6 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



The sun, for instance, has been assumed to be a hot mass, 

 which radiated heat in the same manner as a ball of heated metal ; 

 and Sir I, Newton and others have computed that it must be 

 iviany tlionsan<i times hotter than rcid-hot iron, because if heat 

 consisted of substantive particles flowing radially from the solar 

 surface, the temperature would decrease as the square of the 

 distance of the point of observation. When, however, we exa- 

 mine the sun's disc with a telescope black spots are observed, and 

 these are not masses of opaque matter floating on its surface, but 

 holes or depressions, w^hich pass through the bright photosphere 

 and render visible a central body, which shows no signs of incan- 

 descence, and the heat of which must, according to our present 

 knowledge, be less than that of red-hot iron ; and it therefore ap- 

 pears that the condition of energy which emanates from the sun 

 is not solely that of light or heat, and that the thermometric tem- 

 perature of the sun may not exceed that of the flame of a 

 common candle. 



In thus straying into the regions of theoretical enquiry, I have 

 perhaps transgressed the proper limits of an address to a Society 

 whose objects are specially to render science available for practical 

 uses, and will therefore leave the " Celestial " (who by the way 

 is not very popular just now) and return to our own national re- 

 quirements. 



It may perhaps be asked bow it is that the vast resources of 

 science which have been open to the world have been availed of 

 in such a tardy manner, but it may be answered the extremely con- 

 servative character of the British workman has always presented 

 a material obstacle to improvement. Their fathers and igrand- 

 fathers did things in such or such a way, and did very weff, why 

 fhen should new-fangled methods be adopted ? What would be 

 the use of the workman's present knowledge if he had to learn 

 something new ? And the only remedy, which has proved in any 

 degree effective, has been the education of the nation, so as to 

 enable them to see and hear things with their own eyes, ears, and 

 intelligence, and not solely through those of past generations. 



I have seen crov/ds of men assembling to destroy thrashing 

 machines, have known them to disable reaping and other labor- 

 saving machines, under the impression that machinery decreases 

 the demand for manual labour ; and it is not so m.any years sijice 

 agricultural machines, railways, and sewing machines were held 

 to be equally subversive of the public weal, as the employment of 

 colored labor is at the present time. 



