6 Inaugural Address. 



He then goes on to imagine an assemblage at the opera, of 

 Philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and those 

 gentry that made such a noise in his days, who watch the 

 stage operations, and look in vain for the contrivances by which 

 they are carried on. He imagines Phaeton to be flying across, 

 and then they discuss the mode of his motion, one advancing one 

 theory and another another, so introducing all the various 

 Philosophical guesses at what could be clearly seen, if they could 

 only get at the back of the scenes. And then he says " to see 

 Nature as she is, is merely to see behind the scenes of a theatre." 



His pupil, a certain Marchioness, remarks, — " At this rate 

 Philosophy has become very mechanical." To which Fontenelle 

 replies : — " So mechanical that I think they will be soon ashamed 

 of it." 



Whether our expounders of the nature of things in the present 

 day will ever be ashamed of their speculations on what they 

 cannot see, or their interpretations of what they do see, must be 

 left for the progress of development ; but we may be sure of this 

 that no human processes will ever discover answers to the grand 

 questions : — Whence came the world ? What is the nature of 

 Grod? What is the nature of the human mind ? Why is the 

 universe formed as it is ? 



But, certainly, there is more ground to apprehend what is 

 useful to man in his present state of existence, by observation 

 and experiment, than in wild speculations and oftentimes incorrect 

 propositions, which are found to end more commonly in sceptical 

 than in theistic opinions. The present tendency of intellectual 

 inquiry is an acknowledgment that the old modes of philoso- 

 phising have been found insufficient for the attainment of truth. 

 And, although, we may perceive even in the new method, that 

 there is as much danger as in the schemes of metaphysicians, 

 yet, if we keep in mind the fact that the visible universe is 

 the creation of One whose existence and essence the old 

 philosophers vainly sought to discover, though these will ever be 

 " past finding out to perfection ;" we may by examining its visible 

 phenomena, arrive at a useful acquaintance with " parts of His 

 ways," and come to a clearer comprehension of some of His 

 attributes. 



