o 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION.- 1835. 
all the expectations which had been entertained of its success : 
even before it assembled there its members had received such 
unusual proofs of the esteem in which the Association was 
held as could not but add to the spirit and animation of the 
meeting. The tribute to science paid by an eminent mer¬ 
chant of Liverpool (Sir John Tobin) in devoting one of the 
finest steam-boats in that port to the service of its members, 
and accompanying them in three voyages as their host; the 
kindred spirit evinced by the Directors of the Dublin and 
Kingstown rail-road, who provided gratuitous conveyance 
from the coast to the capital; the splendid entertainments 
given in the Zoological and Botanic Gardens ; the hospitali¬ 
ties of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and of 
that illustrious academical body on which rested the chief 
charge and credit of receiving the Association; the partici¬ 
pation in these festivities of the Representative of the Sove¬ 
reign, and the happy manner in which he seized the occa¬ 
sion of conferring a public mark of distinction on the highly- 
gifted mathematician and astronomer who held office as one 
of the Secretaries of the Meeting ;—in addition to these open 
testimonies of respect for scientific pursuits, the silent under¬ 
current of refined and invisible hospitality by which the guests 
of Ireland found their expenses contracted and their cheer 
enhanced,—all these were indeed but collateral circumstances 
attending that meeting, and managed in such a manner as to 
interfere with none of its scientific labours; but they were 
not ineffective in kindling a warmth of feeling by which the 
powers of the mind are capable of being invigorated even in 
the pursuit of abstract truth. The moral calm, too, which the 
meeting seemed to communicate,—the suspension of every 
feeling but that of a common interest in promoting the know¬ 
ledge of nature,—this, in like manner, was but an incidental 
circumstance, yet it raised thoughts of the usefulness as well 
as the dignity of those studies which possess a charm not only 
to elevate the individual but to bind the species together. 
Reflections of this kind, which crowd upon the mind on 
such occasions, and which the meeting at Dublin excited in 
a peculiar degree, contribute their share to that general effect 
of which Professor Hamilton gave so eloquent a description 
in his preliminary address, whilst asserting the power of so¬ 
cial sympathy over the most private moments of exertion in 
the secret retirements of science. “We meet, we speak, we 
feel,” said the Professor, u together now , that we may here¬ 
after the better think and act and feel alone . The excitement 
with which the air is filled will not pass at once away; the 
influences that are now amongst us will not, we trust, be 
