And first, there is in man a natural tendency to progress. There are principles in human nature, which render the progress of our race a matter of certainty.

1. There is, for instance, in man, a natural desire for knowledge, for knowledge without bounds. This desire for knowledge increases in strength the more it is gratified. It grows with what it feeds on. This insatiable desire for knowledge impels men to all kinds of experiments, and these experiments lead continually to new discoveries, to perpetual progress, in every department of science.

2. Again; man's power to acquire knowledge, as well as his desire for knowledge, increases with his efforts to acquire it. The mind, like the body, is strengthened by exercise. The understanding, the judgment, the imagination and the memory are all invigorated by use, and better fitted for penetrating the secrets of nature, and unravelling the mysteries of the universe.

3. Then every discovery prepares the way for further discoveries, and makes further discoveries more easy. It is with knowledge as it is with money: the man that has no money, finds it hard to get any, especially in times like these; while the man that has plenty, finds it easy to get more. So a man that knows nothing, finds it hard to learn anything; while the man that knows a great deal, finds it easy to learn a great deal more.

4. Again, knowledge, like light, is pleasant, while ignorance, like darkness, is disagreeable; and the pleasures of knowledge, which, unlike so many other pleasures, never cloy, will lure man onward in search of knowledge, and render still more sure the progress of our race.

5. Then knowledge is infinitely useful. Knowledge is power. It gives man dominion over the universe. Knowledge is wealth. It not only discovers the treasures of the earth and the sea, but reveals to him the uses of things, end enables him to turn them to his advantage. It turns all nature into wealth. Knowledge is virtue. It reveals to man his duty; unfolds to him the results of obedience,

weakens the power of temptations to transgression, and thus enables and disposes him to pursue a course of life in accordance with the requirements of virtue and honor. Knowledge is health. It reveals to man the laws of life, and enables him to avoid a thousand dangers to which his unenlightened neighbors fall. Knowledge tends to improve man's character, and to better his condition in every respect. And the more clearly man sees this, the more eager will he become to make continual progress in knowledge.

6. Then there is in man a desire for consistency, for harmony in his views. When he discerns a great truth, he naturally tries to reconcile it with his previous views. If he cannot, he casts his old opinions aside. He cannot rest till his mind is at ease with itself. Thus every truth expels old errors, and prepares the way for the entrance of other truths.

7. All sciences are intimately related, and mutually dependent on each other, so that a man cannot properly understand one, without a knowledge of several others. A knowledge of History requires a knowledge of Geography, and a knowledge of Geography a knowledge of Meteorology and Astronomy. A knowledge of Medicine, requires a knowledge of Physiology and Chemistry, Astronomy requires a knowledge of Mathematics and Geometry. Thus one study necessitates another, and the more a man learns, the more it is necessary for him to learn. Hence, when man has once given himself to the pursuit of science, he is compelled evermore to advance; and the farther he advances, the farther he desires to advance.

8. Again, man is never long contented with his condition. However well he may be satisfied when he first experiences the pleasures and advantages of some great and happy change, he soon begins to wish for something better or for something more. Clergymen may preach contentment as long and as hard as they please, men cannot be content, and they ought not if they could. Novelty, change, is essential to the enjoyment of life; and the desire for novelty, the

eternal longing after something better, is another principle that tends to secure the progress of our race.

9. Then there is in man a principle of emulation. Life is a race, and no one likes to be last. Many are anxious to be first, or even with the first. Our neighbor builds a better house, and we must have one as good. His wife gets better furniture, and ours must do the same. And so it is in science. Herschel discovers a new planet, and a thousand astronomers scan the heavens eager to discover another—a second. Kepler detects a new law of the planetary system, and all his cotemporaries try to discover another. And so in the arts, trade, and politics. There is always some one bent on being first, and there are always others unwilling to be second. It is the same with States. All vie with each other in population, wealth and power, and the more advanced States emulate each other in science, arts and frecdom. And this principle of emulation necessitates still further the progress of our race.

10. Again, man has a strong desire to have his children, and his children's children, virtuous and happy. And the longer he lives, the more clearly he sees that he cannot secure the virtue and happiness of his own offspring, except so far as he can secure the virtue and happiness of the coming generations at large. He sees, he feels, if one man is to be happy, men generally must be happy; that if we neglect the virtue and happiness of others, we sacrifice our own. His wish, therefore, to secure the health, the virtue, the peace, the safety, and the happiness of his offspring, prompts him to labor for the improvement and welfare of the world at large.

11. And further, there is in man a principle of benevolence, of philanthropy, which impels him to seek the happiness of mankind at large on their own account, as well as out of regard to the welfare of his offspring. We are aware that this principle is weaker in some than in others, and that in many it is overpowered and neutralized by inferior propensities. Still, it is implanted in all, and in some it is the

ruling power, controlling their whole life. And those nobler specimens of humanity are sufficiently numerous and sufficiently powerful to shape the future destiny of our race.

We observe further, that we have progressed in the past. We have progressed in science; we have progressed in arts; we have progressed in religion; we have progressed in every thing conducive to the security and happiness of life.

1. We have progressed in science. We have progressed in Astronomical science. The knowledge of the ancients with regard to the heavens was very limited. They had observed the stars, the few which could be seen by the naked eye, and had discovered that a few of them had an appearance and a motion different from the rest. They had also noticed the peculiar appearance and unusual movements of those mysterious bodies which occasionally come within sight, called comets. But beyond this, all that went under the name of Astronomy or Astrology, was a mass of childish fancies and delusions. The majority of the ancients believed that the stars were living bodies, animated by living souls, and many of them worshiped them as gods. Comets they regarded as frightful omens, foreboding pestilence and war. An eclipse of the sun or moon would inspire whole nations with the wildest terrors. The stars were supposed to have a mysterious and irresistible influence over a person's character and destiny, and a numerous order of men imposed upon the people, and enriched themselves, by pretending to derive from an observation of the stars, a knowledge of future events. The ancient Hebrews believed that the sun and moon and stars were fixed in a solid frame-work, called the firmament, and that they were all at an equal distanec from the earth. ference of size in the heavenly bodies real. They considered the earth the principal part of the universe, and looked on all the hosts of heaven as created for the service of its inhabitants. They believed the earth was stationary, resting on pillars or foundations that could

The apparent difthey believed to be

never be moved. In shape they supposed it to be a square, hence they speak continually of its length and breadth, and of its four corners. The difference in the motions of the planets and the stars led at length to the belief in several concentric firmaments, or spheres, moving within each other, at different rates of speed; but their new conjectures, instead of rendering their theory of the heavens more intelligible, made it more incomprehensible.

What is the state of Astronomical science now? Where the ancients saw one star, we, by the aid of the telescope, see a hundred or a thousand. Where they saw nothing more than stars, we see countless suns and solar systems. The motions of the heavens, which to them were inexplicable, are now made intelligible to a child. Their four-cornered earth we have made into a sphere, and instead of keeping it immoveable, we make it spin on its axis at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, all day and all night long, and find time beside, with the moon for its companion, to take a yearly journey round the sun, at the rate of sixtysix thousand miles an hour. We have increased the number of the planets more than five fold, and given to each its task and its sphere; while to some of the principal ones we have assigned a number of secondary planets as attendants. By the improvements in Mathematics and Geometry, and the invention of the telescope and its accompaniments, our modern Astronomers have measured the distances of the planets from the sun, and from each other, ascertained the laws of their motions, defined their orbits, determined their size, their solid contents, and their comparative density, with a certainty and an exactness truly astonishing. By means of books, maps, diagrams, globes and planetariums, they have made these, and a thousand other discoveries more astonishing still, familiar to vast multitudes, and placed them within the reach of mankind at large. The discovery of astronomical truth, has exploded artronomical error. It has dissipated the maddening and