The Present of the Society. 357 



If the members find that it is a convenient, useful, or 

 agreeable thing to speak on subjects of common interest, 

 they form a centre of intellectual life which may send forth 

 its vigour in any direction ; that vigour is not solely to be 

 measured by anything they may say or do at a meeting, 

 but by the force generated, by the face of man strengthening 

 his friend. The great struggles for political changes are 

 made in Parliament, but these are merely the result of 

 hundreds of smaller struggles elsewhere. It is therefore 

 of great importance that Manchester should keep with 

 earnestness its centre of scientific life, even if the results 

 should not all be published there, but should frequently 

 be sent to other societies whose position is supposed by 

 the authors to give the papers more dignity or cause them 

 to be more widely spread. 



Are we talking without consideration, are we merely 

 wishing to exalt a favourite institution, boasting as so 

 many patriotic men do of their own country, their town, or 

 their village, and turning even their weaknesses into subjects 

 for applause ? We think not. The commerce of Manchester 

 and its manufactories have benefited the world, but the 

 formation of a science is the creation of a power which 

 enables the world to benefit itself at all times and in all 

 quarters. If this is an exaggerated view, let us take out 

 of the world of books the atomic theory as begun by 

 Dalton, and the mechanical equivalent of heat as developed 

 by Joule, both of these great thoughts having emanated 

 from this Society, and it will be more difficult to conceive 

 the magnitude of the loss to mankind than if the whole 

 of Manchester and its dependents, and many cities and 

 counties besides, were obliterated from the earth. 



