Ivi 



Eoyal Society, and printed in their Transactions from 1833 to 1850. 

 His labours on tMs brancli of physical inquiry were distinguished in 1837 

 by the award of one of the Eoyal Medals. In point of general result, 

 these investigations may be considered as having afforded a clear and 

 satisfactory view of the Atlantic Tides, while those of the Pacific (to 

 which only a single memoir — the 13th in order — is devoted) remain still, 

 in many of their features, enigmatical, and perplexed with difficulties 

 which can only receive their elucidation from a long series of dis- 

 cussion carried out on the same principles, and based upon far more 

 extensive observational data than he then commanded, or than yve yet 

 possess. One of the most curious and unexpected results of these 

 inquiries is, that there exist two points in the North Sea, one be- 

 tween Harwich and Amsterdam, the other near the entrance to the 

 Baltic, in which there is no rise and fall of the tides. Of these points, 

 thus first theoretically indicated, the former has been subsequently 

 verified by observation ; the other does not appear to have been sought 

 for. 



With exception of this series of researches, his labours as .a direct 

 contributor to Physical Science may be considered as having termi- 

 nated with his acceptance of the professorial chair of Moral Philo- 

 sophy (or, as it is officially designated, of Moral Theology and Casuis- 

 try) in 1838. The work of Paley on Moral Philosophy, in which the 

 basis of moral obligation is made to rest on expediency (taken in its 

 largest sense, as that which on the Avhole, and on a broad and general 

 view of human relations, is most conducive to human happiness), was 

 at that time the text-book followed in the University. This view of the 

 foundation of morals was, however, peculiarly distasteful to him, and 

 tlie whole tenor of his teaching on this subject was devoted to the expul- 

 sion of what has been termed the utilitarian theory of morals, and the 

 substitution for it of the inward teaching of a divinely implanted con- 

 science, enlightened and guided by reason — obeying in this, as in his views 

 of Physical Science, that strong leaning towards the Platonic or ideal 

 system of philosophy which refers all our knowledge, in so far as it as- 

 sumes a regular and systematic form (as other than the recollection of 

 individual facts), to innate and primarily implanted conceptions coordi- 

 nated Mdth facts by the operation of the mind. Thus, as in geometry we 

 coordinate our perceptions of the external world in accordance with our 

 innate conception of Space — so, in this view of morality we coordinate our 

 judgment of human action, and of our own emotions and desires in refer- 

 ence to the innate and originally implanted idea of Eight ; assuming that 

 its fundamental axioms and leading propositions have found their utte- 

 rance (though hitherto imperfectly, and only in the most usual and sim- 

 plest cases of their application) in those positive laws which regulate the 

 conduct of man towards his fellows in all civilized communities. These 

 views are embodied in his sermons on the Foundation of Morals, his 



