the peesident's addeess. 89 



Turning to matters of closer local interest I should make a more 

 extended reference to the Geological Map of Canada, prepared by 

 Sir "William Logan, but for the circumstance that during the past 

 year it was produced before this Institute, when Sir "William favored 

 the members present with some instructive and highly gratifying 

 observations upon it and upon the geological structure of the Pro- 

 vince. "We then expressed what I am sure we continue to feel, our 

 full appreciation of the valuable services he has rendered in con- 

 ducting the Survey still in progress, as well as our pleasure to find 

 that his high merit has been recognized and fitly acknowledged, as well 

 by our Sovereign and the French Emperor, as by some of those So- 

 cieties in England whose members are peculiarly well qualified to 

 judge of the skill and value of his operations. 



There is one more subject of at least equal interest, and of no 

 less importance than any on which I have touched, to which I 

 entreat your brief attention. I allude to education, which may be 

 viewed both in reference to the objects of the Canadian Institute, 

 and also in its more extended relation to the advancement and well- 

 being of the Province. As to the former, the observations recently 

 made by Professor Daubeny, so thoroughly, and in such appropriate 

 language, convey what I wish to say, that I gladly avail myself of 

 them. " It begins, indeed, to be generally felt, that amongst the 

 " faculties of mind, upon the development of which in youth, success 

 " in after-life mainly depends : there are some which are best im- 

 " proved through the cultivation of the physical sciences, and that 

 " the rudiments of those sciences are most easily acquired at an 

 " early period of life. That power of minute observation, those 

 " habits of method and arrangement, that aptitude for patient and 

 " laborious enquiry, that tact and sagacity in deducing inferences 

 " from evidence short of demonstration, which the natural sciences 

 " more particularly promote, are the fruits of early education, and 

 " acquired with difficulty at a later period. It is during childhood 

 " also, that the memory is most fresh and retentive, and that the 

 " nomenclature of the sciences, which from its crabbedness and tech- 

 " nicality often repels us at a more advanced age, is acquired almost 

 " without an effort." 



It is gratifying to us to know that, so far as is compatible with a 

 system of Common School teaching, elementary instruction in the 

 physical sciences is receiving proper attention ; and we may point 

 with pride and pleasure to the conspicuous attainments and ability 

 of many of those who, as Professors in the various branches of lit- 



