Page:Inaugural address, delivered before the members of the Victorian Institute, on Friday the 21st of September, 1854 (IA inauguraladdres00barr).pdf/7

 INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

,—

The object for which we meet this evening is to inaugurate "The Victorian Institute."

We assemble in the vestibule of the temple of science, many of us unacquainted one with the other, invited to engage in a course of mutual improvement, and to assist in the cause of general instruction.

The invitation is one which it does not become us to slight; it holds out not only the certainty of much agreeable mental recreation, but also the means, if duly employed, of attaining and diffusing many substantial benefits.

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; of provoking opinions or theories which may, at least, test the intrinsic merit of those heretofore current; and of recording in authentic form the discoveries or speculations of those who have hitherto individually in private prosecuted their unobtrusive studies simply for the enjoyment yielded by the pursuit, and of those who may now be stimulated to join in giving their thoughts and views a public circulation.