1871] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 469 



national capital ; makes no claim to any connection with 

 the government, nor to being in any respect a special repre- 

 sentative of the science of the country. 



The importance of such a society must be evident to all 

 who are acquainted with the history of science. It is mainly 

 through the influence exerted and tlie assistance rendered 

 by such associations, that science is advanced and its results 

 given to the world. Man is a sympathetic being, and no 

 incentive to mental exertion is more powerful than that 

 which springs from a desire for the approbation of his fellow 

 men; besides this, frequent interchange of ideas and appre- 

 ciative encouragement are almost essential to the successful 

 prosecution of labors requiring profound thought and con- 

 tinued mental exertion. Hence it is important that those 

 engaged in similar pursuits should have opportunities for 

 frequent meetings at stated periods. This is more particu- 

 larly the case with the cultivators of abstract science who find 

 comparatively few fully capable of appreciating the value of 

 their labors, even in a community how much soever en- 

 lightened it may be on general subjects. The students of 

 history, of literature, of politics, and of art, find everywhere 

 men who can enter in some degree into their pursuits, and 

 who can appreciate their merits and derive pleasure from 

 their writings or conversation ; while the mathematician, 

 the astronomer, the physicist, the chemist, the biologist, and 

 the student of descriptive natural history, meet with rela- 

 tively few who can sympathize with them in their pur- 

 suits, or who have a sufficient knowledge of their particular 

 subjects to be able to award them that intelligent apprecia- 

 tion and encouragement essential to their sustained and 

 laborious efforts. To them, the world consists of a few in- 

 dividuals to whom they are to look for that critical judgment 

 of their merits which is to be finally adopted by the general 

 public, and with these it is of the first importance that they 

 should have more frequent intercourse than that which 

 arises from casual meetings. 



Furthermore, a society of this kind becomes a means of 

 instruction to all its members, the knowledge of each be- 



