FAREWELL FESTIVAL. 267 



must be, first, the physical, the intellectual, the moral, and the spiritual 

 faculties combined in one person, which are so eminently combined in Dr. 

 Livingstone, before the actual agent in such explorations can be provided. 

 But then beyond these personal qualifications he must have support from 

 home ; there must be the mere physical support, as I may call it, of money, 

 means, ships, companions, goods for presents, and the like ; and then, far 

 beyond these, there must be that internal consciousness of possessing the 

 sympathy of hearty, generous, trusting friends at home ; that inward stirring 

 of a true national life within the individual ; the reflection within himself of 

 the outcoming towards him of the strong national life at home which makes 

 the poet, or the hero, or the great explorer. In how many times of trial, 

 difficulty, and despondency does the stirring of this inward life again invi- 

 gorate the far-off man in the midst of his lonely wanderings in the desert ! 

 (Cheers.) 



" But then the existence of this home remembrance must, in a great 

 degree, depend on there being at home some few who are able and willing 

 generously to keep alive the home remembrance of the absent man and an 

 interest in his work. For at home all things are moving so fast that things 

 out of sight are soon things out of mind. The world round us goes at such 

 speed, its objects, its cares, its pleasures, its amusements, its entanglements, 

 shift and vary with such rapid and endless permutation, that unless there be 

 some ' sacred prophet ' evermore at hand to sing to us of the absent, he passes 

 out of remembrance ; and this work for Dr. Livingstone was done by our 

 chairman : from the chair of the Geographical Society, amongst men of 

 science, amongst statesmen, he kept alive the interest which was due to 

 Livingstone and his work. And how well qualified above other men he was 

 to do this, the rest of that dedication shows : for it embalms the really 

 remarkable fact already alluded to, that our chairman by his mere scientific 

 deductions had arrived at the true hypothesis as to the physical conformation 

 of the African continent which Livingstone verified by actual observation. 

 And so, for these discoveries, there were combined the various necessary con- 

 ditions — (Cheers) — the Geographical Society, headed by its president, to 

 solicit the Government to keep alive the interest of the public, and so to 

 support the enterprising traveller. He, too, combined in himself rare 

 faculties for his work of stepping out, if I may so express it, as to African 

 explorations the first track of civilized feet on the dangerous and untrodden 

 snows, which at any moment might be found to have merely loosely covered 

 fathomless abysses. He had the physical strength needed for such work. 

 He had the capacity for understanding the greatness of his enterprise, and, 

 gentlemen, I believe him to be full of the truest greatness. (Cheers.) 



" You will not think that I speak too strongly when I say that I believe 

 we owe a debt of unparalleled magnitude to our dark brethren dwelling in 



