16 



On my own judgement alone I should scarcely venture to meddle with 

 so arduous a question, did I not see those around me who desire it at 

 my hands, as required by the position in which the Association stands. 



A century and a half ago the Royal Society met with opponents si- 

 milar to those whom the Association has to encounter now. " Their 

 enemies," says Dr. Samuel Johnson, " were for some time very nume- 

 rous and very acrimonious, for what reason it is hard to conceive, since 

 the philosophers professed not to advance doctrines, but to produce 

 facts, and the most zealous enemy of innovation must admit the gradual 

 progress of experience, however he may oppose hypothetical temerity." 

 They were assailed, Gentlemen, with jokes as well as libels ; but there 

 is reason even in ridicule ; and, on this subject, the irony of Butler 

 himself is forgotten ; but there was also a graver class of men in those 

 days, who saw in the establishment of the Royal Society injury to re- 

 ligion ; their names and publications have perished, but the memorial 

 of their apprehensions is embalmed by a Avriter* whose early history of 

 the Society has been described by his great biographer as " one of the 

 few books which selection of sentiment and elegance of diction have 

 been able to preserve, though written upon a subject flux and transi- 

 tory." — " I will now proceed," said the episcopal historian, " to the 

 weightiest and most solemn part of my whole undertaking, — to make a 

 defence of the Royal Society and this new experimental learning, in 

 respect of the Christian faith ; and I am not ignorant in what a slip- 

 pery place I now stand, and what a tender matter I am entered upon ; 

 I know it is almost impossible, without offence, to speak of things of 

 this nature, in which all mankind, each country, and now almost every 

 family, disagree. I cannot expect that what I shall say will escape 

 misrepresentation, though it be said with the greatest simplicity, while 

 I behold that most men do rather value themselves and others on the 

 little differences of religion than on the main substance itself." He 

 then thinks it necessary to employ thirty-three pages in defending the 

 inductive philosophy against the charge of impiety, and concludes with 

 this caution, — " that, above all, men do not strive to make their own 

 opinions adored, while they only seem zealous for the honour of God." 



These are bygone days, and Time, Gentlemen, which seems to have 

 little effect in removing prejudice, makes great changes at least in cir- 

 cumstances : the philosophy thus early dreaded has since extended it- 

 self on every side ; science pervades our manufactures, and science is 

 penetrating to our agriculture ; the very amusements, as well as the 



* Spratt, Bishop of Rochester. 



