107 



fountain of their power springs in zoology. The two greatest 

 triumphs of human intellect, the Principia and Mecanique Celeste, 

 owe their very existence to the data of the practical astronomer, 

 and even take a little from the literature of Greece and China. 

 The most exclusive antiquarian is glad to obtain light from chemical 

 investigation, or borrow an eclipse from the astronomer; and must 

 honour that science which formed those powers of keen analysis 

 and severe induction which have torn the veil from the mysteries 

 of Ogham. Accordingly philosophers are retracing their steps, and 

 feel the necessity of recombining their societies into large and 

 powerful unions; they have performed this in our own isles, among 

 our transatlantic kinsmen, in Germany, France, and Italy; with 

 results so successful as to give the highest guarantee for the wis- 

 dom of such a course. In these new bodies the essential condition 

 is a separation of departments, bound together into harmony of 

 action and unity of purpose by a common organization, and an 

 equal participation of authority and power. In this, which exactly 

 defines the system of the British Association, you find a correct 

 description of our own constitution. Honoured, therefore, be the 

 memory of our founders ! who, anticipating this important result 

 by more than fifty years, selected from the crowd of possible com- 

 binations that which not only secures the good and avoids the evil 

 that I have indicated, but was, perhaps, the only one which, under 

 the existing circumstances, contained in itself a principle of perma- 

 nent vitality. Doubtless to it we owe not only our present pros- 

 perity but our actual existence. If you look at the early volumes 

 of our Transactions, and examine the list of our original members, 

 you will see how far the department of Literature predominated ; and 

 will be convinced that a society which had been organized on a 

 base either purely scientific or archaeological must have perished 

 at once, and left scarcely a tradition of its existence. It is true that 

 afterwards the chemistry of Kirwan, and the geometry and astro- 

 nomy of Brinkley, gave powerful aid; but I remember well, and I 

 see valued friends here who still remain to bear witness with me to 

 the fact, that there were times when we were unable to muster 

 even a quorum for ballot; and when the sole principle that saved 

 us from dissolution was the habit of union, the feeling of personal 



