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* 



We need not be ashamed, then, of our part in this ad- 

 vance in science. Our workers are, indeed, but few ; 

 but both they and their results will live in the records 

 of the world's progress. More would there be now of 

 them were such studies more fostered and encouraged. 

 Self-denying, earnest men are ready to give themselves 

 up to the solution of these problems, if only the means 

 of a bare subsistence be allowed them. When wealth 

 shall foster science, science will increase wealth wealth 

 pecuniary, it is true : but also wealth of knowledge, 

 which is far better. 



In looking back over the whole of this discussion, I 

 trust that it is possible to see that the objects which we 

 had in view at its commencement have been more or 

 less fully attained. I would fain believe that we now 

 see more clearly the beautiful harmonies of bounteous 

 nature ; that on her many-stringed instrument force an- 

 swers to force, like the notes of a great symphony j dis- 

 appearing now in potential energy, and anon reappear- 

 ing as actual energy, in a multitude of forms. I would 

 hope that this wonderful unity and mutual interaction 

 of force in the dead forms of inorganic nature, appears 

 to you identical in the living forms of animal and vege- 

 table life, which make of our earth an Eden. That 

 even that mysterious, and in many aspects awful, power 

 of thought, by which man influences the present and 

 future ages, is a part of this great ocean of energy. But 

 here the great question rolls upon us, Is it only this ? 

 Is there not behind this material substance, a higher 

 than molecular power in the thoughts which are immor- 

 talized in the poetry of a Milton or a Shakespeare, the 

 art creations of a Michael Angelo or a Titian, the har- 



