LITERATURE AND SCIENCE OF ENGLAND. 51 



theorizing he was indebted to two gentlemen, one of 

 whom is still living — an early benefactor to this 

 Institution; [18] and the other not long since de- 

 ceased, and taking a conspicuous place in the science 

 and literature of Bath. It was Mr. Townsend who 

 first felt the fuU importance of Smith's observations, 

 and who assisted him in methodizing his remarks. 

 Mr. TowQsend was himself one of the earliest writers 

 in this science, and he has also enriched our literature 

 in the several departments of philology, foreign geo- 

 graphy, and practical divinity. [19] 



And, lastly, better practical philosophers were, 

 perhaps, never collected into a society than some of 

 the early members of that Association which was 

 formed here for the purpose of encouraging the arts, 

 the agriculture, and the manufactures of the king- 

 dom; and the successive volumes of their Transactions 

 bespeak their abihty to accomplish the important 

 objects for which they are associated, and have exhi- 

 bited to the world a gratifying series of useful and va- 

 luable results, from the aplication of the principles of 

 science to the more ordinary businesses of life. [20] 



II. The catalogue of those who have contributed by 



their writings to enrich theological or moral science 



would doubtless admit of increase, were not the 



several histories of Bath so deficient in presenting 



E 2 



