PROFESSOR LOVERING'S ADDRESS. 321 



generation, the human mind has been baffled in its attempts to con- 

 struct a universal science of physics. But nothing will discourage it. 

 When foiled in one direction, it will attack in another. Science is not 

 destructive, but progressive. While its theories change, the facts re- 

 main. Its generalizations are widening and deepening from age to 

 age. We may extend to all the theories of physical science the remark 

 of Grote, which Challis quotes in favor of his own : " Its fruitfulness is 

 its correctibility." Instead of being disheartened by difficulties, the 

 true man of science will congratulate himself in the words of Vau- 

 venargues, that he lives in a world fertile' in obstacles. Immortality 

 would be no boon if there were not something left to discover as well 

 as to love. Fortunate, thought Fontenelle, was Newton, beyond all 

 other men, in having a whole fresh universe before him, waiting for an 

 explanation. But science wants no Alexanders weeping because there 

 are not other worlds to conquer. For every heroic Columbus who 

 launches forth, in however frail a bark, upon untried oceans, seeing 

 before him rich continents where others behold only a wilderness of 

 waters, there are precious discoveries in reserve. Surely the time has 

 not yet come when the men in any section in this Association can fold 

 their arms and say, "It is finished." Unless our physicists are con- 

 tented to lag behind and gather up the crumbs which fall from the 

 rich laboratories and studies of Europe, they must unite to delicate 

 manipulation the power of mathematical analysis. Mathematics wins 

 victories where experiment has been beaten. With good reason we 

 applaud the many brilliant successes of instrumental research. Mathe- 

 matical analysis, with its multitudinous adaptations, is the only kev 

 which will fit the most intricate wards in the treasury of science. 

 With the help of her mathematical physicists, Great Britain has now 

 taken a position in science which she has not held before since the 

 days of Newton. In Germany, the physicists do not hold back from 

 the most difficult problems of the day, because they are led along by 

 experiment on one arm and by mathematics on the other. The zeal 

 of the Italian scientists prevails over even the terrors of Vesuvius, and 

 makes them ready to become martyrs, like Pliny the Elder, to Nature 

 and humanity. France, too, out of the very ashes of her humiliation, 

 sends an inspiring word to us. Since her defeat, her scientific spirit 

 has been aroused as it was after the days of the first Revolution. 

 Her Association for the Advancement of Science is only a two-year- 

 old infant ; but it has sprung into existence, like Minerva from the 

 head of Jupiter, full grown and equipped. Already it has displayed 

 a vitality and a prosperity which this Association, in its opening man- 

 hood, has not yet acquired. The words of its first president are as 

 true for the United States as for France that the strength and glory 

 of a country are not in its arms, but in its science. 



VOL. VI. 21 



