220 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN- 



velvet • but he was made to oltseive that the cap was usually carried in tho 

 hand and that it was rather the sign of a dignity than a covering for the head. 

 '* These difficulties being overcome," continues Mr. Babbage, '^ the doctor camo 

 one mornino- to breakfast with me. Wc were alone, and, after breakfast, I 

 recited the ordinary forms of a levee, and, placing some chairs to represent the 

 different officers of the reception room, I stationed the doctor in the midst of 

 the circle to represent the King. I then said to my friend that I would repre- 

 sent a "-reater man than the King; that I would personate Dr. Dalton ; tl>at 

 I would enter at the farthest door, make the tour of the circle, and bow before 

 his jMajcsty; and that thus he would have an idea of the ceremony in which he 

 was to take a part. In passing in front of the third chair, before arriving at 

 the Kino-, I deposited my card on the chair, apprising the doctor that this was 

 the post of the lord in attendance who took the cards and handed them to the 

 succeeding officer, who announces them to the King. In passing before the 

 philosopher I kissed his hand, and, moving afterwards around the rest of the circle 

 of chairs, I thus gave him his first lesson as a courtier." A second rehearsal 

 havino- taken place, Dalton made his entrance at Saint James's in the midst of 

 an assembly in which figured several of the high dignitaries of the Anglican 

 church. "I intimated to the bishop of Gloucester," adds Mr. Babbage, "that 

 I had beside me a Quaker, but at the same time assured him that my peaceable 

 friend was far from meditating any attempt against the Church. The effect was 

 electric on the whole party ; Episcopal eyes had never witnessed suck a specta- 

 cle in such a society, and I am not without apprehension that, notwithstanding 

 my assurances, sonie of the prelates may have thought the Church swiously in 

 da'no-er." As to Dalton, he came out of the affair very creditably. The King 

 addressed to him several questions, to which he replied without being at all 

 disconcerted. 



XII. — COUKSE or MORAL THILOSOPHT BY SrD:N-EY SMITJLI. 



Sydney Smith, (born 17G8, died February 22, 1845,) one of the founders of 

 the Edbiburgh llcciew, Avhorn Ave must not confound with the celebrated admiral 

 of the same name, arrived in London towards the close of 1803. He quickly 

 became noted as a preacher, and obtained great consideration in the highest soci- 

 ety. The directors of the Institution were at that time, as they have never 

 ceased to be, on the w^atch for all talents capable of reflecting lustre on their 

 establishment; they invited Smith to give a course of moral philosophy, embrac- 

 ing all the operations of the mind. '' I did not knoAV," said he,* forty years 

 afterwards, " the first Avords of moral philosophy, but I had need of 200 pounds 

 to furnish my house. The success Avas prodigious." Smith is pleased to exag- 

 gerate his igmorance. He had passed five years at Edinburgh, and had enjoyed 

 opportunities of hearing Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown in their faA^orite 

 science. 



The first course commenced in November, in 1804, the second Avas delivered 

 in the spring of 1805, and the third the folloAving year. Conversation, during 

 the Avinter of 1804-1805, turned scarcely on anything else but tho young 

 Roscius and his lectures. He had from COO to 800 "auditors, {Quarterhj Ilcview, 

 No. xcvii.) Yet, if avc are to believe the celebrated Review founded by Sydney 

 Smith, it Avould be impossible to conceive an assembly less prepared to compre- 

 hend the mysteries of the understanding than a metropolitan audience at tliat 

 epoch. t 



* Letter addressed to Dr. Whewell in 1843. Quarterly Review, No. xcvii. 



t Edinburgh Review, No. xci. The lectures of >Sydney Smith have been published in ]841), 

 at Loudon, under the title : Ekmentarti Sketches of Moral Fhilusophy, delivered at the Royal 

 Institution, in the years 18U4, 1805, anil 180G. 



