As it is in his intellectual faculties that man is distinguished above the brutes, so both amongst nations and individuals it is by the extent of the improvement of these faculties that they are chiefly distinguished one above another. It is this that marks the great distinction between an Englishman and a savage; and it is this too that chiefly points out the less striking differences which subsist between the various nations that occupy gradations between these two extremes. Throughout the world there are no very striking inequalities in the muscular force of mankind; and yet in one country man is found naked and destitute, and in another, all the rude productions of the earth, and all the forces of nature, are made to contribute to his comfort and augment his power. In the advance of civilization and the arts, brute force gives place to mental power. In the earlier periods of society, men of gigantic stature, or of irresistible personal strength, were the heroes and princes of the earth. But no such qualities are found in the great captains and conquerors of modern times. The same change takes place in the arts, and it is through the skilful application of labour, infinitely more than by bodily strength or persevering industry, that successful results are obtained. It is not by strength of body, but of mind, that man reigns the undisputed lord of the creation. It is the powers of his mind, and the contrivances to obviate his want of strength which his art has brought to his aid, that have enabled him to overcome the strongest and fiercest animals, and command the subjection to his service of some of the most powerful of their tribes. And not only so, but to force into his service even the very elements of nature-the winds, the waters, and the flames-to perform his daily mechanical operations; and thus to ward off the curse of perpetual labour on his race.

To the cultivation of the intellectual faculties, the discoveries of science, and their application to the purposes of industry, we owe all the advantages enjoyed in civilized life, and the wonderful perfection to which every branch of the industrial arts has attained. By these arts which man has invented, he is enabled out of the commonest and rudest materials to elaborate articles of the most exquisite beauty. By these he is enabled to clothe

and shelter himself from the rigours of climate, to brave the severity and fury of the elements, to counteract their influence, to produce around him continual light and warmth, and enrich himself with all the treasures of nature. It is by these, again, that he is enabled fearlessly to embark on the ocean, and traverse its pathless and boundless expanse; to possess himself of all the choicest and most varied productions of nature and art dispersed in every country. It is through these, too, that he explores regions he has never seen, and extends his researches and his knowledge even beyond the limits of the globe he inhabits. Not satisfied with all the spoils of nature which he gathers from the earth, the ocean, and the air, he examines the heavenly bodies, computes their influences, their motions, and their times; aspires to grasp the universe within his ken, and render other worlds tributary to his service. The universe is governed by the Universal Mind; and it is by the faculty of mind that man exhibits the likeness of Deity, and approaches, though at an immeasurable distance, to his power in the narrow sphere to which human dominion over this lower creation extends. As it is through the powers of his mind that man has arrived at his present height of civilization and opulence, so it is on the further cultivation and improvement of those powers that he must still depend for every step of his further advancement; both in command over the works of nature, and in the enjoyment which that command is calculated to yield.

To place this subject in a stronger light, let us but reflect on what would now have been the state of the world had we never possessed, or having possessed, had we lost, the sciences, mathematical and mental, physical and moral. To know what in such case would have been the condition of mankind, we need only to look to those countries and ages in which man has been exhibited without them. In these countries, he has uniformly been found in his lowest and most humiliating state of degradation; and such would still have been his condition throughout the world without them. Without the head that guides the hand that executes, the practical arts, if even they had once been known, must subsequently have been forgotten: much more, if they had never been known, would it have been im

possible to discover them; and man, deprived of these arts and destitute of instinct, must have been in some respects in an inferior condition to the brute creation. Without that efficiency in the powers of labour, and that perfection of the arts which science has conferred; without that opulence and leisure which is thereby procured, and without that peculiar and single direction of inquiry into the separate branches of science which they allow, neither the investigations of natural religion could ever have been pursued, nor the discoveries, the precepts, and promises of revealed religion ever have been spread from country to country, and been handed down in an unbroken chain of evidence from age to age: they would have been lost in the age in which they were given, and could never have descended to our times. Accordingly we find, in the infancy of mankind, that the knowledge of the true religion, once possessed in its amplest and widest measure, became gradually lost in every country, except where the miraculous interposition of Providence was extended to preserve it. Nor did this miraculous interposition cease until the sciences and arts had become sufficiently matured, to give to mankind the means of securing its safety and insuring its diffusion independently of such interposition.

A knowledge of the laws of nature, is of importance to mankind in each of these points of view :

"I. In showing us how to avoid attempting impossibilities.

"II. In securing us from important mistakes in attempting what is, in itself, possible, by means either inadequate, or actually opposed, to the end in view.

"III. In enabling us to accomplish our ends in the easiest, shortest, most economical, and most effectual manner.

"IV. In inducing us to attempt, and enabling us to accomplish, objects which, but for such knowledge, we should never have thought of undertaking."*

The closest union subsists between the arts of life and the sciences, as well abstract as physical. The progress of one art or science is intimately connected with and dependent on the

Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, p. 44.

progress of others. In fact, they are all so closely related that they mutually assist each other; and no considerable advancement can take place in one, without eventually contributing to the improvement of others. The abstract and apparently barren science of mathematics; the examination of the properties and relationships of numbers, of curves and angles, has contributed, in a most distinguished manner, to the advancement of every other science, and of every art; while it promises even more than it has yet accomplished. In conjunction with astronomy, it has almost created navigation and the commercial intercourse of nations. On the other hand, navigation, commerce, and the intercourse of nations, have aided astronomy and the mathematics. The mechanical arts have benefited the scientific; while the scientific in return have aided the mechanical. The motions of the heavenly bodies could not have been accurately observed, nor the theory of gravitation discovered, without the art of glass-making. The invention of the telescope enabled Galileo to discover Jupiter's satellites. His observation of their eclipses, and his establishment of the truth of the Copernican system of the universe, led him to the method of computing the longitude. These again led Columbus to the accident by which he stumbled on the discovery of the New World. The benefits which the arts have derived from chemical science, are, in a most conspicuous degree, universal: this branch of science is closely allied to almost every human art, as well as to the other branches of science. Mental philosophy is equally fertile in results. The overthrow of false methods of reasoning, and the establishment of the inductive process by Lord Bacon, have completely changed the whole aspect of science, and with it the condition and prospects of the human race. In short, there is no well-ascertained fact in any of the arts or sciences, much more any general principle, which may not contribute to new discoveries and improvements. At first such facts appear isolated and barren, without any useful application. Some of the most important discoveries of science have at first presented the appearance of such barren facts. Nor ought we, in regard to other qualities of the material world, which as yet we hold in light esteem because we know not how to apply them,

to despair of their turning out hereafter to be applicable to highly useful purposes.

To exhibit in its proper light the service which science has rendered to mankind, we ought to examine its history, and connect it with the history of the progress of our species. We must trace the slow and gradual advancement of the race from a few in number, grovelling in poverty and barbarism, to its present populousness, exalted power, opulence, and refinement. Every step of this progress has been caused by the singular skill of man in the discovery of the operations of nature, laying open to view her hidden laws, by his faculties of observation, reflection, experiment, and combination, in the character of philosopher and engineer; by his happy inventions of tools and machines, and by discoveries of improved processes in the arts. In these ways, he has made her laws subservient to his purposes, and subjected her powers to his will.

The vast stock of practical knowledge which we now possess and employ in attaining such fortunate results, has been acquired for us through the labours of the great benefactors of mankind in all ages. These acquisitions of art and skill have been preserved through succeeding generations, and handed down to us, with continual improvements, by tradition or in writing, till they have grown up and accumulated to their present magnitude. The recital of these acquisitions would present enormous difficulties to be overcome, and would detail a series of failures which could only have been eventually surmounted by patient thought, by repeated experiments, and happy exertions of genius. It would be impossible, on the present occasion, to give even such a sketch of the history of these successive acquisitions that have gradually led on the way to excellence, as should do justice to a subject so vast in itself, and having so momentous an influence on the condition of humanity. We can only slightly glance at some of the more striking discoveries of the processes by which labour is effectively applied, the power of man over creation acquired, extended, and strengthened, and his opulence promoted.

Amongst these, the application of fire to the purposes of industry and domestic use, early discovered, and now wholly unnoticed as an invention of man, ought not to be passed