The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1860-01-12
RESULTS OF ART AND SCIENCE
Sir David Brewster, the eminent SEQ,


Sir David Brewster, the eminent Scotch
man, whose successful researches into natu.
raj science have covered his name with
universal honor, was:lately ,inducted into
the office of Principal Of the University of
Edinburgh, to which lie had been unani-
nously elected. On that occasion, he ad-
dressed tho professors, graduates, and mat.
riculatcd students of the University, as
well as large crowd of dwcllers in the
Scotch metropolis. What he said upon
the Indebtedness Of mankind to the Arts
and Sciences is so true, that we take pleasure
in presenting i; here. Speaking to thes stu.
dents, Sir David Brewster said:
There is only one branch of study to
which am anxious to call your attention.
The advances which have recently been
made in the mechanical and useful arts
have already begun to influence our social
condition, and must affect still more deeply
our system of education. The knowledge
which used TO constitute scholar, and fit
him for social aud intellectual intercourse
will not avail him under the present ascen-
dency of practical science. New and gi-
gantic inventions mark almost every pas
sing year-the colossal tubular bridge, con.
veying the monster train over an arm of
the sea the automaton cable, CARRYING
the pulse of speech beneath 5000 miles Of
ocean the monster ship, freighled with
thousands of lives; and the huge rifle gun
throwing its fatal, but unchrislian, charge
across miles Of earth or Of ocean. New
art, too, useful and ornamental, have
sprung up luxurianlly around US. New
powers Of nature have been evoked, and
man communicates with man across seas
and continents, with more certainty and
speed than if lie had been endowed with
the velocity of the race horse, or provided
with the pinions of the eagle. Wherever
we are, in short, art aud science surrounds
us. They have given birth to new and Iu.
crative professions. Whatever we propose
TO do they help US. In our houses they
greet us with light and heat. When we
travel, we find them at every stage on
land, and at every harbor OIL our shores -
They stand beside our board by day, and
our couch 10y night. To our thoughts
they give the speed of lightning, and to
our timep:eces the punctua:ity OF the sun
and, though they cannot provide us with
the boasted lever Of Archimedes to move
the earth, or irdica'e the spot upon which
we must stand could we do it, they have
put into our hands tools Of matcl.less pow.
er by which we can study the rcmotest
worlds; and they have furnished lis with
an intellectual plumment by which we can
Sound the depths of the earth and count
the cycles OF Its endurance. In his hour
of presumption and signorauce, man has
tried to do more than this; but though lie
was not permitted to reach The heavens
with his cIoudcapf taWer Of, stone, and has
tried i'll vain to navigate lie mral ocean,
it was given him to ASCEND into Enpyrcan
by chains of thought which no lightning
could face and no comet strike; and
though he has not been allowed to grasp
with a" arm of flesh the products Of other
worlds, or tread upon tile pavement Of 81
gantic planets, he has bern enabled to scan,
with more than an eagles eye, the mighty
creations in the bosom .! space-to marcl,
intellectually overSthe mosiacs of siderenl
systems, and to follow the adventurous
Phnlon in q chariot which can never he
| over turned.
These observations have truth and good
sense, AS we'll as. eloquence to commend
them to the thoughtful mind.-N Y. Sun.