222 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV. 



asked him about an account relating to the Institution, 

 he wrote from Paris : 



I assure you that I have not the smallest recollection of 

 having received from Mr. Hunter, the solicitor of the 

 Institution, the account you mention in your letter of the 

 7th ult. ; and had I in fact received it, I should most un- 

 doubtedly have laid it before the managers of the Institution. 

 I can imagine no reason which could have induced me to 

 keep it back ; and, as all the affairs of the Institution in my 

 hands were kept with the utmost care and regularity, as 

 you can testify, it is not likely that I should have mislaid 

 and forgotten it. This is all I can say on the subject, and 

 I hope and trust that this declaration will be satisfactory 

 to the managers of the Royal Institution and to Mr. 

 Hunter. 



I expect to be in England in the course of the winter. 



Gradually the ' usefulness of science to the poorer 

 classes and to the common purposes of life ' ceased to 

 be the prime object of the Institution. The school 

 for mechanics, the workshops, and the models, the 

 kitchens and the Journals, died away ; and the labora- 

 tory, the lectures, and the library became the life of 

 the new Institution, and its object became ' the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge and the application of science to the 

 improvement of arts and manufactures.' 



The most memorable scientific incident in the his- 

 tory of the Kumford Institution was its relationship 

 with Dr. Thomas Young. His lectures on physics 

 must even now be held to rank as the greatest work 

 in the literature of the Institution. As Professor and 

 Superintendent of the House he had no great success ; 

 and he had no great influence on its fortunes ; but by 



