2 REPORT OF 



to encourage intellectual commerce and communion, by of- 

 fering freely to strangers the hospitality of science, or 

 ■whether any wish be felt to shew the mental cultivation of 

 our country in an advantageous light, it cannot but gratify 

 the Meeting to reflect, that the eye of the scientific traveller 

 has rested, with approbation and profit, on the collections 

 which the Museum now displays. Without forgetting its 

 obligations to the Crown, the Society may be permitted to 

 boast that these collections and the edifice which contains 

 them have not been furnished from the public revenue, 

 nor bestowed by royal munificence ; and when it is con- 

 sidered that ONE COUNTY of England has supplied this 

 provision for the advancement of natural knowledge, the 

 survey of foreigners and their estimate of our exertions in 

 the cause of science, may be allowed perhaps to kindle some 

 sentiments of national complacency, and an honest warmth 

 of patriotic pride. 



It was not in the hope only of advancing the knowledge 

 of nature by the researches of its members, that this Society 

 was founded. One of its principal objects has always been 

 to give to studies too much neglected a more popular cur- 

 rency and a freer facility of access, to attract attention to phi- 

 losophical subjects, to awaken scientific curiosity, and afford 

 more ready means of information. This indeed is the charter 

 of the Institution ; this is the tenure on which it must rest 

 its most constant claim to public support : on this principle 

 of communicating and diffusing knowledge its rules have 

 been framed ; and to this principle the views of the Council 

 have been directed, in all the arrangements which they 



