335 



mcuts naturally flow and are concentrated, to be again commu- 

 nicated more at large by (heir members, their publications, and 

 their lectures. Discoveries naturally thus flow to them be- 

 cause thoy hold out rewards and distinctions to which every 

 generous mind aspires. Added to this there is a great benefit 

 in the association of individuals of kindred minds, for it is cer- 

 tain that to every person who follows a liberal Art or Science 

 professionally, there are a hundred who delight in it purely for 

 amusement. This is especially the case among those of here- 

 ditary distinction and wealth, persons who thence have a power 

 to forward every pursuit they may be attaclied to. Their ex- 

 ample and opinions, are dictatorial in the habits and tastes of a 

 nation ; and it is only by bringing- them in contact, by means of 

 Public Institutions, with their equals in Society and in their 

 Pursuits, that they can be enlisted in the cause of science. 

 The discoveries of every Member of the Royal and of the Hor- 

 ticultural Societies would have been beneficial in their individual 

 capacities, but they could never have been so generally difftised 

 as they have been by means of the Meetings and Transactions 

 of those Societies ; Mr. Knight might have been the same excel- 

 lent Horticulturist as now ; and Sir H. Davy as admirable a 

 Chemist ; but would their example, their writings, have been 

 so widely beneficial if not diffused by the means of the various 

 societies to which they belong. 



Again Societies have a command of interest and money that 

 enables them to follow plans wliich would be ruinous to or un- 

 attainable by individuals. Where is the individual could have 

 introduced the hundreds of new plants which the Horticultural 

 Society has? 



No individual ever had such a Laboratory as the splendid 

 one of the Royal Institution ; and this was the nursery of 

 Daw's discoveries which constitute a new era in Chemistry. 



