to disguise his theory under the garb of an esoteric form, or be prepared to run the gauntlet of criticism frequently most unfair and uncandid. It is a notorious fact that there are no differences more bitter, no judgments more uncharitable than are to be found in the scientific and literary world. That this should be so is simply an infirmity of human nature, which should in every way be discountenanced and discouraged. When a new truth, or what professes to be so, is put before the world, the first enquiry usually is, not is it true-can it be proved? but, how does it square with our existing systems? Does it disturb that settled order, that labelled and ticketed arrangement of ideas with which we are familiar? If it does, then the course we often pursue is either to reject it as a heretical intruder and heap upon it ridicule and contempt, or to look upon it with coldness and suspicion until by slow and painful degrees it has won its way to notice and takes rank as a familiar axiom. Under such circumstances we ought to remember that all truth is essentially harmonious. No single truth, whatever be its nature, can by possibility contradict any other truth. However new, or harsh, or strange it may appear, it will ultimately be found to coincide and harmonise with every recognised principle which has its base on the same firm foundation. Let us hear the noble words of John Milton on this subject. He says in his "Plea for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," "Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirred up among us. A little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, and some grains of charity, might win all these diligences to join, and unite into one general and brotherly search after truth; * I doubt not, if * * some great and worthy stranger should come among us, wise to discern the mould and temper of a people and how to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pursuit of truth and freedom, but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Roman docility and courage: ‘If such were my Epirus, I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted to make a church or kingdom happy.' Yet these are the men cried out against as schismatics and sectaries, as if, while the temple of the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a sort of irrational men who could not consider that there must be many schisms and many dissections made in the quarry and in the timber ere the house of God can be built. And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world; neither can every piece of the building be of one form; nay, rather the perfection consists in this, that out of many moderate varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportioned, arises the goodly and the graceful symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure." These are pregnant and powerful words, worthy of the great man who penned them. We are labouring, as he describes, in our humble way, "some cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the cedars," but all, we trust, endeavouring to further the building of the great temple of truth. Nay, we may even be ignorant of the particular place which our work shall occupy, but if we be true men, labouring for the truth's sake, we may be certain that our work shall find its place in that great temple of which we only see the foundations, but of which the crowning summit shall be developed in a glorious hereafter. On the whole, then, notwithstanding the drawbacks to which I have slightly made allusion, I do not think there ever was a period when our position as a society was more prosperous or our prospects brighter. Amongst other causes for this may be mentioned the constant influx into the town of men of intelligence and education, who find Liverpool a fit arena for their energy and enterprise, and who bring amongst us new blood, so to speak, of a vigorous and healthy character. Intelligent strangers have always found amongst us a warm and cordial welcome, and have contributed very largely to render the town and its institutions what we now see them. Within these walls, dedicated for so long a period to the cause of science and literature, they will ever be honoured guests, until they become merged into active participators of our studies and pursuits. If we desire tangible proofs of the results of the society's career, we may point with satisfaction to the published proceedings, which contain a varied and most interesting series of papers on a large number of subjects, both of literature, science, and art. These will necessarily increase in interest as years roll by, and will form a very valuable history of the progress of thought in this locality on a vast variety of subjects. It is not too much to say that the published transactions of the Liverpool societies, including the Historical, the Architectural, and the Literary and Philosophical possess an interest and value surpassed by those of no other provincial society in the kingdom. Many of them have been extracted and published elsewhere, and several translated into foreign languages. I trust that this will be borne in mind by our members, and that in all the papers presented, the prospect of publication will always be kept in view. Another feature of our meetings which has always possessed high interest, is the literary and philosphical intelligence which usually occupies the earlier portion of our proceedings. The free interchange of thought proceeding from this source, the information communicated and the discussions arising, have always appeared to me to possess great value. Hints are dropped, which, falling like seeds into fertile soil, are developed into thoughts and ideas, which expand and bear fruit in future days. May we hope that this portion of our usual proceedings will during the ensuing session receive its due share of attention. When we contemplate the present state of the civilised world, in its relation to science, there appears to be great cause for congratulation. Man appears to stand on an eminence which rises higher and higher with each successive victory over the powers of nature. He seems to have realised the description given by the Psalmist-"Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." What is there which is not subservient to his behests? winds and the waters are his captive slaves to grind his corn, to saw his wood, to turn his machinery, to speed his way; the sun paints his pictures; the bowels of the earth yield their long accumulated treasures of power in our coal and iron; the very lightning is imprisoned and sped upon messages, like Puck "To put a girdle round the earth The The subtle laws of chemistry are invoked to analyse, combine, separate, and adapt the substances of which this earthly frame is composed, to his wants and pleasures. The everlasting hills, when interrogated, reveal the strange history of their formation and elevation. The earth beneath our feet turns over leaf after leaf in its record of ages too vast for calculation, and passes in review before our eyes pictures such as fancy could never have dreamed, of “ gorgons and chimæras dire" which once had a real and living existence, and were masters of the earth as we are now. Nay, the very sun and centre of our system is put to the question, and forced to reveal, to some extent at least, his nature and constitution, and worlds unnumbered are brought to light where all was previously thought to be empty space; whilst at the other extremity a world of life and beauty has sprung into notice and regard, too minute to be perceived by his unaided organs. The vegetable and animal world, within certain limits, is modified and adapted to his wants and pleasures. Indeed, it seems impossible to set a limit to man's progress in physical science and his power over the material world. So far we stand on vantage ground never enjoyed by the world before. In these pursuits the division of labour is of necessity carried to its utmost limits, and each pursues his own department almost exclusively. In the world of letters the case is somewhat different. The accumulation of literature on every subject capable of being illustrated is becoming something almost overwhelming to contemplate. Much of it from age to age is consigned to deserved oblivion, but much survives to such an extent at least as requires some knowledge of it by every man of education and cultivation. The great extent of this rendering its absolute mastery impossible by any single individual, has led to the establishment of another class of literature in the reviews and magazines from which abstracts and breviates are obtained of what it is impossible to read at length. Notwithstanding these aids, the amount of reading absolutely requisite to keep au courant with the age is probably greater than at any former period. Archbishop Thomson has recently touched on this subject in an address delivered at Leeds. There is no doubt that it is possible by too much diffusive reading, even of a healthy class, to weaken the fibre of the mind and unfit it for manly, vigorous thought. A society such as ours has a beneficial tendency towards correcting this |