312 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



science in the ancient world. The laws and instincts which first 

 impelled and directed man in his inquiries into the causes of those 

 appearances, and the slate of things observable around him, were 

 inquired into, and the various phenomena in nature which must 

 have first attracted his attention, and excited his curiosity to search 

 into their hidden causes, as leading the way to correct and scientific 

 knowledge in matters of science, were ably, though of necessity 

 briefly, discussed. This division of the subject comprehended a re- 

 view of the origin and rise of the study of natural history, the 

 laws of motion, and the most celebrated theories of mathematical 

 and astronomical science entertained by the ancients ; from which 

 the discourse passed on to a consideration of the progress of modern 

 philosophy, in its principal and most important branches ; the re- 

 cent discoveries in respect of light and optics being selected as an 

 illustration of the progress which physical science was now making. 

 The structure of the world we inhabit, through all its states and 

 changes, invited, nay, commanded, man to exercise his intellectual 

 faculties in the discussion of subjects like the present, conducting 

 him, as such discussions must do, to a right appreciation of the 

 great first cause. The efforts of modern philosophers in directing 

 attention to the doctrine of final causes, were warmly applauded, 

 and their valuable discoveries, in physiology and geology especially, 

 were referred to, as affording abundant evidence in proof and illus- 

 tration of the value and importance of such efforts. The doctrine 

 of final causes was further illustrated by the beautiful discoveries of 

 Harvey on the circulation of the blood, and in botanical science by 

 the changes which plants undergo in accommodating themselves to 

 climates and latitudes not naturally congenial to them. The struc- 

 ture of the eye, in a great variety of animals, was adduced as ano- 

 ther proof, and explained by a series of appropriate transparencies, 

 for the loan of which the lecturer acknowledged himself indebted to 

 Mr. Wright, whose able lectures on comparative physiology had 

 been delivered before the society in the early part of the session. 

 The extent and importance of modern discoveries, as conducing to 

 the general happiness and prosperity of mankind, were brought into 

 striking contrast with the ignorance of past ages ; and the satires of 

 Swift, and the witticisms of the wits of Queen Anne's days, afforded 

 a legitimate opportunity for a forcible and eloquent appeal in behalf 

 of the progress of physical science, and deprecative of those false 

 views in philosophy which, for so long a period, had deluded men, 

 under the sophism of " the wisdom of our ancestors." In conclu- 

 sion, the learned president passed in review the principal features of 

 the discourse — alluded to the important discoveries daily making in 

 the application of the power of steam— in the infant science of geo- 

 logy, and the various physical phenomena which are developed in 

 the different strata and their distinguishing fossil remains — to as- 

 tronomy, and particularly to the discovery of the double stars — and, 

 finally, to electro-magnetism, and the splendid investigations of Dr. 

 Faraday. 



