OUTLINES OF A NEW SOCIETY. 447 



(309.) We are rejoiced at bringing this part of 

 our subject to a close. 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 



