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tioii of your excellent Vice-President, Professor Lloyd, who has 

 done so much already for this Academy, in these and in other 

 respects. 



It may deserve consideration, as connected with the last-men- 

 tioned point, whether Reports upon some foreign memoirs of emi- 

 nent merit, accompanied by extracts, and, perhaps, translations, 

 might not sometimes he advantageously called for. There is, I 

 think, among our early records, some hint that the Academy had 

 once a paid Translator. It may or it may not be expedient to revive 

 the institution of such an office ; or to give direct encouragement to 

 the exertions of those,* who, without any express reference to our 

 own body, work in this way for us, while working for the public ; 

 but no one can doubt that it is desirable to diminish the too great 

 isolatedness which at present exists among the various learned bo- 

 dies of the world. The Reports of the British Association on the 

 actual state of science in each of its leading subdivisions, do not 

 exactly meet the want to which I have alluded ; because, upon the 

 whole, they aim rather at condensing into one view the ultimate 

 conclusions of scientific men in general, than at diffusing the fame 

 and light of individual scientific genius, by selecting some few 

 great foreign works, and making known at home their method 

 as well as well as their results. Besides we must remember that 

 far as that colossal Association exceeds the body to which we be- 

 long, in numbers, wealth, and influence, yet in plan it is less com- 

 prehensive ; since it restricts itself to science exclusively, while 

 we aspire, as I have said, to comprehend nearly the whole sphere 

 of thought, — at least of thought as applied to merely human things : 

 in making which last reservation, I shall not, I hope, be supposed 

 wanting in reverence for things more sacred and divine. 



With that powerful and good Association, however, we should en- 

 deavour to continue always on our present, or if possible, on closer 

 terms of amicable relation. I need not say that we should also 

 aim to preserve and improve our friendly relations with all the 



* For instance, Mr. Richard Taylor, of London, F. S. A., &c., who lately began 

 to publish Scientific Memoirs, selected and translated from the Transactions of Fo- 

 reign Academies of Science, and other foreign sources ; which valuable publication 

 is now suspended for want of sufficient support from the public. — Note by President. 



