Page:Inaugural address, delivered before the members of the Victorian Institute, on Friday the 21st of September, 1854 (IA inauguraladdres00barr).pdf/13

9 before been able to penetrate: but in adverting to one of the chief aims of this Institute, "the elevation of the intellectual condition of the community," it is my wish to impress upon its members that this is not to be accomplished by adopting second-rate philosophy at second hand, but by enforcing the necessity for primary research; by creating a taste for independent and thoughtful observation; by fortifying the powers of perception, while the attention is engaged and the curiosity gratified; by urging its members to strike out for themselves a track different from that which can only lead to mediocrity; by enlisting the active and strenuous, fostering in them a vigorous and self-relying habit, and thus, by strengthening the strong, arouse the listless and inattentive, and, having kindled such a spirit, using every means to make it permeate through every grade.

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.

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. 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; to measure the heavens as with a meteyard; to trace the erratic course and predict the occultation and reappearance of the comet; to calculate with unerring certainty the effect of every perturbation arising from the constant, yet change-producing influence