Redmond Barry

“ This is surely then a time when every effort to rivet attention on the culture of art and science should be heartily seconded. A strong desire for knowledge is manifested in the foundation of our University—the establishment of libraries, and the formation of the numerous societies springing up in our towns, their suburbs, and the more distant districts. All this points to prove that the barren acquisition of money does not satisfy the cravings of a people who possess a comprehension beyond that of the method of acquiring it ”

“ Who then is so impassive as not to feel delight in dwelling on the vast design of nature, the order and beauty with which it is maintained, and yearn for an insight into its great arcana;—whether we survey the celestial scheme which prescribes to planets and their satellites stated revolutions, and upholds all without dislocation of the marvellous mechanism, producing in the infinitely-diversified movements of its members, by an all-wise counteraction of discordant discord, such surprising harmony ”

“ Are we to shrink from solving our portion of the great problem of truth, or is it apprehended that the grandeur of the theme should repulse us, that we should doubt our powers, distrust our endurance, and he fearful for our success? ”

“ Theories are not now dozed over for a life time to pass away as idle dreams. We live in an age in which the difficulties which arrested the profoundest masters of antiquity—and drew forth desponding lamentations of the impossibility of their solution, or ambiguous prophecies [2] of the probability of their removal, have been subjugated by the ever strengthening arm of science ”

“ The dignified modesty of true learning is conscious that it is only by slow and painful steps that man has been able to evolve and eliminate those portions of knowledge with which he has been allowed to make himself acquainted ”

“ That such consequences may be looked for, is probable, when we consider that labour, whether physical or intellectual, is eminently social, and always most effective when combined—yet, that the achievements which human industry has made conspicuous have been won not always by the combination of many hands, but by the co-operation of many minds and the accumulated experience of many men. ”

“ One of the humblest races in the gradation of the human family has yielded to us the possession of the vast territory over which our people are now dispersed; and by an inscrutable regulation of Providence is waning before the access of civilization. By exertions, unassisted from without, cities and towns have sprung up, of a class and with a rapidity which challenge a parallel in former or contemporary history. ”

“ There is no slender enjoyment afforded by the ready concession made by intellectual liberality to a demonstration, however startling, which stands in direct contradiction to traditional error, to the immature offspring of crude theories which we have too readily accepted from others ”

“ The discovery of gold, happily postponed until our hills, plains, and valleys were covered with flocks and herds, and until we had emerged from dependence upon, to that of sisterly amity with a province, has brought us into direct intercourse with nations hitherto indifferent to, perhaps ignorant of the geographical position of this country, the keels of whose stately vessels now furrow every sea to visit us; who exchange with us commodities, productions of every clime ”

“ It must, however, strike you obviously, as of no inconsiderable moment, that an organised body should exist, round which those ardent in the pursuit of science, and zealous in unfolding its enlarged adaptation to the peculiar wants of this country, should be able to group themselves ”

“ Methods of treating abstruse topics are simplified; improvements in the instruments to assist philosophical investigation succeed each other to an extent which, while they excite a just admiration, hold out a belief that we are hovering on the threshold of more astounding discoveries than any which have hitherto awed us by their sublimity or gratified us by the practical usefulness which has tended so extensively to the civilisation of mankind. ”

“ Although the great truth may lie beyond our reach, the honest and pains-taking search for it may profit much. Although the investigator may fail to reach the ultimate goal of his wishes, he may be entertained by many a pleasing diversion on the way. ”

“ One solid advantage to be reaped, were that the only one, is that by the practice of original investigation the intellect will become fertilised; and as by ploughing and harrowing the soil new elements of vegetation and reproduction are brought to the surface, such exercises will embue the mind with an elasticity and a capacity for analysis and induction, enlarged as occasion presents new objects with which it is called on to grapple. ”

“ In the elaboration of each separate idea, a compensating mutual relation with some other cognate idea is found, which brings a fresh agency to bear upon, assimilate or clash with it; such attrition, different from that which wastes and diminishes physical bodies, serving to sharpen and refine the mind, correct, enlarge or perfect the idea. ”

“ Are we to waste life in frivolity, or in occupations which, when we perish, will leave no memorial of even our own existence; and allow our era to be cited as that of the Cimmerian obscurity of the Southern Hemisphere? ”

“ When readers once acquire a habit of perusing such works hastily and without method, indiscriminately and without reflection, or the necessity for mental exertion, they become prone to lean on the memory rather than to rely on the understanding, thereby underrating and necessarily impairing the higher powers of reason. Those who are satisfied with a medium so acceptable to the indolent may be displeased with what they may deem a depreciating allusion to such books. ”

“ New doctrines and inventions are submitted to dispassionate investigation before they are wholly condemned; if found to bear the tests applied, they are readily approved and adopted, if not in the land in which they originate, in some more congenial spot, amongst some more liberal spirits; and are made fulcra on which a thousand anxious minds rest their levers to propel into a fuller growth the germ from which they have sprung. ”

“ The events crowded into the last three years have wrought a change, not merely in the actual condition, but in the immediate prospects of our community, which as regards our social and political state and the opening dawn of accelerated progression, must inspire consolation, confidence and hope. ”

“ A mutual dependency of powers, faculties and functions is also an interesting feature in labour, through which arises the reflection of itself upon itself and the reaction of its votaries upon each other. The philosopher would be helpless without the assistance of the mechanic, who furnishes him wherewith to pierce through space beyond the range of human ken ”

“ In seeking to acquire an intimacy with the secrets of either, even in the seemingly motiveless or injudicious study of them, some collateral or accidental good may be expected, While from the neglect or unwise disregard of them nothing can proceed but regret. ”

“ Each new scientific application to economise labour and time is brought within our reach, opening new avenues to honourably earned riches, and unatended by any of the inconveniences, which, in crowded communities occasionally arise from the substitution of machinery for manual labour before the classes affected thereby have resorted to other employments ”

“ The enterprise of our great parent state, but languidly expanding under pastoral occupations, has been caught up, and now directing itself into innumerable fresh channels gives indication of highly vital force. ”

“ It affords an opportunity to those who become members of collecting materials and interesting facts respecting the multitudinous subjects which form topics for the rational inquirer, and to which careful and well-regulated observation will attach an accredited worth; of arranging and collating them, so as to facilitate investigation and attract the attention of those competent to exercise thereon an enlightened judgment ”

“ As to the benefits to be derived from the establishment of this institution, they are incalculable, and an attempted enumeration of them would be alike unnecessary and incomplete. What rather must they not be when an account of the natural and physical resources of the country is untouched by any hand we may strictly call our own ”

“ It will not, I feel assured, have escaped the reflective amongst this audience, that of such pursuits as those on which we are about to engage ourselves the chief end should be, not merely to extend our acquaintance with matters or things, their qualities or accidents ”