Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 16.djvu/45

Rh many who otherwise would have but little inclination or opportunity for independent study, and the general taste will be elevated. At the same time let each man who has the ability add something original, in his own department of information, whether pertaining to science or literature, to the common stock of knowledge.

It is thus that we, who have derived so rich an inheritance from the toils, the attempts, and even the failures of our ancestors, may, in our turn, labour to lay up a store for our descendants which shall make them nobler, wiser, and more enlightened than ourselves; thus, that each generation may rise superior to those which have gone before; thus, that the dreams of the Past may become the realities of the Present and the starting-point for the Future. In the words of the poet,—