ixxvi PEOCEEDIKGS Or THK 



1-ature, or the arts, the individuals are few, they stand in need of 

 sympathy, encouragement, and support in the pursuit of intellec- 

 tual occupations. For this purpose they form an Association, and 

 the several members, however different the line of their individual 

 pursuits, have one common object, which all can enter into — the 

 investigation of the resources of their own immediate district. 

 For their own use and that of their fellow-citizens, whom they 

 are anxious to convince that they are not labouring in vain, they 

 commence printing a report of their proceedings, every article of 

 which, at tliat early stage, may be interesting to all. If the Society 

 succeeds, if it obtains the support of a few active, zealous, and able 

 members, its numbers and influence increase, a desire gains ground 

 of extending the range of its researches, and of rising to a pro- 

 minent position in the intellectual world. It enters into corre- 

 spondence with other Societies ; emulation induces it to encourage 

 the treatment of general siibjects in science, literature, and art ; 

 it gladly accepts elaborate papers, not immediately connected with 

 its own locality, and which can only be interesting to those of its 

 members who specially study the questions treated of ; and, to give 

 further value to the Transactions, contributions are sought for from 

 the most eminent men in each line, whether forming part of the 

 Association or not. As learning progresses, each individual member 

 must more and more restrict himself to special subjects, and he 

 finds that the publications of the Society have in the mean time 

 so much increased in bulk and variety that his shelves become 

 loaded with matters comparatively or Avholly useless to himself. 

 The sale of the Transactions, or the pecuniary support of the- 

 Association for the sake of its publications, does not keep pace 

 with that extension of bulk and variety; and moreover, at the 

 Society's meetings, it is found that the greater the details entered 

 into of special branches, the less interest is taken in them by the 

 members at large. Separation of subjects is then resorted to, and 

 there are now but few Institutes, Academies, or other Associa- 

 tions that have risen to any importance in the treatment of gene- 

 ral subjects, that have not had supporters enough to divide them 

 into three separate bodies or branches, for Science, Literature, 

 and Art. In the great centres of learning, division of labour has 

 not stopped here. Moral and political sciences have almost uni- 

 versally formed either a distinct section of science, or an inde- 

 pendent branch of learning between science and literature. Be- 

 yond that, there is much diversity in subdivision, and often much 

 vacillation. Mathematics and Physical Sciences (Astronomy, 



