170 



and a priori arguments of Dr. Samuel Clarke. Compare the un- 

 ravelling of early history by Niebuhr and Arnold with anything 

 regarding history that had been done before, or the best practical 

 treatises on politics and government of modern times with the elabo- 

 rate but fantastic scheme of Plato's republic. 



If I have made too large a demand on your patience by dwelling on 

 matters which have no special or exclusive relation to our body, you 

 will, I hope, accept it as a sufficient apology that I have done so under 

 the impression that whatever relates to the advancement of knowledge 

 generally cannot be altogether uninteresting to those who are the 

 living representatives of the great men by whom the Royal Society 

 was founded, and who themselves now constitute the most ancient 

 scientific institution in the world. 



Looking at what more particularly concerns ourselves, I may con- 

 gratulate you on the results obtained during the last year. In the 

 volume of the ' Philosophical Transactions' which is now in the course 

 of publication, we find that there is scarcely any department of phy- 

 sical knowledge which is not honourably represented ; at the same 

 time that, besides the abstracts of the principal papers, many inves- 

 tigations which have not been deemed to be of sufficient importance, or 

 sufficiently original to have a place in our annual volume, but which 

 nevertheless are of considerable interest, are recorded and published 

 from time to time in the smaller volume bearing the title of * The Royal 

 Society's Proceedings.' By means of this less pretentious publication 

 many facts, many thoughts and suggestions are preserved, which 

 might otherwise have been neglected or lost, but which, being thus pre- 

 served, may prove to be of much value hereafter. Our weekly meetings 

 have been well attended, and have been rendered more attractive by 

 a practice which is not altogether new, but which has been more 

 generally adopted than heretofore during the last Session ; I allude 

 to that of the authors of papers communicated to us giving an oral or 

 vivdvoce explanation of their contents, those explanations being ren- 

 dered more intelligible by a reference to diagrams, or to the apparatus 

 used for experiments, and even by experiments actually displayed. 

 Such illustrations are useful both to the authors and to others, by 

 causing the subject-matter of the several communications to be 

 better understood ; and they are useful in another way, inasmuch as 

 they lead to conversations and discussions, and to the interchange of 



