MR. newhall's address. 7 



industrious in disseminating their views, they have been of little u- 

 tilitj to tho world. 



Among tho ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome, while some 

 contended for the eternity and infinite divisibility of matter, others, 

 on the contrary, even went so far as to deny the existence of a ma- 

 terial world, and held that the existence of man consists of nothing 

 more than impressions and ideas. It is said of Pyrrho, one of those 

 8oi disant philosophers, that he carried these views to such an ex- 

 tent, and so far disbelieved the real existence of everything before 

 him, that precipices were nothing ; the points of swords and arrows 

 were nothing ; the wheel of a carriage that threatened to go over 

 his neck was nothing. Insomuch that his friends who were not 

 quite so far gone in philosophy, ttought it right to protect him 

 against the eflfects of his own principles, and either accompanied 

 him themselves, or set a keeper over him under the milder name of 

 a disciple. In modern times, views equally absurd and visionary 

 have been entertained by such men as Bishop Berkley, and Mr. 

 Hume, of England ; Des Cartes and others of France. And in our 

 own day, some of the follies of the ancient schools in connection with 

 infidelity, have been put forth under the imposing namo of tran- 

 scendentalism. 



From a table containing the number of those celebrated in dif- 

 ferent branches of the arts and sciences, from the time of Orpheus 

 to that of Euclid ; or from the thirteenth to the second century be- 

 fore the Christian Era ; of eight hundred and sixty-three there ap- 

 pears to have been but twelve zoologist and agricultural writers. 



It is thus seen that little comparative attention was paid to agri- 

 culture. Nevertheless, there is no occupation of man of a mere 

 temporal nature so full of interest. Although in the progress of 

 vegetation there is no new creation, still there is a power and ener- 

 gy at work which fills the mind with admiration ! How is vegeta- 

 tion produced ? How is the frame-work of plants built up, and of 

 what composed, is a question which must press upon the mind of 

 every man. In the darkness of ages past, this was a query which 

 could not be solved. The seed was seen to germinate, the leaves 

 to expand, the trunk to enlarge and the branches to extend them- 

 selves, till the seedling became a magnificent tree. The investiga- 

 tion into the laws of chemical science which is characteristic of the 

 present age, lifts the veil from this hitherto abstrucc and difficult 



