594 Proceedings of the British Association. 



show that from personal intercourse and collision, light and heat would 

 be elicited, that dormant energies might be excited in various parts of 

 the country by the nomadic principle of this Society, that scientific 

 operations which require simultaneous exertion on an extensive scale, 

 might derive their necessary element of combination, and their neces- 

 sary funds, from the voluntary association of men in this shape. All 

 this it was reasonable to predict, and fortunately it is no less easy now 

 to show that the prediction has been in all particulars of importance 

 ratified by the result. It has been observed on more than one former 

 occasion, — it was noticed on the last by my predecessor in the chair, 

 and at York in 1841, — that in the whole range of physical science 

 Astronomy was the only one which had, generally speaking, derived 

 direct assistance from governments, or even enjoyed what I may call 

 the patronage of society at large. It was also remarked, with equal 

 force and truth, that many other subjects are specially in need of that 

 species of assistance which the power of the State, or the opulence of 

 individuals, can afford to the otherwise solitary man of science. It has 

 come, as you well know, within the scope of the operations of this So- 

 ciety to endeavour, in many instances, to meet and remedy this defici- 

 ency. To the science of the stars the first rank in the table of prece- 

 dence may indeed be cheerfully conceded. Let it walk first in that dig- 

 nity with which its very nature invests it, but let it not walk alone. 

 The connexion, indeed, between that science and the State, between 

 Greenwich and Downing Street, rests now upon the soundest principles 

 of mutual advantage. It was not always thus that the astronomer found 

 favour and footing in the councils of statesmen and the courts of princes. 

 Time was, when the strange delusions of judicial astrology reduced such 

 men as Kepler to the level of Dr. Dee ; and it is melancholy to think how 

 much of such a life as Kepler's was wasted in casting the nativities of 

 princes, and calculating the fortunes of their foolish and wicked enter- 

 prises. The sun of science has drank these mists. The telescope of a Wel- 

 lington was pointed, not like that of Wallenstein from his observatory in 

 Egra on the heavenly host, but on the frowning masses of his country's 

 foes. He knew but one, the Homeric omen, the defence of his country, 

 and the performance of his duty. Three centuries ago, a Mr. Airy 

 might have been distracted from his intense and important labours 

 at Greenwich, to mark what star was culminating at the birth of a royal 

 infant We do not now watch the configuration of the heavens on 

 such events; but to that Providence which has shielded the mother, and 

 under that Providence to the love of a loyal people we cheerfully con- 

 fide the fate and fortunes of the infant hope of England : still though 



