of Edinburgh, Session 1883 - 8 4 -. 
473 
visiting altogether was as different as possible from the ceremonious 
sort of fashion now in vogue.” He concludes his description by 
saying, ‘‘ If I were to take the evening I spent in listening to its 
history as a fair specimen of the ‘ Auld Time,’ I should be almost 
inclined to reverse the words of the Laureate, and say — 
Of all places, and all times of earth, 
Did fate grant choice of time and place to men, 
Wise choice might be their ‘ Scotland,^ and their ‘ Thcnd ” 
Enough for the present, this retrospect, and the slender tribute I 
have attempted to pay to the memory and labours of a masculine 
and powerful generation. That we have built on their discoveries, 
and have learned even by their errors, is quite true ; for the history 
of the second half of the century exhibits science far in advance of 
1783, and even of 1833. In 1783 geology was in its infancy. 
Paleontology was all but unknown. Cuvier was only then com- 
mencing his pursuits in comparative anatomy, which were to end in 
reproducing the forms of extinct life. The glacial epoch had not 
then been elucidated by the research and genius of Forbes and 
Agassiz, and the dynamic theory of heat was still unproclaimed. 
The wonders of the photographic art were unknown, even in 1833^ 
for Talbot and Daguerre did not come on the scene for several 
years afterwards. In 1833 the apostle and disciples of evolution 
had not then broken ground on that vast field of inquiry. The 
ever-increasing development of the mysteries of light and sound, 
spectrum analysis, and the marvellous results which it has already 
furnished, and those which, it promises, have in our day only 
heralded the advent of a new science. But, however far in advance 
of the Founders of the Royal Society the current philosophy may 
be, there was a robustness and characteristic individuality about the 
great men of that generation which we may not hope to see replaced. 
We may assume, indeed we hope, that the close of the next 
century will find the progress of knowledge as far advanced beyond 
its present limits as we think that the science of to-day is beyond 
the point reached a century ago. We may be assured that before 
that time arrives, many surmises, still in the region of hypothesis, 
will have become certainties, and that many supposed certainties 
will have turned out fallacies. Many errors will have been 
corrected, many dogmas discredited, many theories confirmed or 
refuted at the bar of ascertained fact, as those of 1783 have been. 
