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fountain of their power springs in zoology. The two greatest 
triumphs of human intellect, the Principia and Mecanique Celeste, 
owe their very existence to the data of the practical astronomer, 
and even take a little from the literature of Greece and China. 
The most exclusive antiquarian is glad to obtain light from chemical 
investigation, or borrow an eclipse from the astronomer; and must 
honour that science which formed those powers of keen analysis 
and severe induction which have torn the veil from the mysteries 
of Ogham. Accordingly philosophers are retracing their steps, and 
feel the necessity of recombining their societies into large and 
powerful unions; they have performed this in our own isles, among 
our transatlantic kinsmen, in Germany, France, and Italy; with 
results so successful as to give the highest guarantee for the wis- 
dom of such a course. In these new bodies the essential condition 
is a separation of departments, bound together into harmony of 
action and unity of purpose by a common organization, and an 
equal participation of authority and power. In this, which exactly 
defines the system of the British Association, you find a correct 
description of our own constitution. Honoured, therefore, be the 
memory of our founders! who, anticipating this important result 
by more than fifty years, selected from the crowd of possible com- 
binations that which not only secures the good and avoids the evil » 
that I have indicated, but was, perhaps, the only one which, under 
the existing circumstances, contained in itself a principle of perma- 
nent vitality. Doubtless to it we owe not only our present pros- 
perity but our actual existence. If you look at the early volumes 
of our Transactions, and examine the list of our original members, 
you will see how far the department of Literature predominated; and 
will be convinced that a society which had been organized on a 
base either purely scientific or archeological must have perished 
at once, and left scarcely a tradition of its existence. It is true that 
afterwards the chemistry of Kirwan, and the geometry and astro- 
nomy of Brinkley, gave powerful aid; but I remember well, and I 
see valued friends here who still remain to bear witness with me to 
the fact, that there were times when we were unable to muster 
even a quorum for ballot; and when the sole principle that saved 
us from dissolution was the habit of union, the feeling of personal 
