409 



lized ; and if we look to consequences, we have only to point to the 

 history of science in all its branches to show, that every great ac- 

 cession to theoretical knowledge has uniformly been followed by a 

 new practice, and by the abandonment of ancient methods as com- 

 paratively inefficient and uneconomical. This consideration alone 

 we think sufficient to justify, even on utilitarian grounds, a large and 

 liberal devotion of the public means to setting on foot undertakings 

 and maintaining establishments, in which the investigation of physical 

 laws, and the determination of exact data, should be the avowed and 

 primary object, and practical application the secondary, incidental, 

 and collateral one. That the time is now fully arrived when other 

 great branches of physical knowledge must be considered as entitled 

 to share in that public support and encouragement which has hitherto 

 fallen to the lot of astronomy alone, will, we think, be granted with- 

 out hesitation by all who duly consider the present state and pro- 

 spects of science. The great problems which offer themselves on 

 all hands for solution problems which the wants of the age force 

 upon us as practically interesting, and with which its intellect feels 

 itself competent to deal are far more complex in their conditions, 

 and depend on data which, to be of use, must be accumulated in far 

 greater masses, collected over an infinitely wider field, and worked 

 upon with a greater and more systematized power, than has sufficed 

 for the necessities of astronomy. The collecting, arranging, and 

 duly combining these data are operations, which, to be carried out 

 to the extent of the requirements of modern science, lie utterly be- 

 yond the reach of all private industry, means or enterprize. Our 

 demands are not merely for a slight and casual sprinkling to refresh 

 and invigorate an ornamental or luxurious product, but for a copious, 

 steady, and well-directed stream, to call forth from a soil ready to 

 yield it, an ample, healthful, and remunerating harvest. There are 

 secrets of nature we would fain see revealed, resources hidden in her 

 fertile bosom for the well-being of man upon earth, we would fain 

 see opened up for the use of the generation to which we belong. But 

 if we would be enlightened by the one, or benefited by the other, 

 we must lay on power, both moral and physical, without grudging 

 and without stint." 



If at the period when it was still doubtful what the Colonial Ob- 

 servatories then just established might be able to accomplish, and 



