10 Opening Address. 



of a work on Physical Geography, and the connection of the 

 Physical Sciences ; or Mrs. General Sabine, who has made her 

 reputation by her translation of Humboldt's Cosmos. All these 

 ladies, and many others, though possessing scientific acquirements, 

 in an eminent degree, yet were exemplary and unobtrusive in 

 their private life ; and though well acquainted with the use of 

 elaborate scientific instruments, were not above handling that 

 more humble instrument — the needle. 



There is another point which I allude to with some diffidence, 

 yet with the conviction that the present occasion ought not to be 

 passed over without some allusion to it. In the present day 

 there are opinions entertained, even by men of superior intellect, 

 that revealed religion and science are antagonistic ; but so far 

 from being so, there is the greatest harmony between them. And 

 why is it that such views are entertained ? It is the difficulty of 

 admitting that the highest human mind is limited, and cannot 

 grasp infinity. "What does the immortal Newton say ? "I know 

 not what the world may think of my endeavours, but to me it 

 seems that I have been a child wandering on the sea shore, some- 

 times picking up a prettier pebble or more beautiful shell than 

 my companions, whilst the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered 

 before me." Yet this man was the greatest philosopher that ever 

 lived — 



" Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night, 

 Grod said let Newton be, and all was light." 



There are two very forcible ideas suggested in the works of 

 the celebrated Babbage. 



In what he calls his ninth Bridgewater treatise, he remarks to 

 this effect — that as it is now universally accepted that the im- 

 ponderable elements, light, sound, and heat, are transmitted 

 through space by means of undulations acting in an setherial 

 medium, just as we observe a succession of waves on the surface 

 of water into which a stone is dropped, and which becomes lost 

 to the finite sense only. How then can we say but that every 

 oath or idle word spoken by man may be transinitted through 

 space to the recording angel. 



That such a medium does exist there can be no doubt, else how 

 does light reach us from bodies at such an immense distance as 

 the sun and stars. Again, Encke's comet plainly shows by the 



