PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 261 



place on the same plan as heretofore, the first, for the show of spring flowers, being 

 held in April, and the second on the 24th of May, the day upon which it is pur- 

 posed to open the Gardens. The arrangements for these exhibitions, under the 

 auspices and direction of the Zoological and Botanical Society, are expected soon 

 to be completed, and we doubt not they will prove such as will ensure increased 

 eclat for all the flower-shows of future years. — Cheltenham Looker-On, Feb. 10, 

 1838. 



CHELTENHAM LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION. 



The following reports are extracted from various numbers of the Cheltenham 

 Looker-On. 



The weekly meetings of this Institution were resumed on January 30, when 

 Dr. Theodore Boisragon delivered a lecture on Meteorology before a numerous 

 and highly respectable audience, consisting of the members of the Society and 

 their friends. The learned gentleman commenced his discourse by an elaborate 

 introduction, in which the objects proposed by Literary and Philosophical Insti- 

 tutions were described to be " the bringing before the public subjects in science 

 and arts generally, so as to lead the mind to recognize, through all the media of 

 ! science, those principles pervading and connecting phenomena very little related 

 to each other, yet constituting the chain which links all Nature.'' In exemplifi- 

 cation of this, Meteorology was referred to, and its principles briefly stated. The 

 precise import of the terms principle, philosophy, and wisdom was inquired into, 

 and illustrated by reference to the relations subsisting between the facts incident 

 to the various phenomena of Meteorology; the effects produced by heat on 

 confined air being selected as an example. The nature of a philosophical truth 

 was explained in its connection with the Fine Arts, Science, Morals, and Religion ; 

 adverting to its connection with the last, the lecturer remarked : — 



" Even religion itself, and of course the adoption of the best form of it, may 

 according to this view be said to be a proof of sound philosophy in the person 

 embracing it, when founded according to the truth of the relations on which its 

 evidence is based ; and that form of it of course which, in its adaptation both to 

 the infirm nature of the dependant, though immortal, being for whom it was 

 designed ; and the glorious object it was intended to fulfil, is the truest, and thus 

 the most philosophical. In short, examples in philosophy are almost innumerable 

 m every relation of life ; — in fact, wherever the term relation can be admitted, 

 and we have to frame our conduct by reason, we may be said to be philosophi- 

 cally engaged. But true philosophical training of the mind has also this one 

 great advantage. It is the part of a true philosopher to see how finite the 

 human mind shows itself in relation to the wonderful mysteries of creation, and 

 this reflection has a most beneficial influence upon his judgment in cases where 

 TOL. III. — no. xx. 2 N 



