ADDRESS. 



lxiii 



eye, from the newly gained points of siglit, to see the new ramifications into 

 which they divide themselves in strict consecutiveness and with logical 

 necessity. But in thus gaining new centres of light, from which to direct our 

 researches, and new and powerful means of adding to its ever-increasing 

 treasures, Science approaches no nearer to the limits of its range, although 

 travelling further and further from its original point of departure. For 

 God's world is infinite; and the boundlessness of the universe, whose confines 

 appear ever to retreat before our finite minds, strikes us no less with awe 

 when, prying into the starry crowd of heaven, we find new worlds revealed 

 to us by every increase in the power of the telescope, than when the micro- 

 scope discloses to us in a drop of water, or an atom of dust, new worlds of 

 life and animation, or the remains of such as have passed away. 



Whilst the tendency to push systematic investigation in every direction 

 enables the individual mind of man to bring all the power of which he is 

 capable to bear on the specialities of his study, and enables a greater number 

 of labourers to take part in the universal work, it may be feared that that 

 consciousness of its unity which must pervade the whole of Science if it is 

 not to lose its last and highest point of sight, may suffer. It has occasionally 

 been given to rare intellects and the highest genius, to follow the various 

 sciences in their divergent roads, and yet to preserve that point of sight from 

 which alone their totality can be contemplated and directed. Yet how rare 

 is the appearance of such gifted intellects I and if they be found at intervals, 

 they remain still single individuals, with all the imperfections of human 

 nature. 



The only mode of supplying with any certainty this want, is to be sought 

 in the combination of men of science representing all the specialities, and 

 working together for the common object of preserving that unity and pre- 

 siding over that general direction. This has been to some extent done in 

 many countries by the establishment of academies embracing the whole 

 range of the sciences, whether physical or metaphysical, historical or political. 

 In the absence of such an institution in this country, all lovers of science 

 must rejoice at the existence and activity of this Association, which embraces 

 in its sphere of action, if not the whole range of the sciences, yet a very large 

 and important section of them, those known as the inductive sciences, exclu- 

 ding all that are not approached by the inductive method of investigation. 

 It has, for instance (and, considering its peculiar organization and mode of 

 action, perhaps not unwisely), eliminated from its consideration and discus- 

 sions those which come under the description of moral and political sciences. 

 This has not been done from undervaluing their importance and denying 

 their sacred right to the special attention of mankind, but from a desire to 

 deal with those subjects only which can be reduced to positive proof, and do 

 not rest on opinion or faith. The subjects of the moral and political sciences 

 involve not only opinions but feelings; and their discussion frequently rouses 

 passions. For feelings are " subjective," as the German metaphysician has 



