635 



Sir John Herschel, 



I have great pleasure in committing to your charge this Medal, 

 which has been awarded by the Council of the Royal Society to 

 M. Le Verrier. It is well-deserved by the genius that foresaw the 

 result, and the persevering calculations that enabled M. Le Verrier 

 to predict the exact quarter of the heavens where a new planet must 

 pursue its course in obedience to those general laws by which the 

 Almighty governs the universe. There M. Gall's telescope enabled 

 him to verify the calculations of the young French astronomer, and 

 other observers have since witnessed the existence of this new member 

 of the solar system. Astronomy does not merely owe to M. Le Ver- 

 rier the knowledge of this new companion of those planets who were 

 known to man already, but it also owes to him a bright confirma- 

 tion of the truth of the Newtonian theory itself, — a confirmation 

 that must speak convincingly to the most sceptical and the most 

 ignorant, if indeed in this case there be any other scepticism than 

 that of ignorance. 



I will not deny that it would have been very agreeable to me to 

 have given this Medal to an Englishman : but if the English science 

 that, unknown to M. Le Verrier, had nearly caught the prize, was 

 not quite in time to do so, if I say this discovery was not made by a 

 countryman of Newton, I cannot grudge it to one of the same na- 

 tion that has produced a Laplace and an Arago. I wish to M. Le 

 Verrier every success in his scientific pursuits. I rejoice in the 

 honour that a grateful country has bestowed upon him, and I trust 

 that between his country and my own there may be no other con- 

 test than a generous emulation to surpass each other in the great 

 achievements of peace, and in the cultivation of art, literature and 

 science. 



Mr. Faraday, 



It is an unusual honour that I have to announce to you to-day, 

 and it is with unusual pleasure that I do so. 



The Council of the Royal Society has adjudged to you two 

 Medals, at the same time, for your late brilliant discoveries in the 

 universal action of electricity and galvanism. If, however, the 

 honour be unusual, such a long-continued sequence of scientific 

 discovery, such a stream of electrical light, throwm as it were on 

 the dark places of science by the genius and persevering energy of 

 one man, is still more singular. It is my agreeable duty to add, 

 that in presenting you these Medals, I consider that I do so to one 

 to whom English science, and most especially the Royal Society, lies 

 under the deepest obligations. The Royal Society was itself founded 

 for the more extended and more accurate cultivation of natural 

 knowledge, and Avhile it can boast in its Transactions of such papers 

 as those for which it is indebted to you, its prosperity must be re- 

 garded as established on the surest basis. 



