SCIENCE AND LITERATURE, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE,

OF

PROTESTANT NATIONS:

DELIVERED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AT CHARLES-
TON, ON WEDNESDAY THE 9th oF MAY, 1827,

BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

BY THOMAS S. GRIMKÉ.

WITH ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.

"Set free the mind of Man from slavish awe,
Which feels Opinion's Rule, as Reason's Law;
And from the Spirit bid vain fears depart,
Of weakened Nature and exhausted Art.
Phantoms! that Literary Spleen conceives;
Dulness adopts, and Indolence believes.-
Such friends are those, who, in their proud display
Of thy young beauty, and thy early sway,
Pretend thou'rt robbed of all thy worth sublime,
By the benumbing touch of MODERN TIME."-Hayley.

ADDRESS.

SCIENCE is the noblest, unrevealed gift of God to Man. On this subject so comprehensive and profound, so rich, beautiful and various, the Scriptures are silent. Their object is to teach Duty, not Science. Shall we not, however, believe, in the spirit of faith and humility, that although knowledge and duty may be identical, in the world of Angels, God, in the wise dispensations of his Providence, has given them, apparently at least, a separate existence, in the world of Men? Hence the human family, have not been taught the truths of Science, by the inspired writings of Prophets and Apostles; but it becomes the ignorance of mortals to be assured, that benevolence, wisdom, and justice are in harmony with such a scheme. Yet Science is the Revelation of Nature, vouchsafed to the visions of Genius; and shadowed forth, at intervals, "in angel visits, short and far between," in the triumphs of her ministering servants. Whilst then his Creator has not revealed to him, the philosophy of his works, Man is still without excuse, if he do not study, admire, and adore. Endowed with activity, power, and curiosity, the Human Mind has accordingly gone forth, and shall continue to go forth, conquering and to conquer, from the beginning, till time shall be no more." Its warfare is against all that degrades the moral sense, corrupts the heart, and darkens the understanding-in behalf of all, that can exalt and enlighten, purify and bless mankind.

Unguided by that inspiration, which flashes its lightening truth on the dark and untried paths of futurity, the Intellect of Man despairs not; but travels onward rejoicing in its pilgrimage of improvement, confiding in the energy of faith, kindling with the enthusiasm of hope, and taught by the wisdom of experience. No signs and wonders, living witnesses of the present God, no Seers, and Evangelists, express messengers of his love, have ever ministered in the cause of human learning. Yet Man was decreed by the. law of his being, to emulate, in the achievements of Science, the miracles of Divine Power, and to show forth in the persons of the great, in benevolent wisdom and sublime virtue

-a faint image of Prophets and Apostles. Man, assuredly, in his best estate, is less in comparison of his Maker, than the small dust of the balance. But as he is ordained Vicegerent of his Creator, to govern the world of his fellow men, he is gifted, conformably to this constitution of his nature, with that sovereignty of intellect, which becomes the delegate of Heaven, child of the past, but parent of the future destiny of his species. Man, therefore, is endowed with capacity to comprehend, though imperfectly, the laws of his own being, and to read, in the admirable language of the visible world, the mysteries of natural revelation. The mind, the heart, the character of the whole human family, the harmony, sublimity, and beauty, of the sensible creation, are the Scriptures of Science. In the heavens above, on the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth; in the workings of his own soul, and in the revolutions of society; in the lessons of experience, gathered as manna in the wilderness of past ages; in the evanescent scenes of the present, he finds at once the elements and the motives, for the study of Science. The history of Science is rich in materials, singularly curious, and eminently instructive: curious to the Man of literature and taste, instructive to the philosopher and statesman, to the patriot and philanthropist. We may contemplate Science, in relation to its causes and its effects.

Considered with a view to its causes, or rather its authors, the history of Science consists of the biography of a small number of highly gifted men, clustered in social splendor, or scattered at intervals, along the progress of society, like the gathered effulgence of constellations, or the solitary beauty of single stars. Of those ages of the world, the memory of which must have perished, without the Scripture record, we may be said to know nothing, on subjects of Science. But as we advance, along the highway, traveled by the human mind, in the rise, progress, and fall of nations, we discover more or less frequently the mighty works of those, who labored with the zeal of martyrs, and the energy of patriots, in the high and holy cause of human improvement. At one moment, we rejoice at the triumphs of that fixedness of purpose, and energy of character, which distinguished the efforts of Archimedes, Demosthenes, and Postell, of Pascal, Bernouilli, and Newton; and crowned with the wreath of fame, Domenichino and Claude of Lorraine, At another time, we contemplate, with a feeling of

inquisitive delight, those accidental circumstances, which rescued from the prison-house of obscurity and poverty, such men as Cimabue and Sherwin, as Ferguson, Chantry and Sixtus the Fifth. It is equally curious to notice what trifling occurrences and singular coincidences, suggested the discoveries of Magnes and Melcartus, of Linus, and Dibutades, of Callimachus and Finiquerra and led to the use of mezzotinto engraving, glass, geometry and the peruvian bark. I We are not less charmed, and certainly we are more deeply interested, in contemplating that original talent, which seizes some circumstance, insignificant, in all other eyes, sets it in the focus of its own creative power: and educes, as it were out of nothing, those grand results, which have canonized the individuals, in the gratitude and admiration of the human family. Such illustrious instances adorn the lives of Metius and Pythagoras, of Kepler and Newton, of Jenner, Davie and Locke; and whilst they exhibit Man, as little lower than the Angels, glorious in the panoply of Genius, and traveling in the greatness of his strength; yet we dare not forget, that he is still mortal,

"Frail as the leaf, in Autumn's yellow bower,
"Dust in the wind, and dew upon the flower;
"Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep,
"Swift as the tempest travels on the deep!"

In reviewing the history of Science, as the biography of individuals, we are struck by the remarkable fact that sometimes a few superior minds, hermits in the solitude of dark ages, shed their unheeded beams, on the moral desert around; and remind us of scattered stars, diffusing unnatural light, amidst the gloom of an eclipse. At other times, we gaze with enthusiasm at those constellations of Genius, whose fires of glory are kindled, at distant intervals, along the sublime pathway of Man; and emulate in the world of Science, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the noble army of martyrs, in the Holy Church Universal. Nor can it escape our notice, in this interesting retrospect, that hundreds of minds, though contributing much to human happiness and improvement, are limited to the spirit of their own age. But there are others, kindred indeed, in genius, yet estranged by intervening centuries, to whose gaze of intense power, the futurity of Science stands revealed, as in vision, amidst encircling shades; even as the spectator from the dark abyss of the mine, beholds with anxious delight, the stars, in their