further speculative notions of astronomy, they were probably derived from the Chaldeans or Egyptians.  In China, astronomy has been known from the remotest ages, and has always been considered as a science necessary and indispensable to the civil government of the Celestial Empire.  On considering the accounts of Chinese astronomy, we find it consisted only in the practice of certain observations, which led to nothing more than the knowledge of a few isolated facts, and they are indebted to foreigners for any further improvements they have since adopted.

The Greeks seem to have made the most early advances in astronomy; for notwithstanding that the art of observation was still in its infancy, we are indebted to the labours and speculations of ancient Greek philosophers for raising astronomy to the dignity of a science.  The complicated but ingenious hypotheses of the Greek Ptolemy prepared the way for the discovery of the elliptic form of the planetary orbits and other astronomical laws by the German Kepler, which again conducted our English Newton to the discovery of the law of gravitation.  I am not, however, desirous of giving this meeting a lecture on astronomy—­I shall leave that to Professor Grant.  But it is singular that I should have come here on a day on which one of the now known observations and movements of the planets has taken place—­the transit of Mercury.  This was calculated to occur this day by the science of astronomy, and it is also known when it will again occur, namely, on the 6th of May 1878.  I will end this subject by saying, that the discoveries in astronomy in the last and present centuries have been so many and interesting, that it would be quite impossible for me to enter here minutely upon them.

In conclusion,—­What have science and art done for us?  They have cultivated our minds—­they have made us think, wonder, and admire, and I trust caused us to adore and reverence the Creator of this vast universe.  They have taught us the knowledge and value of time, and have also shown the value of what man has been enabled to work out for his own benefit and that of the world at large.

The chemist deals with the various substances brought under his notice, thereby acquiring a knowledge of their properties, enabling him to produce results which are truly beneficial.  This knowledge is power.

The painter makes the features of Nature his study, and by his brush delineates them on the canvas, and thus by knowledge of art he exhibits power.

The astronomer’s science is one of vast magnitude and importance—­the study of it embracing both science and art:  science in the various intricate calculations he requires to make in connection with the heavenly bodies.  By his researches we have discovered the form of the earth and other planets, their respective distances from each other, their revolutions, their eclipses and their orbits, and, more wonderful still, the precise time when the various