Comparative Encouragement to the Study, Sfc. 401 



government of a community capable of cherishing "« both prac 

 Sally and theoretically 1 We cannot forget the fate of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society of that city, or of that most re- 

 spectaJe society, the Lyceum of Natural History, wh.ch, when 

 t'had made, by a great'and worthy effort of its members, a very 

 rich collecti;nfand'a valuable library, was, by the corporation 

 of the city, turned out of the rooms it occupied, together, we be- 

 lieve, with the Academy of Fine Arts and all its pamtmgs, the 

 Historical Society and its valuable library. The fate, also, of 

 the American Geological Society, established at New Haven, 

 Connecticut, and founded many years ago, should be a warnmg 

 to the projectors of this new national institution. Is president, 

 William M'Clure, resides in Mexico: where the other officers 

 of the society are, or who they at present are, we do not know ; 

 but we do know that the society has neither house, nor home 

 nor transactions, nor collections ; and that this is to be at ributed 

 to nothin^^ H«p but the impossibility of raising an m^portant na- 

 tional scientific institution, in any community where there is 

 not the greatest amount of practical and theoretical knowledge ; 

 and in every country, there is one city where these advantages 

 exist, and where they show themselves. 



For the opinion we have here expressed, we refer to the un- 

 deniable fact, that natural science has been suffered to languish 

 and decay in the city of New York, notwithstanding the ac- 

 knowledged learning, activity, and zeal of many individuals, and 

 especially of those meritorious persons who have, in the most 

 disinterested and constant manner, and in the face of every kmd 

 of adversity, held up the Lyceum of Natural History from total 

 ruin. If, in a wealthy community like New York, which is 

 sometimes prodigal in its patronage of less worthy pursuits the 

 unostentatious and admirable labours of such men as we have 

 now spoken of, are disregarded, and their collections, with them- 

 selves, ejected from their philosophic retreat by the- magistrates 

 of the city; if individual friends to science, literature, and the 

 arts, cannot be found in sufficient numbers to sustain the gene- 

 rous, yet modest effi)rts which have been made ; where, we ask, 

 are the working members to come from, of a great national so- 

 ciety that can only flourish through those frequent meetings, 

 and that active and various intelligence and zeal, which are in- 

 dispensable to the success of such undertakings 1 Of the inten- 

 VoL. I.— 51 



