philosophical investigations,-when Pliny, the greatest naturalist of his age, and that an age much enlightened, detailed the operations of animal nature, how many fables he admitted into his history! Precious stones have been invested with' the most splendid and important properties; and it cannot excite astonishment, that astronomy should have furnished occasion to the absurd, but imposing fancy of astrology. In fine, philosophy wandered, and of its wanderings found no end, until the Father of English philosophy, denying to hypothesis any claim beyond that of ingenuity, and having first emancipated us from the trammels of system, reduced science to its proper test-experiment; and subordinated the fancy

to facts.

When we pass from the Chaldeans, with their magical pretensions, to the Egyptians, we find astronomy cultivated; but from other motives, and directed to other purposes. The study of this science was to them indispensable. The only certain sign of the rising of the waters of the Nile was the star, called for that very reason the Dog-star, in allusion to the vigilance of that animal, which name it retains now that the import of the title is lost. When this star became disengaged from the rays of the sun, and appeared above the horizon before break of day, it arrested the attention of those who were so deeply interested in the event, and admonished the inhabitants of Lower Egypt to withdraw from the approaching inundation. The course of the heavenly bodies was diligently marked, and carefully committed to symbols, at that time intelligible, for the purpose of fixing agricultural pursuits, with a precision essential to that singular climate and country. Those symbols were afterwards much misunderstood; in evidence of which, it is only necessary to refer to the sphinx. The inundation lasted two months, during which time the sun passed through the signs of Leo and Virgo: the type adopted, in the instrument intended to mark the height of the waters, corresponded with the signs through which the sun then passed, and was accordingly composed of the body of a Lion, and the head of a Virgin,-symbolizing the constellations of those important months. This was the origin of that singular monument of Egyptian industry, which the sands of the desert have not yet quite overwhelmed; and of the monster fabled in the magic strains of Grecian poetry.

To the Phoenician, astronomy became an important study for a different reason. They were the first who tempted the mighty deep, and braved its storms. Committing themselves to a frail bark, (and frail, indeed, must have been the first vessel constructed by human skill, to float on the bosom of this new world!) they contented themselves at the beginning with

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coasting neighbouring lands. Reassured by success in their earlier expeditions, and improved in their nautical science, both in the construction, and in the management of their vessels, they ventured, by degrees, to lose sight of the shore. When the boundless expanse of ocean rolled around them, to what object could they direct their attention but the heavens? Before the compass was known, some friendly star was hailed, as their guide over the tractless wilderness of waters. When the storm was abroad, and these orbs were obscured, despair assailed the wretched mariners. "When neither sun, nor stars, in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on them, all hope that they should be saved was then taken away." As to the fact of these enterprises of the Phoenicians, no doubt can be entertained. They have left every where the vestiges of their language, and in many places the trophies of their skill. According to some of our best antiquarians, Britain owes her name to their tongue, and that name was imposed in consequence of the kind of traffic in which they were engaged with our countrymen. When Cæsar first invaded Britain, he found no inconsiderable difficulty in commanding the attendance of his troops, who imagined that he was passing over the limits of the known world: but the Phoenicians had visited this remote island, and were acquainted with her mines of tin and of lead—the riches of her minerals.

The attention of this distinguished assembly would not have been so long directed exclusively to one branch of philosophical investigation, were it not, that while astronomy was unquestionably the earliest, it is almost the only science connected with India, with Chaldea, and with Phoenicia, concerning which we can speak with any certainty. Conjectures, various and contradictory, have been formed relative to the philosophy of these countries, and, however ingenious and interesting these may be in themselves, however useful as they may be by their reciprocal concussion, elicit some sparks of truth, they could not be allowed a place in the rapid sketch now given of the progress of knowledge, which, however imperfect as to extent, will, I trust, be found true as to character, so far as it reaches. Sir William Jones, from whose inquisitive and penetrating mind, united with his indefatigable. industry, it was scarcely possible for any thing important to escape, and whose opinions certainly were not lightly formed, admits that "on the sciences, properly so named, the Asiatics, if compared with our western nations, are mere children. I have seen," he adds, "a mathematical book in Sanscrit, of the highest antiquity; but soon perceived from the diagrams that it contained only simple elements." Yet in regard to the

principles of that philosophy which was afterwards so admired in Greece, and thence diffused over Europe, he observes, "The six Philosophical Schools, whose principles are explained in the Dersana Sàstra, comprise all the metaphysics of the old Academy, the Stoa, the Lyceum; nor is it possible to read the Védánta, or the very fine compositions in illustration of it, without believing, that Pythagoras and Plato derived their sublime theories from the same fountain with the sages of India." Floating upon the surface of general information alone, we may yet anticipate a time when the treasures of the East, unlocked of late with so much assiduity, and distributed with corresponding liberality, shall enrich the western world; and, while I cannot avoid tracing all science and philosophy to the East, I feel persuaded that there are mines of exhaustless intellectual wealth yet to be broken up: and I indulge the fond hope, that while the extension of British dominion in India shall add to the affluence and power of the empire, the new and boundless field opened before the enterprising and philosophic mind, will repay its painful researches with spoils more precious than thousands of gold and silver.

In following philosophy and science into Greece, where it was carried by the Phoenicians, the mind is in danger of being distracted by the variety of objects forcing themselves upon the attention. Egypt was unquestionably the repository of the wisdom which afterwards distinguished Europe. To equal the wisdom of the Egyptians was proverbially the Hebrew tribute to transcendant acquirements. The highest eulogy pronounced upon Moses, their illustrious legislator, as a philosopher and a scholar, was, that "he was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians. It necessarily happened, that when the Phoenicians took out the symbols of Egyptian science, many of them local, and relating to the singular properties of their river, without understanding their import; the Grecians, by whom they were adopted, supplied the absence of information with conjecture, and adduced an inexplicable system of mythology from simple signs originally referring to philosophical observations. Nor must it be forgotten, that Egypt was the depositary of the wisdom of the world-as well as of her own. She was the basin into which the springs of the East flowed, so that when Plato and other Grecian sages visited her, if they could not be said to have drank at the fountain-head, they drew from an ample reservoir, in which the several streams of knowledge were collected.

While the mistaken symbols of Egyptian science gave birth to a senseless idolatry, the eminent men of Greece drew from her the sublimest principles of philosophy; and we soon find,

springing from Thales and Pythagoras, a variety of sects and schools, which, however discordant and opposed, and however pernicious to morals, were the tenets of some of them, still stimulated the pursuit of knowledge, by their action and re-action upon each other. Although some of the precious monuments of their eloquence have perished, we find ourselves surrounded by remaining specimens of excellence, in philosophy, in science, in history, in poetry, in rhetoric, in the arts, in one word, in every thing that can adorn and elevate society. To enter into a detail of these several attainments would be as impossible, as it is unnecessary. Force of arms put the Romans in possession of these intellectual treasures and while Italy enslaved Greece, Greece emancipated her conquerors from the chains of ignorance and barbarity in which they had been before held. How well Rome profited by these lessons, her trophies of art, which have survived her ruin, and her immortal writers, whose productions shall be handed down through all generations, sufficiently testify.

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In the mean while, philosophy had found its way to Britain; whose Druids were so celebrated, that the Gauls flocked to this island, for the benefit of their instructions, in great numbers. Whatever admiration we might feel for their genius and knowledge, it is destroyed by the cruelty of their institutions. Their savage manners, and their human sacrifices, stained a philosophy pure and elevated. I may be permitted to advert to the great moral fact, that Christianity abolished those sanguinary rites. Nor should the censure rest upon the Druids alone. This horrible custom prevailed among all nations. The Egyptians, at one period of their history; the Cretans, the nations of Arabia, the Persians, all the states of Greece, the Romans, the Gauls and Germans, as well as Britons, practised these horrid rites. They are still prevalent in America, in Africa, in the East, and in the islands of the South Sea. The Carthaginians and Tyrians carried this sanguinary superstition to the most dreadful extent, sacrificing the flower of the young nobility, in numbers almost incredible. Not all the influence of the sages of Greece and Rome could suppress this cruelty; and it is a fact of no small moment to us, whose object is to include morals in our philosophy, and to note whatever has tended to their furtherance or preservation, that these revolting rites yielded, in every instance, at the approach of Christianity.

Thus, with the arms of Rome, civilization and science overspread Europe, and wherever her eagles directed their flight, they carried knowledge, and when they departed, left behind them the indelible traces of cultivation. It should seem as though they were destined to repair the devastations which

they made in the natural world, by the benefits which they conferred upon the intellectual.

To follow the revolutions which brought back ignorance and slavery upon Europe, and to assign the causes of the extinction of science and philosophy in the dark ages, was a part of my plan when I commenced this address: but it would carry me too far, and exhaust that candour and patience upon which I have already trespassed too much. The slight sketch also which it would be in my power to present, could little repay the additional infringement on your time and attention. It shall suffice to observe the fact, that physics were neglected from the eighth to the fourteenth century.-The influence of the Reformation upon science and philosophy has been so repeatedly and ably written upon, that it were superfluous to insist upon it here. It was my intention to have touched upon the crusades as affecting the literature of Europe, but an inquiry so difficult and interesting would demand that diligent investigation, and comprehensive knowledge, to which I could advance no pretension. Engaged almost incessantly in public life, and pressed by most arduous duties of a professional nature, I am obliged to content myself with general principles, and to leave the accurate research and ample detail to others more favoured by circumstances auspicious to philosophical and scientific pursuits. might, however, be proved, that we owe the sparks which were kept alive in those gloomy centuries, in some degree, to the mutual animosities between the Monks and the Saracens. It is a fact, as singular as it is important, that the Saracens destroyed the classics, and the Monks philosophy; that the Saracens prized philosophy, and the Monks literature: consequently, each labouring to secure what the other attempted to destroy, both have been miraculously preserved to the world.

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From this melancholy gloom Europe emerged, led by the sublime genius, and the daring spirit, of the incomparable Lord Bacon. Disdaining to wear the fetters which schoolmen had forged from the system of Aristotle-he exposed "the absurdity of pretending to account for the phenomena of nature, by syllogistic reasoning from hypothetical principles:" and, exploding hypotheses with syllogisms, appealing to facts and experiment, he must be considered as the parent of that philosophy which is so usefully and so successfully cultivated in the present day. After this glorious sun had set, arose Newton, and Boyle, and Locke, and a constellation of brilliant orbs in the world of intellect. It would be an act of injustice in adverting to the dark ages, to omit the name of