:PLYM0UTH iNSTlTtTTlON* 31 



motto is cui bonOf — ^what use is it? Art, science, literature, are 

 all estimated ad valorem. They pique themselves on having 

 nothing about them that is not useful — and look dov^n with dig- 

 nified contempt on all who do not judge of utility by their princi- 

 ples : the things wliich the vulgar, (i. e. the rich vulgar, as well as 

 the poor) call useful, are, for the most part, those which have res- 

 pect to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of the body, 

 and are appreciated just in proportion as their influence upon 

 them is more or less direct. But the mind has claims to be 

 satisfied, just as imperative, if rightly understood, as the body. 

 Mental food is as necessary for the well-being of our intellectual 

 part, as material aliment is for our corporeal frame. Painters, 

 sculptors, poets, and other cultivators of the imaginative arts, 

 who contribute to our mental sustenance, must be classed as pro- 

 ductive labourers of the greatest importance to society, when 

 they refuse to prostitute their illustrious arts to the evil propen- 

 sities of our nature. 



The lecturer expressed his satisfaction, that in the midst of 

 much misapprehension on the subject of real utility, a more en- 

 lightened opinion was evidently begining to prevail. Ancient 

 buildings, which a few years since weuld have been demolished 

 for the paltry value of the materials, were now carefully pre- 

 served and renovated, as in the instances of Crosby Hall, St. 

 Alban's Abbey, &c., and picturesque and beautiful trees by the 

 road side, which twenty years ago would have been condemned 

 to the saw-pit, without hope or reprieve, were now suffered to 

 stand secure and unmolested. In all this, the real Utilitarian 

 acts upon the most comprehensive views of the mysterious sym- 

 pathies of our two-fold nature, whilst the economical visionary 

 who must make up his debtor and creditor account, on the ad 

 valorem plan, and deals with mankind as he would with pup- 

 pets, finds, after all his panopticans and parallelograms, that his 

 calculations have been entirely at fault, and that the much 

 vaunted system, which was to regenerate the world, and to adorn 

 the age, has just stood long enough to become a witness of the 

 folly of the designer, and then has dissolved, like the over-blown 

 bubble of the school-boy, into '' thin air" — and all for neglect 

 of that most sound and sage maxim, 



There are worse things in Heaven and Earth, 

 Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. 



