ADDRESS. IXXXV 



problems have been solved, — what and how vast are other problems yet 

 waiting for, and capable of solution. And even where the researches of 

 Physical Science can do little more than guide conjecture, or illustrate merely 

 what it cannot prove, how grand are the questions which it excites us to 

 ask, and on which it enables us to gather some amount of evidence ! In 

 Geology, is it true, or is it not true, that " we can see no trace of a beginning 

 — no symptom of an end?" To what extent, and in what sense are we yet 

 entitled to say, that there has been an advance in organization as there has 

 been advance in time ? In Physiology, what is the meaning of that great 

 law, of adherence to type and pattern, standing behind as it were, and in 

 reserve of that other law by which organic structures are specially adapted 

 to special modes of Life ? What is the relation between these two laws ; and 

 can any light be cast upon it, derived from the history of extinct forms, or 

 from the conditions to which we find that existing forms are subject ? In 

 Vegetable Physiology do the same, or similar laws prevail,— or can we trace 

 others, such as those on the relations between structure, form and colour, of 

 which clear indications have already been established, in communications 

 lately made to this Association by Dr. M'Cosh and Dr. Dickie of Belfast? 

 In Chemistry, how is it that some of the most powerful actions escape our 

 finest analyses? In Medicine, what is the action of specifics? and are there 

 no more discoveries to be made such as rewarded the observation of Jenner, 

 in the almost total extinction of a fearful and frequent scourge ? It is in refer- 

 ence to such great questions, and ten thousand others equally interesting and 

 important, that the pursuits of science call forth the highest activities of the 

 mind, and exercise every power of thought and reasoning with which it has 

 been endowed. 



Indeed it may fairly be questioned whether those sciences which are called 

 exact, are necessarily the best preparation for the actual business of the world. 

 It is the rare exception, and not the rule, when exact and perfect demonstration 

 becomes applicable to the affairs of life. In general, men have to balance 

 between a thousand probabilities, and to take into account a thousand con- 

 flicting tendencies. Surely there can be no training better than that which 

 teaches us by what careful inductive reasoning — by what separation between 

 permanent and accidental causes, — by what constant reference from the pre- 

 sent to the past, and from the past back again to the present, our existing 

 knowledge has been attained in the paths of physical research. It is true, 

 indeed, that where men's passions and prejudices are much concerned, no 

 amount of teaching will ever induce them to follow or attend to the best 

 methods of arriving at the truth. But even where there are no such dis- 

 turbing causes, where moderate and candid men are expressing their sincere 

 convictions, how constantly do we hear them ascribing effects to causes, 

 which the slightest habit of correct reasoning would have been sufficient to 

 dismiss ! In questions of great social or political, as well as of philosophical 

 importance, the want of such habit is often most painfully apparent, and 

 serves in no small degree to retard the progress of mankind. The necessity 

 of considering all questions with reference to fundamental principles or laws, 

 and these again with reference to the disturbing causes which delay or sus- 

 pend their operation, the mode of weighing evidence, and the degree of value 

 to be attached to that which is of a merely negative kind — these are things 

 , of which we are perpetually reminded in the pursuits of science ; and these 

 surely are no useless lessons, whether in religious, social, or political affairs. 

 And then there is another consideration of no small importance. As 

 Science has now come to a stage in her progress, when she heads the Arts, 

 and flings back upon them her reflected light, so also has she now reached a 



