

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 211 



following account of his engagement and of its termi- 

 nation : 



The reviewer has thought proper to unite, in several in- 

 stances, with his invectives against me some ridicule of the 

 objects of the Royal Institution of Great Britain an In- 

 stitution in which its managers have studied to concentrate 

 all that is useful in science or elegant in literature. This 

 connexion appears to him to add so much weight to 

 his arguments that he has chosen, without further pro- 

 vocation, to insinuate its existence more than a year after 

 it has been dissolved. I accepted the appointment of 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution as 

 an occupation which would fill up agreeably and advan- 

 tageously such leisure hours as a young practitioner of 

 physic must expect to be left free from professional cares. 

 I was led to hope that I should be able to impress an 

 audience, formed of the most respectable inhabitants of the 

 metropolis, with such a partiality as the moderately well-in- 

 formed are inclined to entertain for those who appear to 

 know even a little more than themselves of matters of 

 science. While I held the situation I wished to make my 

 lectures as intelligible as the nature of the subjects per- 

 mitted ; but I must confess that it was not my ambition to 

 render them a substitute for those of any superficial ex- 

 perimenter that was in the habit of delivering courses of 

 natural philosophy for the amusement of boarding schools. 

 Whatever may have been the imperfections of my lectures, 

 it cannot be asserted, except perhaps in the ' Edinburgh 

 Review,' that they were fit for audiences of ladies of 

 fashion only. After fulfilling for two years the duties of 

 the professorship, I found them so incompatible with the 

 pursuits of a practical physician that, in compliance with 

 the advice of my friends, I gave notice of my wish to re- 

 sign the office. 1 



1 Edinburgh Review, Nos. II. and IX., 1803, 1804. 

 p 2 



