imj\ &&** [Brinton. 



plored continent would furnish ; he knew, what other men 

 only guessed, the capacity for marvelous development that 

 lay in those colonies scattered on the virgin marge of an 

 unknown world; with a sublime faith that partook of pro- 

 phetic inspiration, he set to work to build for a future 

 which even the sanguine deemed visionary. 



In the name he may also have conveyed a limitation as 

 well as an extension ; he may have hinted that the subjects 

 of research with which this Societ} r should occupy itself 

 should be those in some way relating to its surroundings ; 

 that it were well to leave to others the pursuit of investiga- 

 tions into classical and mediaeval matters and into localities 

 of old world note. 



This leads me to the character and purpose of the inquiries 

 he designed to loster by this organization. They are signi- 

 fied in the word Philosophical. 



A century and half ago this term had a wider meaning 

 than is current now. Bacon's definition was still in vogue. 

 That great thinker divided philosophy into three branches, 

 divine philosophy, in which " the contemplations of man 

 penetrate to God ;" natural philosophy, which covered the 

 whole field now embraced in natural science ; and human 

 philosophy, under which was included what we now know 

 as psychology, social science, political economy and the like. 



It seems to me that Franklin must have had this very 

 definition of Bacon's, with its threefold divisions, in his 

 mind when he composed his circular of May, 1743, in which 

 he first projected and named this Society. With wording 

 drawn from the early verses of the book of Genesis, he de- 

 fines its mission to be "to let light into the nature of things, 

 to increase the power of man over matter, and to multiply 

 the conveniences or pleasures of life." Clearly this is but a 



