ADDRESS. Xxxili 
_ by every encouragement in our power, the due consideration and scientific 
_ discussion of results so procured—to urge it upon the science of our own 
country and of Europe, and to aid from our own resources those who may be 
willing to charge themselves with their analysis, and direct or execute the 
numerical computations or graphical projections it may involve. This is ac- 
tually the predicament in which we stand, in reference to the immense mass 
of data already accumulated by the magnetic and meteorological observa- 
tories. Let the science of England, and especially the rising and vigorous 
mind which is pressing onward to distinction, gird itself to the work of grap- 
pling with this mass. Let it not be said that we are always to look abroad 
whenever industry and genius are required. to act in union for the discussion 
of great masses of raw observation. Let us take example from what we see 
going on in Germany, where a Dove, a Kamtz and a Mahlmann are battling 
with the meteorology, a Gauss, a Weber and an Ermann with the magnetism 
of the world. The mind of Britain is equal to the task; its mathematical 
strength, developed of late years to an unprecedented extent, is competent to 
any theoretical analysis or technical combination. Nothing is wauting but 
the resolute and persevering devotion of undistracted thought to a single ob- 
ject, and that will not be long wanting when once the want is declared and 
dwelt upon, and the high prize of public estimation held forth to those who 
fairly and freely adventure themselves in this career. Never was there a 
time when the mind of the country, as well as its resources of every kind, 
answered so fully and readily to any call reasonable in itself and properly 
urged upon it. Do we call for facts? they are poured upon us in such pro- 
fusion as for a time to overwhelm us, like the Roman maid who sank under 
the load of wealth she called down upon herself. Witness the piles of un- 
reduced meteorological observations which load our shelves and archives; 
witness the immense and admirably arranged catalogues of stars which have 
been and still are pouring in from all quarters upon our astronomy so soon 
as the want of extensive catalogues came to be felt and declared. What we 
now want is thought, steadily directed to single objects, with a determination 
to eschew the besetting evil of our age—the temptation to squander and di- 
lute it upon a thousand different lines of inquiry. The philosopher must be 
wedded to his subject if he would see the children and the children’s children 
of his intellect flourishing in honour around him. 
The establishment of astronomical observatories has been, in all ages and 
nations, the first public recognition of science as an integrant part of civili- 
zation. Astronomy, however, is only one out of many sciences, which can 
be advanced by a combined system of observation and calculation carried on 
uninterruptedly ; where, in the way of experiment, man has no control, and 
whose only handle is the continual observation of Nature as it developes 
itself under our eyes, and a constant collateral endeavour to concentrate the 
records of that observation into empirical laws in the first instance, and to 
ascend from those laws to theories. Speaking in a utilitarian point of view, 
__ the globe which we inhabit is quite as important a subject of scientific inquiry 
| as the stars. We depend for our bread of life and every comfort on its eli- 
_ mates and seasons, on the movements of its winds and waters. We guide 
_ ourselves over the ocean, when astronomical observations fail, by our know- 
_ ledge of the laws of its magnetism; we learn the sublimest lessons from the 
records of its geological history; and the great facts which its figure, 
magnitude, and attraction, offer to mathematical inquiry, form the very basis 
of Astronomy itself. Terrestrial Physics, therefore, form a subject every way 
worthy to be associated with Astronomy as a matter of universal interest and 
public support, and one which cannot be adequately studied except in the 
_ way in which Astronomy itself has been—by permanent establishments 
