L] SCIENCE AND CULTURE. 23 



phenomena of society. Hence, I confess, I should 

 like to see one addition made to the excellent scheme 

 of education propounded for the College, in the shape 

 of provision . for the teaching of Sociology. For 

 though we are all agreed that party politics are to 

 have no place in the instruction of the College ; yet 

 in this country, practically governed as it is now by 

 universal suffrage, every man who does his duty must 

 exercise political functions. And, if the evils which 

 are inseparable from the good of political liberty are 

 to be checked, if the perpetual oscillation of nations 

 between anarchy and despotism is to be replaced by 

 the steady march of self-restraining freedom ; it will 

 be because men will gradually bring themselves to 

 deal with political, as they now deal with scientific 

 questions ; to be as ashamed of undue haste and 

 partisan prejudice in the one case as in the other ; 

 and to believe that the machinery of society is at 

 least as delicate as that of a spinning-jenny, and as 

 little likely to be improved by the meddling of those 

 who have not taken the trouble to master the 

 principles of its action. 



In conclusion, I am sure that I make myself the 

 mouthpiece of all present in offering to the venerable 

 founder of the Institution, which now commences its 

 beneficent career, our congratulations on the comple- 

 tion of his work ; and in expressing the conviction, 

 that the remotest posterity will point to it as a 

 crucial instance of the wisdom which natural piety 

 leads all men to ascribe to their ancestors. 



