PREFACE. XI 



tomary to call scientific. An Athence Batho- 

 nienses — let Oxford and the shade of Anthony 

 k Wood pardon this presumption — may not be 

 imdeserving the labour of another hand. I also 

 obtained permission to prefix an account of the 

 foundation of the Literary and Scientific Insti- 

 tution of Bath, within whose walls the Paper 

 was read, and of the Association formed out 

 of members of the Institution to whom it was 

 addressed; for, in those incipient days of the 

 Institution, the practice had not been adopted 

 of admitting all its members, and any friends 

 whom they might bring with them, to the 

 readings and discussions of the Association. Per- 

 haps if this Paper had not been intended for 

 what was a very select circle of friends, some 

 few passages would not have been found in it, 

 or some expressions would have been modified. 

 I flatter myself that the account I propose to 

 give of what was done previous to the actual 

 opening of the Institution, will not be thought 

 incongruous to the subject of the Paper which is 

 the main part of this Tract, but to be in fact a 

 part of the literary history of Bath; and even 

 that, proceeding as it does from one who was 

 intimately acquainted with the whole of those 



