1810.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 299 



of cultivated nations to be our guides in the Middle 

 Ages, to be our shelter in the storm, and our light in 

 the darkness, the beacons to guide us to pure taste, to 

 correct our wanderings, to bring us to nature and 

 truth. Let us regard them with all respect, but let 

 not our veneration for them be exclusive; let us 

 admire them as we admire the works of art of antiquity. 

 The Apollo Belvidere or the Venus de Medicis were 

 designed by their artists to be objects of adoration ; let 

 us wonder at them as statues, as models of perfection, 

 but not worship them as deities, nor even make them 

 our only household gods. 



' Greek and Eoman literature will always maintain 

 their importance, always exert their influence ; but let 

 us not neglect that basis on which the greatness of 

 modern times and of our own country so peculiarly rests 

 experimental philosophy and the experimental arts. 

 Let their merits be justly estimated and set forth with 

 dignity and truth ; let not the countrymen of Bacon, 

 of Newton, and of Boyle neglect those pure springs of 

 knowledge from which those great men drew such 

 copious supplies both for profit and for glory ; and let 

 it not be forgotten that science has its moral and 

 intellectual as well as its common uses, that its object 

 is not only to apply the different substances in nature 

 for the advantages, comfort, and benefit of man, but 

 likewise to set forth that wonderful and magnificent 

 history of wisdom and intelligence which is written 

 in legible characters both in the heavens and on the 

 earth.' 



On May 1, at the annual meeting of the proprietors, it 



