Mr. Butler's Discourse. 173 



would be increased ; and when the Car of Neptune and Para- 

 gon were completed, such improvements were found to have 



up for one of our literary journals, by that venerable and sci- 

 entific statesman, whose name is so honorably identified with 



steam-boat then constructed, he informed the public, that the 

 proprietors had it in contemplation to build one or more new 

 boats in which such improvements would be made, that it was 



It is needless to trace the history of successive improvements ; 

 the fact is before us that the passage has often been performed 

 by the boats of the Messrs. Stevens, in less than eleven hours, 

 and once by the North-America, in ten hours and ten minutes; — 

 in reference to which case, Capt. Benson informs me that at 

 least forty minutes rrfay fairly be deducted for the time spent 

 in touching at the different landings, so that the passage was 

 actually performed in nine hours and an half— a distance of 

 one hundred and fifty miles ! 



In view of facts like these, who will dare to assign limits to 

 the powers and resources of inventive genius? or, who will 

 deem it extravagant to predict, that the splendid discoveries 

 of the present age, will be equalled, perhaps eclipsed, by those 

 of posterity ? We might thus go on, indefinitely, to trace out 

 the connexion which exists between the various branches of 

 science and the useful arts ; and to show how each contri- 

 butes, in a thousand forms, to the prosperity of the political 

 and social state ; but the time allotted to this discourse, and 

 the notice intended to be bestowed on subjects more immedi- 

 ately connected with my own department of the institute, com- 

 pel me to pass over this extensive and interesting topic with- 

 out further enlargement. 



2. The practical utility of the studies connected with Natu- 

 ral History, is not so obvious, as that of those to which we 



