PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 37 



we find at every step that the intensity of the light which breaks 

 upon us dazzles our feeble sense, and certifies us that, 



" We ourselves are blind." 



It is, however, a consolation to believe (and I would say with 

 Cicero, " Si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum immortales esse 

 credam, lubenter erro. v ) it is, I say, a consolation to think, while 

 contemplating the infirmities of mind, that their present imperfect 

 existence and limited sphere of action, is not the ultimate state of 

 being for which our faculties are intended. When the mysterious 

 sublimation, to which our bodies will be subjected in the crucible of 

 the grave, is effected, it is probable that they will be rendered fit 

 instruments for intellectual perfection. Intensity of thought, how- 

 ever vivid, perseverance in research, however unremitting, will then 

 produce no derangement; but, with the mortality and grossness of 

 its material connection, the mind will lose all liability to disease, to 

 error, and to decay. 



DECEMBER 12ra. Mr. H. WOOLLCOMBE, On Ancient and Modern 

 Travelling in Devonshire. 



The lecturer commenced his paper by observing that the state and 

 number of the roads in any country, together with the locomotive 

 vehicles used thereon, afforded criteria of the state and condition of 

 society; and having illustrated this position by examples he gave his 

 opinion that the great changes made or making in our roads and 

 conveyances will totally change our means and mode of intercourse : 

 in contrasting our slow going ancestors with their rapidly moving 

 descendants he considered the former deserving of considerable cen- 

 sure for their reluctance to exchange for new customs those which 

 were established merely because they were established. 



The lecturer next gave a summary account of the state of the law 

 regarding roads, and made some statements, relative to the roads of 

 Devonshire in the time of Henry VIII. and especial bad roads 

 they were. He quoted from Leland's Itinerary some further inter- 

 esting particulars as to the state of the roads in our immediate locality ; 

 and also gave some extracts from Holingshed relative to the general 

 state of roads and inns in the time of Henry VIII., Mary and Eli- 

 zabeth, from which it appears that, while the roads were very bad, 

 the inns were excellent, and well stocked with all commodities for 

 the inward man, and some were of such capacity that they could easily 

 lodge 200 or 300 persons with their horses. Risdon, in his survey, 

 gives a similar account of the badness of the roads in the time of 

 Charles II. 



VOL. in. 1834. F 



