In this wide world, so manifold, there is of course scope for tastes and pursuits the most varied, and call for labours the most extended. Yet at the meeting in Dublin the other day there were beauteous girls, apparently devoted to science, who, we would hope, had not yet met with their precise "vocation;" ladies industriously attending "sections," yet "so fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive," that they may yet possibly be induced to quit the arduous paths of strict philosophy for songs of "the May Queen," and "Enone," and take to sentiments that may probably elude the strict formula of scientific calculation.

But let us not be misunderstood. There is, it must be admitted, in all this "science," perhaps falsely so called, much pretence. Yet, on the other hand, it were surely unjust to cast ridicule upon woman's true work; and it would evince the height of ingratitude for benefits conferred, to deny to her a noble mission in the world. To assuage suffering, to smooth the pillow of death, to minister to poverty and distress, has been, happily for our common humanity, the peculiar province and delight of woman, gentle in hand and tender in heart. Fortunate it is that ladies are sometimes found freed from individual ties of family and home, who can generously devote themselves to the more public labours of active benevolence. And surely it is one of the most hopeful signs of the times in which we live, that women, Protestant no less than Catholic, are ready to leave the comforts, and even the luxuries, of refined life, and, as sisters of charity, tender in mercy, to enter upon strenuous labours, from which can accrue no reward save the approval of a good conscience and the meed of a generous heart. We are bound to admit that papers written, and in many cases also read, by ladies engaged in such

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wise and beneficent labours, were valuable as records of work done, and in no way sinned against that retiring diffidence which, according to an old prejudice, best adorns the female character. Miss Bessie Parkes and Miss Emily Faithful have set on foot institutions, and opened up employments, by which educated women may be rescued from want, and saved from the obligation involved in charity. Papers by Miss Hill, on "The Present Condition of Mettray;" by Miss Cobbe, on "The Preventive Mission at Bristol;" by Miss Twining, on Workhouse Education ;" and by Miss Mary Carpenter, on "The Application of the Principles of Education to Schools for the Lower Classes of Society," were all written with praiseworthy care, and brought zeal, tempered by knowledge, to the elucidation of subjects of pressing practical import. We are anxious, we repeat, not to be misunderstood. There are honoured names and great works, which can never be forgotten. Elizabeth Fry in Newgate, Florence Nightingale in Scutari, will hold rank with Howard the philanthropist; and we rejoice to know that these good women have found followers worthy of their noble deeds and high renown.

Still we will not disguise our opinion that the appearance of women as orators addressing a public and mixed audience, is not an experiment which merits encouragement, but an innovation, which calls for suppression. In the whole history of the world, we believe the Quakers are the only people among whom liberty of speech has been exercised by women with moderation. The Quakers, indeed, claim a divine inspiration, which is supposed to overrule all distinctions of sex. And generally, we believe, when women have commanded fortresses, led armies, or addressed assembled multitudes, the inspiration of religion, the passion of war, or the fanaticism of superstition, has served as a doubtful justification. The experience won at

the recent congress in Dublin is, we think, little in favour of the further extension of such practices. In the outset, women proved themselves somewhat unfit for oratory, in the simple incapacity of making themselves heard. Furthermore, public discussion in an arena common to men is surely not woman's fitting sphere. Open public controversy with ladies would be, of course, among all rightminded men, simply impossible. And we cannot but fear that that noble feeling of chivalry towards a fair and sensitive sex-"that generous loyalty," "the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise," which, in the words of Burke, "inspired courage, whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched"-could with difficulty be maintained towards those women who should venture to enter into noisy controversy, and contend for absolute equality in the battle of life. This is, at all events, an experiment in which modest success only could for one moment be tolerated. Would it be a thing to be endured by any loyal mind, that women should get up in public assemblies, and blunder on in a manner innocuous and habitual to men? Could a lady come out from such an ordeal unscathed, and with no diminution of respect? question does not admit of a moment's argument. In Dublin, the course was simple enough, and, being in the nature of a tentative trial, not, we trust, to be pushed farther, was pursued with praiseworthy caution. A lady reads a paper, applause follows, a few words of congratulation are then bestowed, and so the matter ends pleasantly enough, to the mutual delight of all parties. All this, we readily admit, is so far sufficiently social and charming, and yet, we venture to assert, in no way accordant with deliberate scientific inquiry, or compatible with the freedom of open and impartial discussion. Whenever, in fact, woman's vital interests came into debate-in marriage, divorce, and kindred topics-we con

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fess ourselves to have been so ungallant as to have wished that the ladies, chiefly for their own sakes, had been out of hearing. The practice of our Houses of Parliament, notwithstanding the recent innovation of a ladies' gallery, fortunately placed out of sight, plainly indicates what, upon this matter, was the wisdom of the ancients, and the theory of the English constitution. But it would seem, as we have already said, that it is now our privilege to live in more enlightened times.

The scientific mind in "social" hours, when taking its recreation, has for some time past indeed presented many startling phenomena. Professors seem to fear lest the old adage of "all work and no play" should, even upon their exalted genius, take its proverbial effect, and so, as very boys of larger growth, they are found to give themselves to healthful sport and convivial jollity, not precisely according to prescribed notions as to the essential dignity of official robes. Scientific excursions in search of fossils, when students are armed with hammer and knapsack; botanical picnics, when rarest flowers, culled with infinite care solely for the portfolio, have been found towards evening's close in garlands decking the hair of the lady most ardent in the pursuit of science-these are but the milder forms of genuine philosophic enthusiasm let loose to disport itself. The recently published memoirs of that genial and truly scientific man, Edward Forbes, are rich in the records of dinners enlivened by song and merriment; of science moulding itself into verse, "poet, oyster, and sensitive plant," Dodo, starfish, and the great Dinornis, all sitting with "the Red Lion" at the same hospitable board. There is something hearty, thorough, and withal healthful and sound, in this philosophy, as thrown into rhyme by the philosopher himself :— "Though some poor canting mortals say That wise men must be sad,

Let them come here and see the way
How wise men can be glad.
Their wisdom is but foolery,
And ours is what it ought to be.

Hurrah! hurrah for the Rosy Band!
Hurrah for the Holly Tree!

Then whilst we live we'll spend our hours

'Mid all that's bright and fair;
In learning's fields we'll gather flowers
To wreath in Beauty's hair;
For wisdom's hoary locks we'll twine
A crown of myrtle and of vine.

Hurrah! hurrah for the Rosy Band!
Hurrah for the Holly Tree!"

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The meeting of the British Association in the year 1839, held in the town of Birmingham, became, we are told, memorable for the institution of another, and, we believe, kindred society, The Association of Red Lions." We are given to understand that the younger tribe of naturalists, disliking the irksomeness of the established ordinary, adjourned to a small tavern, where "they dined daily at small expense, on beef cooked in various fashions, moistened with sundry potations of beer, and enlivened by joke and song." Thus was established the renowned club of the "Red Lions," and in "proof," it is said, "of their leonine relationship," the professors and associates, when assembled at the dinner- table, "made it a point of always signifying their approval or dissent by growls and roars more or less audible, and, where greater energy was needed, by a vigorous flourishing of their coat-tails." It is added that the "rampant coat-tail" of the president "served as a model to the younger lions." The adopted crest of the Association was "a brilliant red lion with a long pipe in one paw, and a glass of beer in the other;" "the feeding-hour of the carnivora, six o'clock precisely." This reminds us of Miss Hardcastle's rehearsal for barmaid in She Stoops to Conquer: -"Attend the Lion there: Pipes and tobacco for the Angel: The Lamb has been outrageous this half-hour." So great was the success of the parent association that a branch society became established in London, under the

designation of "The Metropolitan
Lions," expressly for the conve-
nience of members in town resi-
dence. At these convivial meetings
Edward Forbes was wont to delight
the company with songs composed
expressly for the occasion; scientific
facts thrown into rhyme, and treat-
ed with grotesque humour. On one
of these festive occasions he sang,
to the infinite merriment of the
nascent philosophers, "the Dredg-
ing Song, by a member of the Dredg-
ing Committee of sect. D."
"Hurrah for the dredge, with its iron edge,
And its mystical triangle,

And its hided net, with meshes set,
Odd fishes to entangle!

The ship may move through the waves
above,

'Mid scenes exciting wonder, But braver sights the dredge delights, As it roveth the waters under.

Chorus-Then a-dredging we will go, wise boys!

Then a-dredging we will go." It is specially recorded in the chronicles of the Metropolitan Red Lions that a meeting was held on the 17th April 1845, at the "Cheshire Cheese," in Fleet Street, an evening ever memorable for the brilliancy and pungency of the songs, anecdotes, and jokes, at which we find the following grave philosophers assisting in the mysteries of the brotherhood:-"Owen, Goodsir, Falconer, Forbes, A. C. Ramsay, Captain James, Morris, Francis, Jerdan, Cook Taylor, Richard Taylor, Sulk, Henry, Henfrey, Busk, Waterhouse, Playfair, and Chambers." The Transactions of this learned society seem to have been kept with the praiseworthy precision which befitted the importance of their deliberations. Accordingly, we find it placed upon record that on the 3d of July 1847 "the Metropolitan Red Lions gave a dinner to the Prince of Canino," the nephew of the great Napoleon, to whom, if we recollect rightly, science had already become indebted for a valuable memoir or monograph, dedicated to the little bird commonly known as the small tom-tit. We usually find the glowing description of these renowned dinners

summed up in terms like the following:-"The Red Lions growled and roared, and flourished their tails again this year as lustily as before." But Professor Ramsay, in his private journal we presume, expressly set apart, no doubt, for such grave records, fortunately indulges more in detail. "I dined," says this professor of geology, "with the Red Lions, at the Thistle, in Glassford Street, and sat, I think, between Forbes and Lankester.Forbes and an Irish gentleman were the very life of the party. They both made speeches replete with humour, the latter returning thanks for the health of the army, and Forbes proposing the health of that wonderful curiosity-a creature compounded of a cross between the Red Lion of England and the Scottish Thistle. He also chanted his famous Song of The Oyster." This Song of The Oyster unhappily has not come down to us. "The Song of the Dodo, however the word dodo to be pronounced, we are told, "doo-doo"-will serve, it may be presumed, equally well. With

Could the great Bacon have seen in his mind's vision these social and poetic developments of the inductive philosophy, how would he, we must all feel assured, have gloried in the result! He did, indeed, presume to call knowledge down from heaven to converse with men upon earth; but that science should be turned into song, and dance, and convivial cheer, was probably beyond his most sanguine expectations. He scarcely, we think, throughout his entire works, even once hints at so great a consummation. There is, however, we may safely infer, some ground for the hope and the conjecture that "Social Science Congresses" were dimly

prefigured in such passages as the following; yet will it at once be seen how far the prophesy falls short of its actual fulfilment : " But this," says Bacon, "is that which will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together than they have been a conjunction like unto that of the two highest planets

Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation; and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action." Surely, by the well-known laws of interpretation, in no way exceeding the licence properly permitted in like cases, these lines, especially the words touching the heavenly lu

minaries, may be taken to refer expressly to the recent congress in the city of Dublin. This conjecture grows, we think, into greater certainty when we remember that the noble President on that occasion had not unfrequently been already portrayed by contemporary artists in the guise of Jupiter Tonans" the planet," in the fit words of Bacon, we repeat-" the planet of civil society and action." Of "society" we have said enough. Society in the city of Dublin had previously become an important science, and all that pertained to social entertainments in the arrangements of the recent congress was worthy of the long established repute of hearty Irish hospitality. Of "action," or rather of motion, proving, we think, that "motion perpetual," though a paradox in matter, is a possibility in the empire of mind-of both action and motion we say there was certainly sufficient to satisfy philosophers the most versatile. The only difficulty, indeed, for those unaccustomed to such fierce pursuit of knowledge, was to keep even pace with the long rapid strides taken both by male and female aspirants. It was a constant race against time and intellect; the flounced petticoat was seen to flutter along corridors, mount in impetuous haste flights of stairs, and alight at last on giddy galleries, just in time, it might be, to catch the last eloquent words from Whiteside's appeal to ladies upon the subject of Scotch marriages. "Ladies," said Mr Whiteside" ladies, I would have you remember that the proper place for every one of you to get married is inside the church door." Applause, of course, echoed so noble a sentiment, and the debate thus ended on terms the most satisfactory off the audience once again started for fresh sensation in a neighbouring "Section."

Six distinct sections of social science, with two additional subsections working without intermission for four to five hours on six

VOL. XC.-NO. DLII.

consecutive days, would, it might be supposed, attain to some commensurate results. We need scarcely guard ourselves against misconstruction. It were indeed passing strange, should a society which expressly concerns itself in the interests of humanity, wholly fail of its purpose and intent. Philosophy, let us in charity suppose, if not by such appliances greatly exalted, has the chance, at least, of becoming more widely diffused. When judges of the land bring together the fruits of their experience, when Attorneys and Solicitors-General employ their forensic skill in the elucidation of moot points in jurisprudence, when earnest and loving philanthropists assemble in the service of their suffering fellow - creatures, it were surely extraordinary should no good whatever ensue. Among a multitude of papers, numerous and to the last degree formidable, it were indeed strange could not a few be found reaching to considerable merit. Of disquisitions taking the higher rank, we would specially mention the opening address by the Right Hon. Joseph Napier, as President of the department of jurisprudence. He succeeded in winning for our laws and legislation a position inductive, scientific, and progressive. He showed that true economy was to be found only in efficiency; that jurisprudence, laying its foundations in the past, and conforming its principles to moral dictates, must yet mould itself to social and political progress; that the highest and truest manifestation of law is systematic love, taking its seat beside the throne of God, and finding for its mandates the sanction of Christ's teaching upon earth.

We need scarcely say, however, that essays of this high bearing were exceptional. The interminable proceedings, indeed, of six sections prolonged for six days, might have grown all but intolerable, had not heavy statistics, when not absolutely left out, been enlivened by Irish bulls, and the play of Scotch

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