ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



We extract from an Address delivered by Mr. Children at the An- 

 niversary Meeting of the Zoological Club of the Linnaean Society, on 

 the 29th November last, the following outline of the progress and 

 present prospects of this new, but flourishing, Society. 



* From this short sketch of what has passed under our immediate 

 observation within these walls in the course of the last twelve months, 

 I turn to what has been doing in another quarter, to which we all 

 look with an interest and anxiety commensurate with the importance 

 attached to the growth and progress of that young but promising 

 child of British energy and science, the Zoological Society. It is a 

 glorious feature in the philosophical character of Great Britain, that 

 whilst in foreign countries, Science owes most of her success to the 

 fostering care of Royal patronage, or the protection of executive 

 power, — here, with faint exceptions, ' few and far between,' she relies 

 on her own resources ; and, unlike the creeping parasite, raises her 

 head in independent dignity by the individual exertions of her disin- 

 terested cultivators, who, loving her for herself, seek only to accele- 

 rate her progress, and establish her empire in the human mind on 

 the firm basis of immutable truth. To such an origin the Zoological 

 Society may proudly assert its claim y — not one shilling has been 

 drawn from the public purse for its support : and could it condescend 

 to ask such aid, I for one would raise my voice against the humiliating 

 petition — Absiste precando, viribus indubitare tuis. But it has not so 

 forgot its dignity ; it has relied solely on the liberal ardour of an en- 

 lightened people, and it will still rely on it j— nor will it rely in vain. 

 The spirit of its immortal Founder has gone forth, and will not fail to 

 light up in every heart capable of exalted feelings, some portion of 

 that fire which animated his own ; some wish, some sacred hope of 

 treading, with however unequal steps, in the path he has so zealously 

 marked out for them. In saying that not one shilling has been drawn 

 from the public purse for the support of the Zoological Society, I 

 must not be understood as meaning to imply that therefore its wel- 

 fare is a subject of indifference to the gracious Monarch who wields 

 the sceptre of these kingdoms, or the enlightened individuals whom, 

 in his wisdom, he has summoned to his councils. That the very re- 

 verse is the fact, has already been confirmed by the exertion of Royal 

 munificence in favour of the Society, and by its having at its head one 



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