General View of the Society. 3 



heat and other forces of the universe. Do not wonder 

 then if we consider such men portions of that great race of 

 thinkers which includes many of the finest names from 

 Leucippus and Epicurus to Lucretius, and onwards to 

 Newton and modern science ; we certainly may claim for 

 them to be more than a link in the chain of thought, 

 although we may be obliged to leave unlifted the very 

 weight and precious burden itself which the chain was 

 intended to bring up from the deep well of truth. 



It is well for us to see the relation in which we have 

 stood to the progress of mankind ; but whilst we speak as if 

 the town in which we live had little conscious sympathy 

 with us, we must not suppose ourselves independent of it, 

 or forget the strange rules of social progress, or the effects 

 which great communities have upon individual efforts, 

 unconsciously exercised by the majority and producing 

 results the origin of which is quite unknown either to them 

 or to the minority. This great subject we may leave for a 

 time to the readers .of Lewes and of Herbert Spencer, 

 ourselves however being convinced that the modes of 

 communication are more observable in society than in the 

 individual man, whose life comes out of an infinite darkness. 

 Whilst few of the great community around this Society 

 gave us any of its thoughts and none gave us any of its 

 wealth, it is certain that without its activity the society 

 would not have lived ; but as a living being sends out its 

 energies to form a finger, a foot, or a brain, each of which 

 may exist without either of the others, so in some more c?r 

 less clear way the community of South Lancashire urged 

 the thoughts which led to the establishment of the Literary 

 and Philosophical Society of Manchester. The formal 

 origin however is, well known, and has no more of the 



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