active pursuits of science. I can only hope to read or hear the 

 results which others accomplish." No doubt to some extent this is true, especially in 

 this community, where wealth, not wisdom, seems to be the grand desideratum. But, I 

 answer that, if you will but look on the fair face of nature with a loving eye, she will 

 soothe your worried brain, and unfold peeps of her treasures to you. Have you not 

 observed in walking home from your office or warehouse, how some plants flourish in this 

 locality, others in that ? Have you noted that, as you looked at your barometer on a 

 cloudy morning, it was falling, and yet a fine day resulted ; whilst sometimes it was 

 rising, but the rain came down ? Did you observe that moth that came fluttering round 

 your lamp ? It was a rare one not formerly known in this locality. Your field of rye 

 grass has failed, — have you noted the conditions of soil and season, and other matters ; 

 or have you not just put it down to bad seed ? These few illustrations I give to point 

 out that even those with least opportunity may nevertheless be observers and contributors 

 to the stores of knowledge which we desire to accumulate. And you wdl, perhaps* 

 pardon me if I detain you a little longer in pointing out somewhat in detail the 

 various subjects to which, especially in this country, you may profitably direct your 

 observations. 



Each may select that branch most congenial to his tastes and circumstances, and 

 pursue that systematically, meanwhile seizing, as they pass, facts which in other branches 

 happen to take his attention. In astronomy, the most ancient of sciences, not much 

 may be accomplished without appliances, leisure, and training, such as, I fear, are not at 

 the command of many amongst us. Still, in the kindred branch of meteorology much 

 may be done in the way of observation and recording facts, and even in drawing deductions 

 from these facts. The differences of temperature and of climate in places but little distant 

 from each other, the causes of such differences, such as the proximity of the sea, the 

 intervention of ranges of hills, the exposure to a particular aspect, the existence or non- 

 existence of forest or swamp in the neighbourhood, the effects of such differences as 

 shown by the vegetation or peculiar phases of animal life, — these afford wide scope for 

 the exercise of careful observation, as well as of wide generalization. Practically useful, 

 too, they will be in guiding the settler in his choice of locality for settlement, as well as 

 in guiding him to the seasons, and to the crops which will best repay his exertions. In 

 this branch, also, the observation of the indications of the barometer, whether ordinary 

 or aneroid, in various localities, with relation to the direction or intensity of the winds, 

 the season of the year, and other circumstances, would be valuable as guides to the 

 traveller and the farmer. 



In botany, though much has been accomplished by previous observers, stfll much 

 remains to be done. Isolated localities alone have been thoroughly explored, and the 

 discoveries during the past year by our worthy Secretary of so many new plants and new 

 forms of known plants, during the rare opportunities he has had of systematic search, 



