xlviii Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



crated to the high and holy office of penetrating the mysteries 

 of nature. What has been achieved in the knowledge of the forces 

 in operation in nature and the uses to which it is applied in con- 

 trolling and directing these forces to useful purposes, constitute the 

 highest claim to the glory of our race." To many people language 

 of this kind would doubtless seem in the last degree extravagant. 

 Were they, however, to study thoroughly the history of the interaction 

 of the pure and applied sciences they would soon recognise it to 

 be simply the words of soberness and truth. And fortunately it was 

 viewed in this latter light by the speaker's fellow-citizens, for his 

 words in time became deeds, and the deeds have already led to 

 honour and profit. We may not be ready in South Africa for a 

 Utopian scheme which commends itself to an eminently practical 

 people like the Americans ; but in skimming over the volumes 

 of the Society's Transactions I felt myself sometimes wishing that 

 even a little step towards it were possible. Several astronomical 

 papers are there to be found, the author of which is a hard-working 

 Colonial teacher ; and when one thinks of the skill and of the 

 midnight labour involved in their production, and the considerable 

 number of additional papers of like character published by him 

 in European and American journals, one begins to question whether 

 things have been well ordered in his case, and whether in fact 

 the Colony is not in this instance thoughtlessly using a razor to chop 

 sticks. 



Leaving now these general considerations regarding the various 

 agencies for the promotion of research, and the services which they 

 might render to one another, allow me in a word or two to deal with 

 matter of a much narrower character, viz., the question as to what 

 things it may be worth while for the members of the Society to 

 attend to without going outside the Society itself. One line of effort 

 which is open to all of us without exception is in the direction of a 

 further increase in the membership. A large society, it should be 

 remembered, is an influential society ; and there are many public 

 occasions on which the interests of science are at stake, when an 

 influential society may be a powerful instrument in guiding legislation 

 or in beneficently modifying public opinion. Further, there are 

 many branches of observational science in which the professional 

 scientist as an individual is almost powerless ; his raw material 

 is never found in bulk, but is widely scattered, here a little and 

 there a little ; and therefore every additional observer, actual 

 or potential, every additional collector of data is welcomed by 

 him with open arms. It is exactly twenty years ago this month since 

 the Society held its first ordinary meeting, and in looking over 



