400 



have branched off in different directions ; how in some countries in- 

 vading hordes have speedily obliterated the language of the conquered, 

 while in others they have abandoned their own, and have adopted 

 that of the conquered majority. 



Now, I beg you to understand that I have no wish that either 

 mental philosophy or philology should, in this Society, supersede 

 those abstract and physical sciences with which we are generally 

 occupied. All I would ask for is, that those who are engaged in 

 the former should not be led to consider the Royal Society as an 

 Institution in which they are not wanted, and in whose labours they 

 can take no share. It may be replied, that there exists among us 

 no exclusion of such students, and that our door is as open to them 

 as to the Chemist or the Mathematician. There is no exclusion, but 

 there is an obstruction. Such students, the speculators upon mind 

 and language, when hesitating whether they shall propose themselves 

 as candidates for admission into the Royal Society, will naturally 

 look into some recent volume of our Transactions. There they will 

 find little that can interest them — little that they can understand, or 

 even read. For the notations employed by the analyst and the 

 chemist are to them an unknown tongue ; and though they be fami- 

 liar with common arithmetic, they would not find a volume of the 

 Makerstoun Observations very inviting. In short, the impression 

 would be that our trade was not their trade, or that for their ware 

 there was no demand in our market. 



And yet this last conclusion would be a false one. There exists 

 in the Society a very general wish for some infusion of literature into 

 our proceedings, and it exists among those who are themselves most 

 exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. But it does not lie with 

 the Anatomist, the Botanist, or the Astronomer, to supply the defi- 

 ciency. All that they can do is to express not merely their willing- 

 ness, but their wish, that men of letters would come forward and 

 contribute something of a more general interest, and a more graceful 

 character, to the severe simplicity of our usual evening engagements. 

 About this time last year the Council issued a report to the Fellows, 

 in which the subject to which I am now referring was urged very 

 strongly. They then said, " It has long been a matter of regret 

 that literary papers are so seldom offered ; insomuch that it is often 

 forgotten that the Royal Society was originally instituted for the 

 interchange of literary as well as of scientific communications ; in- 



