The Society s Purpose. 25 



pursuits, and to the emulation which has been excited 

 between different academical bodies, as well as among the 

 individual members of each institution. The collecting 

 and publishing the more important communications which 

 have been delivered to them, have saved from oblivion 

 many very valuable discoveries, or improvements in arts, 

 and much useful information in the various branches of 

 science. These their modest authors might have been 

 tempted to suppress, but for the respectable sanction of 

 societies of men of the first eminence and learning in their 

 respective countries, and the easy mode of publishing 

 which their volumes of Transactions afford. 



* Though, in France, societies for these purposes have 

 been instituted in several of the provinces, in England they 

 have almost been confined to the Capital ; and however 

 great have been the advantages resulting from the re- 

 searches of the learned bodies who are incorporated in 

 London, it seems probable that the great end of their 

 institutions, the promotion of arts and sciences, may be 

 more widely extended by the forming of societies, with 

 similar views, in the principal towns in this kingdom. 



* Men, however great their learning, often become 

 indolent, and unambitious to improve in knowledge, for 

 want of associating with others of similar talents and 

 acquirements. Having few opportunities of communicating 

 their ideas, they are not very solicitous to collect or arrange 

 those they have acquired, and are still less anxious about 

 the further cultivation of their minds. But science, like 

 fire, is put in motion by collision. Where a number of 

 such men have frequent opportunities of meeting and con- 

 versing together, thought begets thought, and every hint 

 is turned to advantage. A spirit of inquiry glows in every 



