6 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
ficial standard of literary and scientific distinction is to be held up 
as regulating the entrance or refusal of candidates ?—whether, in 
short, the members of our Societies are to be held as unsalaried 
academicians, — men selected for intellectual attainment alone, and 
forming therefore a learned class ? 
On this point, which is one of considerable importance, I confess 
that I entertain little doubt. Whatever disadvantages may attend 
the admission to Societies like this of persons who have no preten- 
sions to what, for convenience, one may call a professional acquaint- 
ance with science, art, or literature, I think that they ought to be 
eligible. It is little likely that where no emoluments or distinc- 
tions present themselves, the privilege of membership will be 
sought except by those who feel some sympathy with pursuits for 
which they have probably a secret leaning, but from which they 
have been withheld by force of circumstances. I say. Let them 
come, and freely, and let us regard their adhesion to our ranks as 
a compliment on either side. 
In Britain, all experience points to this resolution of what may 
be in some respects regarded as a difficulty. From the day of the 
foundation of the Koyal Societies, both of London and Edinburgh, 
the rule of niixture of classes, and the absence of an academic 
standard of exclusion, has been all but universal. The co-operation 
of men of all ranks, and of the most varied occupations and acquire- 
ments, was the very corner-stone of these institutions. While they 
diffused a taste for science amongst the nobility, gentry, and pro- 
fessional men, this very mixture enhanced, in no small degree, the 
interest of the proceedings of the Societies themselves, and con- 
duced to the respect shown to literature and science. It also in- 
directly aided the progress of the latter, by raising a large fund for 
the publication of Transactions and the conduct of experiments. 
To attempt to enforce a contrary principle, would be to reduce 
the members of our Societies to a select few, without the advan- 
tages which academicians properly enjoy, and without the cordial 
sympathy which the lay-members (as. they may be termed) con- 
tribute to diffuse amongst an intelligent public, whose sentiments 
in such matters is never to be despised. 
