70 Royal Society : — Anniversary Address of the President : 



for their attainments in literature, for the important influence which 

 their virtues or labours may have exercised upon the character and 

 prospects of society, or upon the general interests of humanity ; 

 wisely judging that science will gain both in the enlargement of its 

 objects and in the dignity and estimation of its cultivators, by being 

 thus united with wliatever is best entitled to command and to re- 

 ceive the admiration and respect of mankind : it is amongst this 

 class of our Members that I have to notice several losses of more 

 than ordinary importance. 



The Earl of Mansfield was a nobleman of illustrious family, 

 who, in addition to many other accomplishments, was one of the 

 most elegant and effective parliamentary orators of his day. 



Lord Holland was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a 

 nobleman who was remarkable for his profound knowledge of the con- 

 stitutional history of his country, and for the extent and variety of his 

 literary attainments*. It was the remark of a Avell-known philoso- 

 phical author and writer, " that there was something so sweet in the 

 blood of the Foxes, that no one could approach them without feeling 

 the fascination of their social powers : " and there was probably no 

 man of his age who was the object of more enthusiastic love and 

 admiration of his friends, private and political, than Lord Holland. 



Sir William Sydney Smith was a hero in the most chivalrous 

 period of our naval history, the scenes of whose early triumphs have 

 so recently been rendered illustrious by others of an equally memo- 

 rable character. 



Sir John Lubbock was one of those persons engaged in trade 

 whose extensive transactions and liberal views give dignity to the 

 operations of commerce : it is not one of the least distinctions of 

 such a father, that his name and honours have been inherited by one 

 whose profound acquirements in the most difficult branches of sci- 

 ence have merited and received the highest honours which this So- 

 ciety is able to confer. 



In our foreign list we have to lament the loss of three of our 

 most illustrious members, Blumenbach, Olbers, and Poisson. 



John Friedrich Blumenbach was born on the 11th of May, 

 1752, at Gotha, where his father was Prorector of the Gymnasium. 

 He was accustomed to attribute the formation of his taste for lite- 

 raiy history and the study of the natural sciences to the instructions 

 and encouragement of Menz and Christ, two professors of Leipsig, 

 who were friends and fellow-townsmen of his father. -After study- 

 ing for some time at Jena, he removed to Gdttingen, for the pur- 

 pose of completing his medical course, where he was very favour- 

 ably noticed by Heyne and Michaelis, and more particularly by 

 Biittner, Professor of Natural History, a great linguist, and a man 

 of very extraordinary acquirements, whose museum of medals and 

 natural history, when afterwards purchased by the University, he 

 was employed to arrange. The skill and diligence which he showed 



* He was the author of a most elegant account of the life and writings 

 of Lope de Vega, accompanied by some beautiful translations of his more 

 remarkable poems. 



