ADDRESS. 
XXXV 
of Ills noble profession, but in the pursuit of science for its own sake,—■ 
science one year at the North Pole, and the next, I iln'nk, in Sierra Leone. 
The reputation thus acquired does not come quickly, but it comes surely, 
and will survive permanently ; and the reputation of the individual adds to 
the reputation of his country. 
I hardly know why, on this division of my subject more than ojj any other, 
I should recall to the notice of the meeting the Address of that master-mind, 
Dr. Robinson of Armagh, to the Monaghan Society ; an address delivered 
to a provincial boily in Ireland, which ought to be spread over the whole em- 
pi*"® •—hut as I read it with the deepest interest, as it is far too little known, 
and as I owe much to Dr. Robinson for the assistance which he ht< now en¬ 
trusted to me, I am unwilling to omit this tribute of respect and gratitude. 
In concluding this sketch of the progress and state of Astronomy, pardon 
me if I here quote n passage, which has been a favourite with me lor thirty 
years, and which I always desire to apply as a lesson first to tnysulf—and 
perhaps, though with great delerence, as a lesson to others also. It is taken 
from a great master of the Lnglisli language in the best age of English lite¬ 
rature, Henry Peachara. Ho is referring, in substance, to the parallax of 
the fixed stars, and his illustration ts to this effect: — If from two points of 
the earth’s surface the same star appears of the «ame bigness, how great 
must be that star—how inconsiderable, the earth I—Hie conclusion u strength¬ 
ened by discoveries unknown in his age: and 1 may extend Ins truth and 
supply the figures which make it more striking. If at two extremities of 
the earth’s orbit (between which extremities not less than 180,000,000 of 
miles intervene) tliere is no jwrallax, or the smallest ineusurable, between 
the position of a star seen from one extremity and the position uf the same 
star seen from the other extremity, in reference to one other star or to ail 
other stars, how gre.!! must be the distance and the sixe of the stars—how 
jnconsitlerable, the earth 1 But Peacham’s application of the truth known 
jn hts own days I give in his own words:— 
“If the earth were of any quantitio in respect of the higher orbes, the 
starres should seeme bigger or Icsse in regard of those /iy;)Soma/a(ftltitudct) 
or the climes j but it is certaine that at tire sjlfcsamu time suiulrio astrono¬ 
mers fiiule tile same bignesse and elevation of the aelfcKnine starre observed 
by their calculation to difli>r no whit at all; wlrereby we may see, if ciiat 
which is on the earth (in respect of the lieavonly orbes) ex- 
'h fence, it followes that the carih (poor© little point as it is) scemes 
the Uke, if it be compared with heaven: yet this is that jmint which, with 
re and sword, ia divided among so many nations, the matter of our ginrie, 
our aeate; heere we Imve our honours, our armies, our commands; heero 
th*^ “Pperpetual warre and strife among nursclvus, who (like 
e toad) shal fall aslocpe with most earth in Iris jxiwcs; never thinking how 
o a moment of time well spent upon this poore plot or dung-hill, common 
o easts as well as ourselves, depemlelh eternitic, and the Iruition of our 
rue lappmesse in the presence of heaven, and court of the King of Kings 
for ever and ever*.” 
The extensive and diversified field oflbiTsiotoGY presents so many objects 
o ntarly equal interest, aa to make it dilltcult, in a rapid sketch like the 
present-—and above all Ibr one like me, _ to select those which may least 
unworthily occupy the .'Uiention of the Association. 
n 1 hysiology, the most remarkable of the discoveries, or rather iniprove- 
Gentleman, 1C22, p. 70. lie refers to Augustine: wc might qnote 
aeneca,- ijtudne est punctuni, quod inter tot gentes,” &c. 
