Lect. VIII. 



VALEDICTION. 901 



And although my humble name may be soon forgotten, 

 and all record of my labours be effaced, yet the influence 

 of that knowledge, however feeble it may be, which has 

 emanated from my researches, will endure for ever, and by 

 conducting to new and inexhaustible fields of inquiry, prove 

 a never-failing source of the most pure and elevated grati- 

 fication. 



For it is the peculiar charm and privilege of Natural 

 Philosophy, that it 



" Can so inform 



The mind that is within us — so impress 

 With quietness and beauty — and so feed 

 With lofty thoughts — that neither evil tongues, 

 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 

 Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 

 The dreary intercourse of common life 

 Can e'er prevail against us, or disturb 

 Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold 

 Is full of blessings !" 



WORDSWORTH. 



But transcendant as are the privileges which science con- 

 fers, the true philosopher feels, with the deepest humiliation, 

 that it is neither in the acquisition of knowledge, nor in 

 the perception of the true and of the beautiful — even were 

 that perceptive knowledge exalted infinitely — that human 

 happiness can find a resting-place, or the cravings of the 

 immortal mind be satisfied. Every step leads on the im- 

 patient inquirer to one beyond itself. " The nicest mecha- 

 nical arrangement of the particles of matter, does but 

 compel us to contemplate those subtler agents by whose 

 action magnetic relations and chemical affinities are next 

 developed. Exhaust their range, and still there is palpably 

 beyond them the mystery of the vital powers. Follow that 

 to its highest source, and yet we have but reached the first 

 limits of those mightier energies, of reason, conscience, and 

 volition, of which we feel within ourselves the living 

 3x2 



