398 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



ture which our philosophers had to present to them, the thoughtful and 

 eloquent men who had to address you were carried by a spontaneous 

 impulse, without plan or premeditation, into elevated strains of religious 

 reflection ; showing that those who take the lead in our meetings have 

 their minds so tuned, that every voice which proclaims the wonders of na- 

 ture, turns their thoughts to the Author of nature : that every new gleam 

 of truth seems to them an effluence from the eternal fountain of truth. 

 Long may such habits of thought prevail among the philosophers of this 

 land ; and then we need not fear but that knowledge, hallowed and ele- 

 vated by the spirit in which it is pursued, will be every way a blessing 

 to man, — to his soul as well as to his body — to his spiritual as well as 

 to his intellectual being. 



" To those of us who, knowing the institution by our attendance upon 

 it, and our share in its labors, think thus of its value and its spirit, every 

 new annual occasion of our coming together, must be an occasion of 

 fresh gratification, an agreeable exercise of memoiy and of hope. In 

 our present meeting at this place, there are many circumstances to give 

 additional animation to our anticipations of pleasure. We come to a 

 part of the empire hitherto unvisited by many of us, to a great mari- 

 time town, replete with objects of amusement, art, and interest. We 

 know the love of science and the familiarity with its treasures which 

 here prevail, for we are acquainted with the high character, the knowl- 

 edge, zealj and ability of the authorities of the Dockyard — the intelli- 

 gence and activity of the Plymouth Institution ; — we know and feel 

 most gratefully, the kind and vigilant care with which preparations have 

 been made for our reception ; and we now see in this assembly, the look 

 of cordial welcome and lively anticipation, of which I would say more, 

 but that I would beg to leave the subject in abler hands. We hail with 

 joy and confidence, the opening of the Plymouth Meeting of the British 

 Association. 



" Perhaps you will allow me the gratification of saying a word, re- 

 specting special personal reasons of my own, which make it a matter of 

 pleasure to me to find myself here on this occasion. Besides that it 

 brings me to the society of several valued and cherished friends, whose 

 home is in this part of England, I have various ties of a scientific na- 

 ture with this place and this region. The excellent observations of the 

 tides made in this harbor, have been the subject of calculations involving 

 considerable labors, which I have made or directed ; and some curious 

 traits in the laws of tidal phenomena here, which were noticed as early 

 as the time of Newton, have, I trust, been followed out to a tolerably 

 exact determination. An anemometer, which I had devised, has been 

 erected here, with most valuable improvements, by Mr. Snow Harris, 

 and has been for some time in operation. And when I consider, as we 



