30 
new session by a few preliminary remarks upon our position 
in reference to the work which lies before us, I have not 
felt myself at liberty to decline acceding to their request. 
I think we can scarcely meet in this hall without being 
in some degree stimulated to effort by the associations which 
cling to it. It is the hall rich in memories of White and of 
Perceval, of Dalton and of the two Henrys. It is the hall 
in which most of their discoveries were announced — dis- 
coveries which have given Manchester so distinguished a 
place in the scientific annals of Great Britain. It is to me 
a matter of no small pride and satisfaction that the present 
age will add its contribution to that illustrious roil of names, 
and that Joule and Fairbairn, Binney and Boscoe, will be 
remembered bv our successors as men who in their several 
t/ 
spheres of labour carried the torch of science with no un- 
certain grasp, and handed it on to their posterity shining 
with a light as brilliant as it gave forth when they received 
it from their distinguished predecessors. 
Stimulated by these remembrances, we do well from time 
to time to take a conscientious view of our position in re- 
lation to the work which awaits us. We do not occupy our 
places in this room in the capacity of educators, but of inves- 
tigators. Whatever duties of the former class may devolve 
upon some of us elsewhere, in this place we neither profess 
to be the teachers of the young, nor popularisers of science 
for the benefit of the adults who join in our assemblies. It 
is true that we may, in some humble measure, fulfil both 
these functions, but such fulfilments are but the collateral 
incidents of our position. Our proper duties are those of 
pioneers, endeavouring to carry light where all is as yet 
dark, — to dispel the thick mists of our own ignorance which 
stiU envelop us as with a pall, and which can only be dis- 
pelled by vigorous and combined efibrts. It is our duty to 
try to discover unknown truths, to ascertain hitherto unob- 
served facts, and, if possible, to trace the relations which 
