ADDRESS. Ixxi 



rejoice to think, that when the Legislature shall have completed the removal 

 of those restrictions which have hitherto prevented us in many instances 

 from consulting the claims of merit in the distribution of our emolu- 

 ments, there will be ample means afforded for giving all needful encourage- 

 ment to the newly recognized studies, without trenching unduly upon that 

 amount of pecuniary aid which has been hitherto accorded to the Classics. 



In anticipation of which change, I look forward with confidence to the daj'^, 

 when the requirements at Oxford, in the department of Physical Science, will 

 become so general and so pressing, that no Institution which professes to 

 prepare the youth it instructs for academical competition will venture to risk 

 its reputation by declining to admit these branches of study into its educa- 

 tional courses. 



Indeed the example has already been set in many, as I understand to be 

 the case with the noble Seminary within whose walls we are now assembled, 

 as well as with that older Establishment, which, under the energetic manage- 

 ment of its present head master, has become its worthy rival as a training 

 school for the Universities. 



At any rate, I trust the time has now passed away, when studies such as 

 those we recommend lie under the imputation of fostering sentiments 

 inimical to religion. 



In countries, and in an age in which men of Letters were generally tinc- 

 tured with infidelity, it is not to be supposed that Natural Philosophy would 

 altogether escape the contagion ; but the contemplation of the works of crea- 

 tion is surely in itself far more calculated to induce the humility that paves 

 the way to belief, than the presumption which disdains to lean upon the 

 supernatural. 



It is not, indeed, without an excusable feeling of exultation that in sur- 

 veying the triumphs of modern science, we see 



" An intellectual mastery exercised 

 O'er the blind elements ; a purpose given ; 

 A perseverance fed ; almost a soul 

 Imparted to brute matter ;" 



or that we repeat to ourselves the words in which the poet apostrophizes the 

 philosopher, — 



" Go, wondrous creature ! mount where Science guides, — 

 Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides ; 

 Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, 

 Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun." 



Nevertheless, if we pursue the line of thought in which the same author 

 indulges, we shall be compelled to ask ourselves, not without a deep sentiment 

 of humiliation, even whilst contemplating the highest order of intellect which 

 the human race has ever exhibited, — 



" Could he, whose rules the rapid Comet bind, 

 Describe or fix one movement of the mind ? 

 Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend, 

 Explain his own beginning, or his end ?" 



When indeed we reflect within what a narrow area our researches are 

 of necessity circumscribed, when we perceive that we are bounded in space 

 almost to the surface of the planet in which we reside, — itself merely a speck 

 in the universe, one of innumerable worlds invisible from the nearest of the 

 fixed stars — when we recollect, too, that we are limited in point of time to a 

 few short years of life and activity — that our records of the past history of 

 the globe and of its inhabitants are comprised within a minute portion of the 



