290 Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. 



letters patent was taken from Parliament, and given to the 

 Privy Council, who have, on different occasions, exercised 

 it with judgment and discrimination. By the second act of 

 1839, this last privilege was made more attainable by the 

 patentee. There are doubtless valuable improvements which 

 inventors will gratefully remember ; but till the enormous 

 fees which are still exacted are either partly or wholly 

 abolished, and a real privilege given under the great seal, 

 the genius of this country will never be able to compete with 

 that of foreign lands, where patents are cheaply obtained and 

 better protected. In proof of the justness of these views, it 

 is gratifying to notice, that, within these few days, it has 

 been announced in Parliament that the new Attorney-General 

 has accepted his office, on the express condition that the large 

 fees which he derives from patents shall be subject to revi- 

 sion. The other object of the British Association, mentioned 

 by Mr Harcourt, the Organization of Science as a National 

 Institution, is one of a higher order, and not limited to indi- 

 vidual, or even to English interests. It concerns the civi- 

 lized world ; not confined to time it concerns eternity. While 

 the tongue of the Almighty, as Kepler expresses it, is speak- 

 ing to us in His word, his finger is writing to us in His 

 works ; and to acquire a knowledge of these works is an 

 essential portion of the great duty of man. Truth secular 

 cannot be separated from truth divine ; and if a priesthood 

 has in all ages been organized to track and exemplify the 

 one, and to maintain, in ages of darkness and corruption, the 

 vestal fire upon the sacred altar, shall not an intellectual 

 priesthood be organized to develop the glorious truths which 

 time and space embosom, — to cast the glance of reason into 

 the dark interior of our globe, teeming with what was once 

 life, — to make the dull eye of man sensitive to the planet 

 which twinkles from afar, as well as to the luminary which 

 shines above, — and to incorporate with our inner life those 

 wonders of the external world which appeal with equal 

 power to the affections and to the reason of immortal natures 1 

 If the God of Love is most appropriately worshipped in the 

 Christian temple, the God of Nature may be equally honoured 

 in the Temple of Science. Even from its lofty minarets the 



