Show BY PROF TALMAGE oy TUB SUBJECT OF AND delivered before the utah county teachers association the present age is characterized by rapid progress in almost every line of human thought and work valuable discoveries and important inventions are now common occurrences such facts betoken a degree of universal mental activity never before known the inventor or discoverer is a pioneer in the wilderness of undiscovered truth and as such he needs must possess powers of a high order the ancients regarded him as one of the gods and whatever stigma may bo cast upon the state of society and the condition of mankind today to day it is certain that solomons behest has not been entirely disregarded find ye out knowledge of witty inventions the power of invention and discovery is an endowment and as such should be cultivated its exercise is an art and may bo acquired to cultivate or acquire such demands above all else an unmixed love for hand an unflinching perseverance per in the pursuit thereof the discoverer labors without a selfish thought as to tho personal gain or the material benefit to result from his studies where today to day would be the lightning telegraph connecting the continents and making of the world a common household or the telephone which baars boars the softest whisper hundreds of miles or the electric light banishing the shades of night and the horrors of darkness and tho thousand other applications of the subtle power but for tho toils of bolta and of galvani or some such other heroes of the mind yet they did not once think of material benefit or gain resulting to themselves they were true discoverers hardy miners who brought from the deep and dangerous passages of the unknown flashing jewels of truth and fact then camo the inventors morse edison and brush they took those precious gems and gave them setting worthy of their usefulness and beauty their effulgence today to day flashes around the earth another governing feature in the constitution of tho inventors mind is a degree of self dependence and reliance upon its own power originality of thought is too often sunk in the regard aud reverence for the words of books reliable or otherwise books are the result of thought they can not direct us through the wilderness of the undiscovered except as they record the of some former traveler through those deserts the realm of alio unknown is in measurable its horizon extends with every step we take on the sea of discovery there is room for every sail in the firmament of knowledge L space for every wing nature should 10 studied that is the model art is ha copy books are but aids in the I 1 pursuits As students of the thing about us we are too apt to mistake the artificial for the natural but recently it was alit pleasure to conduct a class of I 1 botany students through the pleasant walks of a beautiful garden filled with many rare plants and lovely flowers A calla lily in full blossom attracted considerable attention Oh F exclaimed one of the party gazing rapturously on the pure and stately plant what a beautiful flower it is almost as natural as a waxen calla lily there is much indeed to impel man to thought and action such as may terminate in discovery the creator has endowed him with the dominant trait of curiosity a hook as it has boen called which brings more fish from the waters of knowledge and alie rivers of truth than all others man begins to contemplate nature through curiosity perhaps but he need must end bis gaze with reverence and praise alio teacher should be a discoverer the human mind with its intricate combinations and mysterious operations is not yet studied to its full the germ of discovery should be planted within the pupils nature oven he can find out much written if indeed written at all between the lines of his book every man and woman should bo a discoverer his own body and soul are proper subi ejects for his thought beet this great endowment of the mind be cultivated to its full such a labor is worthy oi the tea chefa dignity |