270 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
their successors, though defined and regular its course, and 
ornamented with the beauties of order, simplicity, and har- 
mony, is yet steep in its ascent; and the traveller who fain 
would pursue it, is limited in his rambles and restricted in his 
journey by the exact and unerring rules of demonstration. — 
No brilliant hypotheses may captivate his fancy; no creatures 
of imagination are allowed to people his domain; he is bound, 
with the exactness of mathematical science, to the observance 
of facts, and is compelled at every footstep to regard with 
undeviating precision the landmarks which bound his track. 
His pilgrimage is soothed, however, by the knowledge, that 
every fact he acquires is one that may be subsequently avail- 
able in explanation of some apparent novelty; and that this 
fund of information when once obtained, will be of essential 
advantage to him, through whatever walk of life his course 
may be subsequently directed: for the science which this 
Chair is especially called upon to teach, mingles its observa- 
tions and researches with the most humble as well as the 
most exalted conditions and operations of either human or 
natural creation. It regards with interest the domestic ope- 
rations of the matron, in the preparations for her daily food; as 
well as penetrates with a piercing inquiry into the crater of 
the volcano, the vast crucible of nature herself; and it finds 
upon reducing the contents of this great laboratory to their sim- 
plest elements, that they compare in identity with the ele- 
ments which constitute the insignificant material upon which 
that matron exercises her culinary skilL 
Great, however, as may be the diffidence which attends my 
introduction to this hall, and humble as may be my efforts to 
give interest to the themes which have occupied the illustrious 
names already mentioned, so inspiring is the subject itself, 
that, divested of all artificial aid, its principles and pheno- 
mena conveyed to the hearer in the most plain and unpre- 
tending style, must win his regard, captivate his feelings, and 
secure his afiections. 
Satisfied, then, that the merits of the subject must command 
attention, I enter on the discharge of the duties of the Chair 
