of Edinhurgli, Session 1883-84. 
455 
steam navigation became general, and more than fifty before the first 
passenger railway train ran in Scotland. No doubt, in 1791, 
Erasmus Darwin, in bis Botanic Gard&n,” a poem too little read, 
bad exclaimed in tire welbknown lines, — 
“ Soon sliall thy arm, imconquered steam, afar 
Drag the slow barge, and urge the flying car.” 
The fame of the elder Darwin has been eclipsed by his younger 
relative ; but he deserves to be remembered if it were only for the 
fact that he was the companion, friend, and adviser of James Watt, 
in whose genius he was an enthusiastic believer, and from whom he 
probably drew the inspiration which prompted the lines. The 
genius of James Watt and George Stephenson has changed all this, 
and, in changing it, altered the conditions both of public and of 
private life throughout the world. Darwin was not the only man 
of that time who looked forward with confidence to the ultimate 
victories of steam. Godwin, in his work, published in 1793, em 
titled Political Justice, a book full of bold, if very doubtful specu- 
lation, argues that since the discovery of the steam engine, the 
amount of manual labour required for the cultivation of the land 
was certain to be diminished. He says, in a passage which has 
been often referred to — Hereafter, it is by no means clear that the 
most extensive operations will not be within the reach of one man ; 
or, to make use of a familiar instance, that a plough may not be 
turned into a field and perform its office without the need of super- 
intendence. It was in this sense,” he continues, ‘‘that the cele- 
brated Franklin conjectured that mind would one day become 
omnipotent over matter,” and now that the locomotive carries 
mankind to all ends of the earth, Godwin’s sanguine suggestion 
has been all but realised. 
There has been during this interval a still more powerful magician 
at work. To this audience I need not dwell on the triumphs of the 
future ruler of the world of science — electricity. But one illustra- 
tion I may be permitted. Franklin was one of the first of the non- 
resident members elected by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. How 
little he thought when many years before he drew the electric spark 
from the cloud, that before a hundred years had sped, his experi- 
ment, but slightly modified, might convey a message from a meeting 
