THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[ Fe BRUARV 2, 1891 
580 
sympathetic insight into studies alien from our own. 
Time is not wasted in that way, for there are 
very few people a good deal cf whose time does 
not run to waste, and when they talk of want of 
time, it is really, nine times out of ten want of 
energy that they mean. No doubt, much labour 
is monotonous and wearisome, but those who have 
tried the experiment will tell you that, given a 
reasonable degree of bodily health and mental 
activity, the best repose from monotonous labour is 
to be found in change of occupation, not in absolute 
apathy and vacancy (Hear, hear.) and there is one 
reason why, in my judgment, some tincture of 
scientific knowledge is desirable for every educated 
person. The result may not be great, but the 
process is valuable. An entire absence of the 
scientific spirit is no doubt compatible with brilliant 
talent and high distinction. You do not find fault 
for a deficiency of that kind in a novelist a poet, 
or a writer of light literature, but it is a deficiency 
notwithstanding. If yru ask me what I mean by 
a scientific spirit, I thiik I know, but I must 
confess that it is more easily described in vame 
and general terms than precisely defi ed. I mean 
by it, in the first place, a habit of accuracy and 
exactness in matters of fact. It matters very li-tle 
to an orator that his facts should be carefully 
verified — sometimes he is wise in abstaining from 
the attempt but a calculation or an experim'nt 
must inevitably fail if there is a want of accuracy 
anywhere. In the next place, I mean that temper 
of mind which seeks for conclusions, but d< es not 
jump at them ; which is equally opposed to the 
stupid incredulity of ignorance, refusing to accept 
any idea which is not familiar ; to the reverential 
credulity, which accepts as true any statement 
coming down from old or high authority; and to 
the careless indiff-rentit m which, so long as a 
theory looks and sounds well, and especially if it 
flatters some previously existing feeling or prejudice, 
does not care on what foundation of reality that 
theory rests. (Cheers.) Ours is an age when the 
half-educated are a power in the world ; when more 
men than ever before reason and speculate on 
difficult matters, and when, consequently, there is 
all round us and on all subjects a quite bewildering 
amount of loose talk and inconclusive argument. 
(Hear, hear.) More than that there are fashions 
in opinion, and you constantly hear it said, “ Oh, 
yes, that was the way people reasoned 20 years ago, 
but it is quite out of date now. ” Well, such 
fluotuations must exist in what are called practical 
afiairs, but that is all the more reason why it is 
good to have to do with theories that cannot go 
out of fashion, and with trains that are absolutely 
incapable of being affected by the ebb and flow 
of what is called public opinion. Else we should 
be apt to rest in the conclusion that nothing is 
true and nothing false, and that the best thing 
to do is simply to accept the current ideas of the 
day, which, indeed, from the point cf view of 
personal interest, very likely for most people is 
the best thing. That the world is governed by 
laws which we did not make and cannot abolish — 
laws which will operate whether we recognise or 
ignore them, and which it is our wisdom therefore 
to study that we may obey, and in obeying utilise 
them— that is what I lake to be the outcome of 
Bcientifio teaching (cheers), and if anybody thinks 
that a useless or an unimportant or unnecessary 
lesson I do not agree with him. (Hear, hear.) 
Something else science, rightly understood, will 
teach U8 to know — what it is that we can hope 
to know and to understand ; and to recognise how 
little that is, and how much lies, and probably 
always will lie, beyond the reach of our faculties. 
One word onl^ I ,will add — that, having known 
men of many professions, I should say, as far as 
my observation goes, the happiest lives are those 
which have been devoted to science. Every step 
is interesting, and the success of those who do 
succeed is lasting. What general, what orator, 
what statesman, what man of letters can hope to 
leave a memory like that of Darwin? An invalid 
in health, a man who seldom stirred from home, 
a man until his later years very little known to 
the outer world, but who, from his quiet study, 
revolutionised the thought of Europe, and will be 
remembered as long as Newton and Bacon. If fame 
be ever worth working for — I do not say it is — that 
kind of fame is surely, of all, the most durable 
and the most desirable. (Cheers.) Well, I have 
perhaps digressed from our proper subj. ct, for it is 
not likely that we have a future Darwin in this 
room, but it is no exaggeration to say that, as a 
lule, no man who has taken to science as the work 
of his life 1 egrets the choice, while men who have 
done important work in other lines feel like Eenan, 
who, at the height of his literary eminence, tells 
us in his autobiography that he has often regretted 
that science, rather than historical research, had 
nof been the object of his early pursuit. Nothing 
remains for me now excejit to offer to liiis sobool 
of science my sincere good wishes for its fu ure 
prosperity, and to yon, the successful stud-nts who 
are attending here to receive your prizes, my 
congratulations on the good beginning which you 
have made, and my hope that neither early success 
nor possible temporary failure may induce you to 
desist from those steady, unb acting, unresting exer- 
tions without which the great prizes of life can never 
be attained. (Cheers.) — Pioneer. [There is so much 
that is good in Lord Derby’s address that it is the 
more to be regret ed that he should have held up 
for admiration two men like Darwin and Eenan, 
th< first of whom did not think Christianity worthy 
of the same exumii.ation which he instituted regard- 
ing the phenomena of the physical world, while 
the other, most unnecessarily introduced, has 
devoted his life to destri ying the faith which is the 
light and the hope of the human race, and will 
remain so when Eenan is forgotten. — E d, T. 
■ ♦ 
The Coconut trade of Tahiti is a growing one. 
Notwithstanding the destruction of many of the 
palms by the storm whion raged over all the 
islands of the Pacific last season, and the blight 
which attacked the fruit there is an immense 
excess oi production over last year’s crop with a 
ready maraet for the fruit, either fresh or as dried 
copra . — Mildura Cultivator. 
The Benoal Iron and Steel Company are prov- 
ing what success can be gained by private enterprise 
in developing the mineral resources of the country. 
When they took over the concern from the Grovern- 
ment of India there were two blast-furnaces on 
the old-fashioned “ open-top” plan. A third and 
larger blast furnace of better design and with all 
the recent improvements which can be thought of 
is now being erected. When this new furnace is 
Lompleted it is intended to remodel the old ones. 
Ihe Company are also putting up two new blowing 
engines and in other respects making the blast- 
furnace portion of the works equal to meeting 
modern requirements. The foundry is being ex- 
tended with a view to the manufacture of cast-iron 
pipes suitable for waterworks, which are now being 
so widely carried out in many cities. The manage- 
ment are showing such energy and enterprise that 
the Government must congratulate themselves on 
having practically entrusted to the Company the 
task of developing the native iron industry of Indi^, 
—Pionter, 
