[ 161 ] 



XXVI, A Review of some leading Points in the Official Cha- 

 racter and Proceedings of the late PresideTit of the Royal So- 

 ciety. By A Correspondent. 



[The writer of the following Review relies upon the established liberality 

 and candour of the Editor of the Philosophical Magazine, vvhen he trans- 

 mits for insertion in that valuable publication an article which may, pro- 

 bably, run counter to the usual train of his own sentiments and feelings. 

 The main object of the writer is to enable the members of one of the most 

 honourable of British Institutions, by a calm retrospect of past occur- 

 rences to diminish the evil elTects which have resulted from them, as well 

 as to prevent the recurrence of similar practical errors in future. He 

 has advanced nothing as facts, but what he has carefully verified ; and as 

 he wishes those facts alone to make their due impression, he does not 

 think it necessary to accompany them with his name.] 



Xhe Royal Society', as Chamberlayne remarks, " chose for its 

 motto Nullius in verba, to testify their resolution not to be en- 

 slaved by any of the greatest authority in their inquiries after na- 

 ture :" and so long as their Presidents were changed with mo- 

 derate frequency, and no one acquired any more authority or 

 influence than was due to his talents and his virtues, indepen- 

 dently of his rank (whatever that might be), all continued to go 

 on well. The arts and sciences, in their numerous departments, 

 were promoted by the labours and inquiries of the different 

 members of the Society; each brought from his own stock to de- 

 posit in the general storehouse; all was harmony; and bickering 

 and usurpation were alike unknown. The distinctions which 

 prevail in human society were wot forgotten; but they were not 

 permitted to operate injuriously in a society where all were, by 

 its original constitution, fellows. An authorized list of the 

 members of the Royal Society circulated in 1693, only thirty 

 years after its incorporation by charter, terminates thus : — " The 

 reader may perceive by this list, how many sober, learned, solid, 

 ingenious persons, of different degrees, religions, countries, pro- 

 fessions, trades, and Jbrtimes, have united and conspired, laying 

 aside all names of distinction, amicably to promote experimental 

 knowledge." 



Indeed, it is only by detern)ining thus to " lay aside all di- 

 stinctions," except those which talents and genius confer, that 

 a Society formed for the -purpose of augmenting the sphere of 

 natural knowledge in all its Ijranches can be adccjuately elhcicnt: 

 for if it be " with wise intent" that 



" The Hand of Nature on peculiar minds 

 Imprint.4 a dilVerent bias, and to each 

 Decrees its province in the common toil," 



it is surely wise for such an institution to collect, arrange, and 

 Vol. 56. No. 269. Sept. 1820. X classify, 



