ledge and this power sought? Is it for their own sake, or for the worldly advancement they may bring, or for the pleasure they confer? Is it that the search of knowledge and the act of thought are as natural and fit to man as flying to the bird ? or that riches and honours bear the train of high intelligence? or that knowledge is its own reward in the happiness it showers upon its worshipper? Most will, doubtless, answer, it is for their own sake that knowledge and intelligence are sought by us; in them alone we find sufficient reward and impulse. Many, who would spurn the imputation that they cultivate their minds for the sake of lucre or of fame, who serve not mammon, and who have shaken off even what Milton calls, "the last infirmity of noble minds," are content to feel and to own that the delights of mental culture, of fancy, or speculation, or inference, are to them an all-sufficient reason why they should think, and imagine, and speculate, and infer. "What enjoyment," say they, "nobler and more intense than the exercise of mind! How much more becoming to the dignity of man than the senses' brief and coying pleasures! Man is the noblest of animals, in being least an animal! In the free and lofty range of thought does man show likest God!' Most true; and, looking not beyond ourselves, most conclusive. But can

we reach no higher ultimatum in our search for reasons and for motives? Can we fail to see that, in a wider view, the difference of enjoyments, in amount, or even kind, avails but little ? Bacon thus enumerates the motives which urge different men to the common pursuit of knowledge:"Men have entered into a desire of learning and

knowledge sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason to the benefit and use of man : as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit,a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down, with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate. It is the presence or absence of this last consideration which gives its real character to intellectual occupation.

Dr. Hodgson.

ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MENTAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY, LIVERPOOL MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

THE greatest, wisest, and best of men are ever the least contented with what they do, and what they are the wisest feels most strongly that "he knows this only that he nothing knows;" the most virtuous, that he is "but an unprofitable servant; "both "forget the things that are behind, and press onward to those that are before." The selfish turn a deaf ear and a dim eye to all sights and sounds of human misery and vice; but the

kind heart is tortured by the perpetual presence
of a mass of evil too great for its power to
alleviate, much less to remove. Notwithstanding
the clear distinction drawn by Bishop Butler
between passive emotions and active habits, it is
difficult to see how one who becomes ever more
and more earnest in his works of love can fail to
become also more and more acute in his feelings
of sympathy with distress. "The compassionate
heart," says Bacon, "is like the noble tree that
is wounded itself when it gives the balm."
poet tells us of " delights above the luxury of
vulgar sleep" when we "sink in warm repose,"
and

"Hear the growling winds

Howl o'er the steady battlements, and all
The sounding forest fluctuate in the storm."

The

But to the benevolent ear the voice of such a wind bears with it thoughts of houseless wanderers, and vessels wrecked, and the sounds of human woe, the groans of those who perish, the sobs of those who live. Who is it that is most appalled and pained by sight of the moral evil whose turbid stream flows down our streets ? It is surely he who deems vice in any form the direst affliction that can befal humanity,-who shrinks from it, however disguised, as an evil infinitely more fearful than plague or pestilence. Who is it that suffers most from contact with the ignorance which disgraces this great nation, which in our large towns contrasts so sadly with their wealth, ruling or misruling the destinies of thousands, and making true wisdom a byword among fools? It is he who has given his days and nights to earnest thoughts, who values the riches of the

mind above Golconda's treasures, and who would have all men taught to think, and to recognize their own real dignity, their own real good. Το

enjoy, it is often needful to forget; much of what is called happiness is only insensibility. Now, as ever, the path of duty and of goodness is a thorny one-fitter for the step of Zeno than of Epicurus. The martyrdom of fire and faggot, and of dungeon, has passed away; but the martyrdom more prolonged, if less bitter, of feelings wounded, and trust betrayed, and hopes blighted, and acts perverted, and motives misrepresented, and character maligned, and honesty suspected, and, not least, the cold alienation of those who, as one with us in spirit, differ from us in opinion-this martyrdom remains, and must be endured by all who would bear their part manfully in this world's struggle, and who would leave beneficial traces of their presence when their names have been forgotten.

Dr. Hodgson.

POLITICAL SCIENCE AND THE PRESS.

I Do verily and sincerely believe, that there is no proposition more false than that the influence of the crown, any more than its direct power, has increased comparatively with the increasing strength, wealth, and population of the country. To these, if the crown be good for any thing at all in the constitution, it is necessary that its power and influence should bear some reasonable proportion. I deny that in the House of Commons,-I deny that in the House of Lords, such

G

an increase can be shown; but further I contend, that, in speculating upon the practical play of our constitution, we narrow our view of its efficient principles, of its progress, and of the state in which it now stands, if we do not take into account other powers, extrinsic to the two houses of parliament, which are at work in the moral and political world, and which require to be balanced and counterpoised in their operation. What should we think of that philosopher, who, in writing, at the present day, a treatise upon naval architecture and the theory of navigation, should omit wholly from his calculation that new and mighty power,-new, at least, in the application of its might, which walks the water, like a giant rejoicing in his course;-stemming alike the tempest and the tide ;-accelerating intercourse, shortening distances;-creating, as it were, unexpected neighbourhoods, and new combinations of social and commercial relation ;and giving to the fickleness of winds and the faithlessness of waves the certainty and steadiness of a highway upon the land? Such a writer, though he might describe a ship correctly; though he might show from what quarters the winds of heaven blow, would be surely an incurious and an idle spectator of the progress of nautical science, who did not see in the power of steam a corrective of all former calculations. So, in political science, he who, speculating on the British constitution, should content himself with marking the distribution of acknowledged technical powers between the House of Lords, the House of Commons, and the crown, and assigning to each their separate provinces,-to