26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
as the names, which will at at once occur to all of us, abundantly 
shew. 
The popular character of the objects and constitution of the Brit- 
ish Association is highly typical of the modern philosophy as dis- 
tinguished from the ancient, or at any rate, from the medieval. The 
old philosophers were cloistered recluses, living apart from their fel- 
lows, and hiding their knowledge from the vulgar, or only display- 
ing it to dazzle or to scare. Their works were not only written in 
a tongue unintelligible to the many, but were couched in language 
studiously obscure—a mystical jargon only understood by the initi- 
ated. Nowadays, each new discovery is at once communicated in 
clear and precise language, not only to those whose training has fitted 
them to understand the technicalities of science, but also so far as 
possible to the public. Indeed, many of the most gifted masters of 
experiment and research have in late years expended almost as much 
pains and labour in the popular exposition of the results of their in- 
vestigations as they devoted to the investigations themselves. No 
sooner, too, has a new truth been discovered or a new law been 
established than a hundred acute minds are ready to seize upon it 
and turn it to practical utility—discovery and invention go hand in 
hand, and the door of the laboratory opens into the workshop. 
It is in Italy that the germ of scientific associations first began to 
sprout, but England was not far behind, and there more than two 
centuries ago a little knot of earnest workers banded themselves 
together to form a Society the fame of which was destined to 
spread over the world, and on the model of which all subsequent 
scientific societies have been more or less constructed—the Royal 
Society of London, for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge. 
The first President was Sir Robert Moray. The Society was soon 
incorporated under Royal Charter, and in 1663 a new charter was 
granted which is still the fundamental constitution of the Society. 
The first President under the new charter was Lord Browncker, the 
Chancellor to the Queen, and a mathematician of eminence, and 
among the members of the council appears the venerated name of 
Robert Boyle. Two years later appeared their first number of 
‘‘ Philosophical Transactions,” as the papers published under the 
auspices of the Royal Society are still called, and the year 1671 was 
made memorable by the admission to the Fellowship of the Society 
of a young professor of mathematics, of Cambridge, who was destined 
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