54 COSMOS. 



physical studies may be made subservient to the progress of in- 

 dustry, which is a conquest of mind over matter. By a hap- 

 py connection of causes and effects, we often see the useful link- 

 ed to the beautiful and the exalted. The improvement of agri- 

 culture in the hands of freemen, and on properties of a mod- 

 erate extent — the flourishing state of the mechanical arts freed 

 from the trammels of municipal restrictions — the increased 

 impetus imparted to commerce by the multiplied means of 

 contact of nations v^^ith each other, are all brilliant results of 

 the intellectual progress of mankind, and of the amelioration 

 of political institutions, in which this progress is reflected. 

 The picture presented by modern history ought to convince 

 those who are tardy in awakening to the truth of the lesson 

 it teaches. 



Nor let it be feared that the marked predilection for the 

 study of nature, and for industrial progress, which is so char- 

 acteristic of the present age, should necessarily have a tenden- 

 cy to retard the noble exertions of the intellect in the domains 

 of philosophy, classical history, and antiquity, or to deprive 

 the arts by which life is embellished of the vivifying breath of 

 imagination. Where all the germs of civilization are devel- 

 oped beneath the ff^gis of free institutions and wise legislation, 

 there is no cause for apprehending that any one branch of 

 knowledge should be cultivated to the prejudice of others. 

 All afford the state precious fruits, whether they yield nourish- 

 ment to man and constitute his physical wealth, or whether, 

 more permanent in their nature, they transmit in the works 

 of mind the glory of nations to remotest posterity. The Spar- 

 tans, notwithstanding their Doric austerity, prayed the gods 

 to grant them " the beautiful with the good."* 



I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influ- 

 ence exercised by the mathematical and physical sciences on 

 all that appertains to the material wants of social life, for the 

 vast extent of the course on which I am entering forbids me 

 to insist further upon the utility of these applications. Ac- 

 customed to distant excursions, I may, perhaps, have erred in 

 describing the path before us as more smooth and pleasant 

 than it really is, for such is wont to be the practice of those 

 who delight in guiding others to the summits of lofty mount- 

 ains : they praise the view even when great part of the dis- 

 tant plains lie hidden by clouds, knowing that this half-trans- 

 parent vapory vail imparts to the scene a certain charm from 



* Pseudo-Plato. — Alcib., xi., p. 184, ed. Steph. ; Plut., Instituta La- 

 conica, p. 253, ed. Hutten. 



