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correct statement to say, that if one of those mighty minds of 

 other days, whose possessors starved in garrets, or pined in 

 cellars, were now to appear, they would actually be over- 

 whelmed by the amount of patronage that would wait them. 

 There seems, then, to be a sort of cycle in the production of 

 genius, not dependent on external circumstances, the laws of 

 which cycles we have no means — and most probably never 

 shall have — of ascertaining. This circular production of phe- 

 nomena, as well in the material as in the intellectual world, is 

 a strange and interesting subject of contemplation, but of 

 fruitless inquiry. This is not the time to indicate the traces 

 of this law in a vast variety of phenomena, as well material as 

 spiritual. Some such train of reasoning, from outward appear- 

 ances and internal manifestations, must have led Plato of old 

 to the great idea of the Platonic year or period, when every 

 fact now taking place, every thought of the mind gushing 

 forth, apparently with all the freedom of spontanicity, shall 

 again in ages hence be reciprocated in the same order, and 

 obedient to the same laws ; and it may be matter of conside- 

 ration, as well for the Society as for the others in this town 

 engaged in diffusing knowledge and promoting mental im- 

 provement — (I throw it out merely as a suggestion) — whether 

 it would not be desirable in every sense, and subserve the 

 common object all have in view, to unite together, and con- 

 stitute one great society. There is no reason why literary, 

 scientific, archiological, and architectural subjects may not be 

 discussed in the same society. I know that it is a feeling very 

 prevalent in London, that the multiplication of societies does 

 not subserve the interests of science as much as might be 

 expected; and if this be the feeling in London, how much 

 more does it hold here. You will, I trust, pardon this seem- 

 ing digression, into which I was led by a desire to account for 

 that decline of interest which is sometimes felt by portions of 

 our educated classes in the advancement of education and 

 mental improvement. The general decline of Mechanics' 



