20 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Let us never speak of our intellectual powers in any other terms 
than those of the highest respect, only let us remember that they 
were intended to be subordinate and even ancillary to the nobler 
faculties of the soul. Has there been a tendency of late years in 
our Society to sink into mere intellectuality ? If so, we have de- 
parted from the glorious traditions of the past, and have (so far) 
failed to walk in the steps of those great and good men by whom 
this Society was founded. As I stand here to-night these walls 
seem to re-echo words which were uttered on the occasion of the 
opening of this Classic Hall — the substantial evidence of the 
liberality and public spirit of men who have, most of them, now 
passed away from this scene of activity, but whose enlightened 
minds had regard, not only to their contemporaries, but also to 
their posterity. The Rev. Robert Lampen, who delivered the 
Inaugural Address on that occasion, made use of the following 
language : " Let us studiously begin with the regulation of the 
heart ; let it be our first and supreme care to bring it under the 
discipline of Religion; let our diligence be worthy that sacred 
object of our ambition, and every accession of knowledge will 
then be an accession of happiness." "These," he adds, "are the 
essential principles on which our Society is established." 
How noble then is the object (as thus interpreted to us) which 
the earliest founders of this Institution had in view ! Theirs was 
no narrow programme, their foundations were laid as broad as 
human nature itself. To inform the mind and purify the feelings 
by contact with the masterpieces of ancient and modern literature; 
to encourage habits of diligent research into the secrets of Nature's 
working, that we may admire the beauty and order of this grand 
Kosmos, of which we form a part ; to gratify and discipline our 
taste by the contemplation of all that is beautiful and inspiring in 
Art; to expand the mind, elevate the sympathies, and dignify 
the character, that we may become wiser and yet more humble, 
stronger, yet more ready to help the weak, and that in all the 
varied relations of life we may perform our part with greater ease to 
ourselves and advantage to others — these seem to me to have been 
some of the objects contemplated by our founders. It is for us to 
prove that we are not altogether unworthy of our high ancestry, 
by handing down this Institution, not only in an equal, but if 
possible higher state of efficiency to the generation following. 
