XL 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
the aberration of light; Franklin, the statesman and philosopher, 
who first drew the lightning from the clouds ; Dollond, the inventor 
of the achromatic telescope; Euler, the mathematician who was 
destined to accomplish so much in perfecting algebra, the calculus, 
and the lunar theory; Laplace, the author of the Mecanique 
Celeste; Rumford, who laid the foundation of the mechanical 
theory of heat; Dalton, the author of the atomic theory upon which 
all chemistry rests; and Bessel, the greatest of modern astrono¬ 
mers—these and others almost as illustrious, whom we cannot even 
name to-night, were still in the womb of time. 
Pure science first felt the effects of the new intellectual life and 
it was more than a century later before the arts yielded to its influ¬ 
ence. Then came Hargreaves, the inventor of the spinning-jenny; 
Arkwright, the inventor of the cotton-spinning frame; Watt, who 
gave us the condensing steam engine; Jacquard, the inventor of 
the loom for weaving figured stuffs ; Murdock, the originator of gas 
lighting; Evans, the inventor of the high-pressure steam engine; 
Fulton, the father of steam navigation; Trevithick, who ranks 
very near Watt and 'Evans in perfecting the steam engine; and 
Stephenson, the father of railroads. If now we add the names 
of those who have given us the telegraph, to wit: Gauss, the emi¬ 
nent physicist and the greatest mathematician of the present cen¬ 
tury; Weber, Wheatstone, and Henry—all famous physicists—and 
Morse, the inventor and engineer; we have before us the demi-gods 
who have transformed the ancient into the modern world, given us 
machinery which has multiplied the productive power of the human 
race many fold, annihilated time and space, and bestowed upon 
toiling millions a degree of comfort and luxury which was unknown 
to kings and emperors of old. 
The discoveries and inventions of the last two centuries have so 
far exceeded all others within historic times that we are amply jus¬ 
tified in calling this an age of phenomenal progress, and under the 
circumstances a little self-glorification is pardonable—perhaps even 
natural. The weekly and monthly records of scientific events 
which appear in so many newspapers and magazines are the imme¬ 
diate result of this, and the great increase of ephemeral scientific 
literature has led multitudes of educated people to believe that 
such records represent actual progress. The multiplication of 
bricks facilitates the building of houses, but does not necessarily 
