248 CHEMISTRY. 



Mc'Clise, and all pictures on the level of familiar life. The great 

 error of criticism lies in applying or judging by either of those con- 

 gruities out of its proper department. 



November llth, 1835. 



[Neither my limits nor my time permit me to enter into *the objection 

 against the Installation of Captain Rock, on account of its tendency as a real 

 or supposed party picture. My admiration of its various excellences does 

 not at all imply any approbation of the choice of subject. Struck with the 

 extraordinary power of genius which it displays, I endeavoured to counteract 

 erroneous criticism, and dp justice to its details, in two of my critical letters, 

 under the signature of Lorenzo, published in The Worcester Herald ; and I 

 subsequently made a similar effort in The Analyst. The London newspapers 

 have last week announced the election of Mc'Clise to the rank of an associate 

 of the Royal Academy ; and the provincial publications here mentioned 

 have had their full share in the duty of heralding this shining star of the 

 British school to that well-merited dignity.-] 



CHEMISTRY. 



The decline of science in this country has been strongly repre- 

 sented, and deeply lamented, by scientific men. The paths of ^i- 

 ence, it has been said, are crowded by triflersj few individuals at- 

 tain the termination of the beaten track ; while the labourers who 

 are employed in extending it into unexplored regions^ are in number 

 fewer, and in their exertions less strenuous, than in former periods: 

 but the traveller who now treads the stupendous road across the 

 Simplon, must not be condemned, though he have no intention of 

 extending it over yet untrodden mountains, and has, perhaps, no 

 higher object -in vie^ than to visit foreign lands in order to enjoy 

 their '^ goodly prospects." The times are characterized not by vast 

 individual accumulations of knowledge^ bvit by its general diffusion ; 

 and though fewer profound works on science may of late have been 

 produced, those of a popular description have greatly increased. 

 The amount of knowledge thus diffused, is ^generally under-esti- 



