ROYAL INSTITUTION AND SOCIETY OF ARTS. 655 



eye. The radii and viscid lines differ in number (the number of radii 

 being constant only in Hyptiotes). Their distance apart varies greatly, 

 as might be expected from the fact that spiders make their measure- 

 ments hastily, and with no apparent attempt at precision ; in fact, the 

 irregularities are such as would disgrace any human artificer. We must 

 conclude that the popular belief upon the subject is based upon very su- 

 perficial observation, and that it had its rise in the old theological idea 

 that because the Creator is perfect, so must be the performances of all 

 his creatures, excepting the one example of total depravity man. 



But let this not trouble us. Like the orthodox interpretation of 

 Scripture, so the orthodox interpretation of Nature may be far out of 

 the way ; and the readiness with which the world has accepted new 

 views, when their correctness is beyond controversy, and yet kept its 

 faith in the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God, shows the 

 truth of the following aphorism : " It is important not to confound 

 the fundamental order of Nature, which is indeed immutable, with the 

 ideas, more or less complete, which we entertain at a given time, re- 

 specting the manner in which that order is manifested." 



^+*+~ 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION AND THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 1 



By BEENAKD H. BECKER, Esq. 



COMMENCING with the nineteenth century, the Royal Institu- 

 tion, that stronghold of fashionable science in Albemarle Street, 

 can claim for itself many of the most remarkable discoveries which 

 have distinguished an era of unrivaled activity. It owes its origin 

 partly to Sir Joseph Banks, but in a far greater degree to a more re- 

 markable man. Benjamin Thompson, afterward Count Rumford, was 

 a lineal descendant of one James Thompson, who figured at Charles- 

 town in Winthrop's company in 1630. Born in his grandfather's farm- 

 house, he enjoyed the advantage of a good grammar-school education, 

 and then advanced in the world by the steps familiar to this day in 

 America, but almost unknown in Europe. He was apprenticed to an 

 importer of British goods, was allowed to make small ventures on his 

 own account, fancied that he had invented perpetual motion, took a 

 great interest in questions relating to light, heat, and the wind, lost 

 his place, and blew himself up with fireworks before the age of six- 

 teen. At seventeen he was a dry-goods clerk in Boston, studied 

 French during his evenings, and got himself an electrical machine 

 with money earned by cutting and carting firewood. He then boarded 

 for some eighteen months with a Dr. John Hay, and picked up a little 

 anatomy, chemistry, surgery, and physic, and in 1771 went to Cam- 



1 Abridged from " Scientific London." 



