162 Royal Society. 



point of space, and limited as it were to moments of time, — 

 yet by his intellectual powers he has elevated his mind from 

 the minute base of the earth unto the heavens, and measured 

 and even weighed bodies at many millions of miles distant 

 from him, and some of them invisible except by instruments 

 of his own invention : — he has been enabled to predict their 

 past and future changes, and to account for those motions of 

 them, which at first view appeared disorderly, by constant and 

 immutable laws : and as his science has become more perfect, 

 so he has seen more distinctly the order and harmony of the 

 system of things, and the whole of created nature, exhibiting 

 one design of perfect wisdom, a single work of infinite power." 

 This is a short sketch only of the speech: — after which the So- 

 ciety proceeded to the election of Officers, when, on the ballot 

 being closed, it was found that the following were the lists : 



Of the Old Council. — Sir Humphry Davy, Bart.; William 

 Thomas Brande, Esq. ; Samuel Goodenough, Lord Bishop 

 of Carlisle ; Major Thomas Colby ; John Wilson Croker, 

 Esq. ; Davies Gilbert, Esq. ; Charles Hatchett, Esq. ; Sir 

 Everard Home, Bart. ; John Pond, Esq. ; William Hyde 

 Wollaston, M.D. ; Thomas Young, M.D. 



Of the New Council. — William Babington, M.D. ; Francis 

 Baily, Esq. ; John George Children, Esq. ; John William, 

 Viscount Dudley and Ward; John Frederick William Her- 

 schel, Esq. ; Captain Henry Kater ; Thomas Andrew Knight, 

 Esq. ; Alexander MacLeay, Esq. ; Sir T. S. Raffles, Knt. ; 

 Edward Adolphus, Duke of Somerset. 



President. — Sir H. Davy. 



Treasurer. — Davies Gilbert, Esq. 



Secretaries. — W. T. Brande, Esq. and J. F. W. Herschel, 

 Esq. 



Foreign Secretary. — T. Young, M.D. 



The Society dined together at the Crown and Anchor ; 

 The President in the chair, supported by the Right Hon. 

 Robert Peel, and Lord Bexley. There were present most of 

 the distinguished cultivators and lovers of science. Several 

 speeches were made, showing the flourishing state of science 

 and of the Society, and the harmony existing between the 

 patrons and votaries of science. 



Dec. 9. — Three Series of Astronomical Observations made 

 at Paramatta, were communicated by Sir Thomas Brisbane; 

 and the reading was commenced of An Explanation of an op- 

 tical deception produced by viewing the spokes of a revolving 

 wheel through the intervals of vertical bars. By P. M. Roget, 

 M.D. F.R.S. - 



Dec. 16. — The reading of Dr. Roget's paper was con- 

 cluded : 



