NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 129 



but it •would show us in what manner much of that knowledge with 

 which we are now familiar had its origin ; at the same time fur- 

 nishing a grand example of the caution and circumspection with 

 which all experimental inquiries should he conducted. With the 

 gradual extension of knowledge, the method of inquiry necessarily 

 became modified. The Transactions gradually increased in size, 

 and longer and more elaborate investigations superseded the brief 

 memoirs of which the earlier volumes were composed. 



It is not, observed Sir Benjamin, in conclusion, for the Fellows of 

 the Royal Society to form an opinion of what the society has done 

 during the last few 3 7 ears ; but we are at liberty to refer to what has 

 been done by their predecessors, and with regard to them we are 

 justified in the conclusion that they have well performed the task 

 which they have undertaken. In adding to human knowledge, they 

 have added to human happiness. Standing apart from politics, 

 they have pursued an independent course, having no selfish objects 

 in view, but acting harmoniously with the Government of the day 

 whatever it might be. Every existing Fellow of the Society will, 

 assuredly, join in the desire that this course may be pursued so as 

 to maintain the dignity of Science, and do honour to our country — 



Alteram in lustrum meliusque semper 

 Proroget sevum. 



EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 



Sir David Brewster, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, 

 in his Address on the opening of the Winter Session of 1860, 

 thus eloquently characterized the scientific requirements of the 

 times : — 



The advances which have recently been made in the mechanical and useful arts 

 have already begun to influence our social condition, and must affect still more 

 deeply our systems of education. The knowledge which used to constitute a 

 scholar and lit him for social and intellectual intercourse will not avail him 

 under the present ascendancy of practical science. New and gigantic inventions 

 mark almost every passing year — the colossal tubular bridge, conveying the 

 monster train over an arm of the sea ; the submarine cable, carrying the pulse 

 of speech beneath 2000 miles of ocean ; the monster ship, freighted with thou- 

 sands of lives; and the huge rifle gun, throwing its fatal, but unchristian, charge 

 across miles of earth or of ocean. New arts, too, useful and ornamental, have 

 sprung up luxuriantly around us. New powers of nature have been evoked, 

 and man communicates with man across seas and continents, with more cer- 

 tainty and speed than if he had been endowed with the velocity of the racehorse 

 or provided with the pinions of the eagle. Wherever we are, in short, art and 

 science surround us. They have given birth to new and lucrative professions. 

 "Whatever we purpose to do they help us. In our houses they greet us with 

 light and heat. When we travel we And them at every stage on land, and at 

 every harbour on our shores. They stand beside our board by day, and beside 

 our couch by night. To our thoughts they give the speed of lightning, and to 

 our timepieces the punctuality of the sun ; and, though they cannot provide us 

 with the boasted lever of Archimedes to move the earth, or indicate the spot 

 upon which we must stand could we do it, they have put into our hands tools of 

 matchless power by which we can study the remotest worlds; and they have 

 furnished us with an intellectual plummet by which we can sound the depths of 

 the earth and count the cycles of its endurance. In his hour of presumption 

 and ignorance man has tried to do more than this ; but though he was not per- 



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