xlvi REPORT — 1844. 



of philosophy, to advance the boundaries of knowledge ; for though there may 

 be impassable boundaries of human knowledge, there is only one great and 

 all-wise Being, with whom all knowledge is perfect, who can say, " Thus far 

 shall thou go and no further." The indolent speculator on the history of the sci- 

 ences may indulge in an expression of regret that the true system of the uni- 

 verse is already known, that the law of gravitation is discovered, that the pro 

 blem of the three bodies is solved, and that the mine of discovery is exhausted 

 and that there remain no rich masses of ore in its veins to make the fortune 

 and fame of those who find them ; but it is in the midst of this dream of hope- 

 lessness and despondency that he is startled from time to time by the report 

 of some great discovery — a Davy has decomposed the alkalies, a Dalton has 

 discovered, and a Berzelius has completely developed, the law of definite pro- 

 portions ; a Herschel has extended the law of gravitation to the remotest dis- 

 coverable bodies of the universe, and a Gauss has brought the complicated and 

 embarrassing phaenomena of terrestrial magnetism under the dominion of ana- 

 lysis ; and so it will ever continue to be whilst knowledge advances, the high- 

 est generalizations of one age becoming the elementary truths of the next. 

 But whilst we are taking a part in this great march of science and civilization, 

 whilst we are endeavouring to augment the great mass of intellectual wealth 

 which is accumulating around us, splendid as maybe the triumphs of science 

 or art which we are achieving, let us never presume to think that we are 

 either exhausting the riches or apy)roaching the term of those treasures which 

 are behind; still less let us imagine that the feeble efforts of our philosophy 

 will ever tend to modify the most trivial and insignificant, — if aught can be 

 termed trivial and insignificant which He has sanctioned, — of those arrange- 

 ments which the great Author of Nature has appointed for the moral or ma- 

 terial government of the universe. Far diflferent are the lessons which he 

 taught us by the revelation of his will, whether expressed in his word or 

 impressed on his works; it is in a humble and reverent spirit that we should 

 approach the fountain of all knowledge, and it is in a humble and reverent 

 spirit that we should seek to drink of the living waters which for ever flow 

 from it. 



Report of the Council to the General Committee. 



1. The General Committee assembled at Cork in August 1843 having 

 passed a Resolution to the effect that an application should be made, on the 

 part of the British Association, to the Master- General of the Ordnance, en- 

 treating his assistance in the proposed experiments with Captive Balloons, the 

 Council has to report that the application has been accordingly made, and that 

 a reply has been received from the Master-General, stating that the Com- 

 mandant of the Garrison at Woolwich has been directed to afford the facilities 

 and assistance which are requested. 



2. The General Committee assembled at Cork having directed that "an 

 application be made to Her Majesty's Government for the insertion of Contour 

 Lines of Elevation on the Ordnance Maps of Ireland, such lines being of great 

 value for engineering, mining, geological and mechanical purposes," — the 

 Council has to report, that a copy of this Resolution was transmitted to Her 

 Majesty's Government, accompanied by the following Memorial : — 



" The undersigned Membersof the British Association for the Advancement 



