20 Inaugural Address. 



It would not be right to close our present meeting without a 

 moment's reflection on these allegations. An answer to these 

 questions ought to be obtainable. 



One of our most critical members — I mean Christopher 

 Eolleston, Esq. — in a most valuable paper read on the 12th 

 December, 1866, " On the Condition and Resources of the Colony," 

 has shown very conclusively that, notwithstanding the fluctuations 

 and interruptions of public prosperity, the mass of the people 

 have continued to follow up their long-accustomed pursuits of 

 costly enjoyment without diminution of expense. It must not, 

 therefore, be asserted that our numbers have diminished because 

 persons are unable to spend a guinea a year to support or to 

 encourage such a Society as this. It is, then, to the want of Will 

 to do so, that we must, in part at least, if not altogether, impute 

 the languishing state of our affairs. 



But why should there be this want of "Will ? The true solution 

 is, perhaps, a complicated one. 



In the pecular habit of the people there may be something of 

 indifference to anything not of a visible or personally gratifying 

 nature. It is to thousands a far more amusing employment, as 

 also not exercising the powers of mind, to witness the extrava- 

 gancies of the Stage, or to take part in the hilarities of the Ball- 

 room, than to listen to the revelations of Science or to the descrip- 

 tions of Physical phenomena. Others may stand aloof, because 

 no material benefit is supposed to be derivable to themselves, or 

 because there is no sufficient motive. Perhaps there are always 

 comparatively few in any community who cultivate knowledge for 

 its own sake. The masses prefer ease of mind and bodily indul- 

 gence, or such advantages in life as may be agreeable to them, to 

 abstract studies which are wearisome and do not offer any appre- 

 ciable reward. 



Even where material pecuniary profits are in prospect, there is 

 the same objection sometimes perceived. 



This conclusion has been to a certain- extent tested by the fact, 

 that the "Australian Society" was demoted to "Commerce (or 

 Manufactures) and Agriculture" as well as to Science and Arts. 

 That, at least, had intimate relations with the profitable employ- 

 ments of our fellow-colonists. The failure of that Society cannot, 

 therefore, be exclusively attributable to the abstruseness of sub- 



