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only refer to the volumes of the Philosophical Transactions, published 

 since the beginning of this century, to be satisfied that the disposi- 

 tion to communicate the higher class of investigations to the Royal 

 Society is not less than formerly. It is, indeed, the interest of every 

 one who is ambitious that his name as a discoverer should be trans- 

 mitted to posterity, that his works should have a place in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, where, as has been observed by a writer in the 

 Edinburgh Review, " He has the benefit of the great name acquired 

 by that distinguished body, by the labours of Newton and Halley 

 and Cavendish, and by two centuries of constant services performed 

 to the commonwealth of letters*." 



With the exception of the achievements of those small communities 

 of ancient Greece, to whose works we still refer as affording the highest 

 standard of excellence in literature and the fine arts, and from whom 

 has been transmitted to us that marvellous science of geometry which 

 enabled Newton to unravel the system of the universe, with this 

 exception, there is nothing in the history of what belongs to the 

 advancement of knowledge so remarkable as the progress which the 

 European nations have made in the cultivation of the physical 

 sciences during the last two hundred years. It is not only those 

 who are engaged, as you are, in researches of this kind, that must 

 contemplate with satisfaction the results of this movement. The 

 moral philosopher, recognizing in the desire of knowledge one of 

 the noblest of our aspirations, will regard the extension of that de- 

 sire, and the more general diffusion of knowledge, as an important 

 means of elevating our species in the scale of intellectual beings. 

 The unprejudiced theologian will allow that there is no better foun- 

 dation for the religious sentiment than the study of natural pheno- 

 mena, opening as it does to our view everywhere examples of design, 

 and of the adaptation of means to ends, combined with mighty power 

 and benevolent intention. The philosophical statesman, who, con- 

 templating the progress of society, endeavours to explain the changes 

 which it has undergone, and thence to anticipate the future, cannot fail 

 to perceive that the cultivation of the physical sciences has been in these 

 later times one of the most important instruments of civilization ; 

 while the mere utilitarian, however little he may be capable of esti- 

 mating knowledge for its own sake, must admit that it has contri- 

 * Edinburgh Review, 1811. 



