Anniversary Address. 7 



tions and discoveries first enunciated before the Institute, 

 then we may see, in the alteration contemplated, a favorable 

 turning point for our future career. But should, by previous 

 sectional transactions, that interest which novelty imparts to 

 every communication be more or less withdrawn from our 

 general assemblies, then we must fear that in an association 

 so young as ours, and in which almost every branch of science 

 counts but few as working members, the support given to the 

 Institute by well-attended ordinary meetings, replete with 

 novelty and interest, must greatly be diminished. Let us 

 avoid this precipice ! Great facilities for the proposed sec- 

 tional proceedings will in future be enjoyed. For, aided by 

 the munificence which the rulers of this colony have displayed, 

 for which our deepest gratitude is due, we will ere long re- 

 joice in raising triumphantly the pillars of a temple in which, 

 we trust, Science will reign for centuries. When we remem- 

 ber that, till lately, some of the noblest and most usefid scien- 

 tific institutions of Great Britain contended with many diffi- 

 culties, arising chiefly from a want of needful accommoda- 

 tion, we may congratidate ourselves on being by the Govern- 

 ment and Legislature so early favored in consolidating our 

 society, and giving access to the multifarious communications 

 which, through the generosity of our friends, have accumu- 

 lated as our property. None but those who have devoted 

 themselves to an elucidation of the varied productions of this 

 land, and have striven to unfold the book of nature — many 

 of its pages still unread — can have folly estimated how much 

 our future labors and the more ripened work of our successors 

 must depend on timely storing up collections for scientific 

 use. While with patient diligence we are progressing step 

 by step, and adding material to material, we may be stimu- 

 lated by a hope that the time will come when the beams of 

 light radiating from Australia may disperse many a cloud 

 which yet overcasts the horizon of science. Not only here, 



