43 



achievements in all the departments of industry, as well as in 

 philosophy and the arts, are numerous and important. The 

 inventions, the discoveries of modern times, all stand its 

 debtors. It has pervaded space ; sought an acquaintance 

 with other orbs ; followed the trackless course of the comet 

 in its" wanderings ; and brought back intelligence, almost 

 from the very out-posts of creation. In the sciences that in- 

 struct, in the arts tliat refine, it is conspicuous. It has de- 

 manded of the material world the elements that compose it ; 

 the manner of their combination ; the mode of their action. 

 It has sought a familiar acquaintance with the laws of life ; 

 the subtleties of organization ; the main facts of existence. 

 It has penetrated the deepest recesses of mind, investigated 

 its powers, classified its faculties, and explained their modes 

 of operation. It has added a new world to the old, and fear- 

 lessly explored every accessible part of both. It has been 

 active in agricultural pursuits, in the mechanic arts and in- 

 ventions, in the direction of Ruman industry, intp every pos- 

 sible available channel. It has instituted commercial rela- 

 tions, and connected together the human family by the mu- 

 tual ties of a common intercource. It has acquired a maste- 

 ry over physical nature, and Compelled the very elements to 

 labor for its benefit. It has ascended to the source of things ; 

 enquired into the modifications and reasons of existence, and 

 investigated God^s moral government of the world. 



In the eflfort of industry to enfranchise itself, and tn the in- 

 dividual energy so strongly marking this era, we recognize 

 the key enabling us to explain some otherwise anomalous 

 appearances' in the governments of modern Europe. Gov- 

 ernment hepe was still involved with religion, and was, there- 

 fore, to a greater or less extent, modified by it. It acquired 

 for itself distinct characteristics. It became an independent 

 science, possessing its own rules, its own system of tactics. 

 That singular personage, the state, exchanged the moral for 

 the political mantle. Governments were sustained, not upon 

 the principle of accountability to' their constituents, but by 

 virtue of the system of checks and balances established ex- 



