LIVINGSTONE FESTIVAL. 
19 
can conceive, both, to support our enterprising friend Dr. Living¬ 
stone during his arduous undertakings, and finally to crown them 
with success. (^Cheers.) 
Gentlemen, I need but draw your attention for a single moment 
to the pregnant words in which Dr. Livingstone has dedicated his 
recent volume to our Chairman in order to convince you of this. 
Weigh well these words, “as a token of gratitude for the kind 
interest he has always taken in the author’s pursuits and welfare;” 
and then remember the simple-hearted, truth-speaking writer from 
whose pen they flowed, and you will be more able to estimate what 
were really our Chairman’s services in this great undertaking. 
(^Cheers.') 
Truly it does need the combination of different men and dif¬ 
ferent faculties before any such vast undertaking as this can be 
achieved. There must be, first, the physical, the intellectual, the 
moral, and the spirtual faculties combined in one person, which 
are so eminently combined in Dr. Livingstone, before the actual 
agent in such explorations can be provided. But then beyond 
these personal qualifications he must have support from home; 
there must be the mere physical support, as I may call it, of money, 
means, ships, companions, goods for presents, and the like; and 
then, far beyond these, there must be that internal consciousness of 
possessing the sympathy of hearty, generous, trusting friends at 
home ; that inward stirring of a true national life within the indi¬ 
vidual ; the reflection within himself of the outcoming towards him 
of the strong national life at home which makes the poet, or the 
hero, or the great explorer. In how many times of trial, difficulty, 
and despondency does the stirring of this inward life again invi¬ 
gorate the far-off man in the midst of his lonely wanderings in 
the desert! ( Cheers.) 
But then the existence of this home remembrance must, in a great 
degree, depend on there being at home some few who are able and 
willing generously to keep alive the home remembrance of the ab¬ 
sent man and an interest in his work. For at home all things are 
moving so fast that things out of sight are soon things out of mind. 
The world round us goes at such speed, its objects, its cares, its 
pleasures, its amusements, its entanglements, shift and vary with such 
rapid and endless permutation, that unless there be some “ Sacred 
prophet ” evermore at hand to sing to us of the absent, he passes 
out of remembrance; and this work for Dr. Livingstone was done 
by our Chairman: from the chair of the Geographical Society, 
amongst men of science, amongst statesmen, he kept alive the in¬ 
terest which was due to Livingstone and his work. And how well 
c 2 
