» fs 
and Philosophical Soczetzes. 73 
spect to books, and to the assistance of-others. He 
stands at the conflux of scientific intelligence pour- 
ing in from every quarter of the globe. He is rous- 
ed to'exertion by the accounts continually reaching 
his ears from foreign countries, and by witnessing 
the successes of his coadjutors at home. And he 
is surrounded by artificers equally prepared by 
quickness of invention to contrive instruments, by 
the aid of which he may complete new and difficult 
experiments; and by skilfulness of workmanship to 
execute mechanism which he may have planned. 
himself. Next to the metropolis, those situations 
which bear the nearest resemblance to it in the cir- 
cumstances recently stated are most congenial to the 
Institutions of which we are speaking. Such, for 
example, are cities abounding with persons whose 
minds a liberal education has polished and enlarged: 
opulent provincial towns, in which the prosperous 
state of manufactures evinces the benefits of mecha- 
nical and chemical knowledge, and thus disposes men 
to science and observation: and even smaller towns 
which are fortunate enough to contain some inhabi- 
tants of distinguished talents and acquisitions; or 
which may serve as a central point of union to able 
men scattered in their neighbourhood, yet not so 
widely dispersed as to be in danger of failing in that 
regular intercourse, which is essential to the utility and ° 
to the permanence of the association. When the pro- 
priety of establishing such an association at any parti- 
cular place is agitated, the view ought to be extended 
VOL. V. K 
