11 



raising the general level of information to the highest 

 point which circumstances permit. It is therefore 

 no valid objection to the merits of an institution, that 

 it has not yet been the means of introducing some 

 bright peculiar star of science to the world, nor yet 

 recorded many brilliant inventions, to shed a lustre on 

 its annals. It surely were enough, if by a sedulous 

 dissemination of the steady light of knowledge many 

 prejudices are dispelled, and many a mind which 

 might otherwise have slumbered in its ignorance, is 

 awakened to the perception of physical truth ; but in 

 effecting this, an institution effects still more ; it extends 

 the surface and strengthens the foundations on which 

 some future Newton may have to establish his 

 discoveries. 



