The British Association . 
[October, 
5io 
the same invention the problem of finding the free motion 
of any number of mutually attracting particles, unrestricted 
by any of the approximate suppositions required in the 
treatment of the lunar and planetary theories, is reduced to 
the simple process of turning a handle. When Faraday 
had completed the experimental part of a physical problem, 
and desired that it should thenceforward be treated mathe- 
matically, he used irreverently to say — “ Hand it over to 
the calculators.” But truth is ever stranger than fiction ; 
and if he had lived until our day he might, with perfect 
propriety, have said — “ Hand it over to the machine.” 
After referring to the origin of mathematical ideas and 
their expression, the President passed to the attitude of 
Literature and Art towards Science ; and here he remarked 
that, considering the severance which still subsists in edu- 
cation and during our early years between Literature and 
Science, we can hardly wonder if when thrown together in 
the afterwork of life they should meet as strangers, or if the 
severe garb, the curious implements, and the strange wares 
of the latter should seem little attractive when contrasted 
with the light companionship of the former. The day is 
yet young, and in the early dawn many things look weird 
and fantastic which in fuller light prove to be familiar and 
useful. The outcomings of Science, which at one time have 
been deemed to be but stumbling-blocks scattered in the 
way, may ultimately prove stepping-stones which have been 
carefully laid to form a pathway over difficult places for the 
children of “ sweetness and of light.” The instances on 
which we have dwelt are only a few out of many in which 
mathematics may be found ruling and governing a variety 
of subjects. It is as the supreme result of all experience, 
the framework in which all the varied manifestations of 
Nature have been set, that our Science has laid claim to be 
the arbiter of all knowledge. She does not indeed contribute 
elements of faCt, which must be sought elsewhere ; but she 
sifts and regulates them ; she proclaims the laws to which 
they must conform if those elements are to issue in precise 
results. From the data of a problem she can infallibly 
extraCt all possible consequences, whether they be those first 
sought or others not anticipated ; but she can introduce 
nothing which was not latent in the original statement. 
Mathematics cannot tell us whether there be or be not limits 
to time or space; but to her they are both of indefinite 
extent, and this in a sense which neither affirms nor denies 
that they are either infinite or finite. Mathematics cannot 
tell us whether matter be continuous or discrete in its struc- 
