OF MR. ABERNETIIY. SI 



ing^ science and literature, wliich naturally tend to bring 

 mankind acquainted with each other, to the anti-social pur- 

 pose of inflaming and prolonging national prejudice and ani- 

 mosity. Letters have been called the tongue of the world.; 

 and science may be regarded in the same light. They sup- 

 ply common objects of interest, in which the selfish un- 

 social feelings are not called Into action; and thus they 

 promote new friendships among nations. Through them, 

 distant people become capable of conversing ; and, losing 

 by degrees the awkwardness of strangers, and the morose- 

 ness of suspicion, they learn to know and understand each 

 other. Science, the partlzan ot no country, but the bene- 

 ficent patroness of all, has liberally opened a temple where 

 all may meet. She never inquires about the country or sect 

 of tliose who seek admission ;— she never allots a higher or 

 a lower place, from exaggerated national claims or un- 

 founded national antipatliles. Her Influence on the mind, 

 like that of the sun on the chilled earth, has long been pre- 

 paring It for higher cultivation and further improvement. 

 The philosopher of one country should not see an enemy 

 in the philosopher of another : he should take his seat in 

 the temple of Science, and ask not who sits beside him. 

 The savage notion of a natural enemy should be banished 

 from this sanctuary, where all, from whatever quarter, 

 should be regarded as of one great family ; and being en- 

 gaged in pursuits calculated to Increase the general sum of 

 happiness, should never exercise intolerance towards each 

 other, nor assume that right of arraigning tlie motives and 

 designs of others, which belongs only to the Being who can 

 penetrate the recesses of the human heart ; — an assumption 

 which is so well reprobated by our great poet — 



I^t not this weak, unknowing hand 



Presume thy bolts to tlirovv ; 

 And deal damnation round the land 



On each I judg- thy foe. 



