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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for analysis. He was graduated on the 26th of May, 1786 ; and the 

 impulse for scientific research gained at the university influenced 

 all his succeeding years. The highest ambition of an English man 

 of science is to append to his name the honorable initials F. R. S., 

 and to enjoy the privileges accorded to Fellows of the Royal 

 Society. Recommended by Richard Kirwan, the Irish chemist. 



JAMES SMITHSON AS AN OXFORD STUDENT, 1786. 



Charles Blagden, the Secretary of the Society, Henry Cavendish, 

 the wealthy and eccentric physicist, and others, Smithson was 

 elected a Fellow exactly eleven months after leaving the university. 

 During his residence in London he cultivated the society of 

 authors, artists, and men of science. " His mind was filled with a 

 craving for intellectual development, and for the advancement of 

 human knowledge. To enlarge the domain of thought, to dis- 

 cover new truths, and to make practical application of these for 

 the promotion of civilization, were the great ends he had con- 

 stantly in view/' Smithson possessed large means ; he never mar- 



