333 
EDINBURGH MEETING. 
Gentlemen,—In opening the first meeting of another session I beg to express to you 
my deep sense of the honour conferred in placing me, for the second time, in this chair. 
My earnest desire will be to do all the duties to your satisfaction, and should I be suc¬ 
cessful in that, your appreciation of my humble endeavour will be the best reward you 
can bestow. 
It is gratifying to see so many present this evening. Meetings of this kind are cal¬ 
culated to do much good, not only in enabling us to get acquainted, but also in bring¬ 
ing together masters and assistants, and giving them opportunities of conversing on 
subjects that may conduce to their mutual benefit and welfare. 
The few remarks I wish to make to-night are intended more particularly for the 
younger members,—the assistants and apprentices; and I begin by impressing upon 
them the necessity there is, at all times, of reading, and the careful study of those works 
bearing more immediately upon their own vocation, so that they may be able to keep 
pace with the times, and be thoroughly up in all the minutiae of their calling. 
They must see to it, that they are expert, not only in the industrial but also in the 
scientific branches of the profession. Knowledge is power, and being powerful they 
must have sufficiency for the proper carrying out of it. 
No difficulties are to be allowed to hinder or interfere in any way. The seed, if there, 
must be nourished, and carefully tended. The dull boy is often the clever man, and 
only waits his opportunity to shine forth. We read of extraordinary men who have 
risen from the ranks by the force of will and application. The collier boy rises from 
degrading and unremunerative labour to invent a machine that carries blessings with it 
throughout ages. A shoemaker’s apprentice, by devoting his scanty leisure to self-im¬ 
provement, rises from his bench to be a scholar, and by his writings improves others. I 
need not give further instances or examples, there are many such in every trade and 
profession, and I am confident that the young men of ours will never lose the spirit to 
rise to higher and better things. Who amongst us would be contented to sit still as a 
half-remunerated drudge, and see, without one spark of ambition, others rising above 
him, and taking the place he might have won. The great hindrance to elevation is 
ignorance; it may be more our misfortune than our fault, but you will readily admit 
that the want of a good sound education is a bar to progress, which meets a man, not 
at one but at almost every step of his career. You ought therefore to embrace every 
opportunity within your reach for improvement. Let your reading and study be earnest, 
regular, and determined. Think well what you are about. You will find the connec¬ 
tion between thinking and doing is not only pleasant but profitable. Every one must 
be conscious of this who has experienced the satisfaction of having accomplished with 
his own hands, a result derived solely by means of his own energy and industry. 
If you would not have the ivy to creep on the ground, you must plant a tree, or erect 
an object which it can embrace, and by embracing ascend ; and if you would detach the 
heart from embracing the dust, you must give it another and a nobler object. Nothing 
that is good or great can be accomplished without application and study, and that study 
must have plan. Business, to be successful, must be conducted on system. You are 
young and able, why hide your light under a bushel. The fig-tree was withered, 
not for bearing bad fruit, but for yielding no fruit. The unprofitable servant was cast 
into outer darkness, not for wasting the talent committed to him, but for not employing 
it. Apply sufficient heat and you will bend the hardest iron. It is related that the 
forest of the Pyrenean Mountains being set on fire, and the heat penetrating to the soil, 
a pure stream of silver gushed forth from the bosom of the earth, which revealed, for the 
first time, those rich lodes afterwards so celebrated. Who can tell the rich soil that 
may be in some of you just waiting for the heat to send forth doubly rich streams of 
pure silver, it may be of gold ? Let your spare time, at all events, be profitably occupied 
and employed in a right manner, and as reasonable and responsible beings; and the very 
difficulties you may have to encounter in the acquisition of knowledge will give a zest 
to every attainment, the pleasure of which can only be experienced by those who have 
really overcome them. 
Dr. Stevenson Macadam was then introduced to the meeting, and read an interest¬ 
ing paper, “On the Various Groups of Alcohols,” and which he illustrated with dia¬ 
grams, etc. 
Thanks were proposed to Dr. Macadam by Mr. Baildon, seconded by Mr. Ainslie, 
and carried with acclamation. 
