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those which guide our course upon the land. For it is owing 

 to the very abtrusest researches of the severest science, that 

 the mariner, no matter upon what point of the world of waters 

 he may be cast, — let him not know whether he is in Europe or 

 in Asia, on the Atlantic or the wide Pacific, in the New World 

 or the old, — can, by the aid of the divining rod and talisman 

 of science, tell with certainty and with confidence, to a mile 

 or two, on what particular point of this wide world he may be 

 standing. It would occupy your attention too long, and 

 would only lead to the same result and irksome repetition, 

 were I to enumerate all that commerce, and navigation, and 

 the arts of life, from the highest embodiments of the gifted 

 fancy and the teeming mind, down to the lowest preparations 

 of culinary skill, are indebted to science. Now let me ask, 

 What has Liverpool done for science in return ? And, that 

 we may obtain a more satisfactory reply to this interrogation, 

 let us for a moment abstract it, as it were, from the rest of 

 England; let us take it out of the reflected light which is 

 cast upon it by the zeal, the energy, and the science of other 

 localities ; let us compare it with some of the free cities of 

 medieval Italy, and let us contrast what they have done, with 

 far humbler means, and imperfect science, with scanty know- 

 ledge, the fear of sudden invasions, and the dread of barbarian 

 foes hovering around them. Let us contrast, I say, what they 

 had accomplished, with what we are doing, with boundless 

 wealth, and elaborated science, with augmented knowledge, 

 and perfect security, towards the cultivation, the refinement, 

 and the moral elevation of our fellow man. Where are our 

 public libraries, freely open to all ? Where is our public 

 gallery of paintings and of sculpture, thrown open to rich and 

 poor alike ? Where are our museums, adorning the town by 

 their external architecture, and instructing the people by their 

 contents ? Nay, where is the church, or single place of 

 worship, that the poor man can freely enter without being 



