POPULAR SCIENCE. 51 



of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It was 1831-32. 

 founded in 1826 by Lord Brougham, Mr. J. Hume, M.P., 

 and others, most of whom had also taken part in the 

 establishment of the University. The object was to spread 

 scientific and other knowledge, by means of cheap and 

 clearly written treatises by the best writers of the time. 

 Partly from the character of free thought ascribed to 

 some of its founders, partly perhaps from its designation 

 for there is much in a name, and ' Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge ' sounded to some undistinguishing ears like 

 a parody of ' Promotion of Christian Knowledge ' the 

 Society was held by some timorous lookers on to be a 

 sort of conspiracy to subvert all law and religion ; and 

 the publication of the f Saturday Magazine, 5 a markedly 

 religious periodical, just after the appearance of the ' Penny 

 Magazine * of the Society, showed the feeling of opposi- 

 tion that was in people's minds. One reason given for 

 this rival publication was that the ' Penny Magazine,' 

 like the other works of the Society, was too dry and 

 scientific for general readers. As for the Magazine itself, 

 it spread far and wide, and the e Penny Cyclopaedia,' one 

 volume of which appeared at the end of the first year, 

 had a great circulation, and has taken its place as a high- 

 class book of reference. The charge of dryness is not so 

 easy to get rid of as regards some of the tracts ; but then 

 it would not be easy to make light and popular reading of 

 the higher branches of Mathematics, Chemistry, Hydro- 

 statics, or the Polarisation of Light. The Society did 

 good to its adversaries by making them give a better and 

 sounder character to their own works of professedly reli- 

 gious aim. A few words from the ' Address of the Com- 

 mittee' in the year 1846, 1 when the Society's labours 

 came to an end, will give an idea of the principles on 



1 This address was drawn up by Mr. De Morgan; Lord Brougham, 

 Sir Isaac Goldsmid, and one or two others made a few slight altera- 

 tions, amounting to about twenty lines, in his proof. 



