" It is because the present aspect of affairs is essentially 

 different from any that has been hitherto witnessed in this 

 country, that our hopes of progress are sanguine. There is a 

 lull, a calm in the political atmosphere, such as has not been 

 experienced since the beginning of the reign of George the 

 Third. But, at that period, few indeed were the objects, 

 either noble in themselves, or conducive to the public interests, 

 that occupied the attention of ministers or statesmen. Little 

 they thought of the advancement of literature, or of the pro- 

 motion of science, or of social ameliorations, or of sanatory 

 reforms, or of the propagation of the Gospel. Any one who 

 will turn over the correspondence of Horace Walpole, may 

 see, in the pages of that cold, cynical, polished, and selfish 

 writer, the perfect reflection of the spirit of his age — the low 

 pursuits, the base intrigues, and utter profligacy of the public 

 men of those days. In a few years after, we had the Ame- 

 rican war, immediately followed by the tempest of the French 

 Revolution, which upturned by its fury society from its 

 lowest depths, and cast upon the surface cmestions which 

 were long agitated, and contested with all the zeal and rancour 

 of party feuds and private interests. The aspect of the 

 times we live in is indeed favourable to our progress, and 

 encouraging to our hopes. They who in former years kept 

 this society alive — so to speak — had difficulties to contend 

 with, and discouragements to struggle against, of which we 

 happily have no experience. They had a public opinion to 

 deal with, which undervalued as trivial, or contemned as 

 impracticable, inquiries such as ours. And this neglect of 

 such pursuits was still further increased, by the political 

 state of Europe at the time. A man whose house is on fire 

 does not meditate upon the setting of it in order ; so the 

 public mind, which watched in breathless suspense the issue 

 of a prolonged and bloody conflict, on the result of which 

 the destinies of so large a portion of mankind depended, 

 could not be expected to give its attention to subjects so 



