CB 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 155 
 
 iil'l I ! I'll' III I'lili Hill if II llfl llllfl lllll Hill 111! Ill 
 
 B7 
 
 SB 5^3 TbM 
 
:; ':, V:/ 
 
 STUDIO FALLENTE LABOREM. 
 
 NTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED O 
 
 THE AMPHITHEATRE 
 
 Wednesday the 5th of May, ibid. 
 
 By WILLIAM THOMAS BRANDE, 
 
 iCUETARY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AND PROFESSOR 
 '.'ION OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
At a Special Meeting of the Board of Manage- 
 ment held \Oth June, 1819, 
 
 Resolved unanimously: 
 
 That the thanks of this Board be transmitted to the Rt. 
 Hon. Lord Carrington for his liberal additional contribution of 
 s^lOO towards defraying the extra expenses attendant on the 
 new buildings. 
 
 That the thanks of this Board be transmitted to Michael 
 Hoy, Esq. for his additional contribution of s€ 100 for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 That the thanks of this Board be transmitted to George 
 Hibbert, Esq. and Beeston Long, Esq. for their contribution of 
 the amount produced by the sale of the proprietor's share to 
 which they were respectively entitled by their former subscrip- 
 tions of one hundred guineas. 
 
 That the thanks of this Board be given to Lewis Hayes 
 Pettit, Esq. for his second subscription of thirty guineas. 
 
 THE MANAGERS are not aware that, with regard to 
 the means of placing the Funds of the Institution upon a 
 respectable footing, they can add materially to the force 
 of the appeal contained in their last Report to the Pro- 
 prietors. The benefit likely to result to Literature and 
 Science from this Establishment, and the just claims it 
 possesses to the support and patronage of the Propri- 
 etors and the Public, are well explained in the accom- 
 
panying Discourse of Mr. Brande, introductory to the 
 Lectures now in course of delivery. A few individuals 
 anxious to promote the success of the Institution have, 
 as will appear by referring to the preceding Resolutions, 
 voluntarily made a liberal addition to their former sub- 
 scriptions; and the Managers wish to press earnestly 
 upon the attention of all those interested in the pro- 
 sperity of the London Institution, and especially upon 
 those Gentlemen whose names have not yet appeared in 
 the List of voluntary Subscribers, the great importance 
 of using their influence and exertions to raise a suffi- 
 cient fund, as well to discharge outstanding claims as 
 to provide a complete and well arranged series of Ap- 
 paratus for the illustration of the various courses of 
 Lectures which it may be desirable to deliver in the 
 
 Theatre. 
 
 Robert Stevens, 
 Hon. Sec. 
 
AN INTRODUCTORY 
 
 DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED IIT 
 
 THE AMPHITHEATRE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Mention fttstttuttotn 
 
 on Wednesday the 5th of May, 1819, 
 
 by 
 
 WILLIAM THOMAS BRANDE, 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AND 
 
 PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE ROYAL 
 
 INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, 
 SHOE LANE. 
 
 1819. 
 
C3ISS 
 B7 
 
 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 
 
 1 have been honoured by the request of 
 the Board of Management of this Institu- 
 tion, to deliver a course of lectures on the 
 Principles of Chemical Science; and, highly 
 as I am flattered by the distinction which 
 they have thus deemed it right to confer 
 upon me, I should feel uneasy and embar- 
 rassed, were I not, on this occasion, and at 
 the very threshold of my undertaking, to 
 assure you that I have acquiesced in their 
 wish, under the impression of considerable 
 diffidence, and a somewhat painful anxiety; 
 that I had hoped and expected that a task 
 so arduous and important, would have de- 
 volved upon an abler Professor, and would 
 have been consigned to one of more elo- 
 quence and ability than the very humble 
 a 2 
 
 I. 214 
 
4 
 individual who now stands before you, to 
 plead the cause of science. I should, in- 
 deed, have altogether declined the office, 
 and shrunk from its responsibility, had not 
 experience already convinced me that can- 
 dour and kindness would be the prevalent 
 feelings of my audience, and that they would 
 dispense these in direct proportion to my 
 wants, if they find my exertions unremitting; 
 my zeal unextinguishable; and my desire, 
 limited only by my power to excel. 
 
 Under these impressions, I enter upon 
 my design, not with fear and trembling, 
 but with confidence and alacrity; rejoicing 
 in the opportunity of showing my zeal in 
 the cause in which we are embarking; and 
 of conducting you, to the best of my abi- 
 lities, into the enchanting realms of expe- 
 rimental science. 
 
 On account of many circumstances, which 
 it is quite unnecessary to recur to, no at- 
 tempt will be made, during the present 
 season, to institute a regular series of phi- 
 losophical or scientific instruction; to speak 
 the truth, our means are inadequate to such 
 an undertaking; our forces are scattered 
 
and it will require time, and skill, and ex- 
 ertion, to marshal them into order, and to 
 bring them, duly equipped, into the field: 
 indeed, it is to the unremitting zeal and 
 activity of your Board of Management, that 
 such arrangements, in respect to apparatus 
 and assistants, have been made, as enable 
 me, upon the present occasion, to open my 
 course with the most ample confidence that 
 nothing will ever be wanting on their part, 
 to furnish such auxiliaries and supplies with 
 a liberal and discerning hand. 
 
 As chemical science will form a feature, 
 and, I trust, a prominent one, of the various 
 courses of information and instruction, that 
 are to issue from this room, it shall be my 
 earnest endeavour to lay before you, in sim- 
 ple, but perspicuous terms, the leading ob- 
 jects of that important and beautiful de- 
 partment of physical knowledge; to make 
 you acquainted with some of its already 
 achieved conquests in the dominion of na- 
 ture; and to expose some of the probable re- 
 sults of its future progress; and I propose to 
 fulfil these intentions by an experimental 
 inquiry into the powers and properties with 
 
6 
 
 which matter is endowed, and which as it 
 were, preside over its chemical energies, 
 causing, modifying, or preventing them. 
 These, I hope, will soon be rendered fami- 
 liar to you under the heads of Attraction, 
 Heat, and Electricity, for such these powers 
 are. 
 
 It shall be my great object to accom- 
 plish these ends in the most clear and per- 
 spicuous manner; to divest those branches 
 of science that I am to deal with, of all ab- 
 struse and recondite terms; to destroy the 
 fortification of hard words and hidden mean- 
 ings with which they are sometimes sur- 
 rounded; and to show that they may really 
 be brought home to the " business and bo- 
 soms of men/' 
 
 But, before I proceed to any further re- 
 marks, or expatiate upon the particular ob- 
 jects and ends of my own department of 
 knowledge,it becomes me to remember, that 
 we are to-day, for the first time assembled 
 within these walls to pay our tribute to li- 
 terature and science at large; that the doors 
 are opened to every range of scientific in- 
 quiry, and classical erudition; to every at- 
 
7 
 tainment which can expand, embellish, and 
 improve the mind of man. Under these 
 circumstances, I say, it becomes me to speak 
 in more general terms; and I shall, there- 
 fore, endeavour to set forth a few of the ad- 
 vantages that society may expect to derive 
 from this munificent establishment; to show 
 how far it merits your patronage; and to 
 convince you that, in the work we are un- 
 dertaking, regard is not merely to be had 
 to its immediate consequences, but that we 
 are to consider its influence upon aftertimes, 
 and to look to the benefits that it is to dif- 
 fuse upon generations yet to come. And I 
 am convinced that I shall be able to show, 
 that in establishing this Institution in the 
 heart of the city of London, you have done 
 a great and glorious deed for posterity; you 
 have opened a fountain which will never be 
 dried up, but will continue to flow into, and 
 fructify the commonwealth of science for 
 ages yet to come. 
 
 The projectors of this Institution deserve 
 our first thanks; they have shown the fal- 
 lacy of the opinion entertained by the great- 
 est political philosophers; and have demon* 
 
8 
 
 strated, that high commercial rank and 
 wealth are not incompatible with enlarged 
 minds, liberal views, and cultivated under- 
 standings. We are told that, considering 
 the mercantile eminence of their country, 
 and persuaded that whatever increases the 
 splendour, increases equally the strength 
 and activity of commerce, they thought it 
 due to the dignity and glory of the Empire, 
 that her commercial Metropolis should be 
 graced by a literary and scientific Institu- 
 tion, on a liberal and extensive plan. They 
 judged, and wisely did they judge, that 
 such an establishment would make com- 
 merce acquainted with science; and that, 
 by their approximation, each would draw 
 forth and invigorate whatever there might 
 be of latent energy and power in the other. 
 We accordingly find that, under this liberal 
 and creditable feeling, they submitted their 
 views to the consideration of their fellow-* 
 citizens, and solicited their co-operation; 
 that their design was universally approved, 
 and that a subscription of considerable 
 amount was almost immediately raised with- 
 in the walls of our city. 
 
9 
 Such was the auspicious beginning of this 
 establishment. The Royal Charter was then 
 obtained, and on the 4th of November, 
 1815, the first stone of the mansion in 
 which we are now assembled was lowered 
 into its place by the Mayor of London, as- 
 sisted by thePresident,Vice-Presidents, and 
 Managers of the Institution. As the build- 
 ing advanced, its growing wants were met 
 with proportionate liberality, and a magni- 
 ficent Library and Amphitheatre, with their 
 various auxiliary apartments, have been at 
 length brought under the same roof, con- 
 stituting one of the noblest ornaments of 
 the city of London. 
 
 , I shall first ask your permission to dilate 
 somewhat upon the immediate advantages 
 and benefits which may reasonably be ex- 
 pected to result from this undertaking. Let 
 us here, however, pause for a moment, to 
 express our earnest wish and humble hope 
 that the great Disposer of events may ap- 
 prove of the motives of this assembly ; that 
 His blessing may rest upon the work ; that 
 He may render it, in our hands, subservient 
 to the great and disinterested purposes of 
 
10 
 extensive utility, which it is its sole object 
 to attain ; and that in future times this edi- 
 fice may be the glory of our children's chil- 
 dren; that commerce and science may here 
 be entwined in perpetual friendship, uniting 
 their strength for the glory of the empire, 
 the stability of the throne, the perpetuity of 
 our glorious constitution, and the prosperity 
 of the people at large. 
 
 The intimate union that subsists between 
 science and commerce, and between litera- 
 ture and the arts; the individual, and, there- 
 fore, the public improvement to which this 
 union tends ; its influence in elevating, in 
 the rank of nations, the countries that are 
 blessed by its happy influence, are truths 
 inculcated by our knowledge of the world, 
 and with illustrations of which every page 
 of history teems. But history also records 
 the downfall and degradation of learning; 
 she shows us that, where Science and the 
 Arts once flourished in all their vigour, and 
 grew, as it were, in a native soil, they sub- 
 sequently withered and decayed, leaving 
 little else behind than a few solitary relics, 
 which, like the ruins of some great edifice 
 
11 
 
 or temple, in the midst of a barren plain, 
 tell us that magnificence once dwelt, where 
 we now see nothing but sterility and deso- 
 lation. Such are the truths recorded by the 
 unerring pen of history, which has shown 
 that even when knowledge and taste had 
 been interwoven with the very manners and 
 habits of a people, and disseminated amongst 
 large and prosperous nations, frequent in- 
 stances have occurred of their utter loss and 
 obliteration; insomuch that their very exist- 
 ence would be problematical, were it not for 
 the undeniable proofs, which they have left 
 of their former excellence, and which, mea- 
 sured by the powers and capacities of suc- 
 ceeding ages, appear like the productions of 
 a superior race of beings. 
 
 Thus, as one of our poets has beautifully 
 expressed it, " the dawn of human improve- 
 ment seems to have smiled upon that fabric 
 which it was ultimately to destroy, as the 
 morning sun gilds and beautifies those 
 masses of frost-work, which are destined to 
 vanish before its meridian splendour/' 
 
 Reasoning upon these things, historians 
 have sometimes gloomily denounced those 
 
u 
 
 happy emotions which a Nation rising to 
 eminence is apt to produce in a liberal and 
 humane mind : they have talked to us of the 
 declension of our natural energies, and have 
 told us, that all our struggles and exertions 
 though tending to temporary splendour, will 
 ultimately be involved in a desolate abyss; 
 that the productions of age, can stand in 
 no competition with the vigorous sallies of 
 youth. From the days of Homer, this has 
 been the burthen of the poet's song, and the 
 opinion has, in many cases, received the de- 
 liberate sanction of the Philosopher. Ad- 
 verting to this subject, a late eloquent wri- 
 ter* has observed, that although opinions 
 mostly obtain credit by their antiquity, this 
 opinion, in particular, derives no advantage 
 from that circumstance ; on the contrary, 
 that very antiquity is the most decisive proof 
 that it is wholly unfounded. If, says he, the 
 human race had declined from its pristine 
 vigour between the period of the Trojan war 
 and the time of Homer, to what a degree 
 of imbecility must it have fallen in the reign 
 of Augustus ! "And if, in like manner, the 
 
 # Mr. Roscoe. 
 
13 
 
 complaint of the Roman poets, of the dete- 
 rioration of the human race be well founded, 
 to what a miserable state of degradation 
 must it before this time have been reduced ! 
 After so long a descent, is it possible that 
 nature could still have produced a Dante or 
 an Ariosto, a Corneille or a Racine, a Shak- 
 speare or a Milton, names which amply show 
 that her vigour is not exhausted, but that 
 she still continues to bring forth the fruits 
 of the mind no less than those of the earth." 
 If we ascend from poetry to those nobler 
 and more divine energies of the human mind 
 which are employed in the search after 
 truth ; in removing the film from the intel- 
 lectual eye of man; in developing the me- 
 chanism of nature by experimental research; 
 we have only to mention the names of Kep- 
 ler, Galileo, and Copernicus; of Boyle, Ba- 
 con, Newton, and Hooke, to show that here 
 nature has neither retrograded, nor remained 
 stationary. It is folly, therefore, to assert, 
 that the golden age has passed away, and 
 that man is suffering corporeal and intellec. 
 tual degradation. On the contrary, let us 
 hope, that if not baffled by its own perverse* 
 
14 
 ness, the human race is really tending, in 
 regular and progressive course towards im- 
 provement, and that every age of the world 
 is more enlightened than that which pre- 
 ceded it. We know that history does not 
 exactly bear us out in these hopes ; but we 
 shall presently be able to trace the cause of 
 such disappointment, and to calculate upon 
 the probability of its continuance. 
 
 Among the causes that have contributed 
 to those vicissitudes of the human energies 
 of which we have been speaking, some have, 
 I think, ignorantly adduced local situation 
 and climate ; but let us remember one con- 
 tradictory instance only, and it will be suf- 
 ficient to confute such a notion. " Let us 
 remember that the Greeks rose from the 
 very dregs of barbarism till they became 
 the masters of the world, and that that very 
 Greece which was so long the garden of Eu- 
 rope, afterwards became a sterile desert. 
 Boeotia lay in the vicinity of Attica, and 
 consequently enjoyed the same climate; yet 
 were the Boeotians as dull as the Athenians 
 were acute. The splendour too of Grecian 
 science was diffused not only through Greece 
 
15 
 
 itself, but extended to colonies far distant 
 from the metropolis, and very different with 
 respect to climate* ." 
 
 There are writers who have told us, that 
 there is a tide in the arts and sciences which 
 always tends to their elevation and declen- 
 sion ; and further, that when they come to 
 perfection in any state, they necessarily de- 
 cline, and seldom or never revive in that 
 nation where they had formerly flourished. 
 
 To the general truth of these remarks his- 
 tory and experience oblige us to assent; 
 but, insead of resting content with the fact, 
 and acquiescing in its necessity, let us en- 
 deavour to trace it up to its cause, and to 
 ascertain whethersuch fluctuations are really 
 ordained by nature, or whether they arise 
 from the untoward propensities of man. 
 
 In thus viewing the subject, it will pre- 
 sently be apparent, that there are direct 
 •and immediate causes for that obliteration 
 and declension of science and art that we 
 -have ju«t adverted to; that it has always 
 
 # See the Abbe Andres/ as quoted in Mr. Roscoe's 
 Discourse/ delivered at the opening of the Liverpool 
 ■ Royal Institution. 
 
16 
 
 been indicative of a degradation in ' the 
 moral character of the people ; characte- 
 ristic of declining liberty, and of over- 
 whelming oppression; of the rise of despot- 
 ism, and the fall of freedom : That where- 
 over these causes have co-operated, the 
 best feelings and energies of the human 
 mind have been blasted; effeminacy and 
 indolence have slided into the place of man- 
 liness and activity; vice has gained the as- 
 cendancy over virtue ; and all that is esti- 
 mable in the human character, all social 
 virtues and public spirit, have dwindled 
 into selfishness and deceit. It is then to 
 public morals and public liberty that w T e are 
 to look up as the shield and helmet of the 
 arts and sciences, and as constituting the 
 anchor of their salvation. Under a jealous 
 and suspicious government, be it republican 
 or monarchical, the faculties and energies 
 of the people are palsied and frozen up. 
 Under a free constitution, the mind is nei- 
 ther agitated by apprehension, nor dead- 
 ened by jealousy and suspicion; freedom of 
 inquiry and of expression are interwoven 
 with its very existence, and all the noblest 
 
17 
 
 characters of man shoot forth with vigour 
 and blossom in security. 
 
 In the Inaugural Oration which wasspoken 
 by the eloquent and learned Counsel to this 
 Institution, at the ceremony of its founda- 
 tion, these principles were well illustrated, 
 by directing our attention to the spacious 
 provinces which now compose the Ottoman 
 Empire, but which once were the seat of 
 science and of commerce. Then were they 
 dignified by wisdom and valour, and were 
 the fairest portion of the Christian world. 
 But when the tyranny of their invaders de- 
 prived them of these inestimable blessings, 
 no tongue can adequately describe the sad 
 and melancholy reverse. Large territories 
 dispeopled; goodly cities made desolate; 
 sumptuous buildings become ruins; glorious 
 temples subverted or prostituted; true re- 
 ligion discountenanced and oppressed; all 
 nobility extinguished ; violence and rapine 
 exulting over all, and leaving no security 
 except to abject minds and neglected po- 
 verty. Such is the state of a country with- 
 out religion, and morals, and freedom: 
 Would you behold a country in possession 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 of them, look to your own ; contemplate the 
 number and magnificence of her cities, the 
 high state of her agriculture, the activity of 
 her manufactures, the easy intercourse be- 
 tween all parts of the nation; her grand 
 foundations both for learning and charity; 
 the graceful dignity and conciliating ease 
 of high life; the importance and respecta- 
 bility of the middle ranks; the industry 
 and intelligence of the lower; the general 
 veneration of the Constitution; the general 
 obedience to the law; the general devotion 
 to their Country. — Such is Britain. If it be 
 inquired by what means she has attained 
 this height of glory and prosperity, we must 
 refer it, under the blessings of Providence, 
 to our intellectual liberty ; to the respect in 
 which morality arid religion are held by the 
 public ; and lastly, to that happy union of 
 science and commerce, for which, in every 
 part of her history, she has been eminently 
 distinguished. 
 
 If from the earlier we descend to more 
 recent times, to the period which has elapsed 
 since the revival of letters, and which fol- 
 lowed that melancholy chasm in the intel- 
 
19 
 
 lectual arid moral history ofman, commonly 
 called the middle ages, we shall find, that 
 here also the same great truth is inculcated, 
 the same relationship exhibited between ig- 
 norance and prejudice, and vice and sla- 
 very ; between freedom and independence 
 on the one hand, and every quality which 
 adorns the intellectual capacity of man, on 
 the other. 
 
 Towards the beginning of the loth cen- 
 tury, we discern the germs of those innova- 
 tions which tended to the revival of letters in 
 Europe ; the landscape began to re-appear, 
 after the inundation of barbarism with 
 which it had been overwhelmed for the pro- 
 tracted period of nearly a thousand years, 
 and various circumstances co-operated to 
 give a new impulse and activity to causes 
 which had long lain dormant; ?* for in no 
 one age, from its commencement to its close, 
 does the continuity of knowledge seem to 
 have been entirely interrupted; there was 
 always a faint twilight, like that auspicious 
 gleam which in a summer night fills up the 
 interval between the setting and rising sun." 
 These causes have been so admirably sum- 
 
20 
 med up by Dr. Robertson, in his View of 
 the Progress of Society in Europe, from the 
 subversion of the Roman Empire to the 
 beginning of the 16th century, that I shall 
 not attempt either to abridge or recapitu- 
 late them. The revival of letters was fol- 
 lowed by the Protestant reformation, and 
 by the invention of printing. The former 
 encouraged a freedom of inquiry into reli- 
 gious matters, which diffused a congenial 
 liberality of sentiment over other subjects 
 of investigation; in philosophy it tended to 
 dispel the trifling cavillings of Aristotle con- 
 cerning matter, form, motion, and time; 
 and it gradually led to the substitution of 
 reason for habit, as a governing principle. 
 
 The invention of printing was also at- 
 tended with most important effects upon the 
 human mind. For us, says an elegant writer 
 upon this subject*, who have been accus- 
 tomed from our infancy to the use of books, 
 it is not easy to form an adequate idea of 
 the disadvantages which those laboured 
 
 •* See Mr. Dugald Stewart's Dissertation, prefixed 
 to the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
 
21 
 
 under, who had to acquire the whole of their 
 knowledge from universities and schools ; 
 blindly devoted, as the generality of stu- 
 dents must then have been to the peculiar 
 opinions of the teacher who first unfolded 
 to their curiosity the treasures of literature 
 and the wonders of science. Thus, error 
 was perpetuated, and instead of yielding to 
 time, acquired additional influence in each 
 successive generation. In modern times, 
 however, this influence of names is at an 
 end. The object of a public teacher is no 
 longer to inculcate a particular system of 
 dogmas, but to prepare his pupils for ex- 
 ercising their own judgements. There is 
 another circumstance which also especially 
 merits attention, namely, the influence of 
 the foregoing causes in encouraging among 
 authors the practice of addressing the mul- 
 titude in their own vernacular tongues. To 
 the zeal of the reformers we owe this inva- 
 luable innovation; the sacred books were 
 in almost all the kingdoms and states of 
 Europe, translated into the language of each 
 respective people, and from that moment 
 the prejudice began to vanish which had so 
 
22 
 
 long confounded knowledge with erudition, 
 and a revolution commenced in the repub- 
 lic of letters analogous to what the inven- 
 tion of gunpowder produced in the art of 
 war. " All the splendid distinctions of 
 mankind/' as the champion and flower of 
 chivalry indignantly exclaimed," were there- 
 by thrown down, and the naked shepherd 
 levelled with the knight clad in steel." 
 
 I have now, I trust, adduced sufficient 
 evidence to prove the active causes that 
 tend to the progress and welfare of litera- 
 ture, science, and art : to these we are to 
 look, as the sources of those glorious con- 
 quests which were made in Europe within 
 two centuries after the revival of letters ; 
 and it was under such auspicious influence, 
 that in the reign of Elizabeth, the English 
 mind put forth those unrivalled energies 
 that conduce to the enthusiastic reverence 
 with which we mention the names of Spen- 
 ser, of Shakspeare, and of Milton, 
 
 " Whither, as to their fountain, other stars 
 Repair, and in their urns draw golden light:" 
 
 and which, concentred in Bacon, stamp 
 him as the greatest, most universal, and 
 
.23 
 
 most eloquent of philosophers; whose doc- 
 trines, compared with the subtleties of the 
 schools, are as the noon-day sun to the 
 transitory meteors that float in the earth's 
 atmosphere. 
 
 From these considerations, I am con- 
 ducted to the second object of this Intro* 
 ductory Discourse, in which I am to en- 
 deavour to show the intimate union that 
 subsists between the scientific and commer- 
 cial interests of a country, and especially 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 To show the necessary connexion that 
 subsists between the progress of the sci- 
 ences and that of the useful arts, and be- 
 tween commerce and intellectual improve- 
 ment, will, I trust, become one of the lead- 
 ing objects of public instruction in this Am- 
 phitheatre; for it will not only stimulate to 
 exertion by the flattering picture of human 
 ability and resources which it displays, but 
 will also show how much the happiness and 
 perfection of our nature is concerned in the 
 exercise of our relative and social feelings; 
 how nearly our interests are connected 
 where they often appear widest apart. The 
 
24 
 philosopher, says Dr. Johnson, may very 
 justly be delighted with the extent of his 
 views, and the artificer with the readiness 
 of his hands; but let the one remember, 
 that without mechanical performances, re* 
 fined speculation is an empty dream; and 
 the other, that without theoretical reason- 
 ing, dexterity is little more than a brute 
 instinct. It is, says he, pleasing to contem- 
 plate a manufacture, rising gradually from 
 its first mean state, by the successive la- 
 bours of innumerable minds; to consider 
 the first hollow trunk of an oak, in which, 
 perhaps, the shepherd could scarce venture 
 to cross a brook swelled with a shower, en* 
 larged at last into a ship of war, attacking 
 fortresses, terrifying nations, setting storms 
 and billows at defiance, and visiting the re- 
 motest parts of the globe. And it might 
 dispose us to a kinder regard for the la- 
 bours of one another, if we were to consider 
 from what unpromising beginnings the most 
 useful productions of art have probably 
 arisen. Who, when he saw the first sand 
 or ashes, by a casual intenseness of heat, 
 melted into a metalline form, rugged with 
 
25 
 
 excrescencies, and clouded with impuri- 
 ties, would have imagined that in this 
 shapeless lump lay concealed so many con- 
 veniences of life as would in time consti- 
 tute a great part of the happiness of the 
 world? Yet, by some such fortuitous lique- 
 faction was mankind taught to procure a 
 body at once in a high degree solid and 
 transparent, which might admit the light of 
 the sun, and exclude the violence of the 
 wind; which might extend the sight of the 
 philosopher to new ranges of existence, and 
 charm him at one time with the unbounded 
 extent of the material creation, and at an- 
 other with the endless subordination of ani- 
 mal life; and, what is yet of more import- 
 ance, might supply the decays of nature, 
 and succour old age with subsidiary sight. 
 Thus was the first artificer in glass em- 
 ployed, though without his own knowledge 
 or expectation. He was facilitating and 
 prolonging the enjoyment of light, enlarg- 
 ing the avenues of science, and conferring 
 the highest and most lasting pleasures; he 
 was enabling the student to contemplate 
 nature, and the beauty to behold herself. 
 
26 
 
 It would be easy to trace other arts, and 
 other manufactures, to their recondite and 
 remote sources, and to display the most un- 
 expected and important events springing 
 from trifling causes, and of an apparently 
 undignified origin. To show in the inter- 
 woven boughs of the grove, and the rude 
 attempts of unlettered nations, the elements 
 of Gothic and Grecian architecture. To dis- 
 cover the simple clothing of rude and bar- 
 barous countries, composed of the barks of 
 trees and skins of animals, gradually merging 
 into more and more complicated manufac- 
 tures, in which usefulness and comfort are 
 blended with beauty and elegance. To ex- 
 hibit the simplest methods of reckoning time, 
 the hour-glass, or the graduated candle, 
 slowly leading to the pendulum-clock, and 
 chronometer. 
 
 In all the arts, and in every branch of 
 science, there has been the same slow, yet 
 certain, progress ; and in tracing their gra- 
 dual progression, we shall ever find it most 
 rapid and complete in those countries where 
 Commerce and her attendants thrive and 
 are cherished. 
 
Under the influence of commerce, the 
 barren islands of Venice gradually became 
 the seats of wealth and magnificence, and 
 the abode of literature, science, and the fine 
 arts ; and it will, perhaps, be remembered 
 by many present, that, in his Inaugural 
 Oration already quoted, your learned Coun- 
 sel pointed the attention of his hearers to the 
 splendour of the towns of Belgium, to their 
 numerous public edifices of exquisite and 
 costly architecture, and to the numberless 
 paintings, and works in marble, gold, silver, 
 iron, and bronze, with which they abound ; 
 and desiring us to recollect that, during a 
 period of about two hundred years, all these 
 cities have been in a declining state, re- 
 minded us of what they were in the sunshine 
 of their prosperity. He told us, and truly 
 too, that the fostering hand of commerce 
 collected all these treasures. For, said he, 
 till the imprudent conduct of the Dukes of 
 Burgundy, and of the house of Austria, 
 drove commerce to Amsterdam, the Nether- 
 lands were her favourite seat ; and all these 
 monuments of art and science owe their ex- 
 istence to the commercial acquisitions, and 
 
28 
 wdl-directed munificence of the burghers 
 of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, and 
 Louvaine. 
 
 With the commercial history of our own 
 country, my audience cannot but be well 
 acquainted. To point out the benefits flow- 
 ing from its commercial aggrandizement 
 would, indeed, be a pleasing labour, full of 
 substantial and solid gratification ; but we 
 need only look around us, and every object 
 that meets our eye proclaims the debt that 
 is due to commerce; the very walls that sur- 
 round us speak, and tell us that they were 
 raised by her for the protection of Science. 
 But the amount of this debtis rendered most 
 obvious by considering our own country in 
 its natural aspect, without any of the bene- 
 fits and advantages of commerce, and we 
 then presently discern, that without her, sci- 
 ence would have been debarred of all her 
 essential aids; she brings to our marts the 
 produce of every climate ; converts our tin 
 into gold, and our wool into rubies. " I 
 have often fancied/' says Addison, in one 
 of his essays on the benefits of commerce, 
 " when I have been upon 'Change, one of 
 
29 
 
 our old kings standing in person where he 
 is represented in effigy, and looking down 
 upon the wealthy concourse of people with 
 which that place is every day filled. In this 
 case, how would he be surprised to hear all 
 the languages of Europe spoken in this little 
 spot of his former dominions, and to see so 
 many private men, who, in his time, w r ould 
 have been the vassals of some powerful 
 baron, negotiating like Princes, for greater 
 sums of money than were formerly to be 
 met with in the royal treasury!" 
 
 While we are thus contemplating the 
 means and power of commerce, and reflect* 
 ing upon the liberal aid which science has 
 received at her hands, let us not be unmind- 
 ful of what remains to be done ; let us hope 
 that the acquaintance thus auspiciously be- 
 gun, may advance to intimacy, friendship, 
 and regard ; and that the Mural Crown of 
 our City, already the emblem of dominion 
 and strength, may embrace within its pro- 
 tecting circle the interests of Science, and 
 become adorned by the rays of intellectual 
 light. 
 
 If commerce has, in many instances, mur 
 
30 
 nificently contributed to the promotion of 
 science, science has, on the other hand, ren- 
 dered liberal and essential service to our 
 commercial interests; and of the various 
 branches of science, Chemistry stands, in 
 this respect, foremost in the first rank; so 
 important, indeed, is it to the progress of 
 society, that no people ever attained any 
 considerable degree of civilization, indepen- 
 dent of the chemical arts. The steam-en- 
 gine is generally and universally allowed as 
 the most noble and effective present ever 
 made by philosophy to the arts : and, con- 
 sidered in the abstract, it is indeed sinra- 
 larly calculated to excite our admiration and 
 surprise; but when we carry our eye from 
 the simple instrument, to its applications ; 
 and when we view the numerous branches 
 of manufacture that depend upon it as their 
 prime mover, the understanding is scarcely 
 capacious enough to grasp them, and wants 
 power to do homage to those by whose skill 
 and industry this machine was perfected, 
 and tamed, as it were, into submission. Let 
 me recommend those who complain of the 
 introduction of machinery into our manu- 
 
31 
 
 factures, and whose clamoursare loud against 
 this substitute for manual labour, to reflect 
 upon the state we should have been in with- 
 out it. One of two things must, in that case, 
 have happened. Either our fields must have 
 been overrun by invaders, and our impor- 
 tance in the scale of nations degraded into 
 something worse than nonentity, while those 
 who have so gloriously defended us abroad 
 were busied at home at the loom and the 
 distaff; or our traffic must have stagnated ; 
 and our trade, instead of having been shaken 
 only, would have been wholly subverted and 
 annihilated. Let us then be thankful that 
 our liberties are preserved to us entire; that 
 although we have indeed felt the shock 
 which has palsied so great a portion of Eu- 
 rope, and reduced many of its states to 
 trembling imbecility, we are still suffered 
 to live, and breathe, and enjoy our being ; 
 and let us, above all things, seriously and 
 steadfastly exert ourselves to avert the dif- 
 ficulties that surround us, with that manly 
 and temperate zeal which becomes the Bri- 
 tish character. 
 
 Among the useful arts, it is difficult to 
 
j 
 
 m 
 
 select one that is not very immediately de- 
 pendent upon chemical principles : and in 
 reverting to the history of those arts, we 
 shall find ourselves obliged to confess, that 
 their leading improvements have been de- 
 rived from the same source. It would be 
 trite and tedious to enumerate all that che- 
 mistry has done for the arts of bleaching, 
 dyeing, calico-printing, and tanning; in 
 the arts of pottery, of glass, and porcelain 
 making, or in the apparently more remote 
 operations of the brewer and the distiller ; 
 but it may not be useless to inform you, 
 that the discovery of the present mode of 
 making oil of vitriol, of preparing vinegar 
 from wood, of extracting the pure acid from 
 the lemon, that the abstruse and apparently 
 abstract inquiries into the propagation and 
 effects of heat, are so manv sources whence 
 these improvements have been derived; and 
 whence individuals, often ignorant of their 
 origin, have enriched themselves, and be- 
 nefited the community. I the rather dwell 
 upon these things, because it is a common, 
 though a gross error, to depreciate the abs- 
 tract inquiries of the philosopher and the 
 
33 
 
 chemist, to consider all as empty and idle 
 that does not contribute to immediate in- 
 struction or profit; forgetting how frequent- 
 ly it has happened, that even he who has 
 excited the derision of his contemporaries, 
 has merited and received the gratitude of 
 posterity. " If what appears little be uni- 
 versally despised, nothing greater can be 
 attained ; for all that is great was at first lit- 
 tle, and rose to its present bulk by gradual 
 accessions and accumulated labours." 
 
 To enumerate all the advantages which 
 science has conferred upon the arts, and 
 thence to deduce its influence upon the wel- 
 fare of our commercial interests, would lead 
 me to inquiries of such extent and impor- 
 tance, as to exceed my adequacy to do jus- 
 tice to them; I can only recommend the in- 
 vestigation as well deserving attention, and 
 more especially to those who sceptically 
 deny the happy results of the intercourse 
 between Science and Art. 
 
 Before I take my leave, I feel it my duty 
 on this occasion, to advert to, and answer 
 some objections that havebeen urged against 
 literary and scientific establishments, con-v 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 sidered in their relation to the mercantile 
 world, and as affecting particular classes of 
 society. 
 
 It has been said, that literary and scien- 
 tific attainments are incompatible with that 
 attention to business, with that activity of 
 mind, which is essential to those who would 
 flourish in mercantile and commercial oc- 
 cupations ; and it has been supposed, that 
 the young man who is just entering upon 
 the career of life, is particularly open to such 
 objectionable and unpropitious influence. 
 But let us candidly and dispassionately look 
 at the state of this question. There is no 
 one whose mind can always and incessantly 
 bear direction to one subject; whose thoughts 
 will always run in the same channel; the 
 bow must sometimes be unstrung ; diversity 
 of occupation must be resorted to for relief; 
 and amusement must sometimes become our 
 business. Whatever our occupation may 
 be, some degree of variety and relaxation is 
 required ; and it is admitted upon all hands, 
 that if these gaps and chasms in the life of 
 a man of business are not employed in the 
 acquisition of some kind of information, or 
 
35 
 
 in the cultivation of some branch of litera- 
 ture, science, or art, they will seldom remain 
 harmlessly employed. There are fortunately 
 very few whose minds are so degenerate as 
 to rest quiet in absolute idleness; and if these 
 do not resolve to be industrious, they will 
 seldom be employed without injury to them- 
 selves or others; unable to contain them- 
 selves in a neutral state, they invariably sink 
 into vice, when no longer soaring towards 
 virtue. It is indeed so absurd to suppose 
 that the attention of a man of business is to 
 be injured and distracted by occasional in- 
 cursions into the regions of literature and 
 science, that all objections to establishments 
 like ours, founded upon such imputations, 
 require only to be mentioned, in order to 
 be rejected as the vapid miasmata of igno- 
 rance, or despised as the illicit offspring of 
 prejudice and credulity. The mind of man 
 was never intended for an " unweeded gar- 
 den/' but was formed for cultivation and 
 embellishment. By the union of literature 
 and science with the ordinary affairs of the 
 world, we not only derive present enjoy- 
 ment, but lay up a stock of future satisfac- 
 c 2 
 
36 
 
 tion, which tends to recreate the languors 
 of age, and to shed a lustre upon the even- 
 ing of life. How different must be the view 
 of past life in the, man who is grown old in 
 knowledge and wisdom, from that of him 
 who is grown old in ignorance and folly ! 
 " The latter is like the owner of a barren coun- 
 try, that fills his eye with the prospect of 
 naked hills and plains, producing nothing 
 either profitable or ornamental ; the other 
 beholds a beautiful and spacious landscape, 
 divided into delightful gardens, green mea- 
 dows, fruitful fields; and can scarce cast his 
 eye on a single spot of his possessions that 
 is not covered with some beautiful plant or 
 flower/' 
 
 The last, and I trust to the present Au- 
 dience, not the least interesting subject that 
 it is my business at present to advert to, 
 relates to the opportunities offered by esta- 
 blishments of the nature of this Institution, 
 in improving female education, " It is not," 
 said Sir H. Davy, in propounding the plan 
 of the Royal Institution, " it is not our 
 intention to invite them to assist in our la- 
 boratories, but to partake of that healthy 
 
37 
 
 and refined amusement which results from 
 a perception of the variety, order, and har- 
 mony, existing in all the kingdoms of na- 
 ture ; and to encourage the study of those 
 more elegant departments of science, which 
 at once tend to exalt the understanding and 
 purify the heart." 
 
 It is somewhere said in the Rambler, 
 that all appearance of science is particularly 
 hateful to women ; and that he who de- 
 sires to be well received by them, must 
 qualify himself by a total rejection of all 
 that is rational and important ; must con- 
 sider learning as perpetually interdicted, 
 and devote all his attention to trifles, and 
 all his eloquence to compliment. 
 
 It is barely possible that such might have 
 been the state of things at the middle of 
 the last century ; but the case is now widely 
 different; and, in consequence of the diffu- 
 sion of general knowledge and information 
 that appears in all respectable classes of 
 society, ignorance every where meets with 
 contempt. In these observations it is very 
 far from my intention to recommend the 
 abstract sciences as part of female educa- 
 
38 
 
 lion, but merely to advise the acquisition 
 of general information. Pedantry is at all 
 times nauseous, but never so disagreeable 
 as in female attire, where it is always in- 
 dicative of the absence of the more estima- 
 ble and useful mental acquirements. 
 
 Let us then indulge the hope, and exert 
 ourselves for its fulfilment, that within these 
 walls Science and Literature may establish 
 a permanent and friendly intercourse with 
 Commerce and Trade ; that they may en- 
 ter into a league against ignorance, pedan- 
 try, and prejudice, in defence of the true 
 ends of knowledge; that their merits may 
 be duly appreciated, and set forth with 
 dignity and with truth; and that these 
 means may be so directed to the improve- 
 ment of the moral as well as the intellectual 
 character, that " our Merchants may be- 
 come as Princes, and our Traffickers the 
 trulv honourable of the earth." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by R. and A. Taylor t Shoe Lane, London. 
 
i 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 1 ^.i^OTr 
 
 
 I £aJ' ° 
 
 
 R-.OU L 
 
 XJ 
 
 AUG 2 a 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LB 21A-50m-4,'60 
 (A9562sl0)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley