90 OBSERVATIONS ON THE DIFFUSION OF 



rendered it probable that they will make a good use of such advan- 

 tages ; and in the private laboratories of that city are to be seen 

 numerous students who are destined for those trades in which a 

 knowledge of chemistry may be in the remotest degree useful. The 

 most brilliant examinations in chemistry are said to be passed by 

 voung men in this class of embryo manufacturers. A country 

 which thus holds out encouragement for the cultivation of science 

 by all classes, not merely in the one department to which I have 

 more especially alluded, but in all, may well boast of having raised 

 many philosophers from the humblest ranks of life. 



We have now to notice another advantage arising from the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge — the improvement of the mind, feelings, and ha- 

 bits. This is an effect which knowledge can scarcely enter the mind 

 without producing in some degree ; at least, the exceptions to such 

 an effect are rare. While there are many whose talents and acquire- 

 ments may be placed on a level with those of Voltaire, there are 

 few, it is to be hoped, by whom they are used for such vile purposes 

 as were those of that bad old man. The inhabitants of large towns 

 are strongly tempted to spend their leisure hours in frivolous amuse- 

 ment or noisy revelry. Fatigued with the labours of the counting- 

 house or the workshop, they too often seek for relief in such pur- 

 suits ; but could they be induced to have recourse to the stores of 

 science, how great an advantage would be gained ! For an account 

 of its pleasures, I would refer them to the preliminary Treatise of 

 the Library of Useful Knowledge ; and strange indeed must be the 

 constitution of that mind which cannot find something to its taste 

 there. In acquiring knowledge, man gains power both over matter 

 and mind. It makes the elements minister to his use, as was forci- 

 bly pointed out by your President, in his late admirable lecture ; 

 and in addition to the instances adduced by him, I might tell you 

 that it made a few pounds of water tear up by the roots the largest 

 trees, and exert a pressure limited only by the strength of the ma- 

 terials of which the engine (Bramah's press) is constructed ; and 

 which was also the invention of a manufacturer. This has been 

 done by the application of the principle that fluids exert an equal 

 pressure in all directions, owing to the mobility of their particles. 



But knowledge endows man with power of another kind. It tends 

 to moderate his passions, and aids his intellectual faculties in assert- 

 ing that superiority over his animal propensities which his Creator 

 intended they should maintain. 



Nor is science limited to the explanation of the laws of Nature, 

 but embraces also, in subordination, as I have ' said, to Religion, 



