XXii FOURTH REPORT — 1834. 



pices and occasionally enveloped in mists, — but they have there 

 breathed that pure and elastic air which descends not to lower 

 regions, — and through the cloudy openings they have caught 

 rich and extensive views, showing at once the configuration and 

 the bearing of the country, which less daring spirits must pain- 

 fully and partially explore. Such men are independent of any 

 reward but that which the exertion itself bestows ; yet, let it 

 not be called an ignoble motive, if the traveller, embarked on 

 the discovery of a new, and hitherto untrodden, path, wliich 

 leads to the point to which he aspires, feels fresh vigour infused 

 into his frame, by the consciousness that, in the valley beneath, 

 a thousand eyes are watching his progi'ess, and that a shout of 

 applause, unheard except perhaps in imagination by him, will 

 announce the arrival of the adventurer at the summit of the al- 

 pine chain. 



" We look forward without anxiety to the future fate of the 

 Association. So long as it continues to be guided by the same 

 principles as heretofore, it cannot fail to confer a substantial be- 

 nefit upon the science of Britain. We have enough of energy 

 in action to communicate to the many the knowledge of the few, 

 but it is to prevent the stagnation of the stream at the fountain- 

 head, which should be our especial object. True it is that but a 

 few are able or disposed to devote themselves unreservedly to 

 those great enterprises which require the whole man ; yet, 

 though it is morally impossible that any others should under- 

 take the highest generalizations to which we have just alluded, 

 a division of labour is as practicable in intellectual as in mecha- 

 nical science. If one designing mind direct the whole, distinct 

 labourers may be engaged, unknowing each other's tasks, yet 

 happy in the consciousness of being more usefully and more 

 honourably employed than in imperfectly attempting the execu- 

 tion of works which they might individually complete. The ex- 

 quisite piece of mechanism which, in the form of a watch, issues 

 from the manufactories at Paris or Geneva, has its various ele- 

 ments of its wheels and pinions, its balance and fusee, collected 

 from the detached cottages of the peasantry of the Jura. 



" To combine individual effort, to render parts capable of com- 

 bination into a whole, to economize time, and thus virtually to 

 lengthen the lives of those whose exertions are valuable in the 

 cause of science, may be considered as humble, yet surely most 

 important, contributions to its advancement. We shall have 

 little reason to regret the want of a National Institute, whose 

 existence is the just subject of pride to our continental neigh- 

 bours, so long as individual exertion can supply the stimulus 

 which even the sunshine of wealth and patronage has sometimes 

 failed to excite." 



