24 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



with harmless speculations. One account of them is 

 curious enough ; it is thus : * We went into the Society and 

 saw a number of old men sitting about a table talking 

 about the moon.' We suppose they were looked upon by 

 the very superior mind which gave expression to that 

 sentence as a set of harmless lunatics. The weather (and 

 with it in part the sun and moon) has received so much 

 attention from Manchester, that it seldom failed even 

 in late years to be the first object of conversation in every 

 meeting, and there was at least room for a joke. But this 

 city can bear such a joke when it remembers Dalton's 

 meteorology. Dalton, no doubt, began the habit of talking 

 about the weather. 



It was then in this house of Dr. Percival's that our 

 Society virtually began, although it was not there formally 

 constituted ; we shall give a copy of the * laws and regula- 

 tions/ with a list of the first members. But before doing 

 this it is well to give the preface to the first volume, as 

 it tells more distinctly the views of the founders, although 

 written some time after the volume itself. 



PREFACE TO VOL. I. 



' The numerous Societies for the promotion of Litera- 

 ture and Philosophy which have been formed in different 

 parts of Europe, in the course of the last and present 

 centuries, have been not only the means of diffusing 

 knowledge more extensively, but have contributed to 

 produce a greater number of important discoveries than 

 have been effected in any other equal space of time. 



' The progress that has been made in Physics and the 



Belles Lettres owes its rapidity, if not its origin, to the 



^encouragement which these Societies have given to such 



