164 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



speculative undertakings, in Banks's active days, were 

 conceived without the minds of the ingenious inventors 

 turning, as the Needle to the Pole, toward the influential 

 President of the Royal Society. 



Banks was never averse to honest and wholesome 

 enterprise. But he was not incautious, a circumstance 

 which was unknown, or overlooked, in the first essay of a 

 new-comer for his patronage. The temptations, there- 

 fore, that were being continually thrown in his way 

 the schemes for which he was invited to share the expense 

 ranged over every possible flight. Novel inventions 

 (with perpetual motion as a matter of course) ; exploring 

 and colonization plans ; experiments in farming and 

 horticulture ; proposals for reforming or correcting the 

 existing state of things ; suggestions from persons 

 desirous of pushing on in the world, or of retrieving a 

 Past ; all followed one another with relentless certainty : 

 all inspired by a determination to tap the resources of a 

 wealthy and good-natured gentleman. So, with inventors 

 and adventurers, curiosity hunters, would-be collectors 

 of plants and birds, ship-owners who had in view new 

 fields of venture, and personal friends who had suitors 

 of their own whom they could not themselves gratify, 

 together with appeals from men who had failed in life 

 and were not likely to succeed because of their inherent 

 weakness of character, Banks had upon his hands many 

 and various interests which did not naturally belong 

 to him, but on account of which he was called upon 

 to pay. 



Notwithstanding this plethora of other people's con- 

 cerns, Sir Joseph usually met each new aspirant, or 

 beggar, with geniality. But he spoke very plainly, 

 especially when encouragement could not but be with- 

 held. At times he would be really impressive ; as when 

 an inventor either implied or enjoined secrecy concerning 

 a new machine for raising water, or an improvement on the 



