Delivered before the Society of Literary Adelphi

                                                            August 9^th 1813

            From the rumours and horrid details of wars, battles, and the convulsions of nations—from the dissentions of political parties, and from the vanities and vexations of the world, let us my Friends, for a moment turn, and tread in the peaceful, flowery paths of science. In every civilized age the great and the good, disgusted with the confusions and contentions of the world, have sought these paths, and there found the sources of pure and rational happiness, sources whence flow the genuine streams of truth.  In these paths the Newtons, the Fergusons, the Euclids, the Franklins, the Cavallos, the Lavoisers, the Linneae and the Lockes of the world have spent their whole time.  They have plucked up the thorns, leveled the hills, and strewed the way with flowers.  In either hand they have adorned the spacious landscape with views pleasant and delightful to the mental vision.  To explore the arcane of nature- to ameliorate the condition of man—to expand and ennoble every faculty of the soul—to lift the mind from the vanities [of]