the late Mr. Henry. 13 



delivered several courses of lectures on chemistry to nume- 

 rous and attentive audiences. From causes, which it is not 

 easy to trace, but among- which, I believe, may be reckoned a 

 superstitious dread of the tendency of science to unfit young- 

 men for the ordinary details of business, this excellent institution 

 fell into decay. Mr. Henry, however, continued his lectures 

 long after its decline, until deprived of the services of his son, 

 by the prosecution of views at a distance, when he found that 

 his own leisure was not, of itself, adequate to the necessary pre- 

 parations. 



That the scheme of establishing in Manchester a College of 

 Arts and Sciences (for so it was entitled,) was not a visionary 

 project, but one which appeared feasible and promising to men 

 of sense and knowledge at a distance, is shewn by the following 

 extracts from letters addressed to Mr. Henry, in reply to his 

 communication of the plan. " An attempt of this kind," the 

 late Dr. Currie of Liverpool observes, " I think most praise- 

 worthy ; and for this, however the matter may terminate, the 

 projectors will always be entitled to public favour and esteem. 

 It is a bold enterprise, and of course in some degree doubtful. 

 One thing appears to me probable ; — that if the business is taken 

 up as it ought to be by the public, you will soon find the pro- 

 priety of extending your plan, so as to make it embrace every 

 object of general education." Mr. Wedgwood also strongly ex- 

 pressed his approbation of the undertaking. " The plan of your 

 college," he says, " I think an excellent one, and from the po- 

 pulous and commercial state of your town — from the apparent 

 utility of the Institution — from the elegance and propriety with 

 which it is announced — and from the known characters of the 

 gentlemen who are engaged in it, I can scarcely entertain a 

 doubt of its meeting with success." Greater perseverance would 

 perhaps have gradually softened, and finally subdued, the pre- 

 judices that seem to have existed against the union of commer- 

 cial with literary or philosophical pursuits, — an union which, 

 under jiropcr regulation, adorns and dignifies the character of the 

 merchant, without, it may be hoped, diminishing his usefulness, 

 or interfering with the prosperous management of his affairs. 



