INAUGURAr. ADDRESH. 
22 
severe and perilous task, have to a vast extent gathered, fixed 
and systematised the languages of sav'age tribes, df)ubtless 
primarily in duties of holy call, but thei-eljy collaterally affoi-ding 
means foi' comparative linguistic studies and the jdiilologii; 
.subjects c(jnnected therewith. Indeed, the Bible is now ti’an.s- 
lated into more than 300 languages or their diver, silied dialects. 
What an incalculable ti’easure is .stored up by these biblie 
traii-slatioiis also in wordly aspects ! Could the Association 
possibly do some further good in insisting, that by the force 
of logic, should Ije suppressed any defect! v^eness of thought in 
much of commonplace conversational and perhaps also literary 
j^lu’aseology, evei’ without reflection reiterated. Some appella- 
tions, vernacular oi’ otherwise, are also here and there open tn 
impi'ovement yet ; thus, to quote only one familiar instance, 
“ Oumtrees,” professionally speaking, would apply hei’e to the 
Wattle-Acacias, not to the Eucalypts. Eoi' the advantage of 
conversing in several languages, and simultaneou.sly to haw^ 
disclosed the treasuT'es of litei-atuie in originality, to leai-n 
two, three t>r even four, is at early childhood hardly more 
difticult than one, if facilities in family-life can be offered to the 
y(5Uthful retentive mind. Even to orphan-children, provided for 
by the State, this benefit could be extended, inasmuch as some 
juvenile inmates of orjihanages might be readily transferred from 
the institution of one country to that of a neighbouring one 
without any additional expenditure for support, and with this 
philanthropic \ lew, that nations, who uirhappily nourish mutual 
sentiments of asperity, would through the rising generation Ijy 
clo.sei’ .social contract di'aw nearer to each other also ns great 
communities, would learn more to respect national character, 
would recognise more individual worth of their adversaries, 
would gradually be disabiesed of hostile prejudices, ;ind woulil 
abandon sujtposed or exaggerated notions of their neighbour’.s 
faultfuliuiss or enmity. This pilnciple might perhaps be e.xtended 
to all classes, with domesticities sure to arise out of it with all 
their happy influences. 
It is most pleasing, to see assigtied to the highly scientific art 
of music so (listinct a po.sitiou at this gathejlng, the division, 
constituted for it, being moreover enhanced in imjjortance th rough 
a renowned composer being identified with it. At all period-; 
of human existence the .soul found its sublime.st expres.sion 
in Imnnonious tones. Emblematically the .sacred Hcripturc 
seizes on this mode of expression, as conveying to the utmost 
the ideas of mental loftiue.ss ! I!y nearly a thousand .symbols 
vocal and instrumental sounds were fixed from almost mythologic' 
remoteness down to the olympian fe.stivals ; and well might 
it be wished, that some records of those melodies were left, 
enchanting as they were eveir at the dawn of mental culture, 
to be deciphered or restored at this age. To judge from 
