OUTLINES OF A NEW SOCIETY. 447 
(309.) We are rejoiced at bringing this part of 
our subject toaclose. Prompted by a disinterested 
zeal for the advancement of that science to which 
life has been devoted by us, and anxious that all the 
societies founded for its advancement should acquit 
themselves with honour, we have felt it a duty to 
point out those defects which, as we conceive, 
prevent their full success. These opinions, it is 
true, are but those of a very humble individual ; 
yet, as they are founded upon some experience, and 
upon influences which operate universally, they are 
not undeserving of attention. Censure, under any 
circumstances, should be indulgent where the in- 
tentions are good. It cannot be supposed, for a 
moment, that any man, or body of men, having 
the least love for science, would associate to- 
gether but for the real purpose of advancing 
its interests). We may all agree in the object, 
but differ materially as to the means of accom- 
plishing it. Difference of opinion, therefore, among 
honest and ingenuous minds, is productive of 
this good — that new views are elicited, and old 
ones placed in new and unexpected lights. That 
freedom of discussion, which, when conducted in 
a good spirit, is the best safeguard of a govern- 
ment, spreads its beneficial influence over all minor 
associations, and is a perpetual check upon that 
tendency to abuse and decay, inseparable from all 
human institutions. 
(310.) Having now suggested the chief of those 
improvements by which the interests of science can 
be upheld by our public societies, it is expedient, in 
this place, to notice a plan which has been talked of 
