Introductory Lecture. 155 



once admitted. Short-sighted diplomatists and sorry econo- 

 mists ! The spread of a thirst for pure knowledge is in its 

 results eventually of more benefit, both politically and pecu- 

 niary, to the state, than all the immediate " useful applica- 

 tions." A wise people, delighting in intellectual pursuits for 

 their own sake, is a shrewder generation than one lost in 

 money-making and statecraft. 



But to get at the mind of a world that values wealth and 

 power as the grand aim of earthly occupation whilst this 

 world lasts, we must occasionally employ its own weapons. It 

 is true that natural history, under its sub-sciences, physics and 

 chemistry, cannot do this very effectively or frequently ; but, 

 nevertheless, it has something to say. More especially in its 

 mineral aspects does it bear upon utilitarian interests. In 

 these gold-seeking days, a little knowledge of mineralogy 

 would have prevented the waste of not a little gold. I have 

 seen boxes of yellow mica, imported from California, under 

 the belief that they were filled with the precious metal, and 

 carefully packed prisms of quartz brought home, after being 

 dearly paid for as diamonds, the seller probably having re- 

 gretted the cheapness at which his necessities compelled him 

 to dispose of them, and the buyer dishonestly chuckling over 

 the goodness of the bargain he had made. On the other 

 hand, I have lately placed, in the cases of the museum, frag- 

 ments of a mineral that promises to yield a fortune, which lay 

 open, abundantly, to the day, and stood by the roadside un- 

 noticed until it attracted the eye of a scientific observer. 



Especially valuable is geological knowledge. Not many 

 years ago, a competent engineer, visiting a district where lime 

 was precious for agricultural purposes, and was procured from 

 a considerable distance inland at much cost, being impressed 

 with the belief, drawn from his geological observations, that 

 there ought to be limestone strata beneath the superficial 

 covering, went to work systematically to test his impression, 

 and ended, to the amazement of the people, by obtaining a 

 lease of the limestone v in a district where the natives never 

 heard of its presence. He then made his shafts, and supplied 

 them with the desideratum. 



