570 



buted more than anything else to the comforts and conveniences, not 

 of one order only, but of every order of the community, from those 

 who dwell in palaces to the tenants of cottages and garrets. I need 

 not occupy your time by adducing particular instances of the benefits 

 to which I allude ; and indeed they are so obvious, that I should not 

 have thought it worth while to allude to them at all, if it were not that 

 they show how complete a refutation the lapse of time has afforded 

 of the views of those short-sighted cynics, among whom I am sorry 

 to include even so distinguished a person as the author of Gulliver's 

 4 Travels,' who formerly opposed or ridiculed the Royal Society, as if 

 it were engaged in trifling pursuits of no advantage to mankind. 



Science has already arrived at great results, far beyond what could 

 have been reasonably anticipated. But the inquisitive mind, looking 

 into the future, will find reason to believe that if we could lift up the 

 veil by which it is concealed, we should find that there are other and 

 still greater results reserved for those who will come after us, and 

 which even some of those who are now among us may live long 

 enough to witness. Astronomy has been said to be the most perfect 

 of all the sciences ; and some time since it might have been supposed 

 that, as regards it, we had not the power of carrying our researches 

 much further. But the observations of Lord Rosse, penetrating by 

 means of his improved telescope into the more remote regions of 

 space, have enabled him to determine the nature of the so-called 

 nebulous matter, and to enter on a new order of inquiries respect- 

 ing the construction of the universe. The needles which now 

 vibrate in the magnetic observatories which have been established in 

 different regions of the earth, under the direction of the Treasurer 

 of our Society, have already not only made us acquainted with many 

 important facts connected with terrestrial magnetism, but have dis- 

 closed to us some remarkable relations between the earth and the 

 sun, of which we had no conception previously. But these magnetic 

 observations are still in progress, and if not prematurely brought 

 to a conclusion, it would be unreasonable to doubt that they must 

 lead to still more important discoveries as to the operation of a 

 force, which, probably like that of gravity, pervades the universe, and 

 places even the most distant parts of it in connexion with each other. 

 A Fellow of our Society devoting to it his time, his fortune, and 

 his intellectual powers is in a fair way to attain the great object 



