and Philosophical Societies. 81 
pursuits, and invited to direct their talents to some 
specific and important ends; and when perhaps an 
equal or larger number of men previously unac- 
customed or disinclined to such investigations be- 
come habituated and attached to them; is it proba- 
ble, is it possible, that literature and science can fail 
to profit by these events? The field, on which so 
much labour of cultivation could be employed with- 
out producing any fruit, must have been doomed to 
more than common sterility. From the encreased 
stock of zealous and persevering exertion, it may 
unquestionably be hoped that much light will be 
thrown on some of the various departments of lite- 
rature, especially on its more popular and elegant 
branches. And science has perhaps reason to look 
forward to still greater assistance from the same cause. 
New mines of philosophical treasure will be opened ; 
new discoveries will be made; new analogies traced; 
erroneous hypotheses exploded; rational theories 
corroborated; and conclusions, hitherto resting on 
speculative conjecture or dubious experiments, will 
be established on the basis of fact and demonstration. 
The laws of nature and the properties of bodies will 
be developed more and more; new processes appli- 
cable to the polite arts will be made known; and 
new inventions disclosed to facilitate the labours of 
the practical mechanic, and improve the workman- . 
ship of the manufacturer. By its publications, the 
society will preserve and spread abroad much im- 
VOL. v. L 
