ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. li. 



loss in trading or in war. Foreign nations, and especially 

 Germany, were in advance of us, evidence of which was 

 given by the quotation of statistics. If we could induce 

 some of these to dump down on our shores some of the 

 common sense which guided them in such matters it would 

 be well for the Empire. Technical education was not 

 however, for all, and the solution of those fit for it was of 

 great importance, Japanese example being quoted as to this. 



It was pointed out that the Anglo Saxon race still led 

 the way in original invention, while it was rather the 

 German who perfected and made use of it. The Englishman 

 Francis Bacon said, " knowledge is power;" it was the 

 German of to-day who profits by that obvious aphorism. It 

 was Shakespeare who wrote the mightiest plays ; it was in 

 Germany that they were most acted. 



As to engineering being helped by science, the greatest 

 strides, in modern times, were in connexion with artificial 

 light, mechanical energy by means of electricity, and in 

 disposal of the refuse of cities, chemical welding, com- 

 pounding of steam engines, improvements in the turbine, 

 and the help of the analyst to the engineer, quite a modern 

 combination, were also mentioned. The address then 

 touched on the greater comparative intellect of the men 

 of old, than that of modern men, considering the much 

 slighter foundations on which they had to build, and that 

 it almost seemed as if genius did not increase with popula- 

 tion, leading to, in the far future, a hopeless and uninter- 

 esting mediocrity. In the future democracy of brains, where 

 one man would be, intellectually, as good as another, the 

 subtle fluid of original genius would become rarified into a 

 sort of cerebral hydrogen. This tendency was shewn by 

 the fact that in the later sciences, electricity for instance, 

 there were no great outstanding figures — invention had 

 been piecemeal. 



