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172 the respect we owe to our elders; and for a time let me address myself to those of our seniors who have honoured me with their presence during these lectures. I wish to claim this moment for the purpose of tendering our thanks to them, and my thanks to you all, for the way in which you have borne the inconvenience that I at first subjected you to. I hope that the insight which you have here gained into some of the laws by which the universe is governed, may be the occasion of some amongst you turning your attention to these subjects; for what study is there more fitted to the mind of man than that of the physical sciences? And what is there more capable of giving him an insight into the actions of those laws, a knowledge of which gives interest to the most trifling phenomenon of nature, and makes the observing student find—