102 
JOUKN^AL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Talue, classified and catalogued with scientific precision. It seems 
to me that, as there is already in this town a library of general 
literature of considerable pretension, we shall best serve the 
purpose for which our library was established by making it 
distinctly a library of philosophy and science, composed of works 
of prominent merit only, that form a necessary link in the series of 
a philosophic or scientific study. 
Our lectures and discussions are, however, the distinguishing 
features of this Institution. They are the surest indications of 
our mental activity, of our intellectual progress, and of the state 
of education to which we have attained. 
Of all the means of education available to us, is not speech the 
most efficacious — speech in the many various forms which it 
assumes ? If we examine minutely the sum of our acquirements, 
collected carefully or carelessly, as the case may be, from our 
infancy upwards, shall we not find that conversation has contri- 
buted a vast proportion of our mental resources ? 
In the pen we have a mighty power. It is the mightiest of the 
mighty. It is the fountain head of education, whilst speech is the 
active distributor. Our lectures afford us a means of trying our 
skill in wielding that potent instrument, whilst our discussions 
exercise us in the faculty of speech. Speech is the great co- 
adjutor of writing in the diffusion of the light of education. 
The art of speech, founded on the science of logic, in all its 
various shapes, whether in conversation, in discussion, in debate, 
or in oratory, demands study at our hands as an essential part of 
our education. Amongst the characteristics of the intellectual 
progress of the day speech must be recognised as exercising in- 
creasing influence. We find our philosophers and great men of 
science to be masters of eloquence, submitting themselves to the 
ordeal of public discussion, and courting the analysis of criticism 
in open debate. The influence of the pen is overpowering; but 
its power is chiefly felt when it is transferred from the atmo- 
sphere of the study, and is transmitted through the agency of 
speech. 
This Institution offers opportunities for acquiring that art, an 
art which appears to me very difficult to acquire with any degree 
of proficiency. This is a school in which that study is distinctly 
fostered, keeping pace in this respect at least with the march of 
intellect, and it has turned out many able scholars, who are now 
