PREFACE. 



I begin the history of the Eoyal Institution, and its 

 professors to the time of Faraday, with the life of 

 its founder, Count Eumford, because his career and 

 character determined its original form. I have written 

 short accounts of the earliest professors because the 

 spirit that has shown itself in them has up to this time 

 been the life of the Institution. Dr. Grarnett and 

 Dr. Thomas Young had comparatively little influence 

 there, because the founder took the most active part 

 in the establishment of his Institution ; but when 

 Count Rumford and Sir Joseph Banks had left and 

 Mr. Bernard and Sir John Hippesley were the lead- 

 ing managers, Professor Davy gradually became the 

 main supporter of the place, and to him chiefly it owes 

 the form which it now retains. 



During the last half-century the name of Faraday 

 has been so blended with that of the Eoyal Institution 

 that few people know what Davy made it ; and fewer 

 still have heard what Eumford at first intended it 

 to be. 



The following account will show that the Institution 



971SG5 



