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mercial language, would be called an entrepot or exchange for effecting such transfers.
The second and concluding observation which I have to make on this point is, that as Human, unlike Animal knowledge, is essentially progressive, we have new industrial problems continually to solve. The difficulty with the compass-needle, already referred to, was not largely encountered till iron was substituted for wood in the construction of ships. Every new discovery and improvement alters the significance and industrial importance of all which have preceded it; so that men, in employing the knowledge of their forefathers, cannot deal with it as so much gold of standard worth, but only as so much moveable property which is of continually fluctuating value. One of the great objects of a Chair of Technology, is to enable this value to be continually struck and made known to all.
The aim of Technology, then, is sufficiently defined as the science of Utilitarian Art; but, as stated already, it is only certain departments of Utilitarian Art which it embraces. Thus the most useful perhaps of all the necessary arts—that of Medicine—is excluded, and exactly because it is so useful: its pre-eminent utility demanding its assignment to a profession, whose sole business it shall be, and its great difficulty requiring a whole band of prelectors and practitioners to undertake its teaching. Other arts are, in whole or part, excluded for similar reasons. But without seeking to specify what they are, it will be sufficient to state, that the arts included in the domain of Technology, are the Industrial Arts, or Handicrafts, specially so called. These admit of a simple division into Mechanical and Chemical Arts, according as they are mainly related to Physics or to Chemistry. The division is of necessity a very imperfect one, but it is sufficiently precise for the ends of Industrial Art; and Technology has equal concern with both sections.
The range of subjects thus left free to me is so vast, that even were I presumptuous enough to attempt to traverse its immense domain, I could but touch superficially on each Art, and would require years to do even that. Plainly, then, I must restrict myself to certain Departments of Industrial Art. Yet here, the difficulty largely felt by the public and referred to by the Reverend Principal, in his opening address, occurs, How shall I limit myself to selected arts, and not encroach upon the subjects taught from the
