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4th March, i8g6. 



Robert Lloyd Patterson, Esq., J.P., M.R.I.A., President, 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. Conway Scott. C.E., gave a Lecture on 

 " THE PRODUCTION OF ABILITY." 



Mr. Scott introduced his subject with the remark that 

 many historians and students of history had asked the pregnant 

 question, why it was that at certain stages of the world's history 

 certain men had appeared whose lives and actions had changed 

 and moulded the age in which they lived and influenced 

 subsequent ages and peoples. A man called Alexander the 

 Great, after about twelve years of incessant labour, died at the 

 early age of thirty-two, and, as if by magic, the whole face of 

 the world was changed. The old chapter of the world's history 

 was closed, and a new and very different one commenced, and 

 the lives and conditions of many generations of men were very 

 different because that single man once lived and laboured in 

 this world. A man called Julius Caesar was born in Rome. 

 He fought and conquered all over the earth, and at the age of 

 fifty-six he died by the assassin's dagger. But his work was 

 done. Many millions of humanity would have lived very 

 different lives from what they had done if that great Roman 

 had not once lived and acted as he had done. Napoleon I. was 

 born in semi-civilised Corsica, and although he died a lonely 

 exile in St. Helena his work was done. The old chapter of 

 feudalism closed for ever, and for good or for evil the reign and 

 triumph of democracy commenced. It was the same within 

 the sphere of religion. The lecturer instanced the cases of 



