PROCEEDINGS
irtg-
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE UTH MAY, 1864.
. J.Ju pujto, Jftmflf |>f ototUtt
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1864 II
HON. W. PORTER,
JOHN FAIRBAIRN,
HON. MR. JUSTICB WATER-
MEYER,
MR. PROFESSOR CAMERON,
R. BAYLEY, ESQ.,
GEORGE FRERE, ESQ.,
(Treasurer),
W. HIDDINGH, ESQ.,
S. SOLOMON, ESQ.,
MR. PROFESSOR NOBLE,
MAJOR LONGMORE.
I J. C. GIE, ESQ.
A True Copy:
F. MASKEW, Librarian.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The Committee in
presenting their report of the last year's proceedings,
have much pleasure in recording that, by the liberality
of the inhabitants of this city, they have been enabled
to complete, in a manner suited to its value and impor-
tance, their arrangements for the reception of the
Library presented by His Excellency Sir George
Grey, and that the " Grey Library " was opened to the
public on the 23rd of April last.
The Committee have also much pleasure in congratu-
lating the subscribers to the Library, and the public
generally, upon the very valuable addition that has been
made to the literary stores of this institution by the
presentation of the " Porter Collection." Your Com-
mittee had more than ordinary pleasure in accepting
this trust for the public ; for the gentleman in whose
honour it was presented, and whose name it bears, has
been intimately connected with this institution ever
since his arrival in the colony, and has always taken a
lively interest in the welfare of the Public Library.
The fund for the purchase of this useful collection of
books, consisting of several hundred volumes in Law,
Literature, and Science, and which in a measure fills up
deficiencies hitherto existing in several departments,
was raised by public subscription among the friends
and admirers of Mr. Porter, as a mark of esteem for
the many services rendered by him during his residence
in this colony.
The books were selected by a joint committee of the
" Porter Testimonial Fund" and the Library, with the
A 2
1223284
kind and able assistance of Mr. J. van Rees Hoets,
and when the collection is open to the public it will be
available for use in the same manner as the other books
in the Library, excepting such rare and costly works of
reference as it has been usual for the Committee to
withhold from the risks attendant on circulation.
The Committee are also greatly indebted to Messrs.
McMillan & Co , of Cambridge, for the zeal and
interest with which they have gratuitously co-operated
with Mr. Hoets in the selection and purchase of the
books which form the " Porter Collection."
The accession of books during the past year has
been as follows :
Vols.
Miscellaneous Theology 12
Political Economy, Jurisprudence, &c. 11
Science and the Arts ... ... ... 23
Works of Amusement ... ... ... 106
Belles Lettres, &c 50
History 49
Voyages and Travels ... ... ... 44
Biography ... ... ... ... 30
Miscellaneous ... ... ... ... 14
Total 339
Amongst them will be found several valuable works
presented to the Library by the Royal Society, the
Royal Geographical Society, the Society of Arts,
London (through their Chairman, Wm. Hawcs, Esq.),
Bishop Colenso, Drs. Hutchinson and Eveleigh,
George Hodgskin, Esq., of London, Edward Chiappini,
Esq., of Natal, and T. B. Bay ley, Esq., to all of whom
the thanks of the subscribers are due.
A handsome and valuable collection of Medallions,
presented by Dr. Ross, of Cape Town, calls also for
the acknowledgments and thanks of the supporters and
friends of the institution.
The Treasurer's account now submitted gives the
Receipts and Expenditure for the past year, showing a
balance in hand of 29 2 3
The subscriptions subsequently received 24 10
53 12 3
To this may be added the proportion of
the Parliamentary Grant of 600
a year, payable June 30, amount-
ing to 200
253 12 3
Against which must be charged for
general purposes ... ... ... 60
Leaving 193 12 3
Which amount will be at the disposal of
the Committee about to be appointed,
for the purchase of books required
to fill up the various departments
of the collection.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, In attempting to
perform the duty which your committee has assigned
to me, at this your annual meeting, I have thought
that I might usefully direct your minds to what I
would describe as the Social Tendencies of Literature.
Any observant person who watches the things which
are passing in the world and going on around him,
must have noticed the increasing influence which
printed speech is exercising, and must sometimes have
asked himself to what purpose it was tending, and in
what results it would end. Books of all sorts, on all
subjects; magazines and serials, in all shapes, and of all
prices, for men of all ranks and occupations; newspapers
great and small, enter our houses, attract our notice
in the public streets, expect to travel by railroad with
us when we make a journey, and well nigh insist to
share our beds at night as well as our tables and our
chairs by day. What does this mean ? As long as
literature was content to wear a grave and unobtrusive
aspect, we could place it on our shelves and regard it
with that calm respect which might sometimes seem to
be indifference ; but what are we to do now ? When the
vast folio is jostled out of its place by bustling little
books which put in a claim for popularity, when the
Classics are asking for a seat within our pockets, when
Waverley is sold for one shilling, and some of the first
authors of the day, illustrated by some of the first
artists, discourse to us in " Good Words " for sixpence,
and the book of Common Prayer is sold for two-pence
by tens of thousands, and the events which happened
yesterday throughout the world report themselves at
daylight for a penny, it seems time that we should
call this great though subtle agency before us, and
request it to make known, with some explicitness, the
nature of that work which it is doing, or ought to do
for nations and men. And it will not, I think, be
indisposed to tell us ; for freedom has been the nursery
of literature, and there are no secrets in that region
of openness and candour in which literature loves
to dwell.
The work which literature does is wide and great.
A man walks into a public reading-room, where he
meets with literature in its lightest and most transitory
form. He takes up the Times, or some other London
journal, which was printed while the day was breaking,
and which does not only tell him all that has taken
place within the capitals- and chief towns of Europe as
late as last midnight, or even later, but shows him, as
in a mirror, the battles which were fought and the
things which were done across the wide Atlantic some
week or fortnight previous, as well as the facts which
the busy mails have carried from India, China, and
Southern Africa within some very short and incon-
siderable time. The current actions of the world are
thus as in a map before him, and in a few minutes he
takes in the existing state regarded, no doubt, from
an outward and superficial point of view, but still the
actual and existing state of that great whole which
we call humanity. Moreover, he finds in this epheme-
ral thing, which will have flown like a bird and be
forgotten before to-morrow, the criticisms and reflec-
tions of quick and ready minds, hasty, and having
only such worth as may belong to average and first
impressions, yet not without some weight and impor-
tance, which, observing this passing history as it
moves across the stage of time, speak out opinion freely
and shout applause or condemnation. Now, we neeu not
follow out the thoughts which such a thing of print
suggests to all their consequences; but we may ask if it is
more than truth to say that the minutes which the man
has thus spent have made the world his country ? In-
fluences such as this, at work continually, penetrate all
lands and leaven all persons, drawing all together.
Kings upon their thrones, statesmen in their chambers,
senates in their halls, feel them and acknowledge their
power. The nations of Europe and America, through
all their leading persons, acting as it were in each
other's presence, and beneath the frown or the smile of
each other's judgments, imbibe unconsciously each
other's thoughts. And even Asia and Africa, aliens
though they be in race, and thought, and feeling, are
being drawn within the magic sphere of such an influ-
ence, which moves from one centre to a circumference
which includes the world.
The same man, or another whose pursuits are some-
what different, walks into a public library like that in
which we are now met. The books of former genera-
tions, venerable with age, look down on him from those
seats of wisdom which issue the decrees by which the
thoughts of men are governed. But on the table which
fills the centre of the wide apartment, he sees the varied
colours of those more alluring reviews and serials which
court his more immediate attention, and profess to save
his busy time. There on that table, within the paper
covers tinged with every hue, he may get a bird's-eye
glance of all that is worthiest of notice in the books
which have been written throughout the world in
England, in America, in Germany, in France, and
wherever else men think and write during the last
few months. That which the journal does especially
for man's actions, the review performs for man's
thoughts and books. History, theology, philosophy,
oiography, science, art, mechanics, busy in all civilized
countries, have been putting out their thoughts in
writing during the year, or the quarter, or the month
which is just passed. And whatever they have pub-
lished to the world, the narratives of the historian, the
pictures of the biographer, the thoughts of the divine,
the speculations of the philosopher, the observations
and deductions of the man of science, the elaborations
of the artist, the inventions of the discoverer, the
creations of the poet; weighed, analyzed, dissected;
turned inside out and outside in by the several minds
which look at them from all sides in all conceivable
aspects; criticized by the discriminating, flattered by
the interested, mangled by the hostile ; the cream or
the scum of recent thought, may be found there
within those books of many colours, gathered and
spread out before the world, by critics of all schools,
and all degrees of worth or worthlessness, who, having
dived into this sea of print, bring up with them to the
surface the things which they regard as most to be
noticed and observed in it. In fact, such is the present
state of literature, and so refined and elaborate are its
provisions, that as there are men who write books
that the world may be amused, or edified, or elevated,
or instructed, so there are men who read for the world
as well as write for it ; and those who are too busy or
too idle to read themselves have been provided with
that most useful kind of caterer, who reads or digests
for them, and then hands over to them the result for
good or evil of this literary digestion. Here, too, it is
needless to pursue the phenomenon into all its many
consequences. But it is evident that all this manifold
system of review and criticism may be regarded as a
vast apparatus by which the world is enabled to carry
on its thoughts in simultaneous motion. The man of
thought was always more or less of a cosmopolite, for
10
thought overleaps the bariers of time and space, and
claims affinity with thought wherever it is met with ;
but it remained for the present age to invent that
complicated machinery which, catching up the thoughts
of men as fast as they were written, and the books of
men as fast as they were published, should first break
them up into their main elements, and then publish
them again in all civilized countries, translated into
such a shape that millions should swiftly apprehend
their meaning, and either at once adopt them into the
substance of their own mind and understanding, or else
reject them as unpalatable food, which they were not
disposed to use for nourishment. If an author who
publishes a book to-day knows that the world will have
sat as a jury over it, and have delivered an approving
or condemning verdict before half the year is over, he
thinks and writes with the eyes of the world imme-
diately upon him, and he feels, too, that he may influence
the world as quickly and directly as he is himself
influenced by it : so that the man of thought and the
men for whom he thinks roll along the groove of thought
together, each subserving the purpose of the other and
moving in union to the same common end.
If from the lower levels of literature we ascend to
those productions of the press which are the fruits of
more careful deliberation, and aim at more permanent
effects and influences, we shall find that their tenden-
cies, if less decided and apparent, are still one and the
same. It is their object, by discussion and reason, or
by expression of universal feelings and emotions, to
draw men into agreement on the basis of nature and
truth. Indeed, books have always been a common
ground on which the men of all countries have met as
on a neutral territory, that, laying aside their national,
political, or other differences, they may communicate
their thoughts and exchange with each other the fellow-
11
ship of wide and universal sympathies. By means of
books, the men not only of many lands and diverse
origin, but of all ages, have assembled as it were within
the halls of one world-embracing parliament, there to
deliberate on things which touch the welfare of our
race, and to express as men to men their deepest and
most general emotions. " By the aid of literature,"
says a thoughtful writer of our own day, " across the
wide seas, and from the very depths of time, men
stretch out their hands to one another, being brethren
in soul. If to think the same in matters of govern-
ment has always been considered a stern bond of
fellowship, what must be that communion which arises
from agreement on matters of deeper concern than any
politics, and still more perhaps from that harmony in
the lighter touches of thought, expression, and feeling,
which constitutes the very essence of personal friend-
ship? With men whom we have never seen, we may
thus have a dear and intimate communion : and could
these friends from afar enter the room, though it might
be in a strange garb and speaking a strange language,
we should welcome them at once as old friends, and
should always think that we knew many of their most
familiar ways." It is true, indeed, that the intercourse
which comes from literature is not always of a quiet or
harmonious kind, and that many a wordy and contro-
versial war is fought from time to time by literary
combatants ; but the strife of authors is a strife of that
reasonable kind which has agreement at least for its
professed object, and from which, if reason can but
exert its loyal and commanding influence, truth should
be the last issue and peace the legitimate result. Such,
at any rate, is the conclusion which will be looked for
by all who have any faith in human nature, or who
believe that good alone can ultimately follow from that
full comparison of differences, and that freedom of
12
intercourse and discussion, which dissipates the mists
of blinding prejudice, and brings every judgment and
opinion to be tried in the light of day before the bar
of truth. If truth be that thing which " showeth best
by day," as Bacon has said for it, the publication of
thought must end in the victory of truth. And among
the fruits of this victory, unity is not the least certain ;
for truth enters upon warfare only that it may win a
peace.
The remarks which have been made, sketchy as they
are, and are designed to be, have shown us (1) that
literature is a chief means of intercourse between man
and man in all quarters of the earth ; (2) that, as such,
it tends to draw mankind together and to unite the
world in one society; (3) that the popular form which
it has taken upon itself in modern times, and especially
in the present day, indicates a vast increase of its force
and an extraordinary enlargement of its influence.
Literature is not a new thing, for it is almost as old
as human nature ; but it has assumed a shape in which
we hardly recognize the older agency. At the very
time when a mistaken analogy might have led us to
expect decrepitude, we find the intensity of strength.
When the world is growing old, and we might have
thought that the powers which move mankind would
have decayed or languished, literature stands up before
us, ruddy with the bloom of youth, and, telling us with
all her tongues that the barriers of time and space are
giving way before the growing energies of human
nature, announces that she is entering on u career of
conquest in the domains of intellect and knowledge,
which shall at once make earth obedient to man's pur-
poses, and unite men with each other while they com-
bine to subjugate the earth. The causes of this must
now be hastily examined ; and wo shall see not only
that literal ure is being now at last repaid for the ser-
13
vices which she has rendered to the arts and sciences,
but that these her foster-children are now acting in alli-
ance with her, and are co-operating under her guidance
to the accomplishment of that common work which has
been given them by God to do.
The present condition of literature is mainly owing
to the extraordinary development of the arts which we
call practical, during the half century which has follow-
ed the wars of the French Revolution, and the peace
which was won at Waterloo. Nothing in all the history
of man is more remarkable than the achievements of
scientific industry in that calm but eventful period,
unless it be the like outburst in the province of intellect
and speculation which accompanied the revival of letters
a few hundred years before. It would seem, too, that
the first of these epochs was the infancy of which the
time in which we now live is the maturer age. Then
the mind of Europe, awakening as from a long sleep,
and inhaling that atmosphere of freedom which Chris-
tianity had produced and cherished, even while it seemed
to fear and to repress it, ransacked the treasures of the
ancients, and, gathering from them all that they could
teach of man and art, went out into the world, under
the guidance of that true religion which Greece and
Rome knew not, to achieve new conquests, and, with
all the eyes of observation, at once to question nature
and search out the lessons of the earth. And what has
been the consequence? Knowledge on innumerable
points is still dark and uncertain. Facts as yet observed
and examined have still left many things obscure, which
curiosity would fain discover. Secrets are still buried
beneath the earth's crust, or covered by her flowing
streams and unfathomed ocean, which time may yet
reveal, or which may never discover themselves to man's
inquisitive researches. The space above our heads,
sounded at a few points, is still an abyss which we must
14
call wondrous and unsearchable. But we have learnt
enough from nature to enlarge our control over her, and
every gain which we have made has brought men
nearer to each other; not, indeed, by lessening this
wide earth, or narrowing its huge dimensions, but by
increasing the stride of him who marches over it, and
now, with lordlier voice than in former ages, demands
to be acknowledged as its king.
The chief helper in this work of conquering discovery
has been the art of printing, which has not only multi-
plied readers and carried education into the meanest
cottage, but, as a consequence of this, has in every way
increased the power of knowledge and intelligence, and
substituted the force of mind for that of brute strength.
The full results ofthis cannot now be more than glanced
at. Speaking generally, it has increased the power of
mind over matter, has established in the world a repub-
lic of letters, has brought out into prominence the com-
mon and universal as distinguished from that which is
separate and individual in human nature, and, on the
whole, has tended to unite mankind on the ground of
common knowledge and sympathies. The growth, too,
of commerce, expanded as it was by the discovery of
the compass, and conducing to a more general inter-
course between the members of the human family, has
led to interchange of thoughts as well as produce, and
has contributed essentially both to the increase of
knowledge and of that power over nature which know-
ledge has always for its fruit. The power, however,
which has most accelerated the advancing influence of
literature, and has given to it its present most modern
characteristics, is that of steam, which, both directly by
the aid which it has lent to printing, and indirectly by
its effects on commerce, and the intercourse of man
with man, has applied that new stimulus and infused
that fresh vivacity, which seems destined to increase the
15
collective knowledge of the race in a ratio which no
former data can at all enable us to calculate. Litera-
ture was an influence of no mean kind when the simple
traditions of a family or people, treasured by memory,
were handed on from age to age in poetry and song.
Its influence received a new impulse when spoken
speech was written ; for language and thought acquired
by that a fixity, and were able fromt hat hour to speak
as to a larger audience, and to the future periods of
time. That influence attained its manhood when print-
ing perfected the power of writing, and added to the
sum of human knowledge as much as it took from the
painful and laborious drudgery of human eyes and hands.
It is attaining now its ripeness when steam, wedded to
all the arts of peace, so that they work into each other's
hands and develope each other's spheres of agency, carries
men from land to land with calculable speed and accu-
racy, and draws out the gifts of God to all countries
by exchanging with hot haste at once the thoughts and
the productions of every varying clime. It is hard to
say how much we owe to that great inventor by whom
steam has been given to us as the mightest instrument
in aid of every art which civilizes man. If the ancients
were right in thinking that inventors were entitled to
the highest place in human honour, and if the greatness
of its results is to test the worth of an invention, the
fame of Watt must be great indeed. Steam rolls with
noisy whirl the multitudinous wheels of all our busy
manufactories. Steam has given us the railroad, which
carries our letters, our persons, and our commerce for
us, at a cost and speed which a former age would have
supposed incredible. Steam has almost mastered both
the fickleness of winds and the proverbial instability of
seas. But, above all, it is steam which, by these and
other like influences, abolishing the barriers which
separate men and nations, knits the world together,
16
hastening the very course of history, while it crowds
actions into a briefer compass, and makes thought itself
swifter, by at once bringing it in contact with all minds
and men.
I feel that my subject is out-growing its legitimate
dimensions, and that I fail to represent to you all that
I am anxious to point out; but you will gather, I hope,
from all these hints and intimations that literature is
the chief of many agencies, which acting and reacting
upon us and upon each other, with a force which was
unknown in former ages, are enabling us to ieel that a
gracious Providence, working in ways which are not
less vast than mysterious, is using man and man's arts
and inventions for that purpose which, if man could
rule his own destinies, should be the dearest to him,
because the most conducive to his real good. If any-
thing may be learnt from man's own nature, it is the
fact that man is meant for society, and if meant for
society, that he can find the perfection of his own
individual happiness only in that union with others
which makes the good of all the good of each. This
we should conclude from man himself, and from the
being of Him who made man. And now, proceeding,
not from principles, but from the facts which are the
boast of a somewhat self-sufficient era, we see that all
the forces which are at work around us, and which every
one desires to foster and stimulate, are bearing us
onward to this mighty consummation, and seem hastening
that brighter day when the race which so many bound-
aries divide and separate may yet feel and see that it is
one. These schoolmasters, who are abroad in every
village ; these public journals, which are so eager to
receive and publish all news ; these penny magazines
which are written for the poorest reader ; these cheap
Bibles and religious publications ; these writings upon
art and science and inventions, as well as on the graver
17
subjects of the more ancient kinds of literature, which
issue from the press as thick as leaves when autumn la
passing, what are they all, and what are all the influ-
ences which co-operate to their growth and distribution,
but so many subtle threads of sympathy and thought,
which, woven together into strong cables, are tying all
the nations of the world together, giving them at once
that strength which is found in unity, to the end that
they may subdue nature, and giving them also that
unity itself which is better even than the strength.
" It is not," says Bacon, " the pleasure of curiosity,
nor the quiet of resolution, nor the victory of wit, nor
faculty of speech, nor lucre of profession, nor ambition
of honour or fame, nor inablement for business, that
are the true ends of knowledge; but it is a reinsti-
tution of man to the sovereignty and power which he
had in his first state of creation." He makes dominion
over nature the end of all knowledge. And all things,
literature especially, are tending to restore that sove-
reignty, and, as we hope, at the same time to make us
all one. Man pursuing his ends, unconscious, too, it
may be, of their real issue, is working out a purpose
which is too great for his own conception or his own
accomplishment, and is moving the vast force of an
immense and ponderous machinery which a higher
wisdom controls and guides.
It may be objected, indeed, to the view which has
been taken, that it overlooks those darker portions of
the picture which sadden the heart, as we observe the
evil blended with the good, and at times obscuring all
the prospect. Certainly in the world's literature,
which is only a reflection of the world's character, and
in everything which combines with literature to move
and influence our race, there is much which is of no
worth, and much also which is purely worthlesss
Indeed, the press teems with words which make us
B
18
feel, as we think upon them, that the pen no less than
the tongue may be a "world of iniquity," and force upon
the mind that saddest of all considerations, that God's
best and highest gifts become, when abused, the worst
scourge and the most terrible of curses. The only
satisfaction left for us in looking upon such writings,
is that which may be found in the reflection, that they
are either so light that, like feathers thrown to the
wind, they are soon blown into oblivion, or so heavy
that, mingling with the river of literature, like the mud
which is washed out of the soil in rainy weather, they
sink as it flows on, defiling for a time the stream, but
forming no acknowledged part of the clear, pellucid
waters. Writings of this kind at best are vile trash,
and at the worst are deadly poison. But acknowledging
to the full the evil which literature may do and does,
and admitting, as we must, that the co-ordinate agencies
which help to create and to distribute printed writings
I allude particularly to locomotive forces, have had
their origin, not so much in any high benevolence or
philanthropic spirit, as in the spirit of civilization, and
that thirst for gain which is insatiable, the fact remains
still that men are being brought closer to each other,
>that divisions and separations are giving way before the
powers which insensibly remove them, that the thoughts
of men are disseminated with extreme rapidity, and that
intercourse in every form, drawing out the gregarious
tendencies of human nature, is awakening now at last
the hope that all who share that nature may think
together and feel as one.
Every modern invention points in that one direc-
tion; every modern influence distinctly tends in no
other way. If there is any discovery which seems far
removed from any such bias, it is that of gunpowder,
the fiery messenger of war and death. And yet no one
who thinks at all can fail to see that by making armour
19
useless it increased the importance, politically no less
than physically, of the ranks which supplied the common
soldier, and combined with other influences to associate
the classes of society in new relations with each other,
surrounding high and low with nearer bands. Dr.
Arnold, on one occasion, when a railroad was opened,
is said to have exclaimed, " there goes the feudal
system," as the first engine flew from the station
dragging the vast weight of men and things whick
streamed behind it. If he meant that the ranks of
society must all be brought to one level by this and
kindred influences, I should venture to differ from him,
for I believe that social gradations belong essentially to
human nature, and that the changes of the times, when
they are working safely, are rather lifting all to a higher
level than drawing high and low to one middle point ;
but undoubtedly the feudal system, in many of its
features, is already a thing of the past, and the first
shot which issued from a gun announced and sealed its
departure. Superiority of influence, which wealth and
physical strength had before given, began then to move
to intellect ; and the wisdom which illumines the senate
took then the place which had been occupied by that
might in arms which shone upon the battle-field. If
the chief agent in destruction has thus promoted union
of classes by increasing the power of the weak and
adding to their relative importance, we can but expect
that like results should follow from discoveries which
especially belong to arts and agencies of peace. Some
of these have been already noticed. But it may just be
pointed out further, that new means of locomotion have
softened the distinctions of society, by the very same
facilities which have promoted intercourse. The time
was when the journey of a noble person was an affair of
some dignity, and the insignia of his rank at once
encumbered and adorned his progress when he moved
20
with stately steps throughout the land. Now, royalty
itself journeys with but few distinctions, and the first
subjects of the kingdom move but as the unnoticed
units of a vast company, who enjoy the same advantages
and travel at the same speed. The spirit of a former
time, combined with the growth of commerce and
manufactures, had already abolished the distinctions of
dress, which were once as marked as the gradations of
society. In our own time, this new power has set the
world in motion, and, moving all ranks together, adds
another influence, which makes them feel as one.
Things like these, tending as they do to other changes
and to gatherings and combinations never before
possible, for instance, to those great exhibitions in
which the arts and productions of the earth are displayed
before a world which meets to observe and learn from
them demonstrate that the evils which may exist to
mar the course of civilization, and to corrupt the
literature which at once fosters and reflects it, do not
so mar as to arrest its progress. "Whatever authors
may intend, whatever art and commerce may be
seeking, observation and experience tell us that man
and all his works are but the instruments of a mighty
purpose which is moving to some great event. The
world is not what it was once. It was but a few centuries
ago that a continent was not known, and that oceans had
never been traversed. In our own day the sea is white
with ships which spread their sails over it, or ploughed
by the all-furrowing steam.
At the same time, it is well that we should fully
recognize these blighting influences of evil, and learn
from them that literature and its co-partners in the
work which it is doing, depend for their full glory and
efficiency upon the aid of that highest knowledge which
is man's true life. Theology is, in fact, that master-
ecience which, having God for its subject, establishes
21
those ultimate principles which are the ground of alt
truth and the light of all light. Hence, it is the
business of religion to preside over all thought, and,
while it cherishes freedom, at once intellectually and
politically, to leaven every social influence, and hallow
all arts and all human agencies by the pervading
presence of divine truth. The Bible thus takes its
place upon the throne of literature as the book of
universal ti'uth, which is written for all ages ; and the
principles which it lays down become the guide-posts
of all intellect, as the lowly freedom of its spirit should
give a healthy tone at once to all thought and all life.
Such, without any doubt, is the true province of reli-
gion, and it is scarcely less doubtful that what is best
in this modern condition of society has grown up
beneath the shadow of its influence, and by reason of
its salutary power. The exact debt which civilization
owes to Christianity may not be easily determined.
The great civilizing agents which have wrought such
changes in society in the course of a few hundred years
may indirectly be the fruit of Christian faith, though
perhaps it would be truer to say that they have been
put within the reach of man when the soil of free
thought and act had been prepared by that faith for
their reception. But, certainly, they will do their
allotted work, and attain their own full perfection and
development, exactly in proportion as they consent to
take religion for their master, and to acknowledge
themselves as servants of God and truth. Literature
and civilization will do a great deal, for the hand
of God is overruling them and bowing them to His
great purpose for the ends of unity and social welfare ;
but they will do it the sooner and the better if they see
and recognize their work. Let us hope that they will
thus fulfil their mission. When man was made, his
Maker gave the earth to be his kingdom, and ordered
him to rule'and subdue it. The presence of evil has
shaken his power, and stunted the growth of his
authority ~;^but the work of reconquest has been going
on throughout the course of ages. And now in this
autumn of the world's year the seed long sown and
slowly" growing ripens into fuller power and larger
knowledge, till hope, long silent, at last anticipates a
triumph, and the signs of time tell us that men uniting
among each other to obey the command of their
Creator may yet fulfil their mission, and draw from
Nature, willing to give up her secrets, the powers which
are able to subdue the earth.
I have endeavoured thus to show the tendencies of
literature and other civilizing agencies, which cannot
be separated from it, and by so doing to indicate that
we are living in a great era, when seeds long sown by
providence are ripening to their fruit. If I had had
the time for more thought, and a more lucid arrange^
nient of my thoughts, I might have placed the facts
more clearly and convincingly before you. As it is, I
can but apologize for the mode of the performance, and
request you to supply the deficiencies by your own in-
telligence and thought. And I will ask you to listen
to me but a little longer, while I further call your notice
to some few points which are not without importance,
and which may show the bearings of that which has
preceded on things which interest ourselves.
First, then, if all that has been said is true, or some-
thing like the truth, there is a good deal to make us
hopeful in these present times. Not that there is any
need to boast, or to congratulate ourselves upon our
great enlightenment. Few things are more painful
and offensive than that spirit of pride, which seems as
if it stood upon the shoulders of the men who lived before
us, only that it might trample upon all to whom we
owe our elevated place. As well might the ripened
23
grain of summer boast over the green seed time, or the
child over the parent, to whom he owes his life. But
it is something to turn the eyes from things which
breathe of vice, or selfishness, or meanness, or frivolity,
and forgetting the lies, and the follies, and the emptiness,
which blacken and corrupt literature, to see that liter-
ature it may be without consciousness, and almost in
spite of itself, but still really and effectually is work-
ing out the mighty sc heme of Providence ; so that our
journals, and our serials, and our reviews, and all the
cloud of books which fill the air around us, busy with
their own ends, and often, alas I forgetful of any high
purpose, still are knitting men together, interpreting
man to man, and publishing those facts and truths of
nature, which some can so use as to show that pos-
session of knowledge is acquisition of power. With
thoughts like these before us, whether we read or write,
we shall so act that nothing on our part may dim so
bright a prospect, and that our little mite may in some
way be offered to aid in the accomplishment of so high
and privileged a work.
Thoughts, too, such as these may surely teach us how
to examine nature, and what to keep before us as the
end of all investigation, when using past knowledge we
search the still unuttered secrets of the earth. One of
the chief distinctions between ancient and modern liter-
ature is the prominence which the last hast given to
those sciences which investigate material objects, and
probe the deeper things of outward nature, that they
may find her laws. Great practical results have been
gathered out of this new field of observation, and more,
no doubt, will be derived still. It is well, however
that we should bear in mind, as Bacon has already
shown us, that the pleasure of curiosity is not the end
of such knowledge, but sovereignty over the world of
nature. Nature may be searched for the mere pleasure
24
of inquiry, or for the sake of those charms of ingenious
speculation which have so great a power to fascinate.
But philosophy such as this is neither man's business
nor the sure way to truth. We come into the world
with a commission. Our Maker sent us here to tame
the patient soil and rule obedient nature. And nature
will obey us, and place all her latent powers beneath
our feet, if we ask her to reveal them for the purposes
which they are designed to serve. She will hide them,
as other and even higher truth is hidden, if we regard
ourselves as wise and prudent. She will reveal them
if we come to her as babes.
While we learn this respecting nature, we learn also
to look up from nature to nature's God. If we consider
the literature of the day and the spirit of the age as
seen upon its darker side, we see a leaning, not, I
think, to a blank atheism, or a barren deism but, to
those subtler errors of a heartier aud more alluring
nature which, confusing between God and the things
on which His will operates, make of all things God.
The school of Carlyle, and others of a like spirit,
though not owning him as master, looking into
the world and seeing the forces which are working in
it and upon it, with an energy which increases in an
accelerating ratio, such as opinion, with the press for
its organ, steam with all its mighty consequences, and
other like powers, which man makes and uses, tell us
to believe in other things than God's person, and tell
us that will, and energy, and thought, and other such
abstractions, rule and direct the world. But this is not
what we shall really learn from the phenomena which
may be seen around us. Everything leads us rather to
a personal and present God. Who that sees the chains
by which the past and the present are united, who that
marks the preparations which were made in ages long
past for results which only now become apparent, who
25
that perceives how earth and man have had their seed
time, and summer, which is now being followed by
that autumnal season, as Bacon calls it, in which pro-
phecy foretold that many " shall run to and fro, and
science shall be increased," can fail to discover in this
unbroken chain of cause and consequence, that first
cause, that pervading presence, that almighty Person to
whom past and present and future are one everlasting
now ; who Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever, counts a day as it were a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one day ? If an infinite Mind
is so directing everything that is and breathes,
matter in its shapes wherever matter is, and
spirit in its formless essence wherever spirit exists,
so that all things execute His purposes and
work out His wise will, while even evil with all its
contradictions pays Him homage, nature becomes
intelligible, and man can understand himself. On any
other supposition, Creation is one inscrutable enigma,
and fate, whatever fate may be, is the sole ruler of the
universe, the blind monarch of a benighted and bewil-
dering realm. It may require faith to perceive the
presence of Him whose glory the heavens are telling,
and whose power shines within His works; but it
requires a larger faith to believe that the purpose by
which all nature is directed is only nature's self. As
well might we believe that a ship could reach its
harbour without the purpose which gave it its direc-
tion, or the mind which presided over its helm.
And from this we may yet advance but one step
further. We have dealt to-day with facts, and facts
only. We have asked both art and literature to come
before ua and tell us by their acts their ends. From
these, the common things of daily life and observation,
we have been led to look with hope upon the future,
and to see that unity among ourselves and power over
26
the realm of nature is no mere dream of poets and
enthusiasts, but an actual and veritable possibility,
which may some day be brought into existence by some
such things as the papers or books which we daily
handle, and the ships which go to and fro upon the
travelled sea. But now, from experience and fact, let
us go back to take but one glance at revelation, and
see what prophecy and psalm have got to tell us of
things so deeply touching upon the highest interests of
man's race. The great subject of the Bible is love,
unity, and peace. Poetry glows into its finest heat
and most exalted language, when it speaks of that divine
kingdom stretching to the world's end, when abundance
of peace shall be as long as the moon endureth.
Prophecy paints its fairest picture, as it ushers in that
jewelled age when the wolf and the lamb shall dwell
together, and the little child shall both find the asp
harmless and rule with gentle sway the savage beast.
The King of that empire, of which things like these are
the development, left as his legacy behind Him the
unutterable blessing which man has named peace.
And the last writer of the Bible speaks and thinks of
little else but love, which is the flower of Christianity,
and unity, which is love's fruit. Is it, then, that this
Kingdom of God is about to come forth into its fall
distinctness, and that an age is drawing nearer and more
near, when the dross being consumed which now is
mingled with the gold and silver, the pure metal shall
shine out in all its brightness ? Is it that the dreams of
universal empire which conquerors and armies have
striven to realize is soon to be exemplified beneath the
sway of Him who is the Prince of Peace ? We know
not what may follow, and we cannot now know.
Prophecy was given rather to interpret things which
happen, than to show us plainly things to come. We
can but observe the times and seasons, and read the
27
signs which are in them. Certainly, it would be
easier now to rule the earth from one centre, than in
the days of old to rule the iron empire when Rome was
the navel of the earth. Certainly, the powers which
-Jiow exist, the press, steam, the telegraph, developed,
as time will no doubt develop them, out of that
infantine condition in which some of them at least as
yet are, in comparison with their as yet unknown and
scarce imagined capabilities, might realize that, in
fact, which once would have seemedr^ntirely visionary.
This very earth, purged of the evil which now hinders
its perfection, might yet become an universal Paradise,
and the glories of Eden might cease to be a lost dream.
But, dropping speculations such as these, which are
meant rather as hints at possibilities than as anticipa-
tions of a future which yet is hidden in the womb of
time, we may still, I think, be led from them to see
that meetings such as these are not without their uses
and advantages. These annual reports, which tell us
what our Library is doing, may suggest to us thoughts
of Him who gave us speech with all its mighty
consequences. And the hour which we spend here,
with books above and around us, may lead us to think
of the dead whose minds still live upon our shelves,
watching as it were the result of their efforts and the
fruits of their labours, and may induce us, solemnly
reflecting upon our own responsibilities and duties, so
to read or so to write, that we may do our part in
making Literature that which it was meant to be the
voice and utterance of love, the bond by which love
should unite society, the chief among the influences by
which men, united with each other, should rule and
subdue the earth.
SAUL SOLOMOX AND CO., PRINTEBS, ST. GEORGE'S-STREET.
PROCEEDINGS
AT THE
-sktfr Jtraitesari) peethtg
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 13TH MAY, 1865.
in the Ckair.
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1865.
Ho*. W. PORTER,
Hox. MR. JUSTICE WATER-
MEYER,
MR. PROFESSOR CAMERON,
GEORGE FRERE, ESQ.,
(Treasurer),
R. BAYLEY, ESQ.
W. HIDDINGH, ESQ.,
S. SOLOMON, ESQ..
MR. PROFESSOR NOBLE,
MAJOR LONG MORE,
DB. DALE.
I J. C. GIE, ESQ.
A True Copy:
F. MASKEW, Librarian.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The period for the
Annual Meeting of the South African Public Library
having arrived, the Committee, in calling the subscri-
bers together to surrender their trust, are induced to
hope that its interests have been carefully attended to
during the last twelve months, and that the accessions
to its literary stores have been marked with a due
regard to the tastes of all classes of readers.
During the past year an application was made by the
Committee of the Mechanics' Institute for the purpose
of ascertaining upon what terms the Library could be
made available for the use of its members ; who at
present are debarred from enjoying the advantages
offered by this Institution, the hours during which the
Library is at present open to the public precluding
them from attending, and also to ascertain whether
some arrangement could not be made for opening the
Library in the evening.
Your Committee gave this subject their most serious
and attentive consideration ; and, however much in-
clined at all times to extend the usefulness of this
institution, they regret that on account of the heavy
additional expenditure it would entail they could not
accede to the request of the members to open the
Library as proposed. They, however, decided to pro-
pose to the Committee of the Institution to lower the
rate of subscription in their case to Ten Shillings per
annum, payable half-yearly in advance ; provided that
not less than twenty members availed themselves of
the privilege. This offer was acknowledged by the
Committee of the Mechanics' Institute as liberal and
A 2
satisfactory ; but they regretted that in consequence
of members not enrolling themselves in sufficient num-
bers to comply with the conditions prescribed, they
could not for the present avail themselves of it.
The Committee have also had under their consider-
ation draft of rules for the management of the "Grey
Collection," which was submitted by the Trustees, and
which in their opinion appeared suitable for the re-
quirements of this collection. These rules, with some
slight modification, were adopted by the Committee,
and are subject to your approval. The rules are as
follow:
Rule 1. Sir George Grey's Library, forming the
"Grey Collection" in the South African Public
Library, is open to the public during the same hours
and under the same rules and regulations as the other
parts of this Institution ; but no book or manuscript is
to be taken out except by order of Sir George Grey.
(2.) No books shall be taken from the shelves with-
out the permission of the Librarian of the "Grey
Collection," or the person in charge during the absence
of the same.
(3.) Books of particular value and manuscripts will
only be accessible to the public under the personal
inspection of the Librarian, who will be in attendance
from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
(4.) In the absence of the Librarian of the "Grey
Collection," from leave of absence or on account of
illness or other causes, the Librarian of the Public
Library will undertake the duties incumbent on the
Librarian of the " Grey Collection" under these rules.
(5.) The Librarian has discretionary power in grant-
ing or refusing permission to use any of the books or
manuscripts in the collection. He is also to give such
specific directions regarding the manner of handling
the books and manuscripts as he may find necessary.
5
(6.) Transcribers are iiot to lay the paper on which
they write on any part of the book or manuscript they
are using. As a general rule they are not allowed to
use ink but pencil. No tracings are allowed without
express permission.
(7.) No person is on any pretence whatever to write
on any part of a printed book or manuscript belonging
to the collection.
(8.) It may be sufficient merely to mention that
silence is absolutely requisite in a place devoted to the
purpose of study.
In their last Report, the Committee stated that a
certain amount out of the Parliamentary grant would
be available for the purchase of books required to fill
up various departments of the collection. They have
now much pleasure in acquainting you that they have
added several valuable works to the Library of Refe-
rence, which ought long ago to have had a place on
your shelves, but which the limited means hitherto at
their disposal prevented them from procuring.
The accession of books during the present year by
purchase as well as by presentation has been as
follows :
Vols.
Miscellaneous Theology 9
Political Economy, Jurisprudence ... 10
Science and the Arts 27
Dictionaries, &c. 43
Works of Amusement ... ... ... 133
Belles Lettres, &c 44
History 46
Voyages and Travels ... ... ... 33
Biography ... ... ... ... 51
Miscellaneous 9
Total 405
Amongst them, the committee have the honour re-
spectfully to acknowledge a volume of the Speeches
and Addresses of His late Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, graciously presented to the Library by Her
Majesty the Queen ; also three volumes in folio, en-
titled " Waring's Masterpieces of Industrial Art and
Sculpture," the gift of His Excellency Sir P. E.
Wodehouse, and several other donations of books from
the following gentlemen : Messrs. James Hogg & Son
and Mr. Geo. Hodgskin of London, Sir Thomas
Maclear, Messrs. T. B. Bayley, TV r . H. TFathen, W.
Hiddingh, P. B. Borcherds, T. W. Bowler, and W.
Y. Eldridge.
The Treasurer's account will be submitted, which
will show the income and expenditure during the
past year.
Your Committee, in closing their Report and surren-
dering their trust, have, with their retrospect of much
that has been pleasant and progressive in the history
of the Library, to make reference to one special loss
which they, in common with their fellow-colonists
throughout the country, have sustained. To the chain
of associations which already connects the memories
of many good and great men with this Institution, they
have now mournfully to add another link. The name
of JOHN FAIRBAIEN will long be familiar to the ears
of all, not only as a lover of literature and patron of
education, but as of one whose pen contributed, in
language graphic, earnest, and truthful, many a stir-
ring page to the literary treasures of the Cape ; and
when time shall have mellowed the remembrance of the
man as he moved amongst us, his memory will be
chronicled amongst the names of the South African
worthies.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, It has seemed to me
that at our meeting of the Library we might suitably
occupy an hour in endeavouring to form some estimate
of contemporary literature and art. Though the South
African Library, more than most of a public charac-
ter, contains fair specimens of what our forefathers
have left us as a rich inheritance of knowledge and
wisdom, yet we possibly prize its privileges most of all
because it puts us in possession of the works which the
best authors in Europe or America are now giving to
the world. We are all, perhaps, more interested in
the life that is throbbing in our own day, than in the
most memorable epochs of history, and that not because
we excel our forefathers in either virtue or skill, but
because we have a sympathy with present events and
the out-pourings of living teachers which no penchant
for historical or antiquarian studies can overcome.
We may be thankful, however, that we are not called
upon altogether to separate the moral and intellectual
life of past and present days. For the wise sayings
and mature thoughts of our ancestors repeat themselves
in the literature which we now enjoy. This age,
whicli has produced so much of its own worthy of ou r
admiration, has been distinguished by a reverent
regard for ancient writings, and has bestowed no little
pains in determining their true meaning, and preserv-
ing, and in some instances rescuing from mistaken
scorn, the reputation of their authors. Though our
living writers cannot reproduce the individuality of old
authors, they are, without being plagiarists, not only
8
penetrated with their spirit, and the better for their
knowledge, but the very form in which their thoughts
were clothed unmistakably reappears, though with
the tone and colouring of a new age. It is most won-
derful that amidst the emigrations and conflicts of
centuries the literature of the old world has been to so
great an extent preserved. When the Gothic night
descended upon Europe, and almost every form of
mental exercise gave way to the roughest type of brute
force, there were sheltered nooks and corners where
the sacred fire still burned. When the barbarian
hordes overran Europe, until they were stopped by the
Atlantic, that Providence which has in its good keeping
the thoughts as well as the souls of men seemed to
guard the mountain passes opening to Southern Europe,
where the civilization of the world lay cradled, and in
the vales of Thessaly and the Italian peninsula, what
existed in the world of art and literature was sheltered
from the ruthless assault.
When we are speaking of the literature of the day,
we are describing the literature of all past ages, as it
has entered into the thinking and speaking of the pre-
sent age, with the manner in which living teachers
have employed it and added to it. Both the repro-
ductions and additions of our own day seem to us so
significant and important as to deserve a prominent
place in the history of literature. When the reign of
our beloved Sovereign comes to be reviewed by the
historian, we shall, I believe, stand amazed at the
immense additions to our scientific knowledge and the
general literary activity which it has witnessed. M ore-
over, amidst the profusion of prose and poetic contri-
butions to literature, and a certain uniformity of power
which undoubtedly obtains, there are substantial and
clearly marked characteristics and consummate excel-
lence in certain branches which cannot fail to attract
9
his attention. The same remarks may be made, with
added emphasis, of most branches of the fine arts.
Our modern artists, from Turner to Millais, need not
shun comparison with the greatest workmen in colours
the world has ever produced ; while in the rendering
of delicate and subtle spiritual meanings they stand un-
rivalled. There is thus abundantly sufficient in the
present characteristics of literature and art to justify our
attention to the subject of literature and the fine arts in
the reign of Victoria. We do not promise to give
anything like a comprehensive analysis of its character
in the limits of this' paper, but we shall count ourselves
fortunate if we are able to indicate its salient features,
and above all to mark its tone and spirit.
Mr. Craik, in his " History of Literature," remarks
that in the three great epochs of English literature
the Elizabethan, that of Queen Anne, and the present
century the reviving impulse has come from a
foreign source : the first from Italy, the second from
France, and the last from Germany. This remark,
though strictly true, must not blind us to the fact
that English literature, like English liberty, has had
a growth of its own. Nay, in each of these three
instances we can trace elements silently at work in our
own country, leading us in the same direction as the
"reviving impulse" from abroad; nor must the element
of reaction be lost sight of in these changes and
revivals. The polished, clever feebleness of the Specta-
tor writers stands in contrast with the agonizing
earnestness of the 17th century literature, and the
national and social life underwent a similar change.
The reign of formality which followed could hardly
have lasted much longer if the influence of German
literature had not lent its aid to the last revolution.
The literature of our own time receives its most
characteristic colouring from the spirit which Words-
10
worth and Coleridge infused into English thought and
feeling ; and in their day the influence of German
philosophy, poetry, and scholarship began to be felt
by English students. The epoch immediately pre-
ceding had been from the days of Queen Anne an
almost unbroken reign of formalism. Addison and
Steele, and even Bishop Berkely, though they wrote
with an affected familiarity and with great clearness
and simplicity, manifested such concern for precision
and polish, that true emotion had little chance of
finding its way through their nicely-balanced periods.
Pope, with all his power and brilliance, erred in the
same direction. His carefully-balanced antitheses
and flowing rhythm are never broken by genuine pas-
sion or homely wisdom. We are not surprised to hear
that he was passionately fond of the stage. His charac-
ters are all actors in brilliant dress, his scenery like the
familiar pasteboard that moves on wheels ; his lights
are mimic fire, and not from the clear heavens ; and
his wisdom the conventional stock of the grey wigs.
Byron, with his long passionate wail on human destiny,
and his free and sometimes coarse treatment of men
and manners, did something to bring this formalism
to an end. But he did not and could not satisfy the
awakened longings of that day. Men turned to the
wonderful and passionate discoursings of Coleridge,
piercing and stirring up the depths of their being, and
more slowly but not less surely to the calm philosophic
depth and the pure, exalted spirit of William Words-
worth. If the literature of Germany had been
unknown in the history of the world, we cannot doubt
that these men would have exercised a profound in-
fluence on literature ; but they happened to follow
a time of intense mental activity on the Continent,
the influence of which can be clearly traced in their
writings. Since we cannot now open a lexicon or
11
scientific treatise, or a critical commentary on a classical
author, or even on Holy Scripture, without finding
abundant reference to the labours of German scholars
and teachers, and the whole tone of our literature is
more or less affected by them, we must stay a minute
to inquire what this German influence was, and in
what manner it affected the thinking and writing of
educated Englishmen.
The writing of Locke, Condillac, &c., and indeed
the general course of an empirical system of metaphy-
sics in England, though I am not unmindful of its
modification in the acute discourses of the Scottish
Professors had led to the conclusion that " there is
nothing in the understanding which has not arrived
there through the senses." To this Leibnitz replied,
"Yes, there is the understanding itself." Modern
German philosophy may be said to have started from
this proposition, and commencing with a searching
examination of the part which the mind played in
giving form to phenomena, it aspired to grasp the
science of all being through the soul of man, and to
make him both the measure and the interpreter of the
Universe itself. Kant was content with admitting
the reality of both the external world and the mind,
but gave a more important place than the great
English philosopher to the mind in determinating and
regulating the impressions of sense. According to
his system, matter only furnished the rough shapings,
and mind itself gave the forms and tone. External
nature without mind, according to his theory, may be
compared to the coloured pieces of glass in the kale-
idoscope, which fall into order only at the glance of the
soul. Kant, moreover, made a most important dis-
tinction between the operations of the mind receiving
phenomenal and moral and spiritual impresions the
well-known distinction between the verstandt and
12
vernuft the understanding and the reason. We
employ the one in reasoning by sense, and the other
in reasoning beyond sense. The one is confined to
the objects and relations of the outward world ; the
other to those of the spiritual world the one relates
to the forms under which we view the finite and con-
tingent ; the other relates to the forms under which we
image to ourselves the infinite, the absolute, the eter-
nal. Fichte considered the foundation of Kant un-
sound, inasmuch as he started from the separate exis-
tence of mind and matter, and in his search for truth
presupposed the reality of each. He maintained the
absolute supremacy of individual consciousness and
impression. There might or might not be an external
world distinct from the spiritual: we knew it only as
it appeared to us, and our own souls contained the
Alpha and Omega of all knowledge and existence.
Schelling, like Fichte, warmly criticized his predeces-
sors. Revolting from the man-worship to which Fichte's
system inevitably led, he considered it an error to
make man's mind the sum and standard of all truth ;
and, asserting the separate existence of phenomena and
spirit, he deduced from them an independent and
absolute existence, revealing itself through each.
Hegel in turn pursued a different course from each of
his predecessors, and, with all his wonderful powers,
strove to show the identity of thought and existence,
flatter, in all its varying forms, was but the ever-
present action of spirit and life, and the highest mani-
festation of it was man himself. The union of soul
-and body in man was but the type and mirror of
universal life and order. "We know no life beyond
this ever-present and eternal action.
It forms no part of my design to estimate the value
of these speculations. It may have been it surely
was that in exploring that inner world, with the
13
wondrous scenery of which we are so little familiar,
the mirror which reflected far-off divine glories was
mistaken for the eternal substance. The truth of the
whole matter, as we have received it, itself accounts
for the mistakes. "In the image of God," says the
Holy Book, "made He man." The mirror is dimmed
and broken ; but even in the scattered fragments there
are flashes and colourings of divine beauty, which,
having lost their tone, place, and order, make the
beholder imagine he has come upon the great eternal
light of which they are the imperfect yet beautiful
reflections.
Nor must it be imagined that these growths of
mental energy were transplanted to English soil;
There was no attempt, except in Coleridge's wonderful
and impassioned reproductions of the Kantian philo-
sophy, to impose a formal exposition of them, except
indeed for scholastic purposes, upon the English mind.
There is a physical energy about the Anglo-Saxon
character which stands in the way of an absorbed, and
as some may think, morbid contemplation of mental
and spiritual phenomena. Whether M. Victor Cousin's
complimentary theory be correct, that from our insular
position all our thinking and speculation is imperfectly
carried out, and never, even in the hands of our
philosophers, reaches its legitimate results, it is certain
that we are impatient of theorizings that cannot be
readily translated into the practice of life. Even where
we seem to trace in English authors a high and
ennobling reflection of the Platonic doctrines, we find
an intense mental action, that allies itself with human
sorrow and need, rather than a pure reflective spirit,
that is content to tell its dreams to an audience of
thinkers. The general result of the continental influ-
ence as it then passed into English literature may be
thus described. As the tone of teaching most familiar
14
to Englishmen had regarded man merely as receiving
the lessons of nature and experience, the new teaching
insisted on the gifts which man himself bestowed upon
these great educators of our race. We were told and
made to feel what he gave to nature, and how he
surrounded it with the glory of his own being rather
than what nature gave to him. The crown was taken
from sensuous impressions and placed upon the soul by
which they were largely moulded. The spiritual
faculty through which men yearned after, and to some
extent realized, eternal things, was separated from all
mere mental processes, and held to contribute a glory
of its own in every field of contemplation. In other
words, Aristotelian impressions had, as in the days of
the Alexandrian schools, to give place to the richer
influence of Platonic doctrine, modified by new chan-
nels of inquiry, and at least in one case made to do
true service for mankind. It is true, indeed, that
strange visitors were introduced into that presence
chamber of the soul consecrated to the service of the
King of kings and all His train of invisible wonders,
and the mere sentiment of devotion often took the place
of the true worship of Almighty God ; but on the whole,
the fact that the higher relationships of life and being
-were more truly recognized, was in itself a pledge of
better things. It was a necessary result of this greater
concern for the spirit of literature, as distinguished
from its form, that objective themes were less cared for.
And this was the chief characteristic of Wordsworth's
poetry. In his prologue to " Peter Bell," he complains
of the eternal grandeur of the themes which the poets
require to inspire their songs. They are, he says,
for ever jaunting to moons, and planets, and suns,
while as rich or richer material was to be found in the
hedgerows in a quiet morning walk or in the simple
joys and sorrow of every-day life. The very fact that
15
such great themes were required suggested to him the
criticism that there was a care for mere externals in
literature inconsistent with the flow of a genuine
inspiration. In accordance with these feelings, when
he would describe a hardened sensuous ruffian, he uses
the now familiar words,
" A primrose on the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him
And it was nothing more."
Wordsworth, in his intense dislike of shallow brilliance,
seems to us to have gone to the opposite extreme.
He was in danger of falling into the very error he
exposed, namely, that of magnifying the objects of
poetry, when he thought he could find it in a spade
and a brick-wall. But those pure and lofty medita-
tions by the Cumberland Lakes, though they may
never be popular, did far more to influence the tone
of English literature than the passionate discourses of
Coleridge.
It is not difficult to show that the spirit of Words-
worth has been inherited by the leading poets of our
time Tennyson and the Brownings with the hosts
of lesser lights who have contributed a rich store of
true poetry to the literature of the day. And in
giving the first place amongst men of letters to our
poets, we are surely following the true order. It is
an utter mistake to speak of the poetry of a nation as
the amusement of its refined and cultured men, or of
.the work of the imagination as a superfluity of being.
National poetry is related to its life as any man's
highest ideal is related to his practical work. To a
far greater extent than we are willing to admit, the
matter-of-fact men are guided by their dreams. Even
a little child has floating visions of ideal perfection
that guide its entrance into life ; and many a one, as
he has plodded on in doubt and despair, has heard
16
above the roar of the busy world the quiet whisper,
" keep to the dream of thy youth." Our dreaming
moods, when new purposes take shape to our souls,
have more to do with our destiny than our systematic
thinkings. Taken altogether, they form the life-ideal
at which we are steadily working in ordinary engage-
ments. Our eye constantly wearies as we look at
exact mechanical work on the painter's canvas, through
which no true ideal shines; while every touch ia
quickened into brilliance if the " vision and the faculty "
are both present. In some such way, the poetry of a
nation not only penetrates its literature, but finds its
way into its infinitely varied work. Those who have
never read a line of an author's poetry are through
these indirect channels still under his influence. It ia
not too much to say that the poetry of Wordsworth
and Tennyson have found their way into Acts of Par-
liament.
Mr. Tennyson much resembles Wordsworth in his
subtle entrance into the workings of the inner life.
While he deals skilfully with lighter moods, he displays
his true strength when he takes us into realms where
to think is to suffer. No one has described in richer
verse the soul's sorrows and aspirations, the mysteries
that sadden it, and the joys that feed it its hope.
Instead of giving us fine after-thoughts upon any sjcene
of human interest, he lives it by throwing himself
utterly into its circumstances and emotions, almost
regardless of our power to track his steps. To follow
where his own mood leads is to him the only order of
true poetry. There is in his poems little external
unity, though there is marvellous compactness both of
thought and style. The outer world does not so much
impress itself upon him as he himself upon it. Its
ten thousand forms of life are only the symbols of
matchless beauties behind the realms of the seen and
17
temporal not the realities of being, but the beautiful
" veil on which their shadows fall." Thus he wanders
on from year to year, singing his sweet moods of love
and grief to those that have learned to listen, some-
times in a sad strain when he cannot realize the har-
mony between the finite form and the infinite life, yet
always cherishing the "larger hope," and trusting
somehow "good will be the final goal of ill." Like the
ideal poet, he describes
"Ht> saw thro' life and death, thro' good and ill,
He saw thro' his own soul,
The marvel of the everlasting will
An open scroll."
The criticism just offered, that Mr. Tennyson for
the most part follows the leading of a mood or medi-
tation unchecked by considerations of outward unity,
may be illustrated by his well-known and matchless
poem, " In Memoriam, A. H. H.," when the Laureate
reaches his highest though not most popular strains.
A writer in the Times has compared this poem with
the Lycidas of Milton, and certainly there is so far a
resemblance, in that both are prompted by the death
of a friend, and a friend beyond the sea, but there it
ends. In Lycidas, the history of the hero is kept
before the reader by narrative ; but in "In Memoriam"
it can be tracked but dimly through the poem. Perhaps
most here can remember a time when they have lost
a friend as near to them as Arthur Henry Ilallam to
Alfred Tennyson. Let them call to mind the sad
strange history of their grief. At one time some old
forgotten scene associated with their companionship
will recur; at another a momentary doubt traverse
the soul as they tried to grasp the consolation that he
was living in the house not made with hands, then
the mysteries of death and sorrow, old as mortality,
will brood over the troubled heart. Then the shadows
18
would be chased away by the Easter notes of triumph
from the Saviours open grave and the tender memory
of a beautiful life. Such a mood has Mr. Tennyson
given us in its severe simplicity in the " In Memoriam,''
unattended by even fragments of history to unite his
meditations. At one time he passes the house where
his friend once lived, and cannot believe it untenanted ;
at another he imagines the sea bearing its solemn
freight, motion everywhere but in the still breast that
" heaves but with the heaving deep." Then he will
recur to experiences of utter friendship which Mr-
Kingsley tells us (though we don't believe him) are
growing scarcer every year
" The path by which we twain did go
Which led by tracks that pleased us well:
Through four sweet years arose and fell
From flower to flower, from snow to snow."
Then, in rapid and unexpected alternations, come in
the questionings of doubt and fear, but all ending in
the calm repose of faith.
But a true artist not only reproduces his own re-
flections, but tries to throw himself into other people's.
Mr. Tennyson does this with the same power and the
same carelessness for circumstantial order. He throws
himself into the soul of his hero, giving us just enough
of plot and circumstances to help us to a picture of his
life. And this power has much advantage when
outward elements of interest and beauty are wanting.
Who besides Mr. Tennyson could have invested the
flat wilderness of the Lincolnshire fens with poetic
thought? Pope or Dryden would have written a
satire on it. Milton would have cried, " ask me not to
bring ray muse to such levels; let me go to the moun-
tains or the streams. I must sing of the depths of the
nether world or the joys of a regained Paradise/'
Shakespeare would have filled the plain with life, and
19
made us feel that the joys and griefs of the common
world tenanted those quiet, sombre homesteads.
With matchless skill and truth, Mr. Tennyson has
put his mourning Mariana in the moated grange, and,
looking out upon the " level waste, the rounding
grey," " the sluice that slept with blackened waters,"
the "lonely poplar on the waste," the shrill and
wooing wind has thrown the wild reflection of the
scene upon her weary soul.
Mr. Tennyson needs no justification for having ex-
plored the soul's hiding-places and tracked its secret
wanderings ; but that he has done so suggests the
remark that in the moods he seems to fathom, we are
all visited by our ripest and richest inspirations, and
what of true poetry may dwell in ordinary spirits at
such times flows most tenderly. If it be needful to
our ideal of a great poet that he must be able to paint
every kind of life and enter into every situation of
human joy and sorrow, like our own wonderful master,
then Mr. Tennyson cannot lay claim to that distinc-
tion. But if we think that greatness is as much
revealed by the man who moves in fewer paths but
leaves a deeper track upon them, and these paths are
solemn highways along which all human souls must
move, often in pain and always in solitude, then is our
Laureate amongst the greatest of our poets. Nor
must it be forgotten that he has added richly to our
varieties of metre and style of poetic expression. His
admirably chosen words fall upon the ear like the
clear drop of an evening bell on a summer evening.
His painting and packing are in some of his pieces
as near an approach to perfection as anything in the
language. The " Morte d' Arthur" and many of his
smaller poems are gems of delicate workmanship and
finish he will probably never more equal, for he
already gives signs of painting with a broader brush.
C 2
20
His last volume proves that his genius has more com-
pass and flexibility than many have suspected, and we
shall doubtless yet meet him in new fields of song.
The poetry of the Brownings is of the same order
as Mr. Tennyson's, but it has many important differ-
ences. With every feeling of admiration for Mr.
Browning's wonderful powers, his subtle analysis of
opinion, his rich descriptions, and the fine dramatic
qualities of his earlier poems, we feel that his strange
periods, with their half-concealed meanings, caught only
by a strained attention the heart of the people. We
wish that the " lines would let their meaning meet us
with a more level gaze," and we should like sometimes
to rest from our wanderings amongst infinite mysteries
for a song of heart and home, or the work of daily love
and sorrow. Of Mrs. Browning we must speak with
the reverence claimed by the dead. Who wonders
that the brain that travailled with thoughts of such
wondrous beauty and wrestled with such high problems
is now still death. "Aurora Leigh" is alone sufficient
to establish her reputation as a great poet. Though
written to solve the problem whether man can be
reached through the outworks of philanthropy, or
whether his soul must be inspired with a new life,
which may be left to shape the circumstances of his
being, it is full of human interest. It displays a wealth
of descriptive faculty and a freedom of power some-
times, perhaps, a little wildly, almost uncouthly
exercised, which is truly marvellous. But besides
these greater efforts, she has thrown herself into the
social and even political life of the people in verses of
inimitable strength and tenderness. She now sleeps in
her own beautiful Florence, her beloved Italy, sleeps,
too, in Him who giveth "His beloved sleep." She asks
us to remember her, not in the vicissitudes of her
suffering life, but passing to the Divine quiet, " where
21
the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at
rest.
" And friends, dear friends, when it shall be
That this low breath has gone from me;
When round my bier ye come to weep,
Let one most loving of you all
bay not a tear must o'er her fall,
He giveth His beloved sleep."
I have no space to pass in review the labours of other
poets of our era who have contributed largely to its
literature. They have all, more or less, the character-
istics of the masters I have named. The taste for
smooth and skilful versification has given place to a
poetry that demands freer canons, because it deals with
simpler emotions and more subtle meditations.
Next in order to our poets we may give some atten-
tion to writers of fiction, who have made some of the
richest and most characteristic contributions to the
literature of our time. Amidst a wilderness of trash,
turned into the market in bushels, to supply the
insatiable appetites of novel readers, we have a number
of writings of substantial power that will live as works
of art for many a year to come. That so many authors
of high merit should choose such a method of conveying
their thoughts is not a little surprising, and may be
regarded as a peculiarity of our time. But there is a
light in which fiction may be regarded as a form of
contemporary history. It reflects the passing men and
manners of the time with more truth to an eclectic
reader than the columns of a newspaper, which can but
deal with facts which attract public attention.
Writers are busy clothing the dry bones of history in
romance, and reproducing in novels the events of
common life. Though this age witnesses a sickening
amount of plagiarism in the manufacture of new plots,
it has produced a class of fiction of higher quality than
any preceding era. Richardson and Smollett come out
in clever abridgments, adapted to the change of taste,
and under various titles. " Old friends," says one the
rapid movement of whose pen soon wore away his life,
"revisit us with new faces. Amelia has watched the
dying embers for a dozen husbands since Fielding left
her ; and Uncle Toby's mellow tones have startled us
down a college staircase and through the railings of
counting-houses in the city. Gentlemen and heroines
from whom we parted many years ago, with slight
respect for their attainments, have now taken a scien-
tific or serious turn. Lovelace is absorbed in entomo-
logy ; and Lady Bellaston is a rubber of brasses."
The new tone of English fiction may be said to have
taken its rise in the labours of Mr. Charles Dickens
and Mr. W. M. Thackeray, though both these gen-
tlemen belong to a school whose influence is already
yielding to higher and more spiritual qualities ; nor
can they be described as embodying the characteristics
which will make the Victorian era remarkable in narra-
tive literature. But they compel a tribute of affection-
ate admiration for the manner in which they have
employed their great powers. Mr. Dickens has laid
bare for us, with wonderful power, the social life of our
great cities. He has taken us to the homes of poverty
and care, and made us feel the oneness of our human
nature, and what high hopes and longings may be buried
under a load of misery and ignorance. With what
ceaseless energy he has dragged out the last forms of
social oppression ! The Fleet prison crumbled at his
touch; and even the paupers rejoiced in Christmas
cheer, to the dismay and discomfiture of the parish
beadle. Mr. Thackeray sang one prose song with
many variations, heard first, he tells us, in old days
beneath the solemn Syrian cedars, " Vanity of vani-
ties, all is vanity, saith the preacher." How remorse-
less his satire, yet with what sad earnestness he uses
23
the knife ; he cuts but to heal. If he regarded the
world as a great hospital and all true teachers as sur-
geons, it must be acknowledged that the estimate was
not an untrue, if a partial one. Mr. Thackeray tried
to show us how bad our human nature had become,
and Mr. Dickens urged upon us its infinite possibility
of good. Both did a true and needful work bravely.
With Mr. Dickens we dream of men, women, and
children almost too good for this world, yet very help-
ful in urging us on to better things. With Mr. Thack-
eray we wake in the cold grey of the morning and
find our dream vanishing for a while in the cold actu-
alities of life and character ; and so our dreams of good
and satires on evil will alternate, until the good time
when the poet and the workman shall be one. But
another class of fiction-writers has arisen, represented
in the writings of the brothers Kingsley, the authoress
of "Adam Bede," "Jane Eyre," and "John Halifax,
Gentleman," and numerous other writers of a similar
character. These writers are more spiritual, and paint
the deeper aspects of human life. They are more en
rapport with the poetic spirit we have endeavoured to
describe. They everywhere recognize the higher rela-
tionships of life, and regard all its details in their light.
Though they have some of the highest qualifications of
fiction writers, in their brilliant powers of description
and their subtle entrance into phases of human sin and
sorrow, they have plainly chosen a narrative style as a
means of conveying higher teaching. We are not now
concerned to say how far they have succeeded in their
task, or what dangers attend it. On the whole, we
thankfully recognize the change, and if the most scep-
tical on the tendencies of present literature will com-
pare modern works of fiction with the productions of
such writers as Richardson and Fielding, they must be
profoundly thankful for the change. For the first
24
time, we have writings of great artistic power, realiz-
ing the divine deeds of human nature, and scouting
a manhood which does not realize its higher destiny.
" Ten years ago," writes Mr. Maurice, in a paper on
Froude's last volume, " an eminent German scholar
expressed his astonishment at the amount and the value
of the contributions which England had recently made
to historical literature. And, certainly, the Victorian
era will be as memorable for these contributions as for
anything which it has given to literature. That two
great histories of Greece should not only have been
undertaken, but should have become popular, was a
fact which, he says, no experience in his country of
books enabled him to account for. He accepted, if he
did not suggest, the interpretation that those who
were in the midst of political action must feel an
interest in political experience, from whatever age or
nation they are derived, which the most diligent
student cannot feel." Certainly, an age which can
boast of Lord Macaulay's splendid fragment, of Mr.
Froude's Tudors, Mr. Grote's History of Greece, Mr.
Carlyle's Cromwell and Frederick, and the complete
labours of Mr. Merivale and Dean Milman, may
aspire to take its stand by any period in its loving and
laborious concern for the events of past days. Un-
doubtedly, our practical interest as a nation in politics
has occasioned a demand for books of this kind ;
the more so because our politics are not fashioned
on a modern theory, but are linked to the history
and associations of centuries. To Sir James Mackin-
tosh we are largely indebted for the philosophic spirit
of recent history. With laborious care, if not in a
popular style, he traced the characteristics of modern
institutions in the habits of our Saxon forefathers.
In the rude expressions of approval or reproach
from the spectators at the old Saxon Council he
25
hears the first murmur of that cry for freedom
which has found another expression in the growth
of British liberty, and in the rude ordeals of
justice the determination that something shall stand
between the will of the judge and the fate of the cri-
minal. Every reader of modern histories will have
noticed what deep concern there has been to make
history the biography of a nation, and not to rest
content with the chronicle of kingly deeds and great
political events. " No trifle," says a graceful contribu-
tor to our literature, "has been neglected by the modern
historian; a mouldering medal is a letter of twenty
centuries. In these wrecks of many storms, which
time washes on the shore, the scholar has looked
patiently for treasure. The painting round a vase,
hieroglyphics on stones dug laboriously from under-
ground, the wrath of a demagogue, the drollery of a
farce, the point of an epigram, each possesses its own
point and interest." Lord Macaulay's brilliant repre-
sentations of English social and political life realized
his own prediction, that when English history came
to be written truly, it would be run after in the circu-
lating libraries with the eagerness manifested for the
latest novel. Lord Macaulay's rhetorical style, how-
ever, almost belongs to a past age. He would be
compelled to describe the invader of a hundred
cheeses in the same faultless antitheses as the hero of
a hundred battles. His utilitarian philosophy, more-
over, taints his writings with an indifference to any-
thing higher than that which meets the exigencies of
the time. We much prefer the style and spirit of
Froude. He writes in simple, quiet English, and with
a serious spirit worthy of one who is writing of the
generations of old. We know nothing in modern
literature superior to his account of the dawn of the
Reformation in England. Everyone who takes up his
26
book must feel that it had never been written before.
It may seem hardly satisfactory to refer to Mr. Thomas
Carlyle as a writer of history, yet he has accom-
plished enough in this department to make his name
great. If ever we were following the fortunes of men
and women, and not merely of events in history, it is
in the pages of Mr. Carlyle. With all his wild and
wayward eloquence, and his free handling of men and
manners, he is rigidly exact in his historical data " you
may trust him," says Mr. Kingsley, " to the crossing of
a #." On the whole, the spirit which we have described
as belonging to the literature of our age penetrates its
history. We have the workings of a nation's inner
life, and not the outward accidents of its being. Its
hopes, sorrows, and struggles are pictured to us as if
they belonged to one man. Doubtless, our more serious
treatment of human nature has prepared us for this.
Just as we have discovered in things physical that
" Within the smallest dust before the tempest hurled
Lie locked the principles which regulate a world,"
so our deeper treatment of one man's experience has
broadened into our dealings with the world.
But we now come to a branch of our literature which,
perhaps, more than any other has felt the. influence of
Germany our critical and scientific works. We can
easily imagine what effect the eager pursuit of meta-
physical inquiry would have upon the study of philology
in Germany. The mechanical rules of grammar, and
the shallow, exact, and artificial scholarship which
obtained in central Europe and England, gave place
to an exhausting examination of words and forms of
speech, which has produced the most marvellous results.
Words and sentences were studied as the symbols
and forms of thoughts. The governments of a sentence
were traced to mental laws, and not merely referred to
empirical rules of syntax. The eager study of
27
comparative philology took the place of pedantic efforts
to write elegant Latin sentences, or turn the contents
of a newspaper into Greek hexameters. Thus, while
the philosophers were giving their absorbed attention
to the operations of the mind, the scholars were
examining its methods of communication in forms of
speech. The history and manners of antiquity were
ransacked for fresh light on words and idioms. One of
the greatest German scholars, Wolf, enunciated the
dictum that our object in the study of antiquity should
be to gain a knowledge of men as they existed in
ancient times. Other distinguished scholars followed
in the same direction, and never perhaps, since the days
of the Alexandrian schools, has there been such a scene
of earnest study as that which obtained in Germany at
the commencement of the century. Many of the
most earnest workers, who contributed not a little to
the general results, were so poor as scarcely to be
able to earn their daily bread. Of course, there was
a good deal of wild and dangerous speculation
resulting from such unwonted activity. But that the
scholarship of Europe was almost revolutionized may
be gathered from the fact that almost every dictionary
and text-book of authority, and every critical
commentary on the text of sacred or profane writings,
are founded on the labours of German scholars.
The effect on English scholarship is, on the whole,
of the happiest kind. The richness and suggestiveness
of German commentators never show to such advan-
tage as when they re-appear in the terse and tempered
productions of English criticism. With every acknow-
ledgment to our German neighbours who have sup-
plied us with so much of the raw material, we think a
good scholarly English work unrivalled for its exposi-
tory precision and directness of purpose. No age can,
in our opinion, compare with this in the production of
laborious and faithful criticism on the text of sacred
and classical writings. We now and then encounter
them on a dangerously destructive errand ; but we are
nevertheless far too slow in acknowledging the amazing
benefits which the critical labours of the last fifty years
have conferred upon us. Shades of meaning containing
new and delicate turns of thought have been brought
to light in the literature of the old world, which have
yielded a rich harvest to the student. Our steadiest
and most systematic thinkers have greatly benefited
by the change, and the most orthodox contributors to
the literature of the day reflect the general improve-
ment in critical investigation.
Nor must we forget that by the labours of our scho-
lars in the direction of translation, the masses are able
to enjoy the great productions of the master minds of
all ages and of all countries. "Let me," said Lord
Macaulay, "felicitate those who are not so fortunate
as to have learned the ancient languages, that by
means of the English tongue they may obtain admit-
tance to intellectual wealth more precious than the
greatest scholars in the days of Charles the Fifth could
obtain, more precious than could be obtained even by
such men as Aldus, Erasmus, and Melancthon."
Our age may well boast not only of the amazing
advance made in every department of physical science,
but in the literature through which it is communi-
cated to the world. Our men of science vie with
each other not only in the production of rich and ster-
ling treatises, but in the annual composition of shorter
papers to keep the public abreast of their labours. Nor
are we to believe, as some would tell us, that in the
march of the physical sciences all faith in the unseen
will disappear. The blood, indeed, almost curdles in
the veins when we read at the conclusion of one of our
most profoundly scientific books, that the nature which
29
we see is the God whom we seek. But we have no
fear that such a blank negation will be the result of
our progress. The accomplished author of "Man and
his Dwelling-place" has shown us how the discoveries
of modern science are opening up to tis infinite vistas
both of time and space ; so that while certain scientific
investigations may seem to have a materializing ten-
dency, they are more than counterbalanced by broader
and richer thoughts in another direction.
I introduce the fine arts at the conclusion of a hasty
sketch of this kind, not with the slightest intention
of dwelling at any length on the great work of the
modern schools, but only for the sake of showing that
their characteristics in the Victorian era very much
resemble those already described as belonging to lite-
rature. Before the pre-Raphaelite innovation, which,
with all its exaggerations and extravagances, has been
the salvation of British art, and is now its hope, a con-
ventional artificialism similar to that which had ob-
tained in literature was bringing the fine arts into
contempt. Pictures were compared with pictures in-
stead of with nature, and there was little attempt to
reproduce faithfully the forms and colouring of the
outer world. An even conventional tone familiar to
the purchaser of French plum-boxes appeared to satisfy
the taste of the critics and the public. Before the
brotherhood made their famous protest, Turner had
already startled the art world by his innovations in
landscape painting, and Mulready, Leslie, Maclise,
Creswick, Egg, Hubert, Dyce, Anthony, and F. M.
Brown had already done much to redeem English art
by sterling work. Turner, above all, had covered his
canvas with creations of wonderful power, studying
nature in all her mysteries, and realizing the great truth
that, in all her changes of cloud, sunshine, and mist,
she does but mirror the passing moods of the soul. All
30
must remember the feeling with which they fir<t entered
the Turner Gallery. The first impression you receive,
as you look quietly round at the canvas, is of power,
yet power apparently somewhat wildly exercised;
power that revelled in mystery, dealing not with the
busy life of men in its pomp, but regarding them in
solemn communion with the world they dwell in its
light and shade, its mountains hung in mist, its seas
driven before storms. While there are strong lights
upon the pictures sunshine (not sunlight) as it has
never been painted before the prevailing tone is some-
what gloomy. Not very much of hope in the hand
that painted. The old myths reproduced do not lead
us to the golden gates, but bid us linger in the shadows
and hear the night wind moan. Death is here death
at its very work. The shadows fall sternly on the
mountains, and the day dies, not in peaceful rest, but
as death in its struggle with life, and scarcely hoping
for to-morrow, sunset promising a wild night, rather
than peace, far on into the darkness, hushing weary
sleepers.
It is worth while, even with the poor light that shines
upon a London roof, to wait in the gallery throughout
the day. Some of the pictures want the morning
light, others the noon-day summer scald, and more
still the low twilight tones. Wait until evening,
whatever you do. There, in the far corner of the
room, are some fishermen bending over a boat, and in
the deepening gloom they stand out as only figures can
in the evening light. To the right the setting sun is
held in the still depths of the harbour waters, waiting
for the fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth.
Across the room the very shadow of death is on the
canvas on which is painted the burial of Wilkie, off
Gibraltar. The ships stand out with spectral vivid-
ness, and one strong gleam of light joining the sea and
31
a troubled sky falls on the lowered shroud. Turner's
great work was to paint nature as it was toned and
shaped by the life within. In his wonderful skies,
giving you the idea of boundlessness more than those
of any other painter, he paints that which answers to
man's infinite yearnings. His clouds always hollow
into the sphere from the strongest point of light, and
arch our heads with solemn grandeur.
Turner having led the way in landscape painting, the
brotherhood followed in a less difficult branch of art.
We have no intention now of criticizing their labours ;
it must suffice to indicate their tendency. Their inno-
vation in art precisely answered to that of Wordsworth
in poetry. They relied on faithful detail in their work,
clothed not with conventional brilliance, but with the
subtle toning of a high spiritual ideal. It was to be
expected that such an innovation would be attended
with a good deal of exaggeration ; but this is fast dis-
appearing, and every artist has been more or less
influenced by their labours. There is a nameless charm
in the atmosphere of their pictures which has always
compelled admiration, and a fidelity of detail, as well as
a wealth and boldness of colouring, scarcely to be found
in any other era. These men have realized, as artists
never did before, that there must be the full culture of
the whole man before even an artist's work can be true.
The pictures of Mr. Holman Hunt burn with a sort of
inner fire, and his highest thoughts of life and duty
shine on the canvas. But I have no time to speak of
them further. But let me ask you, ere I dismiss them,
to rejoice with me that these men give hours of valuable
time to the instruction of poor artists. Any young
man who longs to be a painter, and is too poor to pay
for an art education, will have readily and cheerfully
afforded him, gratuitously, the best teaching that Eng-
land can produce. In referring to these noble and
32
disinterested labours, I almost seem as if I am abusing
a confidence, so unobtrusively and quietly are they
rendered.
I can imagine some of you, regarding all this wonder-
ful advance in science, art, and literature, asking
wistfully, Whither is it all leading ? What is the under-
current of this tremendous mental activity ? Will it
leave us with our old historic faith ; or will the broad
open paths in which we are invited to walk lead us
away from the old familiar track ?
There are three solutions of this momentous inquiry
offered to us.
According to one theory, the advance of knowledge
will leave us alone in this world with laws fixed, wise,
and merciful, daily doing for us their great and
beautiful work. There is no reason or love greater than
our own, and we must be satisfied with the boundless
forms of life by which we are surrounded. Enough
for us in death that some new forms of life will spring
from our grave and our memory be fragrant when we
are gone. So will the ages roll along, with the same
experiences. There is no unseen world, and all our
stern questionings about destiny and fate will only be
answered by the echo of our impatient cries.
According to another theory, we have a God and
Father in Heaven who speaks through every human
soul, but has broken the silence in no other way. The
tendency of modern inquiry is to exhibit all super-
natural history as worthless tradition. All we know is
that we have a conscience in our breast and a hope of
immortality in our heart, and to these we must be true.
But, thank God, there is another creed which leaves us
at His side in whose person all our reverent love
centres, and about whom all our hopes gather. Standing
at His side, we are not invited to separate ourselves
from the solemn tide of life and progress which flows
33
along. But rather, do we hear the old Divine words,
" All things are yours." In Him we shall inherit all
truth, all beauty, and all knowledge, and touched with
His redemption they shall but contribute to the glory
of His reign. From that new heaven and new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness, which shall descend
from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, with
looks all loveliness and movements all grace, that
world of whichHe shall be the light and glory, nothing
great or beautiful shall be excluded. The Christian's
home is no ascetic abode of a few weary pilgrims.
" They shall bring the glory and honour of the nations
into it." Old forms of power, but partially revealed in
the education of the world, shall reappear. Rome shall
give back her power, Greece her wisdom, and Venice
realize her dreams of beauty. A complete manhood
and a perfect world shall complete the redemption
which has so long tarried in the weary progress of the
years.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., ST. GEORGE'S -STREET, CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
AT THE
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 5TH MAY, 1866.
. Jldtwrate (Hole in the dpuur.
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1866.
to add several valuable works to the library of reference.
This year they have the satisfaction of announcing that
1 hey have added to the collection out of the grant:
The English Cyclopaedia, in 18 vols.,Mdntosh's Took
of the Garden, a complete set of S. T. Coleridge's
Works, a very valuable work on the " Flora of New
Zealand," and a complete set of Walter Scott's, Bui wer's,
Trollope's, and Currer Bell's Novels, besides several
other works in various departments of literature. The
accessions during the past year, by purchase as well as
by presentation, inclusive of the abovenamed works, are
as follows :
Vols.
Miscellaneous Theology 14
Jurisprudence 10
Science and the Arts 21
Works of Amusement 265
Dictionaries ... ... ... ... 18
Belles Lettres 42
History ... ... ... ... ... 54
Voyages and Travels 40
Biography ... ... ... ... 24
Miscellaneous ... ... ... ... 33
Total 521
Amongst them will be found, Captain Grantham's
Map of the Colony of Natal, presented by His Excel-
lency Sir Philip Wodehouse ; two rare books, pre-
sented by Sir C. Brand, entitled " Sommier van
Rechten," printed in 1484, and King James's whole
works, printed in 1619; the "Codex Theoeosianus,"
in 4 volumes folio, presented to the " Porter Collection"
by the Rev. Dr. Heyns ; also several works presented
by George Hodgskin, Esq., for many years a merchant
in this Colony, and now resident in England. This
gentleman, who has ever taken a lively interest in the
prosperity of this institution, has during the last few
years past contributed many valuable works to the
Library, principally relating to South Africa. Several
other works were also presented by Messrs. T. B.
Bayley, M. Bergh, and Dr. Bleek, to all of whom the
cordial thanks of the subscribers are due.
The Committee have also to acknowledge the presen-
tation of a manuscript page of Sir Walter Scott's
" Heart of Midlothian," together with several auto-
graph notes, the gift of Mrs. Findlay, a lady who has
recently left the Colony; these, together with some
already in the possession of the Librarian, will serve
as a nucleus for a collection of autographs, and the
Committee will thankfully receive any further con-
tributions.
The treasurer's account will be submitted, which will
show the income and expenditure during the past year.
In conclusion, the Committee have to express their
regret that the exterior of the building in which the
valuable collection is deposited should atill be left in
the unfinished state in which it this day appears ; and
they can only express a hope that the time is not far
distant when funds will be placed at their disposal to
complete it in a manner worthy of the South African
Public Library.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, In one of the most
amusing of Lever's military novels is a story of an army
doctor who possessed many pleasant qualities, but the
smallest possible modicum of personal courage. On
one occasion, however, in the Peninsular war, the
French cavalry made a sudden attack upon the English
forces, and the unlucky doctor, instead of being in the
rear, where he ought to have been, and where he
devoutly wished to be, found himself in the centre of
a square of infantry. The colonel roared to him and
asked him what business he had there, and the poor
doctor replied: "Arrah now, if you think it's pride
that brought me, you're mighty mistaken. I'd be
anywhere else if I could." And such, Ladies and
Gentlemen, is my position on this occasion ! When so
many eminent and able men have year after year
addressed you at these meetings, I feel that my place
should be " in the rear ;" but circumstances have thrust
me forward, and I was attacked so suddenly and unex-
pectedly by the Library Committee that I had no time
to retreat.
Having, then, consented to occupy this place, I
determined to see upon what subject I could appropri-
ately address you : and here again I found difficulties ;
for those who had gone before me had taken up so
many lines of thought and blocked up the ways, that
I could scarcely see a road open to me. At last it
occurred to me, while others had instructed you, it
might not be distasteful if I assumed the less ambitious
task of trying to amuse you : while others had dis-
coursed upon the graver themes of art, science, and
literature, I might not inappropriately speak to you on
the lighter and brighter ones ; in short, that, having
already had the more solid portions of your intellectual
feast, you might not be indisposed to take from me the
whipped creams, the syllabubs, the omelettes soiifflees
in other words, that I should say something about the
humorous in literature.
Man has been defined to be " an unfledged biped :''
an ape comes dangerously near to the definition. He
has been called " a cooking animal," and the description
is flattering to his sagacity and taste. He has been
described as " a laughing animal," and I believe that
the definition is perfect, as distinguishing him from
every other creature. No other animal laughs not
even a hyaena or a Cheshire cat, in spite of the risible
faculties proverbially attributed to both. And, surely,
so marked a characteristic of our race is not to be
regarded lightly. Whether the lower animals reason,
has been gravely discussed by more than one philoso-
pher of eminence, and it has puzzled the wisest of them
'to draw the exact line between instinct and reason.
" I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate, or no,"
says one of our poets in reference to the question
mooted by the great Swiss enthusiast, whether or not
birds and other animals hold conversation and exchange
their ideas as men do. But no natural philosopher has *
ever asserted that he has seen a dog cracking his sides
over a capital joke made by his canine brother, or a cat
shaking with laughter at the sight of a rat caught in a
trap by the tail, and in the unpleasant dilemma of having
to part with that appendage or consent to be eaten up.
Man alone has wit, humour, laughter. You will not
name many other things which he so incontestibly
possesses, and all the rest of the creation is without.
Rude ages have produced rude wit ; rude nations are
still satisfied with rough and coarse humour; and a
few things generally indicate the degree of refinement
attained by a people or an individual, more than the
humour which satisfies them. Rough horse-play is a
capital joke to Hodge, the ploughboy ; a dancing bear
still makes excellent fun for a German peasant ; and I
have seen a great Kafir chief laugh till he cried at the
vagaries of a drunken Hottentot.
I confess I am astonished to find how little of refined
wit and humour the ancient Greeks displayed in their
literature at least such as has come down to us. I am
not forgetting Aristophanes and his comedies ; but there
is more of broad and coarse satire than genial wit in
them, though there is an abundance of comic humour.
The chorus of Frogs in the comedy of the name is
inimitable of its kind. The very language seems to
croak, and wants only a bassoon out of tune as an
accompaniment.
Still it is strange that the Greeks, who showed such
delicacy and purity of taste in poetry and art, rose little
above buffoonery or burlesque in their early comedy.
They recognized the need of laughter; for their greatest
tragedians, ^Eschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, wrote
what we should almost call burlesques, but which they
called Satyric dramas, and which were constantly played
after the tragedy. One of these, by Euripides, called
" The Cyclops," has come down to our times ; but it is
a blending of the ludicrous and the horrible, by no
means pleasing to modern ideas, and is apt to make one
shudder, as I confess I always do at a burlesque of a
Shaksperian tragedy.
9
But let me read an extract as a specimen of this
kind of humour. Ulysses and his companions have
landed on the Island of the Cyclops, and that
charming monster resolves to eat them all, according
to his hospitable custom. He thus expresses his
intention :
Cyclops. I well know
The wise man's only Jupiter is tbis,
To cat and drink during his little day
And give himself no care. And as for those
Who complicate with laws the life of man,
I freely give them te-irs for their reward.
I will not cheat my sonl of its delight,
Or hesitate in dining upon yoa.
And that I may be qnit of all demands,
These are my hospitable gifts fierce fires
And yon ancestral cauldron, which o'erbabbling
Shall finely cook your miserable flesh
Creep in.
But Ulysses partly softens the monster by plying him
with wine, which he has brought in his ship, and you
will see how the monster shows his gratitude :
Ulysses. Listen, O Cyclops, for I am well skilled
In Bacchus, whom I gave of thee to drink.
Cyc. What sort of god is Bacchus then accounted f
Ul. The greatest among men for joy of life.
Cyc. I gulpt him down with very great delight :
How does the god like living in a skin ?
UL He is content wherever he is put.
Cyc. Gods should not have tlieir body in a skio.
Ul. If he give joy, what is the skin to yon ?
Cyc. I hate the skin, but love the wine within.
UL Stay here, now drink, and make your spirit glad.
Cyc. (lo Silenu8.JWba.t do you put the cup behind me for?
Sil. That no one here may touch it
Cyc. Thievish one !
You want to drink : hero place it in the midst ;
And thou, O stranger ! tell how thou art call'd.
10
J7/. My nnme is Nobody. What favour now
Shall I receive to praise you at your hands ?
Cue. I'll eat you up the last of your companions!
Altogether, these Satyric dramas do not give men a
very high opinion of the Greeks as humorists. Their
wit seems clumsy, and yet they were clumsy in nothing
else. Greece produced in later times a new school of
comic dramatists, of which Menander was the greatest.
From the little we have extant of his works, it seems
that they were free from coarseness; just as Greece
itself was more refined in Menander's days than those
of Aristophanes.
Our ordinary conception of the Koman character
scarcely leads us to expect much light and sparkling
humour in Latin literature. And yet I almost think
it contains as much as the Greek. Plautus and
Terence, in their plays, have given us the one, broad
humour and ludicrous scenes ; and the other, graphic
pictures of the manners of the day, mixed with a little
buffoonery, thrown in to please the gallery. In the
Augustan age, Plautus was considered coarse : at least,
that fastidious gentleman, Horace (who, by the way,
sometimes forgets his own good breeding), pronounced
him to be so. Horace himself had genuine humour,
and of a refined kind. He does not roar with laughter,
nor endeavour to make his reader hold his sides ; but
he smiles quietly, and keeps one in a constant sense of
enjoyment with his polished wit and delicate sarcasm.
Sometimes he breaks out into a bit of buffoonery, as in
the journey to Brundusium, where he hits off the
broad scenes on the road much in the style of our own
Smollett, and sometimes he forgets his good manners
altogether ; but I fancy that on these occasions he had
omitted to add the water to his Falernian. The very
word " epigram " suggests the name of Martial ; and I
11
doubt whether keener, more brilliant, or more compact
wit is to be found in the world than in the works of
this poet. For terseness and intensity of expression,
some of his epigrams are really marvellous. You will
find almost every good and decent one translated with
wonderful fidelity in some of the numbers of late Cape
Monthly Magazine. I know no version which sur-
passes that one. All the rest of the epigrams are
untranslateable, for they should never have been
written. But Martial lived in evil times, and wal-
lowed in the filth of a corrupt age.
But let me read one or two from the translation I
refer to, as specimens of Martial's style :
ON A LADY.
Yoa'd take Sir James ? You're wise, tis very true.
He won't propose ? He is as wise as yon.
You give me nought" wait till I'm dead," yon say :
If you're no fool, you know for what I pray.
ON AN HEIRESS.
John is most warmly wooing Netty,
She's very far indeed from pretty,
But has one feature most alluring,
Her cough is bad, beyond all curing 1
Paulla would wed me : I would not, I told her ;
She is too old : I would if she were older.
ON CINNA.
Cinna writes satires on me, it is said :
Pooh I no man writes, whose writings are not read.
TO A BROTHER AUTHOR.
Why my last poem I forgot to send ?
For fear you'd send me your's, respected friend !
Leaving the classic ages, and turning to modern
times, we find abundance of wit and humour in Italian
literature, and of a kind likely to be pleasing to that
strange people. The tales of Boccaccio are known to
12
all the world ; and the author read to his Queen (for
whom they were expressly written) stories which at a
later period of his life he confessed to be unfit for a
lady's ear. In spite of their grossness, however, their
wit is undoubted ; and the earliest of Italian prose
writers is probably the greatest of Italian humorists.
Some half century after him came Pulci, the poet, who
seems to have written fun because he could not help it.
He did not always select comic themes, but serious
ones ; and he treated them earnestly and gravely ; but
every now and then the ludicrous side of things seems
to have struck him : he bursts out laughing at his own
heroes and his own pictures of them, and in the very
moment of his triumph over your heart and sentiments
he startles you with a ridiculous image or a quaint
expression, and leaves you convulsed with laughter just
as you were preparing your tears. There is a crowd
of less eminent Italian authors, whose works are full
of humour more or less good.
As for German humour, it is something peculiar to
itself more apt to be grotesque than merry. The
devil generally plays a large part in German fun, and
to my mind the devil is not altogether a funny subject.
I cannot read Russian, but I have a translation of
some Cossack tales, written by Nicholas Gogol, who
was considered a kind of Russian Dickens. I cannot
say that I am much struck with his humour, nor agree
in the comparison ; but I will read you a couple of
pages from his first tale, that you may judge for your-
selves :
(Here an extract was read from a tale called " Christmas
Eve.")
Why do men always try to make fun out of the devil?
Is it because, as children, they have been frightened by
old women's descriptions of him, and revenge themselves
13
for their juvenile terrors by ridiculing him when older ?
I confess I think the less we have to do with him the
better, and I object to the grim fun of old-bogyism.
Need I mention Spanish humour ? Need I refer to
Don Quixote, or ask what book is better known, more
widely read, more frequently quoted? Spanish wit is
very apt to assume a proverbial form, and Spanish pro-
verbs are some of the most terse and pointed in the world.
Of Portuguese literature, I confess I know little,
except the " Lusiad," and I don't care ever to read
that again.
If I were to strike out the nineteenth century, I
should say that France has produced the largest crop
of sparkling, brilliant, witty, and humorous literature
in the world. Moliere alone the inimitable Moliere
would give his country a high place in the world of
humour. No comic writer ever hit off more admirably
the ludicrous side of human character: no dramatist
ever invented more humorous situations : though it is
fair to say that he is accused of borrowing the latter
from the Italian comedies of his day. Probably Molie're
would have answered with Puff in the Critic, when
accused of plagiarism : " Two men, you know, may
have the same idea only one of them happens to have
it first." And if Moliere had never lived, France
would have still boasted of one of the greatest of
humorists iu Le Sage, whose " Gil Bias " has been
read by every one in the original or in some translation.
And poor Le Sage, too, was accused of plagiarism not
of borrowing a bit of plot here, and a joke there, but of
stealing the Spanish manuscript of a refugee author,
and turning it into French.
However, he has been honourably acquitted, both in
his own age and by posterity, but he was not altogether
a lucky man : the actors seem occasionally to have
14
combined nut to play his comedies, though they were
admirable : he was always being accused of something
he had not done and he had the misfortune of being
an advocate into the bargain,
As for Voltaire, in spite of what his opponents may
say, he was one of the most wonderful and versatile
geniuses, and his wit of the keenest and most brilliant
character. No doubt he might have made a better use
of it if he had been a better man : though on the other
hand, to have mended his morals might have spoilt his
wit, as one sometimes cures a horse of his vice and robs
him of his spirit at the same time. In these slight
glances at the wit of other times and other countries, I
am not attempting to give anything approaching to a
catalogue of the names of the humorous authors who
have adorned them. I point only to a few names as
they rise on the surface of my memory. The charac-
ter of French wit is sparkling, neat, epigrammatic,
and as such suited to the peculiar genius of the people.
I never heard a joke miss fire in a French theatre. I
have heard half the best things in the " School for
Scandal " listened to in Drury-lane without a smile.
We are a duller-witted people than the French, though
it is unpleasant to have to confess it.
Most wit loses sadly by translation : none more so
than French wit ; for the language is so exquisitely
adapted for expressing the cleverest things in the
choicest words, that when you attempt to sever the
thought from the language, it seems to evaporate like
the bouquet of a delicate wine decanted from the flask
in which it has mellowed into perfection. The follow-
ing, which I have attempted to translate from the
French of Alphonse Karr, is a specimen of quiet
French humour of the present day ; but I fear the
translation does but scant justice to the original :
15
A lady was announced as a visitor to a magistrate. He was
very much engaged, but she was importunate. The magistrate
thrast aside the papers which covered his desk, and ordered her
to be admitted. He ran over hastily in his mind the different
cases which he had to decide, and tried to guess to which one
this visit had reference. The lady makes her appearance. She
is young and handsome, and apologizes for her importunity in
gentle and graceful terms, and with a melodious voice : then she
speaks of the occupations, the serious and even terrible duties of
a magistrate.
Meanwhile, the magistrate mentally reads himself the severest
lectures. " No," says he, " I will make no concessions to beauty,
to charms so sweet, but so deceitful. 1 shall keep my heart
closed against the accents which seek to penetrate it. No, I
will never lose sight of the sanctity of ray office, the strictness of
my duty. No ! nothing shall turn me aside from the atraightest
eourse of truth and justice."
The fair visitor, in the meantime, tries one by one her attrac-
tionsshe makes play with her glances she makes play with
her voice. She asks the magistrate whether he was at the last
ball at the Hotel de Ville whether he has heard Cruvelli sing,
and so forth.
At any other time he would have been angry ; but the voice is
so musical, and he is so afraid of hearing her ask something con-
trary to bis duty something to which he must reply in the harsh
accents of refusal that he lets her go on, but keeps mentally
addressing to himself the strictest admonitions. "No," says he,
" I will never forget that I am the guardian of society and the
instrument of the law. History has quoted as an insolent crime
the sword of Brennus thrown into the scale shall I allow the
smile of a woman to turn the scale of justice with its weight ?
The history of Cambyses, who caused the skin of the unjust
judge to cover the cushion on which his successor had to sit,
has never been cited as a cruelty, but simply as rigid justice.
Injustice in a judge is the highest crime that man can commit.''
The fair visitor thrusts forward the prettiest and neatest little
foot in the world, and rests it on the fender and she says to the
magistrate : " I may refer you to Mr. So-and-so, who is a friend
of yours, and is anxious to be mine also, and to Mr. So-and-so
and Mr. So-and-so."
And the judge says to himself, " Nevertheless, I must avoid
extremes. It does not follow that because a woman is handsome
16
and because she has a sweet voice, and because her foot is small
that justice is not on her side. Austerity must not blind me;
the right is not always on the side of ugly women. 1 have seen
hideous ones who were great rogues. In a word, madam, what
can I do for you ?"
"I will lei I y on, sir, in two words: lam invited to a grand
ball the day after to-morrow : I have invented the most exchant-
ing dress that has been seen this winter something original
without affectation, iiew without iccentricty something almost
impossible to imitate. It is a white skirt with a complete trim-
ming of paroquets' feathers. I have laid all my friends under
contribution who possess such such birds : I have taken every
feather from the dealers; but each bird has only two or three
of the feathers that I require. I know that you have a magnifi-
cent parrot. I intreat you, sir, not to refuse me two or three of
its feathers, without which my trimming will be incomplete
without which all my pains will be wasted without which I
shall die of mortification without which "
"For goodness sake, madam," cries the magistrate, interrupting
her, " why did yon not say so at first ? I have been in an agony
of suspense. Here, John, carry the parrot to this lady's house.
She can send it back if she pleases."
One very short further extract of a similar kind :
A man came with his wife from some country district to beg
for a situation in a Government office. The man was timid and
awkward his wife wanted neither grace nor self-possession.
"Leave me to make the advances," said she to her husband,
" we shall lose everything if you try."
"But, dear, they tell me the Minister is such an admirer of
beauty, and you are so pretty "
"Nonsense about my beauty."
" Still you do reckon a little on its effect in securiug our success
now don't you f"
" I scarcely think of it I only rely on our rights and talents."
" Well, I don't mind yon going to the Minister, but you must
leave your attractions at home."
" How can that be done ?"
" Easily, if you will let me do as I wish."
"Well?"
17
" Well ! let me just slightly paint your nose with red each
time you go to him."
The wife refused ; and there is no wife in the world who wonld
agree to such a proposal, were she ever so virtuous and ever so
devoted.
How England acquired the epithet of " merry " has
puzzled many people to account for. Frenchmen, who
declare that we are horribly "triste" must imagine that
the appellation was intended to be ironical. After all,
it is about on a level with that of "La Belle France;"
for, certainly, France is not a beautiful country, although
it may have much beauty in it. And so England, if
not merry, on the whole, has produced plenty of merri-
ment. From Geoffry Chaucer to Tom Hood, her
literature is full of it. And, beyond that, the humour
is more varied in its character than that of any other
nation. Broad and delicate coarse and refined subtle
and grotesque buffoonery and irony all are to be
found in the pages of English authors. And in no
literature is the progress of refinement more marked
by the quality of the humour. The coarse ribaldry of
a barbarous age suited the times when chivalry was at
its last gasp, and modern civilization had not yet supplied
its place; and such jolly ballads as "The King and the
Tanner of Tamworth" made our thick-witted and sensual
forefathers roar out their approbation in loud guffaws.
In the days of Elizabeth, Shakspere, Ben Jonson,
and others, living among a set of intellectual giants,
made their humour intellectual also ; but the taint of
coarseness still clung to most of it, and fat Jack
Falstaff, graceful Mercutio, brilliant Benedick, and
even charming Beatrice herself, utter witticisms that
we dare not repeat in these days, though a virgin
Queen then smiled approval, and thought them " most
excellent fooling."
18
At the time of the Restoration, the wit was of the
sort just suited to the most immoral court in Europe ;
and Butler's " Hudibras," with all its occasional sins
against propriety, is almost the only work of the times
whose humour is not based on immorality. In Queen
Anne's days, a crowd of wits and humorists burst upon
us some pure and refined, and others with the dirt
still clinging to them. For delicate and graceful
humour and fancy, perhaps nothing surpasses Pope's
" Rape of the Lock ; " for polished satire, I know not
where to find the equal of his " Imitations of Horace ; ''
while for the rougher sort of wit at one time coarse
and sensual at another keen, pointed, and subtle
always powerful and effective, now convulsing us with
laughter, and now almost terrifying us with its daring
and its bitterness Jonathan Swift stands unmatched
in our own or any other literature.
Let me quote but a few lines from Pope's mock
heroic poem. You all know the story. A lock of
Belinda's hair has been cut off and stolen by Sir Plume ;
the lady relates her injuries to her friends, and an
army of drawing-room Amazons determine to avenge
her. The battle is described in Homeric style, and an
amusing part of it is that it reminds one wonderfully
of Pope's own translation of the Iliad, a fact which the
little gentleman himself would have indignantly
denied :
When bold Sir Flame had drawn Clarissa down,
Cbloe stepp'd in, and kill'd him with a frown :
She smil'd to see the doughty hero slain,
Bat at her smile, the beaa reviv'd again.
Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air,
Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair.
The donbtfal beam long nods from side to side;
At length the wits mount np, the bairs subside.
See fierce Belinda on the Baron flies,
19
With more than usual lightning in her eyes :
Nor fear'd the chief th' unequal fight to try,
Who sought no more than on his foe to die.
But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,
She with one finger and a thumb subdued.
Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew,
A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw
The gnomes direct, to ev'ry atom just,
The pungent grains of titillating dust.
Sadden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows,
And the high dome re-echoes to his nose.
" Now meet thy fate," incens'd Belinda cried,
And drew a deadly bodkin from her side.
(The sanae, his ancient personage to deck,
Her great-great grandsire wore about his neck,
In three seal-rings; which after, melted down,
Form'd a vast buckle for his widow's gown :
Her infant grandanyj's whistle next it grew,
The bells she jingled, and the whistle blew;
Then in a bodkin grac'd her mother's hairs,
Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.)
In a very different style is the following bit of satire
from Swift's Gulliver's travels. Gulliver is visiting
the University of Lagado, and thus describes some of
its savans.
(Extract read from " Voyage to Laputa," but which
we need not give.)
In the more than half century which elapsed between
the death of Pope and the commencement of the present
century, literature slumbered. It woke up now and
then, and produced Goldsmith, who was an excellent
humorist as well as a poet ; Cowper, whose " Johnny
Gilpin" entitles him to the same remark ; and -Burns,
whose every line is a gem, and whose humour is not
inferior to his pathos. If I knew how to give him
higher praise I would do so. Fielding and Smollett,
great novelists, and greater humorists, almost complete
20
the list of literary names of the first class in the latter
half of the eighteenth century. And, truly, if one takes
the reigns of the Second and Third Georges (excluding
the last twenty of the latter), there was little in the times
to foster intellectual development. A formal, priggish,
and dissipated life among the higher classes, coarseness
and ignorance in the middle ones, and a combination of
misery and brutality among the lower orders all this
was little calculated to develop the imagination, or to
call forth that form of it which we call wit and humour.
But a new and bright era commenced with the dawn
of the present century. Probably every age has been
disposed to depreciate contemporary literature. I know
that it may sound paradoxical to add, that side by side
with this tendency has been another an inclination to
unduly exalt some few living and popular authors. But
the latter propensity is chiefly displayed by those who
have read little else than the books published in their
own time, while the former characterizes the more
learned of the community. It is especially a propensity
of old people, but it is not confined to them. No doubt
when
" The blind old bard of Scio's rocky isle "
sang those marvellous songs, whose collection has ever
since been regarded as the greatest epic poem of all
time, there were not wanted those among his auditors
who declared to the rising generation : " It's all very
well all very well, but it's not the sort of poetry we
used to hear in my younger days, sir ! "
We know that Horace speaks of the poet Ennius as
" another Homer," and would probably have ranked
him far above Virgil if the latter had not been his own
friend. And yet, the little that has come down to us
of Ennius is but poor poetry, and so inferior to that of
the great Augustan bard as (to borrow an expression of
21
Voltaire) " the tinsel of Tasso to all the gold of Virgil."
But Ennius had been dead a hundred and seventy years
whenHorace wrote of him, and Virgil was a con temporary a
No writer of the Elizabethan age seems to have been
conscious of the *genius surrounding him, and even
Shakspere was more praised as a pleasant fellow than
appreciated as the glory of our literature. In the
days of the Restoration, Otway starved, and Milton
was regarded as a dull dog ; while in the age of Queen
Anne, though Pope was popular and made a fortune,
yet the very fact of there having been a party who
considered Gibber and Tickell as his rivals, shows how
little the excellencies of the inimitable little bard of
Twickenham were really recognized by his contem-
poraries.
And in the days we live in, he would be regarded as
a rash critic who should declare that England has
scarcely produced six greater poets than Alfred
Tennyson. Yet posterity may find it difficult to select
the six names which shall stand above his upon the
pyramid of Fame. But if there is one branch of
English literature which has produced finer fruits than
another in the present century, it is that of humour.
I heartily believe that the last seventy years have given
birth to wit not less brilliant, but a thousand times
more chaste humour not less attractive, but infinitely
more graceful burlesque and farce not less extrava-
gantly laughable, but incalculably less licentious than
any other age in the world can show. Think of the
names of Sheridan, Sydney Smith, Charles Lamb, the
Colmans, Canning, the Smiths (of the Rejected
Addresses), Tom Moore, Theodore Hook, Hood, Lever,
Dickens, Thackeray, Jerrold, Ingoldsby, Halliburton,
and many others whose names escape me for the
moment, and say if any other era of our own litera-
22
ture, or of any other literature, can furnish a more
brilliant list of wits and humorists. And not one of
them has made immorality, indelicacy, or irreligion the
theme of his wit; and few have written even a sentence
that the purest-minded would wish to* see blotted. I do
not know whether I seem to you to dwell too much upon
this point ; but while I grant that there may be wit
whose very basis is in corruption while I recognize
the brilliancy and force of many an epigram which
cannot boast of purity for one of its beauties yet, as
an enthusiastic admirer of genuine humour and true
wit, I do detest to see their prostitution to such base
uses; and I am proud of my countrymen in the present
century, who have been the first and the most success-
ful in showing that the keenest and most laughter-
provoking humour needs no aid from immorality, and
that there is no more necessary alliance between wit
and profligacy than between stupidity and sanctity.
Another great feature in the humour of the present
age is its kindliness and good-humour. It was said by
a poet of a past age, that
" Satire ebonld, like a polished razor keen,
Inflict a wound that's scarcely felt or seen;"
but satire of that kind was rare until the days we live
in. Now we read it every day in the pages of Punch,
and see it in his cartoons and etchings. Few satirists
are keener than Sydney Smith, and yet how generally
good-humoured he is : only once or twice did he really
get into a rage, and that was when he was scarifying
people who had injured his own pocket. Surely, one
can make allowances for that even in a clergyman !
Generally speaking, nothing can exceed his good-
temper ; and in every line we may fancy that we are
listening to that rich, unctuous voice, looking at that
23
jovial face, and watching that twinkling eye, which
used to sparkle with such pleasure as the great wit
pointed out to his butcher the exact thickness of the
juicy steak that was to be cut for his dinner. Dickens,
too, is never out of humour, unless he gets on political
subjects, and then he ceases to be a humorist at all.
Charles Lamb is as gentle as his own name. Thackeray
was never angry in his life, except with a young author
who chose to describe his person and his manner and
his private conversation at his club and then he fiercely
denounced " young Grubstreet ;" but I don't think that
fact tells much against his gentleness of disposition
generally. As for poor Tom Hood, he had enough of
the milk of human kindness to supply a whole dairy.
The truculent age of satire is passed it spent its last
gasp when Lord Byron, smarting with wounded vanity,
wrote " The English Bards and Scotch Re viewers. "
I have seen a few professed satires in heroic verse
written since then ; but I never heard of one that paid
for its printing.
When Thackeray describes Lady McScrew, with
her two gorgeous flunkeys following her abroad,
and her half-starved daughters at home, and devoutly
wishes that the tall footmen could be cut up into
mutton-chops to feed the hungry young ladies, no
doubt the satire is bitter ; but think how Juvenal or
Swift would have treated the same subject ! It is the
difference between the delicate irony of a wit and the
coarse railing of an angry cab-driver.
And when, before the present century, was seen
that exquisite blending of the tender and pathetic with
the humorous almost with the ridiculous which we
we meet with in some of the works of Dickens,
especially in some of his earlier Christmas Tales?"
" Brave generals lived before Agamemnon," says the
24
Roman lyrist. Great wits wrote before Dickens ; but
which of them, while convulsing you with laughter,
ever touched your heart, appealed to your charity and
sympathy, and awoke all the gentler and nobler feel-
ings of human nature, even in the very moment and
through the very agency of extravagant laughter?
Ludicrous and burlesque as are the following lines of
Tom Hood's there is really tenderness in them at all
events, such kindliness that we feel pity and good-will
to the old lady they are addressed to, and not the repul-
sion we should have felt towards one whom even the
polished satirist of the Augustan age had addressed on
such a theme :
O Kate! my dear Partner, through joy an! through strife!
When I look back at Hymen's dear day,
Not a lovelier bride ever changed to a wife,
Though you're now so old, wizen'd, and grey !
Those eyes, then, were stars, shining rulers of fate !
But as liquid as stars in a pool ;
Though now they're so dim, they appear, my dear Kate,
Just like gooseberries boil'd for a fool !
That brow was like marble, so smooth and so fair ;
Though it's wrinkled so crookedly now,
As if Time, when those furrows were made by the share,
Had been tipsy whilst driving his plough I
Your nose, it was such as the sculptors all chose,
When a Venus demanded their skill ;
Though now it can hardly be reckon'd a nose,
But a sort of Poll-Parroty bill ;
Your mouth, it was then quite a bait for the bees,
Such a nectar there hung on each lip ;
Though now it has taken that lemon-like squeeze,
Not a blue-bottle comes for a sip !
Your coin, it was one of Love's favourite haunts,
From its dimple he could not get loose ;
Though now the neat hand of a barber it wants,
Or a singe, like the breast of a goose !
25
How rich were those locks, so abundant and fall,
With their ringlets of aubura so deep !
Though now they look only like frizzles of wool,
By a bramble torn off from a sheep !
That neck, not a swan could excel it in grace,
While in whiteness it vied with yonr arms ;
Though now a grave 'kerchief you properly place,
To conceal that scrag-end of your charms!
Your figure was tall, then, and perfectly straight,
Though it now has two twists from upright
But bless you ! still bless you ! my Partner 1 my Kate !
Though you be such a perfect old fright !
The wit of former times was generally either satirical
or convivial ; either it ridiculed and attacked somebody
or something, or its moral was epicurean : " Let us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we die;" or, at the very
utmost, it was merely harmless, teaching nothing par-
ticular, either evil or good, and seeking only to excite
laughter. We have plenty of these three sorts in the
present day ; but we have something much better than
all three. We have the wit which keeps us merry ^
and warms us into kindliness towards our neighbour
at the same time ; we have the humour which softens
the heart without drawing tears from the eyes nay,
even while exciting laughter on our lips ; we have the
satire which, while it lays bare folly and sin, keeps
alive charily; we have satirists who do not stand apart,
as though they were superior to the weaknesses and
vices they lash, and thunder their denunciations in
divine rage as on mortals inferior to themselves in
virtue, but who take us by the arm, bid us watch the
meanness and polished vices of the world we live in,
and then turn round with us to the mirror and say :
" Behold us also ! You, my good brother, and me I
And are not we also sinners like them?" I don't
believe that any one was ever made better by reading
c
26
the satires of Juvenal, or Persius, or Swift, or Donne ;
but I am sorry for the man who has read Thackeray
in vain.
I do not want to claim too high a place in literature
for the humorous. There are higher, better, greater
qualities ; but I claim for it a high place, for I regard
it as a great instrument of good when wisely used. In
the present age it has, I think, been so used by many
great masters of it : but it has been abused also ; and
to my mind, the crowd of wretched burlesques which
have been thrust upon the stage of late years have
done much injury to good taste. Their fun is of the
meanest sort a silly play upon words, and a distortion
of every pathetic incident into an extravagant absurdity
I do not go so far as the late Charles Kemble, who
said " that a man who would write a burlesque of one
of Shakspere's tragedies would commit a murder if
you paid him for itj" but I certainly regard it as a
wretched, if not wicked, waste of ingenuity to turn
what is sublime and beautiful into the grotesque and
ludicrous. True wit is imaginative and inventive, and
does not need to borrow the golden thoughts of poetry
and tragedy to debase them into second-hand tinsel.
To set about writing a work which should be all
humorous, witty, or satirical, would be a hopeless
task, perhaps, to the greatest wit that ever lived ; and
the work, when finished, would be like a picture all
sunshine no shade or repose anywhere. The nearest
approach to such a work has been Punch ; but it has
required relays of writers to keep it going. And,
after all, Punch does not always attempt to be
merely funny ; he talks gravely sometimes ; and at
others he is dull, even when he means to be witty.
But Punch is remarkable with all its defects, as
howing what a fund of wit and humour is to be found
27
in England. I am old enough to remember the appear-
rance of the first number, and the prophecies that it
would not last six months. Nearly twenty-five years,
alas! have passed since then, and Punch is more
popular, if not more witty, than ever. On the whole,
I believe it has done good, for it seldom is unjust ; and
although it occasionally rushes in where, I think, it
should fear to tread, yet its sins may fairly be condoned
in consideration of the enjoyment it has afforded to
thousands, and the pure standard of morals it has ever
upheld.
But I have occupied enough of your time with these
rambling remarks of mine. I could wish, for your
sakes, that they had been better of their kind, and
better put together. In conclusion, I will give you
something better than my own ; the words of one,
himself a great humorist, on the true place and pro-
vince of wit the safeguards by which it needs to be
surrounded, the objects for which it should work, the
design for which it was bestowed on us, the ends
it may attain :
When wit is combined with sense and information, when it
is soltenecl by benevolence and restrained by strong principle,
when it is iu the bauds of a man who can use it and despise it,
who can be witty and something much better than witty, who
loves honour, justice, decency, good nature, morality, and religion
ten thousand times better than wit, wit is then a beautiful and
delightful part of our nature. There is no more interesting
spectacle than to see the effects of wit upon the different charac-
ters of men, than to observe it expanding caution, relaxing
dignity, unfreezing coldness teaching age and care and pain to
smile extorting reluctant gleams of pleasure from melancholy,
and charming even the pangs of grief. It is pleasant to observe
how it penetrates through the awkwardness and coldness of
society, gradually bringing men nearer together, and like the
combined force of wine aud oil, giving every man a gkd heart
and shining countenance. Genuine and innocent wit like this
ia sorely the flavour of the mind. Man coald direct his ways by
plain reason, and support bis life by tasteless food : but God has
given us wit, and flavour, and brightness, and laughter, and
perfumes, to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to " charm
his pained steps over the burning marie."
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., ST. GKOROE'S- STREET, CAPE TOWff.
PROCEEDINGS
eetinj
OF THE
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 4TH MAY, 1867.
toetable ^rtjrteon I jrs in fyt
CAPE TOWN:,
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1867.
W. PORTER, ESQ.,
HON. MB. JUSTICE WATER-
MEYER,
MR. PROFESSOR CAMERON,
GEORGE FRERE, ESQ.
(Treasurer),
R, BAYLEY, ESQ.,
W. HIDDINGH, ESQ.,
S. SOLOMON ESQ.,
MR. PROFESSOR NOBLE,
MAJOR LONGMORE,
DR. DALE.
I J. C. GIE, ESQ.
A True Copy,
F. M ASKEW, Librarian.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, In presenting the
annual report of the South African Public Library,
your Committee have the unpleasant duty of recording
what is already sufficiently known, that owing to the
unsatisfactory state of the colonial finances the grant
in aid, which by the combined liberality of Parliament
and Government this institution enjoyed for the last
few years, has during the session of 1866 been reduced
by one third. So sudden and considerable a reduction
of your Committee's available revenue has placed them
in a very difficult position.
Owing to the firm impression entertained when the
grant was first made in 1862, that it was to be a perma-
nent one, they were induced to incur sundry heavy
liabilities, partly to provide for the special custodianship
of the splendid collection presented to this institution
by Sir George Grey, and partly for the purchase of
standard works to supplement the different departments
of science and literature in which "the Library, through
its limited means, had until then been deficient.
In consequence of the decision of Parliament to
reduce the grant by one third, your Committee had to
choose between the two alternatives of diminishing
materially the regular supply of books and periodicals
from England, or reducing the already meagre and
inadequate salaries of the officers in pro rata proportion
to the amounts received by them out of the parliamentary
grant. Having a due regard to the wants of the sub-
scribers, and the requirements of the institution, your
A 2
Committee could not adopt the former course, at least
to any considerable extent, and therefore, with the
utmost reluctance, they have been compelled to fall
back upon the latter, and make their chief librarian
and librarian of the Grey Collection the principal
victims of this retrenchment.
In the report of last year, your Committee appealed
to the public for a more liberal and general support to
an institution which, holding its literary stores open to,
and available by all, possesses peculiar claims to the
countenance of the whole community. That appeal,
unfortunately, was not responded to ; on the contrary,
indeed, partly through the depression of the times, and
partly from the departure of several of its supporters
to Europe, instead of an increase, there has been a slight
falling off in the receipts from subscriptions during the
year.
Your Committee, however, now take the opportunity
of repeating their appeal with greater urgency than
ever, and they trust that, during the coming year, the
subscribers' list will be sufficiently reinforced to place
the Library in a better position, with more prosperous
funds, and on a more effective footing even than before
the reduction of the Parliamentary grant.
During the past year an application was made by
the Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion to allow their members to subscribe to the Public
Library on the same terms as those offered to the
Mechanics' Institution on a previous occasion. Your
Committee, ever anxious to extend the useful-
ness of the institution, readily consented to the
arrangement, and they have the satisfaction of stating
that twenty additional members are thus enrolled.
The Committee will be gratified to have an opportunity
of entering into similar arrangements with any other
institutions under like circumstances.
Among the numerous literary contributions pre-
sented to the Library during the past year, your
Committee have to acknowledge the receipt from
Europe of two cases, containing 281 volumes of Dutch
books, forwarded by Mr. Advocate Tydeman, of
Amsterdam. This valuable addition to the Library
was made by that gentleman on behalf of his late
father, Professor Tydeman, of Leyden, who, some
forty years ago, undertook, at the request of the then
Committee, to make a selection of Dutch books for
the Library. In forwarding the books to South Africa
one of the boxes was lost, and it is to replace this loss
that the present collection has been sent. Mr. Advo-
cate Tydeman also expresses a hope that they may
prove acceptable to the Cape literary public who still
read and understand the Dutch language, and the
Committee trust that so splendid a donation will stimu-
late others to imitate so generous an example, and
especially that it will induce many of the public who
have not hitherto even subscribed to the funds of the
Library to rally round it, not merely for its support,
but for a systematic extension, worthy of the position
it has hitherto occupied in the Colonial world.
To A. Faure, Esq., LL.D., the subscribers and the
public are indebted for four volumes of Van der Keesel's
Dutch-Roman Law, being an admirably-executed
(MS.) copy of the original manuscript of the " Dictata,"
bequeathed by the author to the Public Library of
Leyden. The value of this gift may be inferred from
the note of Lorenz, the translator of Van der Keesel's
" Thesis," who says : " It is a valuable work, and
contains very full comments on almost every point of
6
importance in law. A treatise of this nature would, if
obtainable, be of the highest importance in the Colonies,
being the latest work on the subject of the laws of Hol-
land as it still obtains in the ceded Colonies; for, with the
exception of Van der Linden's ' Institute/ a treatise of a
very elementary nature, there is hardly another work of
any authority which brings the law down to the period
immediately preceding the cession of these Colonies."
Your Committee have also to acknowledge that,
through the representations of E. L. Layard, Esq., the
Council of the Zoological Society of London has re-
solved that the South African Public Library shall be put
on its list for the annual presentations of its Transactions
and Journals. The Zoological Society have also kindly
presented to the Library the whole series of their
Transactions and Journals up to date.
The Committee have also to acknowledge several
presentations made to the Grey Collection by Messrs.
Jas. Cameron, E. Sheppard, and Dr. R. C. Dean
(United States Navy).
The accessions of books, by purchase as well as by
presentation, are as follows :
Theology 52 Vols.
Political Economy ... ... ... 41
Science and the Arts ... ... ... 107
Dictionaries ... ... ... ... 17
Works of Amusement 209
Belles Lettres 99
History 59
Voyages and Travels 43
Biography 32
Miscellaneous ... ... ... ... 22
Total ... ..681 Vols.
Amongst them will be found, besides those already
referred to, several works presented by Messrs. T. B.
Bayley and Kunhardt, and the Smithsonian Institution
(U.S.), to whom the thanks of the subscribers are
due. The Committee have likewise to acknowledge the
gift of a bust of the late President Abraham Lincoln,
presented by Walter Graham, Esq., U.S.C.
The Treasurer's statement of the income and ex-
penditure during the past year will now be laid before
you.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, It is, I think, a bad
omen for the future education of this Colony that the
spirit of retrenchment should have fastened itself first
upon the funds of our Library. After wandering about
in almost fruitless search for victims ; after entering
each department of the public service, and being always
arrested by the fierce and agonized cries which its well-
meant efforts evoked, retrenchment came into this
peaceful building; the walls were silent and unpro-
testing, so it was decreed that we at least should not
escape its fangs. Nothing can be more unfortunate
than the choice ; it is the worst form of a tax upon
books. But the act, lamentable as it is, will not be
without its bright side, if, in anticipation of the stream
of new books being lessened, we should be induced to
apply ourselves more earnestly to the treasures already
on our shelves, of which no retrenchment can possibly
deprive us. I shall venture to-day to direct your
attention to one of the subjects represented there in
the works of Layard, Fergusson, Kawlinson, and many
others. The mention of their names will have pointed
to buried cities, such as Nineveh and Pompeii, which
have at last been disinterred, and are appearing in
palace and sculpture, in villa and fresco, with much of
their first glory and beauty left to them. Although
long buried, they are not dead. The interest which
belongs to their discovery is a fresh and living one ;
hundreds of labourers are constantly at work at
10
Pompeii, yet scarcely more than a quarter has yet been
excavated, and until twenty years ago, we are told that
"a case scarcely three feet square in the British Museum
enclosed all that remained, not only of the great
city, Nineveh, but of Babylon itself."* Their history
seemed closed for ever. It was known that in the
destruction of these latter cities prophecy had been
literally fulfilled. Each perished by that which might
become its greatest strength or weakness, its noble
river. Of Babylon it had been said by one prophet :
"A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried
up" (Jeremiah 1, 38) ; and history tells us how Cyrus
drained off the waters of the Euphrates, so that his
army might enter. It was foretold of Nineveh by
another prophet;, that the gates of the rivers should be
opened, " and an end of it made by an overrunning
flood," (Nahum i. 8. ii. 5, 6.) And here, too,
history relates that the siege was brought to an end by
an extraordinary rise in the Tigris which swept away
part of the city wall and admitted the enemy. A
drying up is the destroyer in one case, an inunda-
tion in the other.f Again, it had been declared by
Nahum, of Nineveh, that her <e palace should be
dissolved or molten," and Diodorus (as quoted
by Mr. Davison) relates that " the King seeing no
hope of safety in defence raised a vast pile, on which
he consumed himself in the flames of his wealth and
his palace." One writer after another upon Modern
Nineveh mourns the effects of fire upon some of the
alabaster bas-reliefs, which in consequence would not
bear removal. But with the account of its burial, Nine-
veh, as well as Babylon, vanished from sight. As Mr.
* Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, Preface xxv.
f See Rawlinson's Herodotus, i., 487 : DaTison on Prophecy, 459 46 1.
11
Fergusson expresses it : ' ' Traveller after traveller
passed through the land, and saw the Arab pasturing
his flocks on the long lines of level plains, and the village
of the more settled tribes perched on a mound that
seemed to tell of former occupants ; but many believed
them natural ; and there seemed scarcely more history
to be gathered from these, than there is of former
times from the ocean and its wrecks, or the sand-hills
that bound its shore."* But the 19th century seems
destined to unfold the mystery, to rekindle upon those
barren plains the old life of the days when Assyria was
the ruling power of the world, to estimate her place in
history, laboriously to dig her treasures from the bowels
of the earth, and not less laboriously to work at her
inscriptions until her records shall be as certain history
as that of Greece and Rome. We owe this mainly to
two great explorers : the first in order of time was
M. Botta, whose collection of antiquities from the
Khorsab&d Palace is now in the Louvre, and will,
perhaps, yield in interest to nothing which Paris can
display to the world even in the year of a Great Ex-
hibition. The other is, of course, our own country-
man, whose name has become a household word upon
the subject, Austen Henry Layard, He has the rare
qualification of being able to write graphically about
that which he himself understands thoroughly ; his
works are full of poetry and exciting interest, which
make them as pleasant reading as the best novel which
ever was written; and, indeed, their subject is an
illustration of the proverb that "truth is stranger than
fiction ;" for if the results of the excavations were not
in the British Museum, making its collection of Assyrian
* Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis, p. 7.
12
antiquities the finest in the world, the winged gods
and the palaces whence they were exhumed might
rank among the fancies of a brain heated by excite-
ment and the glare of an Eastern sun. And, then,
think for a moment of the difficulties he went through.
We find him constantly contending with the official
spirit of Turkish Pashas, who put off his ardent
desires for help with those most provoking words :
"We will see" or "to-morrow." Sometimes their
resistance takes a more active form, as when, in order
to give colour to the accusation that he was disturbing
the graves of the dead, the answer being : " there
were no dead," the Pasha had the troops employed
on two nights in carting grave-stones to the site of the
diggings, that at least there might be no mistake now.
At another time he and his companion have inter-
mittent fever, but, as he cheerfully owns, on alternate
days, so that one is always working, while the other
shivers and looks on ; the only medicine for the reco-
very of either is a blistering fluid, which had been
prescribed for an injured horse. There is throughout
such a spirit of energy about Mr. Layard that we
feel he deserves to succeed.* We soon take part in
the enthusiasm of his Arab diggers at the dis-
covery of any fresh sculpture. " Hasten, O Bey,"
exclaimed one of them, " hasten to the diggers, for
they have found Nimrod himself." We are quite
ready to share the dreams of one disturbed night,
when he says : " Visions of palaces underground, of
gigantic monsters, of sculptured figures, and endless
inscriptions floated before me." But the ground upon
which Mr. Layard works is fertile indeed, for it con-
* N.I. 65, 137.
13
tains the remains of the most magnificent city of the
ancient world. This is "the exceeding great city
of three days' journey " of Jonah, in which,* accord-
ing to the most received theory, Nimrud, Koyunjik,
Kramles, and Khorsabad marked the angles. Between
them was spread the beautiful city with its parks
and gardens, all remains of which have perished,
their place occupied by sand so shifting that a trench
described by Layard is not to be found by Loftus a
few years after ; and coffins are laid above ground in
trust upon the chances of the winds, which would be
as likely to bury them as to keep them buried. The
palaces would have met with the fate of the city at
large were it not for the vast mounds upon which they
were built : " These were of sun-dried bricks, about
30 or 50 feet above the level of the plain. Upon it
the monument was raised. When the building was
destroyed, its ruins, already half-buried by the falling
in of the upper walls and roof, remained upon the
platform, and were in process of time completely
covered up by the dust and sand carried about by the
hot winds of summer." It appears, too, that hut-
villages were built upon some of the mounds, which upon
decay were replaced by others in succession, the mound
itself growing in size at each change. A strong sup-
porting wall surrounded the mound, and this served as
a coating for the sun-dried bricks, f Mr. Layard
first opened a trench to the level of the platform
and then struck others at right angles to it ;
he was soon able to discover whether he was in a quar-
ter for ruins. With some of the results of this process
most of us are familiar. We have read how in the
* Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 650; Loftus' Chaldea, p. 4.
f Bonorai, p. 89.
14
wondrous palace of Sennacherib were found the most
magnificent sculptures, the winged bulls and lions, the
eagle-headed divinities, the bas-reliefs in alabaster,
with inscriptions beneath them, commemorating the
triumphs of the empire, the carvings in ivory and pre-
cious woods all speaking of a state of glory and pomp
exceeded by none of the kingdoms of old. And, in-
dependently of their subject, the sculptures are no
mere monstrosities (such as are pictured in the illus-
trations to Stephens's Central America), but works of
the highest art. No one can see the colossal figures,
the winged bulls and lions, without being amazed at the
" strength in perfect repose" which is in them.* There is
no fierceness, but simple consciousness of power; they
gather up in themselves " the union of the greatest
intellectual and physical powers." And there is no
mystery such as exists in the solemn monuments of
Egypt, whether Sphinx or Eameses, a characteristic
of the latter beautifully expressed by Mrs. Barret
Browning, when she says, speaking of a child in
death :
" She has seen the mystery hid
Under Egypt's pyramid :
By those eyelids pale and close
Now she knows what Rhamses knows." f
At Nineveh the thought is altogether different ; the
wings are quietly folded in majesty upon the back of
the Colossus ; but whether in them, or in the vast
proportions of its limbs, or in the frankness and open-
ness of its human countenance, we find power only, not
mystery.
Let us now pass from the ideal to the actual lion,
shown in "The Lion-hunt." f An admirable sketch
*See Pusey on Daniel, p. 112115. flV, 276. JN. II, 77, 1, 129.
15
of it is given in the second volume of Mr. Layard's
first book; he says, " it is probably the finest specimen
of Assyrian art in existence." It is a bas-relief in
alabaster, and after the eye has become accustomed
to the somewhat conventional treatment of the subject
which runs through the Nineveh sculptures, we
can only marvel at the beauty of the design. Nothing
can surpass the excitement of the warrior, who is
armed almost as if going into battle, leading us to
see that there was the same connection between
war and the chase as in modern times between
the heights of Sebastopol and the hunting fields of
Leicestershire. The horses are intensely eager, their
ears thrown back, their eyes dilated. Every detail in
the sculpture is worked out with minuteness, even to
the armlets of the warrior, the chasing of the quiver,
the nocks and feathers of the arrows, and the bosses,
reins, and trappings of the harness. Much to be
noted, too, is the rage of the king of beasts, who is
not now standing in the majestic nonchalance of his
winged relation, but rolling on the earth, open-
mouthed, pierced with arrows, champing furiously
against his fate in an agony of impassioned despair.
An interesting fact for naturalists seems to have
been indicated by this and other sculptures, that the
Asiatic lion had a claw upon the tuft of its tail.
This was asserted by an ancient Greek, and has
been often laughed at and contradicted since ;* but
a real claw upon a real tail was produced before
the Zoological Society in 1832, and has since been
found upon one sculpture after another at Nimrud.
Whether this was the rule or the exception, is still a
* L. N. II, 422; Bonomi, 245.
16
matter of controversy, and I suggest that we should
agree to abide by the decision of one who is as intimate
with the lion of natural history as his brother with
that of the sculptures the learned Curator of our
Museum.
Another question has been accidentally decided by
the sculptures : " How were the enormous blocks
used in the largest of the Assyrian monuments taken to
their places ?"* Some of them were twenty feet square,
and must have weighed between forty and fifty tons.
The same thought must have occurred to any who
have seen those weird pillars of Stonehenge, whose
origin is lost in remote antiquity ; until a few years
ago they were almost the only works of man for miles
about them, and even now are almost desolate upon
the vast plain. Who brought them there, and how ?
We have no British bas-reliefs to answer the question ;
but at Nineveh a series has been discovered showing
the whole work, from the first transport of the huge
stone in the rough from the quarry to the raising of
the finished sculpture to its place in the palace. On
one of them, the block is on its passage down the Tigris
in a raft far shorter than itself; cables are passed
through holes bored in the stone, and dragged by large
bands of men, each urged on by overseers, the head
of the party being seated comfortably on the top of
the block. Others represent the sledge on to which
the block has been landed ; the cables are dragged
as before, but wedges and rollers are now used,
and levers worked by ropes. Four officers are
standing on the stone to give directions, one
having what is supposed to be a speaking trumpet.
* N. and B. 104114.
17
In the whole series, the sculptor inserts men until his
slab comes to an end ; if we except the single appli-
ances of the levers, wedges, and rollers, all that the
Assyrians depended on was human power. And this,
next to steam, would be found now the best adapted
to the purpose of transport. Some of you may remem-
ber the great delay caused by the procession at the
Duke of Wellington's funeral by the huge catafalqqe
upon which the coffin was placed becoming bedded in
the loose wet soil near Hyde-Park corner. All the
horses which could be got were harnessed to the car,
but did not drag it an inch. An artillery officer then
suggested that soldiers should be substituted, and
these giving, at the word of command, one simul-
taneous pull, lifted it instantly out of its hole. And simi-
larly, the sculptures must always have been dependent
upon intelligent human strength. When Mr. Layard
wished to remove them from their site, he could only
make use of the same means as were employed to take
them there ; and when a framework was wanted for
keeping the figures erect, on their being brought into
position at the British Museum, it was fashioned after
the model of that which by the last of the series
of reliefs is shown to have been used at Nineveh
thousands of years ago.
Consider, too, the small means possessed by the
Assyrians for carrying out their designs. Baked
sun-dried bricks, coarse alabaster or gypsum upon
which to carve the reliefs of the panelled slabs. These
were the materials at hand. No marble, nor ivory,
nor granite were near them ; even the limestone and
black basalt of which many of the monuments were
made had to come from far. And yet because the
power was in sculptor and architect, no difficulties
B
18
would check it. They had " bricks for stone and slime
for mortar" in the plains about them, but they conquered
by force of will, and their art rose to the highest point
of excellence. It is a lesson to us at the Cape of
great results from poor means, of the life which springs
from intense determination.
Below the bas-reliefs, upon the walls, were generally
found the celebrated cuneiform wedge-shaped in-
scriptions, written in a character specially used for the
solemn records of the nation.* These records were kept
at first in the conquered country itself; a tablet was
scooped upon the face of some prominent rock at a
depth sufficient to guard it from the weather, upon
which a rude picture was carved, and the particulars
of the conquest given by the inscription below. A
magnificent specimen of this kind found in Behistun,
in Persia, and partially deciphered by Sir H. Rawlinson,
has been one great help towards the meaning of the
cuneiform character. He especially noticed here c< a
very extraordinary device, which has been employed
apparently to give a finish and durability to the writing.
It was, that after the engraving of the rock had been
accomplished, a coating of siliceous varnish had been
laid on to give a clearness of outline to each individual
letter, and to protect the surface against any action of
the elements. The varnish is of infinitely greater hard-
ness than the limestone rock beneath it."f By degrees
inscriptions on the rock seem to have been abandoned,
and the walls of the palaces themselves became their
home, so that the kings might be surrounded with the
records of their national glories.! These tell of the
* N. ii, 164, 182.
f Quoted in Bonomi, p. 123, from the Journals of the Asiatic Society.
j N. and B., 632, 447
19
public life only of the empire. They are, as it were,
diaries of campaigns, and do not enter, as the
contemporary books of the Bible, upon the private
history of individuals. And both reliefs and in-
scriptions speak of triumphs only, not of defeats, an
instructive illustration of human nature in all ages.
The battle-field is strewn with the slain and their
scattered arms ; but they are all enemies. The sculp-
tor, to flatter the vanity of his countrymen, does not
pourtray a single Assyrian either dead or wounded.
Certain accounts which we ourselves have heard from
the Free State, telling of terrific fights, with the losses
on one side only, may possibly form a parallel.
Not less important than the wall-tablets are the
cylinders. These are made of baked clay, mostly
hexagonal or barrel-shaped. They are usually covered
with inscriptions, such as records of wars, royal decrees,
and lists of gods.* One of them, mentioned by
Sir H. Eawlinson, is so minute as to defy analysis,
even after examination with the microscope. On
Layard's second visit to Nineveh, he found a depo-
sitory in the palace for such documents, the remains of
which were strewn on the floor a foot deep. The
characters were formed upon the soft clay before it
was hardened by the fire. Some were in the cursive
or running character used in private communications,
and differing entirely from the cuneiform, or public
writing of the wall-tablets. In one use to which these
cylinders were put we find an illustration of our mo-
dern custom of placing documents under the corner-
stone of our buildings; a perfect inscribed cylinder
was found near Birs Nimrud, the site of Babylon,
* Bonomi, 354.
B2
20
commemorative of the founder "standing on one extre-
mity, in a niche formed by the omission of one of the
bricks in the layer."*
The work of deciphering the inscriptions was one of
immense difficulty. There was an alphabet which, even
after having been cut down by analysis, amounted to
150 letters, and many of these used to represent different
sounds. When the inscriptions were parallel, there
was not, as in the case of the Rosetta stone, one known
language to serve as a guide to the others ; but each
was unintelligible, its meaning only to be guessed at by
its relation to some kindred tongue. There are other
drawbacks set out at length by Mr. Fergusson, in the
chapter entitled Inscriptions ; but notwithstanding, he
sums up the results thus : " With an alphabet, so
nearly perfect as the one already elaborated, with a
certain knowledge of the affinities of this language to
others, with which the learned are familiar, and with
500 of the most usual words certainly known, it can
only require a sufficient amount of industry on the
part of those whose philological acquirements fit them
for the task, to perfect what has been so well com-
menced. When once this is accomplished, we may
read these contemporary annals of Assyria and Baby-
lonia with as much certainty as we do those of our
own Anglo-Saxon kings."f The extent to which this
has been already done is a matter of controversy among
scholars ; and until the question is absolutely deter-
mined, we cannot look for a settlement of some of those
vexed questions upon the history and chronology of
Scripture which a few years must in all likelihood
bring. Some of these have already received light.
* Loftus' Chaldea, p. ISO. f p. 25.
21
For instance, the account in the Prophet Daniel, that
at the taking of Babylon, Belshazzar was king, was
contradicted by Berosus, who said that Nabonidus
was king. But on one of the cylinders the puzzle
was explained.* It was found that Belshazzar was
admitted to a share of the Government in the life
of Nabonidus, his father. He therefore ranked as king.
This difficulty is at an end ; others may be long before
they yield ; but we may well be content to wait the
issue patiently. Meanwhile, it is very cheering to see
what reverent handling Holy Scripture has met with
at the hands of the leaders in Assyrian and Chaldean
exploration : they treat it as the book, the authority, and
bring the inscriptions simply in illustration. And these
are the most valuable there are. The monuments of
Egypt throw but little light upon the Bible. There
was a repugnance between the Egyptians and the
Jews which could never be got over.f Manners,
habits, customs, almost all were different. But
when we come to Assyria, we find its monuments and
sculptured walls full of illustrations of the Israelites,
whose remains as a nation are almost entirely in wri-
ting, and whose daily life that kingdom bore upon
more than any other. The Samaritans, for instance,
who lived in their midst in the time of our Lord, were
not akin to them, but descendants of those heathens
with whom Shalmanezer, King of Assyria, had colo-
nized the desolate country of the ten tribes. J They
were originally emigrants, as we read in the Book of
Kings, " from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from
Ava, and from Haneath, and from Sepharvaim." And
* Sir H. Rawlinson, quoted by Puzey on Daniel, 402.
f Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, pp. 86100.
j See Dean Goulburn's Acts of the Deacons, p. 221.
we see in the palaces the gorgeous chambers " ceiled
with cedar and painted with vermilion," which Jere-
miah describes (xxii, 14);* the carvings in ivory, such
as the workmen in the Book of Ezekiel are making for
the galleys of Tyre (xxvii, 6) ; the " blue clothes and
embroidered work " in which Assyrians were skilled and
their merchants traded (xxvii, 24); the events of the
siege and the treatment of the conquered (xxvii, 7, 12);
and the idols carried in procession, as we read in the
Prophet Isaiah. " They bear him upon the shoulder,
they carry him and set him in his place (xlvi, 67)."
These points, and many others like them, bearing upon
the accuracy of Scripture, will have been noted by
every reader of Mr. Layard's books.
I will now ask you to pass from the plains of the
Tigris to the Bay of Naples, where in one of the
loveliest scenes on earth lies the long-buried city of
Pompeii. It is in the midst of a volcanic region,
where the ancient fables which told that here were the
Campi Phlegraei, the Burning Plains, and the Pyri-
phlegethon, the river gleaming with fire, and the Lake
Avernus, the entrance into the infernal regions, might
have taught its people the danger which lurked beneath.
The craters of extinct volcanoes near, as well as the
volcanic soil upon which their gardens and vine-
yards throve, might have been another warning. An
earthquake which destroyed parts of both Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii only sixteen years before the
eruption which overwhelmed them might also have
caused alarm for the future. But we have no traces to
show that fear existed. So is it still in the villages
along the shores of the bay. Even now that eruptions
* N. ii, 264, 452, 420, and 378.
23
have taken place oftener, the inhabitants of Torre
del Greco, who live above Herculaneum, have been
offered other sites *by successive governments ; but
they cling to their home as if nothing would ever
trouble them. And, indeed, the whole scene rests in
such uttermost calm, that it is difficult to imagine the
change of the cloudless sky in to that terrible hour, when,
instead of the lazy, thin line of vapour which now drifts
upward from the cone of Vesuvius, there arose the
vast column which was (as Pliny's letter describes it)
" like a gigantic pine," the fire its trunk, the smoke its
branches. Then, whilst the flood of lava poured upon
Herculaneum immediately below, a cloud of white ash
was carried to Pompeii, choking the air, and filling the
streets and lanes of the city to a height of some feet.
This was followed by the steamy torrent which, forming
a strong thick mud as a stratum above the ashes, pene-
trated into every nook and cranny, and closing up at
once every avenue of escape, engulphed the people
with their houses and possessions in an indiscriminate
destruction. And for nearly 1700 years the city lay
quietly beneath the mass, a new life of vegetation
forming gradually upon the volcanic tufa, its site un-
known, its history well-nigh forgotten, until an accident
revealed it to the world, and its excavations were
begun. With varying energy they have been continued
until the present time ; at first mostly upon the princi-
ple of rifling the treasures and then leaving the walls
to perish, so that many precious remains were suffered
to become heaps of rubbish. And even if the walls
stood, the paintings and frescoes which surrounded
them faded on exposure to the atmosphere. When
discovered, they were bright and glowing as on the
day they were painted, some only half-finished,
24
the artist himself, it may be, as the poet imagines,*
throwing down his brush under which the flowers
were blooming, and fleeing for his life ; but the rain
and sun have done their work remorselessly, and the
Vandalism of man has ruined what the earth preserved.
Of late years, however, a great change has taken place,
especially since the Italian revolutions. There was at
first every prospect of things getting worse. Among
the strange acts of the popular idol Garibaldi, during
his happily brief career in Southern Italy, was the
appointment of the novelist Dumas to the inspectorship of
the ruins, about which he cared and knew nothing. But
a new regime has been inaugurated by Signor Fiorelli,
one of the most accomplished archaeologists in Europe,
and now the utmost care is taken to repair any damage
done in excavation, to restore as far as possible each
building to its old framework ; so that instead of show-
ing streets of broken walls, Pompeii will breathe again
with its old life. One great change in the method of
conducting the excavations results from the use which
Signor Fiorelli has made of simple means for what may
almost be called the preservation of those bodies which
were overwhelmed in the eruption. Of old, the visi-
tor to Naples was shown the skeleton head of the
good soldier who would not be driven from his post at
the river gate, but stood true to the last: if the
discovery were made now, he might see the soldier
himself. If the villa of Diomed were excavated
now, and in its cellar were found tokens that the family
took refuge there, we should be able to see, not their
skeletons, but the group which they formed as the
fiery streams overwhelmed them. For this has been
* Schiller, vol. 1,387.
25
done in other cases. It occurred to Fiorelli that, by pass-
ing liquid plaster into the hollows where the bodies
had been, he might use them as the sculptor would his
model. So that now there are the very forms them-
selves, seeming as if they wanted but a touch to rekindle
them into life. The most marvellous group which the
earth ever gave back was placed in 1861 in the new mu-
seum which Signer Fiorelli has formed at Pompeii. It
seemed to be a family who, having crouched in some
corner whilst the city was being enveloped in ashes,
were driven out by the liquid mud which followed, and
at last engulphed them. One, probably the mistress
of the house, carried in her hands such household
treasures as she could find ; her keys were at her
side, and vases, coins, and jewels close by. Another
of the casts shows a man who, despairing of escape,
laid himself down on his back to die quietly : he is tall
and vigorous, with strongly marked features; the
coarse stuff of his clothes, the heavy sandals, one of
them torn, the thick ring on his finger, are said to be
plainly marked. The other two are supposed to be
mother and daughter, poor people, as shown by their
clothing. The poor girl struggled hard for life. M. Marc
Monier says: " She had covered her head with her veil
from fear. She was buried as she ran : her face is towards
the ground, and not being able to raise herself, she had
rested her fragile young head upon one of her arms.
One of her hands is half open, as if she had held
something, possibly her veil. The nails of her fingers
had pierced the plaster."* Another eye-witness says :
" The form of her head is perfectly preserved. The
texture of her coarse linen garments may be traced,
* Revue des Deux Mondes, xlrii, 231.
26
and even the fashion of her dress, with its long sleeves
reaching to the wrists. Here and there it is torn, and
the smooth young skin appears in the plaster like
polished marble. On her tiny feet may be seen her
embroidered sandals."* So that we have here no mock-
ery of preservation, such as the Egyptian mummy-
cases unfold, no groups of mere statuary, but the very
forms themselves as they gathered round each other in
the act of dying, every line complete, even to the
"clenched hands and lips, stiffened with sorrow."f
And seen at Pompeii itself, such a group as this must
form the saddest commentary on the life of a city, of
which the motto upon one of its villas might serve for
the whole " Habitat Felicitas," felicitas meaning the
sensuous, butterfly existence which Lord Lytton has
set forth in " The Last Days of Pompeii." Except
for one sculptured cross, there would be no sign to
show that the city was not wholly given to idolatry ;
indeed, there is much which tells of a lower state of
worship and morals than any which has been declar-
ed by the serene divinities of Assyria. Its life is only
written as yet in its buildings, paintings, and statues,
for no library has yet been found ; but| the papyri
of the sister city of Herculaneum are almost entirely
of the Epicurean school, which said, " Let us eat and
drink, for to-morrow we die." How little they
knew of the way in which the fountain of life would be
dried up !
And there is no hospital ; perhaps it may be said with
truth that there could be none in any Roman town of
that age. All systematic care for the sick and suffering,
all those blessed associations for living ministry to the
* Quarterly Review, No. 230. f Plumtrc's Poems, p. 154.
J Edinburgh Revitw, No. 236.
27
poor, in which our own time is rich, sprang up from
the brotherhood of the Church, when this became fully
organized. The pagan world, as a whole, did not recog-
nize such sympathy : self was its god.
It would be tedious to enter at length into the parti-
culars of the excavations. The value of them has been
principally in the light which they have thrown upon the
domestic life of the Romans. The city abounded in such
luxuries and elegancies as showed that its people, whilst
living in a climate where work is burdensome and the
invitations of out-door existence strong, had ample
means for gratifying their tastes. Their love of colour
was extreme ; their houses built of simple masonry
(opus incertum it was technically called) are decorated,
even the poorest, by some painting, if the owner
could only afford a garland of flowers or a bunch of
fruit. Greek artists seem to have lived among them ;
but the statuary for the most part is not of the highest
kind, although late accounts speak of one or two groups
of singular beauty ; and in the Blacas Collection, just
added to the British Museum, there is a fresco of
which a critic writes : " That it is a composition
worthy of a great master." * And of the celebrated
mosaic of the "Battle of Issus" (almost the only
work of art at Pompeii for which Sir Walter Scott
seemed to caref) it has been said that some of the heads
are equal to Raphael's. These, however, are the
exceptions: the decoration is rather graceful and pretty
than full of any deep feeling, and thus corresponded
with what we know in other ways to have been the
character of the inhabitants. There are tokens to
show that they were admirable workers in metal; there
* Saturday Review^ January 26. f Lockhart's Life, vii, 349.
28
are vases of exquisite design in bronze and silver
necklaces and other ornaments so perfect, that the
great Roman jeweller, Castellani, can do nothing better
than copy them literally; also bracelets of elastic
bronze, the power to manufacture which is quite lost ;
surgical instruments, horrible to see, in great profu-
tion, said to show the deepest anatomical skill ; one
of them was patented in London as a new inven-
tion two years before it was discovered in a house
at Pompeii. And not in single instances so much
as in the whole feeling of the city does the life in
death startle and appal us. The baths, with the seata
in the waiting-room, as if they had been used yester-
day ; the pavements on which the chariot wheels have
left ruts, the stones for the riders to mount, and the
rings by which the horses were tethered ; the street
which was being made, at the end of which is a huge
block of stone to prevent carriages from coming down ;
the house which was building, where you see the
stucco model from which the marble bas-relief
was being worked ; the well of which the sides are
worn by the cords of the bucket or the hands of the
drinkers ; all these things, evidences of common every-
day life, upon which it seems as if a hand had been
laid for a moment, and then removed, leave an awe-
stricken feeling on the mind which it is not easy to
escape from. Perhaps, in this point of view, although
there are others elsewhere of far greater compass and
magnificence, nothing at Pompeii makes the same
impression as the Amphitheatre. In it the great mass
of the population was assembled at the time of the
first alarm of an eruption. The path to it lies for some
distance over the still buried part of the city. Every
step is taken over that which once throbbed with
29
life. The building is more ancient than the
Coliseum. It is now as it was when 10,000 people were
crowded upon the stone seats, and shouting for another
combat of gladiators or a fresh victim for the lions. The
cells for the beasts are quite perfect, and all the entrances
and covered wings for the different ranks of citizens, from
the nobles by the arena to the slaves in the galleries. And
in the Museo Borbonico are the tickets of admission. It
is startling to be shown the door at which the gladiators
entered for the fight. A sculpture on one of the tombs
represents these deadly encounters, gladiators against
each other, or against Thracian captives, or against the
wild beasts. But no hint is given of the sacrifice which
from other sources we know to have been most frequent,
the Christians to the lions. That history is omitted,
like defeats from the Nineveh marbles ; no sculpture
nor inscription publishes that shame. Yet it must
always be impossible not to meditate on the agony and
the faith there had been within the walls of the
Amphitheatre when martyrs, " of whom the world was
not worthy," gave up their lives gladly in hope of
the Resurrection. And, therefore, in the Coliseum
itself, the centre and home of such deeds of blood, it
seems scarcely strange (if symbols have any meaning)
to be told of flowers of extreme rarity and beauty
blossoming year after year upon its now deserted
galleries.
Let us ask, before we conclude, to what we owe
the wonderful preservation of these buried cities?
Schiller's beautiful line is the answer :
"Nichts is verloren,' getreu hat es die Erde bewahrt."
The lava and ashes of Vesuvius have guarded Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii; the mounds have preserved
30
Nineveh ; the alluvium of the Tiber has cared well
for Ostia ; and each has lain quietly under its burden
until the world was best able to profit by its disinter-
ment. To use again some words of M. Monier : " It
was a great good fortune for Pompeii to be buried
under the ashes, but a far greater that it should have
stayed these sixteen hundred and sixty-nine years :
one trembles to think what would have become of these
poor ruins if they had had to submit to the outrages of
the thousand invasions which from the reign of Titus
to that of Charles III, came one upon another to
devastate the miserable kingdom of Naples." She has
been indeed our mother-earth, waiting patiently until
her children were prepared to listen to the revelation
of her secrets. We should as little have expected her
to perform this office, as to learn that the most expe-
rienced travellers in Polar regions, when over-
taken by a snow-storm, invite the snow to cover
them up, and as it were build over them, in order
that they may be kept warm and living. * Yet if
these cities had been above ground they would have
been broken to pieces. Mr. Palgrave tells us how
in a recent visit to Egypt he saw an " unparalleled
granite Colossus which has become a well-nigh shape-
less mass," and this although " a thousand steam sledge
hammers would have seemed insufficient to effect its
ruin." Any part of an exposed city or palace is
made a quarry of, goes, for instance, to build a
bridge, or repair a miserable village at Mosul :f or
some precious relic is smashed to pieces by devout
Mussulmen as the idol of the infidels. But the earth
restores that which she had hidden, but not destroyed :
* Homes without Hands, p. 37. f N. and B., xxiv.
31
we find it preserved from exposure to the atmosphere,
and from wanton destruction or ignorant misuse. The
Assyrians are present to speak of their wealth and
power, and of artistic taste and skill, without which
mere material wealth would have been useless. We
can imagine each building perfect, each palace rising in
its splendour, as Mr. Fergusson's restorations have
pictured at Khorsabad and Nimrud. The lions are
guarding the portals, the triumphs of war and the
chase surround their walls ; we want but the living
men, the king with his retinue and state, the troops of
armed warriors, and the captives brought from
far lands, to complete the grand suggestions which
the earth has given us of the power of the
empire. And when we turn from the stern simplicity of
Nineveh to the growing effeminacy of the Roman
people, we find at Pompeii innumerable instances of a
highly-polished, civilized, and dissolute city, which
Vesuvius had hidden as it were for a moment, and all
seems as if hardly a memory, but as if the shows and
revels were still present, as if the songs had scarcely
ceased or the flowers faded.
I have now endeavoured to indicate a few outlines
of a great subject, which may interest even those,
like myself, with whom they must ever remain
outlines, as well as those who are qualified to
go into their depths. There is a fascination to such
as care only for things modern, things which speak
of the rushing life of the nineteenth century,
for these cities were discovered but yesterday;
and to such as love that which is ancient, for does not
their disinterment tell us of two of the greatest empires
of antiquity ? The old and the new are hand in hand.
To us in South Africa there is very special need of
32
subjects of this class, in order that we may make for
ourselves interests which are not naturally forced
upon us in our daily life. We have much to
rejoice us in our beautiful scenery, in the glories
of mountain and cloud, and sea ; but we have
nothing which connects us naturally with the great
deeds of the past ; nothing which causes the heart
to leap or the pulse to beat more quickly, like theirs
who feel (in the words of Sir Charles Fellows, used of
Greece) that " every peak in every mountain range
has its history." We have no monuments of a nation's
struggles, nor of its artistic life. We must claim,
then, with the greater earnestness, our heritage in the
past life of the world ; for we may gather thence, not
less from its failures than from its triumphs, new
motives for high and noble aims, and these independent
of earthly greatness or material prosperity.
SAUL SOLOMOK AND CO., ST. GBORGE'fl-STREET, CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
Cprtj-mot(f ^nnikrsarg Hiding
OF THE
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 23RD MAY, 1868.
fir. frotor f0bJe in % Cfewr.
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & Co., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1868.
Committee :
W. PORTER, ESQ.
Mr. PROFESSOR CAMERON
W. HIDDINGH, ESQ. (Treas.)
S. SOLOMON, ESQ.
MR. PROFESSOR NOBLE
J. C. GIE, ESQ.
DR. DALE
SIR THOMAS MACLE AR,KNT.
VERY REV. DEAN DOUGLAS
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE,
ESQ.
| JOHN NOBLE, ESQ.
A True Copy,
F. MASKEW, Librarian.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The Committee, in
submitting their annual report, regret that they are
unable to congratulate the subscribers and the public
on the improved financial position of the institution.
This is to be attributed, in great measure, to the
reduction in the amount of the Parliamentary grant,
as noticed by the Committee in their last report ; and
also to the fact that the expectations of the Committee, in
appealing to the public for a more efficient support of
one of the oldest and most useful of our colonial insti-
tutions, have not yet been realized.
Your Committee during the past year were induced,
in consequence of the limited state of the funds, to pre-
sent a petition to His Excellency the Governor, praying
for the restoration of the original grant of 600 per
annum, and they urged the claims of the Library for
additional support, and at the same time brought to
His Excellency's notice that certain liabilities were
incurred upon the faith that the Parliamentary grant
was to be a permanent one. His Excellency was
pleased to receive the petition favourably, and forwarded
it to the House of Assembly for their consideration,
and in the message transmitting the petition stated that
this grant, as well as others of a like character, had been
reduced solely out of deference to the resolution of the
House of Assembly ; but that His Excellency would
be prepared to restore to those institutions the sums
formerly allowed to them.
A 2
During the debate on the Estimates the question
came under consideration, and your Committee are
inclined to infer from the discussion which then took
place that, but for the late period of the session, the
grant would have been restored. In the full confidence
that such was the feeling of the House, your Committee
intend to renew their application to His Excellency
during the present session of Parliament, when they
trust the Honourable House may be pleased to restore
the grant to its original amount.
The Committee have to report that an offer was made
to them by the trustees of the Popular Library, Messrs.
W. Porter and E. Christian, to hand over to them the
cash balance remaining in their hands and belonging to
that institution, amounting to 44 8s. 4d., provided the
Committee would guarantee any bond fide claims that
might be made upon the trustees to the extent of
the amounts so deposited, to which they gladly
acceded.
During the stay of His Koyal Highness the Duke of
Edinburghin Cape Town, His Eoyal Highness honoured
the institution by a visit, and it was a source of great
pleasure and gratification to the Committee to learn
from His Royal Highness that he was pleased with the
general arrangement of the Library, which was opened
to the public by His Royal Highness on his previous
visit to the Colony.
The Committee have to acknowledge the bequest
made to the institution by their late colleague, Mr.
Justice Watermeyer, of one hundred volumes of works,
to be selected from his library, which have been re-
ceived and placed on the shelves. They have also to
record their thanks to the Hon. Dr. Abercrombie for
the presentation of 175 volumes of medical works.
This collection Dr. Abercrombie has given to the
Library, for the benefit of the profession to which he
belongs, with the understanding that the books may be
circulated freely under the ordinary rules of the insti-
tution. To Charles A. Fairbridge, Esq., the Committee
are indebted for the following rare and valuable works
presented by him to the Library :
Demosthenes. Folio. 1570. Paris. From the Duke
of Sussex Library.
Kedi's Works, 7 vols., 8vo., 1778. Naples. This copy
belonged to Leigh Hunt, whose signature is on
the title page. The volumes are annotated
by Hunt, who translated parts of Bacco in
Toscana.
Tristram Shandy. First edition, 12mo. 17601767.
Sterne's signature will be found on the first pages
of Books 5, 7, and 9, apparently presentation
copies.
The Basilicon Doron of James I. First edition. Very
scarce. 12mo. London: 1603. Three small por-
traits of James I,, all rare, and highly prized by
collectors, inserted.
The Icon Basilike of Charles I. (or at all events laid
to his charge) 12mo. 1648.
Milton's Defensio pro Populo Anglicano. First edition.
London : 1650.
Callander's Terra Australis Cognita (known as Callan-
der's Collection of Voyages, 3 vols., 8vo. Edin-
burgh: 1766. Scarce.
The Committee trust that the good example set by
these gentlemen may be followed by others, and that
subscribers and the public will duly appreciate their
liberality.
The accessions of books by purchase as well as by
presentation are as follows :
Theology 1 volume.
Political Economy 9
Science and the Arts 183
Works of Amusement ... ... 145
Belles Lettres 68
History 72
Voyages and Travels ... ... 61
Biography 30
Miscellaneous 11
Total 580
Amongst them will be found several works, together
with those already mentioned, presented by the Revs.
Messrs Kock and D. P. Faure, Messrs. T. B. Bayley,
James Backhouse, Wm. H. Orpen, W. Purcell, and
J. Currey, to all of whom the thanks of the subscribers
and the public are due.
A descriptive catalogue of the "Early English
Printed Books in the ' Grey Collection' " has been pub-
lished ; the description of the old manuscripts has been
continued, and a correspondence been opened with some
scholars in Europe for the purpose of ascertaining the
critical value of several of these manuscripts.
The Committee have also to state that His Excel-
lency the Governor having sanctioned the free trans-
mission by post of documents forwarded for deposit in
the Grey Library, this privilege has been used mainly
for the purpose of completing the unrivalled collection
of native literature brought together by Sir George
Grey. This department of the Library has been en-
riched in the course of the year by an addition of
seventy-seven printed books, presented by missionaries,
together with several manuscripts.
The Library is indebted to the Rev. J. W. Apple-
yard for thirty-six publications ; to the Lovedale Mis-
sionaries for thirteen ; to the Rev. Messrs. A. Kropf and
S. Ghysin for two Kafir books each ; further, to the Rev.
H. Callaway for twelve, and to the Bishop of Natal for
six, Zulu books ; to the Matabele Missionaries for two
books; to the Rev, R. Moffat for a copy of his
new edition of the Setshuana New Testament ; and
to the Rev. G. Kronlein for three Hottentot
books.
The Committee have to record their regret at the
departure of Mr. Frere, a member of the Committee,
and they deem it but due to him to express their
appreciation of the long and valuable services freely
rendered by him, both in his capacity as member of
the Committee, and as treasurer of the institution.
The Committee of the South African Public Library
have had to record, from time to time, the names of
great and good men, whose liberality has enriched this
institution, and whose acquirements have shed a lustre
over the whole community. The memory of none is
dearer than that of the late Judge Watermeyer, whose
name will live long in the hearts of those who had
learned during his career, so early closed, to admire the
varied accomplishments of his intellect and the gene-
rous impulses of his heart. He was intimately con-
nected with the management of this Library for many
years, and was also a trustee of the " Grey Collection,"
and he gave freely to the public, both in that capacity
and in ethers bearing on the education and improve-
ment of colonial youth, all the benefits to be expected
from a refined and well-stored mind. His colleagues
8
here to-day record his loss with few words, but with
lasting sorrow.
They have likewise to mention with regret the death
of Major Longmore, who for upwards of thirty years
was a member of the Committee, and took a warm
interest in the prosperity of the institution ; and also
of the late Eichard Bay ley, Esq., whose valuable ser-
vices as auditor were cheerfully given to the institution
during many years.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I appear before you
on this occasion in the capacity of a stop-gap. Two
months ago, the Hon. Mr. Griffith, the Attorney-
General, engaged to preside at this meeting, and deliver
the annual Library address, which, by the usage of many
successive years, and the sanction of many distinguished
predecessors in this chair, has become one of the estab-
lished institutions of the Cape. We all looked forward
to the anticipated intellectual treat with the keenest
zest and interest. Some of us may have differed from
the hon gentleman on political or other public ques-
tions; and a warm-hearted, generous, impetuous
Irishman as he is nothing delights him more than a
vigorous conflict with opponents where fair play is the
motto on either side, and sentiments are outspoken,
and all is straightforward, and manly, and frank. But,
in the presidential chair of the Public Library, Mr.
Griffith would have appeared in a capacity and a light
still more attractive than any we have been accustomed
to hitherto. As a scientific student, a keen thinker, a
finished scholar, and a man I believe not merely
familiar, but imbued, with the generous spirit of our
English literature, he would have instructed and
delighted us to-day from the treasures of his richly-
stored mind, to an extent which only those who
know him best can most fully appreciate. To the
very sincere regret of us all, however, a few weeks
ago he was attacked with an ailment so acute and
10
serious, that the accomplishment of this particular
task had to be abandoned, while the discharge even
of his professional duties had to be suspended. Under
these circumstances, I have at short notice been
" impressed " into the service ; though only on the
distinct understanding that Mr. Griffith renews his
promissory engagement, and pledges himself to
occupy this chair, and deliver the address next year.
I will not occupy your time with prefatory matter in
the shape of idle apologies. I unfeignedly feel and
acknowledge ray inability to discharge the functions
which have been assigned to me in a manner worthy of
many of the distinguished men who have filled
this chair before me. But such thoughts as occur
to me amid the press of varied avocations, and in
the very limited time at my disposal, I shall endea-
vour to submit to you, as plainly, clearly, and
practically as I can. My object is to give a rapid
sketch of the present position and prospects of the
Library itself; of the efforts which have recently
been put forth for the advancement of knowledge in its
various departments in South Africa ; and of the most
characteristic phases and developments of Literature
and Science and Philosophy in England within the last
year or two, as represented by the accessions of books,
magazines, and reviews periodically received at this
Institution.
And first, with respect to the Library itself. It
is what Sir John Herschel, with the poetic instinct of
genius, pronounced it, " the bright eye of the Cape."
It is one of the proudest boasts of our Colony that
within these walls are treasured some forty thousand
volumes, in which are enshrined the wisdom and the
knowledge, the science, philosophy, poetry, and humour
11
of the centuries that have gone. As you have heard
from the report, the year now closed has contributed
its fair share of accessions to these stores. Duriug that
period nearly six hundred volumes, ranging over every
department, have been added to the Library. And
what is peculiarly gratifying, is the extent to which
individual donors have proved their warm interest in
the institution, by individual and most valuable contri-
butions. First of these stands the legacy of a hundred
rare and valuable volumes bequeathed by will from the
library of the lamented Mr. Justice Watermeyer ; and
next in time, though not less valuable, the handsome
donation from Dr. Abercrombie, M.L.C., comprising near
two hundred volumes, and constituting not merely what
he modestly called it, " the nucleus of a medical collec-
tion," but almost a complete medical library in itself.
Besides this, we are all aware of the magnificent collec-
tion of books and pamphlets relating to South Africa
which Mr. Fairbridge has already gathered, and to
which he is almost daily adding, with the intention of
placing them shortly in the South African Library,
where, side by side with the Grey Collection and the
Porter Collection, they will prove an imperishable
monument of our friend's learning, taste, liberality,
and patriotic feeling. I might refer to another munifi-
cent gift of a different kind, which is now being made
by a gentleman to whom the Library is already deeply
indebted but that his modesty forbids my making
mention even of his name. All these facts are ex-
tremely gratifying, as attesting the deep interest felt
by many in the progress and prosperity of this institu-
tion, and their anxiety to contribute their full share
towards accomplishing the high purpose set before us
by Sir George Grey, when, on the opening of this hall
12
in the presence of Prince Alfred, seven years ago, he
expressed the hope that the civilization of South Africa
would more than emulate the civilization of North
Africa in the early centuries of our era, and that the
Library of Cape Town might, of its kind, be as dis-
guished and beneficial as was then the Library of
Alexandria. But, at the same time, I cannot help
directing attention to the fact, that by the public
generally the institution has not been supported as it
ought to be. First-class subscribers have degraded
themselves into third-class subscribers which means
the payment of 1 a year instead of 3. Parliament,
in its retrenchment mania, has very deeply degraded
itself by retrenching in the departments of literature
and science more than in any other department of
the public service ! In fact, I believe the only real
victims of that abortive retrenchment were the Law
Lecturer and the Colonial Botanist, the Public
Library and the Botanic Gardens ; and the result is,
that during the year the managers of the Library
have been so crippled in their resources that they
were compelled on the one hand to curtail the supplier
of books from England, and on the other to reduce the
salaries of their officers which even on their highest
scale were most inadequately low. J trust that with
the return of better times to the people generally, there
will also be a return of better revenues to the Public
Library that Parliament will restore at once its
character and its grant, and that the institution may
be worked on a scale and with a vigour befitting its
importance and its real value to the very best interests
of the whole community.
Passing from this topic, let us next briefly review
what work has been accomplished for the advancement
13
of knowledge in South Africa within the last year or
two. Foremost, in this respect, must, of course, be
classed the series of geographical explorations and
discoveries which shed a lustre on the times in which
we live. Solving the problem that had puzzled
the sages and baffled the explorers of antiquity,
Captains Speke and Grant traced the mysterious
Nile from its source in Victoria Nyanza. Sir Samuel
Baker, accompanied by his noble and heroic wife^
advanced still further, traced the river to another
and greater source in the Albert Nyanza ; and by his
double explorations in Equatorial Africa and Abys-
sinia, proved beyond all question that the White
Nile, from the former, furnishes the main supply
perennially, while the Blue Nile from the Abyssinian
plateaux contributes the periodical inundations to which
Egypt is indebted for all her wealth. And now a
greater than any of these distinguished men our own
Livingstone comes back to us as the living from the
dead, his charmed life, defiant of peril, plague, or trea-
chery, btill preserved through all his wondrous wan-
derings, and within a few months or weeks we may
expect to have revealed by him the whole mystery of
those most interesting highlands, woodlands, and inland
seas of South-Eastern Africa. Entering by the
Eovuma, journeying round the south of Lake Nyassa,
and thence for more than a thousand perilous miles,
he has, unaided and alone, explored the whole country
from the Zambezi to the Equator, and may very
possibly have traced the sources of the Nile from
Lakes Albert and Victoria still further upward to
the magnificent expanse of Tanganyika itself, so
admirably described to us by Capt. Burton a few years
ago. And while Livingstone and others have been
14
thus upraising the veil which has so long obscured
South-Eastern Africa, Charles .John Andersson and
others have been performing a similar work for South-
Western Africa. Andersson, in his quiet, modest, but
most persistent and considering all the difficulties
and obstacles he had to encounter I will add, heroic
manner, has made us as familiar with the maps of
Damaraland and Ovampoland, on towards the Cunene,
as with those of the Free State or Natal, or the Cape
Colony itself. What could be more touching than the
record of his last fatal journey, told so well a few
months ago by his friend and fellow-explorer, Mr.
Frederick Green ? There, amid the wilds of Ondonga,
tended only by his faithful servant, baffled and prostrate,
he calmly prepared himself to die ; and for to this
complexion must we come at last after farewell
thoughts of wife and children and home, he begged to
have read to him the Psalms in his native Swedish,
which in childhood he had learned, and which in the
supreme moment were now his consolation and his stay.
The University of Lund have only by this last mail
conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
a fitting acknowledgment of the services he had rendered
to the march of civilization and of science ; but months
before, he had already passed beyond the reach of
earthly distinction, and finished a career which will,
however, still give honour to his memory as one of the
best and bravest of the pioneers of progress in South
Africa. I speak of him as I knew him ; and I could
not make mention of his name at all without offering
this tribute at once of warm affection and high esteem.
And, speaking of Andersson and the splendid ornitho-
logical work on which he was engaged just shortly
before his death, reminds me of the very valuable
15
volume on the birds of South Africa published a few
months ago by Mr. Layard, and which has met with so
eulogistic a reception among naturalists at home, that
a second and greatly enlarged edition is now in course
of preparation.
Another South African traveller must not be forgotten
in the same connection I mean Mr. Chapman whose
very interesting volumes have been received here only
a month or two ago. And speaking of him suggests
the name of Mr. Baines, whose pictorial representations
of the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi, both by pen
and pencil, are only equalled by the keen observation
and picturesque description he has given us of what he
saw through all his journeys, both in South-Eastern
and South- Western Africa.
And while our professed travellers and explorers, in
combination with traders and hunters, are penetrating
the interior and dispersing the barbaric darkness in
which it had so long been enshrouded, our missionaries
are exerting themselves in various ways towards the
same end, independently of the special and immediate
functions of their sacred calling. It is only a month
ago that I have received, in a modest missionary
magazine printed in Germany, a most graphic and
instructive journal of a tour made last year by the Rev.
Hugo Hahn, from his station at Otjimbinque, right
north to the Portuguese territories on the Cunene.
The tour was undertaken purely for missionary pur-
poses ; but the observations made of the geology,
natural history, and other physical conditions of the
country traversed are as complete, careful, and scientific
as we might expect from a man of Mr. Harm's high
accomplishments. Further, during the year interesting
light has been thrown on the ethnological characteris-
16
tics of the Otjyiherero or Damara people in the collec-
tion of MS. tales gathered by the Eev. Mr. Bath (now
at Sarepta, Kuils River), and on the languages of
those parts by the Damara Dictionary framed by Rath,
and the Ovampo Vocabulary prepared by Hahn, and
both of which have been presented, with many similar
works, to the Grey Collection. The Rev. Messrs.
Kronlein and Vollner, too, with the inexhaustible
patience and indomitable perseverance characteristic
of the Germanic race when engaged even on the merest
trifles, have made similar collections of fables, tales,
songs, riddles, and proverbs, illustrative of the Hotten-
tot mind as it is still to be found in its primitive condi-
tion amid the wastes of Great Namaqualand . Turning
to the East Coast, we find that a like work is being
done for the Zulus of Natal by the Rev. Dr. Callaway,
who, at his mission station of Spring vale, has already
printed six parts, amounting to a good-sized volume, of
" Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus
in their own words, with a Translation into English,
and Notes." It is, in fact, the same kind of service as
has been done so admirably for the Celts of Scotland
by Campbell's recent collection of Highland Tales, and
for the Scandinavians of Norway by Dr. Dasent's
Icelandic Sagas. What, it may be asked, is the real
good or interest of all this ? My answer is, Precisely
the same interest that attaches to fossil remains for the
student of palaeontology. As in the latter, widely
separated formations are identified as of the same
age, and produced under like conditions ; so from
these tales, legends, and riddles, we trace the connec-
tion between widely scattered branches of our common
human family. In one of Campbell's tales, taken down
in Gaelic from the lips of an ancient and unlettered
17
Highlander la one of the Western Hebrides, there
are plots and incidents identical with those of the
Merchant of Venice giving proof, therefore, of a
common origin, and making conclusive reference to the
period in the remote past when the wave of Celtic
migration had yet advanced no further westward
than Central Europe. By similar indications here of
language and of legend, the Hottentots of the Cape
may be traced back through their successive migrations
southward to their primal ancestry among the Copts
of Egypt.* From the missionaries of our own Kafir
frontier, valuable contributions have during the year
been made to the native stores in the Grey Collec-
tion. I need only refer to the grammars, vocabul-
aries, scripture translations, and native newspapers
presented by such excellent and devoted men as Apple-
yard, Boyce, Govan, Moffat, and Stewart. But for the
Kafirs proper, and the Hottentots too, the ethnological
work done in this respect has been but fragmentary
and partial. I am glad, however, to be able to point
to men who are perfectly and especially qualified to
carry it on to completion. For the Kafirs, there is
their own distinguished countryman, the Rev. Tyo
Soga, who I know has for some years been collecting
a series of most interesting legends, tales, and apologues,
which endowed as he is with a keen sense of humour,
as well as a power of graphic expression he can set
forth in fitting English garb in a style that would
* See Dr. Bleek's Researches. And mentioning the name of this
gentleman, I must add that it is largely owing to the zealous and
systematic correspondence carried on by him from his office as
Custodian of the Grey Collection in this Library, that so many
missionaries and others have been incited to the philological and
ethnological research I have referred to in the above.
B
18
render them of the deepest interest to us all. For the
further illustration of Hottentot life and character, I
need only mention the name of the Rev. Henry Tindall,
of Robertson, who should set about that work, for
which he is so eminently qualified, without more delay.
But there is yet another literary undertaking, and of a
still higher order, which now awaits the coming and
the fitting man. We thought we had him, first, in the
late lamented Justice Watermeyer, whose address
delivered from this chair on the early voyages of the
Portuguese, whose lectures afterwards read at the
Mechanics' Institute, and whose numerous contributions
later to the old Monthly Magazine, illustrative of the
social condition and strange misrule of the Cape under
the dynasty of the Seventeen, marked him out as the
historian of South Africa, who could produce a work
as quaintly interesting as Knickerbocker's New York,
and as philosophical and truly historic as the classic
volumes of Prescott and Helps on Mexico and Peru.
But it was not to be. When the shadows of death
with which in successive visitations he had become so
tragically familiar were darkening the closing years
of his too short life, he abandoned that, with many
another undertaking ; but not until he had consigned
or, I may more fitly say, bequeathed it to another, who
was in every respect singularly qualified for the task.
Mr. William Roger Thomson accepted the duty with con-
fident pleasure and hope, and had determined to devote
to it the best years and most vigorous energies of his
life. But Dis aliter visum. Thomson died even
before Watermeyer ; and now, when we think of
the shattered columns and broken hopes, the accom-
plishments, and gifts, and possibilities of both,
which remain to us only in sacred memory, we can
19
but sorrowfully say of the first and of the last,
that
Cat is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bongh.
Before leaving this department of my subject, there is
just one point to which I wish to direct the attention
of some of the elders among us. The best preparation
for a future history of the Colony is the collection of
fitting materials for the structure. Some, like the late
Mr. Fairbairn, who were themselves living histories
of the last forty years or more, have recently passed
away. But many more of them are happily still with
us ; and a few of these, like Mr. Howell of the Free
State ; Mr. Meurant, of Fort Beaufort ; and Mr. Kift,
of Port Elizabeth, have been ransacking the stores of
their memory, and bringing forth reminiscences which,
for humour, quaiutness, and real historical value, are of
the highest interest. Might not an historical club or
society of this sort be formed, say, in connection with
the Library, meeting monthly, its members contributing
each his own share to the common store, and receiving
from correspondents all over the country communi-
cations, of which those referred to from Howell, Meur-
ant, and Kift are merely specimens. I content myself
with simply throwing out the hint ; but I feel certain
that if it be acted upon, the result will prove not merely
interesting, but historically instructive and valuable in
a very high degree.
Turning next to the third department of this address,
I shall endeavour to briefly sketch the most character-
istic phases and developments of literature and science
and philosophy in England within the last year or two,
as represented by the accessions we have within that
period here received. And first with respect to the
B 2
20
general literature of the year. I can certainly point
to no great works to scarcely one great work indeed
which for breadth of view or power of thought can
impress its mark upon the age. (I, of course, except
Ecce Homo, as a work trenching on theological ques-
tions, on which in this place I deem it inexpedient to
enter.) The only books, indeed, which claim any par-
ticular distinction, or stand prominently out as con-
spicuously the publications of the season, are the Queen's
Memorials of the Prince Consort and her Highland
Journals; and Mr. Hep worth Dixon's Western America
and his Spiritual Wives. The Memorials of the Prince
Consort compiled by General Grey, and only annotated
by Her Majesty, display something of the stiffness of
a bookmaking which is artificial without being artistic,
although the original extracts from letters and diaries
of the Prince and his Queen-bride, then in the flush of
beauty and the heyday of youth and joy, are simple,
natural, and often touching to a charming extent. The
remaining volumes, now in course of preparation under
the more experienced and skilful hands of Theodore
Martin, will probably prove far more attractive and far
worthier of the dignity of the subject. Of the second
book, however, the Leaves from a Highland Journal,
it is almost impossible, in one respect at least, to speak
too highly. The " Leaves" are fresh and pure and
picturesque as are the rustic Highland glens depicted
in them. With the perfect artlessness of simple and
unconscious truth and reality, they produce all the
effect of the most consummate art, just on the common-
place but very real principle that beauty unadorned is
adorned the most. The view this volume gives us of
that happy Koyal Home is such as perhaps never had
been revealed by Sovereign to subject before. The
21
Queen has taken her people into her confidence, laid bare
the secrets of her joys and sorrows, and presented them
with an example of unaffected goodness, kindliness,
gentleness, and enlightened piety, pleasantly diversified
with mirth and humour, which in its spirit at least may
be imitated alike by the highest and the lowest. What
would we not give for such autographic and genuine
glimpses at the royal homes and firesides of the past
to have, say, the journal jottings of Queen Elizabeth
after her address to the troops at Tilbury, or during
her memorable visit to Leciester at Kenilworth, as
Queen Victoria describes to us what was done at
Balmoral when news arrived of the capture* of Sebas-
topol, and the splendours of her reception by the Marquis
of Breadlabane at Taymouth Castle !
Turning to Dixon's books, the first of them Western
America was in every respect a brilliant success. It
introduced us to places, men, and institutions closely
connected with ourselves, but at the same time widely
and eccentrically diverging from the grooves of thought
and habit to which we have become accustomed. The
Mormons, the Shakers, and all the rest of them, were
studied with the eye of a philosopher and depicted with
the pen of a poet ; and the whole book was as healthy
in its effect as is the prairie breeze or the bracing cold
of the Rocky Mountain snows from whence it came.
But not such is the second book which, as a supple-
ment to the first, has been published two months ago
under the title of Spiritual Wives. I find that in the
Athenaum last received by the Roman, Mr. Dixon has
felt it necessary in some degree to defend himself
against the censure it has entailed on him, by showing
the real object he had in view. " In this work," he
says, "an attempt is made to describe the morbid
22
growth of certain feelings from their birth in the
revival camp to their wreck on the domestic hearth ; to
paint, in its diseased activity, one of those passions
which control the innermost lives of men ; to show in
what subtle and seductive ways the poison of spiritual
pride can work into the heart , and in the end to warn
the young seeker after a ' newer way ' and a ' higher
law,' what perils beset his feet the moment he quits
the safe old path of experience on any imaginary
' leading of the spirit. ' . . . . All the men and
women whose lives are here traced began by seeking
for a higher kind of good. They wandered into peril
not through a will inclining them to evil, but through
the yearning to live a better and a purer life. They
fell by spiritual pride, by wishing to be ' wiser than
what is written ;' and they passed into the stage of
mental craze and moral death through having set their
hearts on a perfection never to be reached on earth."
All this may be safely granted, and it is necessary
that morbid developments of such a sort should be
studied and described; but it should be done in the
true scientific spirit plainly and severely, as the
physician and the surgeon depict the diseases or
gangrenes which they have to encounter and deal with ;
and not set forth in the bright hues, and warm, rose-
coloured light, and finished elegance of attractive style
in which Mr. Dixon has decked and tricked out for
ready sale the volumes to which I am now referring.
Passing this over, I think I may venture to say that
the general characteristic of the literature of the year
has been discursiveness, and, in a certain sense of the
term, I may add, dissipation. The periodical has become
at once the pride and the bane of English literature.
I say the pride, because by means of it the best writers
23
are brought into daily contact with hundreds of thou-
sands of readers, whom in larger books they could
never reach, and are thus becoming the educators of
the people to an extent which almost exceeds the
influence of either the schoolmaster or the parson.
Thus, for instance, to take but one example, you have
in Good Words, price sixpence, the Duke of Argyll
speculating profoundly, yet clearly, on the Reign of
Law and on Primeval Man ; Mr. Gladstone discour-
sing on Ecce Homo ; and the Bishops of Oxford and
London types of High Church and Broad writing
side by side with men so mutually opposed as Dean
Stanley and Dean Alford, and condescending to frater-
nize even with Presbyterians like Norman McLeod
and Thomas Guthrie. And so it is in every depart-
ment. Trollope transfers his tales to his new magazine,
St. PauTs, and goes " warblingly " on, as he himself fitly
phrases it, almost without end. Miss Thackeray gives
her most finished works in fiction to the Cornhill, and
Mr. Mathew Arnold in the same periodical continues
his perpetual crusade against the Philistines, and calls
like Goethe, though he calls in vain, for more of sweet-
ness and of light. Wilkie Collins in " The Moon-
stone," for All The Year Round, is sensational as of
old, and Miss Braddon in Belgravia is far more sensa-
tional still. To a certain extent the " periodical " is
responsible for this sensationalism. The interest must
be kept up from month to month ; and as each instal-
ment closes, there must be the mysterious and exciting
foreshadowing of the coming event which similarly
baffles the reader again in the succeeding number.
But other novels than those in the magazines are
tainted with the same pestilent curse of sensationalism.
Take, for example, Ouida's " Strathmore," which is
24
about as unhealthy a book as now finds its way among
decent society. While on the contrary, even in the
magazines, as in MacmillaiCs, we have so thoughtful
and graceful and utterly unsensational a tale as that of
" Realmah," now being produced by Mr. Arthur Helps.
But the great writers and the great thinkers, what of
them, and where are they, and what great work are
they meditating now ? Tennyson, catching the common
infection, sends verses for pay to the magazines which
are utterly unworthy of his distinguished name.
Dickens, finding reading more profitable than writing,
makes a magnificent showman of himself, and sacrifices,
to some small extent at least, his splendid reputation
as a novelist to the paltry fame of what he unquestion-
ably also is, a first-class reader and comedian. Thomas
Carlyle has been silent in his Chelsea retreat, save for
that one terrific growl he uttered de profundis some
months ago on " The Shooting of Niagara," or Lord
Derby's leap in the dark ; while John Stuart Mill, who
is a great philosopher, and should content himself with
being such, is squandering his time and wasting his
high intellectual force in wrangles about Reform on
the floor of the House of Commons and submitting
impossible projects for the redemption of Ireland by
something which looks uncommonly like a general
confiscation !
Turning from general literature, where all seems
barrenness on the one hand and excessive wildness of
evanescent or mushroom growth on the other, let us
glance briefly next at some of the achievements and
developments of contemporary science. I will not
dwell on the magnificent practical applications of it
for man's advantage, as in the electric telegraph that
now all but encircles the earth; or even on such
25
beautiful discoveries as those of Kirchoff and Bunsen
with the spectroscope, whereby the quivering ray that
left the furthest star within our ken it may be ages
ago now reveals the secret of its birth and tells the
very chemical constitution of the orb from whence it
has come, and thus establishes a common connection
or feeling of kinship between all the members of the
physical universe. My object is rather to point to two
or three particular phases of modern science which
affect or are supposed to affect prevailing and popular
religious opinions and creeds. The first of these is
with respect to the antiquity of man. Until a very
few years ago no trace of human existence upon earth
had been discovered older than the skeleton of Guada-
loupe, now in the British Museum ; or, in geological
language, more ancient than the Pleistocene or most
recent of the geological ages. This seemed to tally
admirably with the Mosaic cosmogony, where man in
that beautiful poetic parable in the first of Genesis is
represented as the latest and highest formed of all the
creatures ; and though the geologists and chronologists
could not agree as to the extent of time from man's
first appearance until now, the battle between them
was a drawn one, or the question, in other words, was
left in abeyance. But the discovery of human remains,
skulls, and arrowheads, and hatchets and other imple-
ments at Abbeville, in the North of France, gave it
quite a different aspect. There, it was alleged, that
indubitable proofs of human existence were found
below the drift, or in other words before the glacial
period ; and, therefore, not six thousand, but at the
very lowest estimate a hundred thousand years bygone.
There was much that was suspicious about the discovery
of those fossils. There is no doubt that in some cases
26
wilful deception was practised ; and that at the present
moment ante-glacial remains are sold as genuine which
have been manufactured in Paris for the occasion, just
as relics are sold at Waterloo, rusted to the proper
degree by ingenious processes at Birmingham and
elsewhere. But making due allowance for all this I
think it must be admitted that the balance of evidence
is largely in favour of an extremely remote antiquity
for man though still, unquestionably, the most recent
of creation in his advent on the stage of existence.
The " pre-historic " investigations which have been
recently carried on so successfully in many lands, the
discoveries of the ancient lake-towns of Switzerland,
and the primitive stone implements to be met with all
over the world not excluding our own Cape Flats
and Mr. Fairbridge's garden at Sea-Point go far to
strongly corroborate, in this respect, the opinion of the
geologists. But what of that, and what serious results
are to be inferred from it ? By some it is supposed to
be contradictory and subversive of sacred Scripture.
I cannot think so. I think it only enlarges our views
of the scale and stage on which Omnipotence has
wrought. No one dreams now of asserting that our
Modern Astronomy is antagonistic to Holy Writ,
although in Galileo's time, it was deemed to be fatal
to it. We all acknowledge that that astronomy sheds
a brighter and a richer lustre on the sacred page and^
if any one doubts it, I would only recommend him the
perusal of a tolerably old, yet a most noble book, Dr.
Chalmers's Astronomical Discourses. And as we have
learned that Scripture was not designed to teach us
astronomy, and that in relation to that, it used language
suited for the people to whom it was addressed, so
also we shall come to admit that the Bible was not
27
written to instruct us in geology or cosmogony, and to
feel that, without being e scientific ' or pretending to be
such, it accommodates itself to every philosophy and
every age, while it preserves sacred the precious central
truths and revelation which it provides as the common
heritage of all the ages.
The next remarkable development of Science within
the last three or four years is the prominence given to
what has been variously called " the Conservation of
Force," " the Correlation of Forces," and " the Law
of Continuity." The physical universe, as far as cog-
nizable to the human intellect, consists of matter and
force or matter and certain affections or potentialities
of matter which we call forces. Now, matter is inde-
structible. It is as impossible for man to annihilate as
to create it. It perpetually changes, but never truly
dies. The atom that to-day flutters in the leaflet may
to-morow form portion of the human brain.
Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
May stop a hole to turn the wind away.
Just so with force ; it is equally indestructible,
and passes from one form or phase into another
in a sort of eternal metempsychosis. A certain
measured amount of mechanical force is converted into
a corresponding quantity of heat force, that again into
a chemical force, that again into magnetic, or electric,
or light force an exact " correlation" being thus
established between them, a perfect " conservation" of
the force in fact, a law of continuity ; so that the
identical solar action of the Carboniferous Era now
works mechanically to drive our locomotives or speed
our steamships across the ocean. The first to expound
this theory perfectly was Mr. Grove, Q.C., if I remem-
ber rightly, some five or six years ago (though it has
also been beautifully illustrated and confirmed by Pro-
fessors Tindall and Faraday) ; and he dwelt on it very
fully again in his splendid inaugural address to the British
Association in 1866. And there is a further and very
interesting application of it in a curious paper in
Macmillan y of September last, by Professor Bain. " on
the Correlation of Force in its bearing on Mind," in
which he discusses the relations between the oxidation
of the nerve-material of the brain, and the nerve-cur-
rents of what we call the vital force which permeate
that mysterious organ, and the intellectual thoughts,
emotions, and resolutions, which we speak of as essen-
tially the developments of Mind.
But there is yet another phase of this " Law of
Continuity" which is exciting the deepest interest
amongst thinkers throughout the world. I refer to
what is known as the Darwinian theory of the origin of
species. Have the various species, whether animal or
vegetable, been created each in successive order per
saltum, as separate and distinctive acts of creative
energy, or has there been one continuous law of develop-
ment from the monad to the man under which the
inorganic particle has by spontaneous generation become
the organized cell, and that again by slow stages and
certain processes developed into the highest organic
perfection in the human frame ? The author of " The
Vestiges of Creation" wrote a charming book in advocacy
of this development theory, and Hugh Miller, in reply
to him, wrote "The Footprints of the Creator," which on
the clearest geological evidence proved, as it seems to
me, beyond dispute, that simply as a matter of fact,
there is no such unvarying order of development ascend-
ing from the lowest to the highest, nor can the connect-
ing links between some of the most contrasted types be
29
traced. Mr. Darwin accepted the conclusion of the
author of " The Vestiges," but objected to the process as
unscientific. " The author of ' The Vestiges ' would, I
presume, say, that after a certain unknown number of
generations some bird had given birth to a wood-pecker,
and some plant to a mistletoe, and that these had been
produced perfect as we now see them ; but 3 " says Dar-
win, " this assumption seems to me to be no explanation,
for it leaves the case of the co-adaptation of organic
beings to each other and to their physical conditions of
life untouched and unexplained." And this is the work
which Mr. Darwin has set himself to accomplish to
show how, under a law of unbroken continuity, the
myriad forms and variations of genera and species can
be accounted for by two co-operative principles which
he calls the Struggle for Existence and Natural Selec-
tion. I think the essence of his system or theory may
be found in one paragraph of his introduction : " The
Struggle for Existence amongst all organic beings
throughout the world inevitably follows from their high
geometrical powers of increase. This is the doctrine
of Malthus applied to the whole animal and vegetable
kingdoms. As many more individuals of each species
are born than can possibly survive, and as, consequently,
there is a frequently recurring Struggle for Existence,
it follows that any being, if it vary, however slightly,
in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex
and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a
better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.
From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected
variety will tend to propagate its new and modified
form." This is the Darwinian theory in a nutshell.
And so far as it goes, it is unquestionably true. It is
what logicians would call a vera causa ; but, assuredly,
30
as accounting for the origin of species, it is hitherto a
case of non causa pro causa. There is no doubt that
great variations in type are produced in the manner
described by Mr. Darwin, both in his first work on the
subject published in 1859, and his latest work just
issued two or three months ago. But as it appears to
me there are two fatal objections to the acceptance of
the theory in its entirety. In the first place, no instance
has been observed of " spontaneous generation." Several
have been imagined and believed ; but now, as the
result of the most careful investigation, the general
opinion I quote from Grove is that when such pre-
cautions are taken as exclude from the substance sub-
mitted to experiment all possibility of germs from the
atmosphere being introduced, " as by passing the air
which is to support the life of the animalculae through
tubes heated to redness, and other precautions, no for-
mation of organisms takes place." The first step in the
Darwinian process is therefore a pure assumption un-
supported by any authenticated fact. And in the
second place, there is the equally formidable difficulty
that notwithstanding all the varieties produced arti-
ficially under the control of man as in the case of
"pigeons" so elaborately illustrated in Mr. Darwin's
last work, or the variations produced in nature by the
struggle for existence and natural selection, " the
immutability of species is maintained by two unconquer-
able laws the ultimate sterility of breeds and their
reversion to the type when let alone. Man can influence
size, which is a variation of individuals and not of species.
Man can modify the flower and fruits of plants within
certain limits, and obtain size or flavour or varying
blooms ; but specific characters elude his power entirely-
Permanent reproduction is the fundamental idea of
31
species ; and there is no continuous fecundity in breeds,
their sterility or reversion being inevitable." (Athencewn).
The Darwinian theory has been by many ridiculed as
grotesque and absurd, from the days when Lord Mon-
boddo described humanity as gradually wearing off its
simian appendage by the prosaic process of sitting on
it; and the most recent "chaff" of this sort is given
in the clever and amusing verses of Lord Neaves,
lately published from Blackwood:
" Have you heard of this question the Doctors among,
Whether all living things from a Monad have sprung ?
This has lately been said, and it now shall be sung,
Which nobody can deny.
" Not one or two ages sufficed for the feat,
It required a few millions the change to complete ;
But now the thing's done, and it looks rather neat,
Which nobody can deny."
" Pouters, tumblers, aud fantails are from the same source,
The racer and hack may be traced to one Horse ;
So men were developed from Monkeys, of course,
Which nobody can deny.
" An Ape with a pliable thumb and big brain,
When the gift of the gab he had managed to gain,
As a Lord of Creation established his reign,
Which nobody can deny.
" But Tm sadly afraid, if we do not take care,
A relapse to low life may our prospects impair ;
So of beastly propensities let us beware,
Which nobody can deny.
" Their lofty position our children may lose,
And, reduced to all-fours, must then narrow their views,
Which would wholly unfit them for filling our shoes,
Which nobody can deny.
32
" Their vertebrae next might be taken away,
When tliey'd sink to an oyster or insect some day,
Or the pitiful part of a polypus play,
Which nobody can deny.
" Thus losing Humanity's nature and name,
And descending through varying stages of shame,
They'd return to the Monad, from which we all came,
Which nobody can deny."
By others it is angrily opposed on the plea that it
leads to Atheism, and banishes the Creator from His
own creation. I do not think that either ridicule or
indignation is a just or reasonable ground on which to
controvert it. There is nothing in the idea of develop-
ment by such natural laws as Darwin speaks of which
is irrational in itself or inconsistent with the most
reverent acknowledgment of the Creator as evolving
the scheme of the universe thus naturally and con-
tinuously, instead of by successive acts of specific crea-
tion. And truth is truth wherever it is met, and to be
devoutly acknowledged when proved as such, with utter
disregard of all consequences whether real or imagin-
ary. I disbelieve the Darwinian system, simply because
no sufficient evidence has been adduced to sustain it.
On this question, as well as the related one on the
origin of Man, I would recommend the careful study
of a series of admirable papers now in course of pub-
lication by the Duke of Argyll in Good Words.
I have tasked your attention and wearied your
patience too far already ; but there is just one other
point to which I must refer briefly, as the practical
outcome of all these speculations. Do they not give
encouragement to Materialism as the foundation principle
of our speculative philosophy ? As a matter of fact, I
think it must be admitted that Materialism does derive
33
support from them, and that the school of the Positivists
or Empiricists represented by its founder, Auguste
Comte, and illustrated by such eminent disciples as
Lewes, Harrison, and John Stuart Mill, exercises a
powerful influence on the cultivated minds of the present
age. "What we have to deal with, they tell us, is only
the World as we find it, and as intellect enables us to
comprehend it. We are to content ourselves with
observing laws by which they mean certain invariable
sequences and govern ourselves in accordance with
these. Final Causes and Existence or Entities of any
kind beyond what the understanding can grasp, they
deem outside the province of human cognition. To
quote from Professor Hansel's exposition* of the phi-
losophy of Mill a work which in small compass presents
the whole argument with great clearness : fe We do not
mean that he (Mr. Mill) consciously adopts the grosser
tenets of the Materialists. We are not aware that he
has ever positively denied the existence of a soul distinct
from the body, or maintained that the brain secretes
thought as the liver secretes bile. But he is the advocate
of a philosophic method which makes the belief in the
existence of an immaterial principle superfluous and
incongruous ; he not only acknowledges no such dis-
tinction between the phenomena of mind and those of
matter as to require the hypothesis of a free intelligence
to account for it ; he not only regards the ascertained
laws of co-existence and succession in material pheno-
mena as the type and rule according to which all pheno-
mena whatever, those of internal consciousness no less
than of external observation are to be tested ; but he
even expressly denies the existence of that free will
* In his recent book on " The Philosophy of the Conditioned.' 1
C
34
*
which Sir W. Hamilton regards as the indispensable
condition of all morality and all religion. Thus, instead
of recognizing in the facts of intelligence e an order of
existence diametrically in contrast of that displayed to
us in the facts of the material universe,' he regards both
facts as of the same kind and explicable by the same
laws ; he abolishes the primary contrast of consciousness
between the Ego and the non Ego the person and the
thing ; he reduces man to a thing instead of a person
to one among the many phenomena of the universe,
determined by the same laws of invariable antecedence
and consequence, included under the same formulae of
empirical generalization. He thus makes man the Slave,
not the Master of .Nature ; passively carried along in
the current of successive phenomena ; unable by any
act of free will to arrest a single wave in its course or
to divert it from its ordained direction." I have said
that this Materialism derives support from the develop-
ments of physical science within recent years. But not
necessarily so. I believe that these are equally con-
sistent with what I consider the far higher, broader,
and richer philosophy of which in modern times Sir
William Hamilton has been the most distinguished
expounder. Hamilton rises from the " conditioned " to
the " unconditioned ;" sets forth as the cardinal point of
his system the absolute necessity of acknowledging the
existence of a sphere of belief beyond the limits of the
sphere of thought " to show articulately that we must
believe as actual much that we are unable (positively) to
conceive as even possible." Or, as in another remarkable
passage he expresses it, " We are taught the salutary
lesson that the capacity of thought is not to be consti-
tuted into the measure of existence ; and are warned
from recognizing the domain of our knowledge as neces-
35
sarily co-extensive with the horizon of our faith. And
by a wonderful revelation we are thus, in the very con-
sciousness of our inability to conceive aught above the
relative and finite, inspired with a belief in the existence
of something unconditioned beyond the sphere of all com-
prehensible reality." We have, therefore, thus opened
before us two distinct realms of contemplation the
Natural and the Supra-Natural matter and mind, so
far as they are conditioned by the laws of nature and
distinctly cognizable by reason ; and mind and moral
existence, whether human or divine, as infinities
unconditioned by time and space, on which Faith can
expatiate as under the light of Revelation it becomes
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. And thus it is that such a duplex yet exqui-
sitely harmonious character is possible as that of Faraday,
so beautifully and profoundly drawn in the following
words, which I adopt from the Athenceum received a
fortnight ago : " Whether standing as the philosopher
before the rank and fashion of the land, or as the
preacher meeting a few humble and devout men and
women to teach them the lessons of the Sermon on the
Mount, he was the priest of that high religion which
sees a Lawgiver as the cause of every law ; and re-
presses the pride of human intellect by showing the
weakness of man's mightiest efforts to penetrate the
darkness which hides powers unknown, guided by laws
undreamt of, beyond which reposes the God of Creation,
to whom Faraday ever prayed ' for light, more light.' "
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., PRINTERS, ST. GEORGE'S-STREET, CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
Jkfictlr
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, .
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 22ND MAY, 1869.
gon'ble Mm. primes iriffi% sq., in
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
Committee :
W. PORTER, ESQ.
REV. PROFESSOR CAMERON
W. HIDDINGH, ESQ. (Treas.)
S. SOLOMON, ESQ.
MB. PROFESSOR NOBLE
J. C. GIE, ESQ.
DR. DALE
SIR THOMAS MACLEAR, KNT.
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE,
ESQ.
E. J. JERRAM, ESQ.
| JOHN NOBLE, ESQ.
A True Copy,
F. MASKEW, Librarian.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
At the last general meeting of the Subscribers, your
Committee, in their annual report, intimated their
intention of again appealing to the liberality of
Parliament for the restoration of the original grant
made to the Library, and expressed a hope that the
Legislature would favourably entertain their appli-
cation.
Immediately on the assembling of Parliament your
Committee appointed a deputation of their body to
wait upon I [is Excellency the Governor, to request
His Excellency to take such steps as might seem fit
for securing to the Library the full annual grant of
600. The liabilities of the Library and the very
small amount available for the supply of new books
were also brought to the notice of His Excellency,
who was kind enough to express his willingness to do
as he had done before in the matter, and transmit by
message to the House of Assembly the representations
of the Committee, and to place the amount on the
supplementary estimates. Your Committee have now
the satisfaction of stating that the message sent by
His Excellency was favourably entertained by the
House of Assembly and the grant restored to its
original amount ; in consequence of which your Com-
mittee have been enabled to restore to the officers of
the institution the salaries formerly enjoyed by them.
Your Committee, whilst congratulating the subscri-
bers on the success of their application to Parliament,
are sorry to observe that the appeal so often made to
the public for a more generous support of this institution
A2
has not been responded to in that spirit of liberality
which they had reason to hope.
Upon an application, received from the Members
of the Royal Naval Club, at Simon's Town, your
Committee were induced to extend the usefulness of
the institution, by allowing the members of that Club
to subscribe to the Library upon the same terms as
those offered to the "Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion," Cape Town, but your Committee are sorry to
state that, owing to the recent changes that have
taken place at the Naval Station, this arrangement
which has been in operation for a period of only six
months, and which during that time worked very
satisfactorily, is likely to cease.
The accessions of Books during the past year, by
purchase and presentation, have been as follows, viz. :
Theology 19 Vols.
Political Economy ... ... 9
Science and the Arts ... ... 61
Dictionaries 39
Works of Amusement ... ... 146
Belles Lettres 44
History 65
Voyages and Travels 36
Biography 28
Italian Works 66
Miscellaneous ... ... ... 58
Total 573 Vols.
Amongst the above, your Committee have the honour
respectfully to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of
" The Early Years of His Royal Highness the Prince
Consort," and "Leaves from the Journal of our Lives
in the Highlands," graciously presented to the Library
by Her Majesty the Queen ; and His Grace the Duke
of Buckingham and Chandos, in the dispatch accom-
panying these volumes, states that they are presented
by the Queen, both as tokens of the interest with
which Her Majesty regards the development of insti-
tutions which tend to the spread of knowledge and
intelligence in her colonial possessions, and because
she believes that these records of the earlier days of
their Sovereign and the Prince Consort will not fail
to be valued by her subjects in the Cape of Good
Hope.
Your Committee have also to acknowledge the pre-
sentation of a valuable collection of Italian and German
books, dictionaries, &c., numbering 255 volumes, which
were presented to the Library through Mr. Charles
Bell, by the heirs of the late Thomas Bowles, Esq. ;
also several works presented by the New Zealand
Government, the " Smithsonian Institution," United
States ; Drs. Addey, Abercrombie, sen., Laing and
Thornton, Messrs. T. B. Bayley, J. W. Ebden, T. W.
Bowler, S. Solomon, and Lange, to all of whom the
best thanks of the subscribers are due.
During the course of the past year, the collection of
Native Literature has received presentations of fifty
additional books. Among the donors of these are the
Rev J. W. Appleyard, who has sent nine Kafir books ;
the Rev. H. R. "VVoodrooffe, who has presented his
translation of the English Book of Common Prayer
into Kafir, and the Rev. Tiyo Soga, from whom we
have received the " Pilgrim's Progress " in the same
language. A translation of this work into Zulu by
the Bishop of Natal is one of the four Zulu books
lately presented by him. A portion of the New
Testament in Zulu, by the Rev. J. L. Doehne, was
presented by the author ; and the whole of the New
Testament in Zulu is among the books received from
the American Missionaries, the Rev. A. Grout, who
6
has sent thirteen, and the Kev. D. Rood, whom we
have to thank for seven Zulu books. A fine map of
the Zulu country (lithographed for private circulation
only) has also been presented by the compiler, Capt.
Walmsley.
From the same Colony, Mr. John Sanderson has
furnished a manuscript, entitled " Suggestions towards
an Alphabet of the English Language," which does
not directly refer to South African philology, but
contains, among many nice observations, some on the
nature of the clicks, the existence of which in English
the author proves by quotations from Shakespeare.
The Rev. J. D. M. Ludorf, of Potchefstroom, has
sent three Serolong books ; Dr. Steere, of the Zanzibar
Mission, a copy of his " Collections for a Hand-book
of the Shambala Language;" and the Rev. F. W.
Kolbe, his " Brief Statement of the Discovery of the
Laws of the Vowels in Herero." A manuscript
English-Otyiherero Vocabulary has been supplied on
request by the Rev. J. Rath.
A few Bushman drawings have been copied for
the Library by Mr. W. H. Piers. Contributions
have also been received from Mr. William Hertzog
(Champollion's " Precis du Systeme Hieroglyphique des
Anciens Egyptiens "), Mr. "William Coates Palgrave
(an old plan of Madrid), and Mrs. Sophia Snellman,
who presented the New Testament in Finnish.
The Treasurer's account, showing the income and
expenditure during the past year, will now be
submitted.
WM. HIDDINGH, Chairman.
ADDRESS.
The Hon'ble WM. DOWNES GRIFFITH, Esq., then
delivered the following Address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
Much as I feel the honour done me by the request
of the Committee of this Library, that I should take
the chair at this meeting, and deliver the customary
address, I could nevertheless heartily have wished that
their choice had fallen on some other person. All men
are not fitted for all things, and while I feel that men
should specially devote themselves to those pursuits
and should undertake those duties and offices for which
their nature and education have fitted them, at the
same time I am conscious that of all the many works
which a man can undertake, that of addressing a mixed
audience on a widely general subject is one of those
for which I am least qualified, and which I conse-
quently should most unwillingly have undertaken, had
I not feared that my motives for refusing would have
been misconstrued, and that a course of conduct really
suggested by a consciousness of my own shortcomings
should be set down to ungraciousness, or indolence, or
vanity on my part. Rather than incur such charges,
though unfounded, I prefer to exhibit my own inca-
pacity, and can find it in my heart to bestow my
tediousness upon you, trusting tfcat you will let the
blame fall where it is due, and lay it rather on the
shoulders of the Committee, who have passed sentence
on you, than on mine, who have anxiously endeavoured
to escape from becoming your executioner. Tedious
as I expect to be, however, I will not take up your
time by descanting in vague terms on the advantages
of literature, a theme by this time so hackneyed as
8
to have become almost disgusting, useless at the best
of times as it must be a waste of time to recapitulate
the advantages of literature for the purpose of
impressing a sense of those advantages on persons
already fully sensible of them, while those who are not
already sensible of them will never be made so by
any other means than the opening of their minds
and tastes through the influence of literature itself,
the acquisition of which may be owing at first
perhaps to compulsion, or to the example of and
sympathy with others, but I will venture to say
was never attributable to any of the many exhor-
tations or treatises, however learned or eloquent,
which have been delivered or composed in praise of
it. It is just as possible to convey a sense of
the advantages and pleasure of literature to one
who is absolutely uneducated as it is to convey a
sense of the beauty of colour to one born blind, or of
the pleasure of music to one who has not and has
never had any sense of hearing. And this fact is one
of the great difficulties which lie in the way of the
spread of education, and more especially tend to
prevent it under a system of popular government.
Some wants are felt to be wants with an intensity
increasing as the want itself increases : within ordi-
nary limits, a man desires food the more the longer
he is without it, and desires warmth the more the
colder he is, or shade and coolness the more the hotter
he is ; but a man dqjss not desire to read the master-
pieces of literature or to learn the last achievements
of science with any the more intensity because he is
utterly and entirely illiterate ; the intensity of desire
in the last case increases with the amount of culture,
and until the mind is awakened by the influence of
learning, no desire is felt for learning in itself. It is
true that an illiterate man, finding many positions, and
9
nearly all the higher ones, socially and politically
shut out from him through his want of education, may
feel a desire to know more than he does; but this
feeling is not a love of learning, but a wish for some
of the collateral advantages which attend the acquisi-
tion of it, and of itself will never or rarely induce
the labour which is necessary at an advanced age to
enable one to acquire the rudiments of education if
such drudgery have not already been undergone in
youth, nor will any one influenced by such motives
alone, become a really well-informed man. There is a
story told of a young man coming once to D' Alembert
and showing him a very elegant method of proof
of some theorem in advanced mathematics, begging
him to look over it, as the young man desired
the assistance of the philosopher in obtaining the
sole object for which he had worked out the theorem,
viz., a seat in the academy ; upon hearing which
D' Alembert is reported to have said : " Sir, with such
sentiments you will never merit such an honour."
This anecdote illustrates what I have just said.
To be eminent in literature or science requires a
love of literature or science for themselves and an
enjoyment in them; no effort merely directed to a
collateral object will deserve, or indeed attain, real
eminence in either. This being so, and the desire of
learning being felt with least force by the most
illiterate, it becomes a very great difficulty to intro-
duce a high standard of education among a people
who are themselves ill-educated, and if such a people
are themselves the governing body, by themselves or
their representatives, moneys to be spent for the
attainment or maintenance of a high standard of
education will be obtained with difficulty, if at all, and
Avill be afforded grudgingly and doled out in small
amounts and without good-will. I say a high standard
10
of education, for the motives I have already mentioned,
viz., the obvious desirableness of the power and social
status which are practically shut out from persons
absolutely illiterate in all countries where civilization
has made any progress, may be sufficient in the most
purely popular governments to induce the adoption of
some system of primary education for the people at
large. And when we look round us to the facts of
history, we do find that nearly all the institutions for
education of a really high class which have at any
time or in any place been established by the State have
been established under a form of government despotic
or highly aristocratic, and that where such institutions
exist under a popular government, they rest in
general on a foundation not granted by the State, but
mainly by the private munificence of individual men
of letters and science, who, feeling keenly the advan-
tages of education, have wished others to share in the
blessings that they themselves held at so high a value.
This I need hardly say is the case with all, or almost
all the colleges in the old Universities at home, and
with nearly all the great public schools in England,
besides the very many excellent foundations for a high
classical education, called grammar schools, which
exist in many parts of the kingdom. Scarcely any of
these are supported out of public money. But some
people may say nay, I have heard it actually said
that in a country like this, whose wealth is not super-
abundant, it is enough that public money should go for
primary education, and all superior education should
be paid for out of private funds ; and it has been said
why should the people be taxed for this Library for the
private delectation of such of the residents in Cape
Town as happen to have a turn for literature or scien-
tific pursuits ? Such arguments as these are founded
on a very short-sighted view of what is for the public
11
advantage. It cannot be said that the natural resour-
ces of this country are already developed to the full ;
and indeed he would be a bold man who would assert
that there are not resources, not only undeveloped, but
actually unknown. In truth, the argument that from
our poverty we ought not, as is said, to waste money
on the luxuries of education, presupposes poverty at
least, and this again presupposes either that the
country has no natural resources which are not known,
an assumption which could only be honestly made
by presumptuous ignorance, or it presupposes, what
is undoubtedly the truth, that the resources of
the country, such as they are, are undeveloped.
Now, taking the very narrowest view of the public
advantage, in the sense of its mere material pros-
perity, which, I am free to confess, seems to be
almost a necessary condition, nationally speaking, to
prosperity of any kind, the only way in which the
resources of the country can be discovered in general
and intelligently developed, is by the spread over the
country of men of education of a high standard,
men whose knowledge of physical science shall show
to them the wealth which is hidden from the eyes of
ignorance, men whose trained minds shall see the
deficiencies of existing methods, and shall suggest at
once simpler and more effectual means to arrive at the
required ends, men whose ready ingenuity will, out
of the materials lying close to hand, frame the machi-
nery for accomplishing that which a sluggish intellect
would deem impossible, even if the vague desire of
accomplishment should have dimly loomed through its
hazy atmosphere. How, then, are men such as I have
described to be brought in close contact with the facts
of nature in the different parts of this widespread and
thinly populated land? Surely, not merely by im-
porting one or two men of the kind, and employing
12
them to make hurried tours through our various
districts ; though, even in this way, I am far from
saying that much good may not be done that much
has not been done already. But this plan is terribly
deficient in several most important respects. First,
to take that aspect which is familiar and obvious to
the class of men whose views in this matter I wish to
reform, I say boldly that such a course is to the full
as expensive as that which I advocate. The same
amount of money judiciously expended in affording
the means of a high education to any considerable
class of our colonists will be more efficient for the
purposes mentioned above than if expended in paying
men already highly educated for travelling through
the country, and investigating what may be done to
bring forward and develop its resources. Men so em-
ployed are under great drawbacks to their utility even
for the purposes at which they specially aim. First,
being migratory, they cannot be long enough in one
place to thoroughly acquaint themselves with all its
products, and the condition under which those products
are to be obtained, or the means obtainable in each
place for improving and utilizing such products, or
for transporting them to places where they may be
utilized. Secondly, the time is limited which such
men can possibly expend in any tentative or expe-
rimental researches for any such purposes, and
the want of a fixed and permanent residence in
any particular place operates strongly against any
successful attempts in that direction. Thirdly, not
to mention many other drawbacks, the interest which
men have in the prosperity of their own particular
district, and in their own property more especially,
is more keen, more permanent, and continuously
urgent than any interest which is excited by the mere
desire to do one's duty and earn fairly one's salary,
13
which, so far as the more practical part of the business
is concerned, would be the only interest in general
pressing on the class of men of whom I have spoken.
The more practical part, I say, for the very charac-
ter of the men, if properly chosen, would secure that
they should have a strong scientific interest in their
work, and this is with such minds perhaps more keen,
more permanent, and more continuously urgent than
any pecuniary interest would be with the average of
men ; but such interest is only in the purely scientific
part of their pursuit, which, though the root of the
whole, is not sufficient, without more, to be of imme-
diate practical material result to the people ; and the
reduction of the scientific truth to the material result,
or, as Lord Bacon has expressed it, of the light-bearing
to the fruit-bearing, is the part of these men's occupa-
tion which would be to them drudgery, and for which
the pecuniary interest, and the sympathy of others
interested in the same results, would be wanting to
keep them up to their work. But suppose that any of
these did their work in the most perfect manner, still
that work would be far inferior in its results to what
might be expected from the work of the same kind
though perhaps of inferior quality done by men residing
through the country, having their hopes and interests
bound up in it, living among their friends and neigh-
bours on their own properties, if such class of men
could be formed. We all know that of all methods of
general instruction, none is so effective as example ; we
all know, also, that all improvements in agriculture,
manufacture, and production of commercial wealth
are introduced with the greatest difficulty, this
difficulty being the greater the less generally
educated the class of men may be among whom it is
attempted to introduce them. In all countries,
then, and more particularly in a country like this,
14
the most effective way of introducing any improve-
ment in agriculture or in manufacturing process, of
inducing people to pursue any new industry or amend
their mode of pursuing any old, is by showing them
with their own eyes that the new is better than the
old, that the new process is an improvement. Telling
them so will not do even if they be told with the
utmost intelligence ; if it be proved to demonstration
their minds are slow to take in demonstration, and
when it is taken in, natural indolence, natural caution,
and want of funds still stand in the way ; but when
they find that the difficulties are less than they antici-
pated, that the results actually before their eyes are
desirable results, that they are left behind in the
race of progress and the competition for wealth, even
in their own district and by their own neighbours, and
see that this is in a great measure owing to their stick-
ing to the old courses while their more intelligent
neighbours have adopted the new, this, if anything,
shakes them from their lethargy and helps to awaken
their torpid minds. And this sort of thing, a class of
men of high education, living in the country, is still
more wanting in a country like this, than it is in an
old thickly-peopled country like the European centres
of civilization. In an old country, every inch of the
country is fully explored and intimately known, if not
to every one in it, at least to many ; and it is easy in
the highest degree for any one desiring intimate know-
ledge of any part of it, or anything connected with any
part of it, to obtain such knowledge without loss of time
or of labour. It is easy to lay together the kindled sticks
of knowledge in every different department relating to
anything in any place at home, and out of the heap to
raise a fire which shall give the desired light on the
matter in question, and yield the effective heat for the
fusion of any difficulty. Here it is otherwise ; unless
the man on the spot has himself the knowledge of
other things necessary to utilize his knowledge of
things observed on the spot, this last-mentioned know-
ledge remains unproductive to him, and is lost to
others ; for, not knowing its importance, he seldom
thinks of recording or communicating it, even in those
rare cases where it can be communicated by words.
Take a familiar instances of this. In the case of our
lately-discovered diamonds, a story was told about the
time of the discovery of the first of them, which,
though sufficiently absurd and improbable to be told
merely as a ridiculous story, may still serve to exemplify
what I mean. The story was that a man travelling
with his wagon had picked up a muid-sack of these
diamonds merely as pretty pebbles which he intended
for his children to play with when he returned home ;
but that afterwards requiring the sack to put some
grain into he had thrown out the diamonds and only
kept one or two which seeming the prettiest he had
put in his waistcoat pocket ; that even of these all
were subsequently lost by the children with the
exception of the one which was afterwards recognized
as peculiar by some person better acquainted with
the nature of minerals or more naturally observant
than the owner, and was finally verified as a true
diamond. Now, though it may be problematical
whether the diamonds to be found in this Colony will
ever be the means of bringing to it much wealth or
prosperity, it is certain that many things which would
be productive of the highest advantages if discovered,
may be lying undiscovered because the necessary
observation and familiarity is not accompanied by
the necessary knowledge. The diamonds, to use
my illustration, may be emptied from the sack in
order to put in corn, because from ignorance the
diamonds are esteemed as of less value than the corn ;
16
the man who sees the stones does not know diamonds
when he sees them, and the man who knows a diamond
does not see the pebbles. But further than this, life
in the highly civilized countries of Europe is itself an
education, and it is hardly possible for any one of
moderate natural intelligence to go through the world
there with his eyes and his ears open, without in a
desultory way picking an immense amount of informa-
tion which in a country like this he is never likely to
acquire without taking a great deal of trouble to
acquire it. The general standard of education among
the people at large is far more dependent than people
are at first ready to believe on that highest education
which is the lot only of a few. In modern society the
different classes embrace and fade into one another
almost like the concentric circles in the grain of
a tree, though the different circles can be distin-
guished it is hard to say where one begins and
where the other ends, the contract is so close that
what is the outer part of the inner circle is not so
much next to the inner part of the outer circle as it is
itself the inner part of the outer circle, and as the
sap which runs through the inner circle permeates the
outer also so does the knowledge and information
which is the privilege of the best educated men in
modern society filter through the different classes,
until a considerable share finds its way down to those
who are most removed in educational advantages from
the highest class. No doubt that crass and absolute
ignorance is almost impervious to the influence of this
filtration, and this is one of the chief reasons why a
primary education for the people is most desirable.
There are some seeds which by reason of their hard
and impervious shells will not under ordinary circum-
stances germinate unless the shell be cracked either
mechanically or by heat or else be softened by steeping
17
in hot water or otherwise. It is plain that in a
state of nature, either accidentally some cracking
or softening agency must come into operation upon
some of them, or else that it. is only a few abnormal
individuals among them that can germinate at all. I
have heard of a sowing being made of the silver-tree
which did not appear above ground for many years.
In despair the owner allowed the ground to become
waste, and it was overgrown with the bush common
in the neighbourhood. At last some twelve years
after the sowing was made a bush-fire took place
and burned over the spot where the silver-trees had
been sown, and the following spring, behold! rows
of young silver-trees all in order in the drills where
they had been sown years before ! Now in the
case of seeds of this nature it is obvious that the
vast majority will never germinate at all under
purely natural conditions, and it is equally clear that
conditions do at times occur even in a state of nature
by reason of which some of such seeds do germinate
and the species is preserved, but when art is judi-
ciously applied in assisting nature that may be made
the rule which was formerly the exception. In like
manner a primary education acts like the cracking or
softening of the shell which allows the infiltration of
other educational influences, and thus assists the
germination of the dormant intellect, but though it is
eminently necessary to soften or crack the shell of the
seed there is little use in doing so if you do not sow
it where it may have an opportunity of germinating,
and a primary education only will be very much
wasted if no other educational influences are brought
to bear on the people. Among the most important of
such influences is the influence of a high education I
would say of the highest education for the few who
in the best of circumstances can accept or avail
18
themselves of such, for few there are even in Europe
who possess the highest education as any one can tell
,who had a university experience. A few years ago such
a thing as agricultural chemistry was not thought of
even by the most advanced men of science. Now
there is hardly a small tenant farmer in England or
Scotland who does not know some little about it.
How has this come about ? Surely not from the indi-
vidual researches of small tenant farmers. No, not
even from the individual researches of the country
gentlemen of those countries. It has come about
thus : Men of science and of science purely have first
engaged in scientific researches on the matter, and
have given to their brethren of science the results of
their speculation and experiment. Scientific contro-
versy once excited the portions of hypothesis which
are incontrovertible become admitted parts of general
knowledge, those parts which are in controversy
become the subject of anxious investigation and
experiment on each side. Gradually the basis of
established fact becomes larger and larger. Many
men who would never have thought of originating
the speculations yet become acquainted with the
results and to a certain degree with the hypothesis
on which these results throw light. The results are
put to the test in practice to the great advancement
of agriculture as an art, and the smaller farmers to
whom farming is a trade seeing the advantage of
what is to them a trade secret and finding that the
owners of the secret make no difficulty in imparting
it even they adopt it, first by the rule of thumb,
so to speak, but gradually come to understand at
least in some degree what they are doing, and thus
have become more intimately and better informed,
both as scientific and practical farmers than it was
possible for the best educated man a century ago to
19
have become. But this process can only take place
where between men of the highest and those of the
lowest intelligence there exists a class sufficiently
educated to understand in some degree the specula-
tions or at least the results arrived at by the man of
science, and to reduce to practice those results before
the eyes of his less enlightened fellow-countrymen a
class possessed of a high general education and such
a class it is before all things desirable to raise up in
this country, and such a class is impossible without
the opportunities for some, at least, of obtaining the
very highest education. Now the first necessity for
the highest education is access to the best books. In
a national point of view the most economical way in
which money can be expended for educational purposes is
in providing the freest access to the largest collection of
the very best books on every subject. Such an arrange-
ment gives a possibility at least for the highest educa-
tion, facilities for a high one, and if there be a few men
of the highest, a considerable class of a high education,
and the mass of the people possessed of a primary educa-
tion, it is surprising how rapidly knowledge permeates,
as I have before described, and the practical results
of it fructify in material wealth and advancement.
I am therefore fully persuaded that a really good public
library is one of the very most important institutions
to a young country that public money can be laid out
on ; and one of the very most economical purposes to
which public money can be applied. But for this
purpose it ought to be a truly good library, that is to
say its books should be thoroughly well selected,
thoroughly well arranged, and as complete in every
aspect as can be made. If there be only one book on
one subject, that book should be as comprehensive as
possible ; but each subject ought to be as fully de-
veloped as the funds of the library Can allow, and
20
so arranged that any book on any subject may be
readily referred to. One book at random on one
subject, and another on another, may for such pur-
poses be compared to one page of one book bound up
with odd pages of others ; and as a volume so composed
would be of little value, so is an ill-arranged ill-selected
library though containing a large number of volumes
incalculably less valuable than a smaller one well
selected and well arranged. For these reasons I have
long thought that no book belonging to a public library
should ever be allowed to be removed from the im-
mediate custody of its officers or from the walls of the
building. In the first place it is utterly impossible to
guard fully against the loss of valuable volumes if the
habit of removing them be allowed, and the loss of one
volume may often render comparatively worthless a
whole collection of volumes. In the next place a
student is often placed in a most unfair position by the
fact that the very work which it may be most important
to him to refer to and which perhaps he may only
require to refer to for a moment is engrossed by
some one else for weeks together, not that such other
person is actually using the work during all that time,
but simply that it is lying at his residence instead of
being as it ought to be on the shelves of the library
for the public advantage. The student thus baffled
retires in disgust with bitter feelings towards the
managers of the library and if he has been used to
subscribe to it determines to do so no more. To
come then to our own Library, while as I have said
a public library is a proper object for the expenditure
of public money, it is obviously only so far as a
library fulfils its proper office as a public library that
the grant of the public money to it can be defended.
I am glad that the grant which in the paroxysm of
the retrenchment fever our Legislature some three
21
years back underwent, had been taken away from this
Library or reduced, has since been restored. But
we must look at ourselves. One of the principal
grounds on which the grant was then attacked was
that this Library was a circulating library for the
benefit of Cape Town. If this was altogether true,
the argument would be unanswerable. Public funds
ought not to be expended for such a purpose especially
in the low condition of public finances, and in BO far
as the charge has truth in it in so far is it a sound
argument not only against a public grant but against
all subscriptions of private individuals beyond the
actual market value of the accommodation they
individually receive. Cape Town ought to be able to
support as a private trading establishment a circula-
ting library of its own, and I have little doubt that
the individual interest of the keeper of such a library
would more effectually keep him up to the exigencies
of its successful management than the salaried officers
of an institution like this can be kept by the very
nature of their office. The natural tendency of a
circulating library is to the lighter literature of a
comparatively ephemeral kind, in preference to the
really enduring works which should form the staple
of a public library ; not that a circulating library
now-a-days in an educated community excludes good
and lasting books, or that I would desire to banish the
higher works of fiction from the walls and tables of a
public library ; but the principal objects of such insti-
tutions are diverse, the primary intention of the one
being relaxation and of the other work, of the one
amusement and of the other instruction. If then
this Library is to have a circulating department, it
should only be a department ; its accounts should be
separate, and it should be charged with its fair share
of the cost of the building and furniture and of the
22
salaries of the officers ; its volumes should be distinct,
and its profit and loss separately estimated ; its profits
might be applied to its own purposes, or might in
part or in whole be given over to the Public Library
as might be thought right ; but in no case should it be
continued at a loss, and in no case should any of the
funds of the Public Library whether from public
grant or private subscription be given to its aid;
and above all, in no case should any of the volumes
belonging to the Public Library be used as belonging
to the circulating library or be lent in aid of it. The
objection that the Library is a circulating library I
have touched on ; that it is for the benefit of Cape
Town remains to be mentioned, and this I must say,
when separate from the " circulating," objection fails
of any force in my mind. A library must be some-
where. One library in one place even if rather out
of the way is much better than the same number of
books scattered about in different places. It is to use
an illustration already used by me the bringing of the
sticks together for the purpose of light and heat, it is
the dockyard whence the argosies of knowledge are
fitted out for cruising in the seas of ignorance, and
the place where a library is best situated is where it
is accessible to the largest number capable of using it.
This in the present instance is for the present at least
unquestionably Cape Town, and if a public library
exists in the Colony at all it is at Cape Town it will
be of most use. There are other matters which I
had thought of with reference to this Library but
there is no need here to mention them. I fear this
discourse has not even as it is been all honey,
and there is no need to mix gall with it further than
is wholesome. I have been forced to the line I
have taken in this lecture by having been required
to lecture at all. I have been by my occupations
23
precluded from acquiring the information requisite to
enable me to give you a discourse on the advance of
literature or of science during the year. I was forced
therefore to fall back on politics, and politics as affect-
ing this Library is what I have endeavoured to give
you, such views at least of its politics as seem to
myself sound. These in some respects may be
different from the views of others, for the political
opinions of all cannot be the same. I trust those who
may dissent from the views here expressed will at
least believe that my suggestions are honestly given
and well intended, and will treat me with tolerance,
though we may agree to differ.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., ST. GEORGE'S-STREET, CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 21sT MAY, 1870.
Cameron, g.JL, in tje
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE,
1870.
(ffomtntttw :
W. PORTER, ESQ., I DB. DALE
REV. PROFESSOR CAMERON, | SIR THOMAS MACLEAR, KNT.
W. HIDDINGH, ESQ (Treas.)
S. SOLOMON, ESQ.
MH. PHOFESSOB NOBLE
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE,
ESQ.
E. J. JERRAVf.EsQ
J. C. GIE, ESQ. | JOHN NOBLE, ESQ.
1U& rattan anto
F. MASKEW
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The Committee, in submitting their report for the
past year, feel much pleasure in being able to state
that the Institution has been frequented to an extent
equal to that of previous years, both by residents in
the Colony and by strangers visiting its shores. The
circulation of books and the number of regular read-
ers continue likewise undiminished. The Committee
have also to state that the Institution has received
many valuable additions to its literary stores, not
merely from the ordinary monthly importations from
England, by which they endeavour as far as their
means permit them to keep abreast of the growing
literature of the day, but by presentations from indi-
viduals as well as from public institutions in Europe
and America. While, however, they have reason to
congratulate their subscribers on the usefulness of
the South African Public Library and the many
valuable accessions it has received, they regret to
record that it has not obtained that extent of support
in the way of regular annual subscriptions which they
conceive its importance and utility deserve, and for
which they have so frequently pleaded at these public
anniversaries.
They now respectfully venture to repeat the same
appeal, and hope that for an Institution which is so
largely dependent on voluntary support, which offers
its treasures so freely for the use and advantage of
the public, and is confessedly one of the most dis-
A2
tinguished ornaments, not merely of the metropolis,
but of the Colony, the public of Cape Town will come
forward with a ready and generous liberality, by means
of which the collection, already extensive, varied, and
rich, may be further augmented and have its still
existing gaps and deficiencies supplied at the earliest
possible time.
The Committee have to report that an appplication
was made by Sir George Grey (through Dr. Bleek)
to be allowed to have returned to him a collection of
books in South African Languages, which was presented
by him in 1858 to the Public Library, and as duplicate
copies of these books are in the "Grey Collection," the
Committee felt much pleasure in being able to comply
with the request, and they feel sure this will meet
with the approval of the subscribers.
The accession of books during the past year, by
purchase and presentation, has been as follows :
Theology 5 Vols.
Political Econony 35
Science and the Arts 28
Works of Amusement ... ... 104
Belles Lettres ... 58
History 35
Voyages and Travels 37
Biography 39
Miscellaneous 6
Total 347 Vols.
Included amongst the number are books presented
by the " Royal Academy of Science," Sweden ; " The
National Association for the Promotion of Social
Science ;" " The Smithsonian Institution," United
States ; " The "Wesleyan Conference," London ; Miss
Roselt, His Excellency Sir P. E. Wodehouse, Judge
Pringle, the Rev. Dr. A. Faure, the Rev. D. Faure,
Dr. Bleek, Messrs. T. B. Bayley, L. Bols, and J. C.
Bell, to all of whom the thanks of the subscribers are
due.
During the first six months of the past year the
Librarian of the " Grey Collection " was on leave of
absence in Europe, and on this visit he availed him-
self of the opportunities he had of studying the manu-
script collections in the British Museum, the Bodleian
Library, and the Berlin Royal Library ; and also
inspected a few other Libraries. Dr. Bleek considers
that what he has been able to learn will be of great
assistance to him in the compilation of the catalogue
of the old manuscripts.
Specimens of this descriptive catalogue were laid
before Sir George Grey, who trusted before long to
see it published.
During the course of the past year, the collection
of Native literature has received some very valuable
accessions. Among the donors is first to be men-
tioned the Rev. J. W. Appleyard, who, besides nine
printed Kafir books, has presented sixteen manuscript
volumes, chiefly containing portions of the oldest
translations of the Bible into Kafir ; also the first
grammatical attempts of the missionaries. The Rev.
Dr. Steere has given copies of nine of his publications,
most of them in Suaheli, and the Rev. Dr. Callaway,
two parts of his " Religious System of the Amazulu."
Kafir publications have also been received from the Rev.
A. Kropf, the Educational Committee of the Lovedale
Institution, and the Moravian Missionaries at Shiloh.
Two little Setshuana books were sent by the author,
the venerable R. Moffat. The Secretary of the Wes-
leyan Missionary Society, the Rev. W. B. Boyce, has
given us a very curious and generally inaccessible book,
a grammar of the Mfantsi language, written and printed
last year by natives at Cape Coast. We have to
thank the Rev. F. W. Kolbe for a copy of his publica-
tion on the "Vowels; "the Secretary of the S. P. C. K.
for a Susu Prayer-book ; Mr. Theophilus Hahn, for an
Australian Vocabulary ; Mr. William Hertzog, for a
valuable Amharic and Galla Grammar, published at
Paris; Capt. Walmsley, for forty photographs of
Zulus; Dr. A. Fritsch, for twenty-two additional
vignette photographs of natives, taken by himself, and
also for a copy of his highly illustrated German book
of Travels in South Africa.
Dr. J. E. Gray, of the British Museum, has also
presented, through Dr. Bleek, for the Grey Collection,
a medallion of himself and Mrs. Gray.
The collection of old rare printed books has received
from the Library of the late Professor Friederich
Bleek a valuable accession of five theological works,
published at the time of the Reformation, 1523 1539.
Amongst them are " Annotationes Philippen Melanch-
thons " (explaining the epistle to the Romans, edited
by Dr. Martin Luther, Augsburg, 1523) and J.
Calvin's " Institutio Christianas Religionis," Argen-
torati, 1539.
The Treasurer's account, showing the income and
expenditure during the past year, will now be
submitted.
ADDRESS.
The Rev. Professor CAMERON then delivered the
following Address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I will not take up your time with apologies for
appearing before you as chairman of this meeting. I
have so high an estimate of the duties of that position,
and so strong a conviction that my words will be but
feeble and inadequate in comparison with the brilliant
addresses to which you have listened on similar occa-
sions, that I would gladly have excused myself from
undertaking the duty to which your Committee has
done me the honour of inviting me. I have acceded
to the request of the Committee chiefly on the ground,
if you will allow me to say so, of my own incompetency
to do all that has sometimes been done on occasions
of this kind. It is well that the highest thought of an
age should be brought into direct contact with its
average mind and intelligence. This has sometimes
been done in addresses from this chair. We have
listened with admiration and delight to the utterances
of men to whom the realms of philosophy, science, and
literature are familiar ground, over which they have
led us with firm, unfaltering footstep, revealing to us
the majesty and marvel of Nature, and bringing us
face to face with the stately creations, the ideal beauty,
and the glowing visions of the intellectual world. But
such guides are seldom to be found. The combination
of the highest order of intellect with the power of
popular expression is a rare gift so rare, that, as a
general rule, the contact of the most influential thought
with the average mind must be secured, not immedi-
ately, by direct communication between them, but by
the mediation of those who occupy somewhat of a
middle position between the highest and the lower
levels of thought. And my hope is, and my aim shall
be, in the remarks I offer to-day, to do something in
the way of thus interpreting the speculations and
theories of the most influential minds of our age, and
of assisting you to trace the direction and tendencies
of modern thought.
But first let me say a few words about the Library
itself its position and prospects. From the report
submitted by the Committee, you will see that in every
department of literature there has been considerable
increase in the numerical strength of the Library during
the past year. The accessions during the year amount
to 347 volumes. Of these a large proportion falls
under the head of works of amusement. I hope I shall
not be misunderstood when I express my regret that
this is the case. It is but the reflection of the fact
that of the works which are annually poured forth by
thousands from the presses of Europe, a great portion
consists of works of fiction and amusement. That our
population should share the common taste for litera-
ture of this nature is not strange. But I cannot help
regretting that the Public Library should be to so
great an extent the channel by which that taste is
gratified. It seems to me that this noble institution
has higher functions than those of the circulating
library. It should endeavour to add to its treasures
only such works as are of permanent value ; to render
its collection of our standard authors as complete as
possible ; to enrich its shelves with materials by the
aid of which the student may successfully trace the
growth and development of human thought in any
direction, on any subject, for any period of history. I
believe I am only expressing the opinion of those who
take the deepest interest in the Library when I say
that its efficiency for these its high and legitimate
functions is impaired by the liberal provision which it
makes for the department of amusement. I am well
aware of the difficulties which surround the subject
of the necessity, or the assumed necessity, of providing
largely in this department, in order to attract and
retain subscribers. But I believe the time is come
when the Library should throw itself more fully upon
the generous sympathies of the public, and transfer to
other hands the work of meeting the requirements of
those whose intellectual wants are sufficiently met by
the ephemeral literature of fiction.
Passing on now to other subjects, merely observing
as we pass the satisfactory statement as regards the
accessions to the Library in more important depart-
ments of literature, and congratulating the subscribers
on what I trust we may now consider the permanent
restoration of the Parliamentary grant in aid of the
funds of the institution, let me ask you to join me in
a brief survey of the tendency of the literature and
thought of the present day. I do not profess to be
able to give you more than a general outline of a
subject which embraces so many distinct departments
of the intellectual life. Even if it were in my power
to do more than this, I believe it would be more
profitable to offer such a general outline, with sugges-
tions that may perhaps lead to further inquiry and
investigation on your part, than to present a complete
discussion of any one of the many branches into which
so large a subject ia necessarily divided.
Speaking generally, then, with regard to modern
10
thought, as represented in the literature of the day,
I think we may fairly say that its most prominent
features are intense activity and intense restlessness.
As to the first there can be no question. Even a
superficial observer must have noticed with astonish-
ment the activity and swiftness of recent intel-
lectual movements. The world has seen nothing to
equal it. The Athens of Pericles and the Rome of
Augustus cannot for a moment be brought into com-
parison, as regards intellectual vigour, with the great
cities which represent the free life of modern Europe.
It is common enough to marvel at the brilliant intel-
lectual development of the people who thronged the
benches of the theatre of Dionysus, to listen to the
sublime tragedies and the wild choral music of
.ZEschylus and Euripides ; to speak with affected
rapture of the youth who crowded the pavement of
the painted porch and the shady walks of the Lyceum,
that they might hear the wisdom of the fathers of
Greek philosophy ; to sigh over the days when the
wit of Horace and the tenderness of Virgil made
them the chosen friends of Augustus and Maecenas.
There was indeed an exquisite taste and a beautiful
intellectual culture among the highest classes of
Athenian and Roman citizens. But there is no
evidence whatever to show that the influence of litera-
ture reached the masses of society. In both cities a
large proportion of the inhabitants were slaves, or
resident aliens with scarcely recognized political
existence ; and they heeded not, for they knew not,
the poetry or the philosophy or the eloquence around
them. In contrast with this, the special characteristic
of the mental activity of this age is its wide diffusion.
It reaches and permeates all classes of society. The
highest think it an honour to help and direct its
movements. The humblest are not beyond its soothing
11
and elevating influences. Statesmen and nobles leave
the dust of political strife for the noiseless realms of
pure literature. Mechanics and factory operatives
forget their political grievances in the freedom of the
great republic of letters. The days are over when
authors were wont to wait in the halls of the nobility,
humbly entreating the favour of a subscription or the
honour of being allowed to dedicate their books to
some lord whose title was his only recommendation.
The relations are simply reversed. Now, it is litera-
ture that reflects honour on rank and title. It would
probably surprise most of us if a list were set before
us of the names of our British aristocracy who have
sought and secured the honours of literature. And,
as I have said, the influence has permeated the whole
mass of society, down to its humblest ranks. The
common people demand it eagerly and receive it
gladly. The immense circulation of cheap literature
of high intellectual character and healthy moral tone
is one of the most hopeful features of the age. And
they who have had recent opportunity of seeing some-
thing of European life and character cannot fail to
have been struck with the activity of thought and
the diffusion of knowledge among the people. Con-
versing a few months ago with a cabman who drove
me through the streets of Edinburgh, I felt deeply
my own ignorance, compared with the extent and
accuracy of his knowledge, of the history and antiqui-
ties of Scotland ; and in another town, on the Scottish
border, I was astonished to hear a group of young
cabinet-makers discussing, during their dinner hour,
with keen interest and careful discrimination, the last
phase of the Stowe and Byron controversy.
But the restlessness of modern thought is not less
remarkable than its activity. The old opinions are
everywhere in conflict with the new. Politics, poetry,
12
theology, criticism, metaphysical philosophy, physical,
social, and moral science are all alike the scene of
conflict. There is one school of powerful thinkers
who cling to old traditional modes of thought. Ano-
ther class, equally influential, rejecting the old opinions,
has set itself the " sad task of sweeping up dead
leaves fallen from the dying tree of belief." A third,
which includes in its ranks some of the deepest think-
ers of the day, accepts the new without discarding the
old, striving to mediate between them and bring them
into harmony with each other. And the general
intelligence of the day is deeply interested in this
strife of opinion, and awaits the issue with anxiety.
Youth is caught by the novelty and boldness of the
new opinions, and ridicules the distrust with which
riper years and larger experience regard them. The
old Conservative on the other hand looks with pity
and indignation on the flippant arrogance of the
young iconoclast. Meanwhile, there is one cheering
and hopeful sign at least in the midst of the strife.
Beneath the surface there is a growing and generous
recognition of the claims of benevolence and charity.
Men of all shades of opinion are united in works of
practical philanthropy. No other age has ever
witnessed such munificence of private and public
charity, such organization for the relief of poverty and
distress, such hearty, practical recognition of the truth
that man is his brother's keeper, and practical
obedience to the precept " Thou shalt . love thy
neighbour as thyself." It is a delightful relief to turn
from the mutual repulsions of the purely intellectual
realm to the power and permanence of the attraction
which draws men together in practical effort for the
well-being of our common humanity. Notwithstand-
ing all this fluctuation this ebb and flow in the
great tide of opinion there are at least some things
13
that do not change. Whatever else is questioned, this
at least is admitted, that
The primal duties shine aloft like stars ;
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless,
Are scatter'd at the feet of man like flowers.
But to return to the conflict of opinions, let me ask
you to notice two or three of its most conspicuous
I. The POETRY of recent years exhibits in a remark-
able way the antagonism of the old and the new.
I need scarcely remind you of the splendid develop-
ment of English poetry at the commencement of the
present century. After many years of feeble medi-
ocrity, the Muse of poetry once more found adequate
representatives in England. The line of succession,
which seemed to have ended with Milton and Dryden,
was restored in Coleridge and Wordsworth, Shelley,
Keats, and Byron. These are the intellectual fathers
of the race which has succeeded them. The poetry of
each has left its mark on the thought of the nineteenth
century. Perhaps the influence of Wordsworth has
been deepest and most permanent. Certainly, Cole-
ridge, who alone can be compared with Wordsworth
for deep and far-reaching influence, affected modern
thought more through his philosophy than his poetry.
The influence of Shelley and Keats has been increasing
of late years ; while that of Byron, powerful for a
time, was happily not permanent; and Wordsworth
still holds his place of supremacy among the calmest
and deepest of our thinkers. Of living poets, we may
say that the spirit of Wordsworth and Coleridge
reappears in Tennyson and Browning ; that of Keats
and Shelley in Swinburne and Matthew Arnold. The
aim of Keats was to reproduce in modern forms the
beautiful legends of ancient Greece. And with all the
14
faults and extravagance of his poetry, it will retain
its place in our literature as the memorial of poetic
genius of a very high order. Mr. Arnold and Mr.
Swinburne have followed Keats in the selection of
subjects from ancient mythology. They represent the
classical revival of the period. Their poetry has not
become popular, and probably will never be so. Even
the graceful elegance of the one, the powerful and
splendid diction of the other, and the rich poetical
imagination of both, will fail to invest these cold and
distant subjects with a genuine human interest. But
there is another aspect of this poetry which demands
attention, and which links ifc especially with that of
Shelley. It is essentially pantheistic. It knows nothing
of a personal God, a " living will that shall endure."
A stern necessity, a blind fate, a slow-moving machi-
nery of physical laws, unconnected with moral purpose
or beneficent result these are for it the ruling powers
of the universe. These poets represent the new scien-
tific scepticism of the age. Their sympathies are with
the Positive Philosophy. They are worshippers in that
temple of which humanity is the God and Comte the
high-priest.
The position of Tennyson and Browning is very
far from that which has been described. Their deep
sympathy with the scientific spirit of the age, their
interest and share in its intellectual strifes, and their
full recognition of the difficulties of a true belief
have not alienated them from the faith to which the
Christian centuries have witnessed. It has been said
that their poetry that of Tennyson especially
reflects the intellectual and spiritual confusions of the
age. It does this ; but it does much more than this.
It shows us the alliance of reason and faith, of power-
ful and subtle intellect with humble reverence in the
presence of divine mysteries. Their highest poetry is
15
a protest against the error that man is the measure of
all things, that we must reject everything which cannot
be wrought into the schemes of human philosophy.
If it reflects the doubts and uncertainties of the intel-
lectual life, it reflects equally the calm assurance of the
spiritual. It will not exclude the heart, the conscience,
the experience of the past, the " high instincts " and
" shadowy recollections " of the soul from their right-
ful place as factors of human belief. The school of
which Arnold and Swinburne are the representatives
has renounced all faith in a personal God, in a divine
purpose which runs through all time, in immortality
and heaven. Their only God is the " blind, impartial
force " which lives not less in earth and sea and sky,
in plants and stones, than in man. Heaven, immortal
life, the knowledge hereafter of that which we know
not now these are'the mere dreams of ignorance and
superstition. Here is Mr. Swinburne's creed :
From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be,
That no life lives for ever ;
That dead men rise up never ;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
And here is Mr. Arnold's rebuke of " the feeble
follies of inventive hope, the futile forgeries of unpro-
fitable comfort :"
Fools ! that so often here
Happiness mocked our prayer,
I think, might make us fear
A like event elsewhere I
Make us, not fly to dreams, but moderate desire !
Thus deliberately do these poets fling from them
" the mighty hopes that make us men." And here is
16
the vast and vital difference between their teaching and
that of Tennyson. That which they reject is for him
the anchor of the soul, the centre around which all his
thoughts of the worth and dignity of our life are
gathered. Contrast with the verses which have been
quoted the lofty lessons of such passages as the
following :
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove.
Thou seemest human and divine
The highest, holiest manhood, thou :
Our wills are ours, we know not how ;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.
Our little systems have their day ;
They have their day and cease to be :
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
For the gospel of despair
That no life lives for ever,
That dead men rise up never
he bids us accept the gospel of hope
That men may rise on steppping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things :
And for the cold and cheerless negations of the
Pantheist he gives us the sublime aspiration with
which he closes his greatest poem :
O living will that shalt endure
When all that seems shall suffer shock,
Rise in the spiritual rock,
Flow through our deeds and make them pure.
That we may lift from out of dust
A voice as unto him that hears,
A cry above the conquered years,
To one that with us works and trust,
17
With faith that comes of self-control,
The truths that never can be proved
Until we close with all we loved,
And all we flow from, soul in soul.
The poetry of Mr. Browning is of a very different
order from that of Mr. Tennyson, and the evidence
that he is to be classed, as regards our present purpose,
with his illustrious contemporary, must he sought in
the general structure and tone of his poems rather
than in isolated passages. He is of all modern poets
the most difficult to represent by quotation. His
strength lies in subtle analysis of character and motive
a kind of moral and metaphysical anatomy so minute
and protracted that even the wonderful skill of the
manipulator does not redeem it from tediousness.
Perhaps of all the higher modern poetry, Mr.
Browning's offers the fewest attractions to the general
reader. It is too learned, its demand upon the
intellect of the reader is too great, its subjects and
characters are too remote from average human
sympathies, for great popularity. His is emphatically
the "fit audience, though few." His influence is
very powerful with a certain cast of highly cultivated
minds. One cannot read a page of his poetry without
being impresssd with the strong vigorous thinking
that runs through it. And there is always, as I
have said, a deep undertone of religious feeling and
conviction, a reverential spirit in the presence of
Divine mysteries, and a distinct recognition of the great
facts of Christianity, which to the excessive refine-
ment of Mr. Arnold are a stumbling-block, and to
the wild and riotous imagination of Mr. Swinburne,
foolishness.
My apology for having dwelt so long on this part
of the subject must be that it seems to me to represent
fairly the general features of the conflict between the
18
opinions which at present divide thinking men. And
no apology will be needed for having introduced
matters that are usually excluded from addresses
of this nature, since it is especially these matters the
theological bearings and relations of truth that are
most keenly discussed in the present day, and to ex-
clude them in a review of this kind would be simply to
ignore one of the most interesting and characteristic
phases of modern thought.
II. I will not attempt any lengthened discussion of
the rival PHILOSOPHICAL theories and systems of the
present day. Even if I were competent to do justice
to the subject, it would involve metaphysical distinc-
tions and technicalities unsuited to the occasion. I
would rather endeavour to present as briefly and
clearly as I can the main position of each, keeping
strictly in view that it is the restlessness and the
conflict of thought that are to be illustrated.
I need not do more than remind you of the immense
influence of German thought on the philosophical
speculations of this century. Carlyle was among the
first to familiarize the English mind with German
speculation and modes of thought. But the influence
of Coleridge was deeper and more direct. It is
he who must be looked upon as " the angel who has
come down and troubled the waters of English specu-
lative science " his hand that grafted the strong shoot
of German Idealism on the tree of English Philoso-
phy. Himself a sincere and devout believer in the
Christian Revelation, he accepted that philosophy
which allies itself with theology, which refuses to
limit its inquiries to the things that are seen, which
addresses itself to the great questions of the origin,
the spiritual relations, and the destiny of man. He
believed in a world of reality and truth beyond the
realm of phenomena, and insisted upon the necessary
19
impotence of a philosophy which is based upon sense
to apprehend the mysteries of that higher world.
Hence the distinction upon which he laid so much
stress the distinction between the Reason and the
Understanding is not, as is often imagined, a
metaphysical refinement, but lies at the very root of
his philosophy. It corresponds to an essential diversity
in the objects of human knowledge. The Under-
standing is "the faculty judging by sense," and its
judgments are binding only in relation to the objects
of our senses. The Reason, on the other hand, is
exercised in things which are beyond sense "a direct
aspect of Truth, an inward beholding, having a similar
relation to the intelligible or spiritual as sense has to
the material or phenomenal." It is easy to see that a
philosophy based upon this principle must inevitably
ally itself with theology. The questions of the former
are answered in the revelations of the latter.
The object of Coleridge was to introduce into
England this higher philosophy, which he had learned
in the school of Kant, Hegel, and Schelling. If his
purpose was to gain acceptance for the systems of these
philosophers, he certainly failed. The practical
English intellect would not enter into the minute and
subtle refinements of the German theorists. But he
did succeed in his endeavour to infuse a new spirit
into Philosophical Speculation. Absorbed in visions
of surpassing splendour encompassed by intellectual
objects, and influenced by spiritual powers, of the
reality of which he had a more profound conviction
than of the existence of sensible objects living and
moving in realized worlds of beauty and glory, to the
light of which long and loving contemplation had
accustomed the inner eye of his soul he could still
descend from the Mount of Vision and deliver his soul
in passionate discoursing on things which eye has not
B 2
20
seen nor ear heard. The generation which listened to
the charm of his living voice has passed away. But
his influence survives in that school of religious philo-
sophy which has adopted his method, and which opposes
the noblest protest of this age to that dreary sense-
philosophy which would bound by the things which
are seen and temporal the knowledge, the aspirations,
and the hopes of man.
The philosophy which I have connected with the
name of Coleridge is opposed at almost every point to
the positive philosophy of Auguste Comte. This last
development of a purely sense-philosophy, as regards
its methods, objects, standards, tendencies, and relations
to other sciences, is in direct antagonism to the higher
spiritual philosophy of Coleridge. According to M.
Comte, we know and can know nothing beyond the
region of sense. Philosophy in any true sense of the
word, as the science of the absolute and universal, is
an impossibility. We cannot pass beyond the know-
ledge of phenomena and the laws of their succession.
Investigations as to the spiritual nature, the origin
and destiny of man, the nature of God and His
relations to man, are not merely useless they are
positively mischievous, since they withdraw the atten-
tion of the student from the only knowledge possible to
him the knowledge, that is, of phenomenal laws. In
this system " the spirit of physical science is applied
to man ; he is the subtlest of organizations, yet not so
fearfully and wonderfully made but that science will
trace back his deepest thought, through link after link,
in the network of association, to the simple impressions
which he is ever receiving from without, to the sights
and sounds, the pleasures and pains which have gone
to make up the sum of his experience from his birth on-
wards." In tracing the history of human thought,
Comte professes to find three well-defined stages of
21
development, the theological, the metaphysical, and
the positive. In the earliest stage an explanation of
every phenomenon was found in the idea of a hidden
divinity an JEolus controlling the winds, an Aurora
rising in the dawn, an Apollo borne through the
heavens in his chariot of light. This was succeeded
by the metaphysical stage, in which the deities give
place to abstract conceptions, supposed principles, or
invisible entities, by participation in which (as Plato
would say) material things have their properties and
attributes. Thus there is a principle of colour, of
sweetness, of fragrance, the presence of which gives
beauty to the rose and richness to fruit. But this
phase of thought is outgrown in its turn, and the last
or positive stage is reached, in which all attempt to
understand the nature of things is abandoned, and the
co-existence and succession of phenomena are recog-
nized as the only real objects of knowledge. I will
not offer any criticism of this theory. It has been
defended and condemned with equal earnestness by
the historians and critics of philosophy. Perhaps, the
most enthusiastic of its English advocates is Mr. Gr.
H. Lewes, who maintains that " the positive mode of
thought is that which must rule the future," and that
" the course of history unequivocally consecrates the
positive philosophy." On the other hand, Dr. Whewell
as emphatically condemns the law of the three stages
as " contrary to history in fact, and contrary to sound
philosophy in principle." My object in referring to
the theory is not to point out its truth or error as an
intellectual system, but rather to indicate the assump-
tions on which it is based, and the consequences which
it involves. What, then, is the real meaning of this
law of the three stages ? It means simply that all the
intellectual efforts of the past generations have been
misdirected, and their conclusions are absolutely
22
worthless. They were knocking for entrance at the
gates of a Temple which is eternally closed against
them. They strove to know God ; but there is no
God or, at least, we can never know whether there
is or not. They speculated on the whence and whither
of human existence ; they longed for immortality ;
they believed in heaven. Mere dreams and cloudland!
says the Positive Philosophy. The world has at
length outgrown its mythic fancies. We have been
accustomed to say, with one of old, " The heavens
declare the glory of God." No such thing, says the
creed of Positivism. " The heavens no longer declare
any other glory than that of Hipparchus, of Kepler,
and of Newton, and of all those who have contributed
to establish their laws." And Christianity has but
helped to perpetuate the huge delusion, to fetter the
freedom of thought. Away with it ! Why cumbereth
it the ground ?
I will make one other remark upon this system, and
that is that its prevalence would be fatal to its success.
Granting that its law of evolution is a true one sup-
posing that, by removing from the region of human
impulse and motive the idea of a God and of a future
life, it had actually made good its promise of a new
dignity and power for man, that it had " crowned him
with glory and honour " in a far truer sense than any
yet realized by the race, surely in proportion to the
height of his dignity and felicity would be the
vehemence of his protest against the death that would
destroy him for ever.* The system surely carries
within itself the seed of its own condemnation. It
would infallibly perish in the very hour of its victory.
The dream of immortality would inevitably come to
uncrown his royalty, and dash the cup of joy from his
* This thought is powerfully presented in a critique on Comte, by
the late George Br niley, Librarian of Trinity Coll., Cambridge.
(Estays : Cambridge, 1858.)
23
lip. The old question would thrust itself upon him
with resistless power, " What advantageth it me if the
dead rise not ? " And the answer would be in the words
of a poet from whom I have already quoted
'Twere hardly worth my while to choose
Of things all mortal, or to use
A little patience ere I die ;
'Twere best at once to sink to peace,
Like birds the charming serpent draws,
To drop head foremost in the jaws
Of vacant darkness, and to cease.
III. There is one other subject upon which, at the
risk of exhausting your patience, I feel that something
ought to be said. Any attempt to present the ten-
dencies of modern thought would be essentially defec-
tive which did not take into account the rapid and
splendid development of PHYSICAL SCIENCE in recent
years. It is no part of my purpose to enter into any
discussion of the truth or falseness of the recent con-
clusions of science. This I am not competent to do.
Nor will I attempt to enumerate the brilliant dis-
coveries by which the physiologists, chemists, and
physicists of this age have made it . memorable in the
history of scientific research. It is rather on the
special character of modern investigation, and the
supposed bearing of its conclusions on other realms of
thought, that I would offer some remarks.
And surely the most striking feature in the scientific
inquiry of our day is its intense thoroughness. Never
before has nature been questioned with such search-
ing minuteness or such splendid success. The quest
in every department of natural inquiry does not stop
short of the ultimate constituent elements of things.
By the aid of apparatus far more delicate than the
most sensitive analytic tests of the chemist, new dis-
coveries of the constitution and structure, not of
earthly things alone, but of sun and stars in space,
24
have rewarded the genius and patience of science. By
means of instruments of vastly increased power, the
tissues of animal and vegetable organisms have been
compelled to give up the secret of their structure, and
the matter which composes them is divested of its
grossness, and almost refined away into a spiritual
element. And while the telescope that sweeps the
distant heavens, and the spectroscope that analyzes the
tremulous ray of their revealing light, disclose to us a
few simple laws as the secret of their majestic order,
and a few simple elements as the constituents of the
material universe ; the microscope in like manner
shows us that in the downward direction and the lower
region of earth's wonders there is an equally admirable
simplicity of structure and comparative uniformity of
type. Indeed, those who are most competent to speak
on the subject tell us that the tendency of all science
is to reveal a unity throughout the vast realm of her
inquiries ; that all the forces of nature are near akin to
each other, and each may be expressed in the language
of the rest ; that the conviction is growing upon
scientific men that matter itself in its last result is
nothing but " conglomerated centres of force," and that
these forces, in their endless variety of phenomena and
modes of operation, are ultimately and essentially one.
Now to these tendencies and discoveries of science
there are those who look with gratitude and hope, and
those who look with fear and trembling. There are
some who rejoice in the present growth of Physical
Science, because they believe that it will deliver the
world from the bondage of religious creeds and doc-
trines which they have learnt to dislike. They believe
that Science is to displace Theology from its long
sway over the life of man, and substitute the certainties
of ascertained fact for the fluctuations of faith that
Science is competent to satisfy all the necessities of
25
our nature, for it has discovered the unity of all force,
and set it upon the throne of the universe. I venture
to say that, in spite of any appearance to the contrary,
this claim will be rejected alike by the intellect and
the heart of the world. The very constitution of our
nature demands something beyond this. We feel
that when Science has done its utmost, there is still a
great question unanswered, and that the answer to it
can come only in a form supplied by our own con-
sciousness. Thus when the astronomer tells us of
gravitation, or the chemist of attractions and affinities,
or the geologist of upheaval and attrition, or the
naturalist of natural selection and the struggle for
existence, or the physiologist of a physical basis of
life, he has not carried us one step beyond the region
of phenomena. He has not explained to us the
mystery of force ; he has only shown us certain modes
of its operation. He has been dealing not with
originating forces, but with outward manifestations of
force. He has put his finger on the pulse of the
machine, but he has not reached its heart. He has
classified the phenomena, he has formulated the laws,
he has discovered the unity, of Nature. But he has
not revealed the ultimate secret of her power. Nor
can he ever do so. It does not come within his
province to anwer the question : Whence came these
impulses? What power is sustaining these mighty
energies ? The answer must come, as I have said,
from the inner world of our own consciousness and the
great religious intuitions of our nature. So true and
perfect are the relations of man to nature and to that
which is above and beyond nature, that he supplies
the missing link in the great chain of being. It is a
necessity of our constitution to trace an effect to a
cause, motion to a mover, action to an agent. When
Science, therefore, brings us to its last result, our spiri-
tual nature compels us to say : These mighty energies,
26
this all-pervading force, these calm, grand laws are the
witnesses of one who has originated these movements,
and of whose will these laws are the expression.
There must be an originating cause, a living God of
creation. And these convictions are confirmed by
the Revelation which tells of Him who created all
things by the Word of His power, and in whom we
live and move and have our being. Having, there-
fore, this double witness, the man of serene faith and
clear intelligence accepts gratefully this discovery of
the unity of nature, for he, too, believes in one God
and Father of all. Looking in virtue of his two-fold
constitution at once downwards to Nature and upwards
to God, his faith and his reason in closest alliance
lift up the chain which science has forged, and link
it to the eternal throne.
But there are not a few who look with alarm upon
these movements of scientific thought as tending to
materialism in philosophy, and as hostile to the claims
of Revealed Truth. As to the materialistic tendencies
of Physical Science, I trust that what has been said
will tend to show that such fears arise from confounding
the sphere of Science with a sphere which is altogether
beyond it. Science deals with phenomena and laws,
modes and measures of the operation of force ; but of
the force itself it knows nothing, and is incompetent
to speak. I will add nothing on this point, but will
conclude this address, which has already outgrown its
intended limits, with a few sentences on what I cannot
but consider a needless alarm lest the conclusions of
Science should prove hostile to the claims of Revealed
Truth.
It is undeniable that there is a strong impression of
the existence of such hostility on the part of both the
adherents and the opponents of Christianity. By the
latter it is often assumed as an established truth that
the claims of Scripture are no longer reconcilable with
the facts of science, and on the part of the former
there is often an ill-concealed anxiety that there
should be peace on almost any terms between the two.
Professor Maurice, speaking indignantly of the
"struggle to protect the Bible from the last new
theory propounded at the British 'Association," says :
" If we can get any distinguished member of the
Association to speak in our favour, we are full of
ignominious rapture ; if any of its members throw
out opinions which contradict ours, or may lead to
a contradiction of ours, we are full of a terror as
ignominious." I can only indicate in briefest outline
the position which, as it seems to me, the Christian
apologist should take up on this subject. I would
say, then, that whenever the final and unanimous
conclusions of scientific men pronounce against the
statements of Scripture, it is our duty not reluctantly,
but cheerfully and gratefully to abandon the views
which are founded upon the latter. But then, on the
one hand, we must be sure that these conclusions of
science are really final and irrevocable ; and on the
other hand that ours is the right interpretation of
those portions of Scripture with which they are found
to clash. It is notorious in the history of Science that
it has often had to reconsider, to modify, to retract its
statements ; and on the other side so profound and
acute a thinker as Butler has said that it is very
possible " that a book which has been so long in the
possession of mankind should contain many truths as
yet undiscovered." When due weight is given to
these conditions when scientific men, mindful of the
modesty of all true science, resist the temptation to
assume that what may be its merely provisional and
temporary stage, is its ultimate conclusion ; and the
theologian, with similar modesty, admits that his inter-
pretation of Scripture may not be the true one, it
will be found that the difficulties are greatly diminished
28
both in number and in magnitude. I am not aware
that there is unanimity on the part of scientific men
about any one of the main positions which Science
has maintained in opposition to Scripture. And there
is often an unreasonable tone of exultation when great
names in Science are quoted in support or in con-
demnation of some particular view. It is unrea-
sonable, because in nearly every case names of equal
authority might be quoted on the other side. The
authority of Professor Huxley or Dr. Tyndall is
unquestionably high, but so is that of Professor Owen
and Mr. Faraday ; and if the former have surrendered,
the latter have maintained, the position that the claims
of Science and Scripture may be reconciled. But I
must add another remark, to the effect that it need not
alarm us if some conclusions of Science should ulti-
mately prove to be opposed to the letter of Scripture.
It is sometimes said that the Scriptures must stand or
fall together that an error in any part vitiates the
whole. This is one of those arbitrary and unwarrant-
able assumptions that have injured, by misrepresent-
ing, the true claims of Scripture. Since the ultimate
appeal of the theologian is to Scripture, it is un-
reasonable for theology to claim for the Scriptures
more than they claim for themselves. And Scripture
nowhere claims that its language is free from the
influence of the prevailing tone of thought, the local
prejudices, and the erroneous views of the different
periods and countries in which its various portions
were written. Its language is the language of its day,
its science the science of a rude age and a simple
people. And while they who claim for the Scriptures a
literal infallibility in every respect, and rigid scientific
accuracy in every statement, are often compelled to
resort to forced and unnatural constructions of the
text, and are in frequent terror of a collision between
Science and Scripture ; they who occupy the truer
and more intelligent position, that an historical error
or a scientific inaccuracy does not even touch the great
verities of the Christian Faith, " can rise above the
dissonance of the hour, and transport themselves for-
ward into the great and sweet harmony of the
future."
For the final issue of the strife is not doubtful.
All the lines of truth converge at last, and each
discovery of truth is an approach to the living God.
Hasty conclusions of imperfect science and unsound
interpretations of Scripture will certainly clash with
each other. But the opposition will cease at length,
and the profound and eternal harmony of the Word
and the World will be manifested, when the facts of
the one and the language of the other are conclusively
ascertained and rightly interpreted.
When that harmony shall be revealed, and these
bridals of Earth and Heaven celebrated, we cannot
say. It is the magnificent vision of the future. We
are but the children to use the touching words of the
great philosopher children gathering pebbles on the
shore of the wide ocean of Truth. Tidings have come
to us, from those who have ventured a little way from
the shore, of marvellous beauty and ravishing visions.
And to those of us who are still on the shore,
gazing wistfully over the wide expanse, there may yet
come voices and visions of constraining power, of
imperial splendour, of infinite comfort: even as to
that Galilean fisherman of old, gazing from the shore
of Patmos across the broad waters of the ^Egean,
there came a voice louder than the plash of its many
waters, and brighter than its burnished splendour came
the vision of that crystal sea, whose depths reflect the
towers and palaces of the City of God.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., ST. GEORQK'S-STKEBT, CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
FORTY-SECOND AIIITERSARY MEETING
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
African |ubltc JKbrarg,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 27TH MAY, 1871.
)ts todlentj Sir ntrs garhlg, S-C-g., in % C^air.
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1871.
OTommtttee :
W. PORTER, ESQ.,
REV. DR. CAMERON,
W. BIDDING H, ESQ. (Treas )
S. SOLOMON, ESQ
PROFESSOR NOBLE
DR. DALE
SIR THOMAS MACLEAR. KNT.
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE,
ESQ.
E. J. JERRAM, ESQ.
J. C. GIE, ESQ.
I JOHN NOBLE, ESQ.
fUferattan
F. MASKEW.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The Committee, in submitting their report of the
transactions of the Institution under their management
for the past year, are glad in being able to state that
the appeal made to the public for increased support
has, to a gratifying extent, been responded to, several
subscribers having raised their subscription from the
third to the first class, and many more having entered
their names as subscribers for the first time ; and the
Committee indulge the hope that others may yet be
induced to follow so good an example.
The accession of books during the past year has
been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology 10 Vols.
Political Economy 22
Science and the Arts 85
Dictionaries, Lexicons, &c. ... 25
Novels 75
Belles Lettres 59
History 32
Voyages and Travels ... ... 46
Biography... ... ... ... 24
Miscellaneous 6
Total 384 Vols.
Amongst the above are many valuable presentations
from subscribers and other gentlemen, viz. : Messrs.
T. B. Bayley, C. Fairbridge, H. van Lier, E. L.
Layard, John Stein, H. Jencken, of London, and
R. Trimen, the Hon'ble Dr. White, the Rev. Dr.
Adamson, and also from the "Foreign Office," the
"Royal Society," London; the "Geographical So-
ciety," London ; and the " Smithsonian Institution,"
United States; for all of which the thanks of the
subscribers are due.
It will also be seen that your Committee have been
enabled to add several valuable standard works to the
collection. Many of the works alluded to were pur-
chased at public sale ; and it is a matter of regret that
the means at the disposal of the Committee prevented
them from adding many more, which ought to have
had a place on the shelves of the Institution. It is a
satisfaction to your Committee to be able to state that
very considerable reduction has been effected in the
department of light literature, with a proportionate
increase of other branches. Fewer novels have been
received this year than during each of the last two
years, the number received in 1868 being 144 vols.,
in 1869, 104 vols., and for 1870, only 75 vols.
The Committee have also to state that they have
deemed it advisable to cancel the orders for some of
the periodicals of a light character, and for them have
substituted the following scientific journals, viz. : the
" Annals of Natural History," the " Journal of
English Botany," and " Nature," which selection,
they trust, will afford satisfaction to the subscribers.
In consequence of a suggestion having been made
by His Excellency the Governor to the Librarian,
regarding the number of persons visiting the Library,
a record has been kept, from which it appears that
from the 6th of February to the 10th of May, seventy-
nine days, 5,792 persons visited the Library, showing
an average of about 73 per day, the largest number
on any one day being 140, and the lowest 49 : this
is exclusive of servants calling for and returning
books. This statement cannot but be considered
highly satisfactory, and affords evidence that the
Institution is duly appreciated by the inhabitants, as
well as strangers visiting our shores.
From a statement, which will be submitted, of the
income and expenditure during the past year, it will
be seen that the Committee have had to make provi-
sion for clerical assistance to the Librarian during
the illness of Mr. Pappe, the sum is, however, small,
only amounting to 5. They have also granted Mr.
Pappe a gratuity of J5 in consideration of his length
of service, and which, they trust, will meet with the
approval of the subscribers.
It was suggested at a previous meeting that the
Committee should keep their accounts in such a way
as to show the exact income and expenditure of the
circulating branch of the Library apart from the
Library of Reference. This the Committee have
found impracticable, as the services of the officers of
the Institution are in constant requisition for both
departments, including the " Dessinian Collection,"
the "Porter Collection," as well as the Collection
belonging to the Library which is placed under
restriction as reference sets. And here the Committee
think it right to remark, in reference to recent discus-
sions out of doors, that while the revenue accruing
by subscriptions in the circulating department has
amounted for many years to an average of 350, the
expenditure, apart from the purchase of books, is
practically nothing, because the same number of
officers, viz., the Chief Librarian and an Assistant,
with Messenger, would still be required if the circu-
lating department were to cease, and the whole Insti-
tution converted inte a Library of Reference. The
Librarian of the " Grey Collection " occupies an
B2
exceptional position in this respect, from the other
officers, inasmuch as, in addition to his custodianship
of that collection,- he is especially engaged in the pro-
secution of valuable philological and other researches
in connection with the works placed under his care.
In the opinion of the Committee, therefore, the
closing of the Library to other than mere visitors for
purposes of reading and reference would, at present,
be premature and prejudicial to the interests of the
public, especially in sight of the fact that within the
last eleven months there has been a circulation of
upwards of three thousand volumes in every depart-
ment of sound, substantial literature, in addition to
the circulation of works of fiction, magazines, and
light literature generally.
The precise returns of circulation in all departments,
from the 10th of June, 1870, to 16th May, 1871, are
as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... 95 Vols.
Political Economy, &c. ... ... 53
Biography ... ... ... 715
Science and the Arts ... ... 222
History ... ... ... ... 575
Voyages and Travels ... ... 825
Belles Lettres, Miscellaneous
Essays, &c 559
Novels 8554
The unique collection of books and manuscripts in
African languages, which forms part of Sir George
Grey's gift, has received some important accessions in
the course of the last year. The " Church Missionary
Society " has presented thirty-six separate publica-
tions, in nine different African languages, viz. : in
Temne (15), Yoenba (9), Ibo (4), Nupe (2), Fulah
(2), Igara, Igbira, Hausa, and Swahili. In the latter
language (Swahili) the Rev. Dr. Steere has also sent
us seven manuscripts and five printed books. Among
the latter are his Hand-book of the Swahili language,
and his " Swahili Tales with an English Translation."
The Rev. Thomas Thomas has given, besides four
printed Sitebele books, two manuscripts, the original
draft of his translation of the Epistle to the Romans
into Sitebele, and a revised copy.
In Kafir, we have received four books from the
Rev. J. W. Appleyard ; a newspaper, the " Kafir
Express," from the Lovedale Missionaries; and a
tentative edition of St. Matthew's Gospel, from the
" Board of Revisers." In Zulu, the Rev. H. Callaway,
M.D., has presented his translation of the Book of
Common Prayer, and the Rev. F. Mason a version of
Wesley's Addresses. Four Sesuto books have been
given two of them by the Rev. J. W. Appleyard and
one by the Rev. L. J. Cochet; and the Rev. R. Moffat
and the other Missionaries at Kuruman have pre-
sented two publications in Western Setshuana.
Amongst the other additions is the first number of
the " Archivio per 1' Antropologia e la Etnologia,"
presented by one of its editors, Dr. F. Finzi, Professor
at Florence ; the Rev. W. Pryse's Introduction to the
Khasi, a curious sex-denoting language spoken in
Lower Assam ; a Spanish Grammar of the Kru lan-
guage ; a French treatise on the Hottentot language ;
and a German dissertation on the same language, by
Dr. Th. Hahn, who also has presented us with Dr. F.
Muller's treatises on the Harari and Bari languages.
A Latin dissertation on the Hottentots, by a German
student (A. F. Beulwitz, De Caffaribus), printed at
Rudolstadt in 1707, has also been added to the curio-
sities of this collection.
Through L. Bols, Esq., late Belgian Consul-General
at Cape Town (now at Sydney), the valuable catalo-
gues of the manuscripts of the Burgundian Library
at Brussels have been received from Mr. L. Alvin,
Conservateur-en-Chef of the Bibliotheque Royale, in
exchange for the catalogues of parts of the Grey
Library.
Special facilities have been afforded by the Govern-
ment of this Colony during the past year to Dr.
Bleek for the study of the Bushman language, of
which hardly anything is as yet known; and the words,
sentences, tales, and verses, written down from the
lips of Bushmen in their own language, already fill
several hundred pages. These materials will ulti-
mately form part of the collection of manuscripts
referring to Native languages in the Grey Library.
Distinct as the Bushman language is from that of
every other nation in South Africa, and ignorant as
we are as yet regarding its affinities to any other
known language ; it is evidently of the highest im-
portance that, as long as it is still possible, everything
be done to throw a light upon the ethnological mystery
concerning the origin of the oldest remaining language
of Southern Africa.
^ On the motion of Mr. J. C. Molteno, seconded by
Mr. W. L. Blore,
It was resolved,
That the Report and Treasurer's Account now
read be adopted and printed.
On the motion of Dr. Henry Ebden, seconded by
Mr. David Tennant,
It was resolved,
That the thanks of the Subscribers be given to the
Committee, the Treasurer, and Auditors, for their
valuable services during the past year.
ADDRESS.
His Excellency Sir HENRY BARKLY then delivered
the following address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I cannot deny that I
was fairly warned, when invited a few weeks ago to
take the chair at the anniversary meeting of the
subscribers to the Public Library, that an address on
some literary or scientific subject would be expected
from me.
If I, notwithstanding this, incautiously accepted the
post of honour on the occasion without duly considering
my own deficiencies, and my want of leisure in con-
sequence of public duties to prepare myself adequately
for the task, I trust you will ascribe it, not to over-
weening presumption on my part, but to its proper
cause, my anxiety to aid in promoting the welfare of
an institution in which I take so deep an interest.
I was unaware, too, how difficult it would prove
to find an appropriate subject for my address until
I came to decide the point. I forget who was the
author, or whether he ever really existed, who com-
plained that the ancients had stolen all his good
thoughts ; but I confess I felt myself placed in a similar
predicament with regard to preceding presidents and
the subjects they had chosen. The Cape Town Public
Library has been in existence for half a century, and
this, I believe, is the forty-second anniversary on which
addresses have been delivered from this chair ; the
result of my inquiries being that almost every topic
10
that could be deemed suitable the claims of the insti-
tution to the support of Parliament or of the com-
munity ; the position and prospects of education in
the Colony ; the tendencies of the literature of the
age ; and others too numerous to mention having been
in turn selected and ably and exhaustively treated.
Fresh from listening to the discourses of Huxley and
of Tyndal, and from the perusal of the latest works of
Darwin and of Wallace, I thought for a moment I
should be entering on a new field if I adventured a few
words of comment and of caution with respect to the
brilliant theories and startling doctrines of the new school
of naturalists.
But here again I soon discovered that I had been
in some degree forestalled, and by anticipation far
excelled, in the admirable address of Professor
Cameron last year, in one portion of which he depicted
in masterly style the conflict of opinion now waging
among the profoundest thinkers of the day.
In the Professor's general exposition of his views
respecting the most conspicuous points of antagonism
between the old and new phases of thought, I cordially
concur.
It is only too true, as he asserts, that the new
philosophy verges on Positivism, that the science tends
to Materialism, that the poetry is avowedly atheistic.
But whilst we deplore this misdirection of intellectual
activity, we must be careful not to confound the
patient, painstaking, persevering search after truth in
the present day with the intentional profession of
infidelity in past ages. Nothing, in fact, can be less
like the coarse, scoffing scepticism of the last century,
or even than the cold depreciating incredulity of modern
German Rationalism, than the reverential,half-regretful
tone usually adopted by those who now-a-days, in
pursuit of physical researches, find themselves, from
11
their own particular stand-point, in contradiction to
received Scripture doctrines regarding the attributes
of the Almighty.
"We are at liberty of course, to challenge their pre-
mises, or to dispute their conclusions ; we may even
deny their right to narrow all investigations to physical
phenomena alone ; but we are not entitled to regard
them as mere cavillers at revealed religion or to refuse
to give full and impartial consideration to the argu-
ments they may advance on scientific questions,
however rude a shock may thereby be given to our
preconceived ideas.
On the other hand, we may fairly claim something
stronger than bare surmises before we resign cherished
beliefs. For my own part, I would be the last person
wittingly to resist a logical inference in order to escape
a disagreeable or painful deduction; but when I am
called on to admit that " man is descended from a hairy
quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, and
probably arboreal in itshabits," I feel myself warranted
in asking for better proofs than the alleged occasional
thickening of the rim of the human ear ; the existence
of an apparently superfluous bone at the end of the
spine ; or the various minor resemblances, which have
been so industriously brought together to show a
derivation from the lower races of animals.
I have the highest possible respect for Mr. Darwin.
The moderation with which he states his views, and the
candour with which he sets forth the objections to
them, are above all praise. But he himself recognizes
the difficulty presented to his conclusions by the high
standard of intellectual power and of moral disposition
which man has attained ; and though he finds a way
of silencing his own scruples, the questions involved
are of too momentous importance to be left darkly
lowering under the shadow of a great name, or disposed
12
of in a few paragraphs of the concluding chapter of his
book. Those questions amount to neither more nor
less than this, whether, instead of God having made
man, man, on the contrary, has not invented God. They
are, it is true, only suggested. It is needless, I am
sure, to attempt to answer them here. Mr. Darwin's
further surmise " that the quadrumana, as well as all
the higher animals, are derived through the marsupials
from some reptile-like creature, and this again from
some fish-like animal, which in the dim obscurity of
the past was developed from an animal more like the
larva? of the existing marine ascidians than any other
known form," strikes one as a hideous nightmare
rather than a quiet, though delusive dream. In saying
this, I by no means wish to insinuate that the develop-
ment theory is without foundation. On the contrary,
I cannot but suppose that Evolution has played an
important part in the formation of the various genera
and species of plants and animals.
It is quite conceivable, however, that the dogma of
Evolution maybe true within certain limits, and yet that
separate acts of creation, special interventions of Divine
Power, may have taken place at what may be called the
breaks in the chain, such, in the animal kingdom, as
the divisions of mollusks, insects, fishes, reptiles, birds,
and mammals, or even where a total change has been
effected in an order, as in the case of man.
It is surely no argument against such a notion that
a certain similarity of structure is traceable in a pro-
gressive and ascending sense between the different
groups. "Were we considering the works of a human
artificer, it would be held the very reverse.
The hypothesis, too, agrees far better with what Hugh
Miller so well called " The Testimony of the Hocks "
than any theory of uninterrupted self-development ;
for, so far as yet read, the geological record gives
13
little support to the latter, but, on the contrary, fails
to supply many missing links, and leaves numerous
gaps, most difficult to be accounted for.
In fact, the strongest refutation of the Simian origin
of man consists in the total absence of the transitional
forms which must in that case have existed ; for as we
have fossil baboons and fossil men, there can be no pos-
sible reason why the bones of the half-human progenitors
of the latter should not be found, especially as they
must have inhabited the globe in vast numbers for a
far longer period than man, seeing the vast structural
and mental changes they had still to undergo, whilst
he has changed so little. Yet the most recent Tertiary
strata, where those bones ought to be common, have
been searched, and searched in vain, for them !
Is it going too far, then, to assert that we are at
present justified in regarding the theories that have been
so skilfully and plausibly propounded with regard both
to spontaneous generation and the descent of man, as
little more than the ingenious speculations of enthu-
siastic inquirers into the secrets of nature ; specula-
tions containing possibly the germ of grand truths, yet
to be clearly expounded, or, on the other hand,
destined to be discarded so soon as further experience
has shown them to be ill-founded.
For my own part, I feel no more bound to give my
serious assent to Mr. Darwin's ideas than to the
humorous sally in which Canon Kingsley has narrated
how the great and famous nation of the Doasyoulikes,
who came away from the country of Hardwork, and
settled at the foot of the Happygolucky Mountains,
degenerated in the course of centuries into hairy apes,
who had forgotten how to talk or walk upright !
Even, however, if it could be conclusively demon-
strated that all living beings have been evolved from
protoplasm or molecules, or whatever else the primary
14
element of organic matter may be termed, even if it
were proved beyond a shade of doubt that after having
passed through unnumbered metamorphoses, during
countless ages, man at last emerged, some half million
years ago, from the monkey state, and worked his way
up by the aid of natural selection, the survival of the
fittest, and the tendency to variation, to his present posi-
tion in the scale of being, we should still have good
ground for believing that all these changes were the
work of an all-wise and omnipotent Creator, and had
taken place in conformity with the laws He had
preordained. We should still have our own inner
consciousness to convince us (apart from the historical
evidence of the truth of the Gospel narrative) that that
Creator endowed us with immortal souls, and rendered
us thereupon responsible for our conduct here, and sus-
ceptible of happiness or misery hereafter. Were it
otherwise, well, indeed, might the Laureate exclaim
in those noble verses :
" Shall he
Man, His last work, who seemed so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer ;
Who trusted God was love indeed,
And love Creation's final law,
Tho' Nature red in tooth and claw,
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed.
Who loved, who suffer 1 d countless ills,
Who battled for the True, the Just,
Be blown about the desert dust,
Or seal'd within the iron hills?
No more ? A monster then, a dream,
A discord. Dragons of the Prime,
That tare each other in their slime,
Were mellow music match'd with him."
The plain truth seems to me to be that the minds of
our great physicists are so dazzled by the splendour
of their own recent achievements in various branches
of knowledge that they are for the moment blinded to
the import of the far deeper spiritual mysteries which
science has as yet done so little to solve.
They are too intent on discovering the origin of
matter, and the physical construction of their own
bodies, to contemplate the invisible, yet equally real
mechanism of their souls, so eager, as has been
pithily said, to interrogate Nature as to what she is,
that they forget to inquire of her either the whence or
the why of her existence.
This undue preference at the present day for
the physical over metaphysical sciences is, I am
disposed to think, but the inevitable reaction resulting
from the comparative neglect with which the former
were so long treated ; and, in fact, are still treated,
so far as education generally is concerned.
But the proper corrective for any such undue pre-
ference is, not to shut our eyes to the discoveries of
modern science, nor to affect to regard them as pos-
sessing less novelty or significance than they actually do.
Neither is it, in my opinion, sufficient or safe, to point
out, as some of the leaders of religious thought content
themselves with doing, that the natural philosopher,
dealing with nothing else than phenomena, and tracing
out but the succession of such phenomena, can never be
expected to arrive one step nearer to the great First
Cause, and may, therefore, be left to pursue his
inquiries without notice, however much their results
may seem to be at a variance with Divine Revelation.
The first proposition is, no doubt, true; but the danger
of such a course appears to me to be, that if Science
once becomes separated from Religion by too wide a
gulf, whilst no attempt whatever is made to bridge it
16
over, many may be tempted into taking their stand on
the side of the former exclusively, and a general falling
off from the faith of Christendom ensue, if not in our
own, at least among the generations to follow us.
I hold it to be the duty, therefore, of all who have
ability and opportunity to pursue fearlessly the path
of scientific investigation, confident that amid what-
ever mazes it may for a time wander, it can only
ultimately lead to the restoration of complete and
self-evident harmony between the results of human
observation and the teachings of Divine inspiration.
Our cry should be that of the expiring Ger-
man philosopher " Light ! more light !" We dare
not, indeed, hope to be further miraculously en-
lightened on these or any other subjects during our
present stage of existence, but we may rely confidently
on the aid of the Spirit of Truth to guide us into all
truth, and our studies need be restrained by no faint-
hearted dread that God and Nature are in reality at
strife.
I must apologize if I have pursued this train
of thought further than has been interesting to my
audience, or if I have treated the subject in a more
serious tone than is usual on these occasions ; but it
is one on which I feel deeply, and which, I am con-
vinced, involves the gravest consequences to the
future welfare of society.
I now gladly turn to other themes, and as it is
always well to take a look at home, and so far as I am
aware, this aspect of the question has not been con-
sidered for a long time past, it may not be amiss to
inquire what the colonists of the Cape have done, and
are doing, for the promotion of literature or the
advancement of scientific knowledge.
With respect to the first, much ought not, of
course, to be expected, looking to the comparatively
17
small proportion of the population sufficiently highly
educated to supply either authors or readers, to the
absence of ancient seats of learning, like the universi-
ties of Europe, where many profound scholars 'are
congregated, and to the far greater inducement in all
respects for the publication of any new work at home.
Nevertheless, there at least is one serial publication
here, the Cape Monthly Magazine, which contains
articles of considerable merit, whilst the mode in
which the colonial press is conducted, places it on a high
level in a literary point of view as compared with that
of other colonies. In regard to scientific inquiry, on the
other hand, those who live in a region which has not been
very long inhabited by civilized races, and which pos-
sesses remarkable peculiarities of soil and climate, are far
more advantageously situated for prosecuting re-
searches into many branches of natural history than
the inhabitants of densely-peopled and highly-civilized
countries, which in the lapse of centuries have become
vast cemeteries, where the relics of the past are
commingled and confused, and where every division of
the Fauna and Flora, extinct or existing, has been so
long and closely explored that little novelty can be
now expected.
In few countries is this contrast with the old
world more strongly marked than in South Africa
In none, perhaps, can the great problems of the
day, the descent and early history of mankind, be
better studied than here, where the Bushman, if he
does not still actually use, has but just discarded the
flint arrow-heads and stone implements of primitive
barbarism, and over which successive waves of popula-
tion have rolled so recently, that the landmarks
denoting each separate influx still stand uneffaced.
Comparative philology, as might be anticipated under
such circumstances, has here met with the attention it
deserves. If it be true that speech owes its origin to
the intuitive efforts of man, it was probable that in
South Africa some light might still be thrown on its
earliest developments. As yet the evidence is all the
other way, the most barbarous races using complicated
grammatical inflexions. Thus Dr. Bleek, I believe,
concurs with older investigators in ranking the
Hottentot language among highly-developed forms of
speech. What he and his fellow-labourer, Dr. Hahn,
may make of the uncouth Bushman tongue remains to
be seen, and it will be curious to learn hereafter.
In Zoology, a great deal was accomplished in the
early days of the Cape Colony, and its various branches
have since been studied with more or less assiduity.
The ornithological researches of Le Vaillant and
others were followed up enthusiastically during his four-
teen years' residence here by Mr. E. L. Layard, whom
I still hope to see back amongst us as Curator of the
adjoining South African Museum, which may almost
be said to owe its existence to his efforts.
The publication of his book on the Birds of South
Africa marks an important era in local science, and
leaves but little to be added by future naturalists. In
Entomology, too, there have been many collectors, and I
am assured that fair progress has been made. As regards
one family of insects, Mr. Roland Trimen, who is known
to most of us, has achieved a high reputation in the
scientific world by publishing a catalogue of South
African Butterflies, and by other works on the
Lepidoptera, evincing the greatest industry and most
careful observation.
With respect to the other subdivisions of the
animal kingdom, the reptiles, the fishes, the mol-
lusks, &c., I cannot learn that much has been
done. Indeed, I was told by Dr. Gunther, who
is at the head of these departments in the British
Museum, that their study has been greatly neglected
here, and that as far as icthyology is concerned,
specimens even of some of the common food fishes of
Table Bay were wanting in that grand national col-
lection ; whilst many of the pipe fish, and other
curious forms, still remained undescribed. I trust that
among those who have the opportunity there will yet
be found persons disposed to devote a little of their
time and attention to these branches of science.
Turning to the vegetable kingdom, I need hardly say
that the peculiarities of the South African flora
attracted much notice even in the last century, nor
that Burmari, Thunberg, and, at a later date, the
English traveller, Burchell, did a good deal to facilitate
its study. In our day, I am proud to think the Civil
Service of the Colony has produced some of its most
eminent botanists, among whom may be cited Dr.
Harvey, who, whilst filling the post of Treasurer-
General, published his first work on the " Genera of
South African Plants," and Mr. Kawson, who, when
Colonial Secretary, not only gave every aid and
encouragement to botanical researches, but found time
to join the late Dr. Pappe in preparing for the press a
very useful descriptive catalogue of the ferns of South
Africa.
There can be no more fitting occasion than the
present for us to call to recollection that the great
work which Dr. Harvey subsequently, as Professor of
Botany at the University of Dublin, commenced in
concert with Dr. Sonder, of Hamburgh, " The Flora
Capensis " was only half finished at the time of his
death, and that, although five years have since elapsed,
no steps have been taken to carry on its publication.
This is the more to be regretted, as Dr. Harvey's
splendid collection of South African plants lies ready
for use at Trinity Collegej together, I understand, with 1
20
copious notes for the three further volumes which
remain to be published. Dr. Sender has also, I am
informed, completed the description of several natural
orders, and his extensive herbarium would likewise,
there can be little doubt, be readily accessible.
The cause of the delay seems to have been the pres-;
sure of work on the chief European botanists, and the
difficulty, therefore, of finding an editor competent to
replace the late lamented Dr. Harvey. I believe,
however, that there is a gentleman in this Colony,
Professor McOwan, of Somerset College, perfectly
qualified for the task, and I hope it may be possible to
make arrangements which will permit his passing a
year or two in Europe for the purpose.
There are many lovers of botany scattered over
different parts of the country, who would gladly give
their aid to render the "Flora Capensis" worthy in
every way of the Colony ; and I trust the Cape Parlia-
ment would not refuse to co-operate for such an object.
I am confident it would not grudge the very moderate
quota of 150 per volume which it originally engaged
to contribute.
There is another branch of science of the utmost im-
portance to this Colony which has scarcely yet received
all the consideration it deserves. I mean Geology.
True, a good deal has been effected in that, and in the
kindred fields of Palaeontology and Mineralogy by
individual observers. The late Mr. Bain and Dr.
Rubidge, and Dr. Atherstone, who is still fortunately
as active as ever, furnished from tune to time valuable
papers on various points of interest to the Transactions
of the Geological Society and other scientific publica-
tions. For a few years, too, the Colonial Government
engaged the services of a professed geologist, Mr.
"Wyley, but they were chiefly directed to an examina-
tion of the mineral resources of Namaqualand ; and,
although he afterwards made a hurried tour through
other districts of the Colony, it was impossible, as he
himself pointed out in one of his reports, to explore
thoroughly, in the absence, especially, of even a
tolerable topographical map, the country that he saw;
still less in the short space of eighteen months to solve
the whole problem of Cape geology. It is but justice
to Mr. Wyley to state that almost all his identifications
of strata and other geological deductions have so far
proved to be correct, down to the recent determination
by Mr. Bristow of the fossils from the Stormberg
coal-beds, and there seems every reason to believe that
had he remained longer, and been able to visit the
districts lying between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town,
all questions as to the position and age of the forma-
tions in that part of the Colony would long since have
been settled ; and we should not now be in doubt as to
the extent of the auriferous area and the degree of
richness of the indications recently discovered.
Should Mr. Dunn, who has, as you are aware, lately
been sent by Government to examine the locality, be
correct in supposing certain rocks to be identical with
the upper and lower Silurian rocks of Victoria, in which
auriferous quartz reefs or veins are so abundant, and
he seems to entertain little doubt on the point, the
specks of gold which he detected in the beds of several
streams are at once accounted for, and there is every
reason to hope that a payable gold-field may eventually
be found.
I may add that Mr. Daintree, the Government geolo-
gist of Queensland, who, when shipwrecked near
Mossel Bay, was the first to perceive indications of
an auriferous nature in that neighbourhood, is strongly
of opinion, after perusing Mr. Wyley's description of
the Namaqualand formations, that gold will be dis-
covered likewise in that country. I trust we shall be
22
able to secure Mr. Dunn's services for a time on his
return from the Diamond-fields, whither his engage-
ments compelled him to proceed.
It would detain you too long were I to dwell on all
the sciences that have been cultivated in Cape Town.
I have not alluded to astronomy, because, though the
contributions to it have been of vast importance, they
have not been made, strictly speaking, by colonists,
neither is the Gape Observatory a colonial establishment.
Still the facts remain, that the geographical position and
clear atmosphere of Cape Town have been taken advan-
tage of by celebrated astronomers to explore the southern
heavens ; and we may glory in the recollection that ii
was here that in the last century the Abbe la Caille
added many new constellations to the celestial globe ;
and that but a few years since Sir John Herschel
succeeded to some extent in solving the problem of
double stars, and in resolving and mapping the southern
nebulas. Nor can we forget the subsequent untiring
efforts of Sir Thomas Maclear, who we are proud to
hail as one of the trustees of the Library, to render
the Cape Observatory in all ways famous, nor doubt
that its high reputation will be maintained by his
successor, Mr. Stone, trained as he has been under the
Astronomer Royal at Greenwich.
Allow me, in concluding this part of my subject, to
remark that, although these annual meetings of sub-
scribers to the Library may be made a convenient oppor-
tunity for noting the scientific progress of the preceding
twelve-month, they are very far from affording the
requisite facilities for the interchange of information and
comparison of ideas amongst those engaged in studying
natural phenomena, or in endeavouring to develop the
resources of the country. More frequent opportunities
and greater facilities for such an object would often
prove extremely useful ; and as a simple and inexpen-
23
sive organization would suffice for the purpose, I hope
it may be devised ere long.
I must own, indeed, my surprise that no society has
yet been formed in Cape Town for the encouragement of
literary and scientific pursuits. One of my predecessors,
Lieut.-Governor Darling, did, I perceive, some years ago
suggest the establishment of a branch of the Royal
Society of Arts and Sciences, but, for what reason I know
not, the suggestion did not lead to anything being done,
As I hear that a Gallery of Art is now projected, the two
objects might probably be combined. In these respects
our neighbours in Natal are in advance of the Parent
Colony, as a Natural History Society has been in
existence at D'Urban for the last few years, and
exhibitions also frequently take place.
Cape Town, it is true, can boast, and with good
reason, its admirable Public Library, and no less
admirable Public Museum. Both are excellent
incentives and assistants to study, and leave little
to be desired except additional apartments capable
of accommodating increased collections. "Were I
to offer a hint respecting the former to the Com-
mittee of Management, it would be to render it
more systematically complete as a Library of Reference,
to which students in all sciences might resort. At
present, though I have not very carefully examined
the catalogue, I could name several works on African
Botany and Geology which are wanting.
I advert to the point from no wish to take part in the
controversy as to the circulating branch. My first impres-
sion certainly was that such an adjunct was inconsistent
with the true intent of a Public ^Library, and calculated
to interfere unfairly with private enterprise. The Com-
mittee have, however, shown strong grounds in their
report why it should remain on its present footing,
24
There is, no doubt, a good deal in a name, and that of
" Circulating Library " calls up visions of Lydia
Languish, in her curl papers, receiving a lot of trashy
romances from her waiting-woman ; but perhaps if the
Committee spoke of their " issue branch " or of the
f( lending department," it might make a difference in
our feelings.
Now-a-days, when ex-Prime Ministers disclose
their policy in novels, it would of course be out
of the question to exclude altogether that class of
publications ; and as the Committee boast that during
the past year they have only admitted to their shelves
75 volumes, equivalent if they were the usual three-
deckers to but 25 works of fiction, there does not seem
much cause to complain. When one learns, however,
that of the books circulated 8,554 were novels, and
only 3,044 on subjects of general literature, the con-
cession to the " girl of the period " is by no means
trifling ; and though she " knows her rights, and, know-
ing, dares defend them," I trust the Committee will
manfully strive to keep down the proportion in future
years as far as possible.
This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the last topic on my
list. The duty I undertook to perform is finished,
albeit imperfectly.
I feel conscious that the opinions expressed at
the commencement fell far below the grandeur of
my theme ; and that the review which I hazarded in
the second part, of what has been accomplished
for Literature and Science in this Colony, must
have been defective from my want of familiarity with
details.
I have to thank you all the more for the patience
with which you have listened to me, and I am
emboldened to hope that your kindness will be extended,
25
under all the circumstances of the case, to an indulgent
criticism after you leave this room (loud and continued
applause).
Mr. PORTER, M.L.A., who, on rising, was received
with great applause, said that as Chairman of the Com-
mittee, it devolved on him to move a vote of thanks to
the Governor for the address which he had delivered.
It was an old and true saying, that where there was a
will there was a way, and His Excellency, though he
was greatly occupied, more especially at this time, with
public affairs, had acceded to the request of the Com-
mittee to deliver an address on that occasion, and had
not, as he might have done from pressure of other
work, postponed the delivery of an address till another
meeting (applause). Instead of putting off the delivery
of an address, His Excellency had found time to give
them one which must be characterized as profound,
learned, and able (applause). It seemed that Sir Henry
Barkly intended to do here as he had done in those
other colonies which he had so successfully administered,
and that His Excellency held it to be among his duties
and not the least among them to aid and to support
colonial institutions (great applause), and more
especially those institutions that influenced for the better
the moral and intellectual life of the community
(applause). He moved that the thanks of the meeting
be given to His Excellency for the address delivered
that day, and he called upon thfc meeting to carry it
with acclamation (great applause).
Sir HENRY BARKLY thanked the meeting, and said
that what he had done was a simple duty. If it were
not a duty he felt himself bound to perform, he should
have postponed the address ; but as it was, he felt him-
self bound to perform it (applause).
26
A ballot for a new Committee having been taken,
the Scrutineers, Dr. Ebden and Mr. W. L. Blore,
declared the following gentlemen duly elected to serve
as a Committee of Management for the ensuing
year, viz. :
W. PORTER, Esq.
REV. DR. CAMERON.
WM. HIDDINGH (Treasurer).
S. SOLOMON, Esq.
PROFESSOR NOBLE.
DR. DALE,
SIR THOMAS MACLEAR, Kut,
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE, Esqx
E. J. JERRAM, Esq.
And as Auditors '
J. C. GIE, Esq., and
JOHN NOBLE, Esq,
PROCEEDINGS
AT THB
FORIY-fHIRD AINIVERSARY MEETING
OF THE BUBSCBTBEBS TO THB
$*uth gfrkan fn&Hc f ifcrarg,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 18TH MAY, 1872.
, in
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1872.
Esq., who during his lifetime was a frequent and
generous benefactor to the Library.
The accessions of books during the past year have
been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 11 Vols.
Political Economy ... ... 8
Science and the Arts ... ... 45
Novels ,. ... 118
Belles Lettres ... .... ... 74
History 17
Voyages and Travels 28
Biography ... 16
Miscellaneous 6
Books bequeathed by Mr. Bayley 614
Total 937 Vols.
Amongst these will be found several valuable pre-
sentations from Subscribers as well as others, viz. (
His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Bishop Colenso,
Rev. W. Thompson, Dr. Bleek, C. E. Markham,
Esq., of the India House, London, J. L. Peyton,
Esq., of Guernsey, Miss Auret, Messrs. C. A. Fair-
bridge, S. Solomon, R. Trimen, J. P. E. Faure, J.
Noble, and H. M. H. Orpen, as also from the " Royal
Society," the "Royal Geographical Society," the
"Wesleyan Conference," and the " Cobden Club,"
to all of whom the best thanks of the subscribers are
due.
From a record kept under the superintendence of
the Librarian of the daily attendance of readers and
visitors, it appears that from the 12th of June last to
the llth of May this'year, inclusive, being a period of
284 days on which the Public Library has been open
to the public, 19,596 persons visited the Institution,
showing an average of 69 a day, the largest number
on any one day being 193, and the lowest 39, this
does not include children, nor servants calling at the
Library to return and exchange books.
The issue of books in all departments of literature
and science during the past year, that is to say, from
the 12th of June, 1871, to the llth of May, 1872, was
as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology 56 Vols.
Political Economy 49
Biography ... ... ... 659
Science and the Arts 248
History ' - ... '.' ... 457
Voyages and Travels 979
Belles Lettres, Miscellaneous
Essays, &c 467. ^
Novels 6,688
Total 9,603 Vols.
From this statement it will be seen that there has
been a slight increase in some departments and a fall-
ing off in others, although, on the whole, it will bear
favourable comparison with that of the previous year.
There has been a perceptible decrease in the issue of
works of fiction, owing mainly to the limited supply
of novels received during 1871. This return does not
inelude Reviews and Magazines, of which several
thousands have been circulated during the past year.
The Committee have to record with regret the death
of the late Assistant, Mr. Alfred Pappe, who for a
period of nine years discharged the duties of that office
to the satisfaction of the Committee and the subscri-
bers generally. They have also to record the loss the
Institution has sustained by the death of the late
Joseph Mosenthal, Esq. This gentleman, on the eve
of his departure for Europe, some twelve years ago,
presented the Library with a liberal donation of 50,
and has ever since continued his subscription of 3
per annum towards its support, an example worthy of
imitation by others connected with the Colony, but
who have left it, or may be about to leave, to take up
their residence in Europe.
The vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Pappe,
your Committee have conferred on Mr. Robert Alhnan,
a young gentleman who acted for the deceased during
his illness.
Sir George Grey's collection of books and manu-
scripts in native languages has again received some
valuable gifts from the Rev. Dr. Steere, who has
presented twelve books in different languages of
Eastern Africa (Suaheli, Nika, Yao, and Nyamwezi).
Some of these possess almost the value of manuscripts,
and one or two of them are believed to be unique.
The Rev. C. H. Hahn, Superintendent of Rhenish
Missions in Damaraland, has sent eight books in
Otyiherero (or Damara), which render our collection
in this language complete up to the present date. The
illustrated Bible stories in Damara, published by this
missionary, deserve particular mention. The Rev. J.
W. Appleyard has sent us five publications in Kafir
and Sesuto ; and the Bishop of Natal, his " First
Steps in Zulu Kafir" (1st and 2nd ed.) and his newly-
published translation of the two books of Samuel into
Zulu. His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly has pre-
sented a splendid copy of an English and Malagasy
vocabulary by native officers of the palace, published
in 1863, in the Hova dialect; and the two other
dialects spoken on the Island of Madagascar (Saka-
lava and Betsimisaraka) are represented by two
vocabularies (Isle Bourbon 1842, and Paris 1844),
given by Lieut. E. F. Jeffreys, R.N. Some texts in
the curious Negro-French spoken at the Mauritius have
been copied from a manuscript kindly lent for the
purpose by Lady Barkly. Dr. P. Comrie, R.N., has
presented four books in West African languages {Bonny >
Ibo and Grebo), and also a small publication in the
Chimpuan language, spoken on the coast of British
Columbia. To the Rev. Wm. Thompson we are
indebted for the second volume of the transactions of
the London Missionary Society (the first volume
having already been given by him). This publication
is particularly valuable, as containing an account of
native affairs at the beginning of this century.
As recent accessions to the early or curious printed
books, we have received eight volumes in Italian, two
in Latin, one in Spanish, and one in French, contain-
ing some interesting autographs and bookplates, pre-
sented by the Venerable Archdeacon Lloyd.
In order to supply, to some extent, the want of
detailed descriptive catalogues of Sir George Grey's
gift (a work which it will take years to complete),
it has been thought advisable to prepare at once an
accurate inventory of the collection. As the most
difficult part of this inventory (as far as No. 825) is
already finished, it may reasonably be hoped that, in
the course of another year, it will be laid before the
public.
The Bushman literature, which is still in progress
of collection, throws an unexpected light upon the
mental condition of this people, who have hitherto
been regarded as representing one of the lowest stages
of humanity. Yet they show themselves to be pos-
sessed of mythological conceptions and legendary
lore more akin to those of the most civilized nations
than anything we can find among the Kafir and Negro
races; although the latter have, upon the whole,
reached a higher degree of civilization than the
Bushmen.
8
The Treasurer's account of the income and expen-
diture during the past year will now be submitted,
from which it will appear that an expense has been
incurred in relaying the stoep of the building, under-
taken partly by your Committee and the Trustees of
the "Museum."
On the motion of Mr. Henry Piers, seconded by
Mr. Advocate Buchanan,
It was resolved,
" That the Report and Treasurer's Account now read
be adopted and printed."
On the motion of C. B. Elliott, Esq., seconded by
Dr. P. Chiappini,
It was resolved,
"That the thanks of the Subscribers be given to the
Committee, the Treasurer, and Auditors, for their
valuable services during the past year."
9BQflX dfl* ^^- t
ai (5SS .i>l i:,
ni jten: [ .
3& 9ic <
d* cop? :
ADDRESS.
E. J. STONE, Esq., the Astronomer Royal, then
delivered the following Address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
It is not my intention to speak of the great advan-
tages conferred upon the residents in Cape Town and
its vicinity by the existence of this noble Library. The
advantages are manifest: I believe that they are
fairly appreciated. I would rather bring before you
some subject more immediately within the scope of my
own studies. I shall, therefore, upon the present
occasion, call your attention to a fragment of astrono-
mical history relating to the determination of the
Sun's distance. I am afraid that my subject may be
found uninteresting ; but your Committee have been
indiscreet enough to place me in my present position,
and you will have to bear the consequences of their
indiscretion. Like Dogberry, I have come primed
with tediousness, and, with your kind forbearance,
prepared to inflict all my tediousness upon you.
The method of determining the Sun's distance by
observations of a transit of Venus was proposed by the
illustrious Halley in 1716. Halley was at that time
an old man. In feeling and impressive language he
called the attention of those who might succed him
to the favourable opportunities which would be
afforded by the transits of 1761 and 1769 for a deter-
mination of the Sun's distance. The method which
10
he proposed can easily be understood without entering
into technical details. The observers were to be dis-
tributed amongst two classes of stations. "At stations
of the first-class Venus, when entering upon the Sun's
disc would, from the effects of perspective, be thrown
back upon the Sun's limb. The contacts at ingress
would therefore be made late. When Venus again
approached the Sun's limb at egress, it would, from
the effects of perspective, be shifted towards the limb,
and the contacts thus made early. The durations, or
intervals between contacts at ingress and egress, would
thus, at the first-class of stations, be shortened from
the effects of perspective at both observations. The
stations of the second class were to be selected, so
that these effects should be reversed.
The relative distances of the Earth and Venus from
the Sun are known from their times of revolution
around the Sun. The distances between the different
observing stations in miles can be determined. It will,
therefore, be easily conceived that it is simply a pure
mathematical question, to find what must be the
distances in miles of Venus and the Earth from the
Sun, in order that a computed difference of durations
for any two stations shall be equal to an observed
difference. In Halley's time, this method was the
only one available for an accurate determination of
the Sun's distance. It is independent of any accurate
determination of absolute time, and the Sun's disc
itself is the common circle of reference. The choice
of stations is, however, greatly restricted, by the
necessity of satisfying the required conditions ; but
in its freedom from systematic errors, Halley's method
is still one of the most powerful available. Halley's
words were not forgotten. In 1761, observers were
sent to selected stations to make the required obser-
vations. The weather was not, on the whole.
11
favourable. The observations only afforded differences
of duration of about two minutes, a difference much
too small to admit of any accurate determination of
the Sun's distance by Halley's method.
The observers also were perplexed by an appearance
arising from irradiation, which was to them quite
unexpected, and rendered the observation of the times
of contact of the limbs of Venus and the Sun difficult.
The nature of the contact is thus clearly described by
the Kev. W. Hirst, F.R.S,, who was observing at
Madras :
" Mr. Hirst thinks it necessary to take notice of an
odd phenomenon. At the total immersion, the planet,
instead of appearing truly circular, resembled more
the form of a bergamot pear, or, as Governor Pigot
then expressed it, looked like a nine-pin; yet the
preceding limb of Venus was extremely well defined.
Mr. Hirst suspected this appearance might be owing
to their telescopes not being nicely enough set to their
focal lengths. Accordingly, he took care to try this
several times during the transit, but found it not to
be the case ; for though the planet was as black as
ink, and the whole body truly circular, just before
the beginning of the egress, yet it was no sooner in
contact with the Sun's preceding limb than it as-
sumed the same figure as before."
The appearances thus clearly described by Mr.
Hirst were seen by several of the principal observers.
The transit of 1761 was valuable in preparing the
observers for the approaching transit of 1769; but it
did not, in itself, lead to any accurate determination
of the Sun's distance.
The arrangements for observing the transit of 1769
were of the most elaborate description. The British,
Government sent one expedition with two skilled
observers to the Hudson's Bay territory. Another
12
under the command of that hero of our boyhood,
Capt. Cook, to St. George's Island in the Southern
Ocean. The French dispatched an expedition to St.
Joseph on the western coast of America. To this
station a Spanish expedition was also sent. The
Russians occupied Kola, in Lapland, and many other
stations. The Danish Government sent an observing
party, under the direction of Father Hell, to Ward-
hus, also in Lapland. The observers were, on the
whole, favoured with fine weather, and at least ten
durations were observed at five different stations.
The differences between the observed durations at
Wardhus and Kola in Lapland and at St. George's
Island in the Southern Ocean amounted to no less
than 23m.
The results thus obtained were discussed by several
astronomers, and with much minuteness by the late
Professor Encke. The value of the Sun's distance
resulting from these discussions was about ninety-five
millions of miles. The result was received with the
greatest confidence. In the opinion of one of the
greatest of our living astronomers, Encke's determina-
tion of the Sun's distance could not be in error
500,000 miles. The whole of the durations observed
in 1769 were not, however, fairly represented by
Encke's solution. The Wardhus observations per-
sistently stood out, and were, apparently, irrecon-
cilable with the other observed durations. The Kola
observation was, also, not fairly represented. Hell's
observations were not, however, published until nearly
two years after the transit. It was found that there
were certain alterations or corrections in his journal.
It was, therefore, generally assumed and believed that
the entries in Hell's Journal were forgeries, and the
memory of Father Hell became nailed, as a weasel,
to the barn's-door of public opinion, as a warning to
13
all whom it might concern. It will probably render
clearer what follows if I point out the power of a transit
of Venus, observed like that of 1769, fora determina-
tion of the Sun's distance. There were ten complete
durations observed at five different stations. The value
of the Sun's distance obtained by Encke was about
95,000,000 miles. To pass from this value to one of
about 9 1,700,000 miles would be equivalent to supposing
that the mean observed duration at Wardhus was too
small by about 24 sees. The observers agreed within
5s. The Kola observation would have to be assumed
too small by 25s. the Hudson's Bay observation too
small by 8s. The observers agreed within Is. The
mean of the three observed durations at St. Joseph
would have to be assumed too large by 10s., and the
St. George's Island mean duration too large by more
than 27s. I need hardly say that such discordances
as mere errors of observation would be quite impos-
sible. It would also be incredible that all the
Northern observers should have made the durations
too small and all the Southern observers too large.
Yet if Encke's solution had ever fairly represented
the observed durations of 1769, we could not assume
91,700,000 miles, or any such quantity, to be the true
distance of the Sun, without admitting the existence
of the errors to which I have called your attention.
These considerations will explain the tenacity with
which astronomers adhered to Encke's value. The
data of astronomy are not, however, isolated facts.
Their acceptance carries with it certain necessary con-
sequences. The consequences which result from an
acceptance of a value of the Sun's distance are many
and important. If we swing a pendulum at different
parts of the Earth's surface, and note the times of its
oscillation, we can determine the figure of the earth.
If we deduce the length of the equivalent simple
14
seconds pendulum from these experiments we can
express the constant of gravitation or mass of the
earth by its dynamical effects in known units of time
and space, as a second and a foot. The time of revo-
lution of the Earth around the Sun is accurately
known, and can be expressed in seconds. If we knew
the distance of the Sun in miles we could also
express the constant of gravitation or mass of the
Sun by its dynamical effects in terms of a second
and a foot. We should thus obtain the relation
between the masses of the Earth and of the
Sun. The determination of the Sun's distance by
Encke was received with undoubting confidence
by astronomers, and was therefore naturally em-
ployed in obtaining the relation between the masses
of the Earth and of the Sun. The result thus ob-
tained was carried into the whole of our astronomical
work. It is probably known to most of you that if
there were only two particles, or indefinitely small
bodies, in existence then each would, subject to the
law of universal gravitation, describe around the
other fixed conic sections, and that, under certain
circumstances of projection, these conies would be
ovals, called ellipses. If, instead of particles we had
spherical bodies, with their matter either uniform or
symmetrically arranged around their centres, then
the same law would be true. Or even if the sym-
metrical distribution did not hold good, if the distance
between the bodies was very great in proportion
to their dimensions, the law would still be true to
a very high degree of approximation. The neces-
sary conditions are sufficiently satisfied amongst the
planetary bodies, and if we had only one planet and
the Sun, that planet would describe a fixed ellipse
around the Sun as a focus.
The presence of the other planetary bodies, how-
15
ever, disturbs the simple elliptic motion. It i& one
of the most important and laborious employments of
astronomers to calculate for each planet the correc-
tions to the elliptic elements which result from the
disturbing action of the other planets.
Le Verrier, an eminent French astronomer, has
been engaged for many years in such calculations.
Amongst other works he has revised the Solar theory,
and constructed tables to represent the Sun's position
as seen from the Earth at any required time for many
hundreds of years. The relative elliptic motion of the
Earth and Sun is disturbed considerably by the Moon.
One principal effect of this disturbance is to introduce
a correction into the expression for the longitude
called the parallactic inequality. Le Verrier, deter-
mined the value of the co-efficient with great care from
observations, chiefly Greenwich observations, extend-
ing over more than fifty years. The theoretical
expression of the co-efficient depends upon the ratio of
the distances of the Sun and Moon, and upon that
of the masses of the Moon and Earth. The Moon's
distance is well known. The ratio of the masses
of the Moon and Earth has been determined with
great care. Le Verrier determined what must be
the assumed distance of the Sun, in order that
the value of the co-efficient of the inequality deter-
mined from theory should agree with that from
observation. He found that the necessary agreement
could not be obtained unless the Sun's distance was
assumed to be about 91,700,000 miles, instead of the
accepted value of about 95,000,000 miles. This method
of determining the Sun's distance is not, however,
one of much accuracy. The value deduced from it
depends almost entirely upon the accepted value of
the ratio of the mass of the Earth to that of the Moon.
In fact, if we assume this ratio to be 78^, we should
find 95,000,000, whilst if we assume it to be 81, we
16
should find 91,700,000 miles for the Sun's distance.
The value of the ratio of these masses is obtained by
astronomers from a delicate piece of theory, the pre-
cession and nutation of the Earth's axis, with values
of the constants of precession and nutation deduced
from observations. Still, with the most accurate
value of the ratio of these masses which appears avail-
able, we find here one result of theory apparently
irreconcilable with observation, unless we are prepared
to accept for the Sun's distance a value differing by
more than 3,000,000 miles from the accepted value.
There is in the theory of the Moon's motion around
the Earth an inequality arising from the disturbing
action of the Sun of a similar form to that in the
Earth's motion. Professor Hansen, when constructing
his Lunar Tables, determined the numerical value of
this co-efficient with great care. In 1854 he intimated
to Mr. Airy that the value thus obtained was greater
than that resulting from his calculations. He stated
that the Greenwich observation gave this large result,
and that it was confirmed by the Pulkova observa-
tions, and that he could not therefore change it.
Although Professor Hansen thus clearly accepts the
increased value of this parallactic inequality for the
construction of his tables, the value of the Sun's distance
which would be required to render his theoreti-
cal value identical with the observed values does
not appear to have been published before 1863. t The
first value, published by Professor Hansen, was
not quite correct. The true value was 91,700,000
miles.
The weak point in this method is the assumption of
the correction for semi-diameter, for the inequality
changes sign with the limb observed, and nearly the
whole of any error in semi-diameter is carried into the
deduced values of the co-efficient of the parallactic
inequality. .
17
Subsequently, more than 2,000 Greenwich obser-
vations of the Moon, made about the time of the
greatest values of the inequality, were discussed for a
determination of the co-efficient of this inequality.
The result did not differ materially from Hansen's
result, and gave a value of about 92,000,000 miles*
for the Sun's distance. We have here a second
method of considerable power, refusing to be recon-
ciled with observation with the accepted value of
the Sun's distance, and pointing to a value about
91,700,000 miles.
I have already called your attention to the fact that
if we had only a single planet and the Sun, the planet
would describe around the Sun a fixed ellipse. The
ellipse which Venus would thus describe would not be
in the same . plane as the ellipse described by the
Earth. The points in which Venus would pass
, through the plane of the Earth's motion are called
the Nodes, and the line joining them is the line of
Nodes of the orbit of Venus. On account of the
existence of the other planets, this line of Nodes is in
motion. Its motion is considerably influenced by the
Earth, which is at times, comparatively speaking,
near to Venus. Le Verrier calculated the motion of
this line of Nodes. His result did not agree with
observation. He found, however, that in one way,
and apparently only in one way, could the required
agreement be obtained. If the Earth's mass assumed
in his investigations could be increased by a tenth
part, then the necessary agreement could be obtained.
Le Verrier remarks upon this, that the required in-
crease to the Earth's mass would not be admissible
unless we were prepared to accept for the Sun's dis-
tance a value less by more than 3,000,000 miles than
the accepted value. We have here a third indication
of error in the assumed distance of the Sun;
c
18
The planet whose orbit falls next beyond that of
the Earth is Mars. On account of the proximity at
times of Mars to the Earth, the elements of the ellip-
tic orbit of Mars are greatly affected by the Earth's
disturbing action.
Le Verrier found that the motion of the apsidal line,
or longest line which can be drawn in the elliptic
orbit of Mars, could not be made to agree with obser-
vation unless he attributed to the Earth's mass a value
greater by one-tenth part than that made use of in his
calculations. He again remarks that the required
augmentation of the Earth's mass would not be admis^
sible unless the accepted value of the Sun's distance
was in error by more than three millions of miles.
We have here a fourth indication of an error in the
assumed distance of the Sun.
I have no doubt but that most of you have experi-
enced a rather disagreeable fact that when there is a
steady down-pour, and you are hurrying through the
rain, it will persistently beat in your face. There is
an apparent displacement of stars towards the line
of the Earth's motion which arises from a similar
cause. The co-efficient of this displacement, aberra*
tion, has been determined with great care by astrono-
mers. The theoretical value depends upon the ratio
of the velocity of the Earth to that of light. Fou-
cault, a late distinguished French savant, determined
the velocity of light in miles per second. It was found
that his velocity of light could not be made to give
the true value of the coefficient of aberration unless
it was assumed that the Earth's distance was about
92,000,000 miles. We have here a fifth method indi-
cating an error of 3,000,000 miles in the accepted
value of the Sun's distance.
The relative distances of the different planets
from the Sun can be determined from their times of
^volution. If, therefore, we can find the distance in;
miles of any one planet, we can deduce the distances
in miles of the rest. The distances of Mars from the
Sun vary considerably. Should the Earth fall be-
tween the Sun and Mars when Mars is at or near its
jK>int of least distance from the Sun, there will be a
very considerable shift between the positions in which
Mars will be seen from the different parts of the
Earth's surface. It will then be possible to determine
the distance of Mars with considerable accuracy by
corresponding observations made at our northern and
southern observatories. Favourable oppositions of
Mars occurred in 1860 and 1862. The attention of
the observers in the north was called off, in 1860 by
the total solar eclipse of the year. The necessary
observations were made in 1862, the Greenwich,
Pulkova, Washington, and other observatories in the
north, our own Cape observatory and the Melbourne
observatory in the south, taking prominent parts in the
work. The observations were carefully discussed, and
the result gave about 91,700,000 miles for the Sun's
distance.
It will have been seen that we have no less than six
different methods of more or less power, each refusing
to be reconciled with observation, unless we are pre-
pared to accept for the true distance of the Sun from
the Earth a quantity differing by more than three
millions of miles from that which had been deduced
from the transit of Venus in 1769, and which had re-
ceived the confidence of all our leading astronomers .
Not one of the six methods to which attention has
been called can be considered as free from its own
inherent difficulties and danger of systematic errors.
T^he last is probably the most free from such sources
of error, if the observations were sufficiently multi-
plied, and the observers ^changed. But although not
2Q
one of these methods can be considered as entitled to
much authority in opposition to the value deduced
from the transit of 1769, the accumulated weight of
all six is very great. Astronomers, therefore, after
1863, spoke with less confidence respecting the accu-
racy of Encke's value, and some adopted, although
with many misgivings, a value of about 91,700,000
miles. I have already shown the grounds upon
which astronomers had such confidence in the old
determination.
A re-discussion of the observations made in 1769
appeared desirable. It was hardly probable that the
cause of the discrepancy could be discovered and re-
moved ; but it was thought that some light might be
thrown upon the possible causes of errors in the obser-
vations or discussions of such transits, and that we
might thus be guarded against similar sources of error
in the approaching transits of 1874 and 1882, to which
astronomers were looking forward for a solution of
their difficulties.
Such an examination was undertaken. With re-
spect to the Ingress observations, the observers at
Hudson's Bay and St. Joseph have stated in the
clearest terms that they saw the bergamot pear-shape
appearance described by Hirst in 1761. That, instead
of putting down in their observing-books the time at
which the limbs of Venus and the Sun appeared in
contact, they waited until no connection whatever ap-
peared between Venus and the Sun's limb.
The observers at St. George's Island have stated,
in terms of equal clearness, that there did exist a
connection after the contact to which their recorded
times referred. Similar remarks apply to the Egress
observations. It is clear that if the observers at St.
George's Island had waited at Ingress until they saw
no connection between the limbs, they would have
21
given us a later recorded time of observation. In
like manner, had they given the time corresponding
to the first appearance of any connection, instead of
waiting until the limbs were in contact, they would
have give us at Egress an earlier time than that re-
corded in their journals.
It is clear, therefore, that the observed durations
at St. George's Island are not comparable with those at
the other stations until an allowance is made for the
differences between the "contacts" and "last" and
" first appearances of any connection." No such cor-
rection had -been allowed by astronomers, but the
observations had been considered as strictly com-
parable.
The Wardhus forgeries were next examined. The
alterations in Hell's Journal did not appear important.
In all cases where the original and the re-written
numbers could be seen, they were found to be identical.
There are unaltered numbers enough to afford one
duration, and thus to carry the whole argument. The
fresh entries were found one under another in order,
the original ones being straggling. There were some
additional words of explanation, such as "dubius" and
" certus" affixed to two diffiernt observations of " con-
tactus." These words appeared required for clearness.
Another point could not fail to strike an observer.
The observations recorded were not such as an ob-
server of skill, unacquainted with the difficulties
arising from irradiation phenomena, would expect to
make. Had the observations been forgeries, they
might have been expected to have agreed better
amongst themselves. There is also another point
worthy of notice. Borgrewing's observation did not
agree with those of the other observers. Hell thought
the observation in error, but he gives the result. These
small points would rather impress one in favour of
the honesty of Hell in this matter. When an ex-,
amination was made of the use which had been made
of the observations, it was found that no attention
had been paid to a clear distinction drawn by the
observers between the observations of the contacts
and the "first appearances of any connection" be-
tween the limits of Venus and the Sun.
At Ingress we have a " contactus dubius " and a
" contactus certus." At Egress we have a " Videtur
aliqua gutta nigra intra limbum Solis et Veneris ante
contactum formari," and afterwards a " contactus
dubius " and a " contactus certus." In Encke's dis-
cussion, the " contactus certus," at Ingress had been
taken to mean the same thing as " videtur aliqua gutta
nigra," &c., in spite of the subsequent observation at
Egress of a "contactus certus." This was clearly
not correct. The formation of the black drop ob-
served at Egress is clearly something different from
and preceding the contacts. The formation of the
black drop is the same phase as that observed at
Hudson's Bay, viz., the " first appearances of any
connection." The contacts are similar phases to those
observed at St. George's Island. When these matters
were put right, the results were subjected to the
proper mathematical treatment. The whole of the
durations were found to be perfectly represented
within errors at the five stations of less than 2 sees.
The deduced value of the difference in time between
an observed first or last appearance of any connection
and a contact agreed with observation. But the
value of the Sun's distance which did reconcile the
whole of the durations was no longer ninety-five mil-
lions of miles. It was 91,700,000 miles, I think,
after this, we may unnail the memory of Father Hell
from the barn's-door of public opinion and give it
decent burial, with some feeling of regret. I have
already pointed out how impassable a barrier the teri
durations collected in 1769 place between such values
as 95,000,000 and 92,000,000 of miles for the Sun's
distance. The whole of the durations have now for
the first time been reconciled with one another. The
Sun's distance which does so reconcile them is
91,700,000 miles. It is impossible to repass from
that value to 95,000,000 of miles, without supposing the
observers in 1769 made the errors, in reversed direc-
tions, to which I have already called your attention.
Such errors are quite impossible. The mean distance
of the Sun from the Earth must now be considered as
known within the limits of the requirements of our
present astronomy. That such is the case is shown
by the near coincidence of the results obtained by the
methods which I have pointed out to you methods
' especially selected to bring forward and exhibit any
existing error in the Sun's assumed distance. Yet,
astronomers are now preparing to observe the ap-
proaching transit of 1874. The British Government
has granted no less than 15,500 for the instrumental
equipment and other expenses of the British expeditions.
It is well known that other expeditions are being
organized by the Austrian, German, and Russian
Governments, and the notes of preparation are
sounding far and wide. And why ?
Although our present requirements may be satis-
fied, astronomy is a science of continuous approxima-
tion. More accurate results will be called for by our
successors, and the data for the requisite determina-
tions must be collected whenever favourable oppor-
tunities offer. Transits of Venus but rarely occur,
and after those of 1874 and 1882, astronomers will
have to wait more than a hundred years for a third.
There is also another reason why astronomers are
anxious to observe the approaching transit of 1874.
It will be a severe test of the accuracy of the present
accepted value. And the confidence with which astro-
niers speak upon subjects within the range of their
science arises from their knowledge that there are no
tests to which their results can be subjected to which
they have not been subjected, and have satisfied.
The history of the determination of the Sun's dis-
tance which I have attempted to bring before you
appears to me a strong proof of the high state of
development of our present astronomical knowledge.
An error, which has arisen from no imperfection in
theory, has been made in the determination of the
Sun's distance by a method of such power that astro-
nomers were constrained to accept the result with
confidence. The value of the Sun's distance, thus
accepted, has been employed in connecting our Earth's
mass with that of the Sun. Ths logic has been so per- .
feet that the erroneous assumption has led in every
case to erroneous conclusions ; but the astronomical
methods have been sufficiently perfected not only to
reject erroneous data, but to indicate what the true
results should be. Finally, it has been shown that
the transit of 1769 can give no other result than that
indicated by the other methods. The error has been
traced to its sources. A want of confidence in the
honesty of the observers, arising from difficulties
created by a neglect of the effects of irradiation of, and
the consequent necessity of close attention to and
discrimination between the phenomena to which the
observers state their observations refer.
I am afraid that I have well redeemed my promise
of being tedious ; but I hope that the contemplation
of the conscientious care with which the results of
science are tested and weeded from error may allay
some fears which appear to be rising to the surface of
public opinion fears which may do much harm and'
can do no good. Two truths cannot be antagonistic.
The husks will be winnowed from the grain by an
increasing experience.
Slowly, and by the accumulated labour of innumer-
able generations of men, astronomy has reached its
present proportions, the noblest monument of the
commanding powers of the human mind in grasping
the laws of nature. Placed by an all-wise Creator
amid such conditions of life that an ever-broadening
knowledge of nature is an ever-increasing necessity
of his happiness and existence, man must learn to
convert to his uses the teeming bounties of his won-
drous Mother Earth. Magnificent as have been
achievements of the past, they appear almost dwarfed
in proportion to the visions now arising before us.
The arbitrary boundaries of the sciences are being
washed away, and knowledge is sweeping on in broader
channels. Splendid generalizations have bound to-
gether whole sciences. And views almost bewildering
to our half perceptions, from their magnitude, are
opening upon us on every side.
" These are but broken lights of Thee,
And thou, Lord, art more than they."
Bold, over bold perhaps, might that man yet be
deemed who, glowing from a participation in the
glorious struggle in progress around him, should dare
to forecast the future and to predict that man might yet
rise from a knowledge of Nature to that of Nature's
God ; but bolder far would he be who should deny its
possibility ; and all attempts to stem that onward pro-
gress of natural knowledge which the Great Father
of all has made a necessity of man's existence must be
as futile as they would be presumptuous.
The thanks of the meeting were voted to the Chair-
man for his address, and the meeting separated.
26
A ballot for a new Committee having been taken,
the scrutineer, Mr. Advocate Buchanan, declared the
following gentlemen duly elected to serve as a Com-
mittee of Management for the ensuing year :
WM. PORTER, Esq.,
REV. DR. CAMERON,
WM. HIDDINGH, Esq. (Treasurer),
S. SOLOMON, Esq.,
PROFESSOR NOBLE,
DR. DALE,
SIR THOMAS MACLEAR, Knt.,
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE, Esq.
DAVID TENNANT, Esq.,
And as Auditors:
J. C. GIE, Esq., and
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.
PROCEEDINGS
FORTY-FOURTH AMIVERSARYMEETIIG
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
gxwth African |Mtc fiharg,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD. HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE I?TH MAY, 1873.
xnbleg, P.^., in
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1873.
W. PORTER, ESQ.
REV. DR CAMERON.
W. KIDDING H, ESQ. (Treas.)
S. SOLOMON, ESQ.
PROFJESSOII NOBLE.
J. C. GIE, ESQ.
L. DALE, ESQ , LL.D.
SIR THOMAS MACLEAR.KNT.
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE,
ESQ.
D. TENNANT, ESQ.
| JOHN NOBLE, ESQ.
anb
F. M ASKEW, ESQ.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The Committee, in presenting the Forty-fourth
Annual Report of the South African Public Library,
have much satisfaction in stating that the past year
has to the Institution been in several respects more
satisfactory than the previous one. The amount of
subscriptions shows a considerable advance, and
though the Committee have to regret the loss, by
death and departure from the Colony, of several who
had previously been warm supporters of the Institu-
tion, the number of new subscribers who have joined
during the year has more than compensated for this
loss.
During the year the Royal Academy of Science,
Munich, in reply to an application made on behalf of
the Public Library by Dr. Bleek, was pleased to
place the Library on their list of Institutions to
receive a presentation copy of their transactions, and
they have kindly forwarded the following publications,
viz.: The Transactions of the Academy from 1861-72,
in 86 parts ; Treatises of the Philosophical-Philologi-
cal Classes from 1835-70, in 33 parts ; Treatises of
the Mathematical and Natural History Classes from
1832-70, in 28 parts ; and the Treatises of the His-
torical Class, in 11 vols. quarto.
A 2
The additions of books to the various branches of
literature and science have been quite equal to those
of the last year. Besides the regular monthly supply
of books, the Library is furnished with nine of the
principal reviews (English, French, and American),
12 scientific journals, 2 religious magazines, as well
as 21 monthly periodicals of various sorts.
The Committee have had under consideration the
desirability of adding to the Library treasures yearly
such works as are required to fill up gaps in the
different departments both of literature and science,
and with that object they have ordered a collection of
standard works, which they expect will arrive in about
two months, and which they trust will give satisfac-
tion to the subscribers.
The following is a list of accessions by purchase
and presentation during the year:
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 8 Vols.
Political Economy 9
Science and the Arts 63
Novels 73
Belles Lettres 26
History 22
Voyages and Travels ... ... 21
Biography... ... ... ... 21
Miscellaneous ... ... ... 6
Total 251 Vols.
Amongst these will be found works which have
been presented by Mrs. Henry, His Honour Richard
Southey, Rev. William Thompson, Messrs. Henry
Willis, C. Piazzi Smyth, F.R.S., C. J. Stone, F.R.S.,
J. B. Currey, C. D. Bell, and Captain J. Smith.
The attendance of readers and visitors to the Public
Library during the year has been satisfactory. From
a record kept under the superintendence of the
Librarian it will be seen that the Institution still
maintains its place in public estimation, the number
of visitors this year exceeding that of the previous
year by more than one thousand. Twenty-one thousand
visitors have availed themselves of the privilege dur-
ing the time that the Library has been open to the
public, that is from the 7th of June last to the 7th of
May, being 280 days, showing an average of seventy-
five a day, the largest number being one hundred and
twenty-three, and the lowest forty-two.
The issue of books in all departments of literature
and science during the same period has been as
follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... 52 Vols.
Political Economy 49
Biography ... ... ... 618
Science and the Arts 248
History ... ... ... ... 457
Voyages and Travels 863
Belles Lettres, Miscellaneous
Essays 505
Works of Fiction and Amusement 7006
As compared with the issue of books during the,
previous year, this statement will show that there has
been a slight decrease in some departments, and a corres-
ponding increase in others ; but, taken as a whole, the
Committee think it may be regarded as satisfactory.
Besides the issue of books there has been a large cir-
culation of reviews and magazines, the number given
out being upwards of 6,000.
Among the contributions to the collection of the
literature of the native languages in the Grey Library
are three books in Nama Hottentot, presented by
their translator, the Rev. J. G. Kronlein, superinten-
dent of Rhenish Missions in Great Namaqualand,
viz., a translation of the Psalms, Church Services,
and Hymns. Ten Kafir books have been given, in-
cluding the Rev. W. J. Davis's Kafir Grammar, and
his Kafir-English Dictionary. Of the other Kafir
books six were sent by the Rev. J. W. Appleyard.
The Rev. H. Callaway, M.D., has sent his translation
of the Prophets into Zulu. In the Northern Sesuto
dialect of the Bapeli, five books published by the
Berlin Missionary Society, were given by the Rev.
A. Nachtegall, and four Serolong (Setshuana) publi-
cations of the Church of England Missionaries at
Thaba 'Nchu were also received from them. The
Rev. Dr. R. M^offat has presented his translation of
the Bible into Setshuana, now first published in one
volume. The Rev. Dr. Steere has sent from the
Central African Mission Press at Zanzibar three
books in the Zanzibar dialect of Swaheli (a spelling-
book, a book of arithmetic, and a translation of
^Esop's Fables). Four new Mpongue books were
collected at the Gaboon by Lieut. E. F. Jeffreys,
R.N. A few books (two in Kafir, one in Sesuto, one
In Mpongue and three in Dualla) were transferred by
Dr. Bleek from his own library to the Grey Library,
in order to render this unrivalled collection of books in
South African languages more complete.
The preparation of an accurate inventory of Sir
George Grey's gift has been diligently proceeded
with, and more than three thousand two hundred
entries have now been made. But the hope enter-
tained last year that by this time the inventory in a
complete form could have been laid before the public
has proved too sanguine. This is mainly due to the
fact that the mass of small books (pamphlets and
manuscripts, each of which required a separate entry)
was far greater than could be inferred from the space
which they occupied. The books and manuscripts in
or referring to South African languages alone were
found to amount to nearly one thousand. Besides
these South African books, the entries already made
include the whole of the old manuscripts (nearly six
hundred entries) early continental printed books
(about three hundred entries), the plate works, books
in the languages of America, India, &c., works on
Natural History and Travels, Bibliographical Aids,
General Literature, Historical Works, and a portion
of the Colonial Literature. A good part of the latter
(consisting mainly of books printed in Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa), remains still to be
entered ; besides the manuscripts and printed books
in, or referring to, the Australian, Polynesian, and
North African languages, and also the early English
printed books.
The unfinished portion of the inventory will be
comparatively easy work, as, with the exception of the
colonial literature, and such of the North African
books as are of later date than 1858, the books and
manuscripts now to be briefly entered are minutely
described in the catalogues already published.
On the motion of R. Trimen, Esq., seconded by
Hugh Lynar, Esq.,
8
It was resolved,
" That the Report and Treasurer's Account now
read be adopted and printed."
On the motion of J. Gill, Esq., seconded by the
Rev. T. E. Fuller,
It was resolved,
" That the thanks of the Subscribers be given to
the Committee, the Treasurer, and Auditors, for their
valuable services during the year."
ADDRESS.
The Rev. F. W. BINDLEY, M.A., then delivered
the following Address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The room in which we are assembled is, I am
informed, the finest in this Province, if not in the
Colony. It is devoted to literature. Its walls are
stored with the thoughts, the discoveries, the specula-
tions, and the yearnings of some of the very flower of
mankind. Shelf above shelf, as in an Egyptian cave,
" is the precious life-blood of master spirits embalmed
and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond a life."
Here the noisy world of action is for a time cut off
from us, though by a glass screen. Here for a time
we may sit aud calmly ponder with the mighty dead,
or, like Milton's hero, if we please, ascend a hill from
whose top
" The hemisphere of Earth in clearest ken,
Stretched out to amplest reach of prospect lies,"
in all its varied fields of literature, philosophy, science,
art, and so forth. You remember that Michael
" Then purged with euphrasie and rue
Adam's visual nerve, for ho had much to see."
That we may not suffer any intellectual bewilderment
fr om so ample a prospect, and know whither to direct
our glances this morning, let us at once adopt a similar
10
corrective process, and wave thrice before our eyes the
Cape University Bill. Anointed as it were with this,
we view the world in general from a distinct point of
view. We feel with elation of mind that we are at
last proposing to emerge with some Mat into the
intellectual world, and add ourselves to the number of
august communities who dignify the human name by
the addition thereto of mysterious letters, who confer
degrees. We are rightly somewhat proudly conscious
to ourselves that we have earned a claim to do this by
an amount of unobtrusive, useful, determined pre-
liminary work, which will compare more than favour-
ably with that of other colonies. We did not first
resolve upon all the pompousness of conferring
degrees, and afterwards go hunting about for candi-
dates worthy of them and means of making them so.
Plenty of lads and young men have shown themselves
anxious to attain the desirable intellectual standards,
and have attained them in spite of all the disadvan-
tages of our climate, our poverty, and means of loco-
motion. They have been modestly content with a
certificate, valuable to themselves and friends, but
making no claim upon the attention of the outside
world by adding anything to their names. They have
achieved the reality without the title. We feel, then,
that we have earned our claim to this step in advance,
and with quiet complacency may turn our eyes to the
rest of the world, and regard with interest what has
been done, or is doing, of like kind elsewhere. We
feel adopted into the supernal and empyrean society
of Universities, and, like a freshman at Oxford or
Cambridge adorned with his new gown, proceed to take
our walks abroad to inspect all the old halls and
colleges that were there before we came, but in which
11
we now feel that we have a property and an interest.
Perhaps our first emotion in emerging into this new
world is one of utter astonishment, not so much at the
age of some of our sister universities as their vast
number, and spread all over Europe, North America,
Australia, and New Zealand. England has four,
Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Durham ; Scotland
four, St. Andrew's, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edin-
burgh ; Ireland two, Trinity College, Dublin, and
the Queen's University. France, until the Revolu-
tion, had twenty-three, the most celebrated of Avhich was
the once world-renowned University of Paris, now all
rolled into the University of France. Spain possesses
eight, amongst which Salamanca, founded in 1240, still
holds its own. Fifteen universities are dotted about
Italy, including the once eminent Bologna. In
Greece, the mother of literature and art, philosophy
and science, the descendants of ^Eschylus and Phidias,
Plato and Aristotle, in 1837 gathered themselves at
Athens into a university to the number of over 500.
Austria possesses eight, with some 6,000 students.
At least seventeen concentrate, develop, and dis-
perse the mighty intellect of now United Germany ;
from very richness of material they warn us to hurry
on. Nine adorn the plains of Holland and Belgium.
Little Denmark has two, Sweden and Norway three,
Russia seven, with 1,700 students at Moscow alone.
Nor must Switzerland be omitted, which has added
two this century to her ancient Basle ; while Portugal
still maintains the 13th century foundation of
Coimbra. Even the Ionian Islands deemed that a
trade in currants and Greek wine was not all that was
necessary for the life or" man, and started a university
in 1824, and have got together 300 students at Corfu.
12
Counting the University of France as one, the 270
millions of Europeans possessed twelve years ago
ninety-five universities which conferred degrees, and
of which statistics were obtainable. Of these, thirteen
viz., Bologna and Paris, Oxford and Cambridge,
Padua, Salamanca, Naples, two others in Italy, and,
I believe, three more in France, and Coimbra, in
Portugal date from varying times before the year
1300, to draw a broad mark between them and others.
Again, of the rest, exclusive of four French universi-
ties, eleven date between 1300 and 1400; twenty,
including St. Andrew's, Glasgow, and Aberdeen,
between 1400 and 1500 ; twelve, including Edinburgh,
between 1500 and 1600; eleven between 1600 and
1700, including Dublin ; seven between 1700 and 1800;
sixteen are to the credit of the nineteenth century on
the Continent alone, while England has established
two and Ireland one. And now it is time to cross the
Atlantic to that vast new world where men, casting off
as they pleased all the shackles of conventionalism and
tradition, and following that which seemed to them to
be wise and useful, and, above all, paying, have devel-
oped themselves into what they are. But in a paren-
thesis, before we descend into the rush and boil of
United States life, let me inform you that twelve years
ago our comparatively quiet, sober-going sister Colony
of Canada, with a population of 2,500,000, had six
universities, with a staff of seventy-five professors in
all, capable of conferring degrees, and, in addition, a
school of medicine in connection with the University
of Toronto, and a number of divinity colleges, all
degree-giving bodies. And now we come to the sanction
that " the smartest people in creation " (to quote their
own poetical description of themselves) have given to
13
universities. The information is furnished by the
careful and voluminous report of the Rev. James
Fraser upon "The Common School System of the
United States." It appears that in 1864 there were
236 colleges or universities (for in America the names
seem synonymous) overtopping all the vast mass of
schools, and conferring degrees upon those who had
attained to the higher ranks of education. American
education is so interesting a subject, that one only dare
just touch it. But let me put before you one or two extra
and sample facts. In 1864, in the midst of the fright-
ful civil war, Yale University, which with Harvard,
are the Oxford and Cambridge of America, received in
benefactions from private individuals $400,000. In
Cincinnati a wealthy citizen bequeathed $400,000 for
the erection of two colleges, one for male and another
for female students. In the same year a Mr. Vassar,
a brewer, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., handed over to
trustees $400,000 for the foundation of " an institution
which should accomplish for young women what
colleges accomplish for young men." In 1865 "Mr.
Cornell, who began life as a mechanic, and by indus-
try and skill accumulated a large fortune set apart
$500,000 under trust to found a university, to bear his
name." This has been established at Ithaca, N.Y., and
is, to my mind, the most wonderful development of
university life in modern times. Mr. Fraser con-
tinues : "It is not the multiplication of colleges and
universities of which there are far too many in the
States already that I regard as a good thing ; but
these instances of individual munificence, so common
in America, so rare among ourselves, are surely to be
reckoned among the ' signs,' and not unhealthy 'signs,'
of the times." " Never before," he says, alluding to
14
the war, " were more liberal appropriations voted by
the townships for the support of schools ; never before
were private benefactions more frequent or munificent ;
never before was there displayed a more universal
determination to uphold in all its integrity, and, if
possible, to carry onward to a still higher degree of
efficiency, the education of the people." Whatever
we may individually think about Americans, and they
are not insensible to their own peculiarities, which are
very like those of a remarkably clever and rather con-
ceited boy, they have seized hold of the idea that a
man's mind is a part of him which it is as well not to
allow to lie idle. They do try to give it something to
do. As a sober, stupid, conservative Englishman, I
am not prepared to advocate their system as a whole ;
there is too much speechifying and elocution about it ;
but still, if Mr. Buckle's dictum be true, " that capital
leads to knowledge, and then knowledge is a wonder-
fully strong agent in producing capital," in fact,
commercially, a most paying thing, the idea penetrates
into one's mind that the Americans know what they
are about, and that whether they care for education
in itself as a good thing or as a means of making money,
they are practical people. If the establishment of
universities for the promotion of the higher education
be a sign of a shrewd people who know their own
interests, we shall not be astonished to learn that
Australia is possessed of universities. Two years
before the discovery of gold, when people were slowly
feeding and shearing themselves into prosperity by
cattle and sheep, Sydney started the university idea,
viz., in 1849. In 1852 the university was inaugurated.
In 1857 BO successful had been its progress that a peti-
tion was sent home to the Crown, backed by the Gov-
15
ernor, in which the senate " humbly submit to Her
Majesty that the standard required by them is not
below that prescribed by the most learned universities
of the United Kingdom " * * * " that they confi-
dently hope and expect that their graduates will not
be inferior in scholastic attainments to the majority of
graduates of British universities;" and so they pray
" that the degrees conferred by the University of
Sydney may be entitled to the same rank, precedence,
and consideration as degrees granted by any university
of the United Kingdom." The petition was granted.
What they desired is the case. Let me quote to you
from the letter of thanks the senate addressed to Her
Majesty, some manly, sober words which do one good
to read: " We confidently trust that this university,
which has been admitted into fellowship with the great
seminaries of learning in the country from which we
have sprung, will prove worthy of the high honours
conferred upon it ; that in due course of time it will
yield its fair proportion to the illustrious names of this
Empire ; and that its students will acquire the clear-
ness and soundness of understanding, and the high
moral and social qualities which characterize the
educated English gentleman, and which have exercised
so powerful and wholesome an influence on the manners
and institutions of our fatherland." There is here an
appreciation of the whole and perfect wdrk of the
better type of university upon which one would fain
dwell. But they were not content without some visible
and substantial expression of their ideas. The univer-
sity must have, not only a name, but a local habitation.
30,000 were spent on a magnificent building, and
when the strong Sydueian presents himself for his
degree, he kneels in the finest hall out of England
16
amidst all the mediaeval glory and illumination of a
prodigality of stained glass. Melbourne would not be
left behind. A sumptuous building, a fine museum,
surrounded by beautiful gardens, are some of the out-
side attractions which learning presents there. And
Melbourne, in due course, obtained the same privilege
as Sydney, that her degrees should be recognized
throughout the British Empire. Square caps, and
scholars' gowns, and all the gorgeous robes of doctors
and the many-coloured hoods are no more strange to
the Melbourne street-boy, one might say, than to his
juvenile compeer at Cambridge or Oxford. Six months
ago Adelaide started on the same race, one of her
citizens presenting 20,000 for the endowment of a
university. In New Zealand the same counsels pre-
vail. In September, 1869, 76,000 acres of land were
set aside for the endowment of a university for the
whole Colony. But before this the one Province of
Otago had appropriated 100,000 acres for a university
for itself, professors were engaged, scholarships and
other rewards of learning assigned. The last report,
too, I have been able to consult, left them in debate
about the amalgamation of the two. Universities in
Hindostan and in China, however interesting, I must
entirely omit. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we
have simply established this fact, that in the forefront
of civilization all over the whole world are established >
and have for many centuries been established, these
institutions called universities. They accompany
civilization like a law, and wherever the Teutonic or
Anglo-Saxon element is found, there green and flourish-
ing in this 19th century is sure to be sooner or later
a university. We may be sure that among all that
wide range of universities to which we have referred
17
there must be many differences, and yet some or many
elements in common besides the one fact that of con
ferring degrees. Hage volumes of amassed erudition
would hardly give you the information you might pos-
sibly desire. Perhaps if we dig down a little, and, like
a botanist with a new plant, begin at the roots, we may
arrive at some clear ideas upon the subject of what
has been or is meant by the word university ? Some
people, I know, who have drawn their ideas from
Oxford and Cambridge, think there cannot be a uni
versity without colleges. But colleges have nothing
to do with the essence of a university. There were
universities long before there were colleges. Colleges
are an accident of universities. Again, because every
university in the world but London teaches, has a staff
of professors who instruct, and scholars who attend
their lectures, because every ancient university taught
others think that a university which teaches nothing
but only examines, has no proper title to the name.
Even Hallam in one place seems to assent to the
idea that they were called universities because they
taught universal learning taught everything. But
this cannot be so, for Bologna, under the very
eyes of the Pope, so to say, taught law for 200 year s
before it taught theology, while in Paris civil law
was prohibited for 450 years, and Oxford and Cam-
bridge existed at first only in the faculty of arts
while Montpellier taught only medicine. But I think
we shall be saved some confusion of mind, and also
see our way more clearly through history, if we begin
with the law. I believe I am correct in stating that
" uuiversitas " is a term of the Roman law applied both
to persons and thing:?. When applied to persons it
implied a corporation, association, society, or even
18
trades union or guild, which could hold property and
maintain suits a juristical person. I have no reason
to believe that it was used less strictly in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries than in the sixth, but the con-
trary. I hope to make it clear to you why I am thus
pompously insisting upon this point. The state of the
Continent when Charlemagne succeeded in A.D. 771
and of England, when Alfred was crowned a century
later, is well known that of almost blank ignorance.
It is not likely, then, that either of those great educa-
tional heroes should have conceived the idea and put it
strictly into practice, of a legal educational corporation*
a, technically speaking, " universitas." Therefore,
when Charlemagne is spoken of as the founder of the
University of Paris, and Alfred of Oxford, technically
speaking, I believe it to be quite wrong, though I have
no doubt that it was through them that education and
intellectual life, being almost dead, received the reviv-
ing impulse to which may be attributed eventually the
universities of Europe. The light kindled by Charle-
magne was never quite put out ; Alfred lit his lamp
at the flame. I believe the origin of universities, tech-
nically speaking, to have been the brain of no king or
pope, however wise or farsighted, but to have been the
result of the diligence of learned and enthusiastic
men, and the eager desire of the people for knowledge.
It was the most natural thing possible ; men who
knew opened their books and their minds and taught
such as they knew. The cathedral or barn, as the case
might be, was crowded. As the old masters died off,
pupils, who outran them, stepped into their chairs. To
accommodate students became the trade of the town.
Honour was won, fame established, learning increased,
kings and popes smiled, complications arose, the law
19
stepped in to crown and to protect, and what was before
a voluntary body of lecturers and listeners became a
grand and legal corporation and " universita," petted
by Church and State, indulged with immunities, the
glory of the land. The title of University was, as it
were, a degree, a diploma, won by the work of young
and ardent knowledge seeking Europe from the well.-
pleased and fostering authorities. Afterwards, when
learned men were wanted anywhere, a university was
incorporated, to whose privileges they were invited.
As in Scotland, when in the beginning of the 15th
century it was found that the best young Scotchmen
were drifting out of the country in search of an educa-
tion they could not get at home, the wise Bishop of
St. Andrew's, with the assent of the estates of the
realm and the hearty support of the then Pope Benedict
XIII, founded the University of St. Andrew's, with
all the usual immunities and privileges, and learned
men from other countries came to it readily. There is
always so much disposition to lean upon kings and
governments, bishops and public ministers, that it
seems as though it could not be pressed too strongly
upon the notice of any young community that Europe,
after all, owes its first universities, and all that came
from them, to its own desire for knowledge and thirst
for improvement, to the people of Europe rather than
to any prince, pope, power, or potentate whatsoever.
And greatly is it to the credit of those old feudal times,
that when Europe was constantly embroiled in war,
and every man was bound by service to his liege lord,
and knights in armour with stout serving-men behind
them clad in steel could scarce travel safely along the
road, that the poor scholar with his gown and books
could pass unmolested and unarmed from one end of
20
Europe to the other, his person more sacred than a
Lishop'e. A university, then, may be denned to be
" an incorporated body of persons teaching and learn-
ing one or more departments of knowledge, and em-
powered by the constituted authorities to confer
degrees in one or more faculties ;" or if from some
good reason the teaching phase has dropped out of
sight, empowered to give degrees upon satisfactory
evidence that the requisite intellectual and educational
standard has been attained. The origin of universities,
as technically and legally such, is not so difficult to
ascertain. We have no time now for an antiquarian
disquisition. Towards the end of the 12th century,
Pario, which had never ceased to retain about it some
tincture of learning from the days of Charlemagne, was
incorporated into a university. Bologna appears to
have obtained like privileges, perhaps a few years
earlier. I must leave the claims of Oxford and Cam-
bridge to antiquaries, but they date about the same
time. In the 12th century, that which had been before
smouldering burst into a flame. The oldest universi-
ties in Europe, says Mr. Maiden, " sprung up in the
12th century, and were formed by the zeal and enter-
prise of learned men, who undertook to deliver public
instruction to all who were desirous of hearing them.
The first teachers soon found assistants and rivals ;
students resorted in great numbers to the sources of
knowledge thus open to them, and from this voluntary
association of teachers and scholars the schools arose
which were afterwards recognized as public bodies, and
entitled ( universities,' and which served as models for
those which in la.ter times were founded and estab-
lished by public authority. Some of the oldest univer-
sities had traditions as to their foundation at a more
21
remote period by Royal or Imperial authority, and
these traditions might be nominally true ; but as far
as their real life and power and distinctive character
are concerned, their origin was in fact spontaneous,
and is to be ascribed to the general excitement of
the intellect which pervaded Europe in the 12th cen-
tury." Europe at last found itself in comparative
peace and plenty, and naturally the mind at once turned
upon itself, and immediately began to want to know,
and so the great tide began to flow, which, with many
a receding wave, has never began to ebb yet, and is
still flowing, gradually submerging one by one all the
land-marks of ignorance, though to all appearance as
far off from its goal of certain truth and knowledge
absolute in many things, as it was seven centuries ago.
Would you like to know of what mediaeval teaching
consisted ? It comprised the four faculties of law,
theology, arts, and medicine. Law was divided into
two branches, civil and canon law, upon which one need
say nothing, as upon theology and medicine. But
what were " the arts ? " Their magic number was
seven ; they were at first supposed to " comprehend
all wisdom and all learning ; to be sufficient for the
removal of all difficulties and the solving of all ques-
tions, for whoever understood the Trivium could
explain all manner of books without a teacher ; and he
who was further advanced and muster also of the
Quadrivium could answer all questions and unfold all
the secrets of nature ! " The Trivium, or first division
of arts, consisted of three subjects grammar, logic,
and rhetoric, and to pass in these gave a man his
Bachelor's degree ; but was he still ambitious ? There
remained for him the great Quadrivium of music,
arithmetic, or the science of numbers, geometry, and
22
astronomy. He who passed in these also became a
Master of Arts. But the origin of the custom of
giving degrees, of which the oldest were in arts, like
many other points connected with the early history of
universities, is somewhat obscure. Some antiquaries
contend for Paris, relying upon Bachelor as a French
word; others uphold the claim of Bologna. It is not
difficult to see how some such custom would arise.
When lectures were thronged, we cannot suppose that
all the listeners would be attentive and industrious.
An examination after due time seems a natural result,
and that those who passed should have some voucher
or expression of approbation to their own comfort and
the shame of the idle, equally natural. Still, I believe
there can be no doubt the title of B. A. is of later origin
than that of Master, or Doctor, or Professor. These,
at first titles of courtesy, as the university system
developed, came to have definite scholastic meanings,
and to confer rank and privilege. The Master at length
was he who taught arts, the Professor theology, the
Doctor law or medicine. To this day there is in strict
technical verity no D.D. degree at Oxford or Cam-
bridge, but he whom we call a Doctor of Divinity is
really Sanctaj Theologian Professor. Considering the
vast number of students Avho thronged the mediaeval
universities (Oxford and Paris each claim to have had
as many as 30,000 at one time, and in all the Con-
tinental universities they were divided into nations),
comparatively few used to pass on to the Master's or
Doctor's degree the examination was hard and the
fees high, the time to spend from home long. There
was no education made easy then, and a common bur-
sary to the mediaeval student was a licence to beg.
To attain to one of the higher degrees was in early
23
times a greater achievement than now-a-days to win a
fellowship, and there are stories extant of a learned
monk proceeding to take his D.D. attended by a perfect
retinue of Lord Abbots and a hundred Noblemen and
their Esquires. A degree used to be indeed a precious
possession it was, as its Latin name implies, a " step "
up. The two most honourable things a man with nothing
but his own arms and brains to depend upon could win
for himself in mediaeval Europe were a university
degree and the acolade of knighthood. There is one
very interesting accident of university life upon which
I have not yet touched. I mean colleges. To the
ordinary Englishman college life and university life are
the same thing, and I have no doubt that it is the
college life that has enabled Oxford and Cambridge to
retain that prestige which their old rivals, Bologna and
Paris, have lost, and still to be, at all events socially,
to-day the first universities of the world. But still
college life is only an accretion after all. For a moment
glance over your romantic ideas of colleges, their
ancient and hoary walls embraced by ivy and bosomed
in trees ; their romantic architecture and stained
glass windows ; their halls adorned with pictures of
the great and good, the noble and the wise ; their
echoing quadrangles and noble chapels ; bethink you
of kings and queens, of earls, and more mighty ladies,
their founders. Enfold all in a rose-coloured cloud of
romance. And now come back into the stern prose of
history : would you see the real founders of colleges ?
Behold, then, that unromantic character a landlady.
It happened in historic sequence thus. "We will take
Oxford or Cambridge as samples. Lecturers attracted
students. There was no provision for their lodging ;
they got rooms where they could Avith the townspeople.
24
As the students increased, and rooms became scarce,
the price naturally rose, the landlady became exorbi-
tant, while the students' purses remained the same.
At last the whole university, professors and under-
graduates, could endure it no longer ; the whole
university moved off, only returning upon due repen-
tance ; and it is not hard to imagine many other evils
resulting from such a mode of accommodation. The
discipline of the students was lax. Hence arose Halls,
which were nothing more at first than licensed lodging-
houses, to provide rooms under a master of arts or
doctor who preserved discipline, and Colleges, more
elaborate foundations, which combined rooms with
maintenance to some extent, and also a semi-monastic
and strict religious element, as also, in addition, in-
struction by the fellows of the college independent of
the university. Let us then sum up : we find now
spread over the world a vast system of universities,
endeavouring in different ways to confer the highest
education ; their roots strike down as low as the revival
of education on the Continent under Charlemagne, in
England a century later under Alfred. In the twelfth
century we are confronted by the phenomenon of
learned men at different intellectual centres, assembling
around them vast crowds of students they are incor-
porated by the legal authorities into universities, under
very similar forms of government. They are em-
powered to give degrees, and encouraged by kings and
popes, but their real support is the broad intelligence
of Europe and the desire of the people for knowledge.
Country after country is persuaded of the advantages
of possessing such institutions their number increases.
Social necessities create a demand for what we call
colleges, enlightened benevolence satisfies the demand.
25
The genius of each people modifies and is modified by
its universities. Europe is shaken by the Reformation.
Some universities take time by the forelock and go on ;
others dwindle and lose their intellectual power, even
though they keep up their numbers. But, having
shaken off' the Bishop of Rome from its safety valve,
European intellect rushes on into new courses and
unimagined discoveries. New worlds are discovered
and peopled some old notions are discarded but still
the idea of gathering the best intellects into centres and
foci, thence to radiate intellectual force, is clung to with
tenacity. And America and Australia raise the
counterparts of the old world powers of Paris and
Bologna, Oxford and Cambridge. And now, as for
ourselves. Nothing could be more modest than our
beginning. We shall be like the ancient universities at
first, with not a brick or foot of land to call our own ;
and unlike them in this that we shall teach nothing,
only give a state certificate or diploma to that which
our youth have picked up, we know not how. But on
whom depends the future of our university ? the
intellectual future of this Colony ? Not upon Govern-
ments and ministers of education, however able, but
upon the determination and will of every lad here, that
stand still he will not, but into the fair fields of know-
ledge he will go ; that he will not fall behind the times ;
that he will bring all the pressure he can to bear upon
authorities ; that that which begins so modestly shall
eventually be a power in this land a radiating focus
of intellectual culture. We have many disadvantages
to contend with, doubtless ; but not so many as poor,
wild, old mediaeval Europe. What they did we can
do ; and it also occurs to one that there must have
been many wise, prudent, and far-seeing fathers and
2G
mothei's in those days, or there would never have been
so many thousands of students. The lesson of the
mediaeval universities, and American universities, and
Australian universities is this : Let every man, woman,
and child help themselves, and depend upon themselves,
and governments are sure to be glad enough to help
them. The finest room in the Colony is devoted to
literature. Let it be an earnest of the bright day which
is to be. No country will make a better return for
learning than our own.
B4UL SOLOMON AND CO., STEAM PBIKTING OFFICE, CAPS TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
IllTHinilHITIIUIT IIITIII
OF THE .SUr,M'i;im:US TO THE
African fublic Jft
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE QTH MAY, 1874.
Sate, (&q., SK.a., 2S.2)., u^erintenbentsSenerat of
(Stucation, onb 8kt@|amt!loi of
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1874.
Highness the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who
recently visited the Colony. A similar acknowledg-
ment has been obtained from Earl Granville, late
Minister of Foreign Affairs, who, through the instru-
mentality of George Frere, Esq. (for many years an
esteemed member of the Library Committee), has
been pleased to order that the Public Library should
be furnished with sets of the " State Papers " and
bulletins up to date, altogether 108 volumes. The
Philological Society of London have likewise been
pleased to place the Library on their list of institu-
tions to receive a copy of their transactions free of
charge, besides forwarding at the time fifteen volumes
of their Transactions and other publications.
The Committee have also to record the marked
interest which the late Hugh Lynar, Esq., always took
in the welfare of the Public Library, and of which he
has given a final and substantial proof by bequeathing
to the Institution the munificent sum of four hundred
pounds sterling. This sum the Committee have con-
sidered it desirable to expend in purchasing such stan-
dard works as may be found wanting in the various
departments ; as well as in procuring works relating to
South Africa generally, so as to make that department
of the collection as complete as possible. They are
also of opinion that the addition thus to be made might
be united with the " Porter Collection," and they
trust that the suggestion will meet with the approval
of the subscribers.
During the past year the Committee have received
a number of standard works to fill up gaps, and which
in their last report they mentioned as having been
ordered. The number of books received is therefore
much in excess of those in the previous year.
The accessions of books and periodicals in the several
departments of science and literature during the year
have been as follows, viz. :
Miscellaneous Theology 38 volumes.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 15
Science and the Arts 57
Novels ... 79
Belles Lettres 38
History 36
Voyages and Travels 68
Biography 36
Miscellaneous 5
Total 372
Of these, one hundred and eleven volumes are pre-
sentations to the Public Library, made by His Imperial
Highness the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, the
" Eoyal Society," the " Royal Geographical Society,"
the "Zoological Society," and the "Philological
Society," London; the "Smithsonian Institution,"
Washington ; Mrs. J. S. de Villiers, of the Paarl ;
the Hon. the Commissioner of Public Works ; Bishop
Colenso; the Rev. Dr. Adamson ; Drs. Dale, Bleek,
and Ross ; Messrs. Wm. Hiddingh, R. Trimen,
R. Powrie, and Mr. W. P. Hiern, of Kew, England ;
to all of whom the thanks of the subscribers are due.
The Committee have also to acknowledge, with
thanks, the kind interest which their late colleague,
George Frere, Esq., has ever taken in the welfare of
this Institution, and which has lately been further
evinced by his procuring for it the valuable collection
" State Papers " already alluded to in this Report.
From a record kept of the number of readers and
visitors to the Public Library since its re-opening in
June last, it appears that there has been a slight
falling off as compared with the previous year. Nearly
twenty thousand hare availed themselves of the Library
during the past yfcar, being an average of 71 per day,,
the largest number of visitors on one day being 110,.
and the smallest 43.
The issue of books in the several departments of
of science and literature has been as follows, viz.:
Miscellaneous Theology 74
Political Economy 37
Biography 651
Science and the Arts 224
History 490
Voyages and Travels 1001
Belles Lettres, Miscellaneous Essays.., 629
Works of Fiction and Amusement ... 8159
Periodicals and Reviews 6060
from which it will be seen that, although the supply
of novels has been limited, there has been a greater
demand for serial and light literature than during the
preceding year. The issues in the other departments-
have increased, a marked advance being observed in
Belles Lettres, Voyages and Travels, and Biography.
The following is the report of the Librarian of the
Grey Collection :
The accessions to the collection of literature con-
cerning the native languages in the Grey Collection
are this year few in number. This is mainly due to
the illness and subsequent death of one of our most
active contributors, the superintendent of the publish-
ing department of the "\Vesleyau Missionary Society
in Kaffraria, the Rev. J. W. Appleyard. The death
of this indefatigable missionary and acute grammarian,
on the 4th April last, has deprived the Library of a
benefactor to whom it owes the gift of a good number
of valuable books and manuscripts, mainly in or upon,
the Kafir language.
The only Kafir book received this year is the Rev,
A. J. Newton's " Kafir Primer," presented by the
author.
In Zulu we have received from the Rev. William
Ireland about a dozen books, published by American
missionaries. Of six of these no other copies had as
yet reached us, and among them is the whole of the
" New Testament of 1872," and the " Ikwezi ; or,
Morning Star," a Zulu periodical, published 1861-1863.
The Kev. C. W. Posselt has sent his translation of
" Luther's Catechism " into Zulu, also Hymns, and
Tunes for some Hymns in the same language, all
printed at Berlin 1872-1873.
A translation of the " Pilgrim's Progress " into Se-
suto, probably the work of French Mission aries, printed
at Lovedale, has been presented by the Rev. Dr. Stew-
art, who has also promised to send a file of all native
books printed at Lovedale, not yet in the collection.
A translation of " St. Luke's Gospel into Suaheli,"
by the late Rev. R. L. Pennell, is the only book which
has reached us this year from the Rev. Dr. E. Steere.
The Rev. J. Rath has added a " German-Otyi-
herero (Damara) Vocabulary," as Index to his
Manuscript " Otyiherero-German Dictionary ;" and
has also presented a copy of Dr. G. Schweinfurth's
" Central African Vocabularies," Berlin, 1873.
The Rev. J. G. Christaller, of the Basle Missionary
Society, and the Right Rev. J. G. Auer, D.D., Bishop
of the (American) Protestant Episcopal Mission at
Cape Palmas, have sent books in the Grebo and Kru
languages, and the beginning of an " English-Tshi
(i.e., Ashanti) and Akra Dictionary."
Dr. Bleek has, besides his " Comparative Grammar,"
added from his private library, Mr. R. Moffat, Junior's
" Standard Alphabet," the Rev. le Berre's
" Mpongue Grammar in French," the Rev. Hugh
Goldie's large " Efik Dictionary," and one Susu and
one Ene book,
A very valuable present has been received from Dr.
G. Fritsch in his illustrated book on the " Natives of
South Africa," with an Atlas of heads of natives
etched on copper from his photographs. The accom-
panying Map of South Africa has not yet reached us.
Mr. Francis Fry, F.S. A , of Tower House, Gotham,
Bristol, has kindly sent us, in exchange for a copy of
the Desciptive Catalogue of Early English Printed
Books, his excellent facsimile editions of extremely
rare English books, viz., " Tyndal's Prophet Jonas,"
with " Coverdale's Translation of Jonas ;" "A Proper
Dyaloge between a Gentleman and a Husband,"
printed at Marborow (Marburg), in Hessia, by Hans
Luft, 1530 ; the <: Souldier's Pocket Bible," 1643 ;
the "Christian Soldier's Penny Bible," 1693. Mr.
Fry has also sent a lithographed facsimile of the only
autograph letter of Tyndale, as yet found ; and, lastly,
he has made one of the editions of Tyndale's " New
Testament" in the Grey Collection (Vol. IV. Part I.
No. 1,016) complete by very kindly furnishing us
with a facsimile of the only leaf missing in this copy.
A carefully revised copy of the " Inventory of Old
Manuscripts" has been prepared by Dr. Bleek ; and
this most important part of the Inventory is therefore
now quite ready for publication.
On the motion of Mr. Buchanan, seconded by Mr.
Eaton, the Report was adopted.
The Chief Justice moved," That the thanks of
the Meeting and the Subscribers be given to the Com-
mittee, Auditors, and Treasurer, which was seconded
by Mr. C. B. Elliott."
ADDRESS,
LANGHAM DALE, Esq., M.A., LL.D., Superin
tendent-General of Education and Vice-Chancellor
of the University, then delivered the following
Address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The current of men's thoughts in these days runs
rapidly ; and the results of experiment, research,
and reflection come in hasty succession from the press,
teeming with lessons of progress and materials for
future speculation.
It is no light task to keep up with this tide that
never ebbs ; and it is well, therefore, at such anni-
versaries as this, to review our own stand-point in
regard to the questions of the day. The occasion
does not permit us to trace the processes by which
the laws of the worlds of matter and of mind are
established ; yet we may register in our memories
those conclusions which are to be the starting
points, or the mile-posts, to those who travel after us
along the via sacra which leads up to the Temple of
Truth.
We may, therefore, fitly turn to any of those in-
quiries which, " as the thoughts of men are widened
with the process of the suns," bring us by varied paths
to the limits which still bound our knowledge of
humanity. Science deciphers the long-hidden testi-
monies which lapsing ages have been recording within
the earth's crust ; and is busy in tracing through these
10
deposits, these relics of the unstoried urns of bygoiie
epochs, an evolution of successive types of organic
life, from the simplest organism to the first vertebrated
animal ; and thence link by link to the mammal, which
culminates in man, the latest and highest type in the
scale of animal life. And, in the search for some
proof of the antiquity of man's existence and his early
condition, science proceeds to examine the rude works
of art, the stone implements, found deep in the alluvial
gravel of the valley of the Somme, in the cave of
Brixham, Wookey Hole, and Kent's Hole, and else.
where, mingled too with the bones of now extinct
forms of animal life. Weighing the evidence which
points to the human race as the inventor of these
implements, and as the tenant of the European con-
tinent at a period so remote as to make man contem-
poraneous with the mammoth, woolly rhiuoceroSj
cavebear, and other extinct species, we note the modi-
fied aspect under which the solution of this question
of a remote, universal, or synchronous stone age is
presented to us ; because implements of stone, roughly
made, but adapted to various uses, as spear-heads,
arrow-tips, sling-stones, scrapers, &c., identical in
form and general characteristics with those found in
Brittain and other parts of the world, have been
recently discovered in this country some embedded
in the sand and clay, which form the surface of the
flats adjoining Cape Town, others at varying depths in
Lower Albany, East London, and elsewhere, as far
north as the Vaal.
This discovery does not weaken the evidence of
man's remote existence on the European continent*
but the notion of a successive advance through what
are known as the ages of stone, bronze, and iron is
11
untenable. No reasoning based on these discoveries
appears conclusive as to the primal condition of man-
kind ; all that we infer is that man, guided by natural
powers of observation and invention, turns to account
for self-preservation the most convenient material at
hand, whether obsidian, as found by the Spaniards, in
use among the Mexicans ; flint, as found in Europe ;
iron and other materials, as in use among the natives
of Africa generally ; or the varieties of jasper, quart-
zite, and chert, from which the Cape implements have
been fashioned ; and that man, wherever he exists in
a very low state of civilization, makes his implements
for warfare or domestic use in pretty much the same
way.
The arguments may be conveniently put in this
shape. Implements of stone are found with the bones
of extinct mammals in the river deposits of the Somme
Valley. It is assumed that these tools are the work
of man, and it is inferred that the human race lived at
the same period with those now extinct species ; and
the extreme antiquity which has been assigned to the
latter is assumed in the case of man, and is thought
to be confirmed by the long period of time during
which the geological changes in the valley where the
remains are found have been effected.
But that no one may blindly commit himself to
these conclusions, it may be urged (1) that the asso-
ciation of these remains tools and bones does not
prove co-existence (Note A), for causes may have
been in operation, whether in caves or river deposits,
to mingle the more recent implements of stone with
the long-embedded relics of extinct animals ; and (2)
that even if the human race was coeval with the now
extinct mammals, we may perhaps be justified in pro
12
longing their existence into what is commonly reputed
to be the human period just as much as in antedating
the origin of man upon earth (Note B) ; and (3) there
is so much difference of opinion as to the duration
of time necessary for the development of the geological
phenomena of the drift-beds that we may, at all events,
suspend judgment and calmly await further proof.
If the evidence for the age of the human bones
which have been found in caves were less equivocal,
the co-existence of man with the extinct mammalia
would be as good as established. But the skulls found
in Belgian caves, and the Neanderthal skull found
near Dusseldorf, as well as the skeletons recently dis-
covered in the valley of the Lesse and near Mentone,
do not justify any conclusion as to the antiquity of
the cave-buried men. (British Quarterly, pp. 358-9,
April, 1874.)
Biology is busy about cognate questions the phe-
nomena of vitality and those who have been accus-
tomed to the doctrine of final causes as accepted by
Christian philosophy will have to face at once the
negation, in modern biological views, of the conclusions
based on such arguments as those of tho Bridgewater
Treatises and other works on Natural Theology.
(Vide Note, Teleology.)
We have been taught to trace a unity of design
throughout the phenomena of Nature that means are
adapted to special and designed ends. The teleologist
argues thus : The eye with its delicate apparatus of
vision was it not thus made to enable me to see ?
was not its structure contrived to this very end?
Note the transparent convexity ; note how the tear-
gland furnishes from its reservoir moisture enough for
the surface of the cornea ! You know how to regulate
13
the focus of a telescope according to the distance of
the object ; the eye has this property, this power of
accommodation ; but it is exercised so easily, so in-
stantaneously, that you take no heed of it. Note
also how the nerve of vision is wonderfully guarded
against the sudden or excessive intrusion of light by
the iris, serving the purpose of a curtain.
Are not all such contrivances subservient and in
relation to a designed end and purpose ? Biologists
warn us not to be hasty in ascribing intention to
Nature. Things do fit into each other (they say) as if
they were so designed ; but all we know about them is
that these correspondences exist, and that they seem
to be the result of physical laws of development and
growth. But surely we do know some among the
countless purposes of the Creator. What we do not
know, what transcends the faculty of thought and the
power of research, is the method, the process of Crea-
tion. What is the origin of living things? What
and whence is Vitality ? We know indeed that new
individuals are created by being born ; are we at
liberty to widen our notions of the origin of forms of
organic life, and say that what is affirmed truly of this
one and that one may be equally affirmed of the
species ?
In the case of man, it is inconceivable that the first
human pair should have been created, as we are born,
in the utter helplessness of infants ; so that the question
is really narrowed to the choice between special
creation and the evolution of life. Whether organic
life can not only propagate itself in its ordinary types,
but further develop into new and higher forms, is the
prominent question ; and when we are weighing the
evidences for origin of species by special creation or
14
by natural evolution, it should be distinctly appre-
hended what is meant by the creation of a new species.
"We do not mean by a species an organized being
having an individual existence, for no one considers
the birth of each individual as a special creation, but
we mean a combination of physical properties, con-
ceived in our minds, not existing per se, shared by and
manifested in individual beings. Individuals are facts ;
this man and that tree are facts ; but the species, man
or tree, exists only as thought. The creative energy
in bringing a species into existence is therefore not
analogous to any ordinary phenomenon, and it is
difficult to see how the species, which is a non-entity,
can be affected by the changes in individuals.
The doctrine of the origin of species by " Natural
Selection " has been clouded over by recent dis-
cussions and criticisms ; and it may be convenient to
enunciate it here in a brief Avay.
The theory is based on the assumption that, both in
the animal and vegetable worlds, the individual com-
municates to its offspring a common or specific like-
ness, and also individual differences or variations. In
the struggle for life the fittest out of the offspring
will survive ; or, to put it more fully, those structural
variations which are manifested in the individual and
enable it best to hold its own and reproduce itself,
will be preserved and be more and more developed.
These favoured individuals, being better adapted to
resist all influences which might weaken or destroy
them, will survive, while the rest die out.
Physicists now admit generally that natural selec-
tion is one, and an important one, among the great and
imperfectly known agencies of organic change. We
thus learn scmething of the intermediate phenomena
15
of production ; but in reaching back to the source of
vital power, such a doctrine falls short. Here is a
new world to conquer ; here is a dark abyss into which
the feeble taper of human science has thrown no ray of
light. If science can unveil the combination of
chemical elements which constitutes an organized
being, who shall say what is that innate power,
principle, or condition which, lying beyond the world
of matter, makes us conscious beings and secures a
specific affinity of structure, force, and use in our con-
stituent parts and functions ? (Note D.)
Thus to the question, What is Life ? we can only
reply by an alternative question. " Does Life belong
to what we call matter ? or is it an independent prin-
ciple inserted into matter at some suitable epoch ? "
Is Life the result of a combination of certain elements
in an organism ? or is it a shaping and creative force,
a cause, which permeates elements, fixes the common
nature, and differentiates the individual forms ?
We dare not hope to pierce the veil that hides to-
morrow : may we hope to lift that veil that hangs be-
tween us and the day-spring of Life ?
That which is knowable has its limits ; beyond these,
one creative voice alone is heard " Let there be "
and there was.
Man cannot ignore the consciousness that the soul,
the self, is immortal; the still small voice of the spirit-
world communes in silence with our conscience :
'Tis the Divinity, that stirs within us,
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to man.
But if the organisms, which you and I represent, are
transitional and intermediate forms, leading up to
other and higher types, where in the series, retro-
16
spective or prospective, is the germ of immortality to
find a beginning ? Indestructibility may be true to
the materialist and to the pantheist ; but you and I
claim the personal attribute of immortality. Or is
there yet the sting of death ? Is there yet a Victory
to the Grave ? Do we bury our dead in faith and
hope ? or is Faith a blank ? Is Hope a phantasy ?
Whether belief in the immortality of man's soul is
founded on the light of nature or on the Christian
Religion, any theory which appears to cut away the
ground of an individual future existence appals most
men and pre-determines them against it. Yet there is
a significant force in Darwin's remark that " few
people feel any anxiety from the impossibility of de-
termining in the development of the individual [from
the first trace of the minute germinal vesicle to the child
either before or after birth] at what precise period man
becomes an immortal being ; and there is no greater
cause for anxiety because the period in the gradually
ascending scale cannot possibly be determined."
. The late Professor Agassiz, in his last work,
recently quoted in the Cape Monthly Magazine, sums
up the lessons of a life of uninterrupted research into
the arcana of nature, with words that seem to toll the
knell of the advocates of evolution : " It is not true
that a slight variation among the successive offspring
of the same stock goes on increasing until the differ-
ence amounts to a specific distinction ; on the con-
trary, it is a fact that extreme variations finally de-
generate or become sterile ; like monstrosities,, they
die out or return to their type." As to the objections
of evolutionists to admit the intervention of distinct
creative acts for every species, Agassiz says : " What
of it, if it were true ? Have those who object to re-
17
peated acts of creation ever considered that no pro-
gress can be made in knowledge without repeated acts
of thinking ? And what are thoughts but specific acts
of the mind ? "Why should it then be unscientific to
infer that the facts of nature are the result of a similar
process since there is no evidence of any other cause ?"
(Vide Atlantic Monthly, Jan., 1874.)
The difficulties of an evolution hypothesis are en-
hanced by the admission that the civilized man arrests
(Note E) those influences of nature which acted freely
upon him in a low savage condition influences which
we know to be hindered from natural and unin-
terrupted action on those portions of the animal
and vegetable worlds which fall under the control of
man; who develops or modifies or destroys this in-
dividual or that, and exercises a sway over all, so far
as suits his own ends and uses. What are we to con-
clude ? Either, if development is still active, and if
man is but a term in an Algebraic series of terms
ascending in infinitum, that the man, of which we are
specimens, is now evolving variations, and will merge
into some type of organism, as different probably from
the present as this is presumed to be from the original ;
or, if otherwise, that man has now by the skilful appli-
ances of civilized life so fenced himself round as to
arrest the processes of evolutionary changes, and
stereotype his present condition. Accept the former,
you seem to imperil the personal attribute of immor-
tality ; admit the force of the latter, and you foster a
theory which, pushed to the extreme, makes the
creature to triumph over the Creator.
In a few words, it may be summed up that the
modern theories of Biology require the solution of the
following problems, before they find general accept-
B
18
ance (i) The physical basis of Life : wliat is it ? Is
it to be found in solar fire or nebulous gas ? Is
protoplasm or bioplasm any explanation of the stuff
that vital force is made of? (Note F.) This question
is not easy of conclusion, if it be admitted that there
is a barrier impassable between organic and inorganic
substances, between living matter and dead matter
(Note F.), and that there are essential differences be-
tween the phenomena of the one and the other; and
(2) apart from the difficulty of bridging over this
chasm, how is species trausrnutable ? seeing that we
know by observation that the individuals of a species
vary within normal limits ; but there is no example to
show that the transmutation of one species into another
has actually taken place ; and (3) apart from the
material basis of a life-giving energy, apart from the
brid^Hcss gulfs between matter living and dead,
between the worlds vegetable and animal, and between
one species and another, what proof is adduced of a
link between a lower type of animal life and man ?
seeing that, as far as human research and experiment
have yet gone, the lines that represent human life and
lower animal life appear to run ever parallel, never
approximating, never converging to a point of union,
however remote ; and seeing further that man stands
alone, apart from and beyond the rest of aiiimated
nature, as a being morally, if not physically, distinct;
capable of moral degradation on the one hand, and
endowed with the unique faculty of speech on the
other.
Modern inquiries are leading to the recognition of
laws which regulate the growth and decay of speech,
no less uniform and consequent than those of the ex-
ternal world. Language is being unclothed. As the
19
material crust of the globe tells a truthful tale to him
who probes beneath the surface, so the philologist hopes
to unveil the links, which, although crusted over or
weakened by the accretion or decay of ages, join the
words by which we represent and communicate our
ideas in continuous sequence to the titterings of the
first man.
And what is Language ? An invention of man, a
work of human art, elaborate by his necessities ? or is
it a special gift of the Creator, heaven-sent, as a re-
pository of thought and means of communication ?
The philologist in his anatomical dissections and com-
parisons deals with all speech. The sacred language
of Northern India, the Sanscrit, and its sister tongues,
including the inflectional systems in which the lore of
old Greece and Rome is fossilized, the monosyllabic
Chinese, the Polynesian, Hottentot, and Kafir, and
other African languages, all must be analyzed by the
alchemy of comparative grammar, until this ever-
speaking witness teaches the philologist how to recog-
nize the place of this and that radical form among the
constituents of human speech, just as the great ana-
tomist, from the fragment of a bone, reconstructs the
animal, and gives it a due position in the animal
world. When language has thus been analyzed in the
crucible of philology, the process will leave a residuum
which is in effect the seeds, the simplest primary
elements of speech ; so that the question, what ig
language, is resolved into an investigation of the
origin and nature of these roots, just as it is the pro-
vince of physical science to resolve matter, by analysis,
Into its ultimate elements. The theory which claims
attention in these days is that which refers the be-
ginnings of speech to the cries, sobs, shouts, and
B 2
20
general exclamations and utterances of pain, sorrow,
surprise, triumph, contempt, and other emotions to
which man gives voice to express his sensations.
Now, those who look for the origin of language in
connection with the theory of evolution must rely
chiefly on the interjection as the germ of articulate
speech. When upon the "first being, worthy to be
called a Man," "born of some inferior creature," the
consciousness of a faculty of speech first dawned, the
inter] ectioual utterances prompted by his sensations
must have been the first words, and those expressions
laid the foundation of the nomenclature of the primary
ideas of mankind. By degrees this low-typed man,
overcoming the mechanical difficulties of linguistic
utterance, used these ejaculations as significant of
things, as names of objects ; either when realizing the
objects to his own nascent mind, or when striving to
cpnvey to his fellows his own notions of objects.
What countless difficulties might beurged against this
slowly-built process of word-manufacture !
What reason is there to believe that the so-called
man would be acted upon by sensations to repeat
always the same utterance at the sight or remembrance
of the same object ; much less is it likely that his
fellows would also produce the same ; or arrange,
by mutual agreement, that some uniform inter-
jectional sound should stand as the name of an
object or of some quality inherent in it. A difficulty,
too, there is, not so much in reviving the conception
of an object by the repetition of a sound, as in invent-
ng sounds expressive of the relations between an
object and a quality, and concluding an act of judg-
ment in conventional and appropriate language.
If language is thus the natural product of the
21
peculiar conformation of the first, and that a low-
typed race of men, it would be reasonable with our
distinguished South African philologist and his
compeers to seek for the traces of the primal language
among those who are noted for the characteristic
mechanical difficulties of speech, as the Bushmen,
who still retain those asperities which every language
would throw off in its natural tendency to seek ease
in articulation.
As to the identity of origin of the root-words which
are supposed to constitute the common basis of the great
families of language, it must be premature to speak,
whilst the classification of the families is perhaps in-
complete (Note, Philology E) ; and the analysis of
human speech hitherto has been very partial.
The original unity of language must therefore be
considered as not yet proved ; and the position taken
up by Max Muller is the safest approximate con-
conclusion which we can adopt no amount of variety
in the material or formal elements of speech is in-
compatible with the admission of one common source.
Some contributions have been made" towards the
study of man in society, and the construction of a
social science. At the first promulgation of so
intricate a subject most men absolutely reject the
notion that social phenomena can be generalized. If
social science means anything, we must allow that
there are recognizable laws which regulate the con-
duct of men in the various social relations, births,
marriages, deaths, habits and customs, crime and
punishments, labour and wages, as well as religious
ideas, moral and ajsthetic sentiments, and all the
other incidents of social life; and that these laws
are as constant, uniform, and inevitable as those
22
to which the world of external nature is conformed.
The bias of every man's mind is of course created
or influenced by education, ^.lode of life, the tone and
opinions of the sections of society in Avhich he moves,
and chiefly by religious belief and impressions ; so
that it is difficult to approach any, especially social,
questions with what is called a scientific spirit [Herbert
Spencer's Essays,] and besides, the physiology of
society is so complex, and the causes and sequences
of social phenomena are apparently so remote from
observation that few will accept the truth of the
relations sought to be established. There is, no
doubt, a general acquiescence in a successive order,
whether retributive or compensative, in the chequered
vicissitudes of life ; as implied in the notions of the
Greek <60o^oc, or jealousy of the gods, and the Nemesis
of tragedy, the Goddess of Retribution, who checks
immoderate good fortune, and abases the vfipir or
arrogance of prosperous men, and in the course of
moral discipline expressed by the tragic apophthegm
iruQu juafloc, or wisdom by suffering. Similar articles
of popular faith are embodied in our proverbs and
hou ehold words, as "Every light has its shadow,"
" Every dog has his day."
" There is a title in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune :
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries."
" It never rains, but it pours," and
"When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions."
This belief is also largely illustrated by those sayings
which imply a compensative distribution, as
23
" God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
Quick come, quick go. The race is not to the swift.
God never measures men by inches.
God never shuts one door but lie opens another."
And in the re-organization of governing agencie s
after social convulsions, or in the adjustment of the
relative functions of the parts of the social machinery,
statesmen and legislators are often taught that
national institutions are not created, but are evolved
from the inherent social tendencies of a people ; that
legislation is not in itself an effective cause, but
rather a subsidiary one, dragged in by the force of
public opinion to assist in maturing and legalizing
necessary social developments.
Men feel that the whole process, by which the
greatest of the social changes of English history will
ere long be effected, is now fermenting.
Voiceless is the fiat ; Society is educating itself for
the disruption of the national religion ; and when the
marriage bond of Church and State of England is
dissolved, the causes must be looked for, not in the
policy of this or that statesman, but in the social
characteristics of the day ; and legislators (if social
science be true) will have had no more to do with it
than they had to do with the disestablishment of the
Protestant Church of Ireland. A stupendous change
fraught with important consequences to the State, to
religion, and to society, which none may presume to
forecast, is felt to be evolving from civil and religious
causes. No statesman, no legislator can withstand
the tendency of the age in that direction ; but they,
too, will bend to the imperative voice of social order
and development, and provide the machinery for
severing the link.
24
It will be said that such a Theory of Evolution in
social life represents the basis and operations of
society as beyond the overruling of God, or the in-
fluence of any man, hero, king, or statesman, and
implies that the links in the continuous chain of
causes and effects are not welded, nay not even tra-
versed by the influence and spirit of Providence. As
an exponent of the topics of the day, I need only add
that the difficulties in accepting Evolution in the
departments of Sociology are, after all, similar in
kind to those which meet the inquirer in the physical
sciences ; for social science can only reach its con-
clusions by a purely deductive method of reasoning ;
it arrives at the law of effect by inferences from the
presumed law of causation, on which the effect de
pends; and, therefore, although we may conclude
that a cause will produce a certain effect, we are
unable to predict an effect, because of our ignorance
of the many counter-agencies which may be at work.
Such inquiries, however, may lead to an acquisition
of knowledge, which, " though quite insufficient for
prediction, may be most valuable for guidance."
(Mill's Logic, Book vi, c. 6.)
The study of Comparative Theology is also of too
recent a growth to admit of its results being classified ;
in fact, a scientific investigation of the systems of
human Faith is, with the application of comparative
methods to the elucidation of history and politics, the
newest phase of intellectual speculation ; and if it is
destined, in the words of Professor Max Muller, to
evoke, in the very heart of Christianity, a fresh spirit
and a new life, we may look with much interest, and
no anxiety, to such a panoramic exhibition of the laws
of growth of the religions of the human race.
25
But I doubt whether the author of the " Science of
Religion " will carry many a psychologist with him in
his assumption that among the mental attributes of
man is to be included a " faculty of faith " a faculty
of apprehending the infinite, a power " independent of
sense and reason " just as man has a special faculty
of speech. Much less support can be given to another
theory that the religious ideas of a people are de-
pendent on the structure of their language, involving
the strange hypothesis that the religious conceptions
of the mind are evolved from the mechanical casualty
of speech, whereas all experience shows that the mind
makes language its slave, and moulds it into forms
expressive of its conceptions. In fact, words are the
registers and vehicles of the product of the mind.
We may readily allow the mutual action and re-action
of thought and language, and that language is often
the father to thought ; but this is no evidence for a
law of identity in both.
By such an inquiry into the Protean phases of
Faith, it is probable that many difficulties which arise
from our way of interpreting Semitic modes of speech
will be removed. We interpret ancient thought by
modern thought, ancient language by modern lan-
guage. The imagery, personifications, and anthro-
pomorphisms of the Hebrew are in strong contrast
to the character of our English tongue ; and yet
most readers seek to interpret the " Law and the
Prophets " as if the conceptions and the words were
those of this age. (Muller's Science of Religion,
p, 280.)
We, who are the inheritors of the traditions of the
Hebrew Faith, as underlying the teaching of Christ,
are apt to undervalue the religious heir-looms of the
other great families of the earth ; and yet, through
all time, as far as language is yet traced back to that
mother-speech which lies behind Sanscrit, Latin,
Greek, and our own tongue, the devout aspirations
of our race have risen to the Heaven-Father.
The comparative study of religions may teach us
that God never left himself without witness in the
hearts and the language of men, and may unveil the
continuous history of the Divine education of the
world. Those who are best qualified to speak, who
know the strength and the weakness of science, are
least disposed to let their imaginations wander towards
JJ'/iat might be. What is bounds their labours and
their speculations. Their business as explorers is to
find the truth within the horizon of human research.
Our duty as learners is to weigh all evidence, and
wait with suspension of judgment, knowing that be-
hind all these theories, all these runnings to and fro
after knowledge, lies the great question amanswered
by reason " Who made all these things ? " Light,
more light ! was the prayer of the dying philosopher,
and is the watch-word of modern science. Life is
progress ; life is action ; no longer the contemplative
quietism of the philosopher, nor a brooding over the
faded memories of the past. No ! the life of to-day
is an earnest reaching after the revelations of the
morrow.
I have sufficiently trespassed on your patience by
this sketch of one long line of modern inquiry ; it
would be a vain task to try to register here to-day
the accumulating facts of physical observation and
chemical experiment ; to condense " the fairy tales of
science " to tell how the sun has been virtually
brought into the laboratory of the physist, and its
27
constituent elements tested by the spectrum analysis ;
and to tell how nature economises and conserves her
energies.
We had been prepared by previous solar observers
to recognize a connection between the phenomena
of the sun and occurences on our own globe to ac-
knowledge that science had established a relation be-
tween the sun-spots and terrestrial magnetism, and
that the meteorological changes of earth and sea are
affected by changes on the sun's surface ; but the
marvellous revelations of the spectroscope, by analy-
sing solar light, indicate the presence in the sun and
of the stars also of the same substances of which our
globje is constituted. Each new application of. this,
the most wonderful discovery of our own days, brings
before us the enormous forces at work in the sun, and,
to use Lockyer's words, it is impossible to foresee
what depths of space will not in time be gauged.
Thus each inquirer is building up an edifice on his
own ground-plan ; the varied phenomena of matter
are yielding a fast-accumulating mass of facts. Who
shall harmonize and arrange them ? Of these detached
fabrics, who shall re-arrange the materials into a
Temple of Knowledge ? Who, with all these results
of experiment and observation, shall be privileged to
write the Literature of the Sciences ?
But it is well for those amongst us who do not
care to follow the progress of science, that the human,
mind is not restricted to the study of physical phe-
nomena that "the circle of human nature is not
complete without the arc of feeling and emotion "
(Tyndall) that ' our studies and enjoyments are
not confined within the circle of the sciences. The
aesthetic faculty has a kaleidoscopic variety of subjects
28
accessible to every educated man. Literature and
art furnish abundant and tempting material of self-
culture to those who turn from the severer discipline
of Science. When the snowy wreaths pour down
the castellated front of yon Table Mountain, when
you scent the dewy morn, or watch the "golden
lightning of the sunken sun," it is not the relation of
cause and effect that thrills and fascinates ; the song
of the birds, the gaudy tiring and perfume of the
flowers, the gay face that mother earth puts on in her
Spring time, derive none of their beauty or of their
means of ministering the chastest pleasures from the
catalogues of ornithologists and botanists. Xo ! In
themselves they are " things of beauty, things of
joy." The tendency of this age would direct you to
an exact acquaintance with the phenomena around
you, and there is for you and for me a real enjoy-
ment of light, " holy light," of the genial sunshine,
and of the voices of the air, without scrutinizing the
effects of solar energy or calculating the velocity of
light or sound ; but the mind falls short of the
standard of real education if it does not unite th e
appreciation of scientific knowledge with a receptivity
of what is good and beautiful.
And here I venture to say that Avhether you believe
or not in the evolution theory, you must apply its
principles to the Colonial Institutions, whether for
science, art, or literature, to meet the absolute require-
ments of the day. This noble library in which we
are assembled, which offers its treasures to all,
without money and without price, and the sister
institutions, the South African Museum and the
Botanic Gardens, are too limited in space as well as in
resources. Here and there throughout the Colony an
29
earnest inquirer works, hermit-like, in philology or
botany, or other fields of natural science ; but there
is no place of reunion ; no Royal society, where the
products of individual research may be discussed and
chronicled. But it is by the intercourse of mind
with mind ; by association and discussion, by adding
the individual contributions to the common stock of
knowledge, that we may hope to spread refined tastes
and higher culture ; to elevate the social life of the
Colony, and at the same time to develop the yet
untold resources of the South African Continent.
The following is the appendix referred to in the
body of Dr. Dale's address :
NOTE A. To the inquiry, Does the mere association in the
same deposit of the flint-implements and the bones of extinct
quadrupeds prove that the artificers of the flint-tools and the
animals co-existed in time ? I answer that mere juxtaposition
of itself is no evidence of contemporaneity, and that upon the
testimony of the fossil bones the age of the human relics is not
proven. Professor Eogers in the " Beputed Races of Primeval
Man," written after a visit to the localities referred to: vide
Blackwood's Magazine, October, I860.
NOTE B. We have now to inquire how this contemporaneous-
ness is to be accounted for, whether by prolonging the existence of
these mammals into the human period, as ordinarily understood,
or by antedating the commencement of the human period. . . .
The acceptance of the former might be justified by the unquestion-
able fact that the existence of the bos primogenius was prolonged
even into the. historic period. Vide Westminster Review, April,
1863.
NOTE Teleology. The teleology which supposes that the eye,
such as we see it in man or one of the higher vertebrata, was
made with the precise structure which it exhibits, for the purpose
of enabling the animal, which possesses it to see, has undoubtedly
received its death-blow. Huxley, "Critiques and Addresses,'
page 305.
30
NOTE C. We have already seen that M. Guizot lays it down
as a physical impossibility that Man, the human pair, can have
been introduced into the world except in complete stature, in the
full possession of all his faculties and powers. He holds it as
certain that on no other condition would Man on his first
appearance have been able to survive and found the human
family. Duke of Argyll on M. Guizot, in the " Beign of Law,"
p. 270.
Le fait surnaturel de la creation explique seulement, la
premiere apparition de 1'liouime ici-bas. Guizot, quoted in the
" Reign of Law," p. 28.
NOTE D. According to this view, an internal law controls
the action of every part of every individual, and of every
organism as a unit, and of the entire organic world as a whole.
It is believed that this conception of an internal innate force will
ever remain necessary. -Mivart " Genesis of Species," c. XI.,
p. 274.
I deem an innate tendency to deviate from parental type,
operating through periods of adequate duration, to be the most
probable nature, by way of operation, of the secondary law
whereby species have been derived one from the other Owen,
"Anatomy of Vertebrates," vol. iii., p. 807.
NOTE E. Man has not only escaped "natural selection"
himself, but he is actually able to take away some of that power
from nature which before his appearance she universally exercised-
We can anticipate the time when the earth will produce only
cultivated plants and domestic animals, Avheu man's selection
shall have supplanted " natural selection." Wallace, ; ' Natural
Selection," p. 326.
NOTE F. No physical hypothesis ever founded on any indis-
putable fact has yet explained the origin of the primordial
protoplasm, and, above all, its marvellous properties Avhich
rendered evolution possible.
No valid evidence has yet been adduced to lead us to believe
that inorg-anic matter has become transfused into living, otherwise
than through the agency of a pre-existing organism, and there
remains a residual phenomenon still entirely unaccounted for.
Professor Allman President, of the Biological Section of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science ; vide Nature, 18th
September, 1873, p. 425.
31
NOTE G. Philology. Dr. Bleek's "Comparative Grammar of
South African Languages ; " vide Prefaces to Parts 1 and 2.
NOTE H. Man, though he has great variety of thoughts, and
such from which others might receive profit and delight, yet they
are within his own breast, invisible and hidden from others.
. . . The comfort and advantage of society not being to be
had without communication of tlwughts, it vas necessary that
men should find out some external sensible signs, whereof those
invisible ideas which his thoughts are made up for, might bg
made known to others. . . . Thus we may conceive how
words came to be made use of by men, as the signs of ideas, not by
any natural connection that there is between articulate sounds
and certain ideas. Locke's "Essay on the Human Understand-
ing," book iii. c. II. See also section 6, " Words by use readily
excite ideas."
PROCEEDINGS
AT THBt
FORTH AIWERSABT MIITIM
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
j<wih ^frtrau f u&lic Jufcrarg,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 15TH MAY, 1875.
glutton gakall, .*, in
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1875.
Committee :
BEV. Da. CAMERON.
W. HIDDINGH, Esq. (Treas.)
PBOFESSOB NOBLE.
L. DALE, Esq., LL.D.
SIB THOMAS MACLEAR, KT.
CHARLES A. FAIRBRIDGE,
Esq.
D. TENNANT, Esq.
E. J. STONE, Esq., F.R.S.
DB. W. H. ROSS.
Stttritovs :
JOHN NOBLE, Esq. | J. C. GIE, Esq.
Hifcmian anfc
F. MASKEW, Esq.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
In presenting to the subscribers the Report of the
South African Public Library, at this the 46th anni-
versary, the Committee have much pleasure in stating,
that the usefulness of the Institution has been main-
tained and generally appreciated by the public, as will
be seen from the amount of subscriptions received, from
the number of books circulated, as well as from the
marked increase in the number of persons who have
availed themselves of the many advantages so freely
offered by this Library.
The number of volumes usued in the different de-
partments of science and literature during the year, has
been as follows, viz. :
Miscellaneous Theology 66 volumes.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 66
Biography 598
Science and Arts 236
History 567
Voyages and Travels 968
BeUes Lettres, Miscellaneous Essays 697
Works of Fiction and Amusement 7638
Periodicals and Reviews 5785
From the above statement it will be perceived, that,
as compared with the previous year, there has been a
slight increase in the number of standard works
issued, and a falling off in novels and periodicals to the
extent of 521 volumes.
B 2
The number of visitors to the Library since its re-
opening on the 28th May last (from the record kept
by the officers of the Institution), shows an increase of
more than 5,000, as compared with last year, the total
number being 25,190, giving an average of 90 a day,
the largest number of visitors on one day amounting to
131, and the lowest 21.
In the last report, mention was made by the Com-
mittee, that, through the instrumentality of Mr. G.
Frere, the Foreign Office was pleased to order that the
Library should be furnished with a set of " State
Papers ;" they have now much satisfaction in reporting
the receipt of 145 volumes of "State Papers and
Bulletins."
They have also to acknowledge an additional contri-
bution from the Royal Academy of Science, Munich,
of their " Transactions and Reports," and the pre-
sentation by Mr. C. Fairbridge of the " Decados of
Barros," and the continuation by Couta in 24
volume*.
The Committee during the year have been enabled
to add many valuable standard works to the Library
collection purchased out of the bequest made by the
late Hugh Lynar, Esq., amongst them will be found a
number of works relating to South Africa, the selection
and purchase of which was kindly undertaken by
Henry Hall, Esq., of London, for many years a resi-
dent in 1his Colony, and the Committee have to express
their cordial thanks to that gentleman for the kindness
and zeal with which he executed the commission en-
trusted to him.
The accession of books during the year has been as
follows i
Miscellaneous Theology ... 8 volumes.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 12
Science and the Arts 65
Novels 74
Belles' Lettres 80
Dictionaries, Lexicons, &c. ... ... 22
History 192
Voyages and Travels 161
Biography 23
Miscellaneous 7 ,,
Total 644 volumes.
Amongst these will be found, together with those
already acknowledged, presentations from the Royal
Society, the Royal Geographical Society, Zoological
Society, and the Cobden Club, London, Rawson W.
Rawson, Esq., late Governor of Barbadoes, Dr. Dale,
Messrs. Henry Hall, A. Bisset, C. Utting, L B.
Behrens, and Daniel O'Connor of Melbourne, as well
as from the authorities of the Lovedale Institution, and
other publishers under the Copyright Act.
The committee have had under consideration an im-
portant letter from the Government, having reference
to a debate in the House of Assembly, when it was re-
presented that public feeling was strongly in favour of
opening the Library in the evening, on which the Go-
vernment expressed their wish to ascertain from the
committee what arrangements it would be practicable
to make, so as to extend to the public the advantages
sought.
The subject had most careful attention on the part
of the committee, but, after mature deliberation, they
felt compelled to inform the Government, that grave
difficulties would lie in the way of carrying out the
proposal ; such as, increased risk from fire, additional
risk of books being injured or lost, the great expense
which would be incurred for extra supervision, aad the
laying on of gas for lightning the the hall ; and further
the committee felt bound to add, that they were not
6
aware of there being any strong public feeling in Cape
Town, in favour of the proposed measure.
In connection with this subject, the committee regret
that the means at their disposal do not permit them to
arrange the salaries of the present staff of officers on a
scale commensurate with their duties, and the increased
cost of living.
The design of the Government in the establishment
of this Library, was, in the words of the proclamation*
" To lay the foundation of a system which shall place
the means of knowledge within the reach of the youth
of this Colony and supply them with what the most
eloquent of ancient writers considered one of the first
blessings of life, ' Home Education.' "
This great object is ever kept in view by those, to
whom from year to year, the subscribers entrust the
responsible direction of the Library. The address
elucidating the results obtained by the Astronomer
Royal from his observations of the " solar eclipse " last
year, and the ceremony of the first " degree day,"
appear to have been appreciated by the public, as fitly
occurring within these walls, and the important educa-
tional objects of the trust administered by the com-
mittee of management " for and on behalf of the com-
munity of this Colony," would be largely promoted by
periodic lectures on topics which might direct attention,
amongst other things, to the valuable treasures in these
collections, which are too often overlooked by ordinary
readers.
Whilst earnestly endeavouring to sustain and en-
hance the reputation of an institution of which the
Colony is so justly proud, the committee invite the co-
operation of men eminent in the respective departments
of literature, science, and art, to avail themselves of the
facilities which can here be given for bringing before
the public the results of experiment and research.
The following is Dr. Block's report:
The accessions to the incomparable collection of
books and manuscripts in Native languages, which
forms part of Sir George Grey's gift, have been both
numerous and important during the past year although
few of them are in African languages, in which it
seems so desirable to render this Library as complete
as possible. Neither the great Mission Institution at
Lovedale, nor the missionaries among the Basuto and
other Betshuana tribes, have of late supplied us with
copies of the publications which have been issued by
them, notwithstanding the freedom of postage which
has been granted by the different governments (of this
Colony, Natal, and the South African Republic) to
books and manuscripts forwarded lor deposit in the
Grey Library.
Only a dozen Kafir books were received, and half of
these were given by the Rev. Wm. Greenstock, who
printed them at Keiskamma Hoek (Emtwaku) in 1865
and 1866. One of these is a book of Kafir conversa-
tion, and another of Kafir letters, both written by
natives, and accompanied by a translation. Two ele-
mentary Kafir books, printed in London, 1873, were
sent by the Rev. Wm. Holford, of Mount Coke, King
William's Town, and four others by the Rev. A. J.
Newton, who had them printed at St Peter's (Gwatyu)
in 1873, 1874, and 1875. The last of these, a story-
book {Incivadi Yentsomi) contains (besides a translation
of some of -ZEsop's fables and some English tales)
several original Kafir tales, and Mr. Newton evidently
does not neglect the opportunities which he has for the
collection of the folk-lore of the natives among whom-
he works.
Towards the collection of Native folk-lore, which is
clearly one of the most important objects of philological
research in South Africa, a very valuable contribution
8
has been received from Nalal, viz., thirteen Zulu house-
hold stories, in the original, accompanied by a literal
translation, collected and presented by Miss Martha
Lindley, of the Inanda Mission Station. Another
American missionary, the Rev. Seth B. Stone, of
Amanzimtote, has sent us " The Government of the
Zulu Chiefs compared to the rule of the English," as
dictated in Zulu by Songabeza ; and a Norwegian mis-
sionary, the Rev. T. Udland, of Umpumulo, has fur-
nished manuscript genealogies of Cetshwayo and
Langalibalele. The Bishop of Natal's book, " Langali-
balele and the Amahlubi Tribe," printed for private
circulation in a very limited number of copies, has also
been presented by the author. The only printed book
regarding the Zulu language, received last year, is the
Rev. Charles Roberts' " Zulu Kafir Language simpli-
fied," printed at Mount Coke (1874), frou> whence it
was sent to us by the Rev. Wm. Holford.
Copies of the Pilgrim's Progress translated into
Otyiherero (Damara language) by a Rhenish mis-
sionary, the Rev. H. Brincker, have been presented by
the translator, and also by the Rev. C. H. Hahn.
A valuable manuscript has been especially prepared
for us by a Finnish missionary, the Rev. P. Kiirvinen,
who gives the grammatical elements of the hitherto
almost unknown Shindonga or Ovambo language, ac-
companied by some texts (native traditions) in the
same.
The only publication in the Hottentot language
issued in the course of this year is a small religious
one, in the Namaqua dialect, by a Rhenish missionary,
the Rev. J. Bohm, printed at Cape Town.
Among other African languages we have only to
mention the Kru (or Gedebd), in which two publications
have been presented by the Rev. J. G. Christaller.
They are elements of the Gedebo language, and a
9
translation of Earth's Bible History, published by the
Right Rev. J. G. Auer,at Stuttgart, in 1870 and 1871.
Four manuscripts in West African Arabic, have
been given by Commander D. May, R.N.
An important book in Malagasy (the language of
Madagascar), " Histoire des Rois en Malgache," pub-
lished at Antananarivo in 1873, by French Roman
Catholic missionaries, has been presented by a Nor-
wegian missionary, the Rev. L. Dahl.
A fine collection of books in Native languages has
been made for us by Dr. P. Comrie, R.N., during a
late cruise in the Pacific. It consists of twelve books
in the Tongan language (among them a collection of
Tongan laws, portions of a work on Natural History,
two Arithmetics, an Almanack, Church Music, &c.;,
six in the dialects spoken on the Fiji Islands (an Arith-
metic, two Catechisms, New Testament, Christian
Doctrine, and Pilgrim's Progress), and eight publica-
tions in Kusaie, a language hitherto unknown to us,
spoken on Ualan, one of the Caroline Islands. The
Kusaie books, printed 1865 1871, consist of a Primer,
Catechism &c., Hymn-book, the Gospels, Acts, St.
John's Epistles, Epistle to the Philippians, Book of
Ruth, and Psalm xxiii. The structure of this lan-
guage (Kusaie), and its relationship to other languages,
are not yet clear to us.
An appeal to the Governments of the Australian
Colonies, as well as to that of British Columbia, for a
collection of the folk-lore in the Native languages of
the fast dying-out Aborigines, has been kindly re-
commended to their attention by the then Secretary of
State for the Colonies (Lord Kimberley), and by Sir
Henry Barkly. This has been responded to most will-
ingly by the Governor of South Australia (A. Mus-
grave, Esq., C.B.), at whose instance the Govern-
ment of that Colony has placed a sum upon the
10
estimates for this purpose. Replies, indicating will-
ingness to further this object, have also been received
on behalf of the Government of Victoria, and from the
then Governor of Western Australia (now Governor
of Tasmania), F, A. Weld, Esq. The latter has also
sent us a lately-printed vocabulary of the Western
Australian native languages ; and by the direction of
Sir George Bowen (Governor of Victoria), we have
been supplied with ten Reports of the Board for the
Protection of Aborigines in Victoria (1861 1874),
forwarded by the Secretary to that Beard, R. Brough
Smyth, Esq. A collection of nine books, new to us,
which refer to the South Australian Languages and
Aborigines, kindly presented by Governor Musgrave,
has been described in my paper, " On Inquiries into
Australian Aboriginal Folk-lore," in the Cape Monthly
Magazine, Vol. IX. No. 51. September, 1874, pp.
129136.
Inquiries regarding the phonology of the Caucasian
languages (in which it had been reported that clicks
were to be found), addressed to one of the first au-
thorities on these languages, Academician A. Schiefner,
have induced the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St.
Petersburg to send us seven of their grammatical pub-
lications on these languages. They are the works of
Mr. Schiefner, and of General Baron Peter von Uslar,
Director of the researches regarding the ethnology of
the Caucasus ; and describe the language of the
Awarians, Abchasians, TschetshentBians, the Udes, the
Kasikumiikians, Hiirkanians, and Kiirinians. These
curious Caucasian languages form a very important,
and, in many points of structure, a most original branch
of the great Sex-denoting family of languages; and, as
regards the peculiarities of their forms of concord, they
and the South African languages throw a most in-
structive light upon each other.
11
The Notes and Queries on Anthropology, issued by
the British Association, have been presented, through
His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, by the Anthropo-
logical Institute.
The original copy of the Bushman Paintings from
the Maluti, published in chromo-lithoerraph, in the
Cape Monthly Magazine, Vol. IX. No. 49. July,
1874, has been presented through the Hon. Charles
Brownlee, Esq., by J. M. Orpen, Esq. A large col-
lection of Bushman etchings on stones met with in
Bushmanland, and of Bushman paintings discovered
in the Kammanassie Mountains, have been copied for
us by H. C. Schunke, Esq.
Photographs of Natives have been presented by
William Herman, Esq. (Langalibalele and his son),
by Dr. Theophilus Hahn, and others.
We have also to acknowledge, as gifts from the
authors, two maps of South Africa, viz., an historical
one by Dr. Or. Fritsch, forming part of his great work
on the Natives of South Africa, and a sketch map by
Charles Solomon, Esq.
ADDRESS
The Ven. ARCHDEACON BADNALL, D.D., then
delivered the following Address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have thought that it would be not out of harmony
with the honourable traditions of this room, and, bear-
ing in mind the auspicious and every way memorable
ceremonial in which we were taking part on Wednes-
day last,* not inopportune, if I should venture on this
occasion to travel a little out of the beaten track of
these annual addresses, and claim some small share of
attention for a theme that concerns us at once as
students, moralists, and citizens. The object of my
address will be to set forth some of the principal con-
ditions which shall most favour, shall contribute most
directly to form and uphold a sound public opinion ;
although in order to reach that end, it will be necessary
first to define, as far as I may be able, what we mean
by public opinion. If to any I should seem too bold
in venturing on a theme of so much interest, I would
base my chief claim to indulgence on the fact that every
successive year, as our political institutions acquire
increased fixity, the importance of the duty resting on
every citizen to contribute his full share to make public
opinion what it ought to be, cannot fail to become more
urgent. The founding of our new Houses of Parlia-
ment marks the beginning of an epoch in the history
of this Colony, which will be successful or the reverse,
* Wednesday, May 12th, 1875. the day on which His Excellency
Sir H. Barkly laid the Foundation-stone of the New Housea of
Parliament.
13
will be for good or evil, according as it shall be charac-
terized in the main by the strength or by the feeble-
ness of our sense of public responsibility. If what I
am going to say shall help, however little, towards our
common happiness and well-being, my purpose will
have been achieved. That I have undertaken a task
which I can only very imperfectly fulfil, I am well aware.
I know I may venture to ask for that reasonable in-
dulgence which our community is not usually unwill-
ing to extend to every well-meant endeavour for its
good ; and I shall be more than rewarded for the degree
of anxiety that must ever attend the attempt to speak
truthfully and profitably on a complicated subject, if
any words of mine should happily encourage others,
better equipped than I am, and with more claim to be
listened to, to prosecute what I am now about to pro-
pound only in the barest outline.
Now, all here present may be safely assumed to be
agreed that society was ordained for the sake of
society, for the sake of the multitudes who compose it,
not of the select few who may happen to be its leaders^
and to have attained, however honourably, the more
prominent social positions. To which, let it be added
in the words of Mr. Burke, that " political arrange-
ment, as it is a work for social ends,'' so only " is it
to be wrought by social means. There mind must
conspire with mind. ... If I might venture to
appeal to what is so much out of fashion in Paris,"
I should say that I am still quoting Burke, and that
my extract is from his reflections on the Revolution in
France " I mean to experience, I should tell you,
that in my course I have known, and, according to my
measure, have co-operated with great men ; and I have
never yet seen any plan which has not been mended
by the observations of those who were much inferior in
understanding to the person who took the lead in the
14
business. By a slow but well-sustained progress, the
effect of each step is watched : the good or ill-success
of the first gives light to us in the second, and so, from
light to light, we are conducted with safety through
the whole series. We see that the parts of the system
do not clash. The evils latent in the most promising
contrivances are provided for as they arise. One ad-
vantage is as little as possible sacrificed to another. We
compensate, we reconcile, we balance. We are enabled
to unite into a consistent w hole the various anomalies
and contending principles that are found in the minds
and affairs of men." *
To resume the thread of my own remarks : In the
foregoing passage public opinion is not so much as once
mentioned, but it would be hard to find a passage in
any writer that would more forcibly suggest how ill we
can afford to do without it. If it is for the good of all
that all interests should be allowed for and attended to
in a state, then it is also for the good of all that all in-
terests should as far as possible, be represented. But
they cannot be adequately represented except as every
member of the body politic is free to have his opinion
and his voice, and if he thinks he has a grievance, and
is ready to state it in a lawful and respectful manner,
is sure of a respectful hearing. How else are com-
plaints to make themselves heard; and without the
power to complain, how are wrongs to be redressed ?
It may be for the shoemaker's immediate interest to
assure his suffering customer that the shoe is an excel-
lent fit ; but be who has to wear it has the best right
to insist that it pinches, if it does pinch. And all who
undeitake to make laws for or to govern others, from
the governments and legislatures of nations down to
the directorship of a penny ban>, or a parochial club
* " Burke on the French Revolution," p. 203 (small edition).
15
are as the shoemaker ; it is not in the nature of things
that they should be beneficial, or even just, except aa
they habitually take counsel with those for whose sake
they exist. And it is through public opinion only that
this interchange of counsels is practicable, or even con-
ceivable.
And yet public opinion is something more than a
mere plurality of individual opinions. " Human indivi-
duals," says Martensen, " are not personal atoms which
have only their own individual duties, but they are
organically combined into a social whole, where in re-
gard to social duties they are solidarically bound, one
for all, and all for one."* On this solidarity, this
organic oneness of society, the same author (whom I
may, in passing, be allowed to name as one of the pro-
foundest, clearest, and best-furnished thinkers of our
time on ethical subjects), proceeds to ground the un-
questionable fact, that there is such a thing as a social
conscience ; a common responsibility, and obligation,
and guilt ; a destiny that may visit a whole people, so
as to be felt by the whole people as a common
destiny, A fact of this nature may not admit of being
easily explained. There are unfathomed depths in the
moral no less than in the physical world. But there
are evidences quite on the surface indicating with no
uncertain finger that the true bond of social and politi-
cal life rests on some principle vastly more profound
than the voluntary, separate, conscious consent of each
one of a multitude of moral units. In illustration, 'take
the instance of a panic perhaps an unfounded panic
Suddenly seizing an army of brave men. Who on
Wednesday last could be insensible to the peculiar
emotion generated, not simply by the circumstance that
Martensen's Christian Ethics," p. 366-8. (Clark's Foreign
Theological Library).
16
each person present happened to be one of a vast crowd*
but by something quite different, namely by the intui-
tive perception that each one was a component part of
a great multitude inspired for the time with one
common sentiment ? Assignable to the same root, how-
ever deep one may have to dig to get to it, is the capacity
of a people for forming a common or public opinion, an
opinion which is not so much the sum total, as the
subtle fusion of many minds directed to one point.
I am not going to attempt an analypis of the
phenomenon. I only say that, beyond doubt, there is in
man's social nature some such susceptibility as that of
which we have been speaking, and that its reality is
being constantly flashed upon us experimentally in
everyday life.
Now, by adding what has been said last, however
fragmentarily propounded, to what was said before,
we obtain an approximate notion of what public opinion
is. It is any opinion that suddenly or slowly, account-
ably or unaccountably, possesses any organized section
of the human race on any matter affecting its own in-
terests, or the interests of any portion, or any indivi-
dual member of that section. The capacity for it is
founded in man's social nature, and the right to it in
natural justice. Any measure that tends to repress it,
as distinguished from regulating the expression of it, is
of the nature of enslavement. And, with the same
limitation, any measure that tends to undo restrictions
that have bound it previously, is a measure of emanci-
pation ; is of the nature of the restoration of a natural
human right, apart from which mankind are not free
to run the course which their Creator has set before
them.
But the same distinguished writer, whom I was
quoting a few minutes since, remarks in another part
of the same work, that there are those who " are so
17
taken up with their theories about the rights of man,
that they have totally forgot his nature." * And I am
afraid it is the nature of us all to think more about our
rights than our duties. Public opinion is constantly
invoked, first, as if it were a known quantity ; as if
it were the ascertained opinion of ALL concerned ; and
next, as if any opinion that may happen to be widely
entertained, were most probably, if not certainly, cor-
rect. But neither is that which passes for public
opinion a known quantity ; nor is the correctness or
incorrectness of an opinion necessarily affected in the
least degree by the number of persons who entertain
it. The sun no more revolved round the earth in the
days when absolutely everybody supposed that it did
than it does now. Nor, to go from physical to moral
and social truths, do we discern as yet more than just
the first faint dawning of that day, when the intellec-
tual culture and patience, and moral devotion to truth,
required for tbe formation of sound opinion on the
vexed and intricate problems arising out of interests
more strictly and properly human, shall have estab-
lished their joint reign over the hearts and minds of the
majority. Human nature, then, and the actual moral and
intellectual condition of mankind being what they are,
it is not for the good of society to assume as true in the
concrete what is conceivable only in the abstract, and
to deal with facts as being other than they are. Since
all that I am chiefly anxious to say turns on the dis-
tinction just pointed out, I shall be pardoned if I try to
bring it out into somewhat clearer light.
1. First, public opinion, or that which popularly
passes for it, is not a known quantity. In the present
imperfect state of the world, it is not even an ascertain-
able quantity. One would almost fancy sometimes,
* " Burke on French Revolution," p. 77.
18
palpable as the fallacy is the moment it is stated, that
any opinion ia believed to become public opinion from
the bare circumstance of its being anonymously pub-
lished, and so issued to the world as not the opinion of
any one person, or class of persons, in particular. I
shall have occasion presently to refer to our manifold
obligations to the press, and the indispensableness of a
free press, as a chief factor of healthy public opinion.
I must so far anticipate that topic as to make this the
place for saying that the relation of the press to public
opinion is for the most part conceived of very vaguely,
and that while in some respects that relation can
scarcely be overvalued, in other respects it appears to
be estimated, or, rather, dreamed about in that negli-
gent and misty manner which is sure to lead to error.
For, after all, the opinion of one section of society is
nothing more than the opinion of that one section ; nor
does a writer, because he is unknown, or because it
may be on the whole a desirable point of etiquette to
treat him as unknown, represent the minds of other
people better than if he were known. He may influence
other people's minda more effectually through being un-
known ; the anonymous writer may be a more power-
ful director of opinion ; an ably-conducted newspaper,
owing to its impersonal character, has the stronger ten-
dency to consolidate and give confidence to a party ;
but so far as the press undertakes to be an exponent of
opinion, it is even misleading, if the veil of anony-
mousness under which it is generally (and I venture to
believe, on the whole, beneficially) conducted, favours
the illusion that, on that account, it represents a wider
and more exact acquaintance with the wants or wishes
or thoughts of others.
So far I have used the term Public Opinion as being
one that everybody accepts, and that could be dis-
pensed with only by resorting to awkward cir-
19
cumlocutions. But it is obvious that, like many
other terms in political and moral science, it stands
for what ought to be, rather than what is. In a
certain class of cases, where the point inviting opinion
is of the simplest possible description, like some of the
questions mooted in the Comitia in the beginning of
Roman history, we may readily understand how a very
large body of persons may quickly arrive at unanimity,
or, at any rate, understand clearly why they differ. For
in nuch cases the question often stands in the form of a
simple alternative, and the merest instinct of the lowest
human intelligence is all that is required for a decision
one way or other; the prospect of obtaining some
material advantage, or of escaping some considerable
inconvenience, powerfully helping, most likely, to de-
termine the decision. But the enormously larger pro-
portion of the questions that appeal to public opinion
are not of that simple character. Many of them are
highly composite questions, springing out of conflicting,
and, it may be, tangled interests, involving often a
multitude of data, and intricate processes of reasoning.
It is only by singling out from such problems just some
one solitary element, and making it do duty for the
whole, carefully keeping out of sight the real difficulties,
that they are commonly made even presentable to the
public at all, whose instinct often tells them that they
have no option but to wait for guidance. While in
such cases, the more competent a man id to supply
guidance and form a judgment, the more time, generally
speaking, does he ask, the more deliberately does he
proceed. Frequently, the most useful opinion that can
be formed is a negative opinion, an opinion which is
substantially a protest against any opinion at all being
formed, at least for the present. But there are some
special difficulties in the way of the more thoughtful
and cautious section of society making a negative policy
c 2
20
respected as it deserves to be; and there is always the
danger of a noisy and persistent minority meantime re-
ceiving an attention wholly disproportioned to their
claims. There can be no division lists of public opinion.
The guesses made in the absence of proof must generally
be of the most crude description, with the additional
evil that party spirit and prejudice are ever on the alert
such is human infirmity to turn the inevitable un-
certainty to their own purposes.
2. But not only is public opinion an unknown
quantity : if a given opinion were ascertained never so
certainly to be the opinion of nine out of ten of the
persons concerned, would that circumstance by itself
be any certain measure of its correctness ? This is a
point that requires some little attention. We need not
hesitate to accept the dictum of Aristotle (Rhetoric
Lib. 1, p. 3, Becker's Edit), that "mankind have a
considerable natural aptitude towards what is true, and
in the majority of instances hit the truth." This is
illustrated not only by the effect which mathematical
demonstrations have upon us, but by the manner in
which the merits of a practical question are sometimes
seized instantaneously by very promiscuous assemblages.
I was told the following story by an eye witness on the
occasion of the first grand review of volunteers in Hyde
Park. A large number of Londoners of the lower
orders, including a crowd of sharp-witted London lads,
were assembled between and in front of the series of
grand-stands constructed along well nigh the whole
length of Park-lane for the accommodation of the upper
ten thousand. During the rather tedious interval that
preceded the review, the London boys beguiled the
time, after their wont, by keeping up a running fire of
innocent witticisms on every little passing occurrence,
with a flying shot now and then at any one in the crowd
whose appearance or proceedings invited special notice*
21
At last a rather pompous very well-dressed gentleman
on one of the stands was unwise enough to become
angry at what was only meant as fun, and to call the
crowd to order in language more strong than polite. On
which one of the little ill-clad urchins picked up a frag-
ment of dirty-white paper that had served as part-
wrapper to a sandwich, fastened it into a split at the
end of a stick, marched gravely up to the stand, and
pointing with one hand to a very little boy in big
neighbourhood, with the other presented the bit of
paper to the irascible gentleman, calling out at the
same time in the shrillest treble, " I say, Sir, that little
boy sends you his CARD!" .Now in that instance public-
opinion, or as much of it as the case admitted of, went
to the right side like a flash of lightning. A simul-
taneous roar of hearty laughter, on the stand, as well
as off it, at once proclaimed that the ill-dressed little
lad, with his mock challenge, had the best of the con-
troversy ; that anger was out of place \ and that if any
one was disposed to be ill-tempered, good-tempered
quizzing was the best way of putting him straight. But
I quote this little incident mainly because it helps to
illustrate the sort of cases in which public opinion is
often as just as it is prompt. Where there is a call for
a display of feeling rather than for the exercise of re-
flection and judgment, the hearts of a very mingled
crowd will sometimes beat as one, and as they ought to
beat. I once saw a poor, ragged, famished-looking boy
rush into a confectioner's shop in a chief and crowded
street in Liverpool, help himself from the counter of
course without paying to a handful of buns, and walk
out again, eating as only, I suppose, those do eat to
whom hunger has at last become a sort of agony. This
he did in the sight of a large number of people. None
stopped him ; none reproved him. One general ex-
clamation of deep pity followed him as he went. And
as any instance of manifest suffering appeals at once to
the general sentiment of pity, so does an instance of
manifest injustice or cruelty appeal at once to the
general feeling of reeeutment, or a manifest instance of
heroic courage to the general sentiment of admiration.
But if the case is not one within everybody's immediate
observation, the danger of a perversion of judgment be-
gins at once. Facts about which there needs not to be
any misunderstanding, and about which there ought
not to be the possibility of two opinions, are yet often
made the ground of appeals to the passions of the mul-
titude that are mischievous and misleading in the last
degree. And nearly all the more difficult problems of
moral and political science are attended with this pecH-
liaiity, that they present themselves to us in the con-
crete, not in the abstract ; they first come before us not
as questions of ecierce, but as practical questions, bound
up with the wants or interests, the wishes and the pas-
sions of human beings ; so that, in trying to solve them,
we encounter human selfishness, human passions, human
feelings, at every turn. Our interest even in so dry a
matter as a question of taxation is different in kind from
cur purely intellectual interest in a proposition of
Euclid, and a degree of confidence in the processes of
the intellect which would be natural in the one case
would be wholly unjustifiable in the other. Such is the
prevalence of prej udice, such the brute-force of ignor-
ance for destructive ends, that even scientific truth has
had to hide itself before now from the violence of the
multitude as its best chance of life. Those who have
reid the " Last of the Barons" remember how, with
the cry of "Death to the Wizard!" a London mob
wrecked the house of the inventor of the first steam
engine. The novelist, whether he was literally true to
fact or not, was at any rate true to human nature when
he wrote that page. A crowd once under a false im-
pression as to any thing in which they believe they have
an interest, once under the impulse of a passionate
23
sentiment, is difficult to undeceive and guide aright in
proportion to the greatness of its numbers, especially if,
as generally happens, the truth can only be vindicated
by an appeal to reason. And for substantially the same
reason, although in a less degree, it is practically futile
to expect that the great majority of men will ever in the
first instance bestow on those more complicated human
questions that underlie all our gravest human interests,
that amount of care, and conscientious and otherwise
adequate reflection that are indispensable for the solu-
tion of them. I speak of mankind as they are. Mental
indolence, moral cowardice, chronic indifference to the
finer distinctions between true and false, just and un-
just, right and wrong, selfishness under a thousand
forms, now and then too a more or less creditable con-
sciousness of unfitness for the task of judging of things
which there has been no previous endeavour to under-
stand, all these things arrest the formation of opinion;
they induce men to lean idly on one another, to borrow
one another's prejudices, and substitute party cries for
the honest labour of independent thinking. In short, the
bare consent of any given number of human beings,
apart from the consideration of that to which they con-
sent, and the circumstances under which their consent
is given, has hardly more to do with the goodness of
their cause than has the numberlessness of a swarm of
locusts with the desirableness of their errand. On the
contrary, the worth of an opinion may be in an inverse
ratio to the number who entertain it. Some present may
remember the folio wing passage in DeQuineey's paper on
secret societies :* Once on a time he " had heard only
of secret societies that were consciously formed far
mischievous ends. Soon he read of others . . .
that watched over truth dangerous to publish or even
to whisper . . . The secrecy, and the reason for
* " De Qaincey's Works," vol. vi., p. 244 (Author's Edition).. '
24
the secrecy, were alike sublime. The very image, un-
veiling itself by unsteady glimpses, of men linked by
brotherly love and perfect confidence, meeting in secret
chambers, at the noontide of night, to shelter, by
muffling with their own persons interposed, and at
their own risk, some solitary lamp of truth, sheltering
it from the carelessness of the world and its stormy
ignorance; that would soon have blown it out;
sheltering it from the hatred of the world ; that would
soon have made war upon its life ; all this was super-
humanly sublime." Everybody perceives at a glance
what society was in De Quincey's thoughts, a society
whose entire genius is averse from secrecy, that noway
courted darkness, except that it might exist, in order,
at the earliest possible moment, to emerge into daylight
again. But my citation is thus far apposite ; it reminds
us that that ONE society, which in the vastness of its phi-
lanthropy, and in the multiplicity of the benefits that it
has poured over the world, towers as much above all
others as the Heaven is higher than the earth, was once
obliged, that it might save its life, to withdraw itself
from public opinion. What more affecting monument
could we have that the difference between public
opinion and " stormy ignorance " rests not necessarily
in the number of persons who may represent them, but
in another and very different ground of distinction set
forth in a lesson of Divine Wisdom with which all are
familiar : " And Jive of them were wise, and Jive were
foolish ? "
But it may be said, and with much show of justice,
" If public opinion is so beset with liability to error,
how are we to account for the consciousness instinctive
with us all, that nevertheless there is something in it
to be prized and respected ? " The explanation is not
far to seek. However valuable or indispensable public
opinion may be, it is not valuable for the reasons com-
monly put forward ; it does not operate in the manner
25
popularly assumed. Opinion, private or public, is
never necessarily identical with truth ; but as the con-
necting link between the practical reason in man and
all true conclusions in practical matters, it is indispen-
sable. It is this distinction that is too often over-
looked.
An address such as the present does not afford the
opportunity of dealing with the logic of opinion and
belief, taking belief in the sense in which it is strictly
cognate to opinion. A subject of that nature must be
treated technically, and at some length, or let quite
alone. It is, however, necessary to observe that sound
opinion as much implies valid reasoning as a mathema-
tical problem implies it, the difference consisting in
this, that the reasoning process is employed in the two
cases about two different kinds of matter ; that in the
one case uncertainty is excluded ; in the other, every
variety of uncertainty is admissible down to the lowest
degree of the barest possibility. If the three angles of
a triangle are not demonstrated to be together equal to
two right angles with absolute certainty, the demon-
stration fails utterly. But a medical man may be fully
justified in the opinion that a particular patient is on
the point to die, who yet may recover and live for
twenty years longer. Or a lawyer may be justified in
giving, and receiving a fee for, a legal opinion, which a
court of justice may be justified in overturning within
the next twenty-four hours. And this is not the fault
of opinion. The weakness or the peculiarity lies with
the nature of the matter with which opinion has to do.
It is probable and contingent matter, and that only s
that furnishes the sphere within which it is the busi-
ness of opinion to exercise itself. It appertains to the
discipline of life, it specially belongs to all matters dis-
tinctively human, that it should be so ; and therefore
within that sphere it is only through means of opinion*
or more strictly through means of those modifications
26
of the reasoning processes of which opinion is the legi-
timate result, that truth is anyhow attainable.
For here, let me add, that though opinion can never
lay claim to mathematical certainty, yet opinion may,
and often does, conduct to a degree of certainty just
as valid as if it were mathematical certainty, for every
purpose of determining our conduct. Indeed, this is
the meaning of the term " moral certainty ;" that is,
certainty of such a kind as removes all ground of
rational doubt as to our duty in a given case. So that
truth is quite as strictly the scope of opinion as it is of
mathematical demonstration or scientific research ; and
though experiment, and experiment alone, may be the
ultimate test of opinion, as it constantly is of scientific
theories, yet unless opinion has gone before, it is im-
possible that any result can be reached to which the
test of experiment can be applied.*
And what is thus far true of opinion in general is
not less true of what we call public opinion, a term ex-
pressive principally of the conditions under which
truths affecting large and wide interests are gradually
established, at once by the combined action and mutual
attrition of a multitude of minds. What is not suffi-
ciently kept in mind is the great range of the process
by means of which public opinion ordinarily ejects its
results. It never can be predicted of anyone of the various)
truths after which public opinion is at any time feeling
its way, that it is sure to be reached within some as-
signable period. Just as a dozen highwaymen may
suddenly overpower a traveller, and strangle him, so
may some of the countless legions of error, and of the
passionate and selfish prejudices which are the chief in-
stigators of error, suddenly encompass, and for the time
(possibly an indefinite time) overwhelm some mighty
* " Rhetoric of Aristotle," Lib. i. (Introductory chapters). " Thorn.,
sou's Outline of the Laws of Thought" (Part iv., Applied Logic).
27
prolific truth which had been painfully travailing to
wards the birth for centuries. Such are the daily mys-
teries of our present earthly condition. Present suc-
cess is no measure of what is right. The immediate
acceptance of an opinion is no criterion of its correct-
ness. Truth has often seemed weaker than untruth
for the moment. But " the stars in their courses
fought against Sisera ; " and Deborah when she sang
that song, prophesied for all ages. A falsehood, a
wrong, an injustice, is out of tune with nature. Re-
sistless as the rising tide is the gathering force of truth.
And as opinions gravitate towards truth, or are re-
pelled by it, their ultimate fate is already sealed ; they
will live to conquer, or they will fall and rot like
autumn leaves. No man who has that confidence in him
can think carelessly ot public opinion.
And now I have endeavoured to do two things. I
have tried, first, to clear up in some measure the mean-
ing of the term " public opinion ;" to rescue it from
some of the contusion with which it is too commonly
enveloped ; and, secondly, I have at the same time en-
deavoured to vindicate not only its importance, but ita
indispensableness to the highest interests of mankind.
In doing this, I have in some sort anticipated my last
topic ; that is to say, I have incidentally suggested part
of what I shall next present in a more methodical form,
and as briefly as I can.
1. I now proceed to state some of the principal con-
ditions needed for the formation, indeed the possibility,
of a sound public opinion. First among these I will
name liberty of speech. Men cannot think to any pur-
pose while they are not free to utter their thoughts.
Ratio and oratio, reason and speech, are but two parts
of one and the same God-like prerogative in man, and
if any number of mankind are trained to speak like
slaves, few indeed will those amongst them be who will
be able to think like freemen. That there is no coun-
terbalancing danger in free discussion, no sensible man
would assert. Mr. Grote,* the historian of Greece,
whose symathies will be allowed by every one to be
sufficiently democratic, in speaking of " the unmea-
sured and unsparing licence of attack assumed by the
old comedy " of Athens " upon the Gods, the institu-
tions, the politicians, philosophers, poets, private
citizens specially named, and even the women, whose
life was entirely domestic," fully admits the demoralizing
and " degrading influence " of it. As to attacks on public
institutions and public men, he would treat those more
indulgently, " inasmuch as that measure of aggres-
sive criticism which is tutelary and indispensable,
cannot be permitted without the accompanying evil,
comparatively much smaller, of excess and in-
justice." But, he adds, and in view of the eventual
downfall of Athenian greatness, if not of the entire
Greek character, the remark seems to me full of warn-
ing, that " excess of bitter personality is among the
most conspicuous sins of Athenian literature generally. ' r
Still, what Hallamf says of the Press is equally true of
every form of public opinion, " It cannot be said to
exist in any security, or sufficiently for its principal
ends, where discussions of a political or religious nature,
whether general or particular, are restrained by too
narrow and severe limitations." Every more grave
abuse of liberty of speech, like any other abuse of what
is most useful and best, is certain to entail, sooner or
later, directly or indirectly, some forfeiture of liberty
But " there are only two modes of governing society,
either by persuasion or by coercion. "{ And liberty of
speech is sure to develop itself in every community in a
steady ratio to the pace and measure according to which
the governmental power, whatever be the form of it,
* " Crete's History of Greece," Vol. vi., 8vo. edit., pp. 3436.
f Constitutional History of England, vol. ii, p. 330.
t Grote, Tol. vi. 870. Edit. p. 61, note.
29
recedes from the principle of coercion, and addresses
itself to all that is worthiest and best in man's reason-
able nature.
It is chiefly as a support and foremost representative
of this liberty of speech that every free community is
interested in the liberty of the press. Technically " the
liberty of the press," Hallam tells us, " consists merely
in an exemption from the superintendence of a licenser."
But the only liberty of the press that can be of real
service, must be such as is grounded in the general con-
sent of the public, subject to such limiting interpreta-
tions as may be afforded from time to time by the law-
courts of that most indefinite ot all indefinite laws, the
law of libel. As I have already ventured to say, the
value of the press as an exponent of opinion, I speak
chiefly of newspapers, but by no means of them alone,
appears to me to be misconceived. The press is amply
entitled to the credit attaching to criticism as criticism :
criticism, too, which is generally independent in re-
lation to the object of the criticism, is often instructive
and acute, and not more open to the charge of partiality
than are mankind in general in their discharge of one of
the weightiest and most difficult functions attaching to
them, the distribution of praise and blame. While,
again, the value of the press as a vehicle of information,
and chronicler of the data on which it is well that public
opinion should be formed, could be estimated duly only
if, retaining the heart of a free people, we were to be
subjected suddenly to a forcible suppression of it. It
is, however, in its function as the foremost representa-
tive and maintainer of liberty of speech on behalf of
the whole body politic that the press has fairly won its
title of a fourth estate of the realm. To say that it is
itself open to criticism is to say no more than that it is
a human institution. Hallam,* speaking of the press of
* Const, Hist, vol. ii, p. 331.
30
England some forty years ago, deemed it "justly " liable
to the charge of a licentiousness." None the less I am
bold to say that an average modern ne\v spaper is a more
wholesome and a more effectual guarantee for liberty of
speech and thought than the best comedy that Aristo-
phanes ever wrote, and may be justly and gratefully
regarded as a necessary constituent of that civil freedom,
apart from which an Englishman would hardly consider
life itself worth the having.
2. But it often happens that tho?e who are readiest
to be indignant at the supposed denial of a right are
among the most blind to the duty of exerting it.
Society suffers in free countries from the large number
of those who, not undervaluing civil freedom or public
honesty, are too content to hand over the maintenance
of the last and the employment of the first to any that
will undertake them, provided they themselves be ex-
empted. If they have opinions, they are careful not to
express them, unless it be in a whisper. They are glad
that the vessel of the State should be navigated cleverly
and safely, but for themselves they are content to be
passengers. Jt is matter for deep regret that among
those who shrink thus sensitively from all public re-
sponsibility are to be found, almost always, some of our
ablest, most conscientious, most thoughtful men; and
not unfrequently one restraining influence is their
genuine modesty. They cannot persuade themselves
that they have as much in their power as they have*
that a sensible and earnest man, who shows he under,
stands his subject, will generally be able to modify the
opinions of all but the most ungenerous opponents, even
if he cannot turn them ; and that such is the inherent
power of truth, that even an ungenerous opposition will
sometimes bend before the jaoral pressure of manifest
conviction. But the results of our actions are compa-
ratively speaking beyond our power. What is ever to
be lamented is the supinely abdicating any duty of good
31
citizenship ; the looking on in silence when we ought
to speak ; the leaving others to fight a battle which is
as much ours as theirs ; and throwing it into the power
often of a small minority to proclaim their voice as the
voice of the public. It were more patriotic to bear in
mind that the country which affords us an honourable
livelihood, and protects us in the pursuit and enjoyment
of it, has a natural claim on the best service we can
render it, even at some sacrifice of our present ease and
preferences. Therefore, second among the conditions
of everything good, let us place a high-gouled, self-
denying, widely diffused patriotism.
3. In the next place we want a higher intellectual
culture, not more intellectual smartness, but a higher
culture, with its necessary accompaniments of intel-
lectual thoroughness, intellectual modesty, intellectual
patience. We want such culture as shall refuse to
tolerate "the conceit of knowledge without the reality ;"
specially do we want it on those subjects which most
directly concern man as man, as a moral being and a
member of society. Speaking as I do within the same
walls that witnessed a few weeks ago the inauguration
of our University, I may the more courageously lift up
my voice on this topic ; I may the more boldly depre-
cate the continuance of the want which the University
was founded to supply.
All who are acquainted with the history of Socrates
are aware that the almost universal prevalence of " the
conceit of knowledge without the reality " was, in his
judgment, the malady of the busy-witted age and race
of which he was the brightest luminary ; and that it
was nothing else than the aversion he provoked by hi*
unceasing efforts to awaken the clever Athenians to
their ignorance of what it most concerned them to
know, that eventually cost him hie life. Hear Mr.
Grote's account of the general purport of the Socratic
teaching : " There was no topic upon which Socrates
32
more frequently insisted than the contrast between the
state of men's knowledge on the general topics of man
and society, and that which artists or professional men
possessed in their respective special crafts. . . .
Take a man of special vocation a carpenter, a brazier,
a pilot, a musician, a surgeon and examine him on the
state of his professional knowledge, you will find him
able to indicate the persons from whom and the steps
by which he first acquired it ; he can describe to you
his general aim, with the particular means which he
employs to realize the aim, as well as the reason why
such means must be employed, and why precautions
must be taken to combat such and such particular
obstructions; he can teach his profession to others;
in matters relating to his profession he counts as an
authority, so that no extra professional person thinks of
contesting the decision of a surgeon in case of disease,
or of a pilot at sea. But while such is the fact in re-
gard to every special art, how great is the contrast in
reference to the art of righteous, social, and useful
living, which forms, or ought to form, the common
business alike important to each and to all ! On this
subject Socrates remarked that every one felt perfectly
well informed, and confident in his own knowledge,
yet no one knew from whom or by what steps he had
learnt ; no one had ever devoted any special reflection
either to end, or means, or obstructions : ....
every one knew for himself, and laid down general pro-
positions confidently, without looking up to any other
man as knowing better ; yet there was no end of dis-
sension and dispute on particular cases." To this Mr.
Grote presently adds : " The phenomenon here ad-
verted to is too obvious, even at the present day, to
need further elucidation as matter of fact. In morals,
in politics, in political economy, en all subjects relating
to man and society, the like confident persuasion of
knowledge without the reality is sufficiently prevalent ;
33
the like generation and propagation by authority and ex-
ample of unverified convictions resting upon strong sen-
timent, without consciousness of the steps or conditions
of their growth; the like enlistment of reason as the one-
sided advocate of a pre-established sentiment; the like illu-
sion, because every man is familiar with the language,
that, therefore, every man is master of the complex
facts, judgments, and tendencies involved in its signifi-
cation, and competent both to apply comprehensive
words, and to assume the truth or falsehood of large
propositions, without any special analysis or study." *
I shall not offer my audience the affront of appearing
to suppose them less alive than myself to the surpassing
interest of the foregoing citations, or to the instruction
which they convey to us all. Public opinion cannot
be sound unless it be enlightened. It is not enlight-
ened unless it advance cautiously, with a lively regard
to the possibilities of ignorance, in a spirit of implacable
hostility to all sciolism and affectation of universal
knowledge, and with a consciousness of the special
danger of the " illusion" glanced at by Mr. Grote, the
illusion that we necessarily understand our moral,
political, and social interests, for no better reason than
because everybody without effort can say something
about them. I trust that in future years, when the
University of the Cape of Good Hope shall have almost
forgotten the days of its youth in the strength and
beneficence of its maturity, it may be able to count
among the number of its benefactors some honoured
name or other that shall have shown as much care for
ethical and mental science as it is the tendency of our
time to bestow on mathematics and physics. It would
ill become one whose loss it is not to be a mathemati-
cian to seem to say that our physical and mathematical
* Grote, Vol. yi., pp. 128132.
34
knowledge is in the slightest danger of being in excess
of our wants. But I wish our respect for those de-
partments of learning were better balanced. I grant
that the moral and mental sciences require a certain
ripeness and general preparedness of intellect for their
successful prosecution. But no branches of learning
affect us more surely or permanently, or more certainly
percolate down to the lower intellectual strata, and
gradually spread themselves among the masses. At
any rate, I may be pardoned a pious wish which
flows naturally out of the subject we have been con-
sidering ; for how can public opinion be healthy where
it is forgotten that " the proper study of mankind is
man ?" When the liter & humaniores, those branches
of learning that properly concern man as man, are post-
poned to the investigation of the conditions of animal
life, and the laws of the material universe ?
4. The one universally necessary and most compre-
hensive of my " conditions," I have reserved to the
last. Freedom of speech, a high standard of patriotism,
a trained and informed intelligence must be united in
any community that would be capable of sound public
opinion. I speak, of course, of what is ideally requi-
site for the attainment of an ideal good. But, as I
have already reminded you, what ought to be is no
measure of what is. I have expended perhaps superfluous
care in showing that the value of an opinion stands
in no fixed ratio to the numbers who may happen to
profess it. What, then, is to sustain a numerical
minority, with sometimes the world against them, in
urging an opinion whose only recommendation is, as
they believe, its truth ? an opinion concerning which
the best that the most sanguine can hope for it is that
in days to come (it may be in days far distant) it may
begin to obtain recognition ? What has been the
Divine impulse that in every age of the world, from
35
Socrates downwards., and long before Socrates, has
nerved our religious, our political, our scientific mar-
tyrs to endure unmoved not only the world's ridicule
and active opposition, but what is by far the hardest to
a generous nature, the disheartening unbelief, the
freezing apathy of half friends ? It could only have
been the sublime persuasion, which, like the planets,
has been sometimes nearer to the sun, sometimes
further from it, that a mightier and more trustworthy
influence was abroad than the influence of human
opinion ; that the God of the Universe is not " the God
of Deism, who sits idly behind the stars, and once for
all has abandoned the world to itself and its own law
of development, like Homer's Zeus, who has departed
to ^Ethiopia;" * that it is not truth that is built on
opinion, but opinion that draws the marrow of its life
from truth ; that all that is false, whether in thought
or action, however it may seem to prosper, is " con-
demned already ;" that all true opinion has God and
God's Universe on its side, A religious confidence in
the final victory of truth, working hand in hand with a
tender and practised sensitiveness to the hatefulness
and shortsightedness of all untruth, is the prime con-
dition, not always in the order of facts, but always in
order of importance, of all sound public opinion. " Re-
ligious confidence," I say, not as denying that man's
moral nature supplies a basis of ethical science inde-
pendently of revelation, but because that confidence in
the ultimate triumph of truth and right which dares
to brave the world, whether it exist in its lower or
lowest degree among the heathen, or in its most assured
and enlightened measure in the Christian, is essentially
in every instance the fruit of FAITH ! A community
that has cut itself adrift from the anchorage of that
hope has no future before it to be desired of any man.
It is a public body whose common conscience has lost
* Martensen's Christian Ethics, p. 13.
36
its true point of attraction. Its opinions, therefore, are
as the hollow, whistling wind. They may serve to
twirl the VA eathercocks, and blow the dust about ; but
they have ceased to deserve reliance or respect. They
are directed to 110 ennobling end. They are governed
by no principle. Thenceforth they have quicker
affinities with the crooked ingenuities of falsehood and
low expediency than with the honest speech ana single
aims of toiling, struggling truth. Only one lower de-
gradation is reserved for such a condition of public
opinion that it be open to a bribe.
Wholly different is the case of a community that
continues to be growingly, however gradually, recep-
tive of truth. Selfishness, injustice, and falsehood will
not die out of it. Everywhere alike, the wheat with
the tares is the very best that can be looked for in this
life ; and not even that qualified harvest without care-
ful sowing, industrious tending, patient waiting. But
so long as a community is growing in its sense of com-
mon responsibility and common duty ; so long as a
people is becoming penetrated by the religious convic-
tion that they are not their own to do what they like,
but that their common acts ought to, and will entail
moral consequences, and that all things are moving
steadily to a bar of judgment more tremendous than
that of human opinion ; so long it would be difficult
to say what good thing may not be in store for such a
community, or what service it may not render to man-
kind. And the vigour and honesty of its public
opinion will bear a steady relation to its general ad-
vancement. Its conscience " will bear testimony to
itself through public opinion," *and the exercise of that
public opinion will be a constant quickening to its
conscience.
* Martensen.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., PBINTEBS, ST, GEOBGE'S-STREET,
PROCEEDINGS
FORTY-SEVENTH AIIIfERSIRY MEETING
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
^frian fti&lk
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 13TH MAY, 1876.
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE,
1876.
W. H. PIERS, Esq.,
F. G. 'GOODLIFFE, Esq.,
B. M. ROSS, Esq.,
DB. DALE,
Hon. J. MTLLER, Esq. (Treas.),
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.,
Rev. DB. CAMERON,
C. A. FAIRBRIDGE, Esq.,
PBOFESSOR GILL,
Advocate E. J. BUCHANAN.
| J. C. GIE, Esq.
aub JJmttarg :
F. M ASKEW, Esq.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
In presenting their statement of the past year's pro-
ceedings, the Committee have much pleasure in again
reporting that the Public Library continues to be
appreciated, and that its usefulness has been maintained.
The Institution during the year has been enriched by
a valuable collection of Law Books, numbering 249 vols.,
bequeathed to the Library by the late Advocate John
de W" e t, a gentleman who took a lively interest in its
welfare. The Committee have further to report that the
late Joseph ^Maynard, Esq., of Wynberg, has willed a
sum of 25 to the Library ; they have also to acknow-
ledge the presentation of the Reports of the proceedings
of the Royal Colonial Institute from 1869 up to date,
and that that Institute has been pleased to place this
Library on their list of institutions to receive an annual
copy, free of charge. The Royal Astronomical Society
of London has likewise been pleased to present to the
Library their " Monthly Notices, " commencing from
October last.
The attendance of readers and visitors to the Institu-
tion has not been so large as that of the previous year.
From the record of visitors kept by the officers of the
establishment, the number of persons who visited the
Institution amounted to 19,866, showing a daily average
of 71, whereas in the previous year it amounted to 90.
The largest number of visitors in one day was 166, and
the lowest 31.
The issue of Books and Periodicals in the several de-
partments of Literature and Science, has been as follows :
Volumes.
Miscellaneous Theology. 92
Political Economy, Government 59
Science and the Arts 191
Biography 747
History 585
Voyages and Travels . 1,187
Belles Lettres 734
Works of Fiction 7,483
Reviews and Periodicals 6.210
Making a total of 17,288
By this statement, as compared with that of the pre-
vious year, it will be seen that there has been a slight
falling off in the issue of books in the departments of
Political Ecenomy, and Science and Arts ; whilst there
has been an increase of 449 volumes in the departments
of History, Biography, Voyages, Travels, &c.
The access of books during the year has been as
follows:
Volumes.
Miscellaneous Theology 12
Political Economy, Government, &c 13
Law and Jurisprudence 249
Science and the Arts 32
Voyages and Travels ... 52
History 22
Biography 39
Novels 79
Belles Lettres 34
Miscellaneous 5
Total 537
Amongst these will be found many valuable works
presented by subscribers and friends, viz., their Excellen-
cies Sir Henry Barkly and Sir Arthur Cunynghame ;
the Rev. William Thompson, and Rev. Mr. Holford, of
Mount Coke, Kaffraria ; the representatives of the late
Dr. Adamson, Dr. William Ross ; Messrs. E. J. Stone,
Henry Willis, of Wynberg, J. C. Juta, Berks Hutchin-
son, and John Noble ; also from the Royal Society, the
Royal Geographical Society, the Zoological Society,
the Cobden Club, of London, and the Branch of the
Bible Society of Cape Town, as well as those already
acknowledged, to all of whom the thanks of the subscri-
bers and the public are Jue.
The Committee have also to acknowledge, with
thanks the presentation to the Library of a portrait of
the late Dr. Bleek, by Mr. William Schroeder, and
one of the late John de Wet, Esq., presented by his
daughters, Miss de Wet and Mrs. Koopmans ; also for a
fine engraved view of Cape Town, presented by Mr.
Thomas Pybus, and for three copies of Dunn's Geological
Map of South Airica, by the Honourable the Commis-
sioner of Public Works.
The Committee have further to report that they have
ordered several standard works under the Lynar
Bequest, which they expect to receive shortly.
From time to time the Committee have had to deplore
the loss by death of men who have rendered eminent
services to this Institution, as well as to the Colony at
large. On this oocasion, it is their painful duty to place
upon record their deep sense of the loss incurred by the
premature decease of the late Professor Roderick Noble,
who as a member of this Committee for the last seventeen
years, and an active friend of colonial education and litera-
ture, had long and deservedly held a very high posi-
tion in public esteem. An early and unexpected death
has deprived the Colony also of the eminent and pecu-
liar services of Dr. Bleek, who was for thirteen years
Custodian of the Grey Collection, which forms a depart-
ment of this general Library, and during that period
continued to prosecute his researches into the South
African Languages. The Committee have provided for
B2
the completion of the descriptive catalogue of the collec-
tion, a large portion of which was prepared in manuscript
by the late Custodian. The Managers of the Public
Library cannot fail to appreciate the value of Dr. Bleek'a
linguistic investigations ; but as the prosecution of such
studies forms no essential part of the official duties of the
Custodian, and as the annual revenue at their disposal is
insufficient to provide adequate salaries for their staff
of fixed officers, there is no probability at present of link-
ing the care of the Grey Collection with the continuance
of these researches.
It is fitting also at the close of this melancholy list,
to record the death of the late Mr. William Johnson,
who, as messenger of this Institution for a period of
nearly fifty years, discharged the duties of his office with
zeal and fidelity.
In accordance with an unanimous wish expressed at a
joint meeting of the Trustees of the South African
Museum, the Committee of the Public Library, and
the Trustees of the Grey Collection, on the 20th of
April last, your Committee desire to bring prominently
to the notice of the subscribers, that the building is
essentially a public one, and belongs to the Government;
the Committee of the Library and Trustees of the
Museum having the use of the Building for the purposes
of their respective Trusts.
The joint Committee have also desired this Committee
to inform the subscribers, that in their opinion the trust
now reposed under Ordinance No. 8, of 1836, in a com-
mittee annually elected by the subscribers to the Public
Library, should be abolished, and be undertaken by the
Government, and be administered on the same principle
as the National Library in the British Museum.
During the past year, the collection of books and manu-
scripts in Native languages, contained in the Grey Library,
has received some important additions.
As regards books in the Kafir language, we have had
but one contributor, the Rev. A. J. Newton, who has
presented copies of his Kafir Hymn Book (enlarged edition),
printed at St. Peter's (e-Gwatyu), 1875.
In Zulu, the Rev. Seth B. Stone, of the American
Mission, has contributed his " History of the Church of
Christ," printed at Esidumbini, N T atal, 1870 ; and also " A
Synopsis of General History, in the Zulu Language," pre-
pared by himself, and printed at D'tfrban, 1874. Miss
Lindley, of the Inanda Mission Station, has kindly sup-
plied (in accordance with Dr. Bleek's request) the names
of the native informants from whom she obtained the Zulu
household stories, sent down by her last year. From the
Natal Colonist, two papers have reached us, presented by
the Editor, Mr. John teanderson, entitled respectively
" Zulu Philology," and " Zulu Traditions and Philology ."
They are partly selections from the papers of the late Mr.
D. Leslie, and contain an explanation of the Zulu names
for the Moons throughout the year ; as well as remarks,
by the Bishops of Natal and St. John's, upon Mr. Leslie's
Paper concerning the native custom of Hlonipa.
Towards the collection of Hottentot Native Literature
in which so much still remains to be accomplished an
important contribution has been made by the Rev. F. W.
Weber, Rhenish Missionary at Warmbad, Great Nama-
qualand. This consists of eleven songs, nine proverbs,
one household story, &c., in the Namaqua dialect, taken
down by himself, and accompanied by a translation, which
is partly in English and partly in German. In the letter
which accompanies this gift, Mr. Weber expresses his
willingness to do further work of this important kind for
the Grey Library.
The Yen. Archdeacon Waters, of St. Mark's, Transkei,
has forwarded some Bushman words, recently taken down
by himself from the lips of a Bushman at his own Mission
Station, where two or three families of this fast-vanish-
ing race are still to be found. In a letter which accom-
panies this communication, the Ven. Archdeacon ex-
presses the hope that a member of his family may be able
to take up the work. This is greatly to be desired, as it
is of particular importance that the literature of the
Eastern Bushmen should, likewise, be as far as possible
collected and represented. We have also to thank Arch-
deacon Waters for his fourth Quarterly Mission Report,
and Abstract of Account, for the year ending December,
1875. The Right Rev. Henry Callaway, M.D., D.D.,
Bishop of St. John's, has kindly presented a memoir of a
Bushman girl, published in London, by the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge ; as well as a portrait of
the subject of this memoir, who was for some time an
inmate of his family. A copy (half-bound) of " The
Cape and its People and other Essays by South Afiican
Writers," edited by the late Professor Noble (Cape
Town, 1869), containing an early paper upon the Bush-
man Language, by the late Curator of the Grey Library,
has been most kindly presented by Mr. J. C. Juta. Copies
of the First and Second (published) Reports concerning
Bushman Researches, by the same author, printed at Cape
Town, in 1873 and 1875 (the first of which can no longer
be obtained), have been added to the Grey Collection, by
Mrs. Bleek.
In two other African languages, viz., Tshi (i.e., Ashanti),
and Akra, spoken on the Gold Coast, we have to ac-
knowledge a generous gift from the Basle Missionary
Society, of seventeen separate publications, which form
a truly valuable addition to the collection of books in
African languages already existing in the Grey Library.
Of these seventeen publication?, eleven are in the Tshi
language, viz., an English-Tshi-Akra Dictionary, by
the Rev. Messrs. J. G. Christaller, Ch. W. Locher, and
J. Zimmermann, printed at Basle, 1874 ; a "Primer";
" Words for Learning and Praying;" " Dr. Barth's Bible
Stories" (revised second edition); "The Doctrines of the
Christian Religion ;" three tracts, and " Stories from Gen-
eral History," translated by the Rev. D. Asante, of Akro-
pong ; ' Tunes to the Tshi and Akra Hymn-books "
(second edition, enlarged), compiled bv the Right Rev.
J. G. Auer, S.T.D. (all printed at Basle, 1871-1874) ',
and a History of our Lord's Passion (Stuttgart, 1861).
The six books in the Akra (Ga) language are as follows,
viz., A Primer (Basic, 1868); Songs for Children
(Basle, 1874); "Hymn-book" (Stuttgart, 1872); "The
Doctrines of the Christian Religion" (Stuttgart, 1874);
"Geography of Palestine" (Basle, 1871); and Reden-
bacher's " General History," in two volumes (Basle, 1868
and 1871).
The Rev. J. G. Christaller, of the same Society, has
himself kindly presented three publications in the Kru
language (Gedebo dialect), printed at Basle, for the
(American) Protestant Episcopal Mission at Cape Palmas,
&c., in 1872 and 1873. These are: "The Book of
Common Prayer;" "The Book of Psalms;" and
" Hymns for the Church and Family."
From Egypt, Dr. G. Schweinfurth has sent two pam-
phlets, viz., " Statuts de la Socie*te Khediviale de Geo-
graphic;" and his Inaugural Address, delivered at the
Society's first Meeting, in June, last year, at Cairo. The
above publications (printed at Alexandria, in 1875) are
accompanied by a copy of Dr. Schweinfurth's circular
letter (dated Cairo, 16th July, 1875), written on behalf
of the Society, and followed by a list of Desiderata.
Mr. J. P. Mansel Weale, late Editor of the Sun, has
been so kind as to present (in consequence of a request
made to him) sixty-one numbers of that newspaper, printed
at King William's Town, in 1874 and 1875.
Three works, by the late Curator of the Grey Library,
were added to the Collection, by his own hand, during the
last few months of his life. The first of these, is a copy
of " Formenlehre der Lateinischen 6prache " (London
and Heidelberg, 1863). The two others are philological
treatises, viz., " Un the Origin of Language," edited by
Professor Haeckel, and translated by Thomas Davidson
(New York, 1869; ; and The Concord, the Origin of
Pronouns, and the Formation of Classes or Genders of
Nouns," published in the Proceedings of the Ethnologi-
cal Society (about 1870-71).
10
In the Russian Language, a " Primer and Beading
Book (in two Parts), printed at St. Petersburg, in 1872,
were presented by Miss J. E. Lloyd.
Copies of Bushman paintings have again been contri-
buted by Mr. H. C. Schunke : copied by himself, from
an almost inaccessible cave in the Zwarteberg, and three
other caves, in the rocky hills of the Brak River and the
Kammanassie Mountains.
The collection of Photographs of Natives has also
received some additions.
The accessions to the Grey Library, during the year
ending May, 1876, have been, altogether, forty-five in
number.
The Treasurer's account of the income and expendi-
ture of the Library during the past year will now be
submitted.
It was moved by Advocate Buchanan, and seconded by
Mr. Goodliffe :
That the Report and Treasurer's Account now read be
adopted and printed.
Professor Gill moved, as an amendment, seconded by
Mr. John Noble :
That the Report be printed , and be brought up for
consideration at a Special M eeting of the Subscribers, to
be called by the Committee at an early date.
Mr. R. M. Ross moved a second amendment, seconded
by Mr. James McGibbon :
This meeting does not concur in the opinion of the
Joint Committee that the trust now reposed, under Ordi-
nance No. 8 of 1836, in a Committee annually elected by
the subscribers to the Public Library, should be aban-
doned and be undertaken by the Government, but is of
opinion that all the advantages of a colonial Library of
Reference may be secured without depriving the public of
il
privileges now enjoyed, or destroying the popular charac-
ter of the management under which the trust has hitherto
been successfully administered.
Mr. Maxwell moved a third amendment, seconded
by the Kev. Smith :
That the meeting confirm the Treasurer's Account
only.
The Chairman put the last amendment first, which
was carried.
Mr. Goodliffe then moved, seconded by Mr. K. M.
Ross:
That it be an instruction to the New Committee to call
a meeting of the subscribers at an early date to consider
the propositions laid down and the Resolutions taken at
a meeting of the Library Committee, the Trustees of the
h'outh African Museum, and the Trustees of the Grey
Collection, on the 28th of April, as published in the Cape
Argus of May 2nd, which was carried.
Mr. Arderne moved, seconded by Mr. Henry Piers :
That the thanks of the meeting be given to the Com-
mittee, the Treasurer, Auditors, and Officers, for their
valuable services during the past year.
His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly moved, seconded by
the Rev. Dr. Cameron :
That the cordial thanks of the meeting be given to His
Honour the Chief Justice for the very interesting and
able address this day delivered by him, which was carried
by acclamation.
A ballot for a new Committee having been taken, the
Scrutineers Messrs. Jno. Noble, and E. J. Buchanan,
declared the following gentlemen duly elected as a Com-
mittee of Management for the ensuing year, viz.:
E. J. STONE, Esq.,
SIB THOMAS MACLEAB,
DE. W. H, Ross,
12
D. TENNANT, Esq.,
W. HIDDINGH, Esq. (Treasurer),
Bis HONOUR J. H. DE VILLIERS, Esq.,
W. H . PIERS, Esq.,
R. M. Ross, Esq.,
HON. J. MILLER, Esq.,
And as Auditors:
J. C. GIE, Esq.,
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.
A true Copy.
F. MASKEW,
Librarian and Secretary.
ADDRESS.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN,
In reading over the addresses of my distinguished pre-
decessors in this chair, I was struck by the fact that, with
few exceptions, they begin either with an apology for
venturing to preside at one of the annual meetings, or
with an expression of regret that the choice of the com-
mittee had not fallen on a more competent person. If
ever such an apology were needed, it is in my case ; my
profession and previous occupations having afforded but
an ill preparation for the difficult task of addressing a
mixed audience of ladies and gentlemen in an easy and
popular style upon a subject connected with literature,
science or art. Still I cannot conscientiously affirm that
1 regret the choice of the committee, for, notwithstanding
the shortcomings of which I am so keenly sensible, I am
pleased at this opportunity of saying a few words in pub-
lic upon a matter in which I take a deep interest, and
which, 1 believe, to have an important bearing on the
future progress and welfare of my fellow-countrymen.
The subject which I have chosen for my brief discourse
may be shortly comprised in the question :
What is the future language of South Africa to be ?
In speaking of the language of South Africa, I mean
the language of the bulk of the population, including not
only the officials, the mercantile community, the profes-
sional, and other highly educated classes, but also the
agricultural population and the labouring classes. Will
the language of Holland, pure and undefiled, re-establish
14
its supremacy ? Or will it be the language of Holland
as altered, or as some would say, corrupted, in this Colony
by contact with the language of Englishmen, Germans,
Malays, and Hottentots, and by the slow process of
dialectic growth and phonetic decay ? Or will English
prevail over both the former ?
To most people the answer to these questions will
appear a simple one. " This is an English Colony," they
will say, " and sooner or later English must become the
mother-tongue to the inhabitants. In arguing thus, how-
ever, they are apt to forget that the mother-tongue of a
country cannot, like a worn-out garment, be cast aside
when it has served its purpose, that it takes many years
before a strange language can be taught to the mass of
the people, that it must take several generations before it
can become familar to them, and that even after it has
become familiar, old associations and prejudices will ever
combine to resist the intruder. At the present moment,
incredible as it may appear, there are still persons born,
bred, and living in the Highlands of Scotland and Wales
who do not understand or even speak the English lan-
guage. In Canada, a portion of the population still speaks
and understand French only ; in some portions of A Isace
the peasants, after a French occupation of about two
centuries, speak German only ; and in parts of Friesland
the language spoken by the peasantry is wholly unintelli-
gible to the inhabitants of other provinces of Holland.
It is the peasantry who are always the most tenacious of
a language, and it is the peasantry who constitute the
bulk of our own population.
Let me not, however, be understood as arguing for the
impossibility of one language being supplanted by another
as the living and spoken language of a nation. If this
were my contention it would be unnecessary to say
another word, for it would follow, as a logical sequence,
that Cape Dutch, which is the language of the bulk of
the people of this Colony, will not, and cannot be super-
seded by any other. My object has rather been to show
15
at the outset that the question which forms the subject
of this discourse is not so easy of solution as some would
suppose.
There have undoubtedly been instances in which a
whole nation has adopted a foreign language to the ex-
clusion of its own. In some cases the language of a con-
quering nation has entirely superseded that of the con-
quered; for example, the language introduced into
England by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes superseded
that of the early Britons who spoke a Celtic dialect. A
few traces of the ancient language still lingered here and
there, as up till lately in Cornwall, but in the end Anglo-
Saxon or English prevailed. So also the Latin language
established itself in many of the countries of Europe
which became subject to the Roman Empire. Before the
conquest of Ancient France by the Komans the inhabi-
tants spoke a Celtic dialect, but in an incredibly short
space of time they adopted the language of Rome, toge-
ther with her laws and institutions. In other cases the
conquerors adopted the language of the conquered. The
Franks, who were a Teutonic race, overran France after
the fall of the Roman Empire, and adopted the language
spoken by the inhabitants as their own, retaining only a
few Teutonic words, idioms, and phrases. For three
centuries after the Norman Conquest of England, French
and English lived side by side, until in the end English
displaced the language of the conquering nation. But
we need not go far in search of illustrations. In the
Western districts of this Colony the languages of the
aborigines have already given way to Cape Dutch, and
in the Eastern districts they are slowly but surely re-
treating before the steady advance of English and Cape
Dutch.
What is true of nations and tribes is also true of large
bodies of immigrants who settle in countries where a lan-
guage different from their own is spoken. The Hugue-
nots who fled from France after the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes towards the end of the seventeenth cen-
16
tury, readily acquired the language of the countries ia
which they respectively settled, and their descendants in
most cases lost the language of their mother-tongue. The
Abbe de la Cattle, who visited the Cape for astronomical
purposes sixty years after the arrival of the French
refugees, gives the following testimony derived from per-
fonal observation. After describing [the valley of
Drakenstein in the neighbourhood of which the Hugue-
nots first settled, he says: " In regard to these refugees
they preserved the French language and taught it to their
children ; but the latter being obliged to speak Dutch
partly because they transact all their business with
Dutchmen and Germans who speak Dutch, and partly
because they are either married or related to Germans
and Dutch, have not taught their children French, so
that as none of the original refugees are left, it is only
their children who speak French, and they are all old. I
have not seen a single person under forty who spoke
French unless he had himself come from France. I
cannot, however, assert that this is universally true, but
I have been assured by those who speak French that in
twenty years time there will not be a person in Draken-
stein who will be able to speak that language." If
instead of twenty years the Abbe's informers had said
fifty years, the prediction would most certainly have been
correct. At the beginning of this century the knowledge
of the French language was wholly lost among the de-
scendants of the Huguenots, and if at the present time
there are a few of them who understand or speak French
they may have acquired it from their French teachers,
but they certainly have not inherited it from their fore-
fathers. Its is clear, then, that in this colony the native
languages are doomed to perish and that French will not
revive, but it is not equally clear which language will per-
manently take their place. Two or more European
languages may for a time exist here side by aide, but it
requiresno prophetic foresight to foretell that in the end one
will displace the other. The question is which is it to be?
17
Sixty years ago it was confidently predicted that Dutch,
that is to say, the 'language of Holland as distinguished
from Cape Dutcft, the language of the Cape would
prevail. At that time so far as one can judge from the
scanty literature of the period the antagonism between
Dutch and English was at its height. The Dutch party
considered it a mark of patriotism to speak and propagate
Dutch. The English party, on the other hand, considered
it a mark of loyalty to speak and propagate English.
Gradually, however, the bitterness of feeling diminished
in intensity, but it never wholly died out. When at the
end of 1 825 the Dutch Tydsc.hrift came to an end, the
English Chronicle sounded a note of triumph in the
following terms : " Othello's, occupation's gone. Died at
the age or 365 days Het Nederduitsch Zuid Afrikaansch
Tydschrift, deeply regretted by the Antediluvians of the
Cape and the descendants of Van Riebeek, whose writings
the deceased deeply studied, and whose arms have lately
been renewed over the Town-house of His Majesty
George IV. The departed was of a peculiar disposition
and temper, and although nursed, dandled, and rocked
in the very cradle of Government and the sworn son of
Great Britain, yet he never opened his lips in praise of
her customs, manners, laws and language." Amenities
like these, so far from discouraging the advocates of the
Dutch language, rather urged them on to greater efforts
and the deceased periodical saw the light again under a
slightly different title. It was felt, however, that the
corruption which the Dutch language had undergone, was
a serious obstacle to its general diffusion, and its sup-
porters now strove to purify it of its adulterations, or in
other words, to restore the language of Holland free from
the colonial alloy. As a first step towards attaining this
end, a very learned professor undertook to write a book
in which the barbarisms of Cape Dutch would bs exposed
and the people of this colony taught not only to read but
also to converse in good Dutch a work, in short, which
Avould have the miraculous effect of immediately substitu-
18
ting one language for another as the mother-tongue of the
people. The idea was conceived in 1840. In 1844 the
work appeared under the title : " ThS- Dutch language
restored in South Africa," but instead of fulfilling the
ambitious designs of its promoters, it was an ordinary
grammar of the Dutch language with a paragraph here
and there pointing out idioms peculiar to the Cape, and
with an appendix containing a list of words used at the
Cape, but not recognised as sterling in Holland. The
preface, however, explains the alteration in the design.
After stating that the object which the writer originally
had in view was to restore the Dutch language in South
Africa, he adds: tf In writing this we cannot refrain from
smiling at the very thought that we should at the com-
mencement of our undertaking have persuaded ourselves
that this was so much as possible. Three years and a-half
have since elapsed, and during that time we have observed
so many fresh proofs of indifference in regard to the
Dutch language that we have altogether changed our
opinion as to the possibility of further checking the evil.
We have come to consider the language, to which we have
been devoting our labours, as a physician does an incur-
able patient whose worse sufferings may perhaps be
allayed, whose certain dissolution may perhaps be re-
tarded, but of whose complete recovery there no longer
exists the faintest hope." In the body of the work, how-
ever, the author admits (p. 28) that " the civilized classes
are everywhere doing their utmost to get rid of the Cape
idioms," and that the Cape vulgarisms of which the book
gives examples, are characteristic of the lower classes.
He adds that those who speak grammatically are said to
speak high Dutch, and that an Englishman who speaks
Dutch always uses the vulgar tongue of the Cape.
From 1844 to the present time, the indifference com-
plained of by Dr. Changuion has been increasing rather
than falling off, while, if he were still among us, he
would no longer have the consolation of believing that
the civilized classes are forsaking the Cape Dutch dialect.
19
On the contrary, he would find that what is wrongly
termed High Dutch has been almost altogether banished
from ordinary conversation, and that even in the pulpit
the younger generation of Dutch Reformed clergymen
do not always aspire to that grammatical accuracy which
distinguished and still distinguishes the older generation
of Dutch Reformed clergymen, and which ia still expected
from a pulpit orator in Holland. Even emigrants arriv-
ing here from Holland gradually adopt our Cape idioms,
and their children soon learn to converse in our soft and
easy patois in preference to their harsher mother- tongue.
This may be owing to the very small number of these
immigrants who come out to South Africa, but there
exists no likelihood that a stream of immigration will
ever flow from Holland large enough to have any in-
fluence upon the future language of this country. Judg-
ing, then, from the experience of past times and from the
tendencies of the present, we may safely conclude that
the present language of Holland is not destined to
become the future language of South Africa.
No longer, indeed, do we hear of endeavours to restore
the Dutch language in South Africa. But probably very
lew of you are aware that strenuous efforts are now being
made in certain quarters to give permanency to the Cape
Dutch dialect by recognising and adopting it as the
literary language of South Africa. A journal under the
name of the " Patriot " has been started, which professes
to employ this language only, and I understand that the
promoters of the journal intend, before long, to publish a
history of "South Africa, and a translation of the Bible in
the same language: If the object of the movement ia to
reach the mind and understanding of those to whom any
other language is unintelligible, nothing can be more
praiseworthy. But it appears to me doubtful, to say the
least, whether there is any considerable portion of our
population who are unable to understand correct Dutch.
Corrupt as the Cape Dutch may be, I apprehend that
those who would have sufficient education and intelligence
c
20
to read and understand it, would also be able to read and
understand grammatical Dutch. There can be no doubt
that the wants of the Dutch-speaking colonists must for
a long time to come be supplied by other than English
newspapers, but I am not aware that the existing Dutch
papers which have hitherto been conducted with so much
ability, fairness, and moderation, are unable to supply
those wants, and their conductors certainly have not yet
deemed it necessary to descend to the use of the Cape
Dutch, merely for the purpose of making themselves
understood. Nor am I aware that the Dutch state
translation of the Scriptures is unintelligible to any
considerable portion of the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of
the Colony. The language of this version, like that of
the English authorised version and Luther's German
translation, is at once so simple and so pure, that it is
difficult to believe in the necessity for another version
better suited to the intelligence of the upper or of the
lower classes. Of course, I am not now concerned with
the question whether a nearer approach might not be
made to the original in accordance with the suggestions
of modern criticism, but merely with the question whether
or not the language is intelligible. So attached are
English Protestants to the translation known as King
James' Bible, that although the number of words or
senses of words which have become obsolete since 1611,
amount nearly to one-fifteenth part of the whole number
of words used in the Bible, any proposal to substitute for
it an improved version more in conformity with the spoken
language of England would, I apprehend, meet with very
little encouragement or approval from them. At all
events no Englishman who values the dignity of the
Bible would seriously propose a new version in some
provincial patois on the ground that the existing
authorized version is not perfectly intelligible. The
German Protestant still clings with fondness, not un-
mixed with pride, to the celebrated translation of Martin
Luther, and would resent as an outrage on his sense of
21
propriety any attempt to substitute for it a version in
Platt Deufsch for the benefit of the lower classes. The
Dutch authorized version has indeed undergone some
alterations in spelling and in some points of grammar,
but in the main it still retains the language and gram-
matical structure which were given to it by the pains
taking translators appointed by the Synod of Dort in the
year 1619. It has been reserved for our South African
patriots t"> discover that there is a depth of simplicity
beyond even that which the Dutch version has reached,
and that there exists a class of people in our midst,
whose simple mindLs and weak understanding cannot be
reached without (if I may use the expression) levelling
down the Script ares to their standard. For my own
part I do not believe that the Dutch-speaking inha-
bitants of this Colony have attained that stage of
intellectual degradation ; but even if they had, it would
be a Jar more useful and noble employment to assist
in levelling up their intelligence than to suppress the
only book which by being universally read, still preserves
amongst us a standard of correct, pure, and idiomatic
Dutch. For scientific purposes no doubt it may prove
useful to preserve evidence of the great change which the
Dutch language has undergone by being transplanted
from Holland to this Colony. In the same way the
promoters of the movement 1 have mentioned might do
good service by collecting those bits of humorous and
racy poetry in which the country abounds, and for which
the language is not ill adapted. But if the new South
African literature is intended to arrest the sprea 1 of
English and to prevent the importation of Dutch litera-
ture, I am firmly convinced that it will prove a mistake
and end in failure. It is idle to expect that Cape Dutch
will soon, if ever, become a literary language, in the
highest sense of the term, capable of competing either
with Dutch or with English. Poor in the number of its
words, weak in its inflections, wanting in accuracy of
meaning, and incapable of expressing ideas connected
22
with the higher spheres of thought, it will have to undergo
great modification before it will be able to produce a
literature worthy of the name. And the force and
energy which would be wasted in bringing the language
into such a condition would be more usefully employed
in appropriating that rich and glorious language which
is ready to our hands as a literary language of the first
rank.
The worst feature of the new movement ia that it
appeals to the patriotism of the colonists for support, as
ii patriotism consisted solely in a retention of the customs
of our forefathers whether such customs are worthy of
retention or not. Surely it would be a more genuine
patriotism to improve and elevate the mental condition
of our countrymen by opening up to them those vast
resources of intellectual wealth which a study of English
literature must reveal. And if any prejudices stood in
his way the true patriot would combat them, at the risk
of his own popularity, in order that his countrymen
might not be left behind in the race after culture and
mental improvement. But in truth it is a misuse of
terms to speak of patriotism in connection with this
subject. The French colonist of Canada or the Dutch
colonist ot the Cape does not love his own country the
more because French or Dutch is his mother-tongue.
The Australian or the Canadian of English descent does
not love his own country the less because English is his
mother-tongue. The Americans before the war of
independence spoke English, but they nevertheless
manfully asserted their rights against the Government
and Parliament of Great Britain, When they had
obtained their independence, their use of the English
language did not prevent them from becoming one of the
chief rivals of the mother-country. I have no fear, there-
fore, for the patriotism of South Africans whether they
be inhabitants of this colony or of the neighbouring
states if they shall cease to use a Dutch dialect as their
mother-tongue.
23
All honour be to that country, physically so small,
morally so great, which first introduced civilisation into
South Africa. I often wish that her history were more
studied here, especially by those who profess to look up
to her as the model for our imitation. But it is unfor-
tunately too true that the country which was herself the
birthplace of the religious and civil liberty of modern
times was the indirect means of establishing the grossest
form of despotism in her colonies. If the statesmen of
Holland had been immediately responsible for the good
government of her colonies, I have no doubt that things
would have been different. But the government of her
East Indian possessions was entrusted to a trading com-
pany, which cared little for the moral, intellectual, or
material advancement of the inhabitants so long as the
company enjoyed the monopoly of trr.de and brought in a
good return to the proprietors. The Cape of Good
Hope as one of the trading stations of the company fell
directly under their sway. For a century and a half
they misgoverned this country to such an extent that the
evil effects of their misgovernment are still perceptible.
If you wish to have proofs for this assertion, let me refer
you to the excellent lectures of that learned judge and
patriot, whose early death the members of his profession
and the whole Colony have not ceased to deplore, I mean
the late Mr. Justice Watermeyer.
Certainly, our Dutch rulers gave very little encourage-
ment to any language but their own. I have already
mentioned the two causes to whiuh the Abbe" de la Caille
ascribed the decline and gradual extinction of the French
language among the descendants of the Huguenot
refugees. He might have adde 1 a third more potent
than either. It was the firm determination and fixed
policy of the Chamber of seventeen, as the General
Council of Direction of the Dutch East India Company
was called, to allow the use of the French language
only eo far as it was absolutely necessary, and to prevent
its spread altogether, and the local Councillors at the
24
Cape were not remiss in carrying out the wishes of their
superiors. To the truth of this assertion the old records
of this Colony bear ample testimony, but I will content
myself with a very few quotations. In the year 1701
the local Council wrote to the Chamber informing them
that the French Minister, Pierre Simon was about to
leave the colony, and requesting them to send out another
minister in his place. The answer, addressed to Governor
van der Stel, and signed by all the members of the
Chamber, is dated ths 20th September, 1701, and runs
thus:
"We presume that the Rev. Pierre Simon will not leave the
Colony until another minister arives to take his place. One who
understands the Dutch and French languages will be sent out by the
Chamber of Amsterdam, not, as we understand it, with a view of
preaching in the latter language, but only for the purpose of
visiting, admonishing, and comforting those old colonists who do
not understand our language. By such means we may in course of
time succeed in having that language destroyed (the Dutch word
is gemortificeerd' mortified), and, as it were, banished from the
place ; and with this object in view you will take care that the
schools shall serve no other or further purpose than to teach the
youth to read and write in our language."
After carefully searching the records, I do not find
that any formal resolution on the subject was passed by
the Council upon receipt of this dispatch, but in their
reply, dated the 3rd February, 1702, and containing a
very interesting report OH the social and financial condi-
tion of the Colony, the following passage occurs :
' "We will take care that through the use of the Dutch language
in the church and school at DrakeBstein, the French language shall
come in disuse among the members of the congregation?, and thus
in course of time be entirely rooted out ; and this will the more
readily happen, inasmuch as there are no longer any French schools."
The Council kept their promise faithfully, and lost no
opportunity for discouraging and even prohibiting the use
of the French language. Thus I find that in December,
1709, upon receipt of a letter in French from the Con-
sistory at Drakenstein, submitting the names of certain
25
persons as fit and proper persons to be elected members
of the Consistory, the council passed the following
resolution : " That the Consistory be informed that they
shall not in future have to write letters to Government
in the French language, but that it shall be done in
Dutch only."
From what I have said about the Dutch East India
Company, it seems clear that we owe but a trifling debt
of gratitude to their memory ; and such a debt as we do
owe, we should but inadequately discharge by per-
petuating a language which, in the ears of the Directors,
would have sounded more odious than French, and more
barbarous than the English language itself. But I do
not believe that it will be perpetuated. For several
generations the two languages may live more or less
peaceably side by side, bat in the end the fitter one will
survive. Gradually the old prejudices against English are
giving way to more rational views. The youngest of us can
probably remember the time when it would have been
considered a species of sacrilege to propose that a sermon
in the English language should be preached in the Dutch
Reformed Church of this town, whereas we now find
that an English service is held as regularly as a Dutch
service. In many a so-called Dutch household, English
is the home language of the family, and as the rising
generation grows uj>, this tendency may be expected to
increase. In the capital of the Orange Free State itself,
1 am credibly informed, that English is as frequently
heard in ordinary conversation as Dutch, nay, it has been
confidently asserted by the chief Free State paper that
English is spoken more accurately and more generally in
Bloemfontein than in the capital of this Colony.
When we refer to the literature imported into this
country, we find that English books exceed in number
all the rest put together, in such of the country villages
as have public libraries English books constitute the
great bulk of the collections. In this library itself, which
may be looked upon as to a certain extent indicative of
26
the tastes of the reading public of the Colony, English
books outnumber the Dutch in the proportion of nine to
one. Nor is all this to be wondered at. The practical
usefulness of a language will always be the best guarantee
for its diffusion. In the conduct of important mercantile
transactions and in the carrying on the official correspond-
ence, the use of English has become well nigh indispens-
able. Stern necessity, moreover, requires a knowledge
of the English language from those who desire to serve
their country in Parliament, or to practise in the Law
Courts, or to become members of Divisional Councils
and Municipalities, or to become qualified for the office of
Justice of the Peace, or to engage in the noble occupation
of teaching the youth of the Colony,
But, independently of the practical usefulness of a
language, its inherent richness and power will give it
an immense advantage over its poorer and weaker rival.
It has been eloquently remarked by Donaldson in his
Varronianus that " a language is only dear to us when
we know its capabilities, and when it is hallowed by a
thousand connections with our civilization, our literature,
and our comforts, bo long as it merely lisps the inarti-
culated utterances of half educated men, it has no hold
upon the hearts of those who speak it, and it is ' readily
neglected or thrown aside in favour of the more cultivated
idiom, which, while it finds names tor luxuries of
civilization before unknown, also opens a communication
with those who appear as the heralds of moral and
intellectual regeneration." The truth of this reaiark is
illustrated by the readiness with which the ancient Gauls
accepted the language of the Komans. It is no doubt
true that the language of a nation is the product rather
than the cause of their mental qualities. But it is also
equally true that the intellectual progress of a nation is
mightily influenced by the character of the language
which they use, whether they have inherited it from their
ancestors, or adopted it from another race. " Men,"
says Bacon, " believe that their reason is lord over their
27
words, but it happens, too, that the words exercise a
reciprocal and reactionary power over our intellect."
Can the language of a people, then, be a matter of in-
difference to those who have their interests at heart?
If it be true that our words exercise a reciprocal and
reactionary power over our intellect, it surely is a matter
of the greatest importance that they should be exact in
their meaning, that they should be capable of dealing
with a wide range of subjects, and that they should not
be deficient in the power of giving expression to the
thoughts of great thinkers. Where qualities like these
are wanting in the old language, but are abundantly
present in the new, it is no presumption to predict that
the former must yield to the latter. Ideas which were
incapable of expression in the old language find ready
admission by being clothed in the new. In the course cf
time the new language becomes interwoven with the daily
life of the people and instead of being regarded as an
intruder becomes as precious to them as it is to those with
whom it had its origin.
As an abstract proposition no one will doubt that it is
good in every respect for a people that they should speak
a common language. The occupations of life are so
pressing and the natural indolence of man is so great that
it is vain to expect that a large proportion of the popula-
tion will be able to master two or more languages. So
long, however, as different classes speak different langu-
ages no community of interest can permanently exist
between them. With so many elements ot discord
existing in our comparatively small and scattered com-
munity it would be a real advantage to this country if the
antagonism arising from a difference of languages could
be entirely done away with.
At the present time the question I have been discussing
assumes more than ordinary importance. A vague
yearning for a closer union of the disjointed fragments
of the European population has come over the land.
The desire for a confederation of the different States and
D
Colonies of Sofeth "Africa is gradually gaining ground.
With some the idea takes the shape of a dominion under
the British Crown, with others that of a confederation
of independent states. I am not now going to tread on
the delicate and forbidden ground of politics, but this
I will say, that whether we are to have a South African
dominion under the British flag or a union of independent
states under a South African flag, the advantages of a
common language will be equally gr.^at. What the
future will bring forth none of us can tell. Taken at our
best, the range of our mental visi< n is so limited that we
oftener than not fail to detect the full operation of all those
circumstances which are silently moulding the events of
the future. Sudden catastrophes, too, will sometimes
upset the most careful calculation-. But considerations
such as these need not deter us from studying the signs
of the times, and bringing our knowledge and experience
of the past to bear upon the probabilities of the future.
Something is gained if we are thus enabled to prepare
and bid others prepare for tho^e coming even's whose
shadows we see dimly cast before them, and nothing will
be lost if our anticipations should not be fully realised.
And where it is found as a fact that the current of events
is uniformly tending in one and the same direction, it
may be our duty to do everything in our power to stem
the current, or it may be a wiser course to accept what is
inevitable, but it would be sheer folly to close our eyes
to the existence of the fact.
Applying these remarks to the question with which I
started, 1 have only to add that all the facts and argu-
ments which I have to-day brought forward appear to me
to point to the conclusion that the time is still far distant
when the inhabitants of this Colony will speak and
acknowledge one common mother-tongue, that it will, how-
ever, come at last, and that when it does come, the lan-
guage of Great Britain will also be the language of South
Africa.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., PRINTERS, ST. GEORGE'S-STREET, CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
Jf0rtn-(S%{rt|j llnnitemriT fleeting
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC LIBRARY,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 19TH MAY, 1877,
HIS EXCELLEKCT THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
SIR H. B. E. FRERE, BART., IN THE CHAIR.
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1877.
CumntUiu ;
DB. DALE,
C. A. FAIRBRIDGE, Esq.,
REV. DK. CAMERON,
R. M. ROSS, Esq.,
PROFESSOR GILL,
F. G. GOODLIFFE, Esq. (Treas.),
ADVOCATE BUCHANAN,
H. W. PIERS, Esq.,
E. J. STONE, Esq.
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.
| J. C. GIE, Esq.
librarian anb Sweiarg :
F. MASKEW, Esq.
REPORT.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN,
The Committee in presenting a statement of
their proceedings during the past year have to
report that, in accordance with a resolution
passed at the Annual General Meeting of the
Subscribers, held on the 13th of May last, a spe-
cial meeting was convened for the purpose of
considering the propositions laid down, and the
resolutions taken, at a meeting of the Library
Committee, the Trustees of the Museum, and the
Trustees of the Grey Collection, with reference
to the Library and Museum Building and to the
future constitution and management of the Pub-
lic Library.
The Committee having taken into considera-
tion the foregoing resolutions, as well as the
general mode of administration of the South Afri-
can Public Library, decided to recommend to the
subscribers a series of propositions, which in
their opinion it was desirable to adopt, and which
was submitted at a Special General Meeting of
Subscribers on the 12th July last, when the
meeting unanimously adopted the first recom-
mendation, viz : " That it is desirable that the
building occupied by the Library and Museum
should be considered a public one belonging to
the Government, the Committee of the Library
and the Trustees of the Museum, having the sole
use for their respective trusts." This resolution
was duly forwarded to Government.
The Committee have much pleasure in an-
nouncing that the Government, upon representa-
tions made by the Building Committee of the
Library, and Museum, on the state of the Build-
ing invited a sub-committee to meet a gentle-
man from the Public Works Department to con-
sider what alterations, and repairs were to be
effected, which resulted in alterations being made,
which improved the exterior of the building,
and the Committee confidently express a hope
that the Government and Parliament may soon
adopt means to replace by an Iron railing the
unsightly fence which at present separates the
Library and Museum Building from the Botanic
Garden.
The Committee have to state that they deemed
it advisable to make certain alterations in the
rules relating to the issue of books and periodi-
cals, to second and third class subscribers, by
which they are now entitled to receive books and
periodicals one month earlier than was permitted
heretofore and trust this will meet with your ap-
proval.
As a matter of experiment the Committee have
extended the hours to which the Library is to be
open during the summer months, that is, up to J
past 6 p.m and although they cannot report
that any large number of subscribers or the pub-
lic, have availed themselves of the privilege,
they would recommend their successors in office,
to continue -the experiment during the next sum-
mer months.
With a view to the greater usefulness of the
Institution, the Committee endeavoured to aug-
ment the number of subscribers, and with that
object addressed a circular to non-subscribers
resident in the metropolis, and suburbs, who might
reasonably be expected to support the Institution ;
the Committee regret to state that, they met with
little response, and although the Committee can-
not help expressing regret at their want of suc-
cess, they have the satisfaction of knowing that
the value of the Institution continues to be appre-
ciated in proof of which they would mention a
presentation made by Colonel Blagrave, late of
the East Indian Service, now residing in Eng-
land, of a very valuable collection of books on
irrigation ; and our late Governor Sir Henry
Barkly on his leaving the Colony presented the
Institution with 159 volumes, of works on
Science and Literature, and a number of Par-
liamentary papers ; two legacies (one of which
was referred to in the last Report) have been
received from the late Mr. Joseph Maynard, and
from the late Mrs. Farmer, both of Wynberg,
the former amounting to 25, and the latter to
100, less legacy duty.
The number of entries for new books in the
proposal book indicates that the principal is ap-
preciated by the subscribers, and has received
due attention from the Committee.
During the year the Committee have augmented
the collection by the purchase both in England
and in the Colony, of many valuable works, and
they expect shortly to receive a further supply of
standard works now under order.
The accession of books in the various departs
B 2
merits of Science and Literature, during the year
has been as follows :
VO!B.
1. Miscellaneous Theology ... 20
2. Political Economy, Government . . 29
3. Science and the Arts .... 93
4. Voyages and Travels .... 90
5. History ...... 55
6. Biography ...... 49
7. Novels 86
8. Belles Lettres 71
Total ~493
Amongst them will be found valuable works
presented by the Royal Society, "the Royal Astro-
nomical Society, the Royal Geographical Society,
the Cobden Club, London, the Royal Academy
of Science, Munich, the Smithsonian Institute,
Washington, the Colonial Government, the Rev.
L. Cachet, E. J. Stone, Esq., Astronomer-Royal,
J. Gamble, H. Tennant, G. St. Vincent Cripps,
J. B. Smithers, R.F. Fairlie, and B. Hutchinsoii,
Esq., besides those already acknowledged, to all
of whom the thanks of the subscribers are due.
The issue of books in the several departments
during the past year, has been as follows, viz :
Vote.
Miscellaneous Theology .... 69
Political Economy, Government, &c. . . 58
Science and the Arts .... 209
Biography . . . . . .767
History 512
Voyages and Travels .... 1,325
Belles Lettres 794
Works of Fiction 7,372
Reviews and Periodicals . . . .6,197
Total TT,303
As compared with the issue of books during
the previous year, this statement shows a slight
falling off in some departments, but an increase
on the whole .
The attendance of readers and visitors, has
been much in excess of last year. From a record
kept by the officers of the Institution it appears
that the number of visitors this year exceded
that of the previous year by nearly 3,000, twenty-
two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-two
having visited the Library, being an average of
81 per day. The largest on any one day being
147 and the lowest 28.
Referring to an allusion, contained in the last
report, to the custodianship of the Grey Collec-
tion, the Committee received from the Superin-
tendent-General of Education a letter on the sub-
ject, enclosing letters from Professor Max Miiller
and one from Dr. Jolly of Wiirzburg, offering
his services for carrying on the researches of the
late Dr. Bleek, and for filling the office of Custo-
dian of the Grey Collection, for three years at a
salary of 300 per annum.
These communications received from the Com-
mittee very careful consideration, and led to a
correspondence -v/ith the Superintendent-General
of Education ana having fully discussed the sub-
ject, the Committee confirmed t\ e decision of
their predecessors as conveyed in the last Re-
port, and expro sed the hope that through the
instrumentality 01 the Superintendent-General of
Education, the Government may be induced to
provide for the further study of Native Languages.
The arrangement whereby Miss Lloyd was en-
gaged temporarily to copy and complete the un-
finished catalogue of the Grey Collection is still
continued.
Among the accessions of the past year to the
literature of the Native languages contained in
the Grey Library, a generous gift from the
Native Training Institution at Lovedale demands
especial notice. It consists of eleven publi-
cations in the Kafir language, and one in Sesuto,
all printed at Lovedale, as well as bound there,
with a degree of taste and skill which re-
flects the highest credit upon all concerned.
Five of the above-mentioned Kafir works, viz.,
Genesis. Second Lesson Book, Psalms, " Come
to Jesus " (printed in 1874), and a Hymn Book
(of 1875), had been particularly noted down b}^
Dr. Bleek as still wanting to the Grey Library, and,
through the kind exertions of the Rev. Dr. Stewart
to whom this was made known immediately be-
fore his departure for Lake Nyassa, and of Mr.
G. M. Theal, they have now reached us ; with
the addition of " The Angels' Message," translated
into Kafir by Daniel Mzamo (1875); and "The
New Kaffir Primer " (1876) ; besides several
duplicates. The Rev. A. J. Newton has also
presented four Kafir books : the first, con-
taining three tales of the Amampondomisi,
taken down from the dictation of the Chief
Umditslnca, by the Rev. B. L. Key ; a
" Tract on the Communion," by the same author,
being the second book sent. The two others
are respectively entitled " Lessons in Words and
Phrases in English and Kafir," and Incwadi
Yentsomi. They were all printed at St. Peter's
Mission (e-Gicatyu), in 187G and 1877. To the
Venerable Archdeacon Waters, and his daughter,
Mrs. B. L. Key, we are much indebted for some
pieces of Aboriginal lore, mainly taken down, by
Mrs. Key herself, from various Native informants
(principally Gcaleka), at St. Mark's Mission
Station. The few sheets already received afford
further evidence (were such required) of the wealth
of traditional literature existing among our
Frontier tribes, and of the necessity for a speedy
and well-organized effort for the preservation
of whatever may still be rescued from obli-
vion.
We have also to thank Archdeacon Waters for
copies of his Mission Reports for the two last
Quarters of 1876.
From the Bishop of Natal, three Zulu works
have reached us, viz., the "New Testament,"
translated by himself; and a new edition of his
" Church of England Prayer Book ;" both printed
in 1876, at the Native Press at Bishopstowe ; also
" Genesis, with Commentary," printed at the
same place in 1877. A list of words in English
and Zulu, recently published by the Bishop of
St. John's, in the endeavour to secure a " uni-
form Theological Terminology " in various Kafir
dialects, has been presented by the Rev. Canon
Lightfoot ; and a a Spelling and Reading Book "
in Zulu, by the Rev. Charles Roberts, printed at
D'Urban (Natal) in 1876, has also been added to
the Collection.
From the Rev. W. H. R. Bevan, a book of
Prayers in Serolong (Setshuana) has been received,
printed, this year, at Bloemfontein, for the Church
Mission in Basutoland. The Rev. W. Crisp has
sent us four Serolong books, printed at the
Church Mission Press, at Thaba Ncho, from 1873
to 1875, viz., his Setshuana Reading Book ;
and also a Catechism and Hymn book, Gospels'
Harmony, and Church Prayer Book, translated
by himself, with the exception of the Epistles and
Gospels in the Prayer Book, which are the work
of the Rev. G. Mitchell. Duplicates of two more
10
Serolong publications were also presented by Mr.
Crisp.
From Kurmnan, three Setshuana (Sexlapi) books
have been sent down by the Rev. J. S. Moffat,
viz., an illustrated Primer, by the Rev. A . Wookey
(London, 1876), and two Spelling Books (Kuruman,
1865, and 1869), which were still wanting to the
Collection.
From Bishop Steere, the contributor of the
main portion of the Swahili literature already
contained in the Grey Library, ten more works
have been received ; all of them printed in 1876,
at the Universities' Mission Press, Zanzibar ; and
eight, out of the nine Swahili books sent, trans-
lated by Bishop Steere himself. The Swahili
portion of this gift is as follows : " Twelve Dozen
Dhow-searching Questions, in English and Swa-
hili, " by Captain Malcolm, R.N. ;Prayers ; Epistle
to the Philippians ; Bishop Forbes' Catechism ;
Form for admitting Catechumens (translated by
the Rev. J. Farler) ; Baptismal Service ; Epistle
of St. James ; First Epistle of St. John ; and a
" Tract on Mohammedanism," hi Roman and Arabic
characters. The remaining book, is Bishop
Steere's "Walk to the Nyassa Country, " in Eng-
lish.
From the Rev. H. Beiderbecke, of the Rhenish
Mission Society, three Otyiherero books have
been received, printed, in 1875, at Cape Town,
under his own superintendence ; viz., the Book of
Psalms, translated by the Rev. H. Brincker ; and
reprints of Luther's Small Catechism, translated
by the Rev. C. H . Hahn, and a Hymn Book, com-
piled by the Revs. C. H. Hahn, H. Brincker, and
other Missionaries. The Rev. J. Rath has pre-
sented three sheets of manuscript, containing
Otyiherero German additions to his MSS.
11
"Otyiherero Dictionary's Materials" (No. 3789),
which are already in the Grey Library.
From Mr. C. Ritter, Treasurer to the Finnish
Mission, at work in Ovamboland, a copy of the
first printed book in the Shindonga (Ovambo)
language has been received ; vz., a Primes, by
the Rev. P. Kiiivinen, printed at Helsingfors (in
Finland), in 1876.
From Missionaries in Madagascar, three gifts
have lately reached us ; viz., a copy of the first
number of the "Antananarivo Annual and Mada-
gascar Magazine," for Christmas 1875, presented
by the Rev. L. Dahlc ; the second number, for
Christmas 1876, presented by the editor, the Rev.
J. Sibree, Junr., of the London Mission Society ;
and a work entitled a South-east Madagascar,"
being notes of a journey made in June and July
1876, through a part of the island, and likewise
presented by the Rev. J. Sibree, Junr., the
author.
To the collection of early printed books, the
Venerable Archdeacon Lloyd has contributed the
following specimens, viz., a Petrarch, printed at
Basle, in the Sixteenth Century (containing the
bookplate of Mr. W. Hammond); "L'Adone,"
by Cavalier Marino, Paris, 1623 ; and the Second
Part of Camoens' " Rimas Varias " (vols. III. V.),
Lisbon, 1688.
The Colonial Estimates for 187677 were
kindly presented by Mr. J. Noble, and a curious
specimen of an American newspaper by Mr. J. C.
Juta.
Several Native Photographs have been added
to the collection ; and, among them, one which
was taken from a portrait of the Kafir Chief Kreti,
and presented by the artist, Mr. W. Schroder.
Mr. H. C. Schunke has also presented a copy
12
of his Sketch Map of the scene of the late war in
the Transvaal.
The Treasurer's Account of the income and
expenditure during the past year, will now be
submitted.
ADDRESS.
His EXCELLENCY SIR H. B. E. FRERE then
delivered the following address :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, According to the
honoured custom of this institution, your
committee has called upon me to deliver to you
the annual address ; and in so doing they were
kind enough to offer me the widest possible
choice of all subjects in literature, science and
art. They put no restriction upon me, and, as
very often happens under such circumstances, I
found considerable difficulty in making any
selection, and came to the conclusion that I could
not do better than refer to the proceedings of my
predecessors, and take advice from those wise
and good men who have in bygone days ad-
dressed you from this chair. The committee were
kind enough to place at my disposal their records
of these discourses ; and I find that they touched
upon almost every possible topic likely to interest
those in South Africa connected with this insti-
tution. It struck me, therefore, that instead of
attempting to find anything new, with regard
to such topics, it might be of more practical use
to the institution if I were to take up the advice
of those who have gone before me and see how
for it had been acted on, and how what they have
14
wants and defects, and the best means of reme-
dy in ; them.
Now let us consider, in the first instance, what
one would expect, on landing- in Cape Town, to
iind in an institution of this kind. One would
naturally suppose that in the capital of South
Africa ^ there would be a handsome building-
devoted to science, literature and art ; and
as far as the building is concerned here, it un-
doubtedly is in our Library and Museum. You
would then also expect to find adjacent to such a
building agreeable pleasure grounds such as, I
think we may say, we have in the Botanical Gar-
dens. You would expect to find on the shelves
of the Library a collection of books which would
leave nothing to be desired in history, literature
or science, relating to this part of Africa.
On the Museum side complete collections of the
Natural History, Geology, and the principal pro-
ductions of the country.
Now let us consider how far the reality answers
this description- Beginning with the exterior,
we all know what a handsome and substantial
building this is, but can anyone say that they are
satisfied with the state of things around it ? The
temporary fences are by no means what they
ought to be, and, above all, there are two points
which admit of immediate improvement, and they
are of great practical moment. One is the very im-
perfect access to the Library. In weather like this
said could be applied for our benefit. I gene-
rally found with regard to such advice that it
was, in every respect, most excellent advice, but
that it had been most imperfectly followed, and
that what was now wanted was to devise means
of giving effect to what we already know and
what is generally acknowledged regarding our
15
you cannot get to the door dry-shod or free from
such a wetting as you may get in a very few
moments from a South African shower ; you
have no access to the garden close at hand. I
was very glad indeed to find that the committee
have already anticipated what is wanted in the
matter, and that they have pointed out the neces-
sity for improving the area in which this building
is situated ; but I noticed in the report a slight
vagueness as to how this was to be managed, and
having considered this matter with the advice of
the gentlemen interested, I find that we must
carry with us three or four distinct bodies. There
is not only your own committee and the body of
subscribers, but we must also get to unite with us
the committees and those interested in the
Museum and in the Botanic Gardens ; besides
the Municipality and a department of the Govern-
ment. This, in the first instance, is a difficulty
wliich has to be overcome. I beg you to bear
this in mind, because it will considerably affect
any suggestions with regard to the remedy.
Let us now enter the building and we shall find a
really magnificent collection of books. It has
long been the pride of Cape Town, and I think it
is a collection of which you may very justly be
proud. But when you go into details aud look
at the several departments of literature, it seems
to me, so far as 1 can judge, from a superficial
examination, to be very incomplete. Remember,
ladies and gentlemen, I do not come here to flatter
you or to say smooth things regarding this institu-
tion or anything else (applause). I come here in
the hope of telling you what is the view of an
outsider who has seen something of similar institu-
tions elsewhere, and who desires to give you his
honest impressions regarding those matters which
16
interest you ; and therefore if at any time I may
appear to be censorious. I trust you will make
allowance for what seems to me the most useful
part of the duty I have to perform (applause).
Besides the incompleteness of the collection, there
is no space for expansion, and that is one of the
greatest and most serious defects which can afflict
a public library. You find it more or less affecting
every great and growing library, because no
library can be great or complete which is not con-
stantly growing ; and unless you have the means
of expanding you may say that a library has
already ceased to be complete, and must be verg-
ing towards decay. Now your committee has
anticipated this want also, and there is doubtless
a great deal to be done by altering the staircases,
and improving the shelf accommodation. You may
by this means get some more room, but not, I think,
as much as you require ; and this alone will prevent
any very great additions to your collection. If you
got, for instance, such a fine addition to your
library as I saw just now in the committee-
room a great collection of books on natural
history where are they to go ? Where will
you find the table-room on which great works
like those of Gould and others can be spread out
and looked at, without being perpetually in-
jured? And, above all, where will you find the
means of accommodating those who require to
study them? In some parts of the collection
there are very notable deficiencies. Your collec-
tion of books on philosophy and ethics is not
what my friend Dr. Dale would desire, and with
regard to architecture, you must recollect that
everybody here present probably belongs to a
nation which has studied, and is studying, archi-
tecture as an art applied to every-day life . Our
17
best buildings here, are those which have
been built a long time ago, and with the excep-
of some of the great houses in your streets, the
domestic architecture is certainly not equal to
what it was during the time of our predecessors
(hear, hear), and even our predecessors are not
properly represented in this library. If anyone
was looking among these volumes for a good ex-
ample for a town hall, a great bank, houses of
parliament, or even a fine building for domestic
purposes, where ought he to expect to find what
he wants ? He would naturally wish to know
something of the halls and great buildings in
England, Belgium, France, and Holland, know-
ing that in records of them he would find a wealth
of architectural knowledge which has been fairly
represented by great illustrated works 011 archi-
tecture, accessible in almost every library in
Europe. But of these we find very few traces
here. Then, again, if we had such books we are
met by the same want of space. If you got the
great works of modern architects, where would
you spread them out here so that they should
not be perpetually injured ? Then, again, there is a
freat division of science as applied to daily domestic
fe which we find very imperfectly represented
here, and that is sanitary science. I would ask
Dr. Ebden how he is satisfied with the hooks
which are to be found in this department of the
library, as representing the modern sanitary
science of the civilized world ? This comes home
to us all very specially at this moment, and
though we may hope that that benevolent wind
which has done so much for us in time past will,
to some extent, purify the town in time to come,
still when we are advancing in the way in
which I see everything advancing in South
18
Africa, I think we are bonnd to see how people
in other parts of the civilized world protect
themselves from the dangers incident to liv-
ing in large, crowded places (applause). The
same remarks would apply to the science of
Meteorology, which is almost, as regards this
part of the world, popularly speaking, a
blank. We have most valuable additions to
the science in the observations made at the
Observatory, but how far do those observations
do the work of similar observations at Green-
wich and Kew, in being immediately applied to
save the lives of citizens of this country, which
is, after all, one of their great objects ? When
you are complaining of the way in which your
health is affected in this country, the first ques-
tions you would ask would be about the winds
and the fall of rain, and of other data, of which,
popularly speaking, so far as they are accessible
to the active medical practitioner, you have very
few records. Again, with regard to foreign litera-
ture, consider how few shelves contain all we
possess as representing the classics of France,
Italy, or Germany. Last, but not least, I would
ask my reverend friends here present, how they
are satisfied with the theological collection ? I
should have hoped to find this branch of litera-
ture at any rate fairly represented ; and let us do
justice to our predecessors in saying that on the
shelves above you will find, in the Dutch collec-
tion, of the Dessinian Library the theology of
Holland a century and a half ago adequately
represented ; but with regard to all the strife and
struggle of modern days and the discoveries of
theology as connected w r ith antiquarian research,
where is the result which we may find upon our
shelves? And this is a very serious drawback to
us, in every respect (hear, hear).
19
Having now gone through the very ungrateful
task of pointing out some of the defects, let us now
come to the more practical question of the remedy ;
and here I find I am treading upon debatable
ground, but I will tell you frankly what appears
to me to be the case, and if we differ I trust you will
convince me that I am wrong, and I shall only be
too glad if the result is that we come to the truth at
last. One remedy proposed for our want of space is
that this Library having already attained the
fullest dimensions of which it is capable, with
regard to the building assigned to it, should be
made a library of science, of works of reference
and solid learning, and that readers of light
literature should go to a circulating library for
novels, romances, and periodicals (applause).
Well, gentlemen, there is one thing that can be
said in favour of this plan, it is certainly very
effectual, ft is what you call very " root-and-
branch " kind of work ; but the difficulty you
will find, directly you begin to apply this prin-
ciple to practice, is to decide where you will
draw the line (hear, hear). Of course, if you
carried it out very rigidly indeed, you may as
well shut up the Library altogether, except to
a very few of those who would wish to consult
it (applause). Would you draw the line at science
pure and simple ? or at what branch of literature ?
Shall Divinity be included or excluded? What
will you say to history and the classics ? and,
when you begin shutting out works of fiction, do
you mean to exclude the Greek and Latin poets ?
or, if you allow them, how will you do with trans-
lations and imitations ? Practically, you will find
no such line can be drawn. There is but one line,
so far as I know in practice, that you can draw,
and that is, that you shall say that a work, no
c
20
matter what its subject, which is valuable and
difficult to replace shall not be taken out of the
building. That is not by any means such a diffi-
cult thing to settle. You can at any time
say," This is a work which, if it is lost, we can
replace, and if damaged we can mend ; " on the
other hand, if it is a rare, valuable, or expensive
work, which it is difficult to replace and which it
would be a great reproach to injure, then I think
you may safely say, that " Such a book shall not
go out of the library ; it is quite sufficient to allow
everybody to come here and consult it." But
then the question how far your library shall be
simply a reading-room, and whether you shall let
any portion of it circulate beyond its walls is by
no means so plain a matter as it may appear,
because there are some libraries, like that in the
British Museum, for instance, which allow no
book to be taken outside the walls ; and there are
others, like the library at the India House, "where
there are a great number of very valuable MSS.
which, under proper restrictions, are allowed to
be sent to different parts of the world. Some of
them have, at different times, been sent to India,
Russia, Germany and other places. To do this in-
volves much trouble and some cost, but if you like
to go to the expense of so doing, you may make a
library as free as you please to all at a distance
as well as to those near. But if you do not do
this, and in our case we cannot afford the ex-
pense, you must draw a line between the costly
and the less valuable books, and not allow any
books to be taken out of the building which can-
not be easily replaced ; and I think that this is one
of the practical matters to which you should in the
first instance address yourselves. You have a
great number of very valuable works, many of
21
which ought never to leave this library ^ some of
them, I am told, have gone to distant parts of the
colony, where they have been for several years,
and tlie sooner you get them back and never let
them go out again, the better for the library.
Then with regard to what you should do for the
future, and this is really the practical question.
It seems to me that both the extreme parties to
this discussion between the merits of light and
solid literature rather miss the mark that, after
all, there is a great deal to be said on both sides,
and that the true way is a medium course. Any-
thing like an exclusion of works of fiction or a
serious curtailment of works of imagination,
seems to me to go rather upon a mistaken con-
ception of the use of a library, because we know
that books are, after all, but the embodied thoughts
of mankind, and a great public library should
adequately represent the embodied thoughts of
all mankind who immediately or remotely concern
us in times ancient or modern. From this point
of view who can say that the greatest philosopher
or the gravest politician can do without the shelves
of fiction ? What historian could write of ancient
Greece, or Rome, or Syria, without a reference to
poets and dramatists? Who could picture the
England of the Plantagenets without Chaucer ? or
of the Tudors without a diligent study of Spencer
and Shakespeare and the dramatists? Milton,
Waller, and Lovelace are as necessary to a study
of the Stuart era as Clarendon or Bacon are. Can
anyone of us imagine Macaulay writing history
without his novels or his newspapers and his bun-
dles of lampoons and epigrams ? And let us come
closer to our own time : Who can understand the
politics or social problems of modern England
without at least some knowledge of Thackeray,
c 2
22
Dickens, -and of our excellent contemporary
Punch, as well as of the works of Coleridge and
Wordsworth, of Tennyson and Browning?
I think you may get a good deal of
instruction on this point if you look at what any
great writer has told us of the works with which
he used to be most familiar as a youth. You will
probably most of you have very recently read
what Macaulay tells us on this subject, and what
his friends recount of him. If you look at
Southey's history of his own youthful studies, ycu
will find he read not only a great deal of history,
deep philosophy, and theology, but also that his
great favourites were works of fiction from
u Robinson Crusoe" and the "Pilgrim's Pro-
gress " down to the poets and novelists of his
own time and that he set as much store, in
judging of what he should write for a grave
article in the Quarterly, upon his reading in fiction,
as he did upon his studies in history or philosophy.
I think we may look also at what is done by
modern students and philosophers in this matter.
At the " Athenaeum " Club in London, they boast
of having the best library of any club in the
metropolis, and I believe they are not without
reason in their boast. When you go in there, you
meet not only great divines and statesmen, men
of science like Huxley, Tyndal, and Carpenter,
and other modern philosophers, but you meet
practical men, engaged in engineering or
statesmanship, and every other walk in life ; and
if you watch their reading, you will find that they
do not by any means confine themselves to the
shelves of pure science. There are a con-
siderable number of standard works of imagination
and fiction on the shelves, but there is, in the middle
of the great room, a very long table at which you
23
will find, as it comes out, almost every work of
poetry or imagination as it is published in
London, and the busiest and the most philosophi-
cal members are as constant in their
attendance there as any of the youngest and
least occupied (hear, hear.) I may tell you further
that this power of commanding all the stores of
modern literature may be combined with a due
regard to economy, for we must recollect that a
philosopher is not always nor often a very rich
man, and that he is obliged to study economy
even more than the general reader does. I will
give you an illustration from what I saw at a li-
brary in Kurachee, in India, the first library, by
the way, in which we had the same excellent rule
that you have here, of allowing all comers to
read. There was a man whom I used to observe
there a common soldier, who had never got
either a corporal's or a Serjeant's stripes on his
arm, and I was told afterwards that, not being
particularly smart, though a very good, steady
man, he did not aspire even to be a corporal.
But this private soldier was most constant in
his attendance, at the library, and I was curious
to know what was his course of reading, and I
found he had been reading the works of Jeremy
Bentham, straight through from beginning to
end. I would ask you to consider the amount
of determination and philosophical spirit that
must have been in that man to make him go
steadily through the works of Jeremy Bentham,
volume by volume. He had got through, I
think, ten volumes, which I found he had read
through and steadily studied, for I found he
knew very well what their contents were. But
how did he manage it ? I found he never took
two volumes running : he ahvays took between
24
two volumes of Bentham one or two good novels,
and refreshed himself, after going over the dry
heights of political science, by a spell of Thackeray
or Dickens. It always struck me that that man's
example was an instructive one for us all. But how
are we to combine the power of consulting
valuable, solid works, and of reading the general
literatue of the day? It seems to me you
might very well adopt what is the plan at the
great libraries in London, for instance, the Athe-
naeum Library. We have a very jealous committee
there, who take very good care that they do not
buy or put on the shelves any work which is not
of standard merit. They take the greatest care
that, if a novel is purchased, it is a good novel
which has been stamped as giving its impress to
some thought of the age, and that it is properly
bound and placed upon the shelves. But the bulk
of what you may call circulating literature, current
words of imagination and fiction, is supplied to
the members by the great lending libraries, like
Mudie's, Hookham's, and so on, who lend out
their works to the club as to a private subscriber.
These great circulating libraries take a great num-
ber of every work that comes out, in proportion to
what they think is likely to be the public demand
for it fifty or sixty, or perhaps a couple of hun-
dred copies sometimes of one work, and they lend
them out at fixed charges to all their subscribers,
to institutions as well as to individuals. I know
institutions quite as distant as this, which mado
an agreement with one of these circulating libraries.
Sometimes they have such a circulating library
close at hand, and I hope we shall not be with-
out one here very long. The great library makes
an agreement with a circulating library to fur-
nish one or two or more copies of every work,
25
which is likely to be popular, as it comes out,
and these are sent, if the subscriber is at a distance
from London, in a weekly or monthly box. You
could have no difficulty in getting such a box
sent out to you here every week. One merit of
this plan is that you can do everything that is
required by simply having one careful assistant
in addition to the ordinary libiarian. Mr.
Maskew, the librarian of this institution, could, I
am sure, easily manage with one intelligent
young man as an assistant. He could keep a
complete check upon a system of this kind, and
would let you have your works of fiction or imagi-
nation, or anything else, voyages, travels, or bio-
graphy as they came out, or as soon as they
could be got by anyone living at a distance of
three weeks' voyage from London. Now this, I
believe, is a most practical and easy matter, and
it is one which requires only a little corres-
pondence and attention to enable it to be carried
out. It would also avoid such difficulties as I
have been told of occurring to subscribers here
who live close at hand. I have heard of one
case where it took seventeen months to get a
copy of a popular work, which almost everyone
wished to read, which, of course, is quite equi-
valent to a prohibition.
In whatever aspect you view these questions
they seem to me always to point to want of more
room, and of more money.
Taking first the question of more room, the point
is how best to utilise what you have now got.
We have spoken of fresh shelves and of a fresh
staircase^ but one thing that occurs to me is,
that the large central hall is a sort of Nomans-
land, between the Museum and this institution.
I see that the great elephant-seal has got in
20
there, and having got in there, I have no doubt
he would have come on and taken possession of
this room also, but he could not get through the
door, apparently, and there he is. There are also
some pictures which I think would probably be
as much appreciated if they belonged to an art
institution. They are at present indifferently
hung as regards light, and unless you get upon
the back of the seal you cannot well see the
merits and they are very great of those faith-
ful portraits of South African scenery (applause) .
I think that some of my friends here could tell
us how to make a fair division of that room
which would make it more useful to both the
Museum and this institution, and relieve, to some
extent, the present want of space.
Then there is also a mode of dealing with a
library of this kind, which I cannot recommend
should be carried out to any very great extent,
but which would furnish you with more room, and
that is that there might be some weeding. I do not
know that this could be carried out to an extent
that would give you any practical addition to
your room ; but if it could, let me suggest that
where you have several duplicates you might
send them to some of our friends at a distance,
to places like Port Elizabeth, Natal, Bloemfon-
tein and Kimberley. They are all parts of South
Africa, and I hope that they will, in time, have
libraries quite as large as this is at present. But,
however much you may weed, you would still
require more room, and looking at the question
in its entirety, I do not see how you can do
without building. You must add very consider-
ably, whether you look to the Museum or whether
you look to the library, unless you choose to
stand still and allow decay to commence ; be-
27
cause any institution like that Museum or like
this library, which does not go on, must begin to
go back, and a condition of continual progress,
in this as in other affairs, is the only condition of
safety (applause).
A friend, to whom I am indebted for many
suggestions on these subjects, reminded me of
the great plan of Sir George Grey, to whom so
much of what we have around us is due ; namely,
to have a suitable building for the University at
the other end of the Garden, and the Library and
Museum at this end. That is an idea which, I
trust, will some of these days be carried out. I hope
the day will come when it will be a reasonable
and practicable thing to ask for such assistance
from the Government, as the erection of a really
handsome University building at the other end
of the garden (hear, hear). Meantime, however,
do not let us deceive ourselves in this matter.
To ask for such things just at this present mo-
ment is simply to ask for impossibilities. There-
fore, let us look at what is practicable and near
at hand, and looking at this I find that the whole
of this building- was evidently designed for
extension. Both ends of the building, and this
south-western facade, are finished architecturally,
but there is nothing at all in the state of architec-
tural finish on the side facing the Cathedral,
and there can be no doubt, if you look up the
plans of the building, as originally designed, you
will find it was intended to be extended in that
direction. I have not seen the old plans, but
I am quite certain that what the architect in-
tended was an extension in that direction ; and I
think you would find, if you referred the matter
to architects, and to the advisers of the Govern-
ment in such matters, that such extension, by
28
means of a building of glass and iron, such
as would be constructed in Paris or London,
would be by no means a difficult or expen-
sive matter. I trust this will be one of the
subjects that will be taken up by your
new committee.
Then there is another matter which is also one
of very practical moment which greatly concerns
the utility of the library, and that is the want of
a catalogue. This is also a matter, to some extent,
of expense, but it would be very moderate, and
rnors a question of arrangement and perseverance
than of any very great cost. I should be very glad,
indeed, having had some little experience in
catalogue-making in large libraries in Europe, to
give niy personal assistance to those who are
interested in having a catalogue (applause). I
am quite satisfied, moreover, that the expense of
getting a good catalogue would pay for itself.
If you only do the thing well, it need be no
burden upon the funds of the institution.
There are two parts of this library, which I
believe to be unique in Africa and probably in the
civilized world. I refer to the Grey Library, and
to all you have there of the recorded labours
of the late Dr. Bleek. I know there are some
of my utilitarian friends who rather look
upon this portion of the library as an ornament,
and, in some sense, as taking up room which might
be used for what appears to be more immediately
practical purposes. But I would ask them to
consider what title w T e have in South Africa to
the respect and consideration of the civilized
world apart from our position as a great and
growing community ? Now, if you were to ask
anyone, say in America, in England, or in
Germany, any man who is connected with the
20
great centres of intellectual thought, " For
what is South Africa famous?" I fancy, accord-
ing to his peculiar studies, his answer would
probably be : "It is the place where Sir John
Herschel lived for a long, time; where he ob-
served, and where he brought to the knowledge
of mankind all that he has told us of the South-
ern Hemisphere, and his reflections on what he
had seen in the Northern Hemisphere, and where
his work is being carried on by Professor Stone."
Another answer might also be : " It is the place
where Sir George Grey did so much for science
and for the country." But if the person interro-
gated were connected with ethnology or philology
or any of the learned branches of literature con-
nected therewith, which are most attended to in
Germany, Russia, France, England, and Holland,
he would say : u It is the place where Dr. Bleek
laboured so well, and made such wonderful dis-
coveries in philology and ethology " (applause).
In fact, what is contained in the Grey Library is
one of your best titles to a high place among the
civilized communities of the world (applause).
Now this work, as you are aware, has been left
unfinished ; but depend upon it, if we value our
own character, it must be carried on and com-
pleted, and I think the sooner we set ourselves
to work to do this the better. I am certain that the
Government of this colony is with us in this
matter, and that we shall have all reasonable
assistance from them ; but it is a question which
is much more for the consideration of the sub-
scribers to this Library, because if any
of us look upon this as more than a mere
circulating library, depend upon it the soul and
kernel of the institution is in that corner in the
Grey Library. I trust this will be taken seriously
30
in hand, and that we may all think over the
matter, and see how this work of Dr. Bleek's may
be completed . Do not let us think it is by any
means a matter of mere science and literature.
I was quite startled on hearing the report read
just now, to find how far the influence of his
work had spread. We were told of the contri-
butions to the Grey Library from Finland and
Madagascar, but I would ask what title have we
to the attention of Finland and Madagascar if it
is not from their knowing that we attend to
these particular branches of study which Dr.
Bleek made his own, and that they hope we are
carrying them on.
But, again you have this year contributions in
your libraryof great value from Dr. Stewart, at Lake
Nyassa, and from Bishop Steere, of Zanzibar. I
need hardly remind you of what these men are
doing. It is true their primary function, is to
preach the Gospel to the heathen, but both of
them have given much time, labour, and atten-
tion, we can hardly say to the literature of the
heathen, because they have no literature at
present, but to the task of making a litera-
ture for them, to learn all about their language
and the affinities of their language. Just consider
for a moment of how much practical money value
is the work of Dr. Bleek to Dr. Stewart and Bishop
Steere and to all who are dealing with
the languages of South Africa, All of us
know and venerate Dr. Moffat; we know how
he has devoted himself to the translation of the
book of books, the Bible, into the language of
the Bechuanas, the people among whom he lived
and laboured. Apart from all questions of
theology and morality, that Book is the
Magna Charta of civilization \ to those people
31
and it is the first business ot any man
who wishes to raise them or make them any-
thing better than they are, to give them a trans-
lation of the Bible. Here, then, we have men
who have devoted their lives first of all to learn-
ing the language, and then to translating the
Bible, and I was asking the oilier day just before
I left London,, why have not we got this
work of Moffat's published ? I was told
there were difficulties of transliteration ; it was
difficult to know how the Bechuana words were
to be properly expressed in tho alphabet we
use, and here this whole work of printing the
translation of the Bible has been kept back by want
of what it is the peculiar province of men like Dr.
Bleek to teach us. It may seem a very small
thing, but the proper expression in our letter
of a Kafir word is a matter of the utmost im-
portance to anybody dealing with Kafirs ; and
as we all have, more or less, to deal with them
and other native races in South Africa, do not let
us suppose that these questions of philological
scholarships are matters of purely theoretical
moment. They concern the printer, the missionary,
the legislator, the lawyer, and everybody connected
with practical life in Africa, and you have only to
give the very moderate remuneration which is
required, to secure the services of scholars who
work not for lucre, but for the love of the work
they are doing, and you may secure for yourselves
a good hard return in pounds, shillings, and
pence. I would, therefore, put this before you as
a practical matter, and I would ask you never
to think that the labours of Dr. Bleek or
those associated with him as men of pure litera-
ture and philologists, are matters which are not of
practical moment.
$3
Then there is another part of the library which
is, I believe, also unique and it is the Dutch
library upstairs, which was left to the country so
long ago by patriotic Dutchmen and "es-
pecially by its founder Dessin. That part
of the library, is I believe, in particular branches,
quite unique, but^ again it is not complete.
You will search in vain for a proper represen-
tation of modern Dutch literature, and if Mr.
Motley came among us to-day, I fancy he would be
startled to find how very little bearing upon the
most interesting part of Dutch history we have to
show him. What was done in Holland two or
three hundred years ago is of infinite importance
to every Englishman, American, and Australian.
The history and struggles for freedom of that
nation are matters of home-life importance to
everyone of us. I think that this defect of modern
Dutch Literature ought to be looked to immediately
by all who consider themselves as representing our
great predecessors on this continent. There is no
doubt that but for our predecessors we should
not have been here ; we should not at any rate
have occupied the great position we do now,
and the sooner we set to work to let every
Dutchman who comes among us see that his
literature is adequately represented here,the better.
There is one phase of the matter in which
our Government has already taken action.
You will, I think, be pleased with the report
of Dr. Van Oordt, which has been submitted
to the Government, and which, will in due
time be laid before Parliament, regarding your
old records. All those records are now at last safe
from fire and further destruction and dispersion,
and in hands which will take care of them, and
I trust means will be found for publishing
33
them or selections from them. You have
here an immense fund of what is of great
interest to everybody in South Africa. In
glancing over Dr. Van Oordt's report, I saw men-
tion of such things as the complete journals of Gov-
ernor Van Riebeek, containing weather reports
almost daily , and his j ourney s in different parts of the
colonv, which I will answer for it, would everyone
of them afford two or three good articles, very read-
able and very instructive to any of our friends
who have a little leisure to write for our instruc-
tion or amusement. Then you have reports upon
the Kafirs arid reports upon Indian affairs two
hundred years old of infinite interest. In this
century you have General Jansen's journeys for
three years ; then you have the journeys of Mr.
Lichtenstein " To vaccinate in the Karroo," and to
read what such an eminent man of science as he
was saw and observed in those days must be
highly interesting. Then there are some notes
by Mr. Rhynveldt On the introduction ofwoolled
sheep, which were then a perfect novelty. That
would be most interesting to our friends the
farmers. Then there are papers on missionary
matters eighty years ago, which must be of infinite
interest. I think among the things which we
ought to try to make one of the results of this
library, is the getting up of a society for the
publication of historical documents relating to
the Cape (applause). I trust a great many of
them will ba published in extenso, so that they
may speak for themselves. I believe that for
many years to come you wquld find an ample
supply of material to employ a good secretary of
such a society in preparing for the press, and
seeing through the press, some of the records of
our predecessors in this colony.
34
To return, however, to the library, we come
back to the question of " How are the increased
means to be got for all we wish to do? " and
that means an increased number of subscribers.
There are many ways in which, I have no doubt,
if you had a little more space you would get a
great deal more in the way of additions to the
library. People talk in this country sometimes
as if public spirit in the w^ay of bequests or gifts
were something exotic or foreign ; but when I
look around me I find that this is far from being
the case. You have several instances of princely
munificence in the way of gifts, and when you look
at the records of those who followed Dessin the good
Dutchmen who founded the library, and read of
the bequests and gifts of Sir George Grey and
Mr. Porter, the Gill bequest for educational pur-
poses, and what Mr. Bayley left for art, I cannot
help thinking you have among you quite as
much public spirit in that way as any other com-
munity I ever had the honour of knowing, and that
it requires only that people should know there is
space to receive their gifts, and public spirit to take
care of them, for you to get much larger bequests
than those received hitherto.
There has been some endeavour to bring in
more subscribers by extending the hours during
which the library is open daily, but this has never
got to quite the length of adopting the suggestion
to light it up. It is quite possible there may be
objections in the apprehended danger of fire which
may be an obstacle to lighting up the library, but
let me on this point give you the experience of a
man who has probably known more of what it is
to have to do with valuable property, and to
guard it against fire than anyone else has. I once
heard the testimony given by Sir Henry Cole
35
regarding precautions to be taken against fire in
such institutions as great Exhibitions where you
have temporary and very inflammable buildings,
and a vast amount of valuable property concen-
trated. The question was discussed, " What form
of building is best adapted for security against
fire ?" Sir Henry Cole stated, and I think his
view was agreed in by a very large number of
men, some of them dealing with large warehouses
and some of them with libraries, that the only real
safeguard against fire was watchfulness, and
having at hand the means of readily extinguishing
fir-3. If time permitted, I could go into the details
they gave, to show that no particular construction
of building, and no exclusion of lights or any
thing else will preserve a building from the risk of
fire. Nothing will avail except perpetual watchful-
ness, and having the means at hand of extin-
guishing the fire, in the shape of plenty of water
and buckets to use it always ready. When I
asked Sir Henry Cole how it was that during so
many years such an enormous extent of buildings
filled with inflammable materials and valuable
property as that in which he was specially inter-
ested, the South Kensington Museum, had been
free from serious loss by fire, he said, " Look at
those buckets hung up, and look at the water-
tanks which we take care to have always filled,
and look at the watchmen whom we have always
in attendance." It was stated by him, and by
others who had equal experience, that iron and stone
and cement were utterly vain to make buildings
fireproof, as could be seen from the numerous
fires which took place in warehouses, &c., where
there was no light used at night ; the only safe-
guard is perpetual watchfulness.
I should like before we part, to say a word on
D
36
what I thii)k is due from everyone who uses this
library, and that is, that we should do something
to revive the former society which existed, for
making use of what you read here in the way either
of lectures or papers of permanent interest, given,
by those who use the library, to their friends and
fellow-students. It seems to me a very serious
reflection upon us as a community containing so
many people of culture, and with such a valuable
library, that we have nothing in the shape of a
literary society, and I should like to see, as one
of the results of this meeting a revival of the old
Cape Town Literary Society. A "Boyal South
African Society of Literature, Science, and Art,"
would I am sure, find numerous supporters (hear,
hear). They say you cannot get people together
here, but 1 am quite certain if you set about it in
the right way, you will find plenty of people ready
to come forward. They may require, possibly,
some variation in the time of meeting. Some
of our societies at home make it a point to meet
at three o'clock, so that members can get out to
their dinners betimes ; others make it a point to
meet after dinner, and both plans have their
recommendations. Let us consider the matter,
and I am sure if we properly choose the day and
hour, even our men of business who are most
engaged, would find time to attend and help us
occasionally with a paper on some subject of
interest to us. There is an immense choice (as I
think anybody may see who looks at our monthly
magazine) of subjects in literature and science,
travels and statistics. On this point let me re-
mind you that all the astronomical observations
which we have, of such infinite value, and others
go into a very small compass. Papers of that
kind added to our transactions in other depart-
ments of a literary or scientific society would
command the attention of the whole civilized
world, and scientific men would take in the trans-
actions of any such society simply that they might
get in a popular and accessible form the results
of the observations at the Cape Observatory.
Then with regard to natural history, Mr. Trimen
will tell us how much has still to be learned and
recorded in the way of botany and forestry, with
its bearing upon the commercial and economical
interests of the colony. The discussion of such
matters would afford the means of publishing
papers which would not only be of interest to us
here when read, but also of permanent interest to
people at a distance. I was a good deal interested
when I was in England in the Roj al Geographical
Society, and it seemed to me a strange thing that
we got so little directly from the Cape. I took
it for granted that you had here a branch of the
Geographical Society, and let me remind you
how many points there are here of interest to
feographers. I do not know whether Mr. De
midt can tell us the exact course of the Orange
River, or what is its average discharge, or how
its discharge varies at different seasons, but if he
cannot, let me point out to active young man travel-
ling about the country, that there is a great deal
yet to be learned regarding the geography of this
immediate country, which would be of great inter-
est, not only here, but also to people at a distance.
It was only just before I left home that it began
to dawn upon geographers in Europe that after
all the Kalihari desert was really no desert at all,
but probably a very profitable sheep walk and
in time I hope we shall have Kalihari wool as
much thought of in the market as any of the
merinos. I do not know of any desert spot be-
D 2
38
tween this and the Zambesi, which you could say-
is a desert in the ordinary sense of the word
unless it is where you find the riches
of nature hidden beneath the surface, and these
are quite as attractive probably to mercantile
men and men of science as the parts which are
covered with verdure.
I must not, however, go through any more of
these topics, on which I could dwell to an extent
which would tire the patience of everyone here,
but I will briefly sum up what are the results
at which I would wish you to arrive.
First of all, I would wish you to pay a little
more attention to externals and consider that
it is a part of our duty not to let strangers,
Avhen they come to the Cape, wander in
the Botanical Gardens on the other side
of those stakes, and wonder why they cannot
get in here. It is a national duty to make the
best of what we have got in the first instance,
and we should call upon those who are charged
with the trusteeship of this institution and others
in the neighbourhood, to do their duty in telling
us what money is wanted, and how it is to be got.
Do not let us say that we will go to the Govern-
ment for it, because I think I can prophesy pretty
accurately that Government will very justly say
you must first of all do something for yourselves
(hear, hear). What I imagine is the only real
legitimate function of Government in connection
with such an institution is this that when the
institution becomes rich, and has a vast amount
of accumulated treasures belonging to the nation
at large, then the Government should take care
that it is not misapplied, and see that there is a
proper trusteeship, and under certain circum-
stances they may assist in providing a proper
and secure habitation. But there the proper
function of Government ends, and beyond that,
for everything else that you want, you ought to
rely upon self-help (hear, hear).
Then I have alluded to the want of space, the
want of more-shelf room, and the necessity for
utilizing that central hall, and above all, the
want of some addition to the building.
I have spoken of the want of a catalogue,
and the want of proper arrangement for
light literature, literature of a kind that you do
not want to see put permanently on your shelves.
Besides this, you want proper provision for
the future utilization and perfection of the Grey
library, and of Dr. Bleek's labours.
Then I would ask you to consider the desirability
of having an historical society for the publication of
historical texts, and abstracts" of those texts and
translations, and so on ; and also of having
lectures periodically by those who value the use of
the libraiy, for their benefit of the fellow-citizens.
You should consider how Government may be
asked to take a proper interest in the library as
trustees, not, remember, as finding the means
of extension.
There is not one of these suggestions
which is new. I have merely taken them
from the labours of my predecessors, and tried to
condense and put them before yoa in a practical
shape. I would ask you to consider them, and
if you think proper, after considering them say
for a month or so, and adjourning this meeting,
you might call upon your trustees and the
committee you will now have to appoint, also
those in charge of the Museum, the Botanic
Gardens, and the art collection, to consult to-
gether and consider how this library, which
40
is, after all, the central and most permanent
point of interest to all, shall be made most use
of, and how it shall be extended and made
worthy of your position as tlie greatest city of
South Africa. I only trust you will pardon me
for the very great length to which my remarks
have extended (loud applause.)
Dr. Dale said he rose to move a vote of thanks
to His Excellency for the very excellent address
just delivered. He felt sure that the incoming
Committee would take into their careful consider-
ation all that the Governor had suggested. The
most important suggestion of all, as regarded our
intellectual life, was the last, namely, if possible,to
revive the old Literary and Philosophical Society,
of which the late Sir John Herschel boasted he
was a member. \Ye ought to encourage the meet-
ing together of those interested in science, litera-
ture, and art, and so freshen ourselves up from
time to time by letting mind come in contact with
mind instead of rusting away, and, hermit-like,
reading our books by our fireside, and having
very little interchange of thought or opinion (hear,
hear). He was only afraid that, in offering any
remarks, lie should spoil the effect of the
practical address of the Governor. He felt sure
they were all indebted to His Excellency for
coming among them at so early a period of his
official career, and leaving all the more attractive
political duties to come down here to our quite
quiet home of literature. This used to be called
the great complimentary day of Cape Town, when
everybody met to pass compliments on everybody,
else. It was called by some the " Mutual butter-
ing day " (laughter). He was very glad that His
Excellency had adopted another course. He had
certainly not buttered them to-day, and, being an
41
old resident himself, he did feel pretty consider-
ably ashamed at the catalogue of deficiencies His
Excellency had raked up against them (laughter).
He had the pleasure a few days ago of accompany-
ing the Governor to the back parts of the build-
ing, with a view to find out where an extension
could be made, but he was sorry to say that
when they had got a few paces, they could pro-
ceed no further, owing to the amount of mud and
other little addenda, which ought not to be found
in the precincts of the noblest institution in
South Africa. He hoped that others felt as
ashamed as he did, for if so, he was sure they
would all meet together, and by mutual co-oper-
ation, get rid of some of the present defects.
He moved that the assembly express its thanks to
His Excellency the Governor by rising (applause).
The motion was carried by acclamation.
His Excellency then said the only remaining
duty was to appoint the committee of manage-
ment for the ensuing year, which devolved upon
the subscribers but he would ask those who were
not subscribers, not to go away without determin-
ing to do something for the library. In this re-
spect the ladies had a great deal more influence
than the gentlemen. He hoped that they would
not none of them, not even the youngest, be con-
tent till they had secured at least one vote for
making the Library what it ought to be (applause).
SAUL SOLOMON & Co.. PKINTEKS. CAPE TOWN.
PROCEEDINGS
FIFTIETH illlTlllllT lEETUft
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
&fricrat f ubltc f ibrarjr,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 21sx MAY, 1879.
n ntr.
CAPE TOWN:
SAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1879.
)0
Committee :
Ho*. THOS. UPINGTON. | R. M. ROSS, Esq.
F. G. GOODLIFFE Esq. (Treas )
E. J. BUCHANAN, Esq.
REV. Du. CAMERON.
Dp k . DALE.
PROFESSOK GILL.
H. W. PIERS, Esq.
W. HIDDIN'GH, Esq.
JOHN NOBLE, Esq. | J. C. GIB, Esq.
aittr
F. MASKEW, Esq.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
In presenting the Report of the past year's proceed-
ings, the Committee have to state that they had an
interview with the Honourable the Colonial Secretary
in reference to the reduction made by his predecessor in
office, in the Parliamentary Grant in aid of the Library,
and explained to him that the Grant was originally made
without any stipulations whatever, and they therefore
respectfully requested the Honourable the Colonial
Secretary to reconsider the matter, and to sanction the
payment of the balance due for last year, as well as the
continuance of the Giant for the future. After some
discussion about the constitution of the Library, as well
as that of the Grey Collection, the Colonial Secretary
expressed the willingness of Government to restore the
Grant to its original amount, and to pay the balance
due on the last year's Parliamentary Grant.
The C)mmittee have to acknowledge with thanks
the presentation by William Hiddingh, Esq., of a com-
plete set of mahogany bookcases for the Committee
Room, which will afford additional accommodation for
about five thousand volumes. This generous gift is
another instance of the munificence of this gentleman,
to whom the Institution is already indebted for the
handsome cases which grace the hall as well as the
gallery of the Library ; and your Committee feel con-
fident that the present gift cannot but be highly
B 2
appreciated by the " subscribers as well as the public
generally.
Application was made during the year by the
University Council for the use of the Library Hall,
for the purpose of continuing a course of lectures
which had been so successfully inaugurated last year,
and to which your Committee readily acceded, but
owing to unforseen circumstances the arrangement
could not be carried out by the University.
The Library Hall was, as last year, placed at the
disposal of the University for the annual ceremony of
conferring of degrees.
The accession of books in the different departments
of science and literature is as follows, viz :
Miscellaneous Theology ... 6 volumes.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 10
Science and the Arts a, 25
Voyages and Travels 68
History 28
Biography 43
Belles Lettres 48
Miscellaneous 106
Amongst them are included many valuable works
presented by the Royal Society, the Royal Astro-
nomical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the
Royal Colonial Institute, the Zoological Society, the
Managers of the Society of Gray's Inn, the India
Office, London, the Smithsonian Institution, Washing-
ton, His Excellency Sir Bartle Frere, the Hon.
Commissioner of Public Works, Professor MacOwan,
Somerset East, Rev. TV. J. Jeffreys, Worcester, Mr.
S. Alexander, and Mr. George Hodgskin, England,
to all of whom the cordial thanks of the subscribers
are due.
Duriijg the past year the Committee have had under
consideration, the desirability of filling up from time
to time as the finances at their disposal will admit,
some of the departments in Literature and Science,
and for that purpose they have appointed a sub-Com-
mittee to make a selection of such works as might be
needed to supply the different gaps ; and in furtherance
of that object, an order has been forwarded to the
London Bookseller, which may shortly be expected to
arrive. The Committee have also to state, that at
their request Mr. Fforde, Chief of the Public Works
Department, has been so good as to furnish them with
a list of books on Civil Engineering and Architecture,
which in his opinion ought to be on the shelves of the
Institution, and which is at present under consideration ,
Under the Copyright Act, the Committee have re-
ceived a copy of a Map of the Colony, compiled by
the Surveyor-General's Department, and several works
published in the Colony during the past year.
The attendance of readers and visitors to the Insti-
tution has been much in excess of that of the previous
year. From a record kept by the Officers of the
Institution, the total number of visitors during the
year amounted to 21452, making an average of 79
daily ; the largest number on any one day was 153, and
the lowest, 48.
The issue of books and periodicals during the past
year has been as follows, viz. :
Miscellaneous Theology 77 vol.
Political Economy, Government, &c. ... 77
Science and the Arts ... ... ... 168
Voyages and Travels 1,098
History 449
Biography ... ... ... ... 568
Belles Lettres 642
Novels 6,100
Reviews and Periodicals 5,961
From this return as compared with that of the pre-
vious year it will be seen that there is a falling off in
the circulation of standard works by 283 volumes, of
Miscellaneous 1272, \vhilstthecirculation of reviews
and periodicals is about the same as last year.
The Committee have much pleasure in stating that
the inventory catalogue has been completed, and that
the Librarian is about to commence the classification
of the same, with a view to the publication of an en-
larged catalogue.
P.S An important communication from the Hon.
the Colonial Secretary, in reference to the Grey Collec-
tion, was received by the Committee after the fore-
going Report had been dra\vn up. In this communica-
tion it is proposed that the Government and the
Library Committee should co-operate in the selection
and maintenance of a Philologist, who, while engaged
in scientific study of the native languages of South
Africa, should also be charged by the Library Com-
mittee with the custodianship of the Grey Collection.
Your Committee, considering that a matter of such
importance should not be disposed of without full de-
liberation, has left the decision on this subject to their
successors in office ; and the Government has been
informed that a special meeting of the new Committee
will at once be summoned for the purpose of consider-
ing the proposals of the Government.
The additions during the past year to the literature
of the Native Languages contained in the Library pre-
sented by Sir George Grey have again been both
numerous and important.
In Kafir, pieces of Native Literature accompanied
by translation into English have been received from
the Rev. A. Kropf, Superintendent of Berlin Missions
in British Kaffraria, Mr. G. Me. Theal, and Mr. W.
G. Stanford. The contribution sent by the latter
gentleman contains a curious account of a recent event
in Zululand, as already related in a legendary form
among the Batembu. A copy of an English-Kafir
Dictionary, by the Rev. W. J. Davis (London, 1877),
has been pres3nted on behalf of the Author by the
Rev Wm. Holford ; and a Hymn Book, compiled by
the Rev. A. Kropf(Erm?, 1877), by himself. Nine
sheets containing Kafir Hymns with musical notation ,
printed at Lovedale (the music being chiefly by Mr.
Knox Bokwe), have been presented by Mr. Theal,
and copies of a Kafir Almanac for 1879, printed at the
Wesleyan Mission Press at GrahamstoAvn, by the
Rev. Wm. Holford. From the Right Rev. the Bishop
of St. John's, fifteen papyrographically-printed sheets
have been received, containing Hymns in Kafir and
Zulu with musical notation ; likewise, thirty-eight ad-
ditional sheets, containing portions of a revised edition
of the Kafir Prayer Book, and a printed Report of the
Diocesan Synod held at St. John's, Umtata, in 1877.
From the Ven. Archdeacon Waters, the Quarterly
Reports of St. Mark's Mission Station have continued
to reach us.
In Zulu, thirty-five Proverbs, collected by the Rev.
R. Robertson, for many years a resident in the Zulu
Country, and printed in the Natal Colonist in August
and September 1878, have been received from Mr.
John Sanderson. Three Numbers of the Ubaqa (a
Zulu periodical), one of them containing a Zulu Al-
manac for 1879, have been forwarded by the Rev. W.
Ireland and Miss Hance.
A fine collection of thirty-five books, mainly in
Sesuto, and chiefly printed at Morija in Basutoland,
have been presented by the Rev. A. Mabille, of the
French Protestant Mission. Among these, are a
Sesuto Grammar, and Helps in learning the Sesuto
Language (Morija, 1878); a Sesuto-English Vocabu-
lary (Morija, 1876); a small English Grammar in
Sesuto (Morija. 1878) ; four Spelling and Reading
Books (one of them printed at Paris in 1876 and the
three others at Morija from 1875 '77 ) ; three Cat-
echisms (Morija, 1875 and 1878, and Paris 1877) ; Line
upon Line, 2nd edition (Paris, 1877); New Testament,
3rd edition (Paris, 1876); fifteen separate volumes
containing- almost the whole of the Old Testament
(apparently printed in Basutoland and bearing the
dates of Masitise, 1872 and 1873, and Morija, 1871) ;
Tsela ca Poloko ( Morija , 1879); Pilgrim's Progress,
2nd edition (London, 1877) ; a Geography (Morija,
1878); an Arithmetic and Key (Morija, 1876 and
1877); and a Tonic Sol-fa edition of the tunes sung
in the Basutoland Churches (Morija, 1877). To these
Mr. Mabille has added a copy of the Laws of the
Country in Sesuto, and one of the Little Light of
Basutolaud for January, 1879, containing an Almanac
for the present year. The Rev. W. Crisp has kindly
sent us copies of two Setshuana works not previously
contained in the Grey Library ; viz.,Lokualo loa eintla,
printed at Hermaunsburg, Hanover, in 1865, and
Luther's Catechism, printed at the same place in 1868,
as well as a duplicate of the Gospel of Matthew in
Se^lapi (Grahamstown, 1837). Manuscripts con-
taining Native Literature in Setshuana, accompanied
by translation into English, have again reached us
from the Rev. A. J. Wookey and Miss Meeuwseu. Mr.
S. H. Edwards has also kindly forwarded two Se-
tshuana stories, taken down from Batlapin informants,
and twelve Proverbs, all with translation ; and two
short pieces of Setshuana Native Literature have
likewise been received from the Rev. Mr. Crisp. In-
formation regarding a few of the ideas and customs of
uhe Betshuana has also been communicated by the
Rev. Messrs. A. Kropf and Roger Price, and by Miss
9
Mcemvseri. A duplicate copy of the Rev. J. Brown's
Setslmana-Euglish and English-Setshuana Vocabulary
(London, 1876) lias also been kindly presented by the
Rev. W. Ashton.
From Zanzibar, the Right Rev. Bishop Steere has*
among other works, sent us a copy of " Collections
for a Handbook of the Makonde Language " (Zanzibar,
1876). This language " is spoken by the people along
the East African coast from the Rovuma to Lindi,
and for some days' journey inland and is closely con-
nected with the neighbouring tongues." Swahili Ex-
ercises (Zanzibar, 1878), the Gospel of Matthew trans-
lated into Swahili (London, 1876), and lhat of Luke,
translated by the Rev. J. Rebman^ and printed at St.
Chrishonain 1876, have also been presented by Bishop
Steere, together with a Geography printed at Zanzibar,
" Swahili Stories from Arab Sources, " wifrh translation
into English, and a Hymn Book in Kinika, printed at
Ribe (East Africa) in 1878. Several other works
were most kindly sent by Bishop Steere for the use
of a Missionary in Damaraland, who desired to become
further acquainted with the languages spoken on the
Eastern Coast of Africa.
In Otyilierero four pieces of folk-lore have been
received, collected from the mouths of the Natives by
the Rev. C. G. Biittner, and accompanied by him with
a German translation and notes ; also a duplicate copy
of the Rev. H. Brincker's Otyiherero Psalrns (Cape
Town, 1875) from Mr. Maskew.
In Skindontja, a small volume of Bible Stones,
printed at Helsingfors in 1878 and published by the
Finnish Missionary Society, has been presented by
the Rev. G. M. Skoglund, the Editor.
A French-Mpongwe Dictionary, the work of Roman
Catholic Missionaries (Paris, 1877), has been pre-
sented by the Rev. Ch. Duparquet.
10
In other African Jai guageg, the Church Missionaiy
Society has generously presented us with copies of
an English- Yoruba and Yoruba-English Vocabulary,
a Fulah Grammar by the Rev. C A. L. Reich ardt
(London, 1876), a Hausa-English and English-Hausa
Dictionary by the Rev. J. F. Schon (London, 1876),
and a Hausa Reading Book by the same Author
(London, 1877).
From His Excellency Sir Bartle Frere, some papers
regarding the Hottentots and their language, and the
Bushmen, by Dr. Th. Hahn, published in Continental
periodicals in 1870, have been received, together with
a duplicate of a work already existing in the Grey
Libraiy, and a copy of a " Diary of a Journey from
Kimberley to Delagoa Bay " in 1877, by the present
Acting- Administrator of Griqualand West.
A list of Documents relating to the Bushmen, Part
I.. 1769-1812, printed by order of the Government in
December, 1836, has been presented by the Rev.
Wm. Thompson, whose gift forms a valuable addition
to Part II. of the same publication, which refers to
the Kafirs (bearing also the date of December, 1836),
and already exists here.
A copy of Dr. Shaw's Geography of South Africa
(Cape Town, 1878) has been presented by the Author.
From Miss Cameron, a copy of the Rev. J.
Richardson's Account of a Journey in the South-west
of Madagascar in 1877 (Antananarivo, 1877) has been
received, together with two further translations, from
the Rev. L. Dahle's " Specimens of Malagasy Folk-
lore, " executed by herself. The Hev. L. Dahle has
also kindly sent us from Madagascar a duplicate copy
of the third number of the Antananarivo Annual, for
Christmas, 1877.
From Tasmania, His Excellency F. A. Weld, Esq.,
C.M.G.j has been so good as to add to the informa-
11
tion regarding the languages of Australia collected by
Sir George Grey, and already existing here, a " col-
lection of words used by the Natives about Eucla, at
the head of the ' Great Bight' between South and
West Australia." To these words, received from Mr.
Andrew Muir, of Eucla, His Excellency has added a
few notes by Mr. Muir concerning some Native cus-
toms, and a curious Native legend, in English ; as
well as a duplicate copy of a Vocabulary of the
Western Australian Native Languages. A copy of
Mr. Brough Smyth's work upon the Aborigines of
Victoria (London, 1878), compiled for the Victorian
Government, and generously forwarded by the latter
" for deposit in the Grey Library, Cape Town,"
has safely reached us, through the Under-Colonial
Secretary, Captain Mills, and is hereby gratefully ac-
knowledged. This very interesting work, to which have
been added" Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives
of other parts of Australia and Tasmania," is in two large
volumes, and contains an immense amount of informa-
tion regarding the Natives, their languages and ideas,
besides a number of illustrations representing the
Native? themselves, their weapons and implements, as
well as specimens of Native art ; and the kindness of
Mr. G. G. Macrae, who made known to the Victorian
Government the value which this work would possess
for students of the Native races in South Africa, must
here be thankfully recorded.
A copy of Maunsell's Grammar of the New Zealand
Language (Second Edition, Auckland, 1862) and of
Donaldson's " First Step to the Maori Language "
(Napier, 1861) have been presented by Mr. H. Willis,
together with" Lectures on Maori Customs and Super-
stitions," by Mr. John White, printed by order of the
New Zealand Legislature about 1861, and containing
much interesting information upon these subjects. A
12
specimen of the " Maori Intelligencer, " printed in
1861, and six Numbers of the " Maori Messenger,"
printed in 1862, have also been presented by Mr.
Willis, besides a number of papers relating to New
Zealand, mainly to Native Affairs there, and chiefly
printed in 1860 and 1861. We have also to thank
the Surveyor-General of New Zealand, Mr. J. T.
Thomson, for copies of five papers communicated to
the Otago Institute between 1871 and 1875 by himself.
Among these is one upon the " Whence of the Maori, ''
and another " On Barata Numerals/'
A Bushman Painting, representing a man and
animals, found at Bain's Kloof, was presented by Mr.
Theal ; and tracings of some curious paintings found
in the Clanwilliam Division, on the property of Mr-
E. H. Nieuwoudt, have been contributed by his son,
Mr. G. Nieuwoudt. The heads of the human figures
at one of the caves visited (viz., that in Pinaar's
Vlakte, Ceder Bergen, about 40 miles distant from
the village of Clanwilliam), have a similar outline to
those of the Shooli, met with by Sir Samuel Baker
somewhat to the north of the equator, and figured in
his Ismailia.
The only photograph which has this year been re-
ceived is one of Sir Th. Shepstoue, presented by Mr.
John Sanderson.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
Upon occasions of this kind, it is expected from the
Chairman, that he should have something new to tell
you in connection with literature or art. My own
scanty leisure has rendered this impossible , but in
place of it I propose to-day to put our books and reviews
on one side ; and confine my address to the discussion
of some social problem* which are pressing on our
attention, and which may not unfitly be solved in th e
serene atmosphere of a National Library.
Beyond these doors there exists a wider circle of
hearers, who are not readers, and who know but little
of the influence of the arts of peace, or of the internal
mechanism of Christian governmant. To educate
these, and make them happy and prosperous under our
rule, is a task which may fully employ the energies of
every citizen. If we really mean to elevate all classes
in the Cape Colony, and quicken their progress in the
paths of knowledge and virtue, we must break down
the barriers which separate them from ourselves, and
give an increased attention to the root of their moral
inferiority and weakness in times past.
With your leave, therefore, and in no narrow spirit, I
venture to-day to give brief expression to some thoughts
which from time to time have struck me as to our
common duty to South Africa ; and to ventilate the
policy of standing aloof from the concerns of our
4
neighbour?, whic h practically means to forego all the
social advantages involved in the use and abuse of
personal influence.
To many, the exercise of this social gift is fraught
with ruinous consequences : and for one man who will
take the trouble to work out the obligations of a lead-
ing p'osition iu life, there are hundreds who make
shipwreck of their many opportunities for doing good
and perish in obscurity ! It is so much easier apparently
to drift with the stream, than to stem and control the cur-
rent of popular ignorance and folly, that the shores of
our existence are strewed with the flotsam and jetsam of
an ever restless and cruel sea of error ! Yet even in
children there is so much latent power, both for mischief
and for good, that the task of training them is wel-
worthy of the highest class of intellect ; while the in-
fluence of women alone if rightly directed is call
culated to fill us with gladness and riches, and to
revolutionise the world !
Around us are ranged in goodly lines the histories
of many human lives. From the tangled yarn of
experience and thoughts both bitter and sweet
they there have spun the most delicate and charming
fabrics of the mind, and clothed their fancies in many
a glistening robe of wisdom and wit. What, think
you, was tho motive power that set th^ir peas to
paper ? Was it love, ambiti-m, or intellectual pride ?
Did they yearn for human laughter, approval, or tears ;
or did they hope to exercise a silent influence after
death on the countless ages that might follow their
teaching ? Does poetry still retain its hold over the
imagination, or satisfy the heart's passionate craving
after the Beautiful in Nature and Art? Does the
mystery of spiritual life excite within us a yearning
after purity and inward grace ? Has music ceased to
charm, or philosophy to allure us? In new shapes
15
and in altered forms the protean character of hurnrm
nature is as subtle and interesting as ever ; but the
little leaven of past ages is fast leavening the whole
mass of mankind, and the world is not content to walk
in twilight for ever. The craving for more light by
the children of light is a natural instinct ; and just as
Geology, Physiology, and Natural Philosophy have
added to the wealth and material happiness of countless
millions by disclosing secrets of earth, of organic life>
and of chemical decomposition, so the magicians and
alchemists of old have been the avatars of modern
science, and found their most gifted followers ia the
chemists and magicians of to-day.
But what are leaders without a crowd of displecss to
propagate their doctrines? The influence of a Plato
or a Socrates was not confined to their lives ; but
grew with the growth and strengthened with the
strength of their followers. In search of truth under
every disguise, an ample field of enquiry was opened
up to every independent mind intent only on the
strict interpretation of Nature's laws, and seeking for
beauty on a logical basis of curious suspicion and
of positive proof.
In the realms of knowledge nothing is finite ! At best
we can only approximate to the real truth, and pass
on the secret for others to test. Strict accuracy as
to fact, cind high principle as the rule in the conduct
of our lives, are the only sound pivots upon which all
knowledge and moral rectitude can safely turn. Guided
by that compass we can steer our way calmly in the
widest seas of enquiry and doubt, and learn to lovo
truth in everything with which, we have to deal.
For the influence of a man or woman lies outside of his
or her personality. It is a natural gift and cannot be
acquired. It may be developed, but cannot be
invented, and rests mainly upon a recognition of the
16
claims of others frtr its fructification and force. Some-
times we have it, without knowing how to use it ; and
then the waste of our power upon improper and
worthless objects is 110 less an abuse of influence, than
if we deliberately used it on purpose in a species of
self-degr ad ation .
By virtue of his office, the minister, the lawyer, the
statesman, and even the physician is capable of using
considerable influence in the attainment of legitimate
objects. The nature of culture, the need of friendship,
sympathy, justice, religion, and moral principle in our
several relations are not less foreign to their professions
than the practice of industry, sobriety, patience, and
truthfulness in honest dischai'ge of their obligations to
society. The minister of religion preaches his best
sermons out of the pulpit if he carries into his daily life
and conversation the faculty of leading his hearers'
thoughts to worthy objects and elevated aims. The
lawyer and the statesman have something more to do
than wrangle in courts or dazzle in debate, and" a
wise physician skilled to heal," is said to be " better
than an army for the public weal." For the intel-
lectual growth of a nation is not merely due to the
scholastic attainments of a few, or the gratified curi-
osity in knowledge of the many. The spread of ideas
may be as rapid in a railway as in books ; and the art
of conversing worthily on topics of the day may be
just as useful as an accurate knowledge, by reading,
of the wisdom of the past. Peace of mind and spirit
of content flow as readily from culture of the heart
and intellect as from fortune or physical comfort.
However poorly we may be furnished with this world's
goods, we may find a mine of wealth in intelligent
enjoyment of the many common objects of pity and
love that lie ready to our han'ls. There is not a star
that shine?, a flower that blooms, or a rustling blade
17
of grass, which is not capable of filling the soul with
the highest and purest thoughts. The powers of
creation and nature are infinitely varied and ever fresh ;
and the wheels of thought go whizzing on for each
others benefit, in the darkest right or the loneliest cell ;
since man alone is capable of interpreting the subtle
influences which are always at work to lift him above
his earthly surroundings, and pierce the mysteries of
life !
From the memorable cession of the Cape of Good
Hope, to the present moment, Avhen England is
straining every nerve to teach us self-reliance, and lead
the way to a brighter future a slow but certain pro-
cess of development has been silently upheaving all
the landmarks of the past, and irrevocably committing
us to the gradual defacement of much that was bar-
barous, cruel, and base. Silently but surely we have
seen this Colony emerging from the waves of supersti-
tion and the black night of paganism ; and we ourselves
are living witnesses to the power of the truth, and the
spread of the Gospel over large tracts of wild and long-
neglected territory.
What then is our mission, as offshoots of England
and Holland, to those thousands of British subjects,
who are at once the children of our adoption, and a
constant source of anxiety to their teachers ; and by
what influences do we purpose to lift into light the
great mass of ignorance aud sloth, by which we are
encircled and pressed to the earth ?
In an enquiry of this kind it matters little whether
our progenitors invaded this dark continent, or quietly
elbowed out the puny sons of the soil. Here we are,
and here, no doubt, we intend to remain ; and unless
we can show good cause why we should insist upon
remaining, and to what extent we are prepared to
make our settlement subservient to the spread of tiade
c
18
and civilization, we are but following in the footsteps
of all usurpers, and exchanging one form of bondage
for another more grinding still,
As a matter of fact, our earliest settlers can never
be regarded as pilgrim fathers or apostles of peace.
They landed here, as a convenient stepping-stone to
India, and as rude soldiers and mariners in want of
supplies and a port of call. Nothing was further from
their thoughts than to colonise and settle down. They
did not leave their brethren here as exiles in the sacred
cause of liberty, or to found a modern Utopia in the
burning plains of the interior, but to refresh their
weared and debilitated frames, and to rest awhile
under the shade of Table Mountain In course of
time their wants increased, and their borders had to
be enlarged ; but the pursuit of trade and agriculture
for the benefit of a private company was far removed
from dreams of conquest or elevation of native
tribes.
Here at the Cape, from the very first, settlers of the
European race were sternly repressed by those in
authority over them, and their sense of justice had
many a rude shock, which must have degraded and
kept them submissive to the laws. In those
Draconian days, even free burghers were ruled with a
rod of iron, and the state of the white slave was
much to be pitied, and never to be envied.
With the transfer of the Colony to the English,
there came the faint dawn of perfect equality before
the law to all, with full civil rights and personal free-
dom to the humblest in the community. But it takes
many generations to abolish the evils of slavery, to
liberate the minds, and enfranchise the souls and
understandings of the tillers of the soil. While the
white man now has every inducement held out to him
to raise himself in the social scale, and amass wealth
19
by industry, sobriety, and frugality his brown brother
has still to contend against want of capital and defects
of early training, and to fight with the evils of his
savage and passionate blood. Still the work of his
taming and civilization has fairly to be entered upon,
and we stand committed, in the 19th century, to the
improvement and education in higher things of all
who may be brought in contact with us, and our insti-
tutions, whether they like it or cot.
And here let me ask, what has civilization so far done
for the direct descendants of the aborigines who
entered into treaties with Van Riebeek and others.
It found them timid, naked, and irreligious ; living on
bulbs and scanty fare ; and hiding from heat and rain
like conies on the hills. It has introduced them to drink
and punished them for vice ; it has ruined their morals,
absorbed their lands, and driven them to menial pur-
suits ; and in the present day the Bushman and the
Hottentot, as a distinct race, can scarcely be paid to
exist. But it may be said that in their place we have
called into being an olive-coloured class a jumble of
mixed nationalities who owe much to the Dutch, and
little to the aborigines ! It may be so, but even here
the taint of servitude has sapped and enfeebled their
manhood, and made them the creatures of their
unbridled passions. With these, true religion as an
intellectual 'necessity is still unfelt. The sense of
shame for sin, and the horror of gross falsehood have
still to be awakened ; and the curse of intemperance
as a social crime and the parent of disease has still to
be denounced and removed from their homes.
If we point to the Malays and half-breeds as hopeful
specimens of our rule, and find food for complacent
reflection in their clean and orderly appearance in
public, we are apt to forget the history of their origin
and importation here. Their love for dress and dis-
C2
20
play, their keenness at a bargain, and their fondness
for litigation and prayer, are oriental, not barbaric ; and
to that extent their progress here has been subservient
to our own progress as an educational and conquering
race. Their rites, and prayers, and outward ceremonial
of devotion have not been derived from an European,
but from an Asiatic source. A s aids to the spread
of knowledge and the primary education of the raw
native, they may be of value hereafter, and may give
him the first rude idea of man's utter powerlessness to
cope with the forces of Nature, unless he has a creed
of some sort to sustain him in his need. The wild
legends of the Zulu and Kafir point to an ancient,
decayed, and forgotten civilization, long antecedent to
the Christian era, and having its foundation, perhaps,
in Coptic or Egyptian myths. The followers of
Mahommed, with their doctrine of fatalism, and union
of king and prophet in the person of a son of the desert,
appeal more strongly to the echoes of Kafir tradition
and the divine attributes of chiefs, than our own higher
views of Man's atonement ai d the need of a second
birth in Christ. Malay converts are not without their
value ; but before we can weld our scattered com-
munities and neglected heathen into a strong and
compact nation, we must hammer the law of obedience
to an overruling Providence into their heads and
hearts for obvious reasons.
For the basis of every true nationality is anchored
in unity of faith; and unless this faith recognizes
obedience, decency, natural affections, and inter-
change of good offices between the upper and lower
classes, what hope can we have for cementing, even
with our blood, the diverging interests which are
continually tending to keep us apart, and preventing
our native races from throwing in their lot with us,
as a strong and united peop-e !
21
If widespread happiness be the summum bomi-n of
human attainment, the sources of individual happiness
must be open to all. Content of mind, security to
life and property, and easy enjoyment of the good
things of this world, may vary in degree but not in
kind. The pleasure of the mind involves the pleasure
of the body, and equality before the law includes the
duties and strict performance of moral obligatior.fi
involved in the maintenance of the law. There cannot
be two laws of life one for the ignorant and another
for the educated. Both are equally responsible for
the right use of their opportunities ; and it would be a
monstrous abuse of our acquired powers as a superior
race if we failed to open the eyes and enlarge the
minds of those beneath us, who owe their social
inferiority to want of culture and refining influences.
And herein we can see one great line of difference
between the plans pursued by the Dutch and
English in their mode of dealing with the native.
The " boers, " who trekked away into the wilderness
rather than tolerate restraints on their liberty by the
Council of Seventeen, were animated less by a
desire to grow rich as traders than to live contentedly
as cultivators of their own fields. The wild, free life
of the " voortrekkers " was just suited to their taste?.
They were tired of Dutch rule and the strictness of
sumptuary laws, and looked upon the deputies of
Holland as a set of exacting tax-collectors, who
ground them down to dust, and gave them little in
return. They went forth, therefore, beyond the
boundaries, and if left alone would have firmly
established themselves among the tribes, and by their
prowess as hunters and marksmen would have formed
the very best of all frontier guards. As pioneer
farmers, they searched for water and good pasturage,
and slowly with their flocks and herds moved acroes
22
the stubborn face of the continent, piercing passes ?
subduing Nature, and fearing God. A rude form of
government of necessity united them, but its yoke
was easy and its burden light ; and not until their
neighbours of the aboriginal races began to be
troublesome as thieves, did they go out of their way
to smite them hip and thigh, in patriarchal fashion,
and teach them the biblical meaning of the laws of
property. Working in their fields with their own
servants brought from the Cape, they may be said to
.have practically taught agriculture to the surrounding
tribes ; and thus the first approach was made toAvards
absorbing the better disposed savages, by letting
them mix and intermarry with the labouring classes
of the old colony. As the " boers " got further and
further away from the laws and protective powers of
Holland, they ceased to be strictly Dutch in their
instincts and developed physically and mentally into
a distinct type of men patient, brave, plodding*
easily led, and perfectly happy in their isolation from
the old world. Their sole literature was contained in
the bible. Strictly conservative and honourable in
their feelings, they asked for no belter code of law
or morals, and conducted themselves in the new
,Canaan as the old Hebrews would have done.
District by district they extended their influence over
much of the present map of South Africa, and
prepared the ground for those who were destined to
follow them as the employers of native labour, and
the fomentors of native discontent !
On the other hand, the policy of England as a
trading nation is to encourage emigration and exchange
of commodities, by extending her flag over every
advanced post of colonists who have made their foo ing
good, and insisting upon fair dealing with the natives
within and beyond her declared boundaries. In course
2*
of time the trading instinct of adventurers leads them
into trouble ; reprisals and difficulties ensue ; and
frontier farms and stations are the first to suffer at the
hands of savages who consider themselves cheated or
injured in any way. An appeal is made to the
Executive for assistance. A petty quarrel soon grows
into a regular campaign, and equally, as a matter of
course, we have to take possession of land which we
don't want, and when we are called upon, have to set
about and rule it. Meanwhile the duties of adminis-
tration have to be exercised over all who occupy the
space intervening between the old and new posse-
sions ; and permission is readily granted to native
refugees to live in peace and quietness on special
locations, but subject to their own laws and customs.
They take up the room, which more fitly might have
been occupied by a large white population (had we
been more indulgent to the Dutch who shied away
from our alliance, when we pursued them so mis-
chievously as refugees, from the flag of their alle-
giance) ; and then repay us with hatred.
As a natural consequence, the native races who
have fled to us for protection from their tyrants are
more and more confirmed in their hold upon the land.
Numerically stronger, and wedded to their own de-
graded views of life, they seek in time to impose the
rule of terrorism and insolence over those who are
trying to legislate in their true interests as our fellow
colonists. Instead of being respected we are defied,
and the ranks of free labour are still gaping for
recruits ! The contrast between black and white is too
sharply defined. There is no gradual blending of
tints no desire to approach each other for the sake of
fusion and union. On the one side we have pure
savagery tempered by missionaries and trade ; on the
other a dominant race in free communication with the
24
mother country, and kept in check by the public
opinion of England, What is good for trade is held
to be good for the native ; and if the native wishes to
have very little to do Avith us, so much the worse for
commerce and civilization.
This is the great problem of our time how to
approach the native question in such a way as to
utilise the results of previous lines of policy, and blend
the interests of the aborigines with our own. "We are
tired of treating them on a separate system. The
white man, with his inborn respect for decency and
comfort, settles down as a colonist, and not as a lay
missionary. He has to make his way and living here
pretty much as he has to do it everywhere else ; with
this great difference that they who work for him are
infinitely distressed at having to work at all, and
cannot be brought to understand why labour and
sorrow should be so closely related. They dislike
our laws, and detest our principles. They feel us to
be stronger and richer, and less numerous than them-
selves, and they try by c:aft, and cunning, and
treachery, to outwit everybody who comes in contact
with them. They look to their god-descended chiefs,
and not to our Queen for guidance ; and when they
try conclusions with us, and are whipped, we have to
annex their country, and accept the responsibility of
taming them ! All this may be good for trade, but
it is not the way to succeed in establishing a colony.
Our growth is too rapid in territory, and too slow in
education. We are straggling and sprawling over the
land as an alien race, where we should have been
strong and compact as a community ; and they, who
should have been our servants and fellow-colonists,
are dreaming of the day when they can by a combined
effort push us out of the land, and return once more
to their primitive nakedness.
25
Our first duty t'> the land we livo in is recognition
of llie fact that we hold it in trust, not for England
but for its people ; The assimilation of all our customs
and legislation to the English standard of perfection
is the highest tribute we can pay to the excellence of
home institutions ; and we have every inducement
held out to us, on all sides, to cultivate our mental
gifts, and imbibe the manly spirit of our forefathers
in the conduct of our lives. But a love of justice,
hatred of wrong doing, deep sympathy with sorrow,
and a leaning towards pity, mercy, and womanly
tenderness of feeling are not the only preservatives
which we have to guard us against the commission of
cruelty, and idle shedding of blood. "VVe, who have
been lifted on to the social platform from our birth,
and aspire to the higher education, have found in the
realms of knowledge and much goodly literature the
solace and encouragement of larger minds than our
own ; but they who have a right to look up to us for
guidance and help is the first stage of a nation's
adolescence are still of the earth earthy ; bound down
to clay and the infancy of thought; and must be
taken by the hand, gently but firmly, so as to show
them how to walk. If books could speak to the native
mind, they would appeal with trumpet tongues to the
innate goodness and better qualities of all classes of
men and women ; but the social and mental develop-
ment of the mixed races, in the midst of whom we
dwell, is not yet sufficiently advanced for strong meat
like this, and demands a special form of education,
based upon the teaching of books, and yet to soma
extent independent of them.
By precept and example it would be easy to unlock
these sealed volumes, and reduce to practice the
aspirations of higher natures ; but the work will have
to be done with clean hands and with generous warmth
26
The modern Gospel of national friendship and good-
will to the prosperity and peace of every country has
ttill to be preached here. By patience, by kindness,
by gentleness of speech and manners to our dependents
and by a firm determination to uphold the laio, we shall
earn the reward given to those \vho essay to root out
barbarism ; and yet not so much by preaching peace
and goodwill, as by a lively example of what civiliza-
tion has done for ourselves as their rulers. This is the
weak point in our armour of proof. Herein lies the
fatal defect in our teaching, that we are so imperfectly
qualified to be guides to the ignorant. It seems to
me, as if our moral and intellectual fibre as whites has
become relaxed by residence in a warm climate ; and
that the chief aim of every home-staying colonist is to
seek a weak refuge from trouble and care, by giving
himself up to laziness and unmanly excuses. We are
satisfied with third rate work, and shirk responsibilities.
Comparatively few have either the stamina or the
moral courage to stand up vigorously for the truth ;
to court it laboriously ; to worship it openly; to
proclaim it in all places : and diffuse its pure light
over dark and degraded natures. There is a absence
of salt in the formation of public opinion here j an
obstinate persistency in imputing bad motives to those
who differ from us ; and a sneering spirit of detraction
abroad, which act and react most prejudiciously on the
growth of hearty and real manliness amongst our
youth. There is a want of confidence in employers
a poverty of resource in our workmen, and but little
love for doing a thing well and thoroughly for its own
sake, which is the test of good service ; for as George
Herbert says :
" A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine ;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and the action fine I "
27
Here, at all events, in pursuit of national happiness
and wealth, we have a great social evil to contend
with, which it behoves every true man or woman, with
the slightest personal influence, to root out of the
community ! It is of slavish origin, no doubt, and has
been kept alive by fear and association with native
races, but it has a leprous taint about it which
threatens to vitiate the industrial classes, and smirch all
our undertakings with the stain of insincerity and fraud.
Is it our mission then to civilize and develope, on
English lines of thought, the varied races of men now
brought under our rule and protection ? As a matter
of history we have made too much of the native as he
is, and too little of the circumstances which mould
and surround him from his birth. We are apt to re-
gard him at heart as a treacherous and irreclaimable
savage, steeped to the lips in cruelty and deceit, and
ever ready to drop the thin garb of decent behaviour
which we have imposed upon his recreant limbs. If
he has one redeeming trait in his ignoble and unlovely
views of life it is unshaken loyalty to his god-like chief
and hereditary ruler. Upon this point all men are
agreed. If out of the " nettle danger " we mean
to pluck " the flower safety " we owe it to ourselves
and our professedly humane creed, to respect this chiv-
alry of sentiment in our coloured subjects, and mould
our policy of restraint and development on respect for
justice and lawful authority. Sooner or later, for their
own good, the power of chieftains, recognized by us,
will have to be sapped, by securing individual proprie-
torship of the soil, and by giving the same privileges to
native women as those now enjoyed by every mother of a
family. Domestic life and private rights by marriage
can now scarcely be said to exist among the women of
our Colonial tribes, who feel no motive for personal
industry and thrift. They are at the mercy of their
28
despotic lords, and the infamous quackeries of state
magicians ; and, as a class, are never likely to rise
in the social scale, unless we come to their rescue and
give them a voice in the disposal of themselves. By
disarming the masses who fear us, and permitting
natives to buy and sell laud on a registered title, the
local administration of colonial law will gradually
supplant the power and attributes of the chiif, and the
magistrate and the doctor will displace the despot and
the witch. But it must not be forgotten that custom
and superstition are hard to eradicate. When once
they are weakened by unrestricted intercourse with
men of a higher grade, the desire to trade will awaken
new wants and yearnings It will then be our duty to
compel the rising generation to go to school, and learn
the alphabet of civilization. With the creation of new
wants, and the sharpening of their natural abilities,
the Kafir and the Fingo will soou strive to outvie each
other in their scholastic and mechanical attainments :
and, as books and educated men -come to be better un-
derstood, our native domestic policy will naturally
result in keen competition for the solid rewards of
honest toil.
As Industrial Schools, on the plan of Lovcdale,
Blythewood, and St. Mark's Mission, attract their
bands of paying pupils to skilled handicrafts, a taste
will be developed for domestic comfort, and something
more substantial in furniture than a wooden pillow
or a mat. The hut will give way to the house : and
it will be our own fault if we do not succeed in making
the native thoroughly appreciative of ihe goodness and
justice of our rule. But something more than this
is required if we mean to discharge our duty to the
land we live in. We must take these people by the
hand, and treat them firmly but generously, and by
our example react on our neighbours, and encourage
29
them to bring up their children us gently and as
generously as our own. As tLeie is no royal road to
knowledge, so the fact of there being nothing degrading
about honest labour is'one of the most difficult to instil
in a savage breast. The dignity of toil is foreign to
their ideas. Shut up in their narrow valleys, they
weave their childish dreams of conquest, and long to
dash their thick heads against the power of the whites.
They are all for war and the shedding of blood. Thus
our common safety lies in the growth of native in-
telligence, and the spread of Christian principles in
our several vital relations, so that at last th- y may see,
we bear them no enmity at heart, and are willing to
join hands with them on a platform of civil and religious
liberty and mutual support.
This question of honest labour and the possibility
of a happy home-life to the coloured inhabitants of the
Cape, is one which may meet with but little sympathy
among some in South Africa, but it cannot be ignored
by thoughtful men, as the chief factor in the chronic
discontent Avith colonial home politics. Of the many
hundreds who profess to be tired of the lying, drink-
ing, grumbling, and slurring propensities of our lower
classes, and of their patent antagonism to all law and
order, how few are there who recognise their own
share in popularising laziness, and reducing murder
of time and waste of golden opportunity to a fine art ?
It is so much easier to find fault than to suggest a
cure, and so much more popular to brand the short-
comings of a class with scorn and contempt as
agencies outside our legitimate influence, that I
hesitate to point out, for how much we shall hereafter
be held responsible, by standing aloof and letting
everything have its own way, because it is too muck
trouble to interfere, and bring our influence to bear on
the vagaries of grown-up children.
30
And yet the status of the coloured folk is so
intimately bound up with the progress of the Cape,
that it would be wrong to ignore the strong claim
which the half-civilized races of the Western Province
have upon our forbearance and powers of compulsory
instruction. In comparison with the wild tribes of the
Eastern divisions, it is useless to deny, that the half
castes and Malays have taken kindly to domestic
service, and are not wanting in natural affections.
Their love of dress, of wine, of impromptu feasting and
merrymaking are unconscious tributes to the mildness
of our rule, and are far removed from the savage
customs or rude dances of frontier Kafirs. We have
taught them trades, and awakened some sense of
shame and self-respect in them ; but we have left it to
the State to look after their morals and reclaim them
from crime. They are mere hinds who are necessary
to our comfort, and from whom we look for nothing
more, and nothing better, than the physical strength
and mechanical obedience of a servile class. To en-
large their minds and expand their views : to give
value to their vote and health to their dwellings ; to
cheapen food and improve production; to teach them
manhood and the meaning of true patriotism ; all
these aids to progress and good government are left to
chance revolutions of the parliamentary wheel.
Directly and indirectly we tax them as consumers,
and we buy their votes with a glass of beer ; but for
all practical purposes their rulers ignore their existence
and then class them as clay, out of which to mould a
Dominion !
If we look abroad at the condition and social status
of the people of Europe, with their free Schools, and
Libraries, and Museums of Art, with their well-
informed newspapers, places of worship, and abundant
public charities, we shall see that mere rank and riches
31
have little to do in bringing about the national
advancement ; and that every effort for power or social
progress involves a search for the removal of abuses
among the people themselves. Home life and private
opinion have a force of their own in moulding public
action and modifying internal policy ; and the man
who works with his hands or his head very soon finds a
method or avenue for making himself heard if his
liberty is restricted. Any attempt to neglect the
claims of class is pretty sure to be followed by
reaction and excitement ; and neither in Germany,
England, or France, shall we ever see the sorry
spectacle of myriads of large families being allowed
to squat in ignorance and idleness in special locations
allotted to their preservation, without any attempt
being made to utilize their strength or remove their
children from debasing influences except through a
missionary !
It has been well said by Dr. Johnson, that "the
mass of people must be barbarous where there is no
printing ;" but it seems to me that the want of books
and newspapers is a minor evil, in half-civilized
communities, to the want of separate home-life and
sacredness of mutual affection ! Polygamy must ever
be the grave of respect for woman ; and without this
respect the oringing up of children must be barbarous
and wasteful. The sting of poverty and the spur of
true affection drive all men to look for work and food
for their little ones ; but if poverty and affection are
unknown factors in the conservation of tribal power,
and everything depends on the caprice and strength of
the chief, the sooner we weaken the power and wealth
in cattle of the chief, by rendering free and individual
family life possible to the units of the tribe, the sooner
shall we be doing our first duty to the coloured gipsies
of South Africa. "If the native races of South
32
Africa," says Mr. Carlyle, " have attained to the
conception of a higher ideal they have been
taught it by Christianity, especially in many instances
by the Mission Home. It is incalculable, in fact the
happy hallowing results that have accrued to the
native tribes from the presence in their midst of the
mission family, with its purity, intelligence, holiness^
sympathy, beneficence, and peace. The natives know
that the missionary is their friend and their advocate
for justice ; that he is able by his intelligence to direct
them; that lie seeks not theirs, but them, and thus he
has often a deeper hold on the heart of the heathen
than their debased arrogant chieft, and obtains a
wonderful power to mould their nature and lift them
to higher aims." The example shown by men, who
are not missionaries, but keen hard-headed rulers, like
Brownlce, Shepttone, Griffiths, Stewart, and Ely the,
should not be lost on those who sneer at the possibility
of reaping love and gratitude from dark skinned
followers. They are no worse and infinitely more
teachable than the juvenile negroes who were taken
from slave dhows and apprenticed to respectable
people some forty years ago. The difficulty is to get
at them when young, and remove them at once from
the tyranny of native customs ; for if we do not accept
their charge in a kind and sympathetic spirit when
they enter our service, and help to bring them up in
decency and thrift, they will soon enough relapse into
barbarism, when released from their enforced appren-
ticeship. The chief, in short, is the stumbling block^
and will remain so until he is paid for his compliance
with our views or promptly suppressed. But as the
Kafirs have been for ages attached to their chiefs, and
regard them as deities ^incarnate, without their assis-
tance and recognition of claims to compensation, we are
less likely to succeed in getting successive relays of it>
33
telligent servants and mechanics than if we accepted
their services as middlemen.
It has long been the policy of native courts to en-
courage communism under feudal and pastoral forms :
but it largely embarrasses the spread or growth of
Christian principles among the heathen. In our own
experience, we know, that if home is happy and affec-
tion real, the inducement to crime and wrong-doing
are proportionately weakened ; for as " there can be
no happiness without participation, and no paticipation
without affection, so there is no difficulty, no toil, no
labour, no exertion that will not be endured where
there is a view of reaping this natural reward." It is
so with us, because we have liberty of choice and are
trained to expect it ; but is it possible to live thus
apart in happy possession of modest wealth and freedom
from care, when our coloured people are gathered into
kraals and ground down by their customs and native
rulers.
We cannot shirk the problem of our surroundings
by declining to have any social dealings with the fron-
tier tribes barbarous though they be. Year by year
they are increasing in numbers. To kill them off
summarily is out of the question. To drive them from
their lands would be cruel and wicked ; but it is quite
possible to tame them, and civilize their children by
early removal from the over-crowded kraals on a
system of assisted juvenile emigration to the West I
All over the colonial towns tradesmen are calling out
for apprentices and cannot get them for love or money.
The Eastern Province is rich in excess of native chil-
dren, and if the Colony studies its best interests, it will
encourage a movement which will revolutionise the face
of the country.
Any scheme of this kind for bringing home life and
home influences to bear upon the young and savage
34
cannot fail to do us all good if we will honestly give
it a fair trial. It has been tried in the mother country
with great success ; and the street arabs and work-
house waifs, by the cottage system of outdoor relief
have been enabled to start fair in life, instead of being
crowded into prisons and reformatories. Being treated
like poor relations, severed from their parents, and
brought up from their teens in decency and comfort
by their registered teachers and employers, they have
over and over again repaid the extra trouble of
bringing them up by their subsequent careers as work-
men and servants.
It should need no very complicated machinery to
initiate this movement (in the cause of education) for
keeping up a constant supply of cheap labour from
our frontier reserves. The attempt to introduce Kafir
adults to the Western Province has been a partial
failure from a variety of causes ; but I see no reason
why both on philan trophic and political grounds an
attempt should not be made to introduce a continuous
stream of native youths to this end of the Colony ;
and apprentice them out till they are of age to respect-
able persons, approved of by a native protector,
and who may be willing to charge themselves with the
care and trouble of bringing them up free, in return
for their services.
If our magistrates and native residents had any real
influence over the chiefs with whom they are placed
they should have no great difficulty in inducing or in
persuading them to submit to the annual thinning out
of the junior population of their tribes, by making it
worth their while in some way or other. It is better
to meet the difficulty of overcrowding by measures of
this kind, than by transplanting the discontented adults
to fresh grants of land, where tribal power and tribal
pressure will be perpetuated and ever recurrent.
35
If the mothers of families, both white and black,
would enter heartily into the project, there should be
the less difficulty in making a commencement in
industrial education. The time for book-knowledge
has still to be found and fostered by the State, but the
need of labour is pressing and persistent. This fine
country of ours is thirsting for three things cheap
labour, English capital, and a good supply of water.
At present they exist, but apart. To bring them to-
gether is more a social than a political problem ; and
it remains very much with ourselves, I think, as a
Christian community, to initiate the steps for exciting
native industry, and right culture of our inheri-
tance.
In looking at this matter in its domestic aspect, we
shall be doing for the coloured classes what books and
general literature are doing for us every day. If we
had not these wherewith to instruct and amuse ourselves,
and fill up our spare time, what would our maids and
matrons be reduced to ? They would find time hang
very heavy upon their hands, and in idle gossip, tea
drinking, and braiding of hair, they would have to eke
out the hours not devoted to dressing or sleep ! Hard
indeed must be the lot of our native women, with
their constant toil, frequent blows, and the bitter con-
tempt and harsh treatment of their lords and masters
to age them prematurely. In my opinion, it is a social
mistake to keep women in the background ; for the
first step in the emancipation of native intellect is to
educate women how to read and write, and make them
mistresses of their own hearts and hands. If there is
one reason more than another why the English and
Americans have taken such a foremost position in the
history and triumphs of the civilised world, it is because
they were the first to raise the value of women in the
social scale, and treat them as equals in every respect
D 2
36
If you have the ladies on your side, class legislation is
comparatively easy. If you have it not, you will find
their dull negation more active than pleasant.
It seems to me that the time is not far distant when
public opinion all over the world must force all classes
here to accept education from the state, and cause
every parent to make his election as to what trade or
profession he would like his children to be taught at
our public or industrial schools. In Germany every
adult male is forced to serve as a soldier for a given
time, whatever may be his rank or degree in life. In
France the conscription keeps alive the taste for mili-
tary glory, and prepares her thrifty sons for prowess
in the field, while in free England the pressure of com-
petition fills the ranks of skilled labour with excess of
apprentices. Out here the coloured youth of South
Africa have neither the fear of invasion nor the hard-
ships of foreign wars to encounter. They have no
poverty to contend with. They are not asked to fight
our battles for us. They are exposed to no oppressive
laws ; they bear no special burden ; they are simply
free to do just as they please ; and it is time they were
yoked in with the whites. There is ample scope for
all in every branch of trade. Yet though the harvest
is great and all things favourable to prosperity, the
labourers are few and anything but eager for constant
employment.
In the days of slavery, little boys and girls were not
allowed to curse and swear, and play about in gutters ;
nor were they sent to school to learn their letters.
But for all that they were most efficiently taught by
the Dutch to acquire handicrafts, and get a practical
acquaintance with the interiors of decent houses.
Though the solace of religious teaching was denied
them, and some doubt was felt and expressed as to
their possession of souls, they were practically bettev
37
members of society than many of their freeborn but
neglected descendants. This knowledge of trades
they owed to the care and self-seeking pains of their
masters and mistresses, who had them thoroughly in-
structed in their own home?, and gave them an interest
in effecting their own manumission from modified
bondage. Thus they were encouraged to earn high
characters for skill and industry ; and as tailors and
carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, and what not, fully
supplied all the moderate demands of their day.
Not for one moment would I seek to defend the
practice of buying and selling slaves as of old ; but it
is more within our Jesuitical experience of modern
ethics to denounce slavery as abhorrent to English
feeling, and then to tacitly permit our native tribes to
sell their daughters into bondage as wives ! If slavery
is a curse to every country in which it has been in-
troduced, so much the more is the rearing of children
for the profit of parents a custom to be abolished.
Can we not go a step further in our views of Emanci-
pation, and put a stop to this unholy traffic, whereby
polygamy prevents the healthy growth of free institu-
tions, and drags native women down to the level of beasts
of burden. First free the body, then the soul, and
then the intellect may minister to both ! Not by sudden
enactment of Parliament would it be right and judicious
to spring such a great social revolution on the pastoral
subjects of Her Majesty ; but is it not our duty to pro-
tect theyoang and secure them the privilege of rising
in the social scale ; and how can we do this better than
by gradually adapting them to the exercise and
burdens of freedom, in the manner I have sketched
out?
It would be a waste of time to commence with the
adult population. They are already inoculated with
the evil customs of the tribes, and nothing will ever
38
drive savagery out of them, unless at a very early
stage of their existence !
The formation of the great Industrial School at
Lovedale has owed much of its success to the personal
high character and professional attainments of Dr.
James Stewart, who is equally ready to work with hi s
pupils, to preach to them, or to doctor them when
necessary. The personal influence of such a man is
as great as that of any hereditary chief; and the
discipline he enforces is not to he despised. The
degrading power of the witch-doctors has withered in
his neighbourhood as if they had been touched by
Ithuriel's spear ! And there is no doubt of it, that the
encouragement of medical and surgical knowledge
among the natives is greatly to be desired Sound
practitioners are much wanted. The ignorance of
blacks in time of sickness and distress is very much
to be deplored. It is hard to see how their hearts
can be opened to the benign influence of sympathy
and Christian charity except by medical missionaries.
When we consider how highly-born and delicate
ladies give up so much of their time in England to
visiting the sick poor, and think it not unworthy of
their stations in life to instruct the villagers in Sunday
schools and other places of worship, we see that labour
and poverty have claims on their pity, and stimulate
the growth of good feelings on both sides. Sickness
and sorrow and physical pain are the lot of all mortals,
tis true, but how much are they not intensified by
brutal indifference and savage neglect to the needs
of the helpless ?
The poverty we have to deal with is poverty of our
own creating. It is not the result of scanty wages
and uncertain employment. It is not the offspring of
bitter cold and pinching want. Nor is it by alms-
giving or raising of wages that we can hope to lessen
39
the burden of large families, and restrain the pressure
on overcrowded locations, but by putting out our
strength, and compelling our youthful subjects to
attend school and be taught. The seed we have to
sow has been gathered from granaries like this Library.
It is not to be thrown away broadcast on unprepared
ground, but to be carefully introduced into the most
fruitful of soils. The things we know, and the prin-
ciples we practice, have been bequeathed to us in
books, and transmitted to us in dozens of civilized
channels. As books and learning have made us strong
and peaceable in our tastes, so might our living
exemplars teach the wild children within our influence,
how easy it is to earn wealth and happiness by the
practice of wisdom and civilized wants.
If ever this continent is to bloom in the desert, and
arts and sciences are to be carried into the wilderness,
we must initiate a social crusade, and take a less
passive share in the moral subjugation of the tribes
around us. Our natural allies are the dusky sons of
the soil. Their interests and welfare are wrapped up
in our own. For good and for evil we have been
joined together, and we stand committed to a policy
of union and not of division ! The Union Jack is the
emblem of protection to both black and white, and no
policy is worth following here if it does not include
the two within its folds. We cannot stand apart ;
we are bound to lean on each other and legislate for
both. In the interests of all parties we have it in
view to open up communication by land and sea, and
extend British influence and trade as far as the
Zambezi ; but if we educate the masses and break
down the temporal power of the chiefs, and release
their subjects from the thraldom of superstition and
sloth, we shall secure a yet wider field for our exten-
sive commerce, and do more lasting good to generations
40
yet unborn. Then in the words of Lo veil, we may
sing :
" 0, dwellers in the valley land,
Who in deep twilight grope and cower,
Till the slow mountain's dial-hand
Shortens to noon's triumphant hour,
While ye sit idle, do ye think
The Lord's great work sits idle too,
That light dare not o'erleap the brink
Of morn, because it is dark with you ?"
0*00
" The Lord wants reapers ; oh, mount up,
Before Night comes and cries " Too late,"
Stay not for taking scrip or cup,
The Master hungers while ye wait ;
' Tis from these heights alone your eyes
The advancing spears of day may see.
Which o'er the eastern hill-tops rise.
To break your long captivity !"
The Premier (Honourable Mr. Sprigg) said that he
had very much pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to
the Chairman for the address -with which they had
been favoured. It was by far the most interesting of
any to which he had ever listened in that place. It
might be that he took more interest in it from the fact
that Dr. Ross had dealt with questions which were
occupying his daily and even hourly attention, and it
might perhaps be a satisfaction to Dr. Ross to know
that he agreed generally with the principles laid down
in the address, and that it was upon those principles
that the administration of native affairs was being
carried on at the present time (cheers). He gathered
from the cheers which greeted the Chairman when he
resumed his seat that the audience approved of his
address. If that was so he wished to remark as a
caution that we must not expect these principles to be
carried out in practice without encountering opposition.
Dr. Ross had referred to the disarmament of the natives
41
on the Eastern frontier. Last session an Act had been
passed for that purpose which met with the general con-
currence of the whole country, but when that Act is put
into operation it is natural to suppose that some of the
persons to whom it applies will not be altogether
pleased with it. We must be prepared for some op-
position, but the question for us to consider was, not
what the people themselves might like, but what was
good for them and for the whole country ; and having
arrived at a conclusion upon that matter, it was
the duty of the Government and of the people
with them to carry out their determination coura-
geously and resolutely (cheers). A suggestion
had been made by Dr. Ross, with the view of
civilizing the natives, that every year a number of
the youth should be brought down from the frontier
and placed out as apprentices to trades in the Western
districts. He (Mr. Sprigg) thought that was a valuable
suggestion ; it was not possible to do much in the way
of civilization with the old natives ; if we were to make
any considerable advance we must begin with the
young. But he desired to warn them of what would
certainly be the consequence of taking such a step.
They might remember that during the late war large
numbers of women and children, to the extent of five
or six thousand, were brought down to the Western
districts. In the case of some of them the object WPS
to prevent their giving assistance to those who were
fighting against the Government, and in the case of
many others to save them from death by starvation.
Upon arrival here they were hired as servants, but he
had noticed that this matter was to be brought
before the House of Commons as a most arbitrary
act upon the part of the Government, and he felt
sure that if the step proposed by Dr. Ross was
undertaken, the charge would be brought against the
42
Government and the colonists, by people at home, that
they were establishing slavery in the Colony. He did
not, however, think that the idea should be abandoned on
that account. We should commit a great error if we
were to refrain from doing what would advance the
civilization of the native races simply on account of
public opinion in England, for the momeut, being
against us. Public opinion at the present time in
England was greatly adverse to public opinion
in the Colony. He thought he could observe
that the tide was turning in England already,
and he had little doubt that in a short time
the people in England would admit that we under-
stood better how to civilize and manage the
natives of South Africa than they could teach us
(cheers). The Government of the country was now in
the hands of the colonists. Great responsibilities,
especially as to the natives, were cast upon them, and
he felt confident that the future welfare of the natives,
and of the whole population of South Africa, were
safer in the hands of men who thoroughly understood
the character of the people and the complicated ques-
tions of Government in this country, than hi the hands
of men across the sea, who were showing every day
by their speeches and their writings their utter igno-
rance of the country and of the people in this part of
the Empire (cheers). He did not undervalue public
opinion in England, and it was his firm belief that if
we went steadily on in the course we were now
following we should ultimately lead that opinion to our
sid e (cheers). Perhaps he ought to apologize i a that
place for the political character of his observations, but
they were called forth by the very nature of the
interesting and able address to which they had
listened with so much pleasure.
Dr. Dale seconded the motion, which was carried
with acclamation.
43
In reply, Dr. Ross returned thanks for the. very
kind and cordial manner in which the Meeting had
agreed to the motion made, and seconded, by the
Premier and the Superintendent-General of Education ;
and expressed his deep sense of the many obligations
incurred, and of the many hours of profit and quiet
happiness spent by him, as a very young Student in this
magnificent library. If any poor services of his own
could repay the debt of gratitude due from him as a
son of the soil, and a native of Cape Town, for all that
he owed to this fit abode of literature and fine art, they
might rest assured that they wou'd always be cheerfully
and spontaneously rendered, as a humble tribute to the
spread of knowledge, however imperfect and frag-
mentary.
The subscribers then proceeded to ballot for a new
Committee, and the Scrutineer, Mr. F. Goodliffe, de-
clared the following gentlemen elected : The Honour-
able Thomas Upington, F. G. Goodliffe, Esq., Treas-
urer E. J Buchanan, Esq., Rev. Dr. Cameron, Dr.
Dale, R. M. Ross, Esq., Professor Gill, H. W. Piers,
Esq , W. Hiddingh, Esq.
PROCEEDINGS
HIIHII8! 1IIITE1I1II IEHIH
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 22m> MAY, 1880.
IHHWS &i\\, P.gi., in % Cjraitr,
CAPE TOWN:
PAUL SOLOMON & CO., STEAM PRINTING OFFICE.
1880.
Committee :
DAVID GILL, Esq.,
F.R.A.S.
DR. DALE. M.A., LL.B.
F. G. GOODLIFFE, Esq.
(Treasurer).
H. W. PIERS, Esq.
REV. DB. CAMERON, B.A.
LL.D.
PROFESSOR GILL, M.A.
WM. HIDDINGH, Esq.
R M. ROSS, Esq.
HON. THOS. UPINGTON.
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.
| J. C. GIE, Esq.
librarian anb Sfmtiarjr;
F, MASKEW, Esq.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
In submitting their report at the last annual meeting,
the then Committee stated that an important com-
munication from the Colonial Secretary had been
received after their report had been drawn up, in
reference to the Grey Collection. In this communica-
tion it was proposed that the Government and the
Library Committee should co-operate in the selection
and maintenance of a Philologist, who, while engaged
in scientific study of the native languages, should also
be charged with the Custodianship of the Grey
Collection. The Committee considering that a matter
of such importance should not be disposed of without
full deliberation, left the discussion of the subject to
their successors in office.
Immediately on assuming office, your Committee
gave the matter their full and careful consideration,
and informed the Government that they were willing
to co-oporate with them in the selection and main-
tenance of a Philologist to prosecute the study of the
South African Languages, and to appoint the person
so selected to be the Custodian of the Grey Collection ;
and further, that your Committee would be prepared
to attach to the office of Custodian, out of the Parlia-
mentary grant in aid of the South African Public
Library, a salary of two hundred pounds per annum.
Your Committee subsequently received a further
communication from the Government, acquainting
them that Dr. Jolly, of Wiirzburg, had been strongly
recommended to His Excellency the Governor, as a
gentleman possessing the necessary qualifications for
the office of Philologist and Custodian, and requested
to be informed whether the Library Committee would
be prepared to approve of the appointment of Dr.
Jolly in terms of their resolution of the 16th of June
last. Immediately upon receipt of this, your Committee
brought to the notice of the Government that on a
former occasion they took into consideration Dr. Jolly's
proposals for a temporary occupation of the office,
which, it was understood, were afterwards withdrawn
by him, and that these proposals were in effect based
on Dr. Jolly's hope to obtain leave of absence for a
brief term of years from his duties as Professor of
Comparative Philology in Wiirzburg.
Entertaining grave objections to a temporary
appointment to the office, and as there appeared some
doubt whether Dr. Jolly, if nominated, would now
accept absolutely the vacant appointment to the joint
offices, your Committee express their willingness to
join the Government in placing the selection entirely
in the hands of Professors Max Mtiller and Sayce, of
the University of Oxford, to which the Government
assented ; and they trust that an appointment to the
vacant office will shortly be made.
In their report last year the Committee announced
that they had ordered from the London booksellers
several works in Literature and Science, to fill up gaps
in different departments ; and, further, that they had
under consideration a list of books, proposed by Mr.
Fforde, Chief Inspector of Public Works, whom they
had consulted on the subject. Your Committee have
now to state that these books were ordered and have
been received, and will prove a valuable addition to
the standard works in the Library, especially in the
departments of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
During the past year the accession of books in the
various departments of Literature and Science have
been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology 9 Vols.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 17
Science and the Arts 71
Voyages and Travels 77
History 51 })
Biography 39 n
Belles Lettres 51 it
Miscellaneous 93
408
In this list are included many standard and valuable
works, presented by the Royal Society, the Royal
Astronomical Society, the Royal Geographical Society,
the Zoological Society, the Royal Colonial Institute,
the Council of the New Zealand Institute, the Smith-
sonian Institute, Washington ; Miss Julia Lloyd, the
Venerable Archdeacon Lloyd, of Natal ; and Mon-
sieur Jouvencel, Paris ; to all of whom the thanks of
the subscribers and the public are due.
Your Committee have also to acknowledge with
thanks the presentation of 20 from Mr. Leon, lately
a resident of this city, which was conveyed through
Mr. C. A. Fairbridge, with a suggestion that the
amount should be devoted to the purchase of books on
Polish History, and Literature. The suggestion was
acted upon, and the books so ordered may shortly be
expected to arrive.
Your Committee have deemed it advisable to make
a slight alteration in the Rules for the management of
the Grey Collection, to prevent any misunderstanding
for the future, and with that view have decided that in
those llules the word Custodian thall be substitute 1
for Librarian.
The Library Hall, as on previous occasions, was
placed at 'the disposal of the Council of the Cape
University for the ceremony of conferring degrees.
Your Committee have great pleasure in stating that
the number of visitors and readers to the Institution
during the past year has been much larger than in the
previous two years, thereby affording proof that the
Library is better appreciated. From a record kept, it
appears that 22,22 1 persons visited the Library during
the period that it was open to the public, from the 13th
June, 1879, to the 30th of April last, showing an
average of 85 daily ; the largest number of visitors on
one day being 187, and the lowest 44.
The issue of Books and Periodicals during the past
year has been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 50 Vols.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 57
Science and the Arts 225
Voyages and Travels ... ... 1,047
History 538
Belles Lettres 724
Novels 6,871
Reviews and Periodicals 5,750
Comparing this statement with that of last year, it
will be perceived that the circulation of standard
works has been about equal ; whilst of works of
imagination there has been an increase of about 700
volumes.
Your Committee have to state that they applied to
Government for a grant in aid towards the publication
of a new and complete general Catalogue, which is now
ready for the press; and that their request was
favourably entertained by the Premier, who promised
to place a sum of 300 on the Estimates for that
purpose.
To the collection of Native Literature, forming
part of Sir George Grey's gift, a number of accessions
have been received.
Hardly any of these, however, refer to Hottentot ;
the only additions of this nature being the copy of a
Manuscript containing names for various degrees of
relationship in the Nama dialect, the original of which
had kindly been supplied for the information of Sir
John Lubbock, by the Rev. J. G. Kronlein, and a
Hottentot Fable, in English, contributed by Mr.
Thomas Bain.
From the Transvaal, His Excellency Colonel Lan-
yon has been so good as to forward a number of replies
to an inquiry kindly instituted by himself in August,
1879, regarding the existence of Bushmen, Bushman
Pictures, &c., in that territory. These answers,
although chiefly of a negative character, yet contain
valuable material for the still to be written history of
the South African aboriginal races.
In Kafir, pieces of Native Literature, accompanied
by translation into English, have been received from
the Rev. A. Kropf, Superintendent of Berlin Missions,
and from the Bishop of St. John's. A Kafir version
of the Distribution of Animals, &c., after the Creation,
has been contributed, in English, by Mr. Bain. The
Bishop of St. John's has also presented copies of his
pamphlet entitled " Some Suggestions for an improved
Kafir Orthography " (King Willliam's Town, 1879);
a Church Catechism in Kafir ( Graham stown,
undated) ; eleven papyrographically-piinted sheets
containing further portions of a revised edition of the
Kafir Prayer Book ; and other publications connected
with his Mission, including a copy of the Address
delivered by him at the opening of the Synod at
Umtata, in June last year. A Kafir Hymn, composed
by Ntsikana, " the first Kaffir who professed Chris-
tianity," and printed, with musical notation, at Love-
dale, has been contributed by Mr. G. Theal ; a copy
of the Ultimatum, in Kafir (Pietermaritzburg, 1878),
by His Excellency Sir Bartle Frere ; and the
Quarterly Reports of St. Mark's Mission, by the
Venerable Archdeacon Waters.
In Zulu, a valuable manuscript has been sent by
the Rev. O. Stavem, Norwegian Missionary, contain-
ing six pieces of Native Literature, collected by
himself in the Zulu Country, and accompanied by a
translation into English. Pieces of Native Literature,
with translation, have also been received from Mrs.
H. L. Carbutt, of Klip River County, Natal. The
Rev. William Ireland, of the American Mission in
Natal, has sent us another piece of Native Literature,
with translation, contributed, as before, by Jeremiah
Mali, one of his Native Teachers. From Mr. Ireland
himself, a valuable autograph manuscript has been
received, containing his own translations of three
pieces of Zulu Native lore, two of which are also
accompanied by a literal interlineary translation of
much value for students of the Zulu language. A
copy of the Ancestral Izibongo (" Praises ") of Magema
Magwaza, Printer to the Bishop of Natal, has also been
received, but without a translation. This, on account
of the allusions to past events therein contained, even
Magema himself is unable to supply. The Rev. .R.
Robertson has kindly sent us an English translation
of a Zulu Household Story, formerly communicated to
Dr. Bleek by Miss M. Lindley. The Bishop of
Natal has presented a duplicate copy of his " First
Steps in Zulu" (Second Edition, Pietermaritzburg,
1871) ; which is a work now very difficult to obtain ;
also a copy from the Second Edition of his Zulu-English
9
Dictionary, printed at Ekukanyeni, in 1878, and
containing, at the end, a good number of Zulu Prov-
erbs, accompanied by translation into English. A
small Zulu Vocabulary and Phrase Book (Durban,
1879) has also been received; also a copy of Incwadi
Yabantwana (Durban, 1878). The latter was pre-
sented by the Eev. W. Ireland ; whom we have also
to thank for a number of other works most kindly
forwarded by him for the assistance of a party of
Missionaries proceeding to the interior, and unable to
obtain the greater part of the Zulu books required by
them at Cape Town. A copy of the Ultimatum, in
Zulu (Pietermaritzburg, 1878), has been presented by
His Excellency Sir Bartle Frere ; and six numbers
of the Ubaqa (a Zulu periodical) have been sent us
by the editress, Miss Hance. Some very interesting
accounts of Native Customs and Superstitions, and of
Children's Games, have been received from Mrs. H.
L. Carbutt, recorded by herself. An account of
" The Ordering of the Zulu People," and one of An
Interview with a Kafir Witch-Doctor, originally
printed in the Natal Colonist, have reached us from
Mr. John Sanderson, together with copies of two
papers by himself, reprinted from the Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, regarding " Stone Im-
plements from Natal " (August, 1878), and " Poly-
gamous Marriage among the Kafirs of Natal and
Countries around" (February, 1879).
In Sesuto, a Heading Book (Moria, 1879), and ten
Beading Sheets, have been presented by the Rev. A.
Mabille. In Setshuana, pieces of Native Literature,
with translation into English, have been received from
the Rev. W. Henry R. Bevan. The Rev. W. Crisp
has contributed a copy of his lately-published " Notes
towards a Secoana Grammar" (Bloemfontein, 1880).
The appearance of this work is most welcome to
10
in tending students, as for some time past it has been
almost impossible to obtain copies of the " Sketch of
the Sechuana Grammar," written by the late Kev. J.
Fredoux, and published in 1864 at Cape Town.
In Swahili, Bishop Steere has been so good as to
send us two manuscript stories, accompanied by an
English translation. These were, as Bishop Steere
informs us, related by a girl in the School of the
Universities' Mission at Zanzibar, who had been
brought as a slave from the country near the Lake
Nyassa.
A Vocabulary of the Chigogo language, by the
Rev. G. J. Clark, Missionary in Usagara, East
Africa (London, 1877), has been kindly presented by
the Church Missionary Society, to which the Author
belongs.
In Otyiherero, the Rev. H. Brincker, of the
Rhenish Mission Society, has contributed six books
all printed at Gutersloh (Westphalia) in 1879, during
his recent visit to Europe. These are as follows : a
Reading Book, No. I. (third edition) ; ditto, No. I b.
(by the Rev. H. Beiderbecke) ; ditto, No. II. (by the
Rev. Mr. Brincker), containing several illustrations,
and accompanied by an Otyiherero-Euglish Vocab-
ulary ; a Hymn Book (third and revised edition), with
Liturgy and Luther's Small Catechism ; an illustrated
Scripture History, translated by Mr. Brincker ; the
New Testament, translated by the Rev. Messrs.
Brincker, Buttner, and Viehe, bound together with
a second (revised) edition of the Psalms in Otyiherero,
first published by Mi*. Brincker in 1875. In addition
to the above, Mr. Brincker has kindly furnished a
manuscript translation (in German) of thirty-five
sentences, given on pages 3 and 4 of his Reading
Book (No. II.) in Otyiherer6 only.
The Rev. C. H. Weikkolin, of the Finnish Mission
11
in Ovambolaud, has sent us duplicates of two Shi-
ndonga works already existing here.
From the Congo, a copy of the title page of a
Cono-o Catechism, existing in the possession of the
Landana Mission there, has been obtained for us by
the Rev. Ch. Duparquet. This work, M. Duparquet
informs us, was formerly given by the Due de Palmella
to Monseigneur Bessieux, Bishop of Gallipoli and
Vicar- Apostolic of the Two Guineas, and by the
latter presented to the Congo Mission. Between the
document so kindly sent us by M. Duparquet, and the
title page of the manuscript copy of the second edition
of the Congo Catechism so long sought for in vain by
Dr. Bleek and presented in 1877 by Dr. D. C. Panta-
leoni of Rome, some slight variations are apparent.
Copies of some printed papers of great interest, con-
nected with Public, and principally with Native Affairs
in South Africa (dating chiefly from 1878 and 1879),
have been presented by His Excellency Sir Bartle
Frere. The Under-Secretary for Native Affairs (H.
E. Richard Blight, Esq.) has been so good as
to send us copies of the Blue Book and Appendix on
Native Affairs for 1879, as well as the Blue Book for
1880. Seven copies of Volume I. of tho Journal issued
by the South African Folk-lore So~._y (Cape Town,
1879) have also been received.
Another translation irom the Rev. L. Dahle's
" Specimens of Malagasy Folk-lore " has kindly been
supplied by Miss Cameron ; and from the Rev.
J. Sibree, Jun., have been received copies of
his papers on " Relationships and the names used for
them among the peoples of Madagascar," and on
" Malagasy Folk-lore and Popular Superstitions," re-
printed, respectively, from the Journal of the Anthropo-
logical Institute, for August, 1879, and from Part II.
of the Folk-lore Records.
12
In the language of- Aneiteum (one of the principal
islands of the New Hebrides Group), a copy of the
New Testament (London, 1863) has kindly been
presented, through the Kev. Dr. Hole, by the Com-
mittee of the South African Auxiliary Bible Society ;
forming a valuable addition to the works in this
language already bestowed by Sir George Grey.
We have also to thank the Acting Under-Colonial
Secretary (H. Willis, Esq.) for the copy of a work
entitled " Observations on the state of the Aboriginal
Inhabitants of New Zealand," by F. D. Fenton
(Auckland, 1859) ; besides other publications relating
to New Zealand ; and for a duplicate copy of a work
reprinted, in 1858, at Cape Town.
Tracings of a number of Bushman Paintings, taken
by Mr. Conolly Orpen, in 1877 and 1878, in Bushman
Caves in the Highlands, Division of Wodehouse (Cape
Colony), have been presented by Mr. Richard Orpen ;
and a copy of some Paintings existing on the side of
a small cave at Jordaan's Kloof, about sixteen miles
from Worcester, made by Mr. A. Martin, has been
contributed by himself.
A good number of photographs of Natives have
been added to the collection of these already existing
in the Grey Library, and among them are the portraits
of four trained Natives, presented by Miss Waterston.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The whole tenour of the remarks I shall submit to
you is of the nature of an appeal. For a study which
has but recently established its credentials as a scien-
tific pursuit, and which has still to win its way to
general recognition, I have undertaken to plead. If I
fail in my object, I shall be glad to believe the failure
due more to my ineffectual pleading than to the weak-
ness of the cause. With a full consciousness of my
own inability to deal with the subject in a compre-
hensive and satisfactory manner, I have dared the risk ;
and I have done so, because I think it is a cause whi' -;i
has peculiar claims upon, and an especial value for, the
community of which we are members. Under the
circumstances, if I offer the customary propitiation to
Nemesis, I trust it will be accepted with more than
the customary meaning. At least I shall venture to
hope that the great interest and importance of the
subject and I fear I must add its need of more
extended advocacy may stand as my apology for
a somewhat presumptuous and certainly inadequate
attempt to secure for it a more general and earnest
support. There is indeed no little hardihood involved
in an attempt to make intelligible, to those whose
pursuits have lain out of the range of its activity
the claims of a science, which is the latest born of all
the sciences; which is still in the ebb and flow of
14
speculation and controversy, which has hardly yet
formulated its articles of belief ; sketched out its rules
of procedure, or defined its area of operation. Hardly
yet, I say ; for, in spite of the splendid results already
accomplished, if we may judge of it by the analogy of
other sciences, we may fairly regard its actual achieve-
ment as but the first glimmer of a dawn of which the
full day is yet to be revealed.
More than once the question has been put to myself,
and I have no doubt to others " What is the meaning
of all this fuss about philology ? What is the good of
it?" And from the tone in which the question has
been put, I have been led to think the questioner has
entertained a strong suspicion that the pursuit of such
studies is a mere scholar's fancy, a leisure pastime of
crazy pundits, a shadow land in which intellectual Don
Quixotes tilt at imaginary windmills, a joy of wild
asses in the wilderness, a species of literary trifling
with which busy men and the practical affairs of life
have nothing to do. I shall endeavour to show that
comparative philology is something more than this ;
that it has very real practical objects ; that it opens up
vistas of promise, in which studies and interests most
momentous to human society seem to beckon the
enquirer forward ; that it ofiers a prospect of solution
to many problems social, political, and educational ;
that it holds out a guiding hand to other branches of
research ; that it is replete Avith questions that touch
the very core and essence of our being ; and there is
ground to hope that it will justify the labour bestowed
upon it by setting new stars in the firmament of*
scientific discovery.
Of the deep human interest attaching to these
studies, a bare recital of the names and achievements
of its most prominent champions would go far to
convince you. Many countries have contributed to
the work. Indian Brahmins, Greek Sophists, Alexan-
drian grammarians, Roman generals and writers, have
transmitted enquiries more or less valuable into the
principles of grammar aad word-formation, as illustrated
in the narrow sphere of their own knowledge. The
comparative method, which changed the whole aspect
of these researches, was reserved for the wider outlook
and deeper scientific insight of later times. Early in
the commencement of the last century, that renowned
and many-sided philosopher, Leibnitz, suggested to
Peter the Great the idea of a comparative table of
languages, and sketched out the plan on which it
should be conducted. The Avork was actually carried
out by Catherine II., under whose auspices a rough
comparative analysis of nearly 300 languages Avas
compiled. More than a century since Halhed, called
by Caion Farrar the " Copernicus of Philology," in
draAving attention to the similitude existing between
Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, as \vell as Latin and
Greek, sowed the seed which the writings of Sir W.
Jones and Sir J. Colebrook subsequently nursed to
such goodly growth. The study of Sanskrit, stimulated
and fostered by the Avritings of these latter, gave the
first substantial impulse to the study of comparative
philology. From their day to this a succession of
eminent scholars, of whom Germany may proudly
claim by far the largest and most distinguished portion,
have delved in the mine thus opened to them. The
treasures already extracted have encouraged a host of
earnest spirits to join in the search. The literature
which records their labours has grown to such dimen-
sions, that the time-straitened student, Avho may desire
to master the results, already quails at the task. What
it has accomplished Avould be long to tell in detail.
In enterprise and zeal it has been served as loyally by
its votaries as any department of human activity or
16
research. It has deciphered priestly tables buried for
ages in the dust, monumental stones, sculptured
columns and figured obelisks. Coins, epitaphs, and
mummy cloths, Chinese ideography, Egyptian
hieroglyphs, the arrow-heads of Nineveh and the
stamped bricks of Babylon all have been passed
through its crucible for the purpose of scientific
analysis. Much light it has thrown on ethnology and
the migration of races. Something it has added to
our theories of religious and moral development. From
the writings of Ulphitas it has deduced the identity
of the German and Gothic races. It has established a
common origin for most of the Polynesian languages.
It has discovered a remarkable congruity of structure
between the languages of the American continent. It
has classified the languages of Europe ; many of those
of Asia and Africa. The grandest of its discoveries,
however, I shall reserve mention of to a further stage
of my address. I have mentioned the word race : I
do so under correction ; for I am bound to state that,
as implying purity of blood-tie, it receives no sanction
from comparative philology. In the endless inter-
mingling, absorption, and migration of races reported
by its tests, it finds no room so far, at least, as the
nations of Europe are concerned for any such
significance. Even the more sober term " nationality "
loses much of its incendiary force in the light of historical
and philological research. It will be a happy thing
for Europe and the world when higher and purer bonds
have supplanted these irritating prepossessions ; and
when the maddening impulses of national assumption
and fancied blood-relation have given place to a more
generous rivalry in intellectual gains and in religious,
moral, and social development, philology will claim no
small share in the result.
But my purpose is rather to draw attention to future
17
promise than to past performance, and to bespeak
your interest as possible co-operators in a work that I
trust you may be led to see is of no mean importance
to ourselves as a community, and to the general
welfare of mankind. I shall confine myself accordingly
to a view of the subject suggested by the doubts and
questions referred to ; and I shall be satisfied if those
who at present see but darkly are helped to a clearer
view of the meaning and object of these pursuits.
It will be consistent, I think, with my main purpose,
if I ask you first to consider the process by which a
child learns its mother-tongue. That process is vaguely
called association. As a mere objective designation,
it is correct enough; but it explains nothing. The
deep subtle process by which the conceptions embodied
in words are appropriated by the budding intelligence
is not characterised by any more descriptive term than
the one we have used. And it will answer our purpose
well enough. The child, then, learns its mother-tongue
by this process. It stores up symbols, as we call them,
which represent objects, ideas, states of feeling, and so
on, and it employs these in turn for the same purposes
and in the same forms. Some of these symbols have a
great deal of meaning attached to them. It is im
possible the child can hear in frequent repetition such
words as " town," " country," " church," " home,"
without forming very complex thoughts in connection
with them. These thoughts are in a great measure
the counterpart of its own observations and experience.
Silently and unconsciously it gathers up certain images
in connection with uttered sounds, which enter into the
texture of its mind. The conditions of home life, the
features of the neighbourhood, the interests and
character of all about it, make each its own impress,
and help to quicken and inform the thinking faculty
The quality and bent of such activities as most concern
it, contribute further to mould and direct the mental
habit. Feeling, sentiment, aspiration, conception, and
the measure of things known and familiar, have
entered largely into the foundations of the mental
structure, before its free and independent life has com-
menced. As experience and age increase, layer after
layer of thought-matter is deposited within the brain.
Can it be doubted that all this thought-material has a
close correspondence with its environment in other
words, with the soil in which it has grown? How
much of the entire build, moral, spiritual, and
intellectual, of the future man is due to the same
process, it would be beside my purpose to enquire ;
though the question lies close to the present borderland,
and may yet be included in the rightful territory of
philological research. The process is so subtle that it
eludes recognition ; and it is not in conformity with
human habit to take strict note of the steps whereby
the normal processes of mental and physical growth
have been carried out. Nevertheless association, in
whatever aspect it be regarded, is a powerful energy,
all the more powerful from its penetrating, insidious,
and semi-unconscious operation. I am inclined to think
its value as an available factor in social organisation is
not duly estimated. That it is the great formative
agency in the development of national character,
national institutions, and national speech, is a position
that cannot well be disputed. The fact derives special
confirmation from the comparative study of human
languages.
Here I must pause a moment to explain for the
benefit of those to whom the subject is more or less
strange, tl.at the study of language of which I am
treating, is not that which forms so large an element
of school teaching. The use and appreciation of
language as the instrument of thought, as the embodied
19
form of what has been said, mitten, and done by other
men, is the special department of the schoolmaster.
Though essential to his purposes, and contributing
important help to the soundness of his work, philology
deals rather with the constituent elements of language,
with the genesis of words, with the natural growth of
dialects, literary and vernacular, and with the relations
by which families of speech are bound together.
Now let us consider what is meant by a ft word."
We have called it a symbol. But it is more than this.
It has a spirit and vivifying power of its own. It is
not a mere pellet of breath, jerked from the throat,
without sign or substance. It is sounded on an instru-
ment, which imparts to it a certain stamp and flavour
of the mind by which that instrument is controlled. It
carries a barb which causes it to cling to the
mind receiving it. It is like those wonderful
seeds, which are furnished with holdfasts, whereby
they secure a place in which to settle and germi-
nate. Briefly, of every verbal form uttered, it
may be said that it is spoken with a musical
accompaniment a tone, manner, emphasis, sometimes
an added gesture, which give to it a peculiar force,
kindling or agitating the recipient mind according to
its value and import. The ordinary counters of speech,
it is true, are passed from one to the other with little
or no mental disturbance. But each can recall for
himself certain pregnant terms, such as " religion,"
"child," "home," the mere utterance of A\hich awakes
a whole orchestra of sensations and ideas. The chords
which are struck by these are the truest and most
essential part of our nature. They have grown with
our growth ; interwoven themselves with our most
numerous, most abiding, and most cherished experi-
ences. Their sensibility is the cumulative effect of
myriad sensations, linked with the hours, some even
B2
20
with the moments, of life. If the brain be the subtle
receptive organ it is understood to be, the frequent
repetition of sounds by which it is most easily
and deeply stirred, must surely produce a sensi-
bility proportioned to their use. These, again,
being subject to closer and more constant criticism,
and being perpetually acted on by the forma-
tive and corrective agencies of the community,
will reflect most truly its characteristics. We are
all familiar with the tendency of bodies of men to
develope a word-currency of their own. We connect
instinctively the argot or slang of a great city with its
vulgar unlettered classes. A patois is assumed at
once to be the dialect of men whose mental texture
rejects the trammels of grammatical rule. Huntsmen,
artists, literary men, university students, evolve terms
and phrases which are maintained as watchwords of
the class. Dialects spring up everywhere, in every
country and in every language. They are local and
separate varieties of the common speech. England
could be mapped out with almost as much distinctness
by dialects as by the limits of counties. Somehow or
other, the people of a district have come to adopt
certain variations of the national speech, and by
association they maintain them. Here is an instance
in which I desire to impress the force of this law of
association. The local habit is a bond which is not
easily broken. A peasant child, transplanted from
Yorkshire or Normandy to a Hottentot kraal, would
probably learn to speak the language of the kraal
as easily as a Hottentot child. The doctrine of
" heredity " would insist, perhaps, on a shade of
difference^ due to the traditional aptitudes of
the vocal apparatus. The difference, however,
would be inappreciable, and would not materially
affects the argument. Once having learnt its
21
language, whatever it may be, the child having
grown to manhood, becomes its slave. He carries
its signs, character, and shibboleths, with him
to the end. Not only does he find it difficult to assimi-
late strange forms and modes of articulation ; but even
more correct forms of the mother speech, as enunciated
by his betters, he shows no readiness to adopt. This
fact, too familiar to need discussion, has an important
bearing on my argument. But we must revert to our
word-harvesting, and consider it in another aspect.
We have watched the storing up of words by associa-
tion, and we have noted their reactionary and stimu-
lating influence on the growing mind. We must con-
sider them now from another point of view. Words
have their own limits of value, varying from age to
age, but fixed for each separate period. These
limits represent actual limits in the consciousness of
the community. The average association value of a
term fixes a point beyond which the general intelli-
gence does not work freely. So far as its use is con-
cerned, the average value of a term is the hinge
on which public apprehension, public opinion, and
public sympathy, must be made to turn. By way of
illustration, let us consider the different effect of that
famous line of Keats', " A thing of beauty is a joy for
ever," on two different types of intelligence the
artist and the mechanic. All the words are simple
enough, and of common usage. But in the word
" beauty " we have a difference of association and con-
ception which marks a wide interval of intellectual
latitude. It is fire to the one and ice to the other.
The recollection of a thousand fair images and
cherished scenes is stirred in the former, and he glows
and kindles with the sentiment : the latter is puzzled
at the meaning, and feels no inner response. Take
again the word " infinite," and consider what different
22
force it bears to the unlettered clown and the man
familiar with the summation of series or the abstruse
calculations of astronomy. We need not multiply
examples. It will be readily admitted, I think, that
words have for each individual the accumulated
meaning which his experience and conception, however
developed, have gathered about them. And my con-
tention is that, in a community, the average import of
words is the real working force that which measures
the level of apprehension and sympathy beyond
which appeal, exhortation, and argument, are prone
to fail. Many terms of a fashionable philosophy of
the day are slowly securing for themselves a position in
the general apprehension. When the ideas involved
in the words " humanitarianism," " altruism," " cosmic
emotion," and others of the same school, are fully
grasped, so as to be sure of intelligent acceptance from
a general audience, we may be sure that the capacity
of sympathy has extended in proportion. This relation
between symbol and value is, I make bold to assert, a
matter of the last importance to those who are called
upon to exercise influence over men in masses. The
class import of a term is that in which it must be
presented to them ; for to that and no other is it
actively conscious. Nor should we be surprised at the
fact, that the symbol holds no more meaning than that
which has been required by the particular experience
Necessity, we are told, is the mother of all speech.
It governs, also, its form and growth. This necessity
covers the entire area of human life. Mental wants,
physical wants, spiritual wants, are all comprised in it.
Glance over an English Dictionary, or still better,
a Cyclopedia, and see what infinite wants of body and
spirit have been evolved and stereotyped in word-forms.
From mAny languages we have borrowed words
to suit special needs. Nearly the whole of our
scientific nomenclature we have taken from Greek,
and it is being daily increased. Our " paper " smacks
of the reedy Nile: our Government Gazette recalls
the coinage of ancient Venice ; our " copper " is
associated with an island, which has figured very
largely of late in English political harangues. From
our own stores we take whatever is handiest, and adapt
it to new requirements. We " cable " a message, we
"cab" it or "rail" it, we "shoot" Niagara, "do "a con-
tinent, and " stethoscope " a patient. Ideas and objects
do not wait long for their christening, when once in-
corporated in current thought. Here then we have at
once the limit of speech and conception. We have
distinct names for varieties of boots ; we have none
for the odours of flowers. The former is a practical
want, the latter is not urged by actual requirement.
Possibly we prefer to associate their pleasant perfumes
with the cherished names of the flowers themselves.
Yet something might be gained to subtlety of concep-
tion and discriminating nicety, if these were embodied
in suggestive terms. More serious wants than this
may be named. The elasticity of the air is so marvellous
that it baffles human conception. We describe this
quality by the same term in air and india-rubber.
The difference is that between a pin's point and a planet.
Had the conception of the larger property been ever
so dimly foreshadowed in a special term, I venture to
think the telephone would have had an earlier birth.
The same may be said of lightning. The effect of
thunder on the ear is specialised in the word " hurtle ; "
and " roar " and " rattle " may, at need, do vicarious
service for it. But the effective force of lightning has
no distinct term . We have no better word fo r it, in fact,
than that which we measure by horses in speaking of
steamships. Between power or might and omnipotence
there is no intermediate term. The force of lightning
24
accordingly is not rated in common speech. The
popular imagination has no presentative term, no
spectroscopic word-lens through which to view approxi-
mately and habitually this enormous energy. The
Esquimaux sees in the Aurora Borealis the spirits of
his forefathers disporting themselves. Their simple
minds are thus lifted to a transcendental conception of
the phenomenon. We have neither transporting
fancy nor adequate word-measure wherewith to asso-
ciate this tremendous power. Are we not all conscious
of the hard mental barrier that has so often delayed
the acceptance of modern inventions ? How scornfully
was the first rudimentary idea of the telegraph received?
Even the great Faraday himself suggested a doubt
to the enterprising American who first broached the
matter to him, as to whether a message could be flashed
right across the Atlantic. The doubt lasted but a
moment ; nevertheless it was expressed. The actual
difficulties thrown in the way of the first railway enter-
prise ; the derision with which the idea was scouted ;
the denunciations of its Avicked presumption, by no
means confined to the vulgar, must be familiar to all
of you. " A vast possibility," says Professor Tyndall,
" is in itself a dynamic power ; " and I venture to add,
if that possibility be familiarised in accepted symbols,
a pathway to general welcome and co - operation
is laid for the discoverer.
Of the reactionary value of language as an educating
and impelling force, it would be scarcely possible to
make too much. Happily the expansive property of
the human mind is bounded by no known limits.
Happily, too, its power of assimilating and secreting
thought, its responsive sensibility to images, verbal or
sensuous, is co-extensive with human necessity and
aspiration. By virtue of this quality, communities are
perpetually building up a monument of their intellectual
25
achie vemenls and mental life, each advance being
registered in the general consciousness, as the symbols
are extended in force and import. Thus poetry is
enabled to clothe itself continually with new and good-
lier vestments, religion gleams with a clearer light,
opinion and ethical habit are moulded to truer and
healthier forms. And as the structure grows, new
starting-points and new vantage-ground are secured for
the advance of conception :
" As the temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal."
This growth, I contend, is harmonious and progressive ;
and the thought-gains of one age are the heritage and
working capital of the next. Deepening, widening,
soaring into higher levels, the chartered and freighted
symbol carries forward the national consciousness, and
the generations succeed to an ever-increasing estate.
So much meaning gathered up in the word, so much
thought-material stored up in the brain, each change
or increase in meaning reflected in the consciousness of
those who use it, the actual thought-content of the
current language representing the intellectual wealth
of the period, and what is more to my purpose, the
measure of its emotional capacity and the reach of its
conceptive force such, I venture to contend, is one of
the lessons taught us by the study of language. What
promise, what warning, what resources it offers to us
I shall briefly notice by-and-bye.
But we must revert to our child. "We have watched
it acquiring the current forms of its mother speeoh j
and we left it at the stage at which the current speech
has become its master, and the child now grown to
manhood, the liege servant, the sworn upholder of all
its forms, idioms, and idiosyncracies. He has become
a member of a great speaking confederation. Thou-
26
sands, it may be millions, of men, having most diverse
habits, tastes, experiences, and objects, meeting and
knowing each other only in small sections, permanently
separated many of them by wide distances, employ
for intercommunion a certain set of sounds. Into this
arrangement he has entered, and accepts it without
questioning. But in this unquestioning acceptance he
is brought under the dominion of law, as rigid as that
which guides the ocean current or the fall of an apple.
Every word he utters is made for him, must be pro-
nounced in a certain manner, must be combined with
other words on a fixed plan, must not be varied, clipped,
or mutilated. The very pitch of his voice, the rhythm
and force of his utterance, the sound-measure of each
syllable and each word in a sentence, are prescribed for
him ; and he dares not violate the order. Probably
it never yet entered the heart of anyone to do so. A
man would be as likely to quarrel Avith his own skin
as with his mother-speech. With all its conditions he
accepts it, and until study has taught him otherwise,
he is prone to regard it as among the unchangeable,
inviolable things of nature. But if circumstances lead
him to consider the past, history of the language, he
comes to a knowledge of the fact that it was not always
what he finds it ; that it has undergone many remark-
able changes ; and that as it recedes back into the pa-t,
it becomes more and more unlike its present form, more
and more unrecognisable. He will come at length upon
a period in which it can only be understood by him with
the help of a dictionary. This language, then, on which
he himself would not hope or care to make any impression,
has been undergoing variation through all its known
past. Our imaginary student will at once ask himself
how this constant change is brought about, whether it
is controlled by law, and if so, what is the source,
whence the motive-power of that law. He is conscious
27
of neither desire nor power in himself to alter the
language to add to it or take from it. He probably
feels that any such attempt on his part would be both
ludicrous and futile. He believes that all other
speakers of the same language the many millions of
the same confederation are in like position. He
knows of no recognised agency, no artificial or con-
ventional force to which this variable character of
language can be traced. Yet, in the space of
three or four centuries, a mighty change has passed
over the face of his mother-tongue. Now if our
student reflects on the purpose for which language
exists, he will probably assure himself that it is in
no respect intended to subserve the purposes of
individual man ; but of men in the aggregate, of men
living, acting, and conversing together. He will
recognise it as the creation of social man for social uses.
This is the end and measure of its vitality. It has only
a corporate existence, and bears a distinct proportion to
the variety, fullness anil multiplicity of the social life
it is designed to serve. He will recognise this, I say ;
and it is an important fact to arrive at. The com-
munity, as joint- trustees of the language, can alone
dispose of its substance. They are the regulators and
pilots of its course. They revise and readjust ; they
reject and renovate ; they recast the music and retune
the instrument. They do this in their corporate
capacity ; and herein resides the law a law resulting
from the multiple qualities, physical and mental, of
the community. It is a mystery, as deep and complex
a phenomenon as any presented in human life. But
whatever its meaning, whatever its practical application,
it is a fact that is placed beyond the reach of contro-
versy. I will not venture to affirm, spite of the
emphatic and weighty protest of Professor Max
Miiller, that individuals can exercise no influence
28
whatever on current speech. The Latinisms of a
Johnson, the Gallicisms of a Dryden, may set a fashion
and affect the currency for a time. The Euphuism of
Lyly undoubtedly influenced the court language
of his day, and produced a host of imitators in litera-
ture not confined to his own age. This singular
affectation had its counterpart in so many countries, that
it points to a generic rather than an individual fancy.
It appeared in Spain as the " cultismo" in Italy as
the " Marinesco " style. A similar whimsicality pos-
sessed the ladies of Paris towards the close of the loth
century, of whom John Baret says in his dictionary,
when speaking of the letter R : " This R is so neces-
sary a letter, that I think no man hath any colour to
barke against it. Indeed, some women in France,
and especially the fine dames of Paris (belike being
the disciples of Persius, who called R literam caninam),
are so daintie-mouthed, that they cannot abide the
jarring sound of R, but alwaies turn it into Z, for pere
and mere saying peze and m&ze." Before a literary
standard has been fully developed, or a code of taste
established, such tricks and vagaries will probably
appear in every language. It needs but a ruling wit
or a popular genius to set the fashion, and ambitious
imitators will take it up, and the fashion will run its
course. The love of the grotesque, the odd, the
fanciful, the new, are too permanent elements in human
nature to leave us any ground for surprise at this.
The spread of culture and the consolidation of taste
in accepted literary standards, tend to reduce this
mental capriciousness to its proper significance.
Among the direct agencies, therefore, that regulate
the true growth and development of language, it has
no permanent place. But as all eccentric movements
tend to reaction, and as we know that, in each of the
instances quoted, a very decided reaction followed,
29
these developments or disturbances must be reckoned
with in tracing the progress of a language. But
beneath all such transient influences flows the deep
under- current of the informing spirit, the great secret
council of the national intellect, which fits the language
to its requirements, changes, prunes, adapts and re-
adapts it to its changing and growing necessities. We
may usefully glance for a moment at some of the effects
of this process in our own tongue.
English has passed gradually from an inflectional to
an analytical stage. It has dropped case endings,
retaining only signs of the genitive case and plural
number. It has abandoned the dual form of the
pronoun. It has got rid of declensions. Many minor
grammatical changes have taken place. Its vocabu-
lary has suffered still more. It is computed that 400
words found in the English Bible have lapsed out of
use. Shakspeare is said to have employed about
15,000 words in all, yet in spite of the enchantment of
his name and works, spite of his enthronement by the
first of German critics as the Emperor of Literature,
he has left us many phrases that have lost their
warrant, and a great many terms that we decline to
perpetuate. Most of us require, in the words of
Horatio, to be " edified by the margent," when we
read of " accomplishing the Knights," of " goodness
growing to a plurisy," of a ghost appearing in " ques-
tionable shape," of " forefended place," of the " snuffs
and packings of dukes," of " exsufficate and blown
surmises," of " kissing the jack upon an up-cast," of
" dumps merry " and " dumps doleful," of " what the
ocean pales or sky inclips," of " mulled peace," and
" cantelous baits," of " alms-drink " and " foizon," and
"garboils" and "hilding," and many other phrases
and terms now discarded and tabooed. The words of a
language share the vicissitudes of individual and family
30
life. Some grow to honour, some to shame, some
having powerful connections, disappear from their
circle, and leave not a trace behind ; some survive their
kindred ; some lose their place and substance ; others
gather wealth and honour. Spenser abounds in out-
casts, in reduced families, and lost reputations. His
" Whilome " and " Whileere," his " weet " and " wot,"
his " sith " and " eftsoons," his " deemen " and " wee-
nen " and "needen," his " wrathful wreaks," his
" sparckles that from the andvile used to fly," his
" advisement " and " dreariment " and " avengement ' '
are gone for ever. His " worldly mucke " we repud-
iate in terms, though we have not ceased to appreciate
the reality. His * ' unsweet " and " covetise " and
" goodlyhead " have given place to more convenient
terms. u His sea of licour cold " has lost caste, and
suggests a process of degradation, not unconnected, I
fear, with national habits. He reveals a chapter also
in the gradual transformation of the French element
in the language to suit the changed home and utterance.
" Retourne " and " cognisaunce " and " temperaunce,"
and " daunger " and " apparaunt " and " maistre " (this
latter pronunciation still surviving in English dialects)
recall the vocal traditions under which they were
introduced. A step further back, and the metamor-
phosis is so complete that the student is lost ; the
lights and landmarks have disappeared, and he finds
himself in a wordy wilderness.
One effect of this constant change and development
is an unhappy divorce between English spelling and
pronunciation. For two centuries almost continuous
efforts have been made to arrest this process, but with
little success. Better results have attended similar
efforts in Spain and Italy ; and many Germans
are agitating at the present moment for a like
reform in their own language. The subject is again
before the English public, and Professor Max M tiller
and some of our foremost educators have given the
weight of their authority to the proposal. The
difficulty of the task is a fair measure of the conserva-
tive force which contends with the progressive tendency
in all languages to prevent a too rapid advance. I
cannot refrain from quoting here the argument put to
the Oxford Professor, just named, in favour of the
existing orthography, or, as Southey would call it,
" u glyg ra P n y>" by an English clergyman, who main-
tained it was a buttress of the national faith ; " for,"
said he, " a boy who had once been led to accept the
marvels of Knglish spelling would be ready to believe
anything." Reckless of all such consequences, re-
newing, disrating, ostracising, readjusting, the lan-
guage proceeds, and the equilibrium between mental
needs and vocal expression is maintained. The law
is general ; it has no exceptional application ; it is
true of every language that is still subject to the
changing conditions of those who use it. And what is
there in these conditions that does not change ? What
is there in the England of the present day that is the
exact counterpart of its prototype of a century back ? In
every aspect of social and individual life ; in our arts,
commerce, agriculture, education ; in our weapons of
war, our means of locomotion, in our favourite pursuits
and amusements, there is change. Intercourse has
extended, knowledge has spread, sciences have de-
veloped. Not only a different set of men and women
occupy the land ; but the horizon of their thoughts
and experiences has so widened, that a deeper, stronger,
and fuller mental life results. The surroundings are
not the same ; the tone, character, and impress are
different ; the currents of thought have set in new
directions ; the brain is more sensitive and quick ;
intellectual forces have strengthened and extended ;
32
there is a brisker stir in the pulse, a higher stress, a
more complex and varied impulse. The instrument is
changed can it be that the tones should not vary
also ? It is not even desirable that the vocal moulding
of thought should be fixed in unalterable lineaments.
Whilst thought itself is unconfined, living, and pro-
gressive, its vesture must be yielding and elastic. And
thought itself is ever-changing, decaying here, sprout-
ing into fresh life there. A cultivated people will
strive continually to mirror its mental images in the
form through which their living substance is to be con-
veyed to listening ear and inspecting eye alike. In
one direction we owe to this tendency those " thoughts
in music," termed onomatopoeia or sound-words ; hi
another, the straining after pictorial effect in word-
painting. Both are efficient factors in the evolution
of language ; both contribute to secure the " survival
of the fittest." I have no doubt myself that, as
musical culture extends, and the ear of the language-
making, language-shaping, community becomes more
sensitive and critical, the demand for harmony
between sound and conception will increase. The ear
has its part, and it seems to me a very important part,
in the elaboration of speech-forms ; I cannot consent
to regard it as an unconcerned or helpless spectator of
processes, of which it is the interpreting medium. I
venture on this remark, because, in discussing the
phonetic laws of language, physiologists seem to me
I trust I may say it with all becoming modesty not to
give this factor its due weight. Ease of utterance is
assumed to be the sole guiding principle hi phonetic
change. Undoubtedly it is the main element ; but I
cannot refuse to the ear a share in the work. The poet
and the word-painter would not allow their trusted ally
to be so discredited and put aside. Nor can ease of
utterance be 'altogether independent of aural effect.
33
Poet, orator, and preacher know the value of " thoughts
that breathe and words that burn," nor are they
inclined to neglect the ear's intercession. Let us try
the line of Keats already quoted by this test. The
word beauty was not always pronounced as it is now.
The transition pronunciation booty bringing us
nearer to its French original, may still be heard
amongst the unlettered classes in England. Had the
more liquid sound of the first syllable not been adopted
in cultivated speech, we may doubt, I think, whether
Keats would ever have penned the line. And we
may be tolerably certain that, wherever the Endymion
is read, the now vulgar pronunciation of the word has
received its quietus. There are other conditions of the
phonetic laws of language which seem to me to point
to the same conclusion. Certain processes called
alliteration, assimilation, reduplication, differentiation
of sound, are common to all languages. In each of
these, I should say, the authority of the ear has asserted
itself. As an arbiter between speaker and listener, it
exacts from the former a reasonable clearness and dis-
crimination of sound. Relief to the ear, a < well as
the pronouncing organ, is surely sought in the infinite
modification of vowel-Bounds, and the careful variation
of recurring vowels, as in incapable, for instance,
where a occurs twice with different sound ; irremediable
where the second t is sounded full for variety of effect ;
as in proposition, where to obtain two distinct sounds of
o the natural division of the word, as in the two previous
cases, is set aside. I regret that time will not allow me
to enlarge further on this most interesting branch of lin-
guistic research ; but, as more or less relevant to what
may be said hereafter, I will ask you to consider, while
the subject is before us, what difference of organisation is
indicated in the constitution of ear and larynx between
the inhabitants of different latitudes. Compare the
harsh burr of the people of Northern Europe with the
34
soft and languid articulation of the South, the strong
vocalism of the Cumberland miner with the clipped
and minced speech of the London shop-boy, the deep
organ-notes of the Berlin preacher with the more
tripping utterance of the Viennese ; the strong accent-
uating energy of the Latin-speaking Frenchman with
the " vowelled undersong," as Canon Farrar calls it, of
the Latin-speaking Neapolitan ; or again, the clicking
and castanetting of the Bushman and Koranna with
the deep, guttural resonance of the Zulu and Amaxosa,
and you will admit that there is abundant room here
for theorising and speculating on causes and effects.
The phenomena of articulation, as observed in Europe,
seem to justify the conclusion that its force varies with
climate, the striving after ease of utterance bearing a
direct relation to temperature. It is no fancy to say
that its lines might be traced co-ordinately with the
isothermal lines of the physical atlas. At least it will
follow that ease of utterance is not sought with uniform
eagerness. With these facts before us, we shall be
prepared, I think, to accept the dictum of the philo-
logist that the growth of languages is organic ; that
they have a tendency to individualise themselves ; and
that they reflect in some mysterious way the charac-
teristics and mental state of those who use them.
A question, however, suggests itself in connection with
certain new conditions pointed out, in what manner and
at what rate will the changing processes indicated
continue henceforth ? At what period in the future
will Macaulay and Tennyson cease to be in harmony
\\ith the current forms of the language? To what
extent are we prepared to endorse the melancholy
warning of Dean Swift :
(i Poets who lasting marble seek,
Must carve in Latin or in Greek ;
We write on sand ; our language grows,
And like the tide our work o'erflows."
35
Undoubtedly the question derives a new bearing
from the altered features of modern life. The millions
who never read, and used in their intercourse but a
fraction of the language, will be replaced by millions
who read and possess a larger stake in the common
heritage. The ever increasing class of readers and
students must tend to restrain the erratic tendencies of
the language in which their intellectual life is embodied.
The conservative forces will be strengthened; the
directing spirit will be chastened and intensified ; but
that the law will cease to operate, though its mode and
rate may be changed, all experience forbids us to expect.
But I must make haste to redeem my promise. I spoke
uf the greatest discovery of comparative philology as
yet to be noticed. The facts are common-places
already of the school-room. Among the many eminent
philologists that Germany has produced, none is of
higher note than Jacob Grimm. No truth has been
elicited by these researches more pregnant and inter-
esting than that established by him viz., the unity of
the Aryan languages. The study of Sanskrit soon
revealed the identity of certain grammatical forms,
certain numerals, certain words of household usage,
and of many roots in the old classical language of India
and in the languages of Europe. A key was thus
placed in the hands of the philologist, and one after
another the secret chambers of the past, in its linguistic
development, were opened. The languages of Europe
Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and Romance with al!
their subsidiary dialects, were traced to a common
source with the sacred language of the Hindoo.
A common mother had given birth to all. The process
of differentiation was explained, the laws of interchange
formulated, and the title-deeds of the family made out.
So far the fact has been established, that at some
remote period of the world's history the fair-haired,
62
36
light-complexioned Saxon, and the swarthy Hindoo
were the immediate co-heirs of a common language.
Many rhetorical rhapsodies have been expended on this
fact ; whether the belief that in an infinitely remote
past the Anglo-Saxon and Hindoo were brothers is
matter for exultation, is a question that belongs to
the province of sentiment. We may Avell wonder,
however, at the marvellous contrast evolved between
them, in respect to intellect and character as well as
language. Is it ordained that the former, having in a
long course of material striving contracted a somewhat
cold mechanical temper and mode of thought, should
renew his spiritual fires in a land where imagination
runs riot, and the real is the mere handmaid of the
ideal? I cannot answer the question, but it will
suggest itself in connection with their present inter-
course and the more ancient relation. The evidence
on which this relation is based is elaborated in Grimm's
Law. Like many other results of scientific research,
it brings us to a point at which enquiry is baffled.
"Why the English replaces German t by d, as in bed
forbett, German d by th as in dein, thine, German ss
or z by t as in zwei, two ; vergessen, forget ; or why
the former lets make a thing, while the latter has or
gets it made, hears say, a thing which the latter hears
said, are questions partly physiological, partly meta-
physical, which await more light for their solution.
The differentiating process has established a still wider
gap between modern German and English in the apti-
tude of the former for combining words in a manner
impossible to the latter. The very word which describes
the studies on which I am now commenting sprachwis-
senchaft&n impossible formation in English, is a
typical illustration of this difference. The tie of con-
sanguinity, however, remains firmly rooted in the two
languages in identity of grammatical structure and
37
a vocabulary common to both, which is the largest and
most important element of English. It is foreign to
my purpose to enter at length into the details of
linguistic development ; but it will be proper to remind
you here that German has acquired an authoritative
standard only in comparatively recent times. Before
Luther determined, and the printing press, through
school and pulpit, disseminated its present forms,
German was in a quasi-nebulous state, its many dialects
leading a separate and uncontrolled existence. Broken
into a hundred parts, influenced by local and very
varying conditions, having contact at its extreme points
with Lithuanian, Slavonic and Latin dialects, it
diverged very widely from other members of the Aryan
family. Before High German therefore was cast in
its present mould, Dutch and English, the sister off-
spring of the Low German branch, had commenced an
independent career. Their development accordingly
is of older date, and has more significance and a deeper
interest for the philologist. In scientific value no branch
of the Aryan family surpasses the neo-Latin or
Romance languages. The Roman conqueror laid a
heavy yoke on his subjects. Not content with political
submission, he made them in all things as like himself
as possible. The terms of surrender in hided the
adoption of the conqueror's laws, institutions, and
speech. Britain and Germany escaped the full
measure of his absorbing energy, but France and
South-western Europe were Romanised. Here the
legionaries planted the language, which has developed
into French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Celtic
speech of the original inhabitants disappeared almost
entirely, and the vernacular of Italy took its place. In
each case the original stock of words has been largely
recruited from foreign sources. French and Spanish
have borrowed from each other ; they have drawn
38
something from Germany, more freely still from Italy.
Home has continually repaired and refitted the yoke
originally laid upon them. Ecclesiastical relations
have nourished and fed the literary element ; while the
armies of Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francois I.,
and the close relations with Spain and Italy under
Philip II., introduced many additions from the parent
country into the common speech of either. Spanish,
however, has been more largely infused with foreign
elements than French. Its early commercial inter-
course with America, the Saracen conquest, and the
German associations of Charles V., opened the
resources of these countries to its verbal deficiencies.
In respect, then, of continuous and homogeneous deve-
lopment, French has an especial value for the philologist.
It has a peculiar interest for us also from its immediate
connection with a kindred element in our own tongue.
The manner in which each has dealt with this element
should illustrate the law of individualisation already
referred to. We know that the French has analysed
the Latin verb, employing three auxiliaries etre,
avoir, aller for the purpose. The Euglish has
analysed all its verbs, and with the help of its five
Teutonic auxiliaries has carried the analysis a step
further than the French. The case-endings of the
Latin have been dropped in both; the French, however,
makes amends to some extent by inflecting tAvo of its
prepositions. The Latin aspirate has disappeared
almost entirely from the latter, the English aspirates
strongly. The French retains the tonic accent
of the original, as in fact do all the Romance languages,
more or less faithfully. Content with this acknow-
ledgment of its origin, the French prunes away endings
and eliminates consonants so ruthlessly that frequently
mere skeleton representatives of the parent forms
remain. The process, however, is controlled by law,
39
a law sufficiently clear and regular to be of great impor-
tance to the schoolmaster. English draws the accent
back, and throws it, whenever possible, on the first
syllable. These are differences that distinguish the
phonetic and constructive properties of the two
peoples. The inexorable limits of time allowed
me, and a due regard for your patience, forbid my
pursuing this subject further. The instances given
are sufficient to illustrate the position maintained, that
adaptation presides over the formation of speech. The
law is very happily exemplified in the Romance
languages, where the same material has, within a
measurable space of time, been wrought into such
diverse patterns by the separate communities. Each
has taken the cloth and cut it to its own measure.
The new dress in either case is sufficiently distinct to
escape identification from all but trained experts.
The people have moulded the language to suit their
own idiosyncracies, and the result is four forms of
speech (I omit less important descendants of Latin)*
the speakers of which cannot understand each other,
yet to the eye of the philologist having the closest
relation and a common origin. The same process, on
a wider and grander scale, has filled Europe with
languages all sprung from a common stem, yet unin-
telligible beyond their own limits. I have wholly failed
in my argument, and philology is the idle pastime sug-
gested at the commencement of my address, if all this
mutation and development are not marked and
controlled by law. No alternative theory will explain
at least to the satisfaction of science the individual-
ising tendency of national forms of speech. The
centrifugal forces which produce internal change,
checked and governed by a centripetal force, which
keeps it ever true to a fixed standard, this standard
being the faithful impress of national characteristics
40
such is the conclusion affirmed by philology, the only
one compatible with the evidence adduced. The con-
clusion, with the reasoning by vvliich it has been
arrived at, has wide and important applications. I
have spoken of the influence of association in building
up the mental structure of a people. Some years ago
an experiment was made in America in reforming
criminals by solitary confinement. Had the power of
association in sustaining mental lite been duly under-
stood, I venture to think that experiment would never
have been thought of. It was abandoned in haste :
too late, however, for many who reaped in blighted
reason the fruits of this empirical folly. Of its bearing
on linguistic teaching, I will quote an illustration from
Brachet's Dictionary : " By the rude guess-work of
the old etymology, the French word paresse was con-
nected with a Greek word resembling it in form and
meaning. The methods of philology rescued it from
this anomalous position. The analogy of tristesse,
mollesse, accounted for its termination, the analogy of
entier and noir explained the loss of the g in the
Latin original, and established its true paternity. But
the relevance of this conclusion to the main object of
my address I must no longer delay to notice. Most
of the native languages of South Africa belong to
the second stage of growth, called agglutinating,
The Aryan languages have passed from the first stage
through the second, or agglutinating, to the third and
highest, called the inflectional. Many of these have
entered on a more advanced stage still, the analytical.
A complete English dictionary should contain, it is
computed, over one hundred thousand words. The
Zulu language contains, roughly speaking, about ten
thousand. It has a marvellous capacity for modifying
the meanings of words by the help of certain suffices
and prefixes, but those in actual use do not exceed, I
41
believe, the number given. Ninety thousand then
represents the difference in word-wealth between the
subjects of Queen Victoria and those of the late King
Cetywayo. Add to this the difference in thought
value, and what a wide abyss separates the two con-
ditions ! Estimate still further the relative habits of
thought and powers of conception implied, and little
room is left for comparison. Faculties that have
never been exercised in a people may be dormant, but
they must be treated as dormant, not as active and
available forces. The Kafir or Hottentot can think
keenly and precisely. Appleyard tells us the Zulu
speaks with remarkable precision. We should infer
as much, perhaps, from the specialising tendencies of
their language. This tendency is common to the
languages of all primitive races. The Hottentot has
thirty-five words designating varieties of colour ; but
he cannot speak of a rich blue or a delicate pink. 1 he
Zulu has three terms for day, one general, another
distinguishing day from night, a third defining it as
a measure of time. He has many words for man, dis-
tinguishing him generically as to sex, and as to con-
dition, natural or accidental. He has four terms for
marriage, one of the man, another of the woman, a third
applied to the father who gives away, and a fourth to
the priest who performs the ceremony. Many of
these terms are modifications of a single root, but they
illustrate the discriminating individualising genius of the
language. Objects of sense enter largely into the
architecture of primitive speech. The sun to the
Hottentot is a " warming-pan " or " boiling-pot ; " the
Kafir speaks of a dependent as a " dog," of a superior
as a * father." The Zulu describes something valuable
"umkaunto" or assegai with splendid irony he
speaks of a proud man as " eating himself," and with
humorous quaintness he designates a man with
42
whiskers as, " one who laughs out of a forest." These
are indications of a mental hr=bit, a mode of viewing
tilings, a presentative reaction, which is correlated to
their physical life and associations. But the strongest
and most impressive contrast lies deeper than this. It
consists in the almost entire absence from the one, and
the rich abundance in the other, of abstract terms.
These are coral islands in the great ocean of language.
While the waters flow and change around them, they
continually gather fresh substance, and grow in bulk
and height. They supply terra firma to the wander-
ing imagination ; they conserve what is durable and
solid in national thought, and it is here that the
creative and cumulative forces of the national mind
have spent their highest and fullest energy. Here
then we should expect to find, as we do find, the
boundaries between culture and barbarism most rigidly
defined. The kernel of the problem that affects all
our relations with primitive man must be looked for in
this difference of mental habit. In his sensuous
affinities, in his unfamiliarity with abstract conceptions,
in his unreadiness to comprehend associated ideas, con-
densed forms of thought, classified relations and
grouped resemblances, he is removed from us by
barriers which centuries of energising and accumu-
lating thought have created. AV e know that the high-
est form of this conceptual energy is confined to the
cultivated classes of civilised communities ; but in the
close contact and interfusion of the social strata
sufficient scope is secured for its activity. In savage
life it is an undeveloped factor, an unformed habit.
Eighteen centuries of experience, sad, solemn, and
chequered, speak to us in the word " religion." The
good spirit's gift of rain and the evil spirit's influence in
drought, are all that Bushman and Namaqua can offer
as equivalent. The solitary camel-thorn and the deep
43
primeval forest represent the difference in thought-
endowment between the dwellers in cities and the
dwellers in huts. The aspects in which our civilization
is presented to the latter are not always attractive ; but
its best features are the result of a long, gradual, and
consistent evolution, no part of which is paralleled in
his own experience. At a hundred geographical
points the Queen of England is neighbouring chief
to a man to whom the whole structure of our civilisa-
tion and mode of life is an inscrutable mystery, and
whose attitude towards these is perhaps as little under-
stood by us. Again, Christianity is being preached in
various parts of the world to races whose mental
furniture and range of conception are of the
meanest and most limited kind. Is it always
remembered how wide is the difference between
learner and teacher ; by what ages of slow elaboration
and continuous progress they are divided; how special
to the Christian-bred man are such terms as " brother-
hood," " mercy," " holiness," " duty ; " how large
the meaning they convey, and the emotional capacity
which they have assisted to develope ? Trees will
not bear the grafting of alien buds ; and human
nature is receptive only of that for which it is pre-
pared. I deduce from this no lesson but one of caution ;
certainly no warrant for despair. Philology, that has
accomplished so much, will not shrink from attempting
more ; nor will it fail, I hope, to discover clues to
mental action and aids to its control, which will not
only speed the missionary's labour, but furnish new
methods of influence in many directions. The facts of
linguistic phenomena are partly metaphysical facts :
if ever a science of social metaphysics is developed
and social science Avill walk on crutches until it has
such scientific support the discoveries of philology
will be among its most important data.
44
Science works blindfold to an unseen goal ; the
glory and chivalry of its labours would be less if its
objects were defined and visible. Hope, and not cer-
tainty, is the mainspring of its energy. The horizon
is bright before it, but with the reflected hues of past
achievement, and a golden haze of possibility. In the
words of the German Heine it recognises its appro-
priate motto " I see clearly the wonder of the past,
a veil is spread over the future, but it is a rose-
coloured one, and through it gleam golden columns and
glittering gems, and sweet sounds fall upon the ear."
Surely the teaching of the time is not with those who
question the value of any form of research.
With these remarks, sketchy, superficial, and, I fear,
somewhat incoherent, I must leave you to consider
whether the case submitted did not deserve a more
effective advocacy. I shall be well content with such
a verdict. I have trespassed long on your time and
patience, but the theme was a tempting one ; and,
indeed, in so wide a subject, the difficulty was to
know not what to say, but what to leave unsaid. The
vast interests committed to us, in respect to our
coloured brethren, m-*y well prompt the feeling, that
whatever is to be known in directions through which
they may be influenced, we should spare no pains to
learn. A vote of the Cape Parliament has provided
for the continuance of the labours so ably begun by
the late Dr. Bleek. The devoted services of the lady
who has continued his work with such loving zeal
have been fairly seconded. But, if I may be per-
mitted the remark, the machinery by which the
missionary or future Resident may be helped to a fair
start in their career, is still wanting. No blessing is
promised to work that ignores its special conditions,
or neglects available means. And I cannot think that
the work of elevating races so unlike ourselves in
45
mental texture and habit can be successfully under-
taken, without a full and conscious appreciation of the
differences that divide us. In a more extended and
searching study of those differences lies our best hope
of a prosperous and honourable fulfilment of our
responsibilities.
A solid foundation has been laid for the work to be
undertaken. No one, I believe, takes a more hearty
interest in the cause than His Excellency Sir Bartle
Frere, and there can be no better augury for its
advancement. One sure result of the studies indicated
we may safely anticipate : they will give to native
questions an interest very unlike the undisciplined
feeling through which they are too commonly re-
garded. Under such conditions and with such aims,
philology appeals for support. Deeply convinced as
I am of the soundness of its claims, I feel no less
assured, that in respect to what has been submitted to
you, the fault will be mine, and mine only, if the
appeal is made in vain.
PROCEEDINGS
FIFTBECOII) AIIIYEIISIRY MEETING
OP THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
^friran flublir f
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON FRIDAY, THE 20th MAY, 1881.
f. Sifoforigfei, (Esq., !.$.,.$.., in t^t
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON & Co., PRINTERS, .ST. GEORGE'S-STREET.
1881.
Town, there to be deposited, subject to the following
conditions : That I may at any time remove from the
Library, as long as I require them, any books tr
manuscrip's for my own use. That I may give the
like privilege to the'occupants of any institution I may
hereafter found in South Africa. That during my
lifetime all other persons shall be admitted, under the
rules and regulations of the Library, to use the books
and manuscripts, but that no person shaUj without my
consent, be permitted to remove any of them from the
building. After my death, the Trustees of my collec-
tion shall make such regulations 011 this last subject as
they think proper, as I do not wish to attempt to bind
posterity by any unalterable rule.
" I propose, that for the purpose of seeing these con-
ditions fulfilled, I should, in the first in-tance, appoint
eight Trustees, and that when any vacancy occurs, the
remaining Trustees should from time to time fill it up.'"'
The accession of books during the past year has
been a? follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 7 Vols.
Poltical Economy, Government ... 17
Sciences and the Arts 95
Voyages and Travels ... ... 79
History 93
Biography 48
Belles Lettrcs ... 69
Miscellaneous ... ... ...110
Among the presentations received, and included in
the above list, are the last year's Transactions and
Proceedings of the Royal Society, the Royal Astro-
Bomical and Geographical Societies, of the Zoological
Society, and the Royal Colonial Institute, the Smith-
sonian Institute, Washington, and from the
Royal Dublin Society a complete set of their
Scientific Transactions and Proceedings up to date.
The Committee have also to acknowledge the presen-
tation, by His Excellency the Minister of State for
Holland, of eight folio volumes of plates and two
volumes of letterpress, relating to the ancient ruins in
Java ; from P. J. Kotze, Esq., a valuable contribution
ot a pictorial magazine, entitled the " Florist and
Pomologist," from 1848 to 1876, in twenty-nine
volumes ; besides many others presented by the Right
Honourable Sir Bartle Frere : the late Sir Redmond
Barry, Melbourne ; the Hon. W. Littleton ; the Viue
Diseases Commission; Capt. Henry Wilson; the Rev.
W. Thompson ; J. W. Van Rees Hoets, Esq., London ;
M. Antoine Charlin ; and Advocate P. M. Lawrence.
The Committee last year mentioned the application
to Government for a grant in aid of the printing and
publication of a complete Catalogue of the books in the
Library. They have now much pleasure in announcing
to the subscribers and the public, that a sum of three
hundred pounds has been voted by the Parliament for
this object. The Catalogue is now passing through the
press, 176 pages having already been printed, and it is
expected that the Catalogue will in a few months be in
the hands of the subscribers.
The issue of Books and Periodicals in the several
departments of Science and Literature, up to 30th
April last, has been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology 35 Vols.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 70
Science and the Arts 149
Voyages and Travels 1,076
History 486
Biography ... ... 699
Belles Lettres 696
Miscellaneous 7,816
Reviews and Periodicals ... ... 4,895
B2
From this statement, as compared with that of last
year, it will be seen that the circulation in standard
works has been about the same, whilst there is a falling
off in Reviews and Periodicals, but a corresponding
increase in light litera'ure.
The Committee have special gratification in stating
that the number of readers and visitors availing them-
selves of the valuable treasure-* of the Institution, has
been greatly in excesa of last year or of any previous
year. During the period the Institution was open to
the public, the number of persons who visited it
appears from a record kept to have been 29,255,
making an average of 109 daily, the largest number
on any one day being 177, and the lowest 59.
An application was recently made by the depart-
ment of the Honourable the Commissioner of Crown
Lands and Public Works for the occupation of a room
jn the Librarian's quarters, for the accommodation of
the Colonial Archives, and as the Librarian waived
his right to the room, the Committee willingly placed
it at the disposal of the Government.
This report would be incomplete without a special
reference to the death of the Honourable William
Porter, who, during his long connection with the
Colony, was a generous supporter of the Public
Library. His name will ever be honourably associated
with the Institution, not only through the munificent
gift of the Porter Collection, and his recent bequest,
but also by his having introduced, some forty years ago,
the now time-honoured custom of making this anniver-
sary an occasion for an address on some subject of
Literature or Science.
The following are the accessions to the Grey Collec-
tion during the past year by presentation :
Memoranda of Trading Trip into the Orange River,
Free State, and Country of Transvaal Boers, 1851-52,
by John Sanderson ; with map. (London, \V. Clowes
& Sons) ; from Mies Julia Lloyd. Collections for a
Handbook of the Makua Language by Chiuncy
Maples, M.A. (London, 1879 or 1880) ; from tlie
Author. Ubaqa for July, 1880; from Miss Har.ce.
" The Dawn of Pay" for June, July and August,
18SO; from the R :v. E. L. Coakes. Duplici'c, appa-
rently incomplete, of Lipcroverlia tsa Solomon ; from
F. M askew, Esq. " The People of India" (London,
1868-72), six volumes ; "The Descriptive Ethnology
of Beng.l" (Calcutta, 1872); "The Daivadna'
Dnatiya " (Bombay, 1807) ; ami a duplicate of
Accession, No 253 ; from His Excellency Sir Bartle
Frere. Tshi Proverbs, a Collection of 3o,OGO
collected by the Rev. J. G. C hi istaller (Basel, 1879)?
from the Author. Portions of a "Dictionary of the
Asante and Fante Language" (evidently pissing
through the press in 1S80); fr m the Rev. J. G.
Chri-sialler. Portions of a Tshi Hvmnbook (con-
taining "Remarks" by the Rev. J. G. Chri tuller,
dated August, 1878) ; from the Rev. J. G. Christaller,
Compiler. Quarterly Report of St, Mark's Mission,
for quarter ending 30th June, 1880, by the Venerable
Archdeac n Waters (Grahamstown, 1880) ; by the
Anilio". "Madignsknr," by the Rev. L. Dahle
(Ihristiariia, 1876); from the Author. The Umtata
Parish Magazine for September, 1880 ; from
the Rev. E. L. Coakes. Ord?r of the
Services at St. John's Cathedral fir 14th Sunday-
after Trinity, 1880, Papyrographically printed
on half a sheet of note paper ; from the Rev.
E. L. Coakes. Ubaqa, for September, 1880; from
Miss Mance. Trans-ic'ions of the Philological Society,
1873-4 (London, 1873); from A. J. El'i*, Esq.,
F.R.S., F.S.A. "Noies on the Makua Language, '
by the Rev. Chauncy Maples, M.A. (Hertford, 1880);
8
from J. Furnivall, Esq. " Historical Sketches of
Savage Life in Polynesia, &c. ;"' by ihe Rev. W. "W.
Gill (WellingtDn, 1880) ; appnrently ihe New Zealand
Government. The Umtata Parisk Magazine, No. 16,
for October, 1, 1880 ; from the Rev. E. L. Coakes.
"Industrial Education," an Address delivered by
the Rev. Dr. Stewart to the Lovedale Literary
Society (Lovedale, 1880, ; from the Author. " Swahili
Exercises Key" (without title page, pp. 1-56) ; from
the Right Rev. Bishop Me. re. " Maten lo ya Mitume"
(Zanzibar, 187,8) ; " Kitabu cha kwanza cha musa
Alwanzo (Zanzibar, 1879); Bantu Orthography, (a
Letter from Bi-hop Steere, two copies) ; Ly the Right
Rev. Bishop Steere. De Bernardy's " Nt-xt of Kin
Gazette," No. 18, for November. 1880; with supple-
ment (London, 1880) ; from the Publisher. Report of
Archdeacon Waters, for quarter ending September
30th, 1880 (Grahnmstown, 1880); from the Venerable
Archdeacon Waters. Freuden und Leiden in
Afrika, original ; erziihlet auf Fiirsch v. P. Kurvinen;
parts I IV (Helsingfors, 1877-1880) ; from the
author. Ubaqa f>r November, 1880; from Miss
Jlance. "Some Principles of Native Government, 5 '
illustrated (Cape Town, 1880); from the Author, J.
M. Orpen, Esq., M.L.A. Light, for Saturday,
January 8th, 1881. Zulu Tzaga, collected, translated,
and interpreted, by a Zulu Missionary, reprinted from
the Natal Colonist (Durban, Natal, 1880); from the
Editor, John Sanderson, Esq. Ubaqa, for January,
1881; from Miss Hance. Report of Archdeacon
Waters, lor quart r ending December 31st, 1880, in
duplicate ; from the Venerable Archdeacon Waters.
The Dawn o.f Day, f r November 1st, 1880, and for
December 1st, 1880; from the Rev. E. L. Coakes.
Baker (E.\ Outline of a Malagassy Grammar ; from
Dr. James Cameron. Theal (Geo. M.), Catalogue of
Documents from the Colonial Archives; from the
Colonial Government. View of the Guano Caves,
and Copy of Bushman Paintings near Montagu ; from
Max Jurisch, Esq. Peschel (O.), Volkerkunde ; from
Rev. A. Nachtigal. Summers (Rev. James), Rudi-
ments <f the Chinese Grammar. KunucUib-Nama
Spelling Book (six copies) ; from Dr. Theoph. Hahn.
Catafago (Joseph), English and Arabic Dictionary ;
from C'has. A. F airbridge, Esq. Die Ostasiatischen
b'tudien uud die Sprachwissenschaft ; from Georg
von der Gabelentz. Anleitung zum Studium der
Bantu-Sprachen ; from C. G. Bfittner. Kafir
New Testament ; from W. B. Chalmers, Esq.
Petermann (A.), Map of the Cape Colony ; bought.
Cape of Good Hope Blue Be ok on Native Affairs,
1881 ; from the Under Secre'ary of Native Affairs,
wi'h six extra copies for distribution to Scientific
Societies and Ethnologists Roberts (Rev. Chas.),
English Zulu Dictionary ; from the Public Library.
Cust (Robert N.), the Languages of Africa, from the
Author. Fragments of the famous Tain Manuscripts ;
from Charles A. Fairbr'.dge, Esq. Two Photographs of
the last Tasmmians (man and woman) ; from Canthal,
Esq., passenger by the u Sobraone." Triibner's
American, etc., Records ; from tha Publisher. Bleek
( W. H. J-), a Comparative Grammar of South African
Languages; part II ; presentation copy; the binding
presented by Mrs. Bleek.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
IV hen your Committee, a few weeks ago, invited
me to fake ihe place here to-day, which Dr. Gill
was to have filled, and informed me that the main
duty I would be called upon to discharge would be
the delivery of the Library Address, which has come to
be regarded as an annual institution in Cape Town, I
felt considerable hesitancy in accepting the honour thus
sought to be conferred upon me. I could not disguise
from myself the fact that there was little likelihood of
my official duties, which from a variety < f causes had
been pressing somewhat heavily upon me, decreasing
much in weight between then and now, and I feared
that the mental leisure would not be mine which I
deemed necessary for tha preparation of anything
suitable to such a gathering as thia. Upon the under-
standing, however, that I was not to be debarred from
taking as my theme the Science which is always more
or less present with me, I cons nted to appear before
you, and I selected as the subject of my address a con-
sideration of some of the influences which that Science
brings to bear upon the progress of Civilization.
Before entering upon the subject of Electric Science
specially, I propose to consider briefly the influence
which physical research generally ha 5 ) exerted upon
the course of civilization. An estimate of this miy
be formed by comparing the earlier civilization of
countries where the mind being completely over-
powered by the natural phenomena with which it was
12
br. light into contact, and the understanding being thus
made the slave of the imaginali >n, physical science
was in consequence unknown, with the state of civili-
zation in other countries where natural phenomena
occurring on far more limited scale, the intellect
dared to' grapple with them, and physical research
thus became possible. Yet it is not, I think, necessary
for me to go so far back as this ; it will probably be
sufficient to draw your attention to the change which
has taken place within the last two centuries. The
Royal Society of England, which has done more than
any other body in the Avorld to foster physical research,
and whose records have been not inaptly termed the
records of human progress itself, was formed in the
year 1660. Its charter states that it was established
for the improvement of natural science. The epithet
"natural,' Dr. Paris states in his life of Sir H. Davy,
<c was originally intended to imply a meaning of which
*' very few persons are, I believe, aware. At the period
" of the establishment of the society the arts of witch-
*' ci aft and divinaticn were very extensively encouraged,
te and the word ' natural' was therefore introduced in
" contradistinction to Supernatural.'"
The influence which \ hysical science hns exerted
s'uce th se days in sweeping away the two most
powerful barriers in the path of civilization I mean
superstiti >n and ignorance need be only alluded to.
So long as superstition oversludows the human miud,
so lon.r is it impossible ior any real progress to be
made : attendant ignorance prevails, and blind cre-
dulity is dominant. AVc have but to look at the stag-
nation of civilization in what are known as the Middle
Ages, in order to appreciate the truth of ihis. I" in erg' ng
from a state of rude barbarism the nations of Europe
seemed to remain for centuries well nigh at a siandstill.
1 hose in whose hands the keys of knowledge almost
13
entirely rested, found it to their advantage ton tain
them there. They eurroundeJ with mystery every
subject of which either little was known or they
desired that little should be known : by various
systems of torture enquiry was stifled, freedom of
thought was in cons quence unknown, and the march
of intellect was hopelessly obstructed. But towards
the close of the 16th century originated in England
th it spirit of doubt which has been well named the
precursor of improvement: the nation at last awoke
from its long sleep : the spirit of enquiry went abroad
and in time forced its way into the other countries of
Europe. One by one the strongholds of superstition
have since these days been attacked, and while many
have already crumbled away before it, those which
still stand show daily increasing sigaals of distress.
In their train many of the ideas of the supernatural have
also gone and they are fast disappearing altogether. To
take just one instance in support of this from the most
perfect, at the present day, of all the Physical Sciences;
the appearance of comets and eclipses, which in earlier
ages have been known to turn whole armies to flight, can
now be predicted wiili the most minute exactness, nor
are prayers any longer offered up that we may be
I reserved from their baleful effects.
The beneficial influence which has been exert :d
by physical research, viewed at in this light, on the
march of civilization cannot possibly be overestimated.
The human intellect, hopelessly surrounded by mys-
teries, would in time have retrograded into a condition
of grovelling imbecility. Freed, on the other hand,
and successfully grappling w.th difficulty after diffi-
culty, it inhales fresh vigour wilh every new discovery
and g eater encouragement to proceed onwards to the
solution of the many problems around us which still
icmaiu to Lc solved.
- 14
Passing on now to the special subject which I have
set before mo, I propose to consider, first, the
assistance rendered by Electric Science tj the cause
of civilization in helping to clear away much < f the
superstition and ignorance clinging to the Weather
Phenomena, and so raising Meteorolgy to the ranks of
a Science.
Every science has in its time to pass through three
stages before it can be considered perfect. There is,
first, the st'ge of observation, when as many facts as
can p s.sibly be gathered together are duly marshalled
in thei' proper order : next comes the eta^e of reflec-
tion, when theory steps i i and adduces order from
apparent disorder, by explaining away the darkness
hanging over these facts and by unravelling the causes
which have led to them : finally there is the prophetic
stage, in which the phenomena of the past and present
being satisfactorily accounted for, those of the future
can be foretold with certainty.
"There can be no question as to which of these stages
Meteorology is in :it the present moment. Many
there are who would gravely doubt if it will < ver
get far beyond the stage of observation, yet those
who are best qualified to judge, can entertain only one
opinion upon the subj -ct, and that is that our present
ignorance and the consequent widespread sui erstition
with respect to it c inn -t la-4 for ever. '1 he weather
phenomena also must yield to that irresistib'c spirit of
enquiry which has never yet fjiiled in eventually sur-
mounting whatever difficulties it has attacked. Thus
Sir John Leslie, in his work on Natural Philosophy,
says, "It cannot be disputeJ that all the changes
which happen in the n ass of our Atmosphere, involved,
capricious and irregular as they may appear, are yet
the necessary results of principles as fixed, and perhaps
as simple, as tho-e w' ich direct the revolutions of the
15
Solar System. Could we unravel the intricate maze,
we might trace the action of ench distinc* cause, and
hence deduce the ultimate effeo s arising fn m their
combined operation. With, the p( s?e>sion of such data
we might safely predict th j state of the weather at
any futura period as we n^nv calculate an eclipse oi
the sun or moou, or foretell a conjunction of the
planets/'
To unravel this " intricate maze" by gaining pos-
session of ihe data which are required is the object of
Meteorology in its present stage. The initiative for this
purpose in England was taken by the late Sir John
J3urgoyne, who, as recently as the year 1 852, proposed
that lind observations should be made by ihe Corps
of Roy;il Engineers. Commodore M sury had been
working at Washington fcr some time previously in
the same direction, and the United States Government,
on being consulted, expressed their entire wil ingness
to co-operats in the scheme, and suggested that marine
observations os well should be taken. Since then,
one after another, the maritime nations of the world
have taken up the idea, and throughout the whole
civilized globe at the present moment not only are
observers stationed at what hive been considered to
be the most advantageous points, but m<ny of the
steamship companies have lent their assistance to the
work. Observations are taken on board their vessels
by competent observers with first-class instruments,
who upon their return render these observations to the
Meteorologicd Office in London.
To America belongs the credit of h iving bet n the
first to suggest the employment of electric science in
the collection of these observations, and the utilisation
of the results deduced fr-m them when once obtained.
As far back as the year 1846, we find Profes-or
Redfield thus writing to the Americm Journal of
16
Science and Art-.- "In the Atlantic ports the
approach of a gale may be nude known by means of
the electric telegraph, which probably will soon extend
from Maine to the MUsissipi.'' The idea thus
originated, was actually realised and carried into prac-
tical execution by Professor Henry and his assistants,
at the Smithsonian Institution, between the years 1850
and 1855, and the subsequent impu'se given to
meteorology amongst the nations of Europe was
unquestionably owing mainly to their exertions in this
direction. In 1854, Le Verrier, in France, came to
advocate the immense value of a system of telegraphic
weather reports; whilst in 1861, Admiral Fitzroy, in
England, devised a code of meteorlogic d telegraphs,
instituted a regular service by means of which weather
reports Avere received from various stations on the
coast, and laid the ba>is of that weather study which,
notwithstanding the innumerable difficulties it has to
contend with, gives already diily evidence of its value,
and holds out the brightest hopes for the future. On
the death of Admiral Fitzroy, an able successor was
found in Mr. Robert Scott, under whose direction the
Meteorological Office in London is now conducted.
Daily weather reports are there received by telegraph
from no fewer than fifty- two stations, extending from
Haparanda, at the extreme north of the Gulf cf
Bothnia, to Toulon, on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean ; from Christi insund, on the western coast
of Norway, to Corunna, in ths north-west corner of
Spain. The following particulars are sent from each
of these at 8'0 a.m. dai'y ; the htight of the barometer,
the height of the thermometer in the shale, the
direction and force of the wind, ihe amount of cloud,
the state of the weather, the rainfall for the previous
twenty-four hours, and the sea disturbance. These
are tabulated. Four charts, one for the barometer,
17
another for the thermometer, a third for wind and sen,
and a fourth for cloud and rain, are drawn up from the
data thus obtained ; they are published, and issued the
same day. Incorporated with the&e are reports giving
the same particulars at 0'45 p m. on the previous
afternoon for fifteen stations, and at 6 p m. for nineteen
stations.
Great as the service may be which electiic science
thus renders to meteorology in the collection of
these observations, it renders a still greater practical
service even now, and one which, a3 the science
advances, will be more appreciated, in giving tiinely
warning of the approach of rough weather. For
although no attempt has as yet been made at a theoretical
explanation of meteorological phenomena, there are
already certain valuable facts established from an
observation of them. The motion and force of the
wind, for instance, depend upon what his been named
the " barometric gradient," that is to say, if there is a
difference in the height of the barometer at any two
places, a wind sets in between, them, with a force
proportional to that difference ; the area of depression,
again, is found as a general rule in Europe, to travel
eastwards at an average rate of thirty miles an hour.
Thus it is that as most of the storms which vi it the
British Isles are first of all felt upon the western shore
of Ireland, timely warning of the approach of them can
be given to the seaports on the Irish Sea, the English
Channel, the East Coast, as well as to France and the
Eastern Shores of the North b'ea, all of which are
warned of the expected approach of storms by the
Meteorological Office in London. Many sugges-
tions have been made ns to the best means of
obtaining in formation regarding these storms on then-
easterly journey. The Portuguese meteorologists
proposed furnishing observations from the Azores by
18
means of the cable, which touches there; this proposition
was declined on the ground that no connection could be
discovered between the movements of the barometer
at Valentia, the most westerly point of observation in
the British Isles, and at the Azore?. The storms
which pass ovtr the Azores, take a south-easterly
direction towards the continent of Europe, and do
not geem to approach Great Britain. Equally
valueless was at first deemed the proposal to
receive information from the United St tes, for it was
found that the character of the storms became entirely
changed alter travelling over any considerable area of
the earth's surface. Of late, however, a connection
has been established between the gales on both sides of
the Atlantic, which although not yet so complete as
might be desired, and as it eventually will be, is yet
deemed of sufficient importance to warrant intimation
being sent by telegraph from America, when storms of
unusuil violence prevail there.
In another important respect electrical science brings
with it valuable aid to meteorology. No great
meteorological change takes place without its being
accompanied by marked disturbances in terrestrial
electricity, either in the air, in the earth, or in
both. And simultaneous observations of these distur-
bances, carried out in different quarters of the world,
and now for the first time rendered possible by the
development of electrical science, would place in our
hands the only means by which we can hope to get at
some definite understanding respecting them. The
theory of the lightning and the thunderstorm is now fairly
understood the Aurora Boreales or " Merry Dancers "
of Northern latitudes those " fearful lights " which
Aytoun, flinging himself back to the days of Flodden,
tells us "never beckon save when tings or heroes die,"
have now been robbed of their terror and awe, and are
19
generally believed to be the result of electrical dis-
charges through the rarified strata of our atmosphere,
comparable in every respect to the passage of electricity'
through the so-called vacuum tubes. The earth
currents, again, which are constantly flashing to and
fro through the crust of our globe, but which at times
appear with far greater violence than at others, are still
unintelligible ; and have, in fact, only of late years
commanded the attention which they merit. The
cause of the changes in terrestrial magnetism is like-
wise still wrapped in mystery ; yet, notwithstanding
the many barriers which stand in the way, " no
philosophical mind," to quote the words of Dr
Whewell, " can doubt the fixity of these rules, which
are followed by the causes ever at work in producing
those changes of winds and skies." And when the day
does come when these changes are perfectly under-
stood, only then can the aid which electric science has
rendered be fully recognised : no longer under the
cloak of Religion will our ignorance be driven to seek
shelter nor the aid of the Deity be invoked, as it now
is, to supply the deficiencies of Science.
Before quitting this branch of my subject, I am
irresistibly tempted to bring before you the eloquent
utterances of one of my predecessors in this chair
Mr. Stone, our late Astronomer- Royal who, standing
here nine years ngo, and speaking on a cognate
subject, said :
" Slowly, and by the accumulated labour of innumer-
able generations of men, astronomy has reached its
present proportions, the noblest monument ot the
commanding powers of the human mind in grasping
the laws of nature. Placed by an all-wise Creator
amid such conditions of life, that an ever-broadening
knowledge of nature is an ever-increasing necessity of
his happiness and existence, man must learn to convert
c
20
to his uses the teeming bounties of his wondrous mother
earth. Magnificent as have been the achievements of
the past, they appear almost dwarfed in proportion to
the visions now arising before us. The arbitrary
boundaries of the sciences are being washed away, and
knowledge is sweeping on in broader channels.
Splendid generalizations have bound together whole
sciences. And views almost bewildering to our half
perceptions, from their magnitude, are opening upon
us on every side.
These are but broken lights of Thee ;
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.
" Bold, over bold, perhip 3 , might that man yet be
deemed who, glowing from a participation in the
glorious struggle in progress around him, should dire
to forecast the future, and to predict that man might
yet rise from a knowledge of nature to that of nature's
God ; but bolder far would he be who should deny its
possibility ; and all attempts to stem that onward pro-
gress of natural knowledge which the Great Father of
all has made a necessity of nun's existence must be as
futile as they would be presumptuous."
Professor Reynolds, in his excellent little work upon
the " I linical Uses o( Electricity," speaking of painful
affections such as neuralgia, migraine, sciatica, tic-
douloureux, and the like, says : " I know of nothing
more distinct or more satisfactory in Therapeutics than
the relief which mny often thus [i.e. by means of
electricity] be given to sufferings of the most intense
character ; the relief being very rapidly induced, and
in many cases permanent." Had electric science
brought with it no other aid than what is here stated
to the science of medicine, it would still have conferred
a boon upon civilisation by alleviating to some extent
the amount of human suffering in the world. Yet this
21
is only a small portion of the service which electricity
renders in this respect. It certainly is not the panacea
for every woe which many fervently hoped that it would
become, nor have the idle dreams once cherished as to
its close relation-hip with the vital force itself been
verified. But for the diagnosis, prognosis, and curative
purposes of a large class of diseases, notably those of the
nervous system, an ever increasing number in these days
when life has to be lived at so high a pressure elec-
tricity is simply indispensable. In cases of paralysis it
renders in valuable aid ; and under the name of faradi-
zation it is applied with the most beneficial results. To
the military surgeon it brings an indicator which enables -
him to deal more effectually with gunshot wounds, by
clearly showing the existence of any metallic substance
in the body of his patient, by tracing its course, and
thus facilitating its extraction; while the beautiful
researches of Mr. Hughes, resulting in the production
of the microphone, have within the last year placed in
the hands of the physician an instrument which for
stethoscopic and similar purposes is almost too delicate
for use. With this brief reference to the influence
which electric science by its direct practical application
to the alleviation of physical suffering exert* on the
course of civilisation, I shall now pass on to consider
the indirect aid which strange although this at first
sight may appear it brings towards the same object
by its application to the art of War.
Of all the evils which mankind has inflicted upon
itself, there is none which in point of magnitude can
be compared with War; none which has more retarded
the progress of civilisation than this. That it is upon
the decline may seem at first sight a bold statement to
make in face of the wars which have been waged
during the present generation, and in spite of the
bloated armaments and the military activity which,
C 2
22
during the last decade or two, have converted Europe
into :t camp of military instruction. Yet so sure as
knowledge increases, so sure must this barbarity
gradually yield before it. Occasional circumstances
in the histories of nations may from lime to time arise,
when their rulers having fallen out, the people are
driven to war ; nevertheless, the principle still remains
true, that the warlike sj irit i.e. the love ot war for
its own sak e must yield before an advancing knowledge.
An examination of the earlier stages of national
existence would show us that wars were then of daily
occurrence. Every man was at that time of necessity a
soldier. Fighting being the only art in which eminence
could be achieved, the necessary consequence was
that so long as such a st \te of things lasted, the intel-
lectual pursuits and the arts of peace were either
entirely, or almost entirely, neglected. But when a
revolution in the art of war was effected, and a new
system of conducting it had to be established, when
all the citizens of a state could no longer afford to
become soldiers, but in their place standing armies
were instituted, then a portion of that energy which
had previously found vent in fighting, turned itself to
the arts of peace instead. Trade and commerce
assumed a more flourishing aspect, the intellectual
powers were alloweJ time and scope for their exercise,
and a decided impulse wa3 thereby given to the
progress of civilisation.
The main cause in effecting this remarkable change
was, I need not gay, the invention of gunpowder, an
invention, to quote the words of Adam Smith, "wl ich
although at first sight it Appears to be so pernicious, is
certainly favourable both to the permanency and to
the extension of civilisation."
In addition to the security against barbarians which
the more civilised nations now acquired from it, the
23
direct effect of the introduction of firearms was to
make wars far less frequent and, when once entered
upon, far more speedily concluded. The introduction
of electric science into war is a most powerful auxiliary
towards effecting the same object ; it must act, as I
shall endeavour to show, as a deterring element in the
calculations upon which the declaration of war is
ba.^ed, and it leads to a speedy termination of war
when once waged. To illustrate j'artly what I mean,
I cannot do better than take the case of the last but
one of the great European wars, viz., that between
France and Germany, and show how powerful an
auxiliary to the art of war electric science proved
itself to be during that marvellous campaign. There
may be a difference of opinion as to whether the cause
of civilisation has benefited or not by the issue of
that great war ; whether the estab'ishment of a solid
German Empire in the heart of Europe will favour
the cause of peace and advancement or not. 'ihat
question does not at present concern us. But few, I
thiuk, will contend that when war once was declared it
was not in thd interests of humanity that it should be
terminated as tpeedily as possible with some decisive
issue. The Germans, in that splendidly organised
military S) stem of theirs, had not overlooked the v lue
of electric telegraphy ; on the contrary, no arm of their
service was more perfectly managed than this. Fr. m
the campaign of 1866 they had clearly learnt, as one
who afterwards held a high command* puts it, " that
u.odcrn warfare was almost an impossibility without
the aid of the electric telegraph in the field."
Immediately upon the outbreak of ho.-tilitierf in 1870,
300 telegraphists were prepared to start with the
advanced portion of the army, and communication was
Mr. Von Chauviu.
24
at once established between the van and the rear. AB
they made their way into the French territory their
telegraph lines kept pace w'th them By means of
them, that vast armament was in constant and
immediate communication with its base of operation.
All advices as to the supplies of food and materials
from their own country, were sent by telegraph, stating
when they might be expected to arrive. To the tele-
graph lines it was due that the excellent arrangements
for the speedy conveyance of the eick and wounded to
the hospitals, where they could be well cared for, were
carried out ; and when the system was properly estab-
lished, it was thrown open for the dispatch of private
messages from the officers and men of the army to their
homes.
Yet, great and undoubted although these advantages
were, they were of miner importance for the attainment
of the ultimate object in view, compared with the signal
services rendered by the telegraph upon the field of
battle, and at tha sieges of towns and fortresses.
Around Paris, for instance, a circuit of twenty German
miles was established. Two sets of lines, each
consisting of four wires, were erected beyond the reach
of the French bullets, and along them hundreds cf
messages daily passed. Troops were moved to and
fro, and massed at the points where a sortie was
expected, and if hard pressed at any one point,
reinforcements could speedily be summoned from
another. By means of this electrical communication,
a'l the mov ments which had been planned could be
made in concert, and the risk of failure in the execution
of these from defective mechanical signals was thereby
avo'ded. The same was the case at Metz ; and so
admirably was the entire telegraph system worked,
that the Emperor of Germany expressed to General
Von Moltke an opinion shared in by everyo .e who has
25
studied the subject : that "without the telegraph, the
siege of Paris could not have been made, nor that of
M-etz maintained so long." And in General Sherman's
" Recollections of the American Civil War," in which
he played so conspicuous and effective a part, he
states that " for the rapid transmission of orders in an
army covering a large space of ground, the electric
telegraph is far the best." He further says:
" The value of the electric telegraph in war cannot be
over-estimated, as was illustrated by the perfect
concert of action between the armies ia Virginia and
Georgia in all 1864. Hardly a day intervened when
General Grant did not know the exact state of affairs
with me more than 1,50D miles off as the wires ran .'
No higher tributes than these can possibly be pud.
Another important part played by electrical
science in war, to which a reference, no matter how
brief, must be made, is its application for torpedo or
mining purposes. For military operations by land
the electrical torpedo is necessarily in the pre-
sent f-tate of our knowledge exclusively c >nfmed
to defensive measures ; for whilst submarine wires
may under cover of darkness be successfully
submerged iu the teeth of an attacking fleet without
the slightest trace being left on the trackless
water to indicate to the enemy the position <>f
the sunken mine, the same secrecy cannot be
obseivcd with sub'erranean wires. It is impossible
to dig trenches and mine before an advancing foe
without, at least, some trace being left behind to show
what has been done, and immediately a clue is dis-
covered as to the po-ition of the wires the circuit can
be cut and the torj edois rendered useless. The intro-
duction of the electric torpedo into military operations
would appear to dale from the Crimean war. Some sort
of defence of tLis nature for the ft* alakofl Tcwer seem
26
to have been devised by the Russians ; as in digging he
trenches for the assault on that citadel, insulated wires
buried in the ground were found and cut by the
besieging party. In a wore advanced stage, and with
better success, the Americans used it during their civil
war. The German ports in the Bahic bristled with
torpedoes during the war to which I have already
referred, and in consequence very little was heard of
the operations of the French fleet during the progress
of it. It had also been intended to cover the chief
approaches to Paris by a series of subterranean
electrical mines, which would have effectually closed
them, except at a destruction of life which it is frightful
to contemplate. But, owing to the incapacity which
made itself so painfully evident in many departments
of the French service at that time, no practical steps
were taken, and the German Uhlans were in sight of
Paris before these well devised schemes could be
earned into execution. It is not the actual loss of life
enormous although that must be which alone has to be
taken into account in estimating the va'ue of electric
torpedoe?. The wholesome moral effect which their in-
troduction into military tactics must necessarily exercise
cannot be overlooked. No admiral would willingly lead
hi* fleet into waters known to be infested with deadly
volcanoes from which there is no e>cape, any explosion
being synonymous with certain destruction. No general
would march his army over ground suspected of being
mined in all directions with treacherous pitfalls laid
down with mathematical precision and concealed under
cover of verdant pastures and a smiling landscape, in
each case devised to explode only when the advancing
foe is within their grasp.
Readers of Bulwer Lytton will recollect the won-
derful eff; cts which amor gs-t his " Coming Kace" were
\vroughtby the ir.fluence if thrt magic " Vril" which,
27
lo Jged in the hollow of a ro 1 directed by the hand of
a child, could shatter the strongest fortress, or cleave
its burning way from the van to the rear of an embat-
tled host. If army met army, and both had the com-
mand of this agency, it could lead "but to the annihila-
tion of each. Electric science may, I think, be not
inappropriately even now ranked side by side with
that, nor do I think that it is too visionary a hope to
indulge in, that its practical applications, when carried
to their fullest development, may yet produce the
s.ime effect amongat the present r..ce as u Vril " did
amongst " The Coming Kace," and in the same indirect
way, by annulling all superiority in discipline, num-
bers, and military skill, hasten the advent of that
happy millenium:
When man to man the world o'er shall brothers be for a' that.
The enormous development of travelling in recent
years is second in importance only t ) the introduction
of t cience into the military art in its influence upon
war. JF. r as nations just like individuals come to
know more of each obher they assure Jly find more to
admire in each : their silly prejudices, which arise mainly
from a want of knowledge, are uprooted and give wa7
either to mutual respect or to charity that charity
which " b.arot hall things and hopeth always for the
best." In facilitating the means of intercourse and
promoting the development of steam for this purp sc*
electric science has rendered the gr-atest possible
service. Its application t ) railways on the trunk lines
is universal, not only in England, but also in most of
the continental natiojs of Europe. It has been
introduced f r the purpose into In<!ia, and will un-
questionably take its place eventually by the side of
every railway line that may be laid down. Without
it, that enormous expansion of travelling which of
28
recent years has taken place could never have been
made ; without it the regulation of the present traffic
in most countries would be an utter impossibility. Into
the method of railway signalling time does not permit
me to enter ; yet I can confidently assert that were
the block system universally carried out in its entirety
with the improvements which experience has suggested,
collisions upon railways would be rendered all but
impossible. I say "all but," because no system, however
perfect, can get rid of the risk of human liability to
error. So long as this has to be taken into account,
so long is there a possibility of collisions happening at
any moment.
Having thus glanced at the aid which electric
science has rendered to meteorology, to medicine, to
the cause of peace (by rendering war less likely to
arise, and of shorter duration when once waged), and
to the development of travelling, I shall now proceed
to mention briefly some of the advantages which have
been conferred upon civilisation by the ordinary every-
day commercial telegraphy. When it is remembered
that it was not until the year 1846 that a company
was established for the purpose of putting electricity
into harness, everyone will admit that the advances
which electric te-egraphy has made since that day are
simply um quailed; there is nothing in the history of
the world to which they can for a moment be compared.
Taking the statistics of England alone in 1851 48,490
messages were dispatched ; in 1873, 16,000,000 mess-
ages were dispatched; while in 1880, 26,547,000 mess-
ages were di>patched, exclusive of 313,500,000 Avords
of news which were deliver* d lo newspapers, &c.,
in the United Kingdom.
Turning to this colony, where many special diffi-
culties have to be overcome, we find the results of t' e
extension of telegraphic communication equally
29
encouraging. The number of miles of wire working in
1874 was 945 in 1880,4,102. The offices open in
1874 numbered 22 in 1880, 121. The expenditure in
1874 was8,378 in 1880, 39,335 ; whilst the revenue
which in 1874 was only 13,669 has, notwithstand-
ing the very great reduction in the tariff that has since
then been made inasmuch that a message of 50 words
to East London, in those days costing l 11s., can
to-day be sent for 5s. 6d. reached for the year 1880
the magnificent total of 60,829. The number of
messages sent in 1874 was 55,534, audin 1880, 398,277,
leaving out of sight altogether the press messages.
These figures speak for themselves ; yet they are
only an index of what is taking place all over the
world. Every nation now boasts of its telegr.iph
system. JS'o sooner is it established than the cry is
heard on every side for its expansion. And of late
years international telegraphy has assumed such gigan-
tic proportions that it is actually impossible to keep
pace with the demand for it. Atlantic cables are
one after another quietly submerged, and the comple-
tion of an undertaking which only a few years ago
would have aroused the attention of the whole civilised
world, is n<.w signalised in about half a dozen lines in
the morning papers, and dismissed as if it were an
every-day occurrence. A 11 .the contii ents are now in
communication with each other, and only one link is
wanting, to complete the circle of the globe, and thus
to form a belt far more wonderful and capable of doing
far more than that magic girdle which Puck boasted
he could place " around the world in forty minutes."
The advantages which civilisation has derived from
these achievements }>re so numerous and so self-evident
that my difficulty lies in knowing which to select.
Yet I think that that which will most readily occur
to the minds of all of you, that which was firdt recog-
30
nised, and was the means of bringing forward electric
tflegraphy, is its effect on crime. It was this which
first opened the eyes of the pub'ic to the marvellous
power which the mystic agent could wield. The
circumstances, although generally forgotten now, may
be remembered by some of you. A young woman
had been murdered at Saltliill, near Slough, on the 1st
of January, 1845. The following message was on
that day sent from Slough to Paddington : " A murder
has just been committed at Salthiil, and the suspected
murderer was seen to take a first-c'ass ticket for
London by the train which left Slough at 7 '42 p.m.
He is in the garb of a Quaker, with a brown great
coat which reaches nearly down to his feet ; he is in
the last compartment of the secoii'l first-class carriage."
Shortly after the di-patch of the previous message the
following reply was received: "The up-train has
arrived, and a person answering in every respect the
description given by the telegtaj-h came out of the
compartment mentioned. I pointed the man out to
S rgeant William*. The man got into a Kew-roa 1
omnibus, and Sergeant Williams into the same."
TawelljtheQua'cer and suspected m:ar Jere tvas appre-
hended, convicted, and executed. Since his day
more than one criminal his been bung by means of
the same cords. I should not care to say, nor even so
much as to hazard a gue^s as to h/w many have been
deterred from crime by means of them, nor can I prj-
duce any statistics which would go to prove that
t'iv> anount of ciime ha* diminished in co ^sequence of
the establishment of electric telegraphy. Still it
stands to reason that m -ny a would-be criminal must
think twice before criminating himself when he r flec:s
upon the net in which he is placed, and the fact that
tliere is next to no possibility of escape lying open
before him. The wholesome dread which is thus
31
imparted to the minds of the criminal section of
society is one decided advantage. And next only ia
importance to the prevention of crime is the appre-
hension of the offender when a crime has been committed.
1 he excitement which ran through England at the
murder of Mr. Briggs some years ago, the mortifi-
cation which was felt when it was found that Miiller
had made his escape, the exertions which were made
for his capture all these would have been spared to
us, ha-1 one of the cables been laid which now connect
England with America. Within a few minutes
after the discovery had been made that he had sailed
for New York, the instructions would have been there
that he was on his way, and the necessary steps would
have been taken to ensure his having a fitting reception.
The nr xt point I would suggest as aiding the cause
of civilisation is the good which telegraphy has done,
not only to nations looked at as a whole but to indi-
viduals as well, in preventing any misunderstanding
from rooting itself and an imaginary grievance thereby
begetting unfounded irrltabi ity and a whob family of
troubles. To illustrate what I mean, let us take the
case of the negotiations which passed between England
and the United States respecting the Alabama arbi-
tration. Many there were who at the time considered
that England in seeking for a peaceful solution of the
question was sacrificing her dignity, and declaimed
loudly for our withdrawing from the position we had
taken up. 'J hey declared that the proj er course to
adopt was to plurge into war a war which no man could
pretend to see the end cf, a war which, no matter hew
short a time it lasted, would have embittered the rela-
tions between the two nations for all time, Jnd would
have done more to impede the progress of civilisation
than any wars or persecutions ever waged. On
the other side of the Atlantic the rowdy element
32
\va?, if anything, even more blatant than the war
clement in England. Now, if these negotiations
had been carried on -without the aid of the telegraph ;
had three weeks, at least, been allowed to elapse
between the receipt of each successive despatch; had
timo been given for any misconstruction to be placed
upon any single sentence contained in thorn that could
p >ssibly hive borne such, the temper of both nations
at the time was such that it would have taken very
little to rouse the f elings of a large section of each :
and although we cannot say that the negotiations
would have been broken off and that war would have re-
sulted, there would have been at least the probability of
fcuch a catastrophe occurring. Fortunately, nothing
of the sort could happen, any rmVunderstanding in a
despatch was by the help of the cable cleared up before
a second opinion could be iormed respecting it ; wiser
counsels prevailed, and by the amicable settlement of
our difficulties an example was set to the world, and
the possibility of a war ever occurring between the
two Anglo-Saxon nations all but entirely removed.
And I cannot help thinking that had an electric cable
been lying across the Atlantic a century earlier than
it was, that manly struggle which the North
American colonies, provoked by intolerable injustice,
made against despotic oppression would not have
been made. Those annoyances and grievances to
which they were subjected might have been avoided ;
in the fulness of time they would have undertaken the
management of their own affairs without that fee'dng
of irritation on the part of both nations which, only
now after the lapse of over a hundred years, is
gradually dying out; and that noble "Declaration of
Independence" which, as Buckle eloquently observes,
" ought to be hung up in the nursery of every king, and
blazoned on the porch of every royal palace," would
never have been penned. And as with nations, so
with individuals. Every day the telegraph is cilled
into use to prevent hasty conclusions from being jumped
af, and to remove misunderstandings, which, wi'h all
our petty weaknesses, we are only too willing to form
regarding each other.
The only other subject which I wish to mention before
concluding is the aid rendered by telegraphy to the
diffusion of knowledge. The benefits which have been
conferred on the human race by the diffusion of know-
ledge are second to none of those which have been
already alluded to. To a lack of it the transitory
nature of what appears to us now to have been a com-
paratively advanced state of civilisation in some of
the early nations of Asia and Europe is undoubtedly
largely to be attributed. The phys : cal discoveries ;
such as they were, which had been made, and the sub-
lime teachings of their sages, were known to very few;
travelling, as we knowit,was impossible, and the diffusion
of knowledge lay in the hands of wandering minstrels,
whose garbled statements, transmitted from mouth to
mouth, by eventually propagating error and falsehood,
did more harm than good. All through the Dark Ages
the most abject ignorance prevailed. Neither was there
a desire for knowledge, nor even if there had been was
there the power to gratify it, for the reasons which I
have already given. But side by side almost with
that spirit of inquiry which went abroid in the 17th
century, grew up a thirst for knowledge, which had to
be allayed. To satisfy its demand, there was then
established one of the noblest of human institutions
the public press which in England and in the English-
speaking colonies, has waged many a fierce battle for
the popular independence, has done more signal service
than all the legislators that have existed since the
wcrld began, in bringing to light and stamping out
34
abuses, which has over raised its voice in the cause
of liberty, and has earned for itself a name which*
throughout the entire world, tyranny quakes to hear.
The simple mention together in the same breath of
The Newspaper Press and Telegraphy is of itself suffi-
cient to suggest to the minds of all of you the valuable
aid which electrical science has thus brought to the
cause of civilization. Not only has the press, aided
mainly by the telegraph, penetrated into many of the
hitherto dark corners of the earth, carrying thither the
benefits of diffused knowledge ; but where, previous to
the introduction of electric telegraphy, the press had
already established a sound footing, a revolution in the
principles upon which it is conducted has since bren
effected, a' tended with the most beneficial results to
human progress.
Many of the other useful practical applications of elec-
tric science I am from lack cf time compelled to pass by
unnoticed, each of which in its own way is contributing
more or less to the gradual elevation of man. Yet the
main service which electric science renders to the
cause of civ lisation is in helping to clear from its path
the rank undergrowth of superstition and credulity by
dispelling the clouds of ignorance which are its main
source of nourishment ; in destroying that government
by force which has wrought incalculable evils upon our
race; and eventual'y substituting in its place a more
benignant system whose broad foundations are intel-
lectual freedom and mutual forbearance, a system
where persecution both mental and physical, \\ ill be
alike unknown, and where the mind of man, that " divine
inspiration of the Almighty," will finally occupy the
exalted position to which even now it is surely
although perhaps slcwlj- advancing.
PROCEEDINGS
FIFTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY MEETING
OF THE SUBSCBIBERS TO THE
^fricaix public
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 291H APRIL, 1882.
THEOPHILUS HAHN, Esq., Ph.D., Colonial Philologist,
IN THE CHAIR.
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., PRINTERS, ST. GEORGE'S-STREET.
1882.
Committt* :
LANGHAM DALE, Esq., M.A.
LL.D.
C. A. FAIRBRIDGE, Esq.
H. W. PIERS, Esq.
REV. J. CAMERON, B.A.,
LL.D.
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.
F. G. GOODLIFFE, Esq.
(Treasurer).
W. HIDDINGH, Esq., LL.D.
REV. H. M. FOOT, LL.B.
HON. THOS. UPINGTON, M.A.
DAVID GILL, Esq., LL.D.
| J. C. GIE, Esq.
anb mdarg :
F. MASKEW, Esq.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The Committee of Managers of the South African Public
Library, in presenting their statement of the last year's pro-
ceedings, have in the first place to report with regret that
there has been a considerable falling off in the amount of
Annual Subscriptions ; this is attributable partly to a want
of public interest in an Institution which ought to be looked
upon as having peculiar claims on all who are interested in
the Educational progress of the Metropolis ; and partly to
the death, or departure from the Colony, of many who have
for years liberally promoted the interests of the Library.
Your Committee would therefore strongly urge upon all
those who value the" Institution, the necessity of contributing,
by Annual Subscriptions, towards its maintenance, so that
the many advantages at present afforded may not only be
continued but enlarged from time to time as circumstances
permit.
Your Committee, whilst regretting the inadequate support
afforded to the Institution by public Subscriptions, have
nevertheless the satisfaction of announcing that Mr. "William
Hiddingh has presented the Library with a sum of Two
Hundred Pounds Sterling, to be appropriated towards the
purchase of Standard Works in the various departments of
Literature and Science, and they have much pleasure in
stating that some of the works ordered have already arrived^
and many others may be shortly expected. The Committee
feel confident that this additional act of generosity on the
A 2
part of Mr. Hiddingh will be duly appreciated, not by the
Subscribers only, but by the public in general.
In the report of last year Your Committee mentioned
that a general catalogue of the books in the Library was
then passing through the press ; they have the satisfaction
of stating that the new catalogue is completed and is now
available for reference and distribution.
Your Committee have further to report that the custodian
of the Grey Collection is engaged in the compilation of the
catalogue of the books and manuscripts under his special
charge.
The accession of Books during the past year has been as
follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 34 Vols.
Political Economy, Govt., &c. ... 21
Sciences and the Arts... ... ... 80
Dictionaries, &c 24
Voyages and Travels 80
History 57
Biography ... ... ... ... 46
Belles Lettres 65
Miscellaneous... ... ... ... 151
Included in the above are many valuable works purchased
in Cape Town, as well as presentations from His Excellency
Sir Hercules Robinson, the Royal, the Astronomical, the
Royal Geographical, the Zoological, and the Royal Dublin
Societies, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Drs.
L. Dale and Th. Hahn, the Hon. J. H. Hofmeyr, M.L.C.,
and from Messrs. Gamble, Cripps, and D. Haupt, to all of
whom the thanks of the public are due.
During the past year the issue of Books and Periodicals
has been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 32 Vols.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 62
Sciences and the Arts ... ... 172
Voyages and Travels 931 Vols.
History 545
Biography 592
Belles Lettres 656
Miscellaneous 5,593
Reviews and Periodicals ... ... 4,580
In comparing this statement with that of last year it will
!>e seen that there has been a slight increase in some depart-
ments and a corresponding decrease in others, particularly
in that of light literature.
The number of visitors to the Institution, although not so
large as last year, has nevertheless been considerable,
amounting to 27,279, making an average of 100 daily, the
largest number on one day being 147 and 57 the lowest.
Your Committee, with a view of extending the usefulness
of the Institution, appointed a Sub-Committee to consider
whether it would be desirable and practicable to procure
additional accommodation for the purpose of a Circulating
Library and Reading Room ; the Sub-Committee have
made preliminary enquiries and submitted certain plans
which have yet to be fully considered, as they involve a
large outlay far beyond the means of the Institution.
Your Committee as an experiment decided to open the
Library on Sunday afternoons from 2 to 6 o'clock p.m., and
they have to report that this concession has been thoroughly
appreciated by the general public ; during this period the
number of visitors has ranged from 66 to 122 each afternoon ;
but it will be impossible to continue this arrangement
without trenching upon the already limited amount available
for the introduction of new books.
Whilst anxious to give the public every possible
opportunity of using the valuable works of the Library,
Your Committee regret to find themselves confronted by an
inadequate and decreasing revenue. The Institution opens
its doors freely to all, from morning to evening : and if, as
it appears, the list of Annual Subscribers is not likely to be
largely augmented, the incoming Committee must appeal
to the Government for a more liberal grant in support of
what is really the National Library of South Africa.
Your Committee have to report that the Chief Librarian,
Mr. Maskew, who is now above 60 years of age and has
served for a period of 41 years, has applied for a retiring
allowance. This application Your Committee forwarded to
Government with a recommendation of Mr. Maskew's claims
for a pension after so long and faithful a discharge of the
duties of the office.
The contributions to the Grey Collection during the last
year are as follows :
Triibner and Co. A Catalogue of leading Books on Egypt
and Egyptology, and on Assyria and Assyriology.
London 1881. 8vo.
Uhle, Dr. Max. Beitriige zur Grammatik des vorclassis-
chen Chinesisch. Leipzig, 1880. 8vo. Presented by
Ch. Fail-bridge, Esq.
Sircar (Shama Churn), Introduction to the Bengalee
Language. Calcutta, 1861. 8vo. Pres. by the Rev. J.
Lynch.
Tract in Bengalee. Teacher and Co., Bombay, Bicualla
and Poona. Pres. by Eev. J. Lynch.
Dictionary of the Bengalee Language. Vol. II. English and
Bengalee, 4th ed. Serampore, 1867. 8vo. Pres. by Rev.
J. Lynch.
Majundara's Series. Dictionary, Bengalee and English, for
the use of Schools. Calcutta, 1877. Pres. by Rev.
J. Lynch.
Bonar (Horatius). The Gospel in Santhalistan. By an old
Indian. London, 1875. 8vo. Pres. by F. Maskew, Esq.
St. 'Martin's Mission, Transkei, South Africa, for quarter
ending March 31st, 1881. 8vo. From the Bishop of
Natal
Umzimba Ozwayo, etc. Davis and Sons, Maritzburg and
Durban, 1881. 8vo. Pres. by the Bishop of Natal.
Inncwadi yezindaba, etc. Davis and Sons, Maritzburg and
Durban, 1881. 8vo. Pres. by the Bishop of Natal.
Izinncwadi Zika' Samuele, etc. 2nd ed. Davis and Sons,
Maritzburg and Durban, 18S1. 8vo. Pres. by the
Bishop of Natal.
Petzholdt (Dr. Julius). Katechismus derBibliothekenlehre.
Anleitung zur Einrichtung und Verwaltung von
Bibliotheken. Leipzig, 1877. 8vo. By Dr. Th. Halm-
Tsuni-llgoam, the Supreme Being of the Khoikhoi. By
Th. Hahu. MS Foolscap by the author.
Dale (Langham, M.A., LL.D.) The Philosophy of
Method. Cape Town, 1877. 8vo. Pres. by the author.
Public Libraries in the United States of America.
I. Washington, 1876. 8vo. Pres. by Dr. Langham
Dale.
Special Report on Libraries in the United States. Part II.
Washington, 1876. 8vo. Pres. by Dr. T. Dale.
The Pilgrim's Progress, transl into Herero by H. Brincker.
Berlin, 1873. Pres. by Mr. L. Kleinschmidt.
Omahonge ookuleza Otyiherero II. Guetersloh, West-
phalia, 1879. Pres. by Mr. Ludw. Kleinschmidt.
(Nai jkeiti Ineisa tsi lasa testamens diti. The Calwer Bible
History. By G. Kronlein. Pres. by Mr. L. Klein-
schmidt.
Gill (Rev. W. Wyatt). Historical Sketches of Savage
Life in Polynesia. Wellington, 1880. 8vo. Presented
by Sir George Grey, K.C.B.
The University of the Cape of Good Hope. Degree Day,
7th Dec., 1887. The Vice-Chancellor's Address. Pres.
by the author. Cape Town, 1881.
Isigidimi Sama-Xosa. Vol. XII. Pres. by Dr. Stewart.
Trubner's American, etc., Literary Record. New Series.
Vol. II.
J ulius Jolly. Die juristischen Abschnitte a us dem Gesetzbuch
Manu. Pres. by the Anther.
Rev. R. Hunt. The Universal Syllabic Gospel. 8vo. London
1873. Pres. by Capt. W. Sampson.
Autograph Letter of John Bright, dated Feb. 19, 1875
Reform Club. Pres. by Mrs. E.van Reenen nee Heugh-
Miss A. Buckland. Surgery and Superstition in Neolithic
Times. Pres. by Dr. Langham Dale.
Autographs of Luther, Melanchton, Goethe and Schiller
(fac-simile). Pres. by Mr. W. Kaupert.
Heinrich Lossow. Gotterdecameron. Pres. by Dr. Theoph-
Hahn.
The Gospel of St. Mark in the Murray Island Dialect.
Sydney, 1879. 8vo. Pres. by a friend.
Les delmts de 1'Humanite. By Abel Hovelacque. Pres. by
the author.
Abstracts of the Debates, etc., of the Council of Policy at
the Cape. By George M'Coll Theal.
Reineke Fuchs of Goethe, with Kaulbach's illustrations.
Pres. by Dr. Theoph. Hahn.
Tsuni-Hgoam, the Supreme Being of the Khoikhoi. By
Theoph. Hahn. Pres. by the author.
Several Essays : (1) What is articulation ? (2) On Prof. R.
Lepsin's Nubische Grammatik. (3) On the relation of
Surd and Sonant. (4) The Principle of Economy, as a
Phonetic Force. By W.D.Whitney. Pres. by the author.
Gerland (Georg) Die Hollander und Englander in
Siidafrika. Pres. by the author.
Also : Das Aussterben der Eingeborenen Australiens. Lor.
Diefenbach's Volkerkunde Osteuropas. Drei ethnol.
Publicationenaus und liber Australien. Bericht iiberdie
ethnol. Forschung. All written and presented by
Dr. Georg Gerland.
Some Suggestions for an Improved Kafir Orthography. By
the Right Rev. Bishop of St. John. 1879. From the
author.
Whitney, W. D. On Inconsistency in Views of Language.
From the author.
Sketches in Indian Ink, representing the Cape Hottentots
in their Domestic, etc., Life, in the time of Governor
Simon van der Stell. Pres. by Chas. A. Fairbridge,
Esq.
Henry Kartell's Insularinm Illustratum (fac-simile). Pre-
sented by Chas. A. Fairbridge, Esq.
A Map of the World by Giacomo Cosmographo. Venetia,
1546. By Charles Aiken Fairbridge, Esq.
Two Photographs of a Kora Hottentot by the name of
Boezak. By York, Esq.
The number of visitors during the year (i. e. 11 months)*
according to record kept, has been 1,947.
The correspondence with scientific men in Europe and
America, and with Missionaries in various parts of the world,
manifests a great interest in, and appreciation of, the valuable
treasures in the Grey Collection. It is very satisfactory to
report a general increasing interest in this section of the
Public Library.
The Treasurer's statement will now be submitted, showing
the income and expenditure during the past year.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The Committee of Management of the South African
Public Library has conferred upon me the honour of taking
the chair at its fifty-third annual meeting, and in accordance
with the traditions of this Institution, of addressing you on
some scientific or literary subject.
Although born under the English flag, my lot in early
life unfortunately did not put me in the position of enjoying
the literary treasures which during six centuries had been
accumulated by your poets, historians and philosophers.
When far away from my native land, I became acquainted
with the English language and literature, in that country
where your Beowulf, Shakespeare and Byron found their
greatest and most eloquent interpreters, their most com-
petent translators and their most enthusiastic admirers.
In Germany I had learnt to understand English and to
enjoy an English book ; but it is still a great step from
reading to writing a language. And when eleven years ago
I came back to my native shores, I at once proceeded to
the Translgaripian territories, where, during my seven years
of wanderings, I never had an opportunity of cultivating
English conversation and style. And it is only since my
return from there, four years ago, that I have been able to
devote myself to a more careful practice of the English
idiom.
But I had experience enough of the English character to
know that the difficulties arising from my imperfect know-
12
ledge of the language would be balanced by your generous
forbearance, and at the same^ime I thought it most oppor-
tune to speak to you on a branch of Science which I have
been appointed to cultivate in South Africa, especially as
my first year's experience in the Grey Library had taught
me that the conceptions of " Language audits Study" prevail-
ing in this Colony were still very crude and embryonic. I felt
assured that this science deserved a greater share of our
sympathy than it had hitherto received.
These were the reasons which prompted me to accept the
call of your Committee.
The realm of the Science of Language, however, is so
extensive, that I shall hardly be able, in the narrow compass
of one hour, .to give more than a very superficial outline of
its history, principles and results, and a short comment on
the question of language with regard to our colonial
intellectual and literary life.
I shall therefore proceed to address you " On the Science
of Language and its Study, with special regard to South
Africa."
It is a curious fact that people have a very fair insight
into the structure and nature of things surrounding them,
but know little or nothing of themselves.
We can explain the changes of the moon and its eclipses,
we can classify animals or plants, AVC can analyse minerals
and can fortell the changes of the weather, but very rarely
do we meet a person who is able to give us a fair description
of the functions of his own body, or of those organs which
alone enable us to communicate with the world without, and
make us really worthy of the name men, i.e. thinkers, by
which our ancestors called themselves, when first they
awoke to self-consciousness I mean the organs of speech.
And still further the greatest and most unwarrantable
misconceptions prevail with regard to language itself and
its nature.
There seems to be a horror, an innate prejudice, against
13
a deep study of language, and I believe I can account
for it.
Many a one thinks of the days whenfypfo, typteis,typtomcn,
and, especially, typtomai and typtometha, were practically
demonstrated to him by his schoolmaster, and when amo
and amabo or amor and amabor were empty and Utopian
sounds.
And yet everybody thinks he has a right to talk about
language, and considers it an easy thing to discuss the most
difficult problems of language and its origin.
The Science of Language is a child of the nineteenth
century ; it is a production of the cosmopolitan genius of
our times. In ancient Greece, whose masterpieces in Art
and Literature will serve for ever as standards of intellec-
tual culture and taste, this science was unknown ; the Hel-
lenic spirit lacked all sense and understanding of ethnology
and comparative psychology (Volkerkunde). They under-
stood nothing which was not essentially Greek. All other
nations were either barbaroi, barbarophonoi, or allothrooi.
The language of the Persians for instance was compared
to the twittering of birds. Herodotus and ^Eschylus
speak with contempt of the Persians, their own Indo-Ger-
manic kith and kin. The Romans, copying the Greeks,
spoke of all other nations as barbarians and brutes. They
very little dreamt that the descendants of those very gladia-
tors, who were butchered for the amusement and expired
under the deafening applause of a Roman mob, would be
the ablest and most ingenious commentators on the Lan-
guage of Latium.
The Jews were not a bit better. They divided all man-
kind into two sections : the first, formed by themselves, the
worshippers of Jahveh ; all the rest were Gojim.
The Indians called all nations of the world Mletshtshas,
i.e. Stammerers, and the ancestors of the present Parsis knew
only the worshippers of Ahuramazdao, and the worshippers
of the evil spirits.
"What would' we not give, if Caesar or sonic other educated
Roman had taken down from the lips of German or British
or Gallic gladiators the stories of their gods and heroes, or
if Ovid, while living in banishment, had preserved us some
Gothic mythology ? And we, if we neglect to do such work,
with regard to the natives of South Africa, show the
same narrowmindedness of which we accuse the ancient
nations.
The Christian doctrine of equality broke the spell which
hitherto had made outcasts of other nations, and the spread
of the Gospel demanded a study of the languages of those
nations to which the Holy Scriptures were carried.
Hieronymusand Augustine knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
And no sooner had Christoforo Colombo and Vasco da
Gamathrown new w r orlds open to the commercial enterprise of
Europe than Roman Catholic missionaries, especially of the
order of the Jesuits, folloAved the steps of the traders, and
gave us learned works on the customs, manners, religions
and languages of Japan, China, Africa and America, works
which even now call forth our admiration, and from which we
humbly have to learn that, with regard to our own continent,
the course of the Zambesi, the position of lake Ukerewe
with its islands, of lake Mwutan, and of the mighty
Congo River, w T ere two and three hundred years ago esta-
blished geographical facts, and that Livingstone, Cameron,
Stanley and Elton have only rediscovered what the 18th
century had forgotten.
The names of Athanasius Kircher, Eduardo Lopez,
Father Paez, Cavazzi,and Hervas, will live in the History of
the Science of Language, Ethnology, and Geography, of our
Continent. Hervas claims the honour of having first
pointed out that Language relationship is based on gramma-
tical structure, and not on mere word similarity. He also
established the fact that the so-called Malayo-Polynesian
languages, extending from Madagascar to the Easter Island
in the Pacific, claim one parentage, and Wilhelm von Hum-
boldt merely repeated it. And if we mention Hervas wo
should not forget the Empress Catherine of Russia, the
great German philosopher Leibniz, and his friend AVitsen,
the Burgomaster of Amsterdam, at whose instigation the
first specimens of the Hottentot language were written down
by "Wreede and Greevenbroek at the Cape, in the times of
Governor van der Stell. (1691).
But, however much we may admire the arduous labour,
the zeal and the energy of those persons who made language
the study of their life, we cannot speak of a Science of
Language yet, because the workers in that field had no
method.
It was not until the year 1808, in which Fred. Schlegel
published his work on The Language and Wisdom of the
Indians, that the veil hanging over the eyes of philologists
was torn to pieces, a work which, according to Max Miiller,
was like the wand of the magician : " It pointed out a place
where a mine should be opened." And the miner who
blasted the rock and produced the first ore was Francis
Bopp, a native of Mayence.
Here I must digress a little and lead you away to India.
In 1600 the so-called East India Company was established
by a body of London merchants. A second Company was
formed 98 years later, and after some vexatious rivalry, in
1708 both combined under the name of the United East
India Company. Their increasing wealth and power drew
the attention of the Home Government, who tried to
appropriate to themselves a part of the power and property
of this illustrious Company. These and other circumstances
brought about the publication of the so-called Code of
Gentoo Law, a collection of Native Laws, in 1776, by order
of Warren Hastings, the then Governor of India.
I may mention that we have commenced a similar work,
which will undoubtedly, if scientifically and methodically
executed, have the beneficial effect of making the natives of
British South Africa more reconciled to our rule.
16
In the preface to this Code of Gcntou Lair, Halhed, a
Dane, gave the first full account of Sanscrit, the sacred
language of India, in which the Vedas and other books
were written. Sir William Jones, who was appointed Chief
Justice of Calcutta, laid the foundation of the Asiatic
Society in 1784. His attention was drawn to the article
on Sanscrit in the Code of Gentoo Law, and he at once
took earnestly and successfully to the study of the sacred
language and literature of the Brahmins. Another pupil
of the priests was the merchant James Wilkins, who
translated a part of the epic poem Mahabaratta, and, later
on, the Hitopadesa. Both Wilkins and Jones, especially
the latter, were struck with the wonderful identity of
grammatical structure in Sanscrit and the classical
languages. In 1789 the first Latin Translation of
Kalidasa's Sakuntala was published by Jones, and, shortly
before his death in 1794, the Law Book or Code of Manu.
His beautiful and rare collection of Sanscrit manuscripts
passed into the hands of Henry Thomas Colebrooke, then
British Resident at Berar, This scholar issued many
valuable editions of Sanscrit literature, texts as well as
grammars and dictionaries.
Thus to enlightened Englishmen is due the honour of
having introduced and facilitated to European scholars the
.study of the Sanscrit language.
Without these helps and preparations Fred. Schlegel
would never have been able to write his famous book on
The Language and Wisdom of the Indians, and though a
German scholar, he could not but attribute to Sir William
Jones the priority of the ideas expounded in his Avork,
August Wilhelm Schlegel and Lassen followed in revealing
the wonderful mysteries of Indian literature, until Francis
Bopp in 1816 gave us the first outline sketch of an Indo-
Gcrmanic Grammar, the precursor of his masterpiece, the
Comparative Grammar of Sanscrit, Zend, Armenian, Greek,
Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavonian and German.
17
Next to him must be mentioned Wilhelm von Humboldt,
the brother of the great naturalist, Alexander von Hum-
boldt. He laid the foundation of the "Philosophy of
Language " in the introduction to his great work on the
Kawi Language.
And the ring of the founders of Comparative Philology
would be incomplete were we to omit August Frederick
Pott, whose Etymological Researches appeared first in
1833 and 1836, and have seen since a second and con-
siderably enlarged edition. As we turn over the leaves of
this truly gigantic work, we find difficulty in believing that
one mortal alone could have written it ; and I suppose, if we
were to live another two hundred years, some clever and
ingenious philologist will tell the world that these
Etymological Researches were the work of different authors,
and that Pott is but a collective name for the various con-
tributors.
Bopp and Pott's method was successfully applied to the
Teutonic tongues, in a truly grand and colossal work, the
Deutsche Grammatik, by Jacob Grimm. He is at the same
time the discoverer of the Law of Consonantal Change,
called after him Grimm's Law.
On the method and principles laid down by these men,
is based the Classification of the Languages of Mankind.
Let us pause for a moment to learn something about the
principles of this method.
What is language, we ask ? How easily the question is
put, but how difficult to answer it.
Language is a creation of society, or, better, of a com-
munity. It is the touchstone of the perceptive power of
the community by which it is spoken, and it contains the
intellectual characteristics and mental peculiarities of that
community. It is the mirror which reflects the picture and
impression made by the outer world on man's soul, and it
is the medium by which the mind communicates its inner
life to the outer world.
B
18
Under the same conditions, the outer world will make on
any community the same impression, and the language of
that community will reflect this impression in a way which
corresponds to the general impression made on the mind of
the community.
Now 11 languages, even the unwritten idioms of savages,
consist of grammar and words. A community, to make
itself understood, that is, to communicate its impressions of
the outer world, uses these words not in an arbitrary and
capricious manner, but arranging them into sentences
according to certain la\vs and principles. This arrange-
ment constitutes what we call grammar. Words uttered
without being pressed into the mould of grammar are
empty sounds without reason.
The articulate sounds, of which words consist, are
changeable. Dialects belonging to the same parentage
have laws of phonetic change of their own, which do not
apply to dialects of another stock.
Grammar, however, that is, the mode in which the mind
expresses the impressions of the oiiter world, remains un-
changed.
In order, therefore, to compare two languages and to fix
the degree of their affinity, u~e can only be guided ly the
result of grammatical i.e. striictural comparison. Conse-
quently, nothing is more deceptive than superficial word
comparison.
The dialects of savages I only refer to the Bushman
dialects of our own continent, to the dialects of the Indians
of America and the Aborigines of Australia are submitted
to a continual change. If they hardly allow word com-
parisons among themselves, we cannot claim for them
relationship Avith the dialects of communities divided from
times immemorial by the vast ocean, on account of super-
ficial and accidental verbal similarities. According to such
a mode of comparison there* would be no difficulty of
proving a primeval relationship of all languages.
19
But you will say, " Did you not tell us just now that
Professor Pott has become famous through his Etymological
Researches ?" Quite right, and I could add the names of
Kuhn, Curtius, Grimm, Delbriick, Fick and many more.
Therefore to prevent the conception that Etymology is to
be rejected, I must add a few remarks on this point.
There is a real Science of Etymology, but it finds its
application in Comparative Philology, after grammatical
relationship has been established, and then only. Etymology
cannot be regarded as a science unless it is based entirely
on sound phonological research. Both Phonology and
Etymology are instruments of the Science of Language and
Comparative Philology, but they are not themselves Com-
parative Philology.
The laws of Etymology can only be established by the
medium of Phonology, and unless every jot and tittle is
conscientiously observed the laws of Etymology are of no
avail. The laws of phonetic change are the only guide in
the comparison of words and forms, and without these laws
it is simply impossible to reason scientifically on the common
origin and history of words. It is on the strength of
phonetic laws once established that, in various dialects, words
which had not one single letter in common,, were with
mathematical exactness reconstructed and traced back to the
same root. Beyond roots we cannot go, any more than the
biologist can go beyond the protoplasma of organic life.
Grammatical structure, i.e. the conception which a
community has of the sentence formed by language and
the arrangement of the component parts of the sentence, is
the supreme criterion for the relationship of two idioms ;
without this criterion we cannot go a step further. But, at
the same time, if words and forms put under the phonetic
and etymological microscope do not show any substantial
relationship, the strongest evidence of structural similarity
will never entitle us to vindicate for two languages a common
parentage.
n 2
20
The modern Science of Language, like all inductive
sciences, viz., Biology, Comparative Anatomy, etc., is based
on accurate knowledge. The comparative method requires
for its operations historically proved and scientifically tested
facts. And it cannot do otherwise. A fact, is something
accurate t something of which the quantity is clearly circum-
scribed and defined, and the quality and ingredient parts
minutely analyzed. Moreover, the cause and effect and the
relation of a fact to other facts, and the numerous agencies
based on eternal, unchangeable laws, which produce as the
end-result a new fact from the combination of already
established facts, must be clear and transparent. Only
by means of facts are we in the position to draw conclusions
which lead to scientific results. And if the comparative
and inductive method is worth anything, if it has led to
scientific results in one branch of human knowledge, AVC are
justified in expecting that it will lead to results in Com-
parative Philology. This science, however, deals with the
morphological or formal conditions of language ; everything
that is formal is the result of rational combination.
Scientific method and investigation are strictly against
spinning theories in accordance with our wishes or fancies.
It is not unusual for scientific investigation to tear to pieces
our pet theories, and tell us truths which are not very
palatable. The history of culture and civilization and the
annals recording the progress of science in the 19th century
prove this in a thousand instances. Thus it is in Com-
parative Philology. The principles and method of com-
parison for all languages are alike. There is and I must
repeat it again only one standard by which we can measure
all languages, and that standard is grammatical structure.
We cannot, without being justly accused of want of method,
apply this standard in one- case, and in the next, when we
find this mode of comparison not agreeing with what we
wish the result to be, apply superficial word comparisons,
based on doubtful phonetic resemblances. Phonetic com-
24
parison can only then be admitted when relationship and
coincidence of grammatical structure have been proved.
I spoke of Phonology and Etymology, and I take this
opportunity of remarking that all those who work in the
field of South African Languages should apply a uniform
phonetic alphabet, say for instance the Standard Alphabet
of Professor Lepsius, in a modified form. Travellers and
missionaries especially, if they wish to serve the cause of
South African Philology, should be well acquainted with
the principles of Phonology before they venture to write
down texts in the languages of savages. No missionary
should be sent to the heathen without having acquired as
thorough a knowledge of phonetics as he has of the Gospel ;
and he should be taught to respect every accent, every
consonant, in fact every jot and tittle in any, even the most
barbarous, dialect he may hereafter have to analyse. Here I
sincerely regret to say that much of what has been published
in the native literature of South Africa, especially in the
Bantu languages,offers but small help to scientific Etymology,
on account of the orthography, I might rather say,
Kakography. The clicks and their relation to the con-
sonants and vowels are very unsatisfactorily expressed.
They seem to puzzle people, and yet their origin, nature
and physiology can be as easily and clearly described
as that of any consonant. In fact the clicks group with the
consonants, they are produced by the same organs, lips,
tongue, teeth, gum, etc., as the consonants. And surely if
the IlKhosa or Zulu language were really phonetically
written, there would be no difficulty in showing as regards
the greater number of words containing clicks, especially in
IlKhosa, that they are importations from the Hottentot,
especially the Khoikhoi. And being thus able to trace
the true etymology of Kafir words, we should be able to read
the past history of battles and friendly intercourse between
the Khoikhoi and IlKhosa, as well as if it were handed down
to us in written records.
22
It is therefore an urgent want for us here in South
Africa that a Standard Orthography for the Native
Languages should be introduced in all official, educational
and public departments. The task is not as difficult as it
may appear at first sight. I hope that, for instance, our
land surveyors in their future examinations will have to
show a thorough efficiency in the application of a phonetic
alphabet, when mapping native territories. At present
much confusion is caused simply by employing different
modes of spelling the same name.
Taking up again the thread of our discourse on the
principles of comparative philology, we saw that grammatical
structure formed the standard of language affinity.
Languages accordingly are classified, into
1. Isolating languages,
2. Agglutinating languages,
3. Inflecting languages.
This mode of classification is called the morphological
classification. We shall afterwards have to say something
on the genealogical classification.
Of all groups of languages, the isolating class presents
the simplest form. There are no word classes, such as
substantive, adjective, numeral, preposition or postposition
and adverb ; nor are time, mood, person, gender or number
formally expressed by suffix, prefix or infix. Accordingly
there can be no declensions, no conjugations, no degrees of
comparison as we have them in the second, and still more
in the third class of languages.
The root in the isolating class remains unchanged. Ta
in Chinese may mean great, greatness, greatly ; Pi again
equal, equality, to be equal, equally. And it is solely by the
position of the root in the sentence that its class nature is
ascertained. And still this class of languages is not less
fit for literary purposes than our Indo-European languages,
which belong to the third stage. The rich Chinese literature
23
proves that every shade of thought has been expressed by
their philosophers and great thinkers.
The Annamese, Siamese, Burmese and Tibetan languages
belong to this stage.
I may at once mention that all languages belonging to the
second and third stage once passed through this monosyllabic
or isolating stage. Our own Indo-Germanic languages with
their complicated inflections show unmistakable traces of a
monosyllabic origin.
And, again, the second class, of which we shall directly
give an illustration, has been the channel through which our
own language had to pass to its present development. Thus
in language, as in all other organic growths, we see the work-
ing of the principle of evolution.
If we mark the root Avith R, we may express the morpho-
logical composition of this first stage by the formula R + R
+ R, etc.
Next, we have the agglutinative languages, which attach
or glue to the bare root particles at the beginning or at the
end or in the middle, or beginning and end, etc., etc., and are
called accordingly prefix, suffix, infix, etc., languages. The
root remains entirely unchangeable, and these particles,
generally, not always, of a pronominal nature, modify the
meaning of the root. Thus in Hottentot we have KHOI as
root of the word man ; Kkoi-b man, Khoi-s woman, Khoi-gn
men, K/wi-ti women, K/ioi-si (adj.) or Khoi-x& humane,
friendly, Khoi-xa-se (adv.) friendly, JT/toHsi-ga-gu to marry
each other, verbally to be towards each other friends. \A U
to flow, \au-b blood, i.e. that which flows, \au--^a, bloody.
From these specimens we infer that the Hottentot is a suffix
language. And from the specimens in Bantu we shall learn
that the latter is a prefix language.
Herero : Sing, omu-ndu man, plur. ova-ndu ; sing, c-yuru
heaven, plur. oma-yuru.
Tsuana : Sing, lo-m cloud, plur. ma-ru ; sing, se-fuba
breast, plur. li-fuba.
24
Ilcrcro : zcpa to kill, ri-zepa Reflex.
Tsuana : bona to see, i-pona Reflex.
Kafir : tanda to love, zi-tanda Reflex.
These prefixes are all of a pronominal nature, while the
suffixes in Bantu are of a nominal origin.
Khosa : in-taka bird, in-tak-ana little bird, um-fo man^
um-f-ana little man, youth. Or tcta, IlKhosa to speak, forms
the following derivatives : tet-ela Relat., tet-isa Causat.,
tet-eka Rel. Caus.
In this agglutinative group we first meet with the
various categories of words, such as substantives, adjectives,
numerals, prepositions or postpositions, adverbs and conjunc-
tions.
Here we first have derivatives in the true sense of the
word, also the embryonic germs of declension and conjuga-
tion, though not in the full sense of the inflecting languages ;
and therefore these terms should be used with reserve-
Mood and tense are well developed, and generally, for
instance in Turkish and Hottentot, surpass in this respect
anything known in the next fullgrown Indo-Germanic
tongues, such as Sanscrit, Greek or Lithuanian.
Suppose we mark the root again with R, and the various
particles, which are prefixed, suffixed or infixed with p, s, i,
we get for the agglutinative or agglomerating stage the
following formulas : 1. pR ; 2. Rs ; 3. R ; 4. pR ; 5. Rs,
6. pRs. etc., Thus we see that two characteristic facts distin-
guish the agglutinating from the isolating class.
In the former the word is no longer composed from the
root alone, but is formed by the union of several roots. In
the second place, one only of these roots thus agglomerated
retains its real value ; in the others the individual meaning
becomes obscured and passes into the second rank. The
primary root being thus retained in its primitive form, the
others lose their independence, and fall into their place
side by side ot each other. These pi'efixes and suffixes are
loosely connected, so that they may be easily removed with-
25
out impairing the original meaning of the root. The fissures
are still clearly to be seen where they are connected with
the root. And this exactly is called Agglutination.
The tongues belonging to this class are the most numerous
on the earth. All the languages of Africa, the Egyptian
and its kindred, the Hamitic excepted, the Malayo-Poly-
nesian, the languages of Australia and America, the Ural-
Altaic or Finnish-Tataric, and the Dravidian or Dekhan, not
to forget the Basque in Spain, are reckoned in this class.
But it must be distinctly understood that they are not
genealogically related, and that this classification is entirely
based on their formal or anatomical appearance.
It will therefore be necessary here to say something on
the so-called Turanian theory of Professor Max Miiller.
A certain venerable old patriarch in Central Asia is sup-
posed to have given birth to a race, whose idiom became
the common language of the so-called Turanian tribes.
Professor Max Mtiller is the godfather of this theory, which
is now represented by three different schools, each with some
amendment to it.
The first school holds that all languages, with the ex-
ception of Indo-Germanic, Semitic and Hamitic, form this
Turanian group. Thus they not only claim for this family
all the abovementioned agglutinative tongues of mankind,
but also the monosyllabic or isolating languages of the first
class.
The second school confines the name to the Ural o- Altaic,
Dravidian, Malayo-Polynesian, Tibetan and Siamese, leav-
ing out other very important agglutinative tongues, such
as the Nuba, Bantu, Central and West African Negro
languages, Hottentot, Japanese, etc., and dragging in the
Siamese and Thai, belonging to the isolating class.
The third school, for the same or other reasons, does not
like to do away with the name altogether, although they feel
the mischief it has in its train, and apply it now entirely
to the Uralo-Altaic family.
26
The greater part of these pretended Turanian languages
have only this one point in common, that they are aggluti-
nating. But their mode of agglutinating and the phonetic
composition of their roots defy every effort to prove them
genealogically related. Professors Pott, Schleicher and
Whitney have very successfully refuted the Turanian
theory, and we may consider the question a settled one.
Let us now proceed to inspect the third stage of language
development, the Inflecting Stage. At the outset we have
to answer the question, " What is Inflection 3 "
First : The roots of inflected languages have this
peculiarity, that the various modifications of the root are not
only expressed by suffix and prefix, but by phonetic change ;
thus we have sing, sang, sung; think, thought ; man, men ;
goose, geese ; leipo, leloipa ; fangen, fing ; cano, cecini ;
pario, peperi, etc.
Secondly : The root so grows together with a second
root, or with a formal element (suffix or prefix), that no
fissure can be seen, and that neither root nor formal part, if
cut off from each other, has any meaning. In short Root
and Affix amalgamate into a new organism. Sometimes the
root, as we have seen in the agglutinative languages, re-
mains unchanged.
If we now represent this power of phonetic change in the
root, by the index x, we get for the inflecting stage the
following formulas : R*, R*s, R*ss, R*sss, etc., p R*>
etc., and pR*s.
The inflecting languages are represented by two large
families :
1 . The so-called Aryan or Indo-Germanic Languages, and
2. The Semitic Tongues, amongst which some count the
Hamitic or North-East African Languages.
Be it enough to state that the methods of inflecting in these
three families vary so much from each other, that all
attempts to bring them under one genealogical heading have
hitherto proved abortive.
27
Schleicher and Whitney have most carefully analysed
these differences, but it would lead us too far, in our limited
time, to discuss their analysis.
I have repeatedly mentioned the term "genealogical
classification/' and shall have briefly to say something about
it.
Languages may group morphologically together with-
out belonging to the same genealogical class. But lan-
guages cannot be genealogically related, without belonging
to the same morphological group. The genealogical classifi-
cation has been hitherto applied only to the Lido-Germanic,
Semitic and Hamitic languages. In all other languages it
has not yet been undertaken, though here and there some
feeble attempts have been made, viz., with the Bantu and
Polynesian.
The genealogical classification is mainly based on the
real substance of a language, it has to do with its Grammar
and Dictionary, and besides grammatical structure compares
the roots of words. Its main instrument is Etymology : but
as I said before, Etymology is only a secondary element in
Comparative Philology, and can then only be applied when
Grammatical and Morphological relationship has been esta-
blished.
Thus morphologically Hottentot (Khoikhoi and Sa
[Bushman]) and Bantu (Tsuana, HKhosa, Zulu, Herero,.
Mbo) are agglutinative languages, but, comparing them
again grammatically, the one is exclusively suffixing, and all
the suffixes show the same root, being of a pronominal
nature, while the latter is prefix-suffixing, the prefix being-
the main characteristic. The prefixes in Bantu show
among themselves the same origin, and are also of a prono-
minal nature. Derivatives in Hottentot are formed by
pronominal suffixes, but in Bantu by nominal elements, now
for the most part worn down to particles, which are suffixed,
viz. :
Moreover, Sa and Khoihhoi have this peculiarity, that all
28
roots are monosyllabic and end in a vowel ( Anslaut vocalisch;,
viz., khoi, a, \gu, yai, i, etc.), while in Bantu the roots as a
rule are not monosyllabic, and though ending in a vowel, this
vowel always is an a, thus we have rata, herara, tona, kora,
etc.
But I must reserve a detailed examination of the lan-
guages of South Africa for another occasion. I shall now
proceed to show what the study of Comparative Philology
has done to unveil to us the primeval history of our own
ancestors. I said that language is the telescope with which
we can look into the very daw r n of man's life. Let us turn
over the leaves of Pictet's Origines Indo-Europecnnes, of
Pott's Etymological Researches and Fick's Comparative Dic-
tionary of the Lido-Germanic Languages, and we shall be
able to draw a fair picture of the social condition and daily
life of our ancestors, before they left their primitive home,
and migrated to the South, North, East and West.
The primitive Aryans lived in a country well watered,
mountainous and very rugged. The mountains were in the
winter capped with snow, their slopes covered with
thick forests in which oaks formed a prominent feature.
The forests offered cool shade to the hunter and traveller,
for in summer, again, it could be very hot. For travelling
purposes, boats as well as other vehicles were used. But
travelling was extremely dangerous ; wolves, bears and
smaller carnivorous animals kept the traveller constantly on
the alert, and the poisonous bites of snakes were known, but
also the beneficial and healing effects of herbs and other
antidotes.
Family life was well developed. Our ancestors were
monogamists, and the father was the lord and head of the
family. He was called patis (Greek posis), the ruler. His
helpmate the wife was the mistress patni (Greek potnia).
The various degrees of relationship were well distinguished,
and there were such differences as wife's sister (syali) and
the wife of a brother (yataras). The father was supreme
29
judge of controversies, and had the lives of those he pro-
tected in his hands. The brother was the helping one, the
bearing one, while the sister was the provider or the caring
one. The daughter (duhitar) had her name from her main
household duty, namely, the milking of the cows. The com-
munity was a family, but on a larger base, and governed on
the same principles. The eldest man of the ruling family
was the chief. He again stood under the head of the tribe,
the king or ragan. The king's council consisted of the various
heads of the clans and families. The communities lived
in villages, which were surrounded by fences, in order to
protect them against the attacks of the beasts of the forests.
The pasturage was the property of the community, while
the lands for agricultural purposes were allotted to the
fathers of the families, according to stipulated rules and regu-
lations. Houses, cattle and movables belonged to the indivi-
dual ; the houses were strongly built of wood and had thatched
roofs. The chief's or ragan's house was built on a larger
scale than those of others, it had large lofty halls for con-
vivial purposes, where the bowl was often sent round and
music was made on shells and reed pipes.
Among the domestic animals we find the bull, cows^
oxen, horses, goats, sheep and pigs. Milk formed the
chief drink, but black broth, a sort of hodgepodge, was also
made. Dogs accompanied the herdsmen to the pasturage
and kept watch during the night. The mistress of the
house had to guard her stores against the aggressions of the
mice, which had the significant name s of thieves.
Among the feathery, tribe we find the cock announcing
the day. Pigeons, geese and ducks were kept in the fowl
yard.
The cuckoo was the messenger of the spring. Priests
watched the flight of birds, and the future was divined from
their movements, especially those of the falcon.
For the cultivation of the soil, ploughs were in use ; and
the main work on which men prided themselves most, next
30
to being brave in battle, was the cultivation of the soil,
hence the name Aryans, i.e. Agriculturists.
Among the cereals, we find chiefly wheat and barley ;
and flour was prepared for their meals in the shape of
porridge or bread.
The metals, gold, silver and bronze were best known ;
and lovers in those days already presented each other with
jewellery. The dagger was originally made of stone,
afterwards of bronze ; battle axes, swords and other arms and
implements were manufactured by a certain class of men,
the smiths, who were held in high estimation on account of
their skill.
Pottery, not only dried in the sun, but baked in the fire,
was of great variety. We read of vases, jars, pots, cups
and dishes. And there is every reason to believe that the
richer classes had their vases ornamented by skilful
painters.
For their daily intercourse and commercial dealings they
had a decimal system developed up to one hundred.
Clothing was made of wool and hemp, and sandals of the
hides of large game and oxen.
Besides the smaller communities or villages, there were
townships, vastu or puris (Greek asty and polis), connected
by roads, on which caravans as well as single hawkers
carried merchandize ; and vehicles and animals served as
the means of conveyance.
These early Aryans were able horsemen, and made
inroads into the territory of other tribes, on horseback, and
carried away in hasty flight their spolia opima. In battle
the axe, sword, lance, bow, arrow, club and shield were used ;
.also stones, in the heat of the conflict, when other weapons
were broken or lost.
The chief led his people in battle, he had to be the
foremost ; in peace he ruled and protected them and was
their supreme judge.
The moon was called the measurer of time, for according
31
to its changes they calculated their chronological dates.
Among the stars we find the Great Bear mentioned and
the Pleiades. The heavenly vault, Varuna, was worshipped
as All-Father. The religion of the primitive ancestors of
our race consisted of a purely natural worship of the various
heavenly bodies and phenomena, such as the Sun, Dawn,
Moon and other bright powers, which were all considered to
be the manifestations of the one Father of Heaven, Dyaus-
pitar, who with his immortal children, stars and moon, dwelt
on a glorious and magnificent Olympus.
Opposed to Dyauspitar there were the evil spirits of the
dark night. There was the gloomy god of the clouds,
Vritra, who was supposed to steal the golden herds of
heaven, the cows of the clouds, and kept back from the
earth the fertilising rain, until he was slain by the lightning
arrow of Indra.
It was in the midst of the dark night when the winds
were howling, and crashing thunder deafening the ear, that
the ancient Aryan believed the evil spirits were lurking
about. Then and there awoke in his breast the feeling of
guilt, and he sought forgiveness in prayer, offering and self-
penance.
There was an idea of a life after this ; the souls of the
deceased had to pass through a broad river, that is the
atmosphere, and they were led by a faithful dog to the
abodes of their friends and relations.
There were legends and myths of a common ancestor,
Maim, and of a great deluge which destroyed everything
except Manu.
I could have drawn this picture of the social and daily
life of our ancestors more elaborately and minutely, but
this little sketch will give us a sufficiently good idea of the
state of culture and civilisation among the old Aryans. My
object has been to show how, with the aid of language, we
may read the records of the past ; and in a similar manner
we shall be able to read the history of the Hottentot and
32
Bantu races, as soon as we have succeeded in restoring the
records of their languages.
Having taken this short and very superficial survey
of the History, Principles and Results of Comparative
Philology, Are will proceed to the consideration of Language
in its bearings on Education.
There is indeed no branch of education which demands
our attention so much and is of such vital importance to the
intellectual and ethical development, both of the individual
and of the nation, as the study of language.
In fact nothing is done in the dark workshop of our mind
without the aid of language. As the shadow follows the
body, the articulate sound is attached and linked to the
thought, and, while the mind is in full action though in silent
meditation, the greatest thoughts which ever throned on the
brow of an Alexander, Crcsar, Homer or Shakespere, Avould
never have been realized without language : Whether we
speak, or whether we are silent, as soon as we think, we really
speak. All thinking is silent conversation, either icith ourselves
or with others ; for icords, whether they are pronounced, or
tohethcr they are thought, are the inseparable form, the natural
mould of the substance of thought and of reason itself. Lan-
guage is the embodiment of the mind!
Therefore, if we want to understand our own psychological
life, if we wish to study the minds of others or to watch the
progress of culture and intellect in whole nations, in order to
ascertain the mutual w r orking of the laws Avhich brought
about this development, we must study language itself.
Leibniz, accordingly, and very appropriately, called lan-
guage the mirror of the soul ; because only by the medium of
language can we grasp and digest the ingredient substances
of thought and reason.
Language, again, in itself has a retroverse action on our
thought ; it has the widest and most wonderful bearing on
the development of our mind, on account of its relation to
our inner life. The orator addresses a meeting from the
33
platform. From his mouth issues a breath ; by a peculiar
action of the tongue and other organs of speech, this breath
in a continual flow and rotation offers like a kaleidoscope a
series of phonetic pictures, and these pictures impress them-
selves on the minds of his audience and produce there new
thoughts and emotions. The Promethean spark from his
mind flies on the wings of these articulate sounds to his
audience, and nestles itself in the secret recesses and abodes
of the souls of the hearers, creating there new feelings, new
emotions, new ideas, ever acting as an invigorating and
Propelling force. The boldest and highest speculations of
the philosopher ; the cravings and yearnings of our heart
after the Infinite ; the deepest devotional feelings with which
the grandeur of Nature impresses itself on our soul ; what w e
praise as the Divine primeval revelation ; the out-cry and
protest of Liberty against Despotism ; the despair and con-
vulsions of the wicked conscience ; the soothing and balmy
consolation which flows from the lips of a sympathising
friend ; the smarting of a cruelly wronged heart, and its
craving for justice and revenge ; the sweet whisperings of
the lover ; the first accents of endearment the infant stammers
at the mother's breast : in short, whatever has stirred, still
fills, and will for ever move the human heart, all these feelings
have but one willing messenger and eloquent interpreter :
Articulate Speech !
Language, thus, is not only one of the various instruments
of thought for communicating with the outer world, but the
only legitimate and therefore natural mediator of social and
intellectual life.
To connect the succession of periods in the history and
development of mankind in an unbroken chain ; to describe
the natural influence and connection of the great geniuses
who imprinted their mark on the face of their times ; to trace
the intellectual growth and decay of nations, their action and
reaction on each other ; all these grand heirlooms of history
and civilisation are chiefly handed clown from generation to
34
generation by this volatile and spiritual production of man.
And even monuments, tools, implements, and other archaeo-
logical relics of ages past, however valuable they may be
for the student who attempts to lift the veil from prehistoric
times, would remain sealed records were it not for the posi-
tion of language.
But why should we speak of ideas so high and treasures
so precious ? Even the most simple, absurd and common
events of daily life can be communicated by language only.
Artists may transform their ideal beauties into marble, the
painter may throw the combinations of his rich fancy on
canvas : but can the sculptor or painter also express by his
art such a simple sentence as the following : " In 1882 Par-
liament met on the seventeenth of March. The most impor-
tant part in the Governor's opening speech dealt with the
Basuto question "? Never ! This peculiarity of language,
that it offers to thought the only facility for combining time
and circumstance, necessarily makes it, as I said before, the
only natural and legitimate interpreter of thought. With-
out language we should stand on a level with the brute, and
mankind never would be called the crowning work and
masterpiece of Creation.
Thus, if language is the form, tie, embodiment and
mirror of the mind, the natural interpreter of man's inner
life, and the most important instrument for its development,
it is manifest that in education the study of language is the
most important and congenial occupation not only of the
scholar, but of every man who aspires to a higher educa-
tion, and being both of a psychological and ethical charac-
ter, claims our most earnest attention and most persevering
energy.
Studying language is studying psychology, i.e. the crea-
tion and origin of thought, in its very workshop.
The task of education is, first to show the process and
practice of transforming thought into speech, the life and
development of the former by the latter, and secondly, to
35
explain the origin, life and development of language in the
mind.
All men who have made their mark in the history of
education have forcibly demanded the mastering of language
as the first step in the intellectual and moral training of
each individual, and claimed for a thorough acquisition of
the mother tongue a careful and deep study of foreign
languages and literatures. Our own mother tongue remains
a sealed book without the knowledge of some other language.
For we are so organized that we cannot understand our own
nature without having put it in the full light and reflex of
the nature of others.
In the sweat of our brow we are condemned to eat our
bread, and the lower wants of our own nature are clamorous
for satisfaction. But we do not live by bread alone ;
language, next to bread, serves the demands of our practical
life. And above the drudgery of daily life there remains a
yearning and craving after an ideal, and the interpreter of
these feelings is, and for ever will remain, language. And as
the possession of our native idiom gives us access to other
minds, so the acquisition of languages widens our sphere of
mental intercourse, lays open additional sources of enlighten-
ment and increases the number of our instructors.
The easiest and most successful way of cultivating our in-
tellectual faculties is philological study. This supplies us with
one needed ground of comparison, and brings character-
istic qualities to our conscious comprehension. Nothing
else develops the faculty of literary criticism, and leads to
that skilled and artistic handling of our mother tongue,
which is the highest adornment of a cultivated mind.
This seemingly roundabout course through other tongues,
in order to master effectively the resources of our own ver-
nacular, is after all the shortest and cheapest. Again, nothing
else so effectively trains the capacity of penetrating into
the minds and hearts of men, of reading aright the records
of the past, and leads us into so many new avenues of the
c 2
36
social and intellectual life of ancient race?, and teaches us
so clearly that we are linked to the past in an unbroken
chain. The pulse of our present civilisation beats in the
heart of the past ; and not one atom of our modern culture
can boast of independence and originality. The history of
nations bygone may be read in the p'ages of language.
Those, especially, who aspire to the highest culture of in-
tellect, who make philosophical and historial studies their
lifelong occupation, require a sound study of a philology that
reaches far beyond that of modern languages, for not one
single part of our modern languages and their literatures
has an entirely independent growth. In everything, socially
and intellectually, we have to follow up its roots in the life
of nations belonging to the past. Much, it is true, has
been made accessible by translations of the ancient classics.
But, ho\v tame and lifeless the best translations are com-
pared with the classical original, those only understand who
have mastered Greek and Latin so as thoroughly to enjoy
an ancient author.
In Athens and Rome are the beginnings of nearly all
that we value most. Greek and Latin stand incontcstably
first as our mental drill masters. They are like the twin-
lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza in which the Nile has
its origin ; the mountain torrents which centre in these, to
issue in that majestic stream, are by comparison hardly
worth our attention. There is, as I said before, the very
heart of the great past, and it is through these classical
languages that the glorious days of Thermopylae and
Salami?, the golden age of Pericles and Augustus, speak
to us.
In no other literature of the world do we meet with such
pregnancy of expression, such radiant beauty of thought,
such vigour and fertility of fancy, such plastic and elegant
form of diction. Greek and Latin, therefore, will for ever
remain the models of our education, and the antiquity they
unveil before our astonished eyes will be studied in spite of
37
the objections raised in modern times by men who are
considered to have the first word in educational matters.
And of the two classical languages I can recommend,
without fear of contradiction, the Greek as the most perfect
and best preserved example of the synthetic type, a type
through which our own English had to pass. But as you
know, besides this genealogical affiliation there is a direct
connection between Greek and Latin on the one side, and
the German, English and French on the other side.
Especially with regard to English, the rich stores of words,
technical terms and phrases came partly through the
channel of French, partly direct from the ancient languages.
And in our daily work we continually have to return to
them to satisfy our growing wants of expression.
The languages most nearly allied to ours by common
parentage are German and French. The former, belonging
to the same Teutonic stock as English, is genealogically our
next of kin. It is most nearly connected with our own
circumstances and character. And the mutual intellectual
influence of the two nations, and their love and admiration
for each other, have made the Germanic race politically
supreme. For culture breeds culture, and intellect is the
supreme power with which mankind will conquer even the
forces of nature.
As I said in the introduction, there is really no country
in the world where England's great poets are more admired
and better translated than in Germany. 'Your Shakespere
is ours. In Germany we have the best Shakespere Society.
Germans learn English for the sole purpose of reading
Shakespere in his mother tongue. Tieck and SchlegePs
translation of the works of the Swan of Avon is acknow-
ledged to be an improvement on the poet's own original.
German actors like Schroder, Devrient and Dawison have
successfully rivalled Garrick, Kean and Kemblo, and other
English celebrities of the stage, in reproducing the grand
characters of Shakespcre's plays. Delius, Bodenstedt,
38
Gervinus, Genee, Ulrici, Elze, have for ever linked their
names with that of the great Briton by their classical
commentaries and essays on his works, and their excellent
biographies of the interpreter of the human heart.
Shakespere has become in Germany a household name.
If one wishes to know Shakespere, let him study modern
German classics from Gothe down to the present time.
Every word of Shakespere re-echoes in the heart of every
German who reads his works. We call him the Herzens-
kundiger. The Germans truly love, admire and worship
Shakespere, and quote him as they do the three heroes of
modern German literature, Lessing, Gothe and Schiller.
In fact the last classical period of German literature roots
partly in the study of Shakespere, and many a beautiful
blossom of Gothe's genius bears an indisputable family
likeness to those of Shakespere's Muse. The songs and
melodies of Heine, the poet of the Weltschmerz, are saturated
with the gloomy grandeur of Byronism.
At German gymnasiums, the boys have their English
societies or Krdnzchen, in which they read either, in transla-
tion or in the original, the plays of Shakespere, and enjoy
the poems of Moore and Byron, and even attempt to
translate the English authors in their original metre and
verse.
There is no other foreign poet with whom the Germans
are equally familiar, except Homer, the genius par excellence*
All other foreigners Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Dante, Tasso,
Racine, Corneille, Cervantes and Camoens are admired as
we admire a marble statue.
Your Beowulf is better studied and known in Germany
than in England. Macaulay's History has been translated
and reprinted in the original at Leipsic, and we learn that
it had a larger sale in Germany than the works of any
German historian. Scott, Bulwer, Dickens and Thackeray
are to be found in every German Public Library as well
as in every private collection, and the productions of the
best English writers are expected with the same impatience
at Berlin and Leipsic as they are in London.
How extensively English is cultivated and studied is
clearly proved by the fact that we have in Germany four
different scientific periodicals ; two, the Anglia edited by
Wiilcker and Trautmann, and the Englische Studien edited
by Kolbing, exclusively for English language and literature;
and two, for modern languages, Herrig's Archivfur das
Studium der neueren Sprachen, and Ebert and Lemcke's
Jahrbuch fur Romanische und Englische Literatur. But
even in these latter publications English occupies the
greater space. And in every Realschule English is com-
pulsory as is French. More than 100,000 young Germans
are annually instructed in these schools in English, not to
speak of the number of those who learn the language by
private tuition.
The English language and literature has so many
admirers in Germany that they are to be numbered I may
safely say without fear of exaggeration by millions, and the
prophesy of the great Teutonic philologist, Jacob Grimm,
is being verified from day to day, that the Anglo-Saxon
tongue of Great Britain willbecome a cosmopolitan language,
the medium of commercial and intellectual communication
for the Races of Mankind.
And the same tribute has been paid to German poets and
philosophers by the enlightened public of England. Gothe
and Schiller are well known through Carlyle, Lewes and
others. The famous illustrations of Kaulbach's Frauen-
gestalten of Gothe's works have been republished with English
text, and are the delight of the best of the English
nation. And if we look at the weekly issues of English
periodicals, like the Academy and Athenaeum, we are sure
to see notices of some new translation of German works ;
and every book of importance published in Germany, no
matter to what science it belongs, is carefully reviewed in
English periodicals. The works of German genius find
40
almost as many thoughtful readers iu the colleges of
England as they find in their Fatherland. The study and
thorough knowledge of German is now considered in
England one of the most important attainments of a higher
education. The most candid acknowledgment is given of
the invigorating and refreshing influence of the German
mind on the English. Now, in this Colony, where the
greater part of the white community speak a vernacular so
closely related to the literary Dutch of the Netherlands,
one would think it a matter of course that German should
be easily taught and learnt, especially as Dutch is only one
of the many Low German idioms.
French, again, which is unsurpassed for its elegance in form
and diction, and which has had such a deep influence on
English, Dutch and German language and literature, should
not be neglected. Although there is a strong national line
of demarcation drawn between France and Germany, French
is taught in every German Gymnasium, Realschule and
Rectoratschule. A German student reads with ease the
great French classics, and expresses himself without difficulty
in conversation and writing in the language of France. To
show the importance the French attach to good and_,elegant
expression, I may remind you of the French proverb " Le
style c'est 1'homme." In spite of his pressing duties, the
great French naturalist Cuvier regularly attended lectures
on style and rhetorics. In the elegant and classic style of
Alexander von Humboldt we easily discover the influence
of French diction. Everywhere in European Society the
social qualification of a man is measured by hid power of
expressing himself in French.
Not only can the Germans pride themselves in having
laid the foundation of the Comparative Grammar of the
Indo-Germanic .languages, but a German professor, Diez ?
wrote the best Comparative Grammar and Etymological
Dictionary of the Romance languages. These two facts bear
sufficient testimony to the great stress and value put on the
41
study of French, and its cognate dialects in Germany.
Bracket's French grammar, based on Diez's work, should be
introduced in every Government school in this Colony.
Some of the most prominent branches of thought, in
English as well as in Dutch, have to be followed up to their
roots in the French and German literatures. They, by their
beauties and peculiarities, are admirably fitted to furnish the
ground of comparative literary study ; and the same advan-
tage is possessed by the structure and usages of the languages
themselves, an advantage heightened by the historical
relation they sustain in English. Had ice nothing else with
yet stronger recommendations to apply to, the German and
French) especially the former, would answer for us all the
essential disciplinary purposes of philological study ; as indeed
to many they are and must be made to answer those purposes.
(Whitney). As the case stands they are among the inde-
spensable parts of a disciplinary education. He who quits
scaool and enters on the arena of life without mastering cither
or both of them cannot claim to have enjoyed the benefit of a
thorough liberal and intellectual training. Whatever natural
attainments he may possess his ivork will always betray a
peculiar clumsiness, the ivork of an unskilled mind !
Among the other cultivated languages of modern Europe,
Dutch stands in nearest relation to us here in South Africa,
from purely ethnical and historical reasons, Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish lying more in the
special sphere of the student of literature and modern
philology. As to the cultivation of Dutch in this Colony,
however, it is more than questionable whether it will ever
command the position English takes as the medium of
intellectual and commercial intercourse.
Both literatures, Dutch and English, are of the same age ;
both nations had trials of the same nature, both had great
political catastrophes and events, the forerunners of literary
life ; the vessels of both nations crossed the seas, and
brought a store of new ideas and views from transatlantic
42
countries : and still, how differently have they utilized the
times. The English shows such blossoms and ripe fruits of
a highly developed intellectual type, and stands foremost
with the German in the literatures of our age ; while ivith
all love of justice we cannot claim for Dutch even a secondary
position in modern Europe, lest ice should appear to be partial,
and unfair to other nations. Look at the large and select
number of English poets of world-wide fame and the few
men of real Olympian genius in the ranks of the Dutch.
JVe can count them on thejingers of one hand!
One must be Dutch to appreciate the home-made, or as
we say in German, home-baked (hausbacken) niceties of
Dutch writers and poets, with that stale, tame and philistine
flavour of the clay pipe with Avhich their literature is saturated.
One has to undertake a special voyage to Holland and
retire into those quiet country villages famous as pictures
of Dutch still life, and enveloped in a gaudy dressing gown
of rich but artless pattern smoke canaster, to enjoy a Dutch
author. There is with the exception of two or three poets
no originality, the characteristic of true genius ; no romance
and emphasis, the golden gloss of true poetry ; in fact no
passion, feeling or sentiment. Homer, Shakespere, Dante
and Gothe you can read on the wild ocean and in the arid
desert ; no matter where you are, you feel at home with
them. Byron, Lenau, Pushkin and Lennontow will have
an echo in the heart of every feeling and thinking man, to
whatever civilised nation he may belong.
In comparing Dutch with German, French and English,
it is a most remarkable fact, that the three latter have
produced the greatest comparative philologists, and that
the Dutch just here are very backward. With the exception
of the works in their own language, what they really have
produced in other languages comes, as far as general and
foreign philology is concerned, through an impulse from
without.
Dutch writers can be so prolix, that the reader's mind
43
becomes thoroughly wearied with the amount to be gone
over, and at length loses its power of comprehending the
dilated thought. Their lavishness in writing is something
appalling, being exercised with no thought that the power
of attention and the eyesight of the world are limited.
There is no instinct of selection, " an instinct which seems
almost entirely confined to the French and English mind."
We find just the polar opposite of what is now sometimes
called, by a misunderstood application of the term, exhaus-
tiveness, and consisting in a certain manner of writing the
subject to dregs.
Gothe, whom our Dutch friends cannot accuse of par-
tiality, for he acknowledged readily the natural formal
richness of the Dutch language, says : " The English, as a
rule, all write welly as practical men, with eye diverted to
the real. The French do not deny their general character
in their style. They are of a social nature, and so never
forget the public they address; they try to be clear, to-
convince the reader, and charming to please him." On the
Dutch, which was not unknown to him, he says nothing, and
this speaks volumes.
The besetting defect of Dutch writers has been sufficiently
considered. It is an obscurity, proceeding from a certaim
unconscious slowness and philistine circuitousness, sometimes
from a wilful imitation of the conduct of the cuttlefish ;
sometimes from want of the sense of proportion. " There
is too much of the verbose, ponderous, roundabout and inane,
caused by the want of the pressure of a great national
life, with its practical discipline, and its ever active tradi-
tions."
I do not deny for one single moment that the Dutch have
done excellent work in oth^r sciences; but, first of all,,
scientific men are not always models in style and diction,
and secondly, the Dutch like Boerhavn, Agricola, Erasmug r
Lipsius, Scaliger, Spanheim, Hemsterhuis, Huyghens,
Grotius, Valkenaer and others wrote more or less in Latin..
44
Spinoza, I must remark, is no Dutchman, however much
our Dutch cousins may wish to claim him as their own.
And why did the Dutch write in Latin ? They knew
very well that if they wrote in their own tongue, they would
not be read and understood ; and Latin was up to i 50 years
ago, and even later, the medium of scientific intercourse.
Now English, on account of its cosmopolitan nature, gains
daily more and more ground among the civilised nations,
and there is no reason whatsoever why we should try to retard
its glorious w 3 r Id-cultivating mission, or supplant it by a
language which has not shown vigour and original strength
enough to take its place in the foremost ranks of the literatures
of the world. In learning English, German, French and
the ancient classical langtiages, w r e open to our mind rich
storehouses, brimful with spiritual food. In enforcing a
language unwieldy, clumsy and poor in productions of in-
tellect, we cut ourselves off from the intercourse of the
civilised world at large, and leave the highroad of culture
and progress, and have to walk in the fashion of the craw-
fish ; nay, w r e are guilty of intellectual suicide, for which our
children and grandchildren will bless our memory.
One word about the Dutchpatois of this Colony. It can
be traced back to a fusion of the county dialects of the
Netherlands and North- Western Germany, and although
phonetically Teutonic, it is psychologically an essentially
Hottentot idiom. For we learn this patois first from our
nurses and ayahs. The young Africander on his solitary
farm has no other playmates than the children of the Bastard
Hottentot servants of his father, and even the grown-up
farmer cannot easily escape the deteriorating effect of his
servant's patois. It can hardly be expected that the descen-
dants of Malayo-Polynesian slaves and Hottentot servants,
who originally spoke an agglutinative tongue, will have any
improving influence on an inflecting language. Take, for
instance, the variety of words to express in English the
different shades of what we call beautiful. We have hand-
45
some, pretty, fine, shapely, graceful, lovely, elegant, comely,
seemly, beauteous, splendid, glorious, fair, and various other
Synonyms, too numerous to mention. But if we speak in
the patois of a handsome young man, a pretty girl, a fine
pig, beautiful weather, a splendid sky, an elegant form, a
glorious sight, a noble looking animal, a graceful attitude,
a gaudy dress, a brilliant production, a lovely face, a delicate
colour, there stands the broad sounding adjective " MOO I "
Avhich has to fit into every possible shape. We have en
mooie jong Tierel, en mooie juffroutc , en mooie vark, en mooi
pampoen, mooie wcer, mooie Inch, en mooie leif, en mooie bees
en mooie houding, en mooie taicertje, en mooie voorstelling, en
mooie yezig, en mooie aap, en mooie kleur. Everything is
monotonously mooi!
There is no literature in it deserving the name, and it is
still awaiting its Chaucer, Shakespere and Byron. But true
poetry roots in a vigorous national and intellectual life.
Ladies and Gentlemen, In concluding this discourse, I
feel how little justice I have done to the matter I brought
before you. I could say nothing on the Native Languages
of South Africa, I could not touch on the influence of Com-
parative Philology on the Science of Religion, and of its
bearings on Ethnology, and the special study this Science
claims from us here in South Africa. But I hope that on
some other occasion I shall have an opportunity of bringing
these subjects before you. Still I am thankful that you hare
done me the honour of listening to me, and I shall feel amply
rewarded if I have succeeded in securing some share of your
sympathy for a science which, as I believe, will have a great
future here in South Africa.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO.. PRINTEBS, ST. GEOKGE'S-STBKET.
PROCEEDINGS
AT THE
FIFTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING
OP THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
CAPE TOW, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE IOTH MAY, 1884.
Rev, Professor H. M. FOOT, BJL, LL.B,, in the Chair.
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON & Co., PRINTERS, ST. GEORGE'S STREET.
1884.
Committee :
WM. HIDDINGH, ESQ., LL.D.
REV. PROF. FOOT, B.A., LL.B.
LANGHAM DALE, ESQ., M.A.,
LL.D.
C. A. FA1RBRIDGE, ESQ.
REV. JAMES CAMERON, B.A.,
LL.D.
H. W. PIERS, ESQ.
F. G. GOODLIFFE, ESQ. (Trea-
surer).
HON. J. X. MERRIMAN, M.L.A.
ADVOCATE J. R. INNES,
M.L.A.
Auditors :
JOHN NOBLE, ESQ.
J. C. GIB, ESQ.
Librarian and Secretary :
F. MASKEW, ESQ.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The Committee, on assuming office last year, found
it necessary to close the Library on Sunday afternoons,
because the very scanty attendance of readers showed
that the privilege was not appreciated by the public,
and the limited funds at the disposal of the Committee
did not justify the continuance of any special expen-
diture for a further trial of the arrangement.
The question, whether the Library can be opened
to the public during the week-day evenings, has again
occupied the attention of the Committee. A deputation
from certain Literary Societies represented to the
Committee that the increasing desire of the young men
in this city to extend their knowledge, particularly of
scientific subjects, could best be encouraged by making
the Library available for study during the evenings,
and desired to know what difficulties were to be met,
with a view of securing to the public this extension of
the hours of opening throughout the week.
From year to year successive Committees have dealt
with this question, and the main difficulty is still, the
cost of lighting and of additional superintendence.
From estimates laid before the Committee it appears
A 2
that the total cost of carrying out the proposal would
be at least 400 per annum.
As the Library funds are inadequate to meet even a
portion of such additional expenditure, the Committee
suggested to the deputation to ascertain whether the
Literary Societies would undertake to raise the amount.
The matter meanwhile remains in abeyance.
The accession of books to the Library during the
past year has been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology ... ... 4 Vols.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 24
Sciences and the Arts 32
Voyages and Travels 48
History 36
Biography 47
Belles Lettres 41
Novels 65
Miscellaneous 9
Amongst them will be found a copy of that very rare
and valuable work entitled " Purchas' Pilgrimages,"
in five folio volumes, the gift of William Hiddingh,
Esq. ; besides several other works presented by the
Royal Society, the Royal Zoological Society, the
Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Colonial
Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, America ; the
Colonial Government ; Miss G. D. Stewart, Dunblane,
Scotland; General De Peyster, U.S. America; Mr.
Thomas May, Boston; Professor Van Mansfelt, Messrs.
Vorsteman Van Oijen, Holland, John Coutts, W.
Marshall, H. Penning, and F. G. Furnival, of London;
to all of whom the cordial thanks of the subscribers
and the public are due.
The Library Hall, as on former occasions, was
placed at the disposal of the Council of the University
on Degree Day.
The issue of Books and Periodicals during the past
year has been as follows :
Miscellaneous Theology 78 Vols.
Political Economy, Government, &c. 139
Science and the Arts 234
Voyages and Travels 1,174
History 651
Biography 912
Belles Lettres 880
Novels 7,126
Reviews and Periodicals 6,338
Comparing this statement with that of last year it
will be seen that there has been a steady increase in
the issue of books in the different departments of
Science and Literature, and a still greater increase in
the circulation of Reviews and Periodicals.
During the past year the number of visitors to the
Institution was considerably in excess of that of the
previous year, amounting to 26,996, giving an average
of 96 daily, the largest number on one day being 137,
and the smallest 36.
The Committee have had under consideration an
application from the Chief Inspector of Public Works,
made on behalf of the Colonial Government, for a plot
of land in the grounds at the back of the Library
Building, for the purpose of erecting there the
machinery required for lighting, by electricity, the
new Houses of Parliament. It was thought desirable
to meet as far as possible the wishes of the Government,
and the Committee resolved to allow the use of the
ground in question, subject to the condition that no
nuisance be created, to affect the Library, either by
noise or smoke from the engine, and that any building
there erected shall be removed if the necessities of the
Library require it.
The Committee accepted with regret the resignation
of Dr. Theophilus Halm, Custodian of the Grey Collec-
tion, after a period of nearly three years' service ; this
appointment was held jointly with that of Colonial Phi-
lologist, w r hich office Dr. Hahn relinquished on the 30th
November. The Government notified to the Committee
that it was not intended to re-appoint a Colonial
Philologist, and therefore the Committee have not
deemed it necessary to fill up the post of Custodian, but
temporary arrangements have been made, under the
supervision of the Librarian, for the safety and care
of the Collection. They have further to report the
completion of the Catalogue of the Books in the Grey
Collection, compiled by the late Custodian, which was
carried through the press under his supervision after
leaving office.
The Subscriptions during the past year, as will be
seen from the Treasurer's statement, are a little in
excess of those of the previous year. The number of
subscribers is 265, being 31 first-class (3), 29 second-
class (2), and 205 third-class (1).
The number of Contributions to the Grey Collection
during the year amounts to 20 Volumes and Pamphletsj
viz. : Basutoland Records, vols. 1 and 2, presented
by the Honourable the Secretary for Native Affairs ;
Incwadi Yendumiso, presented by the Rev. A. Kropf;
The Chronicle of James I., King of Aragon, in 2
vols., written by himself, translated by the late John
Forster, Esq., presented by Miss Forster ; Kolbe's
English-Herero Dictionary, presented by the Author ;
"Isigidimi Sama Xosa " (A Kafir Journal from May,
1883, up to date), presented by Dr. Theophilus Halm ;
Browne's (Dr. John) Pasaglott system of teaching
Languages, comprehending the Harmonics, Analysis,
Synthesis and Synopsis of the Latin, Spanish, Portu-
guese, Italian, French, German and English Verbs,
presented by Francis H. S. Orpen, Esquire.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
In a country like this, where civilisation and barbarism
touch at so many points, the questions which perplex the
leading nations of the world are often presented in strange
lights. I shall never forget how, twelve years ago, when
travelling on the Frontier immediately after my arrival in
South Africa, I caught my first glimpse of the noble
savage. It was early morning as, through an opening in
the bush, I saw a Kafir rise from the veld. He threw his
kaross gracefully round his lithe form, and stood erect, tall,
proud, as though soil and sunshine were his own a model
for the sculptor. A soft light, from eyes full at once of
mystery and calm, stole gently over the sable countenance
and gave it still life ; this at last broke into animation
when, from between the parting lips, there gleamed a
radiance as of orient pearl. Here apparently was a philo-
sopher of nature who had reduced the problem of life to its
simplest elements ; a man of few wants and infinite leisure ;
a human being in perfect health and without a care. As I
called to mind the weary, anxious men I had left behind
me, struggling for dear life in the centres of civilisation ;
as I thought of the toilers in the mart, the mill and the
mine, and the dwellers in the slum, the workhouse and the
gaol, I could not help feeling that the apostles of civilisa-
tion might still learn something from the barbarians whom
they find it their duty to teach.
I did not, however, close my eyes to other aspects of
savage life. I was not in danger of adopting the natural-
8
istic theory of Society, sketched by Montaigne and devel-
oped by Rousseau. If so inclined, I should have been soon
roused from my dream by the comments on the character
of the aborigines which I heard. " These natives will not
work ; we must teach them wants," said a Colonist. There
spoke the business man of the nineteenth century, according
to the formula of Political Economy : " An accumulation
of capital is the first step in civilisation, and this accumu-
lation depends mainly on the multiplication of wants. To
raise people from barbarism, the first essential is to make
them discontented with their position." But what if your
civilisation multiplies wants more easily than it satisfies
needs? What if, for the many, well-being is gradually
becoming impossible, and bare existence increasingly diffi-
cult ? In civilised countries the growing number of arti-
ficial wants, especially those arising from vanity, suggests
caution. The savage wants but little, no doubt : may it
not be equally true that you want too much, too much that
is of the wrong sort ; and that, in striving for ever after
the reputed means of happiness, you are losing a great deal,
if not all, that makes life worth living ?
This theory of want and work has been put to the test of
fact, under the modern industrial system, with results which
are filling many with dismay and some with despair. The
three chief motive forces of civilisation have been described
as the love of money, the love of knowledge, and the love
of beauty. The danger apprehended is that the first of
these, cupidity, will swallow up the others. Little more
than a quarter of a century ago Buckle wrote, " After the
love of knowledge there is no one passion which has done
so much good to mankind as the love of money." At the
present moment there are irany who feel that there is still
some truth in the older saying, " The love of money is the
root of all evil." The moralist repeats the poet's reproach
of the age
Plain living and high thinking arc no more.
The prophet warns us that we are forsaking philosophy
for the quest of valuable information, amassing facts
and missing truth. Scholars complain that breadth
and depth of culture are becoming more and more
rare, because of the demand for special and technical
education. But the artists are the most inconsolable of all.
Manufactures, according to Mr. Ruskin, are not only impo-
tent to create art, but they destroy what seeds of it exist.
He seems to think that the only hope for art is a return
from the industrial to the military stage. "With less of
paradox and more of truth, Mr. Morris, no longer " the
idle singer of an empty day," but the earnest and active
social reformer, points out with trembling the growing
tendency of mere mechanical toil to supplant intelligent
and imaginative work ; and tells with fond regret of the
mediEeval craftsman who left upon each useful product of
his skill those traces of beauty which testify that he took
pleasure in the labour of his hands. If it be true that the
dust, and smoke, and fume, and refuse of factory and forge,
are obscuring the light by which men live, and withering
the bloom which makes life beautiful and glad, we are in a
bad way indeed. If, further, as we are told with painful
iteration, it be true that as wealth increases poverty becomes
more general and more intense, we are hastening from bad
to worse ; and what shall we do in the end thereof?
To discuss all the questions thus suggested is beyond the
limits of a brief address. I can lay before you only a few
hints as to the mutual relations of Knowledge and Labour
in the Age of Industry.
The history of labour is almost as important as the
history of knowledge. Such is the opinion of a living
writer who has studied both. In fact, the history of the
one involves the history of the other. We may note, at
the outset, that the antagonism between them has not
always been so marked as it is alleged to be now. It has
not always been the case that the members of Society might
10
be divided into " those who toil not, neither do they spin, 4 '
and "those who toil to live, and only live to toil." If we
go back to the fountain-head of modern history we find
free industry and learning hand in hand. Intellectual and
material progress both date from the Renascence, when the
classic literature and art, and the Arabian science, found a
refuge in commercial Italy, and renewed their youth. The
older civilisations had been based on slavery, even in
Athens and Rome. In modern civilisation, the free mind
and the free hand are conditions of full life. The fifteenth
century is by general consent regarded as the Golden Age
of labour in England. It was the first century of free
labour ; for the peasant revolts of the previous century
decided the fate of serfdom, at the very time when Chaucer
was fixing our language and forming our poetry ; when
Wyclif was moulding our prose and sowing the seeds of
religious reform ; and when William of "Wykeham was
laying anew the foundations of English learning. During
the same period we find the same principle illustrated, on
the Continent, by the power of the Hanseatic League and
the greatness of the Italian Republics. From the begin-
ning of the fourteenth century, no one could bear office in
Florence who was not a -"^mber of an artisan or a com-
mercial guild. Here, at length, " The Medici surrounded
industry with the aureole of genius and art." Their galleys
brought home both the wealth of India and the wisdom of
Greece ; and, while their agents carried trade to every haunt
of life in Europe, they took back, from every accessible
monastery, manuscripts, long-neglected a> useless, but now
more precious than gold. " Thus the Academy of Plato
was revived in the gardens of Florence." These were
merchant-princes, it may be said. True, but they were the
first men of business, in the modern sense ; they obtained
their influence as leaders in an industrial republic ; and
they formed a bond between free labour and culture such as
the world had never known before, and has never rivalled
since.
11
If the name of the Medici links industry especially with
learning and art, the name Bacon welds it with science. The
Renascence intervened between Roger Bacon, the Wyclif, and
Francis Bacon, the Luther, of the Scientific Reformation.
Printing, the compass, and gunpowder had been invented
or discovered, and they were to be followed soon by the
telescope and the microscope. A new conception of man,
of the earth, of the universe, had arisen. The old system
of slavery had passed away ; and free intelligence and free
industry combined were giving a new meaning to the word
liberty. The Religious Reformation had shown that there
were limits to the exercise of ecclesiastical authority ; and
the rise of the Dutch Republic had proved that a people
who by their toil had made their country as well as its
prosperity, were, small as that country was, more than a
match for the gigantic military tyranny of Spain. Both
Roger and Francis Bacon were eminently practical ; and
if Roger Paeon failed, because he was before his age, and
Francis Bacon did not succeed as a discoverer, because he
clung to some of the forms of the past, and was entangled
in the intrigues of a corrupt court, and the meshes of an
ignoble policy, both were thoroughly modern in spirit ;
and Francis Bacon has given the text, of which all subse-
quent scientific and industrial progress has been the com-
mentary. The well-known text is, knowledge is power,
which, being interpreted, means that human power is limited
by human intelligence, but that human intelligence can
direct and utilise the operations of natural forces which it
cannot create. Here is a union of science and industry
which nothing can sever. Man may become the Master of
Nature by discovering and obeying her laws.
Francis Bacon laid the philosophical basis of industry ;
but it was reserved for another, in the following century, to
reduce its laws to system, and tc become the founder of a
new science, and of a new branch of literature. False
theories as to the power of legislation with regard to labour
and commerce still hampered industry, as they do, in some
12
Cases, even at the present day. Adam Smith was the first
to advocate, methodically, the removal of restraints on
labour, and to formulate the principles of free-trade. I must
ask those who regard Political Economy as the dismal
science, to bear with me for a few moments, while I venture
to take the name of Adam Smith, not so much as a sign of
the dependence of labour on intelligence, as of the necessary
connection between labour and a still more important phase
of perfect culture, viz. : social duty, morality. I am afraid
that in the whirl of the race for riches most of the opponents
of Political Economy, like many of its apologists, have lost
sight of the fact that the author of The, Wealth of Nations
is also the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and
that these woiks are complimentary to each other. If the
one takes as its fundamental assumption the principle of
self-interest, the other is based exclusively on the princ'ple
of sympathy. Owing to the complexity of the subjects, and
the exigencies of the deductive method, each is worked out
independently of the other, with a view to their ultimate
synthesis. The analytical device by which they are necessarily
kept separate in discussion, has no exact counterpart in the
region of fact ; each explains but one-half of life, and that
imperfectly ; each is professedly only a hemisphere of truth,
and they must be combined if we would see the perfect orb.
Unless both are kept in view, we shall ignore essential facts,
and miss the true method of solving the social problem and
realising the golden rule. I do not assert that Adam Smith
developed all this, but that it is involved in the very mode
of his investigations. Nor do I contend that there have not
been Philistines among the political economists ; but I do
maintain that the indiscriminate abuse of them is unjust and
absurd. Grant even that they have only traced scientifically
the course of the great disease of modern Society, that they
are the pathologists of industry, even so, they have pre-
pared the way for remedies which they have not found.
And among them have been men filled with sympathy for
the sufferings they have disclosed, and fired with the desire
13
to remove or alleviate them. I need only mention, as
worthy successors of Adam Smith, such men as vSenior,
Cobden, Bastiat, John Mill, Jevons, Fawcett, and Thorold
Kogers. It is to men like these we must look for help,
'amid the evils which all deplore ; or, moral diatribes against
them, and benevolent lamentations over their so-called
victims, will prove to be, what we have been taught by one
of the protesters to call, windbag. We hail the prophet
with his fervid intuition ; we honour, too, the calm and
patient investigator of fact and law. And is it not a fact
that the moralist as well as the merchant looks for some
advantage from his transactions, when he goes into the
market? Is it not a law that traffic, fairly and wisely
conducted, benefits both contracting parties, and that each
is right in expecting profit from the exchange of his com-
modities ? Is it not true that, with all its drawbacks,
open competition is better than monopoly ? All business
should be just ; but even Mr. Ruskin has not been able to
show that it is practicable to conduct it on purely benevo-
lent principles in a world like ours. It must not be supposed,
therefore, that selfishness is the whole of human nature,
and that trade is the whole of life. The industrial struggle
for existence, in market or manufactory, is not the effort to
destroy, as on the field of battle. Because "business is
business," it does not follow that the merchant may cheat
his neighbour, as the soldier shoots the enemy of his coun-
try. The intelligent and just pursuit of self-interest is
compatible with sympathy and benevolence, though we
may not always rise to the height of loving our neighbour
better than ourselves. That iniquity and cruelty are per-
petrated in the name of business, is not the fault of the
Political Economists, but of the men who listen to them when
they discourse on The Wealth of Nations, out turn a deaf or
dubious ear to their Theory of Moral Sentiments, charm they
never so wisely.
Nineteen eventful years passed between the publication
of Adam Smith's two great works. Ths Theory of Moral
14
Sentiments was issued in 1757, during the Seven Years
War ; The Wealth of Nations appeared in 1776, the year of
the Declaration of American Independence. In the inter-
val, the supremacy of the English race was practically
established in India and North America ; and the founda-
tions were laid of the most extensive commerce that has
ever existed. If the vices of a mercantile oligarchy, in the
East, left an indelible stain on commerce, the power of an
industrial democracy, in the West, determined for English-
men, once and for ever, the relations between labour and
its fruits on the one hand, and law and liberty on the other.
In the memorable words of Chatham, three millions of
people would not submit to be slaves. When Adam Smith
died in 1790, the tragedy of the French Revolution was
just opening a tragedy which, with all its horrors and
excesses, gave this moral to the world : that one section of
Society cannot live on indefinitely, and with impunity, at
the expense of another ; that privilege, earned or unearned,
involves duties which it is criminal to neglect ; and that,
without charity, which is the bond of social perfection,
civilisation falls back into chaos. At the same time, a
quieter process of change was going on, which perhaps has
been equally far-reaching and fruitful in results. The
union of Science and Industry was no longer theory merely,
it was fact. The human hand, the most effective instru-
ment ever constructed, and .the human mind, its conscious
guide, had made man, not only the minister and interpreter
of Nature, as Bacon saw him, but to a great extent the
master of Nature, as Bacon foresaw him. The steam-
engine became the drudge of civilisation ; mechanical
inventions in quick succession multiplied the powers of
production ; natural forces, which had been unknown, or
known only to be feared, were subdued ; and the constant
application of science to the industrial arts created a new
world in the midst of the old. These changes were so
rapid that workmen often suffered ; yet the long war which
ushered in this century, and the vicissitudes which ensued,
15
ruffled but could not stay the stieara of tendency. The
dawn of new life brought new imaginative power ; and
England's most ideal poet glorified the time-spirit, as he
sang a new song to the old refrain,
Many the things that mighty be,
But nought is mightier than man.
All things confess his strength. Through the cold mass
Of marble and of colour his dreams pass,
Bright threads whence mothers weave the robes their children wear;
Language is a perpetual Orphic song
Which rules with Daedal harmony a throng
Of thoughts and forms which else senseless and shapeless were.
The lightning is his slave ; heaven's utmost deep
Gives up her stars, and like a flock of sheep
They pass before his eye, are numbered, and roll on.
The tempest is his steed ; he strides the air,
And the abyss shouts from her depth laid bare,
Heaven, hast thou secrets ? Man unveils me ; I have none.
Social melioration followed. One wrong after another was
swept away. The amendment of the Combination Acts
relieved labour from oppression ; and the passing of the
Factory Acts secured it against cruelty. Religious dis-
abilities were removed ; the Reform Bill was carried ;
negro-slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire ;
the Corn-laws and the Navigation-laws were repealed. With
a few years of Free Trade, the workhouse would be empty,
and the arts of peace would bring prosperity for all. The
age of gold was to be the Golden Age. The apotheosis of
Industry, and the millenium of Peace and Plenty, were to
date from the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very Heaven I
I was then a little child, just old enough to hear some-
thing of the fairy tales of science ; and I could weep when
I look round and see the world as it is to-day.
Whither is fled the visionary gleam ?
Where is it now the glory and the dream f
The child could not know what the man gradually learns,
16
that every blessing in this world has its price ; that all pro.
gress brings new problems ; that even " pleasure's sunshine
oasts its shadow pain." There were men who felt this at
the time, but the majority were carried away by hopes
doomed to swift disappointment, and they became sadder
and wiser in the school of experience. The day-dream of
our age has been wealth, and its nightmare poverty ; if the
curse of ancient civilisation was slavery, the canker of
modern civilisation is pauperism. Since 1851 the growth
and accumulation of wealth in England have been unpre-
cedented. The sum of annual assessed income has more
than doubled, while population has advanced little more
than twenty per cent. ; and yet we hear that it is harder
than ever to make a living. Labour-saving machinery has
brought an increase of work, and facilities of intercourse an
increase of worry. "We have invented the telephone, the
spectroscope, and the breech-loader; we have nearly perfected
the sewing machine, the logical machine, and the infernal
machine ; we have gone so far in the study of the knowable
that we are now taking lessons in the unknowable ; and
yet " there's something rotten in the State." People still
die for want of food, and perish for lack of knowledge.
What means this " Horrible Cry " which startles the air,
amid the luxury and opulence of our great cities ? What
means this rumbling as of earthquake beneath the thin
social crust, already burst by one terrific eruption from that
volcano of civilisation Paris ? What means this Inter-
national, with its various branches, under different names
in different countries, which is sounding the tocsin of the
war of classes before the war of races is past ? Surely (1)
there must be some defect in our social organisation, or (2)
men are trusting to external conditions of welfare for results
which depend mainly on conduct, and for results which
cannot be effected without a change in human nature and
in the laws of human existence. Possibly both.
And now having reached this Sphinx-riddle of Socialism,
which confronts civilisation with the fearful alternative,
17
Solve or Dissolve, I may premise that, bad as the times
are, I do not believe in the prophets who prophesy back-
wards, and say that the former days were better than
these. Since the .idea of humanity has been added to the
idea of nationality, no century haa passed in which Society
has not appeared to thoughtful men to be on the brink of
ruin. The sixteenth century, according to Erasmus,
was Faex Umporum, the dregs of time, the refuse of the
ages ; the seventeenth century, according to Bossuet, was
" a bad and paltry age ; " and the eighteenth century,
according to Rousseau, was, " This great rottenness amidst
which we live." Evils, now detected and denounced, were
once unnoticed and unchecked ; sorrows, now treated with
tenderness, were once regarded with indifference ; nay,
sufferings, which we alleviate, were once wilfully aggravated
and multiplied. The frenzied and brutal delight formerly
taken in the infliction of pain, and in the butchery of men,
apart from war, would be incredible were not the page of
history red with blood ; and this, under the sanction of
amusement, custom, policy, law, and so-called religion.
The progress of Christian civilisation has not recognised, in
vain, the sacredness of life, the right of personal freedom,
equality before the law, freedom of labour and of trade, liberty
of conscience, of thought, of speech, of the press, religious
equality, equality of political rights. And if it has not
secured equality of social condition, it is because it cannot
do the impossible, for no civilisation can transcend the
laws without which it would cease to be.
I say civilisation has not secured social equality, and it
never can. So long as the conditions of life on the earth vary,
and so long as human beings vary, in health, and strength,
and ability, and thrift, and temperament, and training,
and taste, and character, so long u some must be greater
than the rest, more rich, more wise." This, however,
does not justify the perpetuation of proved social wrong.
As the structure of Society changes, its institutions must
be re-adjusted, and if prudence and sympathy fail now to
18
counteract the evils of reckless competition, retribution will
inevitably come. For Society is itself an Institution as well
as an organism ; and it is subject, within wide limits,
to the intelligent control of its members. The units of a
physical organism exist only for the good of the whole ; a
social organism exists only for the good of its members. This
is the lesson of the Industrial stage as distinct from the
Military stage, in which the individual was supposed to
exist only for the benefit of the State. The Sociologists
hint that a new type of Society may be ultimately developed,
in which " the belief that life is for work " will give place
to " the bel : ef that work is for life." Be that as it may,
we are now face to face with this practical difficulty : if
any given Society ceases to justify its existence by bene-
fiting all its members, those who suffer will sooner or later
assert themselves, and revolution in some form will ensue.
Is such a revolution imminent ? We are assured by many
that it is. Social agitators are teaching the toilers of the
world that they have been unjustly deprived of the good
things of nature and civilisation. One of the cardinal
dogmas of Socialism is, "All wealth is due to labour,
therefore to labour all wealth is due." "Without dwelling
on the functions of capital, I may point out that the sketch
I have already given indicates that wealth is not due to labour
only, but to labour directed by intelligence, and controlled by
morality. The want of these last elements is one explana-
tion of the fact that there is so much labour in vain.
Another cardinal position of Socialism is this, " Under
the existing system, the tendency of progress is to make the
rich constantly richer, and the poor poorer." A conclusive
refutation of this statement, as far as England is concerned,
during the years of her greatest commercial activity, is
furnished by a series of powerful articles in late numbers of
the Quarterly Review. I regret that it is too long for my
limits, even in summary ; but, as the articles, which have
been attributed to Mr. Mallock, are about to be published
separately, they will soon be easily accessible. The most
19
complete examination of the reward of labour will be found in
Professor Rogers' carefully-prepared treatise, entitled Six
Centuries of Work and Wages, just published. I am glad
to say that the book is already in the Library, though it
arrived too late for me to avail myself of its store of facts
and principles as much as I should have been glad to do in
preparing this address. He considers that artisans, but not
agricultural labourers, are recovering, and in many cases
have regained, the relative rate of wages of the fifteenth
century the highest during the period of which he writes.
There remains, however, the question whether labour has
had its due share in the social distribution ; and this seems
to me to call for the most grave and patient consideration,
for it is a question which cannot be shelved, and ought not
to be, if it could.
Passing over the anarchic Socialism of Bakunin, in Russia,
and the organic Socialism of Karl Marx and Lassalle, in
Germany, we are bound to note the character and prospects
of the modified State Socialism, which has recently been
advocated in England by the American apostle, Mr. Henry
George. To the scandal of Mr. Hyndman, who is the
English interpreter of the International, Mr. George is con-
tent to leave capital alone for the present ; all he asks for is
the universal confiscation of rent to the State. Not the
capitalists and the middle-men, not the speculators and
promoters, not even the idle and the profligate, but the
landowners, are, according to him, sinners above ajl men.
" Private ownership of land," he says, " is the nether mill-
stone. Material progress is the upper mill-stone. Between
them, with an increasing pressure, the working classes are
being ground. . . . We must make land common pro-
perty." It is perhaps hardly surprising, notwithstanding
the accent of conviction, the appearance of logic, the
fervour of rhetoric, and the assumption of high moral tone,
with which this polity of theft is put forward, that some
Englishmen, who with all their faults have not quite lost
a sense of national honour and personal honesty, should
B2
call Mr. George a charlatan. How any man in his right
mind can imagine that this mere shifting of accounts, this
simple change of landlords, this " new way of paying old
rents," is ultimately to benefit anybody, this enquiry
has the air of the conundrum, of which a humorous com-
patriot of Mr. George used to say, " I give it up." The
most complex problem ever presented to the human mind is
not to be solved by dealing in this summary fashion with
one of its numerous factors. Mr. George would do well to
consult another fellow countryman, Mr. Lester F. Ward,
who wishes to " concentrate energies for the present on the
better distribution of knowledge, because inequalities of
capital and labour depend, in the last analysis, on inequali-
ties of intelligence." He might then weigh some of the
other conditions on which perhaps it is still more dependent.
Society is not to be regenerated by the wave of an enchanter's
wand, though it come from San Francisco, any more
than all the ills that flesh is heir to are to be cured by the
apple of Samarcaud. And Englishmen have the common
sense as well as the moral sense to see this. Against the
sneer that they are not a logical people may be set the fact
that they are a practical people. They are not impervious
to an idea ; but they know when to drop it : and after the
experience of a thousand years, during which they have
developed a Constitution, just, and free, and great enough,
to be the envy of the world, they may be credited with at
least some discernment as to what is possible and right in
public actions.
It is a coincidence worthy of remark, and not without
quaint suggestiveness, that on the very day in January last
when Mr. George began his lecturing tour, at St. James's
Hall, Mr. Gladstone addressed the farmers of Cheshire, at
Hawarden. Mr. George dilated on the transformation-
sceue that would follow the application of his remedy. His
great difficulty was to get rid of the surplus revenue.
Amongst other rodomontade he declared that every widow
in the land, beginning with the Queen, might receive a
21
pension of 100 ; every marriageable girl a dowry ; and
every man of a certain age an annuity ; and still there would
be enough and to spare. Mr. Gladstone on the same day,
spoke to his farming friends about jam, and eggs, and the
Agricultural Holdings Act. I confess that, as I read the
reports in the same paper, I thought Mr. Gladstone was
the more statesmanlike and practical social reformer of the
two. Did he treat of trivial matters? One might be
forgiven for commemorating it in the sonorous words of
Johnson, " An elevated genius, employed in little things,
appea: s like the sun, in his evening declination ; he remits
his splendour, but retains his magnitude ; and pleases more,
though he dazzles less ?" Here was one mind, at least,
free from the idols of the cave, and answering to Bacon's terse
description penetrans d capax, keen enough for every
detail, broad enough for every principle. It is the com-
bination of these qualities which has made Mr. Gladstone
what he is ! Burke has told how so paltry a sum as three-
pence, and so insignificant an article as tea, once shook the
pillars of a commercial empire that circled the globe.
There are other time-honoured pillars of empire besides
wealth, viz. : Religion, Justice, and Counsel : and yet Mr.
George seems to think that these great pillars may be over-
thrown for the sake of turning the pillar of Treasure upside-
down. If we lost the United States through injustice and
stupidity, we shall not, at the instance of an American,
rush into irretrievable rain, by committing a far iLore
stupendous crime and eggregious blunder, under the delu-
sion that good may come.
And yet, though I consider Mr. George's remedy to be
worse than the disease, I would not call him a charlatan.
A charlatan is a conscious impostor, but Mr. George believes
in himself, and in his message ; and he has a message, too,
of a sort, but it is a message to the heart rather than to the
head. Moreover he has made his message heard.
A scheme almost identical with Mr. George's was
sketched by Mr. Spencer in his Social Statics more than
22
thirty years ago. Social Statics is still in its third thousand ;
Poverty and Progress is said to be far beyond its three
hundredth thousand, a fact with a meaning, read it how
you will. Mr. George's passionate feeling has run away
*ith his judgment, and warped his conscience ; but he has
told anew how
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
Put down the full proportion of misery, due to inevitable
causes, and to the vice, and improvidence, and ignorance,
of the sufferers there still remains an appalling residuum,
due to the greed for gold which destroys the sense of social
duty. He has brought this truth home. According to his
light he has tried to give glad tidings to the poor. Let
those who regard it as mocking light, and who have truer
light, share his spirit of enthusiasm and sincerity, and do
better. I believe they will. Nay, many are doing so now,
as some have been doing long. You would not thank me
if I' were to enumerate the thousand and one new claims on
sympathy which are the outcome of our industrial system ;
or the nine hundred and ninety-nine new methods in which
efforts are made to meet them. Are not these things
recorded in every paper, and magazine, and in books innu-
merable ? But all schemes of social reform will fail, so
long and so far as each man falls short in his duty to him-
self and his neighbour. For the fulfilment of these duties
he will have to reduce to practice some Theory of Moral
Sentiments, as well as the principles of The Wealth of Nations.
If this is too high for any one, let him look for a simple
guide to duty, and he will not have far to go. In fact he
may stand still, look in his own heart, and like genius, find
what he seeks. It is not for me to speak with authority
from this chair ; but I may be allowed to recommend the
following counsels of perfection, from a source to which no
one will take exception. They are older than Adam Smith
and the Industrial Age ; but they are words as fitly spoken
now as ever: " Nothing is meaner than the love of pleasure,
the love of gain, anl insolence ; nothing nobler than great-
ness of soul, and gentleness, and ttw love of man, and doing
good." So taught one, the story of whose life is given in
his epitaph, " I was Epictetus, a slave, and maimed in
body, and a beggar for poverty, and dear to the immortals."
He lived at Rome in the reign of Xero a name not dear
either to gods or men. There is, however, one Emperor, in
the dark roll of those who follow, whose light blends for
ever with that of Epictetus Marcus Aurelius. The slave
and the master of the world : this double-star shines as
one, and dwells apart, as the shadows of night are gathering
around the splendour that was Rome. It is not the Art of
Rising in Life but the Virtue of Raising Life that we need
to cultivate most. There are worse evils than work lazi-
ness, for example ; there are worse evils than poverty, for
instance, covetousuess ; there are worse evils than the
sorrows which come upon us, namely those which we
bring upon ourselves and others. There is no greater de-
lusion than the notion that if we were all rich less work
would be necessary. Speaking broadly, men, somewhere
and somehow, must get out of the earth by labour enough
food every year to support the population of the globe for a
year ; and those who do not directly produce food must
furnish an equivalent in some form. I think this will give
most of us a fair day's work, six days a week. If we could
annex a golden star, and coin it, and distribute 10,000 a
head all round, a la Mr. George, we bhould not be any
better off. If we all had one purse it would soon be empty,
and there would be just as many mouths to fill. The law
of life is work ; and, if the sane and strong object to this
condition, they should look out for another, and, let us hope,
a better world. In case of failure they might resolve to
assist in making the best of this ; their quest of a better
might then, in due season, be crowned with success. Toil
' is not confined to those who labour with their hands ; nor
is the monotony of toil. Most honest men find some of
their work difficult, and much of it wearisome. The man
24
to be pitied is the man who, for want of guiding mind or
principle, attempts or pretends to do that for which he is
unfit. In the development of modern Society, rich sine-
cures for the idle and incapable are gradually disappearing.
Soon there will be only a few " survival," and some day it
will be thought better to be a skilled workman than a gilded
youth, good for nothing more honourable to earn one's
own living than to live on the earnings of other people.
"Whatever we are fitted to do, we shall do well ; what we do
well, we are bound to take pleasure in ; and " the labour we
delight in physics pain." And are there not times in the
history of us all, when the shadows of mystery and death
are round about us, when to all the consolations of religion,
friendship, literature, philosophy, science, art and nature,
we find it necessary to add the final blessing of sheer
hard work ? " Two men I honour," says Carlyle, " and no
third. First the toil-worn craftsman, that with earth-
made implement, laboriously conquers the earth and makes
her man's . . . Toil on : thou art in thy duty, be out of
it who may ; thou toilest for the altogether indispensable,
for daily bread. A second man I honour, and still more
highly : him who is seen toiling for the spiritually indis-
pensable ; not daily bread, but the bread of life. . . .
It is not because of his toils that I lament for the poor : we
must all toil or steal (howsoever we name our stealing), which
is worse." But " that there should one man die ignorant,
who had capacity for knowledge, this I call a tragedy." In
truth this is the tragedy of real life, which ought to purify
the heart by pity and terror. There is no niche for " the
third man " in Carlyle's House of Fame. His presence in
the world is the chief cause of Socialism.
I have given my first impression of the Kafir, on my
arrival in this country. May I be allowed to add my first
impression of the Englishman, when, after nine years of
absence, I returned to the well-loved scenes of earlier life.
What amazed me, everywhere, was the patience of the
multitude, and their willingness to work. I thought, surely
25
these are the people to solve the social problem, if it is to be
solved. Splendour and squalor, wealth and want, were to
be seen, it is true, side by side : but there was no revolu-
tion in the air. The Englishman does not rebel from love
of attack. He may, as Professor Rogers says, like Jona-
than in the day of battle, taste the wild honey and find his
eyes enlightened ; but he will not fly upon the spoil. He
does not believe in dynamite as the force by which Society
is to be created anew. The workman, knowing himself, at
last, to be free and able to devise and adopt modes of labour-
partnership, co-operation and mutual help, believes that
time and the national will are on his side ; and that the
course of things is tending, by peaceful and practical means,
towards the goal which Mr. George vainly thinks (an be
reached at a bound, viz. : not equality in wealth, not
equality in position, but equality in opportunity : and,
strengthened by this conviction, he is content to labour and
to wait. One of the best of Plato's suggestions for his ideal
Republic is the exclusion of poverty and wealth. Unfor-
tunately he does not tell us how to effect this in existing
Societies, so that we are the better, only in idea. Happily,
in England, there is a large intermediate class, where all
social extremes meet and are conciliated if not reconciled.
With all its faults, the middle class is not, as Mr. George
contends, the wedge which is riving Society asunder, but
the pkxus, by which the unity of national life and the
solidarity of Society are secured. The calm words of one
who understands both the people and the laws of England
express, I believe, the sense of the nation : " We may
be permitted to trust that the progress of English laws and
society will be, as it has been, in a steady course of national
reform ; that men of power and wisdom may be with us in
time of need, in the future as they have been in the past ;
and that the terrible fascination of revolution may remain,
as it yet is, alien and impotent among the people. With
this confidence,
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight . . .
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind ;
In the primal sympathy,
Which having been must ever be,
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering . . .
. . . Truths that wake
To perish never ;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy.
If I am now asked why I should vex a South African
audience with the discussion of a subject which some may
regard as inappropriate, I reply that it is the question of
the time ; and that, notwithstanding the difference of our
social condition, it is as pertinent and practical here as any-
where. Our present commercial depression may be eited as
a proof. We are part of the greater organisation, humanity,
and nothing human should be deemed foreign Nor can
we sever ourselves from the troubles, any more than from the
triumphs of the civilised world : neither duty nor policy will
allow it. It is the duty of every man, who can, to ueigh
these questions ; for only as they are taken to heart, and kept
in mind, shall we approach their solution. Policy forbids
that we should neglect the experience of older commu-
nities, if we are to build up a noble nation here.
Our chief difficulty, at present, is not difference of class but
distinction of race. The bulk of our white population
consists of two branches of one stock. We need not be
ashamed of the separate history of our fathers, or of their
common origin. There is much that is essential and best,
in which we resemble each other ; there is much that is
important and good, in which we differ, but the divergent
qualities are complementary not antagonistic. The English-
man here represents that restless and resistless energy,
without which we shall never become great ; the Dutchman
represents, I will not say that " masterly inactivity," but
what Wordsworth calls that "wise passiveness," without
27
which we shall never become stable. The Englishman, in
South Africa, betrays too much the tendency to wear out or
" clear out ; " the Dutchman is too prone to stagnate, and
to allow the cake of custom to become thick and hard.
The conclusion is obvious ; we cannot do without each other.
The principle of sympathy here reaches its climax, and the
result is inevitable : we must marry each other. (Interpret
it how you will.) We must feel, and as Browning says,
" know ourselves into one." This perhaps is not exactly
the Afrikander Bond ; but it is the only Bond of South
Africa. Let the banns be called forthwith ; and J, for one,
have no fear as to the issue. What therefore God hath
joined together, let not man put asunder.
Further. We have seen that the immediate fruit of
labour depends on the intelligence by which it is directed,
and its ultimate worth on the moral principles by which it is
controlled. Hence arises the vital importance of education.
There are other considerations also which enhance that
importance. The results of modern investigation, and the
hypotheses of modern speculation, are immediately and
widely diffused. They seem to have a special fascination for
the ignorant, who often adopt them in their crudest form,
and apply them with the worst effects, like children playing
with edgo-tools and fire-arms. You cannot prevent the
diffusion of theory, however wild, any more than you can
stay the proclamation of fact, however stern. You must
train men to distinguish between the two, and to bring their
own intelligence to bear on both. The three R's are
necessary ; but they are not education : they are but
means of education, and not the only ones. What you
want is that training of common sense, and of moral
sense, which will fit a man to be a wise, good and useful
citizen* in any position, from the highest to the lowest, for
which his abilities fit him. View our Colonial lite from
what point you may, the inference is the same. Nature
has been niggard to us in some respects, but she lias been
bountiful in others. We have grand forms of natural
beauty, and marvellous sources of fruitfulness, yet the
shadow of barbarism lingers still : we lack the charm, the
flower of civilisation. If this country is to be the fit home
of a great people, we must develop not only our material
but our mental resources ;' we must look not only to the
cultivation of the fields but to the culture of men. Let us
then deal wisely and generously with education, in all its
b:anches and stages, from the Kraal-school at the
bottom to the University at the top to use a phrase
now proverbial. While we are striving to make our
training more thorough, let us also endeavour to make
our System of Education more flexible, so that our
wide and numerous diversities of want and claim may be
met according to principle, and not evaded or smothered
by routine. Let us deal in the same spirit with our schools
of art and music, which need the tender care that is the
right of infant years ; and with our Libraries and Museums,
here and throughout the Colony. Shakspere and the Bible,
Stanley tells us, were almost his only links with civilisation
and the growing thought of men, when he was buried in
the central gloom of this Dark Continent. The greatest
achievement of the Age of Industry is that union of mind
and hand, of knowledge and labour, of soul and body, the
printed page. A good book is a great work. If it is true
anywhere, it is true in South Africa, that Literature is
University, Parliament and Church.
Our local atmosphere has long been heavy with rumours
of retrenchment, and our treasury is low. May I presume
to ask our legislators to bear in mind what our forefathers
and otners have done in analogous circumstances ? We
have had epidemic disease, followed by stagnation of trade.
In the middle oi' the fourteenth century, when the popu-
lation of Florence had been thinned, and her trade scat-
tered by the ravages of the Black Death, the permanent
basis of her illustrious University was laid. And Villani
expressly records that the Seignory endowed it, from the
public funds, in consequence of the commercial depression,
and with a view to the revival of prosperity. It was
towards the end of the same century, after England had
been more than decimated by repeated visitations of the
Plague ; when she was exhausted by the great war with
France, in which she had lost all she had won ; when her
merchant vessels were swept from the narrow seas by Spain ;
and her trade was crippled if not destroyed it was then
that William of Wykeham founded his famous Colleges at
Oxford and Winchester. In the sixteenth century, after
the long and heroic defence of Leyden, the people of
Holland and Zeeland determined to commemorate by a
monument, more lasting than metal or marble, the patriot-
ism of its citizens ; and thus the University of Leyden
was established and endowed, in what Motley calls " the
very darkest period" of the struggle for Independence.
Need I add that history is philosophy teaching by examples ?
Knowledge is power.
Knowledge is power; but it is not physical force. The
subject which we have been considering has bearings on our
local life ; but it has close relations, also, to questions wider
than itself, questions affecting the nature and the destiny
of man. The history of knowledge and labour shows that
intelligence may direct and utilise the forces of Nature, but
that it cannot create or destroy them. Even the force of
the body, that responds directly to will, has limits which
the strongest intellect cannot extend. Thus, finally, Socialism
is merged in the deepest question of current philosophy.
The human mind cannot produce or become physical force ;
can physical force produce or become mind ? Man cannot
create matter : can matter evolve man ? When the jubilee
meeting of German Naturalists was held at Munich, in 1877,
Virchow, the veteran savant of Berlin, caused some surprise
by hinting that there was danger of an alliance between
evolution and Socialism. In my judgment, he indicated a
profound truth. The use of the word evolution is perplexingly
vao-ue and variable. As it is supposed to explain everything,
30
so in turn it is made to mean anything. The ablest English
exponents of the theory exercise the utmost caution in treating
of its ultimate assumptions. They are careful not to dogmatise*
being content for the present to accept, as a " scientific belief "
awaiting verification, what others, more logical or less wise,
do not hesitate to teach as an established truth, viz.: that life
and mind are developed from inorganic matte rand its forces
only. This doctrine appears to me to find its natural analogue
in the Socialist dogma that all wealth is produced by labour,
and belongs to labour only. Each of them has a fatal
resemblance to an old maxim which is in fact the simplest
expression of both a maxim which, as commonly received,
has been a fertile cause of moral paralysis and social anarchy
the maxim that Might is Right. May we not trace a parallel
in the rash attempt which is sometimes made to forecast, on
evolution principles, the future of the various races of
South Africa, and in the conception of our right which seems
Lo go with it, naturally, frequently, but I am glad to say,
not invariably ? Is this conception likely to make us
more keenly sensitive as to the rights of others, or to raise
and purify our own moral nature? Let facts speak for
themselves.
I am not afraid of the elegant taunt, that if I decline to
adopt the evolution hypothesis, I am shut up to " the
carpenter-theory." Logically, this statement of alternatives
is false, for it is not exhaustive. Moreover I am not obliged
to accept any hypothesis. Like the English workman, I
may prefer to labour and to wait ; or, like the man of
science, I, too, may reserve to myself the liberty of philosophic
faith. One thing, at all events, I shall not do. I shall not
adopt the theory, whatever be its name, which assigns no place
to mind in the chain of cause and effect. According to this
theory, mind is only an accident of certain forms of matter,
in certain conditions. Consciousness does not determine
even the action which we call voluntary ; it is simply a
collateral result of the working of physical forces, which
would continue their operations, in exactly the same way,
31
if feeling were absent ; it is the mere puffing of the engine
which has no effect whatever upon its motion noise and
nothing mroe. Man, therefore, is a conscious automaton
who will not work on the silent system. In this century of
machines, having discovered the mechanism of the cosmos,
the mechanism of society, the mechanism of life, our final dis-
covery or shall I call it invention ? is that man himself
is a machine ! No wonder that pessimism and the doctrine
of Nirvana have been revived. I like to know the mechanism
of things as well as anyone. I like even more to know the
heart of a matter, and, above all, of a person. It is possible
to have too much machinery, or, at any rate, to over-estimate
its intrinsic worth. If, in this Age of Industry, men are
prone to confound wealth with happiness, they are also liable
to mistake a knowledge of the physical conditions under
which mind is manifested, for a knowledge of mind itself.
This is to be acquired only by " the greeting of the spirit."
The physiologist, who lays bare the delicate and complex
structure of a living organism, may learn something of the
outside of life ; but, meanwhile, the life itself eludes his scal-
pel ; its mystery is unexplained ; and there i emains on the
dissecting-slab only carrion for the grave. The anarchist,
who reduces Society to chaos, may grasp at riches ; but the
blessedness of being will rise beyond his reach, and the very
gold will turn to dross, at the touch of hands that are stained
with blood. The theorist, who reduces all things to matter
and force, may discover something of the body of Nature,
and yet lose the Spirit, without whom all that remains is
dust and ashes.
All the labour and all the machinery in the world, and all
the force and all the matter in the universe, are nothing,
without Mind. The standing proof of God is mrm.
PROCEEDINGS
FIFTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING
OP THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
r ^frirro f itWic f iharg,
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 9TH MAY, 1885.
Eev, P. C. KOLB?, D.D., in the Chair.
CAPE TOWN :
SAUL SOLOMON Sc CO., PRINTERS, ST. GEORGE'S STREET
1885.
Committee :
LANGHAM DALE, ESQ. M.A.,
LL.D.
HON. ALFRED EBDEN.
WM. HIDDINGH, ESQ. LL.D.,
(Treasurer).
REV. JAMES CAMERON, B.A.,
LL.D.
REV. H. M. FOOT. B.A.
LL.B.
C. A. FAIRBRIDGE, ESQ.
HON. J. X. MEliRIMAN.
H. W. PIERS, ESQ.
J. G. GAMBLE, ESQ. M.A.
Auditors :
JOHN NOBLE, ESQ. | J. C. GIE, ESQ.
Librarian and Secretary:
F. MASKEW, ESQ.
REPORT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
In submitting their statement of last year's pro-
ceedings of this institution the Committee have to
report that there has been a slight decrease in the
amount of subscriptions received during the year.
This is attributable mainly, it is presumed, to the low
state of trade generally, and to the commercial crisis
through which the Colony has been passing.
The accession of books to the Library during the
year has been as follows :
Vols.
Miscellaneous Theology... ... -; l .i <)i V.. 5
Political Economy, Government, &c. ... ... 24
Science and the Arts ; B .^J'I f: "?. J ; -' rl '.'.'.." "vJ 47
Voyages and Travels ... ... Vi. 9 ... 50
History ' { ^V- :/il{: i^ [ ; ;; V.. 21
Biography... ... ... ... ... ' ' ... 45
Belles Lettres '.-i;' 1 l '' ^'"'-'^il-i '" '' */i : ... 81
Novels .,i' } " *!." JIJ ' I .T. jf> timyHif) oJ; ... 142
Miscellaneous 10
Amongst them will be found several valuable works
presented by the Royal Society, the Royal Zoological
Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal
Colonial Institute, the Smithsonian Institution
(America), the New Zealand Institute, the Birmingham
Philosophical Society, the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, the Comptroller of the Stationers' Office,
London, Sir Rawson W. Rawson, Miss Julia Lloyd,
Messrs. O'Neill, C. J. Cooper, and J. G. Gamble, to all
of whom the thanks of the subscribers and public are due.
The Committee have also to report that Her Majesty
the Queen, through His Excellency the Governor,
has graciously presented to the Library a copy of her
work entitled " More Leaves from the Journal of my
Life in the Highlands, from 1 862 to 1 882," and bearing
Her Majesty's signature.
With a view of introducing only those works of
fiction which are of high repute and approved by
public opinion, the Committee had decided to keep
the selection in their own hands ; but this matter was,
after a fair trial, found to involve too long a delay, the
books arriving here several months after publication,
when the public interest in them had waned, and
therefore, to meet the wish and convenience of the
subscribers the Committee lately reverted to the old
arrangement by which the selection of novels is, as a
rule, left to the London agents, Messrs. Henry S.
King & Co. This plan has now been acted upon for
the last few months, ard appears to give satisfaction.
In the issue of books and periodicals there has been
a considerable falling-off during the year as compared
with that of the previous one.
The following is a statement of the number of books
circulated in the different departments of Science and
Literature :
Vols.
Miscellaneous Theology 54
Political Economy, Government, &c. ... 140
Science and the Arts .. ... ... ... 171
Voyages and Travels 1,003
History 523
Biography 909
Vols.
Belles Lettres 749
Works of Fiction 8,138
Periodicals and Reviews ... li wl? ... 5,008
Upon application from the Council of the University,
the Library Hall, as on former occasions, was placed
at their disposal on Degree Day.
The Committee have to state that the Government,
on completion of the Houses of Parliament, made
application for the removal thither of the magnificent
portrait of Her Majesty the Queen, which had been
entrusted to the care of the authorities of this institu-
tion for the last twenty-four years, and that the picture
was accordingly handed over to the Government.
The number of visitors to the institution during the
year, as far as could be registered, amounts to 21,976,
being an average of 74 daily, the largest number on
one day being 148 and the smallest 25.
It ie gratifying to find the Library well attended
throughout the day, and highly appreciated by strangers
and other numerous visitors, but the Committee
regret that they have not ampler means for augmenting
the monthly supply of standard works. From time to
time considerable additions have been made, chiefly
through the generous contributions of the gentleman
who is now the Treasurer of the institution. But it is
desirable to adopt a plan of filling up year by year the
gaps in one or other of the more important departments
of literature and science, and to the public of Cape
Town, and indeed of the whole Colony, the Committee
think they have a right to look for increased support.
There have been no accessions to the Grey Collection
during the year, with the exception of a copy of the
New Testament in Welsh and English, and the 14th
volume of the American Philological Association,
but the Collection has been frequented by numerous
visitors and students.
The Treasurer's statement will now be submitted
which will show the Income and Expenditure during
the past year.
Processor Gill moved and Mr. Mudie seconded the
adoption of the report.
Hon. J. X. Merriman : I just wish to say, in regard
to one passage in that report, that I protest against
the statement that the alteration with regard to the
selection of novels has worked at all well. On the
contrary I think, by trusting to Henry S. King and
Company the selection of the novels, that this library
has been deluged with an intolerable amount of rubbish.
The worst possible novels that could be selected are
sent out here ; and instead of this institution raising
the tone of literature in Cape Town, I am afraid if
many people do read these novels, and they appear
to have a wide circulation that the tone is lowered
by an institution which is presumed to elevate. I
think we had better revert to the old plan, and as to
the delay of a month or two, people can easily wait
that time rather than that we should have a large
amount of intolerable rubbish sent out here.
On a motion by Canon Lightfoot, seconded by Mr.
Rutherfoord, a vote of thanks was passed to the
retiring Committee, to the Treasurer, and to the
auditors of the past year. In moving it Canon
Lightfoot remarked that the Committee had done
much with very limited means, and he could only
express the earnest hope that further funds would be
placed at their disposal for securing works which the
institution really required.
;
ADDEESS.
OF all the Arts which go to make up the "sore
travail which God hath given to the sons of man to
be exercised therewith," none has had so much lahour
spent on it, and none has been so worthy of labour,
as the Art of Thinking. Many evidences of this
honourable toil are on the shelves around us, in this
which we may call our Art Gallery of mind ; and it
is this aspect of our mind's work that has inspired
me with the subject of my address. I shall speak of
Thinking as a Fine Art. The notion is common
enough, but I think we have reason to complain of the
way in which the notion is grasped and carried into
practice. Thinking is always called an Art, but it is
not always consistently regarded as such, nor indeed
is it often now-a-days cultivated as such, a very
general idea prevailing that it is a kind of instinct,
and that to know about other people's thoughts is
the same thing as to think, as if men painted by
instinct, or became architects by looking at buildings.
How few schools are there like that of St. Augustine,
where the lads were daily taught to lay aside their
books awhile and think ! It is therefore my intention
to do what I can towards setting this often ill-grasped
notion in a clearer light, and to urge, in so far as I
may, its being more commonly acted upon.
It seems to me strange that at the beginning of our
books on Logic, books concerned with the laws ot
Thinking, we have discussions ns to whether Logic is
an art or a science. Following the ordinary use of
words, this question is perhaps somewhat misleading.
Painters painted, and architects built, and then critics
came and analysed and made a theory, but this
analysis, this theory, was not itself art. So thinkers
thought, and critics analysing made Logic, but this
analysis, this Logic, is not art. I am also surprised
when people speak of the promulgation of a new logical
method as being the birlhspring of new progress in
Thought, as witness the common superstition about
Bacon, that he invented Induclion, and immediately
Science was born. This is against the nature of things.
Theory cannot give the initial impulse to Art. Let a
new school of painters or architects arise (I say a
school, for no individual is ever equal to the task)
adding native genius to their assimilated inheritance
of skill, and at once the theory of painting or of archi-
tecture will enlarge its bounds ; but there never was,
and ne ?er will be, an instance of an art theory creating
art, critic- leading the way, and geniuses bringing up
the rear. So let a new school of thinkers arise (again
no individual will do), and, gathering up the rich store
of past generations, add to it the priceless treasure of
original thought, and immediately the theory of logical
method will expand, the logician follow ing the thinker,
as a geographer in the train of an Alexander, not to
tell him where to go and conquer, but to describe to the
world what he has conquered. It is Thinking, then,
that is the Art ; Logic is only the paper record of it.
And Thinking shows its kinship to the other Arts.
They are all bound together by subtle and intimate
relations, and Thinking is no exception. It could
hardly be otherwise, for both it and they are, in
mathematical phrase, functions of the same unknown
9
quantity, called civilization, and may therefore be
expressed in terms of one another. Take, for the sake
of comparison, any special Art, say Architecture.
Such as a nation's Architecture is, such also is its
Thought ; and vice versa. This we may establish by
a very simple induction. The Architecture of India is
an exact reflex of the thought of India, grotesque in
form,, overlaboured in detail, exquisite in workman-
ship, and yet most of that workmanship wasted over
irrelevant ornamentation. So also with Greek Archi-
tecture and Thought, severe and exact, delighting
in simplicity and proportion, appealing to the under-
standing rather than to the feelings ; yet, with all its
beauty, of the earth earthy ; its lines parallel to the
earth's surface, and in aspirations heavenward utterly
wanting. Take again the Gothic Architecture, and
the Scholastic Philosophy, of the middle ages : if
thoughts were stones, one might compare the Summa
of Thomas Aquinas with any of those glorious cathe-
drals which were building in his time, the same unity
of organized plan, the same rigorous subjection of
every detail to that plan, the same infinite array of
heaven-pointing arch and pinnacle and spire, the same
subdivision of tracery, the same elaborate display of
pillared support for every separate moulding, and yet
withal the same frequent concealment of the real mode
of support for the whole superincumbent structure.
And to carry the parallel still further, we may point
out how the Gothic style and Scholasticism were liable
to the same causes of corruption, and became debased,
both of them, ; s soon as they ceased aiming at the
expression of truth and aimed only at ingenuity.
Again, Avhat was the Renaissance in both thinking and
building? With a few well-restrained exceptions, it
was nothing but a bold endeavour to introduce the
10
genius of a departed paganism into the life of Chris-
tianity, and, unfortunately, it too often largely
succeeded. Once more come to modern times. AVhat
Architecture have we now? When we are at our
best, we are servile copiers of past ages ; and the more
servile, the better are our buildings. Ordinarily
speaking, putting aside the revival still in its infancy,
we pick a bit from one style and a bit from another,
and add nothing but monstrosities of our own, and
part does not harmonize with part, and good workman-
ship is not held in honour, so that we may characterize
the common run of our buildings as being in style a
conglomeration of incongruities, and in material,
mostly stucco and sham. And our thinking world
corresponds pretty closely. There are signs of
better things ; but, as a rule, our books, journals and
papers teem with the same sort of work, inter-
mingled, incoherent and illogical, pretentious and void.
1 am aware that I am running somewhat counter to
ordinary notions in coupling together Gothic and the
Schools; I can only say that the comparison would have
been acknowledged, not only in the fourteenth century,
but also in the seventeenth. The conceited and shallow
think ers of the Renaissance had the same sneer for
both ; it .was they, Vandals as they were themselves,
who gave the name Gothic, meaning it for an insult ;
it was they, too, who called the schoolmen barbarians.
Both sneers were caused by ignorance and incapacity,
as sneers generally are. In spite of them, Pointed
Architecture has re-asserted its sway, and has trans-
formed its nickname into a title of honour. Signs are
already indicating that Scholasticism will do the same,
and that hereafter even the " darkness of the Schools "
will be preferred to the " enlightenment '' of the Renais-
sance. This, however, is by the way.
11
Another point in which Thinking shows its kinship
to the family of the Fine Arts is in its impulses being
incalculable ; it culminates capriciously. You cannot
tell when or where the great artist, poet or thinker
shall arise. He may burst forth suddenly, like the
Buddha, or like Dante, and hold a lonely throne,
unheralded and unsucceeded. Or he may come as
the greatest of a brilliant band, primus inter pares,
like Raphael among painters, Shakespeare among
dramatists, Aristotle among thinkers. The coy Muse
has often to be wooed long and laboriously before
she will be won, and may refuse to be won after all.
At other times she seems kindly to excess, and is
prodigal of her favours. But note, that while the
Art is thus capricious, the Theory steadily advances.
The theory of sculpture, or of painting, with all
technical appliances, was never so complete as at the
present day, but where is the man now who could
carve us the Apollo Belvidere or the Antinous, or
paint us the Madonna di San Sisto or the Last
Judg.nent ? So the theory of Thinking, Logic, was
never so thoroughly sifted and so ably expounded as
at the present day ; but the Art itself is at a fearfully
low ebb, and we look around in vain for a Plato, an
Augustine, a Bacon or a Kant.
But quorsum hcec ? Nobody denies that Thinking
is an Art. Why state it with such parade ? What
follows from it that we do not already know ? What
follows ! why, just this : that if these tilings are so, we
should accommodate ourselves to them and voluntarily
accept their consequences, which we do not do. It
follows, for instance, that, thinking beiug an Art, not
everybody can think, -any more than everybody can
draw or build. We can all do that rapid drawing of
characters generally called writing, and I suppose we
12
could all with our umbrellas sketch a small map upon
the pavement for an erring wayfarer, but that does not
entitle us to say that we can draw. We could all, if
pushed to it, devise and construct some kind of hut to
dwell in, but that does not make us architects. So we
can all go through the ordinary routine of life as
rational beings, without therefore having the right to
call ourselves thinkers. Now this is just what we cannot
reconcile ourselves to. We keep on imagining that
we are thinkers, that we have an inherent right to
settle all questions in heaven and earth. The most
intricate disputes in morals and politics are decided
everywhere with a facility and self-sufficiency that
wf mid make even Socrates stare. The world has never
learnt, seems li 1 ely never to learn, Socrates' lesson :
it still supposes that, while the common Arts and the
Fine Arts are of difficult attainment, the diviner Arts of
Thinking correctly and of Living nobly are to come by
haphazard or by heaven-born inspiration. And thus
it comes to pass that we do not exactly know what it is
that Education has to do for us. In this respect we are
behind the Greeks, behind even the despised Middle
Ages. In their education they had a definite end, and
definite means to that end. Their means may not have
been the best possible ; in fact, the means at our dis-
posal are indefinitely superior ; but their education was
never aimless, as ours too often is, so that they
frequently did more with their little than we with our
much. Professor Mahaffy tells us in his interesting
book on Old Greek Education that the Greek public
was far better educated th-m we are. " For Greek life
afforded proper leisure for thorough intellectual training,
and this includes first of all such political training
ns is strange to almost the whole of Europe; secondly,
moral training of so high a kind as to rival at times the
13
light of revelation ; thirdly, social training to some-
thing higher than music and feasting by way of recrea-
tion ; and fourthly, artistic training, which, while it did
not condescend to bad imitations of great artists, taught
the public to understand and to love true and noble
ideals."
I am convinced that the true view of education is
the artistic view, and not the theoristic : it should be
a definite development of faculties, not a mere aimless
filling of a capacity ; a training of the whole man to
action, and not to dreams. And I am therefore con-
vinced that much of our teaching power is being thrown
away. Our examinations show it, and our results
show it.
What do our examinations test ? Little more, I
fear, than the power of cram. Of course the best man
can generally cram best, and thus generally gets to
the top ; but have his energies in so getting to the
top been profitably spent ? And does not this intel-
lectual cram often go one step further and become
intellectual cramp ? A friend, on whose judgment I
greatly rely, wrote lo me recently, " If the book-
gorging, knowledge-cramming habit of the day does
not finally kill all original thinking power, it will be
due to some kindly intervention of Providence. Is
not our habit of feeding on other men's minds a kind of
intellectual cannibalism?" To quote Professor
MahafFy again, " Among the Greeks there were no
competitive examiuatioLS, except in athletics and
music. They never thought of promoting a man for
' dead knowledge,' but for his living grasp of science
or of life."
Our results also show it, for we turn out as ready for
life a set of youths, not each knowing what he can do
best and how best to do it, but all cast in the same
H
mould, and determined by fashion rather than by
fitness. We are somewhat better now than in the
days not so long ago, when every boy had to make
Latin verses, and every girl play the piano, nsthe main
result of years of education. But even still, many
a lad now painfully extracting mathematical roots, or
grubbing for Greek ones, would be much more intelli-
gently employed upon real agricultural ones. And it
Js a thousand pities that some of the arts, for which
sometimes gentlemen are fitted as for nothing else,
should be regarded as ungentlemanly. I do not see
why it is more respectable to pretend to brains which
God has not given than to use the manual skill which
He has given, and which He alone could give. Much
of our teaching power is therefore being thrown away,
because we will not recognize the fact that no single
art is possible to all ; and even those who might learn
to think, we are not training to think, because all are
supposed to become thinkers without training.
I have already become somewhat discursive ; but
as all I have said bears more or less convergcntly
upon the main subject, you will not, I hope, confine
me within strict logical fetters ; nay, I hope you will let
me wander a little longer in this by-path ; we shall get
into the main-road again by-and-bye. I was saying
that education should be a development of faculties,
a bringing out of the possibilities of our nature,
such a process as George Eiiot indicates the need of
in Romola: " Romola had had contact with no mind
that could stir the larger possibilities of her nature :
they lay folded and crushed like embryonic wings,
making no element in her consciousness beyond an
occasional vague uneasiness." A true teacher will,
in the tentative process of primary education, discover
these embryonic wings, and so develop them as to
15
enable his pupil thereafter to soar. For this reason
primary education is wide, because the question has" to
be decided, for what art or arts has the scholar a
taste. Nor is it only for this reason, but also because
we should learn at least a little of every art, if only
to appreciate its productions, and thus sweeten our
lives with the sense of beauty on every side, and to
be able to measure our distance below the masters of
it, and thus procure for ourselves a little wholesome
humility. While doing this the student will be sure
to find that faculty which it would serve him best to
cultivate with exclusive care : if his bent be towards
the art of music, let him become a musician ; so will he
best put forth the powers of his soul : but if it really
be towards the art of thinking, then, in God's name,
let him go on and learn to think accurately, and dili-
gently, and fearlessly. Nay more, often our other
powers slumber until they are aroused by sympathy
after we have stirred up that in which we excel most ;
whereas, had we neglected it, our intellectual growth
would have been stunted for ever. A striking instance
of this is the astronomer, Father Perry, whom some of
you have seen. When a youth, he entered the Seminary
at Douay, and was advised to give up studying for
the Church, because they said he had no head.
He afterwards entered the Jesuit Order, and they set
him to work on his own line, and the result was not
only his brilliant success in astronomy, but a fair com-
petence in other studies also, at one period of his life
he taught philosophy with credit. In fact, in this very
discovering and developing special faculties lies much
of the secret of the wonderful success of the Jesuits
as an educational body.
However, I suppose there is very little use in
theorizing on education. Education also is an Art,
16
and, as we saw before, Theory cauiiot lead the way
wh'ere Art is concerned. We can but study the great
educators and their method, and then go and try to do
likewise. I will but say that if the old saying is to
hold good, Cuiquc in arte sua credendum, that everyone
is an authority in his own art, another saying must
also first hold good, Quisque in arte sua excolendus ;
everyone must get a special training in his own art,
be that art shoemaking or sculpture, architecture
or thinking.
This brings me back to consider what else follows
from the fact that Thinking is an Art. We have
seen the negative consequence that it is not given to
everyone to be a thinker, and we had already begun
to consider the positive consequence that, therefore,
thinking must be taught. But how ? Well, how
do we teach the other arts ? If I want to learn music,
I go to one who knows music ; I learn the elements ;
I practise diligently ; I do not venture to strike
out a style of my own, I simply do as I am told}
afterwards I begin to have more power ; I take hints
from other masters ; I develop a character for myself,
and can thenceforward teach others. And I do this
even if I am a great genius. Raphael learnt from
Perugmo. His early pictures are painted in
simple obedience to his master's style. Later on
he gave full play to originality ; but do you think
Raphael would ever have ended in perfection if he
had not begun in obedience ? So with all the other arts.
Ruskin, in his Seven Lamps, tells us that the Lamp
of Obedience is the " crowning grace " of Architec-
ture. So also should it be with thinking. It should
be, but it is not. Students now do not so much learn
as criticize ; they are taught to criticize from the com-
mencement. When I went to University College,
17
London, my professor began by criticizing the text-book:
then he pulled all the big philosophers to pieces for
us, and called himself an eclectic. Of course we lads
soon picked up the trick, and then pulled him to pieces.
But just think of this from the point of view of Art.
Jack Robinson, an undergraduate, laughs at Kant as
a transcendental old fool ! What should we say if a
youth, who does not know what colour sunlight is, and
who could not draw a straight line, were to jeer at
Titian as a daubing old stupid ? Or if a young lady,
who contentedly sings B flat while her neighbours are
singing B naturjl, were to dismiss Mendelssohn, or
even Wagner, as a discordant old jackass? The
things are parallel. Even for thinkers who are not
beginners there must be some more fruitful way of
studying philosophy than to consider all philosophers as
so many ninepins to be bowled over. But for the tyro
to begin criticizing is surely mere impertinence. What
Ruskin says of another art is true here also: " Respect
for the ancients increases the power of the painter,
though it diminishes his liberty ; and if it be some-
times an incumbrance to the essays of invention, it is
oftener a protection from the consequences of audacity.
The whole system and discipline of art, the collected
results of the experience of ages, might, but for the
fixed authority of antiquity, be swept away by the
rage of fashion, or lost in the glare of novelty ; and
the knowledge which it had taken centuries to
accumulate, the principles Avhich mighty minds had
arrived at only in dying, might be over thrown by the
frenzy of a faction, and al andoned in the indolence
of an hour." A flagrant instance of disregard of tl: H
truth is found in the philosopher Descartes. Casting
oft' all ties of authority, he philosophized on his own
basis alone, and the re -ult is that, in spite of all his
18
undeniable genius, there is not a single one of his
main positions that has not been pitilessly rejected
even by his own disciples.
I put it down, therefore, as the first condition of
learning to think, this Reverence towards the great
Masters, and towards the individual teacher, which
every art demands. This quality it is which supplies
the pr nciple of cohesion, by which all the arts have
grown to greatness. Art-work is not the work of
individuals, but the outcome of the united efforts of a
school. You see it in the sculptors of Greece, in the
stone-cutters of the Middle Ages, in the painters of
Italy, in the musicians of Germany, in the athletes of
England, in the dramatists of our Elizabethan era,
and in the thinkers of Greece. The principle of
irreverence at once makes all such combination
impossible. Even in ordinary life it is a fruitful breeder
of all kinds of misunderstanding ; how much more in
philosophy? Why, for example, have English thinkers
learned so little from Thomas Aquinas ? Simply
because they learnt from Descartes to scorn him ; and
therefore now, when they read him, they cannot under-
stand the simplest thing he says. They think he is
such a fool that, if his folly is not on the surface, it
must be in the background. Here is a specimen.
G. H. Lewes says : " Aquinas asserted that
there could be only one inhabited world ;
and his grounds were these : if a second were
admitted, there would be no reason for denying a
third, and so on to infinity, * which would be con-
trary to truth and revelation.' " Now I looked
it up. and would you believe it, Aquinas never asserted
anything of the kind, and the reasons for what he did
assert were totally different, and the words in inverted
commas were not there at all. Then is G. H. Lewes
19
a liar ? No, he only had his folly-spectacles on. The
question that St. Thomas was discussing was Utrum
sit units mundus tantum f " Whether there he but
one universe ?" Under ordinary circumstances, G. H.
Lewes would have known that the Latin mundus
meant what the Greeks meant by kosmos, the whole
complex of created things, and that therefore Aquinas'
question meant, " Is there unity in God's universe ?"
And he would have learnt that the answer to the
question was as wide in philosophical extent as the
Evolution Theory. But all this was far too sensible
for a schoolman, so mundus must be translated
" inhabited world," and the whole thing is reduced to
nonsense. Who after that can trust one word of what
Lewes has to say on Scholasticism ? His irreverence
has put him out of court.
The next essential requisite towards learning the Art
of Thinking is persevering toil at the drudgery of it.
Every Art has its own drudgery. That of Thinking
consists in the elementary practice of Formal Logic.
We must learn to divide, and to define, and to dis-
tinguish, and to use words with full consciousness of their
exact meaning, and to frame arguments, and to unravel
sophistries to split hairs, if you like. Accurate
thought is impossible without it. You might as well
try to excel in painting without first learning to draw.
What is more, these logical exercises must be done
under supervision, must be subject to instant correction.
Nay, I believe that unless a man in his college days
is used to every perpetration of a fallacy being greeted
with shouts of laughter from his fellow-students, he
will be likely to go on perpetrating fallacies all his
life. I know there is a prejudice abroad against
Formal Logic. It is irksome; it is stiff; it fetters
the mind ; it keeps our thought in a narrow groove ;
20
there are many objections to it. But I never said that
the whole of Thinking was to be done in Formal
Logic, any more than that all music consists in* prac-
tising scales. I am convinced that Formal Logic is to
the Art of Thinking what anatomy is to the Art of
healing; or, to change the metiphor by an obvious
association, it is what the skeleton is to the body. If
we want our thought to have a backbone in it, we
must practise dialectics. Bentham is the most logical
thinker England has seen for centuries, and in his
own line one of the most successful ; study his works,
and you will find that nearly all his strength is owing
to his marvellous facility in logical division, a power
which is as distinctively a mark of his genius, as
the argument from the absurd was of Zeno, or the
ironic dialogue of Socrates. But if in any writer
we find incomplete divisions, inadequate definitions,
inconsequent syllogisms, or flagrant fallacies, we
may conclude that he is no thinker. Christians
are sometimes exercised in mind because several of
the great geniuses of the day have discarded Chris-
tianity, and that on the ground of advanced thought.
This does not trouble me in the slightest. Take Huxley,
for instance. He is a great investigator into the
facts of biological science none greater; but he is
no thyiker. His treatment of Hume's famous argu-
ment bristles with logical blunders. He gives in one
breath three definitions of Nature which are intended
to be equivalent, but in fact are (even on his own
principles) mutually exclusive. Then he gives us
this argument, and calls it reasoning : Nature is
everything which exists ; if therefore a miracle exists
it is part of Nature ; but the very definition of a
miracle is that it is against Nature ; therefore no
miracle exists. This is puerile. Take again his
21
answer to Dr. Ward's argument on Intuition derived
from Memory, an argument to which Mill gave in
like a man, granting that our trust in Memory is
intuitive, though he maintained it was the one excep-
tion. What did Huxley say? He said that there
was no Intuition in it at all : we trust our memory
because we find it pays. But how do we know we
find it pays, except by memory itself? A more
delightful vicious circle I never met, unless it be that
of a student in my time in Rome, who answered his
professor that space must have existed before the
world, because when God created the world He must
have had a place to put it in. It is true that dialectics
can be carried too far, can become the end instead
of a means, and then, of course, we have what is
sometimes found in Scholasticism. Bacon has wittily
described it: "As many solid substances putrefy,
and turn into worms, so does sound knowledge often
putrefy into a number of subtle, idle and vermicular
questions, that have a certain quickness of life and
spirit, but no strength of matter or excellence of
quality For the human mind, if it acts
upon matter, and contemplates the nature of things
and the works of God, operates according to the stuff,
and is limited thereby ; but if it works upon itself, as
the spider does, then it has no end, but produces
cobwebs of learning, admirable indeed for the fineness
of the thread, but of no substance or profit." There
may be a certain amount of caricature in this and other
passages of Bacon ; but while outsiders say, " A hit, a
very palpable hit," scholastics themselves are obliged
at least to say, " A touch, a touch, I do confess." There
was then, and there often is now, when one is deeply
imbued with Scholasticism, a tendency to dogmatizing
and a priori reasoning on Nature, an air of finality
22
about one's statements, a readiness to dispute and decide
de omni scibili, and to debate as eagerly on trivial
questions, or questions that have no issue, as on really
useful and important points. And these tendencies,
with others, produced what Bacon censures, and what
Leo XIII. in his Encyclical on Philosophy calls nimia
subtilitate quoesitum and parum considerate traditum.
But the best scholastics are not of this sort; and
even in the others, many of these " vermicular
questions " were hardly regarded as more than dialec-
tical exercises, and were often followed up for the
mere fun of the thing. Moreover, not all questions
now-a-days called frivolous were necessarily so in
reality. Thus schoolmen are often held up to ridicule
for having gravely discussed the question, " How many
angels could stand on the point of a needle ? " It is
funny ; and was meant to be funny, in form. But
what they Avere really discussing under this quaint
disguise, was that deep question which all philosophers
necessarily discuss, the Nature of Space, with the
further question, " What conceivable relation have
pure spirits to space ? " But why did they put it so
oddly ? Why ! I cannot tell. Look at one of the
old Gothic Cathedrals ; why do grinning gargoyles
make faces at you from under the roof? Why are
grotesque and comic creatures entwined in the lovely
leafage of the sculptured gates ? Why ! I know not ;
it was the humour of the men. But even this degree
of quaintness is absent from the pages of Thomas
Aquinas. He, too, is accused of frivolous questions :
well, so was Sir Isaac Newton. When he was study-
ing the laws of light on iridescent surfaces, an old
woman who lived next door to him remarked of him
one day, " Poor daft old gentleman : why, he sits at
the window for hours blowing soap-bubbles ! " St.
23
Thomas Aquinas' frivolous questions always remind
me of Sir Isaac Newton's soap-bubbles, and those
who object to them remind me of the old woman. At
any rate, if there be danger in dialectics, it is sufficient
to keep our eyes open and avoid it : there are few
things that give us power which do not also bring
danger with them : and dialectical skill will give us
power : and without power there is no Art.
And indeed the next great requisite towards learning
the Art of Thinking contains the preventive of any
ill effects that might arise from dialectics. It is indi-
cated in Bacon's words above : that the human mind
must act upon matter, and contemplate the nature of
things and the works of God, and thus operate accord-
ing to the stuff and be limited thereby. If, then, we
would learn to think, AVC must accustom ourselves to
deal with realities, and not to toy over words or be
entangled in notions. Art is concerned with things,
not with notions ; and there are things of the mind
every whit as real as tables and chairs. If you want
to understand what is meant by the reality of an idea,
read the first part of Cardinal Newman's Essay on
Development : in this part, which is purely philosophi-
cal, he treats of the developments and of the corruption
of ideas. The following p .ssage will give a hint of
his meaning : " When one and the same idea is held
by persons who are independent of each other, and are
variously circumstanced, and have possessed themselves
of it by different ways, and when it presents itself to
them under very different aspects without losing its
substantial unity and its identity, and when it is thus
variously presented, yet recommended, to persons
similarly circumstanced, and when it is presented
to persons variously circumstanced under aspects,
discordant indeed at first sight, but reconcileable
24
after such explanations is their respective states of
mind require : then it seems to have a claim to be
considered the representative of an objective truth."
Now, it is these objective truths which we must keep
before our mind, if we would really think ; and this
necessitates the process known as Meditation or
philosophic Contemplation. Otherwise we shall never
think, we shall only be letting a stream of abstractions
pass through our mind ; we shall be dealing with
mere symbols, and might as well be talking about
X, Y, Z. Many a student is taught to discuss the
theories, e.g., of the union of soul and body : he can
tell you all that philosophers have said on the subject ;
can classify them ; can criticize them all ; but he has
never thought about it himself : the whole question is
to him a mere dream, and if he adheres to any solution
himself, it is simply for form's sake ; it does not
influence his life, it brings no beauty before his mental
vision ; he has never contemplated it. In Newman's
language, our apprehension of the philosophic truths
we talk about must be not only notional, but also real.
Read the Grammar of Assent, and you will see what
this means : I despair of conveying the full value of
the distinction between notional and real apprehension
and assent in a sentence or two : I must content
myself with referring to it. Obvious though it seems,
the distinction is (I believe) original with Newman.
To my mind, it goes to the root of most of the bad
thinking in the world. And since I have mentioned
i he Grammar of Assent, I cannot refrain from
expressing my surprise that it is not yet on the shelves
of this Library ; it seems to me the most remarkable
book on the Theory of Thinking written this century,
certainly it is the most original. It is the Novum
Oryanum of Implicit Thought : and in logical science
25
the theory of Implicit Thought is, I thiuk, as distinct
and as necessary an advance upon Induction as
Induction was upon Deduction.
But I must proceed. I must make a fourth postu-
late. Our pursuit of the Art of Thinking must begin
in reverence, must go on in willing drudgery, must
rise to contemplation of the realities of the mind, and
must lastly be motived by undying enthusiasm. We
must love our art, for its own sake, not for anything
it can bring us. We must be ready to sacrifice every-
thing for it : because its object is not only Beauty,
but Truth, and Truth is divine. We must be real
philosophers, lovers of wisdom : otherwise we can
never become artists in the domain of Thought.
The dry light of the intellectual world within us
must not be dispersed in the humours of feeling,
nor refracted in the unequal media of prejudice.
Onward, whithersoever Thought may lead us, must
be our cry ; and we must be animated with such
a spirit that neither terrors of hell, nor visions of
Heaven, nor allurements of earth, nor unsteadiness of
passions, nor intoxication of pride shall make us swerve
from the straight path of intellectual light. For the
natural home of true intellectual light is the Bosom
of God.
On a motion by the Hon. J. Tudhope, a vote of
thanks was accorded to the Chairman for his able-
address.
SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., PBINTaBS, ST. GEOBGE'8-STaKET.
PROCEEDINGS
FIFTY -EIGHTH T ANNIVERSARY r MEETING
OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
>0t|j Jinan Ijttblic
CAPE TOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 7TH MAY, 1887
The Era. J. X, MEREIMAN, M.L.A., is the Chair.
PRINTED BY TCTWNSHEND & SON, 74, LOOP STREET.
1887.
OJI'I.
ttommittte :
W. HIDDINGH, Esq. (Treas.) E. M. Boss, Esq.
L. DALE, Esq., LL.D. [ Eev. Dr. CAMEBON.
Hon. Justice SMITH. j The Hon. ALFBED EBDEK, Esq.
Hon. J. X. MEBBIMAN, Esq. j CHARLES A. FAIKBBIDGE, Esq.
Eev. Professor FOOT.
JOHN NOBLE, Esq. | J. C. GIE, Esq.
lU&ranan antr Jorcretarg :
W. H. SEAKLE, Esq. (Acting).
ANNUAL REPORT.
THE Committee of the South African Public Library wish to
express their satisfaction that notwithstanding the loss of a few
old subscribers the aggregate amount of annual subscriptions has
been increased, and the daily attendance of readers and visitors has
been well sustained throughout the year.
Owing to the reduced Government grant the Committee have
been unable to take any steps for the appointment of a permanent
librarian, but by the continuance of the services of the acting
librarian the expenditure on the fixed salaries of the officer s of
the institution has been kept within the limits of the reduced
grant, namely 400 per annum. And it is only by the strictest
economy in the management of the Library that a fair sum can
be set apart year by year for the purchase of additions to the
current literature and to the reference department. From the
Treasurer's account it will be seen that 250 has been expended
on these additions during the year.
The works added to the Library by purchase and by presenta-
tion are classed as follows : Miscellaneous theology, 31 vols. ;
political economy, government, &c., 13 vols. ; science and the arts,
66 vols.; voyages and travels, 43 vols. ; history, 116 vols. ; bio-
graphy, 47 vols.; Belles Lettres, 56 vols.; novels, 98 vols.; and
miscellaneous, 42 vols.
Amongst these will be found several valuable works presented
by the Imperial Government, the Colonial Government, the Cor-
poration of the City of London, the Koyal Geographical Society,
the Koyal Zoological Society, the Eoyal Colonial Institute, the
Royal Society, the Royal Dublin Society, the Royal Astronomical
Society, the Norwegian Government, the Smithsonian Institution,
America, the New Zealand Institute, the National Association for
the Promotion of Social Science, the Birmingham Philosophical
Society, the Meteorological Society, the Eoyal Bavarian Academy of
Science, Munich, the Swedenborgian Society, London, Miss Julia
Lloyd, J. Noble, Esq., J. Spyker, Esq., Martin J. Boon, Esq., A.
Eead, Esq., and the Eev. G. E. Drew, to all of whom the thanks
of the subscribers and public are due.
The most valuable portions of the Eeference Library, which
are not permitted to be removed, are seldom brought to the notice
of the ordinary reader or visitor. These mines of real wealth are
kept un worked, and it would be doing good service to the Library
as well as to the whole community if a few lecturers (each in his
own department, history, biograph)*, travels, natural science, lan-
guages, literature, ancient and modern, &c.) would act as guides to
the several collections, as was done at the Birmingham Free Library
in 1884, when lectures were delivered with the view of making the
inhabitants acquainted to some extent with the many and great
treasures in the Eeference Section of that Free Library.
The number of volumes in the different departments of literature
and science which were put into circuculation during the year is as-
follows : Miscellaneous Theology, 84 ; Political Economy and
Government, 93 ; Science and Arts, 351 ; Voyages and Travels,
1,292 ; History, 941 ; Biography, 979 ; Belles Lettres, 564 ; Works-
of Fiction, 8,945 ; and Periodicals and Eeviews, 5,625.
From a record kept, the number of readers and visitors to
the institution during the past year amounts to 24,874, showing a
daily average of 90, the largest number in one day being 137, and
the lowest, 32.
The following works have been added to the Grey Col-
lection: "Polynesian Mythology and Maori Legends," one
volume, presented by Sir George Grey ; " Pamphlet on the Bantu
Language," presented by the Eev. F. W. Kolbe ; "Manuscript of the
Eevised Edition of the Kafir Bible," presented by the Eev. A. Krapf ;
" Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1885 "
" Proceedings of the 7th Annual Session of the American Philolo-
.gical Association, 1885 " ; " Katekisma La Hare " (by Miss Eainy) ;
" Testamenta Watsopano, &c." ; and " Table of Concords and Para-
digm of Verb of the Chinyanja Language," being the first printed
books in the Chinyanja (Lake Nyassa) Language, presented by Miss
Waterston.
The financial statement showed a balance to the credit of the
institution of 213 15s. lid.
The adoption of the Eeport and Treasurer's Statement having
been moved, discussion ensued upon it, when Professor EITCHIE
moved an amendment to adjourn to a future day, the meeting to be
held in the evening, and to be convened by circular sent to each sub-
scriber.
After discussion, the amendment was withdrawn, and the
original motion put and carried.
On the motion of Mr. CRAIG, seconded by Mr. EABINOWITZ, a
vote of thanks was accorded to the retiring Committee, Treasurer
and Auditors for their valuable services during the past year.
A ballot for a new Committee having been taken, the scrutineers,
Messrs GOLDSCHMIDT and TOOKE, declared the following gentlemen
to be duly elected to serve as a Committee of Management for the
ensuing year :
W. HIDDINGH, Esq., LL.D., Treasurer.
Dr. DALE,
Hon. Justice SMITH,
Hon. J. X. MERRIMAN, M.L.A.,
Eev. Professor FOOT,
E. M. Eoss, Esq.,
Eev. Dr. CAMERON,
The Hon. ALFRED EBDEN,
CHABLES A. FAIRBRIDGE, Esq.,
JOHN NOBLE, Esq.,
J. C. GIE, Esq.
CHAIEMAN'S ADDEESS.
The Hon. J. X. MEBBIMAN then delivered the following
address :
It has been the custom for many years that the Chairman of
the annual meeting of the subscribers to the South African Public
Library at the conclusion of the formal business of the meeting
should deliver an address to those who may happen to attend on
the occasion. Last year the observance of this custom was
honoured by a breach of the rule, partly owing to a failure on the
part of the committee to find a suitable victim to sacrifice, but
chiefly because it was hoped that a mere business meeting of the
subscribers might elicit some discussion on the affairs of the Library,
and by so doing infuse a little life into an institution which ought to
be more worthy of the position that it holds. It would be fruitless
to tell you how the committee were disappointed, or to lament over
again the apathy which, in all matters of public concern, seems to
be the besetting sin of our community. In their despair at ever
being able to galvanise the subscribers into a more lively interest in
their own affairs, the committee have on this occasion reverted to
the old method of marking the annual recurrence of the meeting,
and have done me the honour to ask me to occupy the chair, which
has been filled by so many worthy predecessors. Not being a.
specialist, I feel somewhat embarrassed in the choice of a subject
upon which I can presume to claim your attention as the "idle
speaker of an idle day," fearing lest in my attempts to avoid the
Scylla of boredom I may fall into the Charybdis of those of whom
it is written "they try to be brief and they become obscure." I
will attempt in the few minutes at my disposal to say a few words
upon certain phases in the intellectual life of the Colonial Empire
of Great Britain, in the hope that some one more qualified mav
pursue further an inquiry that is, I venture to say, of the greatest
importance. In using the term " intellectual life," I mean every-
thing that has to do with the growth or the manufacture of ideas,
or of thought, as distinguished from the instruments of material
welfare. It is infinitely more difficult to measure the one than the
other. Our material progress is recorded in columns of statistics,
and in lists of exports and imports, and he who runs may read ; but
the signs which record the intellectual life of the nation, the drift of
the collective mind of multitudes of men, are far more obscure, and
those who stand on the brink of the tide of circumstance and see
the stream sweep past them can only dimly guess the direction in
which the whole movement is tending. " Ordinary men," as a
great historian remarks, " see the fruits of their action ; the seed
sown by men of genius germinates slowly. Centuries elapsed before
men understood that Alexander had not merely erected an
ephemeral kingdom in the East, but had carried Hellenism to Asia ;
centuries again elapsed before men understood that Caesar had not
merely conquered a new province for the Eomans, but had laid the
foundation for the Romanising of the regions of the West." Yet,,
momentous as were the deeds of these two great men, and far-
reaching as their effects have been, they pale before the incalculable
importance of the national life, commonplace and ordinary no doubt
as it seemed at the time, which, by the birth of ideas, and by the
cultivation of the intellect, created those forces of civilization which
we include under the names of Hellenism, or Roman civilization, of
which Alexander and Caesar were only the agents.
One of the most valuable lessons that history teaches us is the
permanence of ideas in comparison with the material works of man,
and how the creations of the intellect form the most imperishable
part of the national history of a race. The world is strewn with the
wrecks of ancient and mighty nations, once highly civilised and
powerful, of which the ruined fragments, buried perchance in tropical
forests, covered with desert sands, or haply even more effectually
concealed under the flimsy constructions of a world that knows not
even their name, seem like the fossil bones of dragons of the prime.
Yet the ideas generated in rocky Attica and in sun-dried Palestine
ages ago, each in their own way move the hearts of men at this day
with a living force which will never die. Of the power and glory of
Babylon only a few sculptured blocks and dented tiles remain, and
the place of the great king truly know r s him no more ; while the
glorious heritage of freedom and a free man's right, nurtured in its
infancy, amid swamps and forests, by our German and Batavian
forefathers, has, in the hands of their Anglo-Saxon descendants,
transformed the world. Of the material evidences of the culture
and the luxury of the mighty Roman Empire how little remains.
Ruined theatres, broken aqueducts, here and there an inscription
and a statue, serve to tell us of the past, and to enable us to piece
together the pattern of that mighty fabric which covered the shores
of the Mediterranean with a life fuller and more vigorous in many
respects than that which has succeeded it ; which filled North Africa,
and Asia Minor, now so desolate, with populous cities and stately
temples, and which secured for its citizens possibly a happier,
and certainly a cleaner, life than their modern representatives. All
has passed away, but the spirit and even the letter of Roman law is
a living force, and enters into the daily life of every civilised man.
The sense of public duty and of devotion of the individual to the
State is still an ideal 'after which modern democracies toil in
vain.
I am aware that the foregoing remarks are well worn truisms ;
so obvious, indeed, that everyone will readily take them for granted,
and, like many other lessons of experience, we are all the more
ready to give them our assent because we have no intention of
making the smallest practical application of their doctrine. We
recognise, and we give our languid approval to the better, but we
pursue the worse with all our heart and soul. It is almost
8
saddening to see the tendency of the age to the exaltation of pure
materialism, and to have to recognise that our beloved country is
one of the worst sinners in that respect. English people are never
tired of their rows of figures, and of proclaiming to the world how
rich and how comfortable they are, while they only too often justify
the accusation of the poet, that England
"Lets
Slow die out of her life,
Glory and genius and joy."
More than ever in this year of Jubilee do the songs of the Philistines
go up before the great British public, and more particularly the
colonial section thereof. In a thousand articles we are reminded
how big we are, and how energetic, what money we have borrowed,
and how the fulness of earth is ours ; and, in fact, as before the
satrap of Media in Zadig, so before us is always sung with perpetual
variations
" Que son merite est extreme !
Que des graces ! que de bonheur !
Ah ! Combien, Mouseigueur,
Doit etre content de lui-meme ! "
And it is only to be hoped that in our case too the very grossness and
the constant iteration of the flattery may work its own cure, and
that in our moments of sober reflection we may find time for an
examination that will convince us that we have still much to do,
and perchance much to suffer also, before we can, as the inheritors
of the glorious traditions of England, fairly lay claim to the proud
title of Greater Britain. While a true estimate of the condition of
the intellectual life and tendencies, whether their future national
existence is carried on as parts of one great whole or as separate
communities, is of as much real importance as an estimate of their
material wealth, it is from the nature of things far more difficult to
arrive at, and however skilfully carried out, it must remain a matter
of opinion, and at best can influence but few. As in meteorology,
so in the life of nations the cycles are large and of unknown
duration, and he who would frame a chart of the seasons must col-
lect and compare a thousand observations. The most that the
casual observer can do is to record the general aspect of the case as
it appears to him, and if he does so truthfullv, his labour will not
be in vain. It is important to remember that the creation and
development of ideas which are the truest sign of intellectual life,
do not always accompany a high state of culture or of education,
though, on the other hand, the creative faculty leads to a political
and intellectual activity that brings the others in its train. In no
country in the world is education held in higher honour than in
China, where for centuries the whole administration has been in the
hands of a class of literati, yet no one will venture to contend that
China is a country in which intellectual life is active ; if indeed that
-can be called life at all which is a mere reproduction from an
.antique mould. The phenomenon is the more striking because
neither in statecraft nor in commerce do individuals of the race
show themselves destitute of originality and talent. Seldom have
philosophers, schoolmasters, and rhetoricians obtained greater
honour than in the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire, and
never was there a wider diffusion of an elegant culture. But we
know now that the intellectual life, seemingly so active, was really
dead at its roots. As a branch of a tree set in the ground may
continue to bring forth flowers and even imperfect fruit, but the
reproductive energy is gone and decay follows all too soon ; so too
the last ages of the Helleno-Roman culture were surpassingly fair to
the outward eye, but the springs of life were choked at their source,
the chill blast from the north came, and they crumbled away as if
by magic, leaving, so for centuries it seemed, hardly a wreck
behind. Yet if any of us could by some fairy power, like that with
which imagination loves to play, have seen at the same time the
civilization and the culture- of the Rome of Trajan, and that of the
England of Elizabeth, it would have been difficult for us to believe
that the one carried within its bosom the seeds of absolute and
ruinous decay, and that the other was in a vigorous youth, which in
the plenitude of its manhood would open to man's intellect fields of
thought far more fruitful if not outwardly so fair as those over which
shone the radiance of a dying civilization. It is surely a question
of some interest for us to try and frame for ourselves an answer to
the question as to whether the outward and visible signs of civiliza-
tion and of intellectual life as exhibited in politics, in art, and in
literature throughout the British dependencies, are those which
betoken an inward vigour and a power of originality which promises
a healthy expansion of national life, or whether they rather betoken
& weariness, and an absence of originality characteristic of a period
of inactivity, of arrested development and in consequence of a
shrunk and petty future. It seems almost treason, indeed, to
suggest that any community under the flag of Great Britain could
have a future of stagnation, so bright, so full of the promise of life
and so glorious do the prospects of her dependencies seem. So, too,
do grown-up sons, who hang about their rich fathers' house, often
seem pleasant, brilliant fellows, with plenty of money to spend, and all
the outward sign of prosperity, yet when turned out into the world
to seek their fortunes away from the paternal wing they cut but a
sorry figure. In looking 'at all the vast possessions of the British
Empire, there are some signs which may make us question whether
a provincial existence does not tend to the development of the
material somewhat at the expense of the intellectual side of our
national life, and we may sometimes wonder whether our sur-
passingly comfortable condition is in every way the best outfit
for the future. On the other hand we must be struck by the
10
enormous gifts and advantages which have been showered upon
us, and \ve shall be ungrateful indeed if we refuse to acknow-
ledge the debt that we owe to the great mother who has
given us at once protection and independence. I will endeavour
very briefly to trace some of the characteristics arising out of our
condition as they manifest themselves in the intellectual life of
politics, of art, and of literature. I place politics first, for in no
direction has the human intellect gained more victories, perhaps in
none too has it experienced more disheartening reverses than in that
special sphere of its development which includes within it the
government and ordering of society under the reign of freedom and
of law, which constitutes the highest and the best side of politics.
There is none in which the supreme Caucasian mind has more
surely vindicated its claim to be at the head of the human race, and
it is for this reason that amid so much that is sordid and ignoble,
and amid a vast crowd of selfish imitators, the study and the pursuit
of politics may fairly claim to have attracted and absorbed in all
ages some of the highest and best thinkers and workers. That you
may not think that I am demanding too high a place for what is, I
must confess, not often thought of as an intellectual pursuit, I
would venture to remind you how closely the practical as well as
the theoretical side of politics is interlaced with those other forms
of genius which in the shape of art and literature constitute the
crown and roof of true civilization. While a period of great culture
may co-exist in a decaying state where all freedom and all desire for
freedom has vanished, a period of true intellectual activity and
originality generally precedes and accompanies a new birth of
political life, and by a similar reflex action a great outburst of
political activity or a revolution often gives birth to a vast desire for
and paves the way for a ready adaptation of ne\v ideas both in
science, in law, and in the more purely ideal forms of genius. It is
scarcely necessary to give . examples of the foregoing law. The
intellectual activity which had its origin in what is known as the
Renaissance, or the contact of long buried Hellenism with a debased
and degenerated Hebraism, gave birth to the Reformation in Hol-
land, made free government once more a living force in the world,
and prepared the way in England for the rule of Parliament and all
that has followed upon it. On the other hand, Shakespeare,
Milton, Bacon, and their intellectual descendants, were the children
of the political ferment, and of the sense of a striving after freedom
which was created by, and in its turn added to, the new world of
thought, and the new dominion of man's mind. Nearer to our own
times we can trace how the brilliant period of intellectual life in the
XVIII century, whose evangelists and prophets were Voltaire,
Rousseau, and their fellows, led up to the French revolution, and to
that great breaking up of the very deeps of society, the force of
which is scarcely spent, while in its turn the revolution gave birth
to a period of mental activity of every kind, which has profoundly
11
influenced every branch of science and literature. There seems
indeed to be a correlation of intellectual as well as of material
forces, and just as heat, light and motion are interchangeable values
of the same great natural law, so, too, those functions of the mind
which find expression in poetry, in science, or in politics, are only
manifestations of the same intellectual forces liberated and set in
motion in their own particular shape by an all-wise Providence.
Here, in the colonies, we have no such long chain of antecedent
circumstances to confuse and intersect the record of our mental
development. We derive our culture of every sort second hand,
and the various outward manifestations are merely the indications
of the direction in which future growth may be expected rather than
expressions of the result of underlying causes which have been for
any length of time at work, beneath the surface of society. The
conditions, indeed, under which the political life of the dependencies
of Great Britain is carried on is absolutely without precedent in the
world's history, and it may well form the despair of all writers on
constitutional law. Theoretically entirely subject to the Imperial
Parliament, which is supreme, they are practically within undefined
limits free to legislate and administer as if they were separate and
independent communities, and while they have nearly all the
privileges of independence they are protected from external foes,
and are not called upon to contribute to the cost of that protection.
Never surely did so many millions of men possess such material
advantages in conjunction with a form of government which, within
limits, gives so much opportunity for the healthy development of
their powers of self-government as do the self-governing colonies of
Great Britain. It is democracy under a bell glass, protected from
the rude blasts that have elsewhere uprooted the feeble plant or
forced it into abnormal and distorted growths. The provinces of
the Koman Empire at first partially, and latterly entirely, enjoyed
the citizenship of the empire city, and at the same time they
exercised very large municipal rights and powers of self- government,
but over all the Koman Governor was supreme, and the taxation
collected for the support of the Imperial exchequer, gradually
increasing as it did until it crushed the life out of the provinces,
does away with any resemblance to the free and untaxed
communities of the world empire of to-day. Spain, Holland, and
France have each tried to establish a colonial empire, and their
success has been perhaps greater than we are ready at a superficial
glance to allow. But in every case the dependency has been sub-
servient to the profit and advantage of the Mother Country, and
whatever material results may have been derived, in no case did the
establishment of communities of freemen form any part of the
scheme.
In the first colonial empire of Great Britain, that which now
forms the mightiest and most prosperous nation on the face of the
earth, we may perhaps find the closest parallel to our own con-
12
dition, and in the New England colonies of America at the time
when they elected their own governors, and were practically re-
publics, we may possibly recognise a future development of our own
colonial polity. But to the times of freedom succeeded the times of
interference, the ties were drawn closer, and throughout almost the
whole period the navigation laws and the regulation of trade were
entirely in the interests of the mother-country, until the crash came,
and the old Colonial Empire of Great Britain almost vanished from
the earth. With us under the new Colonial Empire how different
are the conditions ; everything tends not to a closer contraction, but
to a loosening of even the legitimate hold of the central power ; so
far from sending tribute to Great Britain, we receive annually, both
indirectly and directly, vast sums from the long-suffering taxpayer,
who is content to pay for his Imperial privilege. So far from being
controlled by navigation laws, we are free to tax the manufactures
of the mother-country, and to show our independence in every way.
Truly, paraphrasing the lines respecting one of England's most
famous men, the Fates may be said to have spun the thread of these
thrice fortunate communities out of "their softest and their whitest
wool," and, as I before remarked, never probably in the world's
history has there been so free a scope for the absolutely unchecked
development of the influence of the intellect on everything that per-
tains to the ordering and formation of society. Nor do I think,
looking to the short time that the experiment has had time to work,
that the result is discouraging. There is no evidence of the lack of
originality, nor of that disinclination for change and for new experi-
ments, that marks a stagnant or a declining intellectual condition.
On the contrary, there are distinctly some very interesting develop-
ments of free government in the colonies that are deserving of much
attention. In the first place it must be remarked that we have
all been furnished forth with written constitutions based more
or less closely on the unwritten constitution of the Mother
Country, irrespective of the altered circumstances under which
such constitution will have to operate. In every colony it must
be understood that my remarks and those which follow are
intended only to apply to those dependencies which are self-
governing where, for instance, what is called a bicameral
legislature has been set up, the second chamber being more or
less an imitation of the House of Lords, with similar, but more
feeble, powers to those of the popular branch of the legislature,
.and with no pretension to the functions discharged by the Senate of
the United States. As might have been expected, the arrangement
has already led to disagreements and to dead-locks, and can
scarcely be expected to continue. It is so extremely artificial that
it probably militates against the healthy growth of true political life,
which must be based ultimately upon a rational distribution of the
forces of government. The executive powers are also entrusted to a
committee chosen by the Parliament, known as the Cabinet, in
13
imitation of the practice in England. This form of government is
essentially aristocratic in its origin, requiring as it does for successful
working the formation of parties, which in a democracy are apt to
degenerate into personal cliques, and it is at variance with the twa
most prominent tendencies of the democratic spirit. One, the desire
of those who constitute the governing body, that is the people, to
nominate directly their servants who are to do their business ; the
others, a disinclination to concern themselves with the details of
supervision when once the power is entrusted to its nominees. In
the system adopted by the dependencies of Great Britain, in
imitation of that which is the growth of ages of Parliamentary
strife in the Mother Country, the Executive power is the prize of a
contest between a limited class of citizens, and from the nature of
its tenure is subject to perpetual criticism, and weakened by the
constant dread of a forcible close being put to its existence. The
natural consequence is a tendency to trim and to purchase support
by concession to prejudices, and also by a lavish disposal of material
benefits. In the Dominion of Canada the anomaly is still further
heightened by the fact that there are two complete sets of com-
plicated machinery, which cannot fail to add to the difficulty of
working the elaborate mechanism under which their society is
organised. In Victoria there is an attempt to escape from results-
which became intolerable by the formation of independent boards r
to which some of the chief functions of the Executive are entrusted,
as, for instance, the management of the State railways, and the
disposal of the patronage of the public service ; and elsewhere there
seems a disposition to resort to the same remedy. Whether this
practice will cure the evil is uncertain ; but I doubt not that, unless
the genius of our race has lost its inventive faculty, some alteration
will be made, both in the colonies, and perhaps in the Mother
Country too, in a system that has outgrown its power of adaptation
to the altered circumstances of education and the universal distribu-
tion of popular suffrage.
A still more noticeable feature in colonial democracies is the
extent to which the State mixes up with, and enters into competi-
tion with, ordinary commercial pursuits. In this respect the
dependencies of Great Britain have far outstripped the old country.
With the exception of Canada, partially, and odd lengths of lines in
one or two places in Tasmania and the Cape, the whole of the
colonial railways are in the hands of the respective Governments.
When we consider not only the magnitude of the undertakings, but
also how intimately and how increasingly the facility of communi-
cation is interlaced with every part of the fabric of modern society,
it is difficult to overrate the importance of the power thus given to
the State over the individual, or the effect which that has in
destroying a certain amount of original enterprise. We have so
long been accustomed to see the telegraphs treated in the same way
that we have ceased even to notice the additional power given to
14
the State by making it the channel of all communication. In many
colonies, as in our own, the State administers estates and acts as
the guardian of orphans and minors. In New Zealand it goes still
further, and discharges the duty of a life assurance office. In other
places it collects small debts, carries parcels and runs street-tram-
ways. Everywhere it makes roads, water-courses and other works of
improvement which commend themselves to the citizen. It would
be hard indeed to know where the colonial notion of the true
function of a Government is likely to stop short, and it is equally
impossible to deny that much useful work is done which might else
remain unperformed. At the same time one may recollect the far-
seeing observation of De Tocqueville on the democratic tendency to
cast all duties on the State, and what that tendency leads to, and
when we remember that that great thinker was describing a com-
munity which had not dreamed of the lengths to which the colonies
have gone in this direction, we may sometimes wonder whether the
modern practice does not rather make for comfort and convenience
at the expense of that strength of the moral fibre which is the result
of individual exertion, perhaps of individual suffering.
A far more legitimate function is discharged by the State in the
colonies as the great owner and disposer of land, and it is one which
there, as elsewhere in the whole history of mankind, has a
tremendous effect on the constitution of society and the individuals
which make up society. The class which own the land and settle
on the land shape the destinies of a country just as much now, in
the days of the Homestead law in America, as in the times when
Gracchus tried to re-establish the Eoman farmer, or Stein and
Hardenburg created the new Germany by reforming the land laws.
Some of the most remarkable and some of the most encouraging
signs of the -true life of the political intellect of the offshoots of
Great Britain are to be found in their treatment of this great series
of questions connected with the settlement of land. Their efforts
in this respect are truly original, and all they have to thank the
Mother Country for is their mistakes, while it is not improbable
that some of the remedies adopted may react on England. Every-
where we can trace an attempt to get the population on to the land,
and in the progressive land tax of Victoria and in the scant justice
with which contracts inimical to the general interest are treated in
New South Wales, we see a sort of foreshadowing of the agrarian
revolution which awaits older countries under the new order of
things. In New Zealand there are even bolder advances towards u
sort of State socialism in this matter, at least if I rightly interpret
the last form of their protean land law. And though we who live
here under a happier and more evenly balanced distribution of the
soil may scarcely appreciate the questions which press for settle-
ment in differently situated communities, it is difficult not to
sympathise with the boldness that tries to cope with a problem that
has puzzled generations of statesmen. I can only allude to the
15
vast system of public credit and the way it has been used, and the
development of the advanced socialistic' doctrine of the duty of the
State to provide employment as being signs of the times, which all
have their effect in forming a type of national character distinct
from that which has produced it. Of course many of the
characteristics which I have mentioned are peculiar only to some
among the many dependencies of Great Britain, while others are
common to all of them. Some, also, are apparent to older civiliza-
tions, but all these are far more luxuriant in their growth from not
being tempered by the restraining force of inherited prejudice.
Two general mental tendencies may, I think, be discerned
which contend for a share of the influence in forming the colonial
mind on its political side. The one truly democratic, which looks
on the State as omnipotent, and seeks to thrust upon it universal
functions of the most diverse nature, and which at the same time
manifest a boldness and a contempt for tradition in dealing with
the problems that arise that may lead to strange conclusions. The
other is a feeling of reverence for the authority and the opinion
of the protecting State which lends a sort of unreality to public
life, as if it were after all only playing at government, and by
doing so in its turn adds to the apathy and the disinclination to
mix in public life which is in itself a characteristic of democracy. It
is possible that from these causes the colonial defects if I may
venture to hint at the existence of such things of great boastfulness,
coupled with a lack of earnestness, may arise, though it seems un-
gracious, in the face of the great benefits that I have enumerated, to
draw attention to the less admirable characteristics of a provincial
and dependent condition.
In travelling from the region in which the growth of the political
intellect is displayed into that occupied by Art, we pass, as far as
the colonies are concerned, from a scene of activity and originality into
one of absolute and dreary barrenness. In regard to Art in the
colonies one might repeat the well-worn joke about the snakes of
Iceland, and indeed I should scarcely have alluded to it at all if it
was not that in the present day there is a tendency to exalt the
intellectual influence of Art, and to make the Anglo-Saxon, who, to
do him justice, has never been much given that way, endue all the
graces and refinements of softer nations. Of course, where there is
great wealth there will always be a certain amount of Art, which
ministers to the sensuous enjoyment of the few, but a general
diffusion of the artistic sense by no -means accompanies a state of
high intellectual activity, or one of political freedom. When free-
dom died in Borne, Art flourished and expanded and beautified the
very ends of the earth, as the handmaid of tyranny. In the very
darkest days of corruption in Italy, the age of those despots whose
history makes one shudder at the depths of depravity to which
human nature can descend, never was the artistic sense more 1 uglily
cultivated ; it was the age of Bafaelle, of Michael Angelo, of
16
Benvenuto Cellini, and of the Medici. Art, indeed, seems to be
a gift, or a sense, dissociated from the exercise of. the intellect, and
to act as an anodyne which often deadens the pain that the loss of
liberty entails.
It is with such reflections that we poor Philistines must comfort
ourselves, for surely never among the sons of man were there so
many millions utterly destitute of the artistic sense or of the gift of
the appreciation of the beautiful as those who inhabit the colonies-
of Great Britain. In one or two of the Australian colonies there are
picture galleries which contain some choice gems of British domestic
Art, and we have imported the music-hall and the British drama to
keep them company in forming the culture of the rising nations.
We go to the fairest places of the world, we cut and hack, and how
seldom do we plant. We cover the face of nature with our hideous
stucco buildings, and when we do find a picturesqe town, as we
did here in Capetown, we improve it into the likeness of a squalid
fifth-rate English suburb. This toleration of the mean and ugly is
a peculiar gift and heritage of the race, or at any rate certain
portions of it, and is not peculiar to our provincial condition. We
may compare it with the remarkable and prodigious diffusion of Art
through the whole of the provinces of the Eoman Empire, which,
as Friedlander says, "was without example in the prodigious,
development of its life and in the activity it showed in applying
itself to satisfy a multitude of desires, of requirements, and
of fancies from the most elevated down to the most common, and
from the most extravagant to the most modest. Art in the time of
the Koman Empire was productive for all degrees of culture and for
all classes of society, over such vast circles did it spread culture
and increase the taste necessary to enjoy the diversity of its.
creations."
When we remember the thousands of statues of all kinds and
of a singular level of artistic merit that were spread over the whole
Empire down to the smallest towns, when we read of emperors
sending presents of their statues to obscure towns on the Black Sea,,
and municipal councillors and private persons vieing with each
other for the honour of being allowed to beautify their native places,,
we may with sorrow, and perhaps with shame, compare the doings
of those days with these, in this respect, more degenerate times.
It is true, indeed, that the Eomans themselves had little artistic
faculty except in architecture, that they despised artists, who were
for the mcst part slaves, or at best freed men, and that in the times
of the republic they were probably at least as inartistic as ourselves,
but at a later period they accepted so universally the spirit of
Hellenic culture, and became so imbued with it, that it becomes
impossible to separate the elements of Romanism and Hellenism in
this respect, and in the times of the empire we cannot dissociate
the spirit which spread beauty and culture over the world from the
stemer and more robust elements of the character which even in its
17
decay held together the Eoman sway. There is in the modern
world nothing like the blending of two such entirely different
currents of thought into one national type. The spirit and the
teachings of Hellenic Art and of the culture of refined forms of
external beauty is still a potent force among many others which
make up modern civilization, but it is external and artificial rather
than an integral part of the national life which in the colonies, at
any rate, shows little trace of departure from the prosaic and
unadorned ways of our forefathers. We must find such consolation
as we may in applying to ourselves the lines which, all hackneyed
as they are, describe what are the true arts that belong to an
Imperial race :
" Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos "
without fancying that we are ever likely bo achieve much distinction
as an aesthetic or artistic race.
In literature and the non-material creations of the intellect we
labour under no such racial disabilities as those which forbid us
ever to hope for much general artistic development in the colonies.
Colonists are the descendants of the countrymen of Shakespeare,
of Voltaire, of Goethe, and of all the glorious company who
have by the creations of their genius beautified and enriched
literature. In science and in letters we are the heirs of no system
which is outworn, and which has spent its force, and lost its
originality. From England, from Germany, and from France the
great stream of modern thought flows down to us ample and rich
beyond all description, and from one or other of its great sources
fresh accessions are always being made to its volume. In this
matter certainly to us has been entrusted a tale of talents far in
excess of the beggarly outfit with which other infant communities
began their career. Considering all this, it is with a certain amount
both of surprise and of disappointment that we are bound to confess
that so very little original work has been done by way of adding to
the common store, and that as far as the outward and visible signs
go there seems to be no indication of any activity, scarcely indeed
of any life, in the colonial intellect in this respect. I dp not go too
far I think in saying that no original work of any value in literature
has been produced in the British colonies, nothing for instance that
could in any way compare with the "Federalist," which we may
fairly claim as the production of the former colonial period. A few
respectable compilations, chief among which Todd's and Bourinot s
works on Parliamentary Government, some extraordinarily big and
bad Australian histories, and some more modest efforts in the same
line from our own colony, which deserve a better fate than to be
classed with their more pretentious brethren.
In the higher and more imaginative walks of literature, the
blank is still more depressing. Poetry, at once the most perfect
and the most spontaneous child of man's genius, has not emigrated,
18
and I do not know whether it is encouraging or not that there is
even a scarcity of that terrible creature the aspiring minor poet,
whose lines in countries more favoured by the nause are wont to
find an uncongenial home in the corner of newspapers. I should
except of course those delicious lyrics, which shed such a grace over
the columns of our own "Patriot," and perhaps also some local
melodramas that seem to be manufactured to suit the Australian
palate. In works of imagination we are scarcely better ; but there
is an improvement. We may claim, as a child of colonial soil,
" Sam Slick," and the other works of the witty clockmaker. There
is one good novel produced in Australia, if not by an Australian
born, " His Natural Life," by M. Clarke, and we, in South Africa,
should certainly not forget " The Story of an African Farm," a work
of true and remarkable genius, which holds out a promise that its
gifted authoress may some day stand among the great writers of
her sex. Apart from these too scanty exceptions, I fear that even
the most partial among us must allow that our intellectual has not
kept pace with our material production, and that if by some
cataclvsm the dependencies of Great Britain were to be wiped out
of existence to-morrow, the great world of thought, and the capital
stock of ideas that forms the true wealth of mankind, would not
thereby suffer any tremendous loss.
It is not easy to find a reason for this state of affairs. There
is nothing in our race that compels us to intellectual stagnation, for
we may claim in this respect a share in the heritage of most
advanced races in the world, while the enterprise and energy shown
in other matters forbids us to think that those who have done so
much labour under any special mental disabilities. Nor can we
seek a cause in the exterior conditions under which our life is passed,
for instances might be multiplied to show how little genius is
trammelled by externals, and how, from amid the most sordid
surroundings, and from the poorest and most barren soil, writers
and thinkers have arisen whose names and whose works are
immortal. Chill penury, at all events, will never freeze the genial
current of the soul of any of our mute inglorious Mil tons. With
the memory of Burns, of Keats, and of Carlyle before us it is
difficult to subscribe to the opinion of De Tocqueville when, in
attempting to account for the lack of original poetry in America, he
says : " Nothing conceivable is so petty, so insipid, so crowded
with paltry interests, in a word, so anti-poetic, as the life of a man
in the United States," for to those I have named and to many other
original thinkers the same description of their surroundings would
have applied. The same writer and I quote him because his great
work on democracy seems to me to afford many lessons for our own
guidance after saying that " It must be acknowledged that among
few of the civilised nations of our time (he wrote in 1840) have the
higher sciences made less progress than in the United States, and
in few have great artists, fine poets, and celebrated writers been
19
more rare," goes on to say that " Europeans have attributed this to
democracy, and they have supposed that if a democratic state of
society, and democratic institutions, were to prevail over the whole
earth, the human mind would gradually find its beacon lights grow
dim, and men would relapse into a period of darkness." Considering
that democracy, or the assertion of individuality, is the very essence
of Hellenism, and that Athens was at once the mother of art and
literature and of democracy as well, it seems difficult to see how
this opinion could have arisen, and De Tocqueville rightly adds that
he thinks that those who express it confound what is democratic
with what is American. He accounts for the lack of literary effort
partly by the form of religion, " which is unfavourable to art, and
yields a reluctant sufferance to literature," and partly because "at
a time when the American people were devoting themselves to
useful arts and means of rendering life comfortable, learned and
literary Europe was engaged in arts and literature. Hence they
took these things second-hand."
It is, of course, needless to point out how immensely the
conditions of intellectual life in the United States have changed
since the above was written, or how there is in that great country
at the present day growing up amid new conditions of life and of
society, and with amazing fertility, a literature at once cultivated
and original. The material conditions under which intellectual life
is carried on in the colonies is not dissimilar from those of the
United States in the years referred to, when De Tocqueville wrote,
and colonists like the Americans are prepared to let their literary
energies lie dormant, and to take their ideas second-hand. Perhaps,
too, for them a spring-time may come which may result in a
distinct type of literary culture ; some colonial Lowell or Bret
Harte may arise, who will give to colonial humour and to colonial
pathos a separate and distinct place of its own, or perhaps even in
the fulness of time a colonial James may evolve studies of character
in the garb of fiction as clever, as fine spun and as dreary as their
American prototypes. All we can say is that at present there is no
sign of any such development, and in our case the special
circumstances of our provincial existence militate against the
creation of a literary school of our own.
The improvement of communications, and the regularity with
which cheap literature is spread to the ends of the earth, at once
does away with the demand for local productions, and increases the
facility with which anything at all likely to attract attention finds
its way to the great centre of civilization. The products of genius,
like those of the soil, seek the best market, where the increasing
crowd of readers, and their continual craving for something new,
ensures the sale of even those books which nobody much esteems.
One result of this natural law is to take away from those who have
not even that which they have, and to destroy, or at any rate to
20
retard, the growth, as regards literature, of any of that energy and
originality of intellect which the dependencies have shown that they
do not lack in certain other directions. The evil must, however,
work its own cure, for even in this advanced age no one has been
found bold enough to recommend " Protection " by way of encourage-
ment to native talent, or to suggest a tax on imported ideas.
I wish very briefly to summarise my conclusions. I think
that on the whole it would be just to say that the dependencies of
Great Britain show many signs of an active and original develop-
ment of intellectual life in the matter of politics, and that many
questions both of government and of society may find new and
unthought-of solutions in these communities ; that this activity and
originality has to contend with a spirit of apathy and a want of
earnestness, arising partly out of the inherent qualities of a demo-
cracy, and partly also out of the state of provincialism that gives an
air of unreality to public life. On the other hand, that very great
advantages have arisen from the peculiar system under which the
dependencies of Great Britain have sprung up, and that we have
enjoyed at once the privileges of freedom and of immunity from
external danger without parallel in the history of the world, both of
which have had a great effect on our intellectual condition.
In Art I do not think it is possible for the most partial observer
to contend that the colonies show much development in the present,
or much promise for the future. That the accumulation of wealth
will, in their case, as elsewhere, produce a class who will attempt
to secure the material evidences of their riches in the shape of
works of Art is likely enough, but unless some great change passes
over the race there is an hereditary disability which will prevent
the formation of a general artistic sense like that, for instance,
which permeates Japan, and seems to be inherent in the craftsmen
of Eastern nations. This disability is strengthened rather than
diminished by the very advantages of our social condition. In
Literature, if we may judge by the example of the United States,
the outlook is more cheerful. There is no reason to think that we,
as a class, have lost the divine faculty of genius which is the best
heritage that we derive from our forefathers ; but rather that we
are only journeying through a sort of intellectual Sahara, and that
there may be a promised land of exuberant fertility beyond. The
multiplication and improvement of the means of communication
and of those for the diffusion of knowledge tend to centralisation of
thought, and it is time alone which can effect a change in this
respect. It may not be our lot to see the provincial schools of the
British Empire crowded with scholars from the Mother Country
like those of the provinces of Rome, and it will be long indeed before
our municipalities seek to erect statues to distinguished philosophers
or to successful schoolmasters ; but there is no reason why we in
the colonies should not attain to general level of culture of New
21
England, and it is only when we do so that we can hope to exercise
upon the world the influence that may belong to our wealth and
position.
I hope that in these few remarks I have not said too much. I
know how perilous it is not to throw a few grains of incense on the
altar of national pride, but it is well sometimes to turn from the
mart and the mine, from power and from wealth, and to reflect that
it was not by these alone that those who went before us made the
names of England and Holland, of Germany and France famous in
the world. These are but the results of qualities of mind, and in
these it will be well that those that come after us are not found
lacking, for as the poet truly says in speaking of modern progress :
' ' Children of men ! Not that your age excel
In pride of life the ages of your Sires,
But that ye think clear, feel deep, bear fruit well,
The Friend of Man desires."