72 ADDRESS. 



would hurl to everlasting infamy the imbecile voyagers, who had 

 only coasted where others had piloted. No ; nothing but a goodly 

 addition to the stock of present knowledge, would answer for those, 

 most moderate in their expectations. 



But, not only to correct the errors of former navigators, and to 

 enlarge and correct the charts of every portion of sea and land that 

 the expedition might visit, and other duties to which we have 

 alluded; but also to collect, preserve, and arrange every thing 

 valuable in the whole range of natural history, from the minute 

 madrapore to the huge spermaceti, and accurately to describe that 

 which cannot be preserved ; to secure whatever may be hoped for 

 in natural philosophy ; to examine vegetation, from the hundred 

 mosses of the rocks, throughout all the classes of shrub, flower, 

 and tree, up to the monarch of the forest ; to study man in his 

 physical and mental powers, in his manners, habits, disposition, 

 and social and political relations ; and above all, in the philosophy 

 of his language, in order to trace his origin from the early families 

 of the old world ; to examine the phenomena of winds and tides, 

 of heat and cold, of light and darkness ; to add geological to other 

 surveys, when it can be done in safety ; to examine the nature of 

 soils if not see if they can be planted with success yet to see 

 if they contain any thing which may be transplanted with utility 

 to our own country ; in fine, there should be science enough to 

 bear upon every thing that may present itself for investigation. 



How, it may be asked, is all this to be effectea ? By an en- 

 lightened body of naval officers, joining harmoniously with a corps 

 of scientific men, imbued with the love of science, and sufficiently 

 learned to pursue with success the branches to which they should 

 be designated. This body of men should be carefully selected, 

 and made sufficiently numerous to secure the great objects of the 

 expedition. These lights of science, and the naval officers, so far 

 from interfering with each others' fame, would, like stars in the 

 milky- way, shed a lustre on each other, and all on their country ! 



