Page:Inaugural address, delivered before the members of the Victorian Institute, on Friday the 21st of September, 1854 (IA inauguraladdres00barr).pdf/16

12 the natural and indwelling love of truth which predominates over every other impression on the heart and mind.

Are there not however other attractions, besides those emphasised by utilitarian argument, capable of luring us to such an enlightened species of amusement, to the devotion of a portion of that leisure left after the performance of our sterner duties to prepare us for the perception of a more refined description of intellectual recreation than we have had hitherto within our reach. It is too common to treat science as ascetic and austere, and deny to her the ability of unbending to animate and to please. You recollect the enthusiastic apostrophe of the poet, who exclaims with a greater generosity, to which I hope I hear an echo—

Who then is so impassive as not to feel delight in dwelling on the vast design of nature, the order and beauty with which it is maintained, and yearn for an insight into its great arcana;—whether we survey the celestial scheme which prescribes to planets and their satellites stated revolutions, and upholds all without dislocation of the marvellous mechanism, producing in the infinitely-diversified movements of its members, by an all-wise counteraction of discordant discord, such surprising harmony; or whether we behold the terrific wonders of the atmosphere, torn by devastating hurricanes or agitated by conflicting currents, laden with pestilence, dealing death around; or its soothing airs breathing life and health;—whether we study the structure of the solid globe and the alterations it constantly undergoes by the agency of heat or magnetism, or those subtil [sic] powers which generate the volcanic shock, and work the perpetual transmutation of its compact ingredients;—or the properties of elementary substances, their union and reciprocal action; or the structure, development and admirable adaptation of the vegetable and animal