—_ 
ADDRESS. XXXVil 
knows too well the proportion between his ignorance and his knowledge ; 
_ but if there be any who, from being the wonder of a limited circle, or from 
exaggerating the difficulty of his own attainments, is disposed to exalt him- 
self above his peers, let him visit us, and I will answer for his cure. There 
is not a man on earth who could try the experiment without finding supe- 
riors in some of our departments, and scarcely any who would not find an 
equal in that of which he is vain. 
As to our foreign visitors, I need not take the trouble of proving what 
you all feel: the attracting them to our shores—the having the opportunity 
of knowing such men as Arago and CErsted, Ritter, Encke or Struve, Bache 
or Henry—of strengthening by the ties of friendship that brotherhood of 
science, to which I have already referred as of such importance—that alone 
would be worth an Association to obtain it. Even on this, the first night of 
our meeting, we are honoured by several distinguished guests. On another 
' occasion I shall express to them our acknowledgement of the honour with 
which their presence graces us; but now shall refer only to one—the Che- 
valier Bunsen—in answer to any who may suppose that an attachment to any 
of the various branches of science, in which he is so highly gifted, unfits a 
man for the most energetic discharge of the active duties of public.life. 
In the second object—“ to give a stronger impulse and more systematic di- 
rection to scientific inquiry ’—we have.not been less successful. The very 
excitement connected with our meetings, is itself such an impulse, and a most 
_ powerful one. Those of our members who have long been known as the 
h chief ornaments of our great philosophical societies—devoted to science, and 
rich in its triumphs—feel it as fully now as when first they joined us. At 
each new occurrence they seem to find a renovation of enthusiasm—a flow of 
hope, an increase of resolution among us—which send them with fresh 
strength to resume their labours; and will be present to them in the hours 
of despondency and gloom, which at times cloud even the firmest spirits, like a 
beam of light. Nor is our spell less potent on those yet untried in the race, 
who come forward to communicate the first fruits of their research—the truth 
which has rewarded their solitary toil. To such, the approbation, the kind 
> advice, the affectionate warning of their more renowned companions, is like 
= a horoscope that stamps the future course of life; more powerful even than 
__ the applause of the multitude, who rejoice at the success of one unknown, and 
“are encouraged by it to similar exertion. But still more precious is the ex- 
; citement of plunging into this mighty flow of intellect, to one whose lot is like 
mine, cast remote from the resorts of science—with few or none near him to 
understand or value his pursuits; nothing but his own fixity of resolve to 
bg disperse the listlessness which thus gathers on the mind and clogs its wing. 












