FIFTH REPORT — 1835. 
xlii 
some may have been so dazzled by the splendour of the spectacle, and 
so rapt away by the enthusiasm of the time, as to have given but little 
thought to the purport and the use, the meaning and the function of 
the whole ; much more may it be presumed that of the several hundred 
persons who have lately joined themselves as new members to this 
mighty body, there are some, and even many, who have reflected little 
as yet upon its characteristic and essential properties, and who have 
but little knowledge of what it has been, and what it is, and what it 
may be expected to become. First, then, the object of the Association 
is contained in its title ; it is the advancement of science. Our object 
is not literature, though we have many literary associates, and though 
we hail and love as brethren those who are engaged in expressly 
literary pursuits, and who are either themselves the living ornaments 
of our land’s language, or else make known to us the literary treasures 
of other languages, and lands, and times. Our object is not religion 
in any special sense, though respect for religious things, and religious 
men, has always marked these meetings, and though we are all bound 
together by that great tie of brotherhood which unites the whole hu¬ 
man family as children of one Father who is in heaven. Still less is 
our object politics, though we are not mere citizens of the world, but 
are essentially a British Association of fellow-subjects and of fellow- 
countrymen, who give, however, glad and cordial welcome to those 
our visitors who come to us from foreign countries, and thankfully ac¬ 
cept their aid to accomplish our common purpose. That common pur¬ 
pose, that object for which Englishmen, and Scotchmen, and Irishmen 
have banded themselves together in this colossal Association, to which 
the eyes of the whole world have not disdained to turn, and to see 
which, and to raise it higher still, illustrious men from foreign lands 
have come, is Science ; the acceleration of scientific discoveries, and 
the diffusion of scientific influences. And if it be inquired how is this 
aim to be accomplished, and through what means, and by what instru¬ 
ments and process we as a body hope to forward science—the answer 
briefly is, that this great thing is to be done by us through the agency 
of the social spirit, and through the means, and instruments, and pro¬ 
cess which are contained in the operation of that spirit. We meet, we 
speak, we feel together now, that we may afterwards the better think 
and act and feel alone. The excitement with which this air is filled 
will not pass at once away ; the influences that are now among us will 
not (we trust) be transient, but abiding; those influences will be with 
us long—let us hope that they will never leave us ; they will cheer, 
they will animate us still, when this brilliant week is over; they will 
go with us to our separate abodes, will attend us on our separate 
