146 JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 



The following is the official recommendation of his application to the 

 society, bearing the signatures of some of its most illustrious members : 



"James Lewis Macie, Esq., M. A., late of Pembroke College, Oxford, 

 and now of John Street, Golden Square — a gentleman well versed iu 

 various branches of Natural Philosophy, and particularly in Chymistry 

 and Mineralogy, being desirous of becoming a Fellow of the Royal So- 

 ciety, we whose names are hereto subscribed do, from our personal 

 knowledge of his merit, judge him highly worthy of that honour and 

 likely to become a very useful and valuable Member." 



Richard KnrwAN. 



C. F. Greville. 



C. Blagden. 



H. Cavendish. 



David Pitcairn. 



He was admitted a fellow on the 26th of April, 1787, in less than one 

 year after leaving the university.* 



Smithson's lodgings for some time were in Bentinck street, a locality 

 famous as the place where Gibbon wrote much of his u Decline and Fall 

 of the Roman Empire." Here, with authors, artists, and savans, Smith- 

 son found congenial fellowship. His mind was filled with a craving for 

 intellectual development, and for the advancement of human knowl- 

 edge. To enlarge the domain of thought, to discover new truths, and 

 To make practical application of these for the promotion of civilization, 

 were the great ends he had constantly in view. 



For purposes of scientific inquiry he engaged in extensive tours in 

 various parts of Europe; making minute observations wherever he went 

 on the climate, the physical. features and geological structure of the 

 locality visited, the characteristics of its minerals, the methods employed 

 in mining or smelting ores, and in all kinds of manufactures. 



These numerous journeys and sojourns abroad gave him a cosmopoli- 

 tan character, and illustrated one of his owu sayings: "the man of 

 science is of no country, the world is his country, all mankind his coun- 



* Extract from Journal Boole of the Eoyal Society. 



Ordinary meeting, Jan. 18, 17^7.— Certificates were read recommending for election 

 Louis Pinto de Sonsa Contioho, Knight of the Orders of Malta and Christ, and Envoy 

 Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the Queen of Portugal to the Court 

 of Great Britain. Also Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, Bart., of Bury Saint Edmunds, in 

 Suffolk, and James Lewis Macie, Esq., M. A., late of Pembroke College, Oxford, and 

 now of John Sheet, Golden Square. 



April 19, 1767. — Louis Pinto de Sonsa Coutinho, Portuguese Minister at the Court of 

 Great Britain, SirThos. Gery Cullum. Bart., and James Lewis Macie, Esq., Certificates 

 in whose favour had hung the usual time in the Meeting Room were put to the ballot 

 and chosen into the Society, 



April 26, 1787.— James Lewis Macie, Esq., andSir Thos. Gery Cullum, Bart., elected 

 at a former meeting attended. They paid their admission fees, compounded for An- 

 nual Contributions, and having signed the obligation in the Charter book were ad- 

 mitted fellows of the Society. 



