206 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV. 



flan and Regulations of the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain, Albemarle Street, written by Dr. Thomas Young. 



THE professed object of the Royal Institution is the diffu- 

 sion of useful knowledge, derived from science, and appli- 

 cable to the purposes of life. 



The means proposed for attaining this end are, first, an 

 annual delivery of lectures on the various branches of natu- 

 ral philosophy and chemistry, familiar enough to be intel- 

 ligible to moderate capacities, and extensive enough to com- 

 prehend themost important applications of theory to practice ; 

 secondly, the furnishing of a spacious repository with 

 models of such machines, instruments, and utensils as, after 

 sufficient experimental examination, can with confidence be 

 recommended for introduction into common use ; thirdly, 

 the establishment of a chemical laboratory, with proper ap- 

 paratus and materials to be employed in such investigations 

 as are of the greatest practical utility ; fourthly, the provi- 

 sion of reading rooms, supplied as well with periodical pub- 

 lications as with works of acknowledged merit, particularly 

 relative to the sciences and the arts ; and, lastly, the exten- 

 sion of the benefits derived from the Institution, by publish- 

 ing from time to time, in its Journals, such improvements 

 as may either have been made by its means, or may have 

 been otherwise suggested by individuals in foreign coun- 

 tries or in our own. 



These objects are indeed of too great magnitude to be 

 completely obtained at once; but a considerable progress 

 has already been made in the pursuit of them, and a con- 

 tinuance of the public support alone is required for render- 

 ing the Royal Institution as well a natural ornament as a 

 private accommodation. 



The lectures are already established on an unprecedented 

 scale, in the order of the systematic compendiums which 

 have been published ; and weekly notice is given to the 

 subscribers of the subjects of each lecture. The laboratory 



