The Presidenfs Address. 291 



philosopher may summon the faithful to prayer; and the 

 priest and the sage may exchange altars without the com- 

 promise of faith or of knowledge. Influenced, no douht, by 

 views like these, Mr Harcourt has cited the opinions of a 

 philosopher whose memory is dear to Scotland, and whose 

 judgment on any great question will be everywhere received 

 with respect and attention ; I refer to Professor Playfair, the 

 distinguished successor in our Metropolitan University of 

 the Gregorys, the Maclaurins, and the Stewarts of former 

 days, who, in his able dissertation * On the Progress of the 

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences,' thus speaks of the 

 National Institute of France : — 



" * This institution has been of considerable advantage to 

 science. To detach a number of ingenious men from every- 

 thing but scientific pursuits, — to deliver them alike from the 

 embarrassments of poverty or the temptations of wealth, — 

 to give them a place and station in society the most respect- 

 able and independent, is to remove every impediment, and 

 to add every stimulus to exertion. To this institution, ac- 

 cordingly, operating upon a people of great genius, and inde- 

 fatigable activity of mind, we are to ascribe that superiority 

 in the mathematical sciences which, in the last seventy years, 

 has been so conspicuous.' — Diss. Sd, Sec. 5, p. 500. 



" This just eulogy on the National Institute of France, in 

 reference to abstract mathematics, may be safely extended 

 to every branch of theoretical and practical science ; and I 

 have no hesitation in saying, after having recently seen the 

 Academy of Sciences at its weekly labours, that it is the 

 noblest and most effective institution that ever was organized 

 for the promotion of science. Owing to the prevalence of 

 scientific knowledge among all classes of the French popula- 

 tion, and to their admirable system of elementary instruction, 

 the advancement of science, the diffusion of knowledge, and 

 the extension of education, are objects dear to every class of 

 the people. The soldier as well as the citizen, — the Socialist, 

 the Republican, and the Royalist, — all look up to the Na- 

 tional Institute as a mighty obelisk erected to science, to be 

 respected and loved and defended by all. We have seen it 

 standing unshaken and active amid all the revolutions and 



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