A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



best years of his youth and prime. Faraday, his direct 

 successor, came to the institution in a subordinate ca- 

 pacity as a mere boy, and was the life of the institu- 

 tion for half a century. Tyndall gave it forty years 

 of service. What wonder, then, that the Briton speaks 

 of the institution as the "Pantheon of Science"? 



If you visit the Royal Institution to-day you will 

 find it in most exterior respects not unlike what it pre- 

 sumably was a century ago. Its long, stone front, 

 dinged with age, with its somewhat Pantheon-like 

 colonnade, has an appearance of dignity rather than of 

 striking impressiveness. The main entrance, jutting 

 full on the sidewalk, is at the street level, and the glass 

 door gives hospitable glimpses of the interior. Enter- 

 ing, one finds himself in a main central hall, at the foot 

 of the main central staircase. The air of eminent re- 

 spectability so characteristic of the British institu- 

 tion is over all ; likewise the pervasive hush of British 

 reserve. But you will not miss also the atmosphere 

 of sincere if uneffusive British courtesy. 



At your right, as you mount the stairway, is a large 

 statue of Faraday ; on the wall right ahead is a bronze 

 medallion of Tyndall, placed beneath a large portrait 

 of Davy. At the turn of the stairs is a marble bust of 

 Wollaston. Farther on, in hall and library, you will 

 find other busts of Faraday, other portraits of Davy; 

 portraits of Faraday everywhere, and various other 

 busts of notables who have had connection with the 

 institution. You will be shown the lecture-hall where 

 Davy, Faraday, and Tyndall pronounced their mar- 

 vellous discourses; the arrangement, the seats, the 

 cushions even if appearances speak truly, and certain- 



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