570 



some of them will occur to the great majority of my auditors ; but 

 there is one very remarkable and recent example, in which he to 

 whom my observations relate is unhappily no more, and whose 

 labours have been alluded to in our biographical notices, I mean that 

 of the late Mr. Sheepshanks, a name which I cannot mention 

 without recalling, with affectionate regret, the various occasions on 

 which he has kindly assisted with his advice and stimulated by his 

 encouragement my humble labours in science*. As an original 

 member of the Astronomical Society, and thus associated more or 

 less with its Fellows for more than thirty-five years, I have wit- 

 nessed the dawn, progress and final close of the honourable career 

 of its most distinguished ornaments, many of whom I had the plea- 

 sure of numbering among my friends ; and I can truly say, that men 

 more disinterested, more ardent lovers of science and human pro- 

 gress, and more enlightened members of society, it was never my 

 lot to meet ; and when a more advanced stage of civilization shall 

 be attained, a period I fear long distant, the labours of such men 

 will be appreciated as they deserve to be, and they will be cited as 

 bright examples of a life spent in fulfilling one of the noblest of 

 tasks, that is, enhancing the dignity of man, by showing of what 

 things the human mind is capable. 



Your partial suffrages having placed me, however unworthy, to 

 fill that distinguished post at the head of the most ancient and 

 venerable of our British Scientific Institutions, I have thought it 

 right to avail myself of this, the first opportunity afforded to me of 

 addressing you, to take a review, necessarily hasty and imperfect, of 

 some of the desiderata of Science ; and having been so highly honoured 

 above my deserts, I only desire that it may be said of me with truth, 

 that I laboured diligently to induce my fellow-countrymen to regard 

 with favour and respect, to cherish and foster, to appreciate and 

 reward the labours of the cultivators of Science. 



* Since the above was written, I have been informed that the late Sir Robert 

 Peel offered 500 a year as a remuneration for scientific services in connexion 

 with the restoration of the National Standards, and that both Mr. Baily and Mr. 

 Sheepshanks preferred serving the nation gratuitously to the acceptance of what 

 may have been considered an inadequate reward. The remarks in the text do 

 not depend for their justification on a single example. 



