FIRST MEETING 23 



nature to the lamps, and these at length yielded 

 materials to the interpreters of nature." 



' To that great model of a national Institution 

 for the advancement of science I have already 

 adverted to-day, as I have formerly directed to it 

 the attention of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society ; 

 it is here referred to by Mr. Conybeare, and by a 

 remarkable coincidence of ideas we have the same 

 reference from Mr. Harvey, who in a letter from 

 Plymouth, which he has addressed to the Secretary 

 of the meeting, observes, that " Bacon alludes to 

 circuits or visits of divers principal cities of the 

 kingdom as forming a distinguished feature of the 

 New Atlantis. What Bacon/' he adds, " foresaw 

 in distant perspective, it has been reserved to our 

 day to realise, and as his prophetic spirit pointed out 

 the splendid consequences that would result generally 

 from institutions of this kind, so may we hope that 

 the new visions which are opening before us may be 

 productive of still greater effects than have yet been 

 beheld, and that the bringing together the cultivators 

 of science from the North and the South, the East 

 and the West, may fulfil all the anticipations of one 

 of the greatest minds that ever threw glory on our 

 intellectual nature. . . ." 



' We propose that all members of Philosophical 

 Societies in the British Empire shall be entitled to 

 become members of the Association, on enrolling 

 their names, and engaging to pay such subscription 

 as may be agreed upon, the amount of which sub- 

 scription, we think, ought to be low ; and we propose 

 that the members shall meet for one week in every 

 year at different places in rotation ; in order by these 

 migratory visits to extend the sphere of the Associa- 

 tion, to meet the convenience of distant districts in 



