16.5 



A GLANCE AT THE PEOGEESS OF DISCOVEEY 



AND SCIENCE DUEING THE PAST HALF 



CENTUEY. 



AN ADDRESS. 



Like some form of mortal mould, wlien its term of years has been com- 

 pleted, half a century has gone down into the grave, leaving behind 

 it only the shadows and remembrances of its deeds. As we judge of 

 men, so we judge of years. We reverence their memory for the good 

 which it embalms, and we sigh for those thoughts and deeds which 

 can only serve to drown the memory with shame, but which, per- 

 chance, can never be forgotten. The half century which has just 

 simk into the hush of time has been one of strife and struggle, and a 

 period fraught with incidents involving the dearest interests of hu- 

 manity. With its revolutions, its destruction of dynasties, its creation 

 of new states, and its efforts to carve out — Pygmalion-like — some 

 nobler form of humanity, we have nothing here to do. We have to 

 glance at the progress of its spirit of research, and trace out a few of 

 the workings of its inventive genius. 



If any one era of the world has been distinguished for its march of 

 mind, and its practical applications of theoretic truths, the period just 

 closed has been so pre-eminently. Its Idea is the supremacy of mental 

 power — the conquest of the world by thought. If we look back and 

 trace through the half circle of years the distinguishing features which 

 they embody, our whole attention will be absorbed with the spectacle 

 which it presents of man fighting with the elements ; divesting them 

 of their long-cherished freedom, and making them the servants of his 

 will. The human mind has passed through its inductive phases — its 

 early speculations on the wild, the grand, and the terrible ; its lofty 

 flights of sublime thought, and struggles after the Infinite ; its scholas- 

 tic eras of philosophy and fiction, reason and presumption. It has 

 voyaged safely through that troubled sea of mediaeval darkness, 

 battling with the confused elements of disrupted systems, and aided 



