LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. ix 



silence with which it was previously the custom for the President 

 to meet the Fellows of the Society on their Anniversary, I took 

 occasion to remark, that " it may be useful as well as pleasant to 

 stand still, as it were, from time to time, and mark the improve- 

 ments which have attended our progress, and, in our own case 

 particularly, to watch the results of the influence which this Society 

 ought to exercise, and doubtless does exercise upon the advance- 

 ment and diffusion of natural knowledge ; " — and if such a distinct 

 recognition of our progress be desirable on ordinary occasions, 

 when we have only to mark the regular return of the season of 

 our official duties, it is still more interesting and incumbent upon 

 us to note any such important epoch in our associated existence, 

 as that which this day inaugurates our establishment in a new and 

 more commodious domicile, and under circumstances far more 

 propitious in some respects than any which we have hitherto 

 enjoyed. I have therefore thought this a fitting occasion on 

 which to cast our eyes back through the vista of our many years 

 of existence, and endeavour to gather from the retrospect some 

 elements of satisfaction at our past doings, of congratulation upon 

 our present condition, and of hope for our future prospects. 



It has been observed with much truth, by the amiable biographer 

 and widow of our founder, that whilst " the literary institutions 

 and learned academies of Europe have generally owed their origin 

 and success either to large endowments, to royal favo^lr, or to the 

 commanding influence of persons already known by their scientific 

 attainments or their station, — this Society is almost a solitary 

 example of an institution deriving its origin from an individual, 

 young and unknown to fame, without rank, without wealth, with- 

 out support, whose ardour in the pursuit of science led him to 

 risk the expectation of a moderate independence, by bringing into 

 his native country, at the expense of his patrimony, those rich 

 materials for which princes had contended, and upon which he 

 was to establish a new Society, and give to it its name, its cha- 

 racter, and direction*;" — for we learn from the same source of 

 information, that the establishment of this new Society had been 

 projected by Sir James Smith and several of his scientific friends, 

 with the view of rendering his possession of the cabinets and 

 library of Linnaeus subservient to the general use of the cultivators 

 of Natural Science. 



"We owe then the foundation and present existence of the Lin- 



* Memoirs and Correspondence of the late Sir J. E. Smith, edited by Lady 

 Smith, vol. i. p. 341. ^ 



