8 



quaintance with the higher branches of science, if not 

 in the workman, at least in the person who directs his 

 operations ; and there are important branches of science 

 which could make no progress, if the philosopher who 

 studies them had not found the arts sufficiently ad- 

 vanced to supply him with the instruments and appa- 

 ratus of which he stands in need. It is especially to 

 those arts which are susceptible of great perfection and 

 exactness in their execution, that the sciences are most 

 indebted. The brilliant discoveries in modern times 

 in electricity, magnetism, optics and astronomy, and in 

 chemistry, physiology, and natural history, would still 

 have been in their infancy, if the arts had not provided 

 the necessary astronomical and mathematical instru- 

 ments, and the thousand ingenious inventions which 

 furnish the philosophical apparatus of the scientific in- 

 vestigator. 



The rapid and extraordinary improvements which 

 the world has experienced, during the last half century, 

 in commercial intercourse, in manufactures, and in all 

 that contributes to civilization and to the comforts and 

 conveniences of life, are due altogether to the application 

 of science to useful purposes, and of the useful arts to 

 the progress of science. In this march of intellect, so 

 far as it leads to practical results, our country has kept 

 pace with the most enlightened nations of the world, 

 and, in many instances, the application of scientific 

 principles to the most beneficial uses, has been effected 

 by the ingenuity and great powers of combination of 

 our own fellow-citizens. Every river valley, the shores 

 of every inland sea, and, the coasts of every ocean, are 

 largely indebted for the advantages they now enjoy, to 



