102 Proceedings of the British Association. 



should consider some apology needed for even mentioning an argu- 

 ment of the kind to such a meeting, were it not that this very 

 reasoning, so ostentatiously put forward, and so utterly baseless, has 

 been eagerly received among us* as the revelation of a profound 

 analysis. When such is the case, it is surely time to throw in a 

 word of warning, and to reiterate our recommendation of an early 

 initiation into mathematics, and the cherishing a mathematical habit 

 of thought, as the safeguard of all philosophy. 



A very great obstacle to the improvement of telescopes in this 

 country has been happily removed within the past year by the repeal 

 of the duty on glass. Hitherto, owing to the enormous expense of 

 experiments to private individuals not manufacturers — and to the 

 heavy excise duties imposed on the manufacturer, which has operated 

 to repress all attempts on the part of practical men to produce glass 

 adapted to the construction of large achromatics, our opticians have 

 been compelled to resort abroad for their materials — purchasing them 

 at enormous prices, and never being able to procure the largest sizes. 

 The skill, enterprise and capital of the British manufacturer have now 

 free scope, and it is our own fault if we do not speedily rival, and 

 perhaps outdo the far-famed works of Munich and Paris. Indeed, it is 

 hardly possibly to over-estimate the effect of this fiscal change on a 

 variety of other sciences to which the costliness of glass apparatus 

 has been hitherto an exceeding drawback, not only from the actual 

 expense of apparatus already in common use, but as repressing the 

 invention and construction of new applications of this useful material. 



A great deal of attention has been lately, and I think very wisely, 

 drawn to the philosophy of science and to the principles of logic, as 

 founded, not on arbitrary and pedantic forms, but on a careful induc- 

 tive inquiry into the grounds of human belief, and the nature and 

 extent of man's intellectual faculties. If we are ever to hope that 

 science will extend its range into the domain of social conduct, and 

 model the course of human actions on that thoughtful and effective 



meter will venture on such a tour oVanalyse ? And, lastly, how can it be 

 adduced as a numerical coincidence of an hypothesis with observed fact 

 to say, that, at an unknown epoch, the sun's rotation (not observed) must 

 have been so and so, if the hypothesis were a true one ? 



* Mill. Logic, ii. 28. — Also, ' Vestiges of the Creation,' p. 17. 



