1921] to Sir James and Lady Dewar 445 



A more content in course of true delight 

 Than to be thirsty after tottering honour, 

 Or tie my treasure up in silken bags, 

 To please the fool and death." 



I think that sums up what ought to be the attitude of the truly 

 scientific mind. 



With regard to jour Grace's observations, may I say that I have 

 now served under three Dukes of Northumberland, not only your 

 father but your grandfather ? It was your grandfather who stepped 

 into the breach to help the Institution when it was in grave financial 

 difficulties. It had been in the same position at an earlier period. 

 Before the end of the Napoleonic wars the original design of the 

 founders had collapsed, and the need for a new departure became 

 apparent. This was effected by making pure science the vital basis 

 of its objects, instead of the maintenance of a museum for showing- 

 mechanical models of the newest inventions and their application to 

 the problems of life. An Act of Parliament amending the original 

 charter was passed in 1810, and the Institution had to be guided in 

 its new course. This task was undertaken vigorously by Sir 

 Humphry Davy, who had a power of divination that few men have 

 excelled. He saw that in order to stabilise the Institution the aid of 

 women was essential, and his appeal was for an additional number 

 of members, including women, and for the conveyance of a knowledge 

 of science to their children. As no successor has touched the beauty 

 of Davy's oratory, perhaps I may be allowed to read an extract from 

 a lecture he delivered to the members in 1810 : — 



" Our doors are to be open to all who wish to profit by know- 

 ledge ; and I may venture to hope that even the female parts of our 

 audiences will not diminish, and that they will honour the plan with 

 an attention which is independent of fashion, or the taste of the 

 moment, and connected with the use, the permanence, and the 

 pleasure of intellectual acquisitions. It is not our intention to invite 

 them to assist in the laboratories, but to partake of that healthy and 

 refined amusement, which results from a perception of the variety, 

 order, and harmony, existing in all the kingdoms of nature ; and to 

 encourage the study of those more elegant departments of Science, 

 which at once tend to exalt the understanding, and purify the heart. 



" The leisure of the higher female classes is so great, and their 

 influence in society so strong, that it is almost a duty, that they 

 should endeavour to awaken and keep alive, a love of improvement 

 and instruction. 



"Let them make it disgraceful for men to be ignorant, and 

 ignorance will vanish ; and that part of their empire, founded upon 

 mental improvement, will be strengthened and exalted by time, will 

 be untouched by age, will be immortal in its youth. . . . 



" Whatever is to be permanently infixed on the understanding 



Vol. NXIII. (No. 115) 2 i 



