560 General Monthly Meeting. [July 5, 



mind becomes comprehensive. It teaches to deduce principles 

 carefully, to hold them firmly, or to suspend the judgment : — to dis- 

 cover and obey law, and by it to be bold in applying to the greatest 

 what we know of the smallest. It teaches us first by tutors and 

 books to learn that which is already known to others, and then by 

 the light and methods which belong to science to learn for our- 

 selves and for others ; — so making a fruitful return to man in the 

 future for that which we have obtained from the men of the past. 

 Bacon, in his instruction, tells us that the scientific student ought not 

 to be as the ant who gathers merely, nor as the spider who spins 

 from her own bowels, but rather as the bee who both gathers and 

 produces. 



All this is true of the teaching afforded by any part of physical 

 science. Electricity is often called wonderful — beautiful ; — but it 

 is so only in common with the other forces of nature. The beauty 

 of electricity, or of any other force, is not that the power is myste- 

 rious and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but 

 that it is under law, and that the taught intellect can even now 

 govern it largely. The human mind is placed above, not beneath 

 it ; and it is in such a point of view that the mental education 

 afforded by science is rendered supereminent in dignity, in practical 

 application, and utility ; for, by enabling the mind to apply the 

 natural power through law, it conveys the gifts of God to man. 



[M. F.] 



GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING, 



Monday, July 5. 



The Lord Ashburtox, D.C.L. F.Il.S. Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



James Don, M.D. 

 was duly elected a Member of the Royal Institution. 



Robert Tait, Esq. 

 was admitted a Member of the Royal Institution. 



The Secretary announced, That the Managers had appointed 

 Profe-^^sok Richard Owen, D.C.L.-F.R.S. to be FuUerian Pro- 

 fessor of Physiology, on June 14th last. 



