The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-23 00:00:00

THE PRESENT AGE.

The paper by Dr. Charming, to which we yesterday
referred, was delivered before the Mercantile Library
Company at Philadelphia, on May 11, 1841. It is en-
titled " The Present Age; an Address," &c., and its chief
purport is to point out the universal diffusion of know-
ledge, science, art, and comfort. The discourse has
been republished at Glasgow, by Hedderwick and Son,
and is well worthy of being added to our literature. It
is pregnant with that bright faith in the destiny of man,
those noble hopes of his improvement, and that bound-
less confidence in nature, which has ever distinguished
the wisest philosophers, and which well becomes the
aspirant of immortality, and the being of an hour. We
purpose to make copious extracts from this pamphlet, as
we cannot lay before our readers any more welcome
truths than those enumerated by Dr. Channing, clothed
in a more pleasing garb. We shall quote first what he
says of the

DIFFUSION OF SCIENCE.
" Where is Science now ? Locked up in a few Col-
legec, or Royal societies, or inaccessible volumes ? Are
its experiments mysterious for a few privileged eyes ?
Are its portals guarded by a dark phraseology, which, to
the multitude, is a foreign tongue ? No ; Science has
now left her retreats, her shades, her selected company
of votaries, and, with familiar tone, begun the work of
instructing the race. Through the press, discoveries
and theories, once the monopoly of philosophers, have
become the property of the multitude. Its professors,
heard not long ago in the University or some narrow
school, now speak in the Mechanic Institute. The doc-

trine, that the should understand the principles
of his art, should be able to explain the laws and pro-
cesses which he turns to account ; that, instead of work-

ing as a machine, he should join intelligence to his toil,
is no longer listened to as a dream. Science, once the
greatest of distinctions, is becoming popular. A lady
gives us conversations on chemistry, revealing to the
minds of our youth vast laws of the universe, which, 50

years ago, had not dawned on the greatest Minds. The
school-books of our children contain grand views of the
creation. There are parts of our country, in which Ly-
ceums spring up in almost every village, for the purpose
of mutual aid in the study of natural science. The cha-
racteristic of our age, then, is not the improvement of
science, rapid as this is, so much as its extension to
all men.

" But one of the distinctions of our time is, that
science has passed from speculation into life. Indeed, it
is not pursued enough for its intellectual and contem-
plative uses. It is sought as a mighty power, by which
nature is not only to be opened to thought, but to be
subjected to our needs. It is conferring on us that domi-
nion over earth, sea, and air, which was prophesied in
the first command given to man by his Maker ; and this
dominion isnow employed, not to exalt a few, but to mul-
tiply the comforts and ornaments of life for the multi-
tude of men. Science has become an inexhaustible me-
chanician ; and by her forges, and mills, and steam cars,
and printer's presses, is bestowing on milliohs, not only
comforts, but luxuries which were once the distinction
of a few.

" Above all, Science investigates the laws of social
progress, of arts, and institutions of government, and po-
litical economy, proposing, as its great end, the allevia-
tion of all human burthens, the weal of all the members

of the human race. In truth, nothing is more characte-
ristic of our age, than the vast range of inquiry which
is opening more and more to the multitude of men.
Thought frees the old bounds to which men used to con-
fine themselves. It holds nothing too sacred for investi-

gation. It calls the past to account ; and treats hoary
opinions as if they were of yesterday's growth. No
reverence drives it back,—no great name terrifies it.

The foundations of what seems—most settled must be ex-
plored. Undoubtedly this is a perilous tendency. Men
forget the limits of their powers. They question the in-
finite, the unsearchable, with an audacious self-reliance.

They shock pious and reveling minds, and rush into an
extravagance of doubt, more unphilosophical and foolish
than the weakest credulity. Still, in this dangerous
wildness, we see what lam stating,—the tendency to
expansion in the movements of thought."