44 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



self, and, shaking off the fetters of 6,000 years exultingly leaps to 

 new life and activity. For what is Libertv but the offspring of 

 Knowledge — the darling first-born of mind when left to its own 

 unfettered impulse? What is it but the enunciation or practical 

 enforcement of the doctrine of our common participation and right 

 to the enjoyment and application of all truths — that Common 

 Right, ill understood, worse defined and associated with a per- 

 fectibility as ill defined and even more imperfectly comprehended; 

 a Progress that has for its necessary and inevitable end the amal- 

 gamation of all men, simply because they are men, into one com- 

 mon fraternity — a brotherhood the object of which is the free de- 

 velopment of the best powers of every man and of all men for the 

 mutual good of himself and of the beings upon which he is so- 

 cially dependent around him. 



To such a man, the earth and the starry heavens, the powers 

 of steam and electricity, of every invention and discovery, are 

 virtually, nay, actually his own. He realizes all that can arise 

 from their existence. All nature is the workshop of his untiring, 

 studious activity, and to this end was this " universal frame " 

 and his own adaptation to its condition. Deeply rooted in his 

 inmost nature is the spirit of enquiry, and closely related do we 

 find it to the full recognition of the bond of humanity. The 

 Brahmin tells us that this huge round world rests on the back 

 of an elephant, and that the elephant rests upon a tortoise. But if 

 curiosity go profanely further, and asks what supports the tor- 

 toise, the enquirer is referred to authority, and might if he would 

 or- if he dare, question its value. Eeason will always bow to 

 authority in matters that are not susceptible of the same kind and 

 amount of proof as the physical sciences. But in that case it is 

 absolutely essential that the existence of that authority should be 

 demonstratively authenticated . 



It has been said by the historian of America, (need I say, by 

 your own George Bancroft,) " The child now at school could in- 

 struct Columbus respecting the figure of the earth, or Newton 

 respecting light, or Franklin on electricity; the husbandman or 

 mechanic in a christian congregation solves questions as to man's 

 destiny which perplexed the most gifted heathen philosophers of 



