166 A Reiiiciv of some leading Vo'inls hi I he Official Cliaracler 



Almost rmmediately after Mr. Banks's return from this 

 northern voyage, he began to take an active part in some of the 

 measures then carrying on in the Royal Society; and on the 

 resignation of Sir John Pringle, in November 177'*^, he was ap- 

 pointed to succeed him. The worki began anNiously to inquire 

 what were his requisites for this exalted station ; but did not 

 then receive a very satisfactory answer. He was known to be a 

 man of enterprise and of strong passions ; a warm friend while 

 his friends were subservient to his purposes, and, if otherwise, 

 what Dr. Johnson denominated *' a good hater." He was no- 

 toriously fond of farming, fond of grazing, fond of gardening, 

 fond of" damming and sinking*," and fond of domineering: 

 these, however, were qualifications for the office so dubious that 

 the public naturally sought for something more. What, they 

 asked, has he published? Where arc the volumes that bear his 

 name ? When they were answered " No-wkere,'' they asked 

 again, What are his pamphlets, and on what subjects ? Where 

 are his papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Society 

 over which vou have appointed him to preside, and on what do 

 they treat ? To these and such inquiries no answer could then 

 be returned: and if similar ijuestions were now to be proposed, 

 his friends would have little else to say, except they felt inclined 

 to exult in his little Essay on blight, and perhaps a diminutive 

 disquisition or two on the manufactory of gooseberry-wine, or 

 something like it, in the Horticultural Transactions. 



Indeed, during the whole course of his long presidency he 

 evinced an absolute ignorance of several of the most interesting 

 and useful sciences. Of mathematics, either pure or mixed, he 

 knew nothing. The sublime investigations of Landen, Euler, 

 Lagrange and Laplace, had no more charms for Sir Joseph, than 

 for the rudest peasant that laboured on his Lincolnshire estates. 

 Nor was he merely ignorant of these sciences. He had a dislike 

 to them; and for many years indicated this dislike by some 

 waspish and petulant expression from the chair whenever a ma- 

 thematical ]japer was read. Up to more than forty years of age, 

 I am positively assured that he knew scarcely any thing of che- 

 mistry ; but in this department of knowledge, it was afterwards 

 said, he made a respectable proficiency. Natural history has 

 been generally acknowledged to be the only study which he pur- 

 sued with ardour and relish ; yet even here, if I am correctly in- 



• This strange phrase was one which Sir Joseph delighted to give in 

 shape of a toast, among the Lincolnshire farmers. " Success to damming 

 and sinking," meant success to draining the fens ; but then it was deSivered 

 in an enigmatic apinoximation to profanity, which he thought lie might 

 venture upon without losing his cliaracter as a geutlemau and a philo- 

 sopher. 



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