Prrfessor Hamiltoiis Address. 



425 



who do not even affect or seem to shun the commerce of their kind ; who 

 accept gladly, and with acknowledged joy, all present and outward marks 

 of admiration or of sympathy, and who are willing, and confess themselves 

 to be so, to do much for immediate reward, or speedy though perishing 

 reputation. Look where we will, from the highest and most solitary sage 

 who ever desired " the propagation of his own memory," and committed 

 his lonely labours to the world, in full assurance that an age would come 

 when that memory should not willingly be left to die, down to the 

 humblest labourer who was ever content to co-operate outwardly and 

 subordinately with others, and hoped for nothing more than the present 

 and visible recompense, we still perceive the operation of that social 

 spirit, that deep instinctive yearning after sympathy, to use the power and 

 (if it may be done) to guide the influences of which, this British Associa- 

 tion was formed. Thus much I thought that I might properly promise, 

 on the social spirit in general, and its influence upon the intellect of 

 man ; since that is the very bond, the great and ultimate reason, of this 

 and of all other similar associations and companies of studious men. But 

 you may well expect that in the short remaining time which your leisure 

 this evening can spare, I should speak more especially, and more definitely, 

 of this British Association in particular. And here it may be right to 

 adopt in part a more technical style, and to enter more minutely into 

 detail, than I could yet persuade myself to do, till I had eased myself in 

 some degree of those overflowing emotions, which on such an occasion 

 as this could hardly be altogether suppressed. Presuming, therefore, that 

 some one now demands, how this Association differs from its fellows, and 

 what peculiar means it has of awakening and directing to scientific pur- 

 poses the power of the social spirit ; or why, when there were so many 

 old and new societies for science, it was thought necessary or expedient 

 to call this society also into being : I proceed to speak of some of the cha- 

 racteristic and essential circumstances of this British Association, which 

 contain the answer to that reasonable demand. First, then, it differs in 

 its magnitude and universality from all lesser and more local societies. 

 So evidently true is this, that you might justly blame me, if I were to 

 occupy your time by attempting any formal proof of it. What other 

 societies do upon a small scale, this does upon a large ; what others do 

 for London, or Edinburgh, or Dublin, this does for the whole triple realm 

 of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; its gigantic arms stretch even to 

 America and India, insomuch that it is commensurate with the magnitude 

 and the majesty of the British empire, on which the sun never sets ; and 

 that we hail with pleasure, but without surprise, the enrolment of him 

 among our members, who represents the sovereign here, and is to us the 

 visible image of the head of that vast empire ; and the joy with which we 

 welcome to our assemblies and to our hospitality, those eminent strangers 

 who have come to us from foreign lands, rises almost above the sphere of 

 private friendship, and partakes of the dignity of a compact between all 

 the nations of the earth. Forgive me that 1 have not yet been able to 

 speak calmly in such a presence, and on such a theme. But it is not 

 merely in its magnitude and universality, and consequently higher power 

 of stimulating intellect through sympathy, that this Association differs 

 from others. It differs also from them in its constitution and details ; in 

 the migratory character of its meetings, which visit, for a week each year, 

 place after place in succession, so as to indulge and stimulate all without 

 wearying or burdening any; in encouraging oral discussion throughout 

 its several separate sections, as the principal medium of making known 

 among its members the opinions, views, and discoveries of each other ; 

 in calling upon eminent men to prepare reports upon the existing state of 

 knowledge in the principal departments of science ; and in publishing 

 only abstracts or notices of all those other contributions which it has not 



