they are sure to
succeed--social duty would be raised to a higher level of significance,
and the deepening sense of social duty would, it is to be hoped, lessen,
if not obliterate, the strife and heart-burnings which now beset and
disguise our social life.' I accept with gratification Dr. Tyndall's
conclusions: to determine, examine, trace, calculate these social forces
which exercise such a powerful influence on our characters, our lives,
our customs, which produce the greatness of the State, or drag it down
with irresistible strength from its pinnacle of glory to an abyss of
degradation; to estimate such forces is the great and noble object of
our lectures and researches in this University. Prosecute, most noble
professors, your studies in this direction with all the energy of your
enlightened intellects, and there is yet hope that this new science,
which I have endeavoured to sketch out, however feebly, may be the means
of saving our beloved nation from degradation and ruin, and raising her
to a higher level of glory and honour. I hope to continue the subject of
social forces in my next lecture.

[6] A Chinese legend relates that a pious hermit, who in his
watchings and prayers had often been overtaken by sleep, so
that his eyelids closed, in holy wrath against the weakness
of the flesh, cut them off, and threw them on the ground. But
a god caused a tea-shrub to spring out of them, the leaves of
which exhibit the form of an eyelid bordered with lashes, and
possess the gift of hindering sleep.--Dr. Ure.

PAPER VI.

ON SOCIAL FORCES (_continued_)--POLEMICAL STATICS AND DYNAMICS.

Most Noble Professors and Students of Girtham,--We have embarked upon
a stormy sea of speculation, on a voyage of grand discovery, and the
dangerous waves of adverse criticism, and the deceptive under-current of
prejudice, often make the steersman's lot by no means an enviable one.
But our vessel is sound and perfectly equipped, and therefore I do not
fear to guide her across the great unknown.

It may have occurred to you that the problems which present themselves
for solution in social science are far more difficult and complicated
than those which arise in ordinary mathematics. That is undoubtedly the
case; but this extra degree of difficulty is due to the fact that we
make no assumptions; we take the things as they really are, not as they
are assumed to be. In physical science, if we ta