Auckland Institute. 547 



received a development so enormous in its extent and so fruitful in its influences on our 

 civilization as to be unparalleled in the history of mankind. So multitudinous are the 

 facts observed, so numerous the generalizations formed, and so fertile the deductions 

 made therefrom in suggesting fresh enquiries, that the subdivisions have become special 

 studies. Division of labour has become essential to further progress. Never before have 

 the sayings and doings of scientific men had so large an auditory, or received more 

 enlightened attention. It is true that the bold theories and far-reaching generalizations 

 which have been put forth in some departments have caused uneasiness and opposition 

 on the part of many. Especially is this the case in biology, in the well known 



THEORY OP EVOLUTION. 



I will only say in passing that it is vain to object to the indulgence in theory. No 

 one can intelligently observe natural phenomena without theorizing or endeavouring to 

 conceive the mode in which they have been brought about. Following after the prelimi- 

 nary collection of facts, theory offers a connecting link, a centre of aggregation, round 

 which other facts may be orderly grouped, or their divergence be clearly perceived. Let 

 hypothesis be freely submitted to the scorching heat and glare of criticism, to the crucial 

 test of comparison with the manifold facts and observations of keen and competent men, 

 bearing directly or indirectly thereon, and truth, which should be ever welcome, will be 

 the resultant. Should the hypothesis fail to account for, or be in accord with, all the facts, 

 then must it be discarded for a better. That which is true will stand, while that which is 

 false will be done away. But even if a theory which at first appeared plausible has to be 

 modified or set aside, it may have subserved a useful purpose in stimulating and guiding 

 enquiry, concentrating attention, and methodizing observation. 



To revert to the theory to which I have just alluded, it must be admitted by candid 

 minds that the intense activity displayed in the field of biology is limited at two import- 

 ant points. On the one hand there is the gap between the inorganic and organic forms of 

 matter, the production of that protoplasm which is the basis of all living bodies, with its 

 wonderful potential qualities. The general testimony of science is that the innumerable 

 forms of existing life spring only from antecedent life ; that there is no such thing as 

 spontaneous generation from dead matter ; that no chemical attractions or affinities can 

 avail us here, and so if we go back in imagination to one primordial cell or germ as the 

 beginning of life we must still look to a pre-existing life or active agent for its production. 

 On the other hand, there is the impassable chasm which exists between organic matter 

 and the profoundly mysterious thinking part of man. Their close relationship and 

 interdependence may indeed be studied, but the nature of the mind itself, so distinct from 

 matter in its independence of extension in space, so widely apart from the objective phe- 

 nomena of the external world, and so evidently antecedent to the sensations which they 

 produce within it — this, notwithstanding elaborate groupings of words in explanation, is 

 likely to remain an insoluble mystery, and defy conception to the present powers of man. 



GEOUPS OF SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 



From a colonial point of view, there are two groups of scientific subjects that may 

 engross our attention, which, apart from the relative interest derivable from their pursuit, 

 present differences in the facilities for their study, and the original or intrinsic value of 

 their results. In the first, we may place botany, zoology, geology, mineralogy, meteoro- 

 logy, and ethnology. In a new country there is abundance of scope for useful and accurate 

 observations on its fiora and fauna, its geological formations, its meteorological phenomena, 

 and the ethnological peculiarities and history of the native race. These are within the 

 reach of all, and offer opportunities for giving some original contribution to the stock of 



