ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 123 



discovery in science." * Sir Benjamin then pronounces 

 that to the right exercise of that faculty the great 

 discoveries of Isaac Newton and Christopher Columbus 

 were largely due. Of another eminent scientist, Sir 

 David Brewster, it has been said that "he wrote with 

 the calm decision of a philosopher, the vivid imagination 

 of a poet, and the fervour of a preacher." I know not 

 in what form, anthropomorphic or otherwise, an eminent 

 Frenchman presented to his imagination on a particular 

 occasion the Creator of all things, but we do know that 

 when on a mountain-top he saw the sun rise, and in 

 all its grandeur illumine peak after peak, crag, mountain, 

 and skies, Voltaire, the derider of his Church and of 

 much else that was sacred, was so moved with the 

 splendour of the scene, that he pictured to himself in 

 an instant a great and powerful Creator with whom he 

 was in immediate touch ; and removing the covering 

 from his head, and bowing the reverential knee, he 

 then and there with great emotion affirmed his belief 

 in a supreme God. Here we have the converse of Sir 

 Benjamin's illustration, for there the imagination operated 

 to the discovery of phenomena; while in the latter the 

 grandeur of the phenomena raised the imagination to 

 the conception of an infinite and omnipotent cause. 



The investigations of Natural Science, though amply 

 affording their own reward, do also, as we well know, 

 bring their contribution to the material wealth of the 

 country, and the comfort of its inhabitants. Much has 

 been effected by public institutions and by private 

 societies. In our own Club the question of utility has 

 not perhaps bulked largely, yet the Transactions show 

 that this consideration has not altogether escaped notice. 

 In 1838 reference was made thereto, when the President 

 in his Address called attention to the discovery by some 

 members of a destructive insect in Eyemouth harbour, 

 a proof, he said, of the " utility and rationality " of our 



* Address to the Royal Society, by its President, Nov, 30th 1859. 



