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of Edinburgh , Session 187 0-7 1 . 
qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.” The Greek mathematician, 
on discovering that the square of the hypothenuse in aright-angled 
triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, 
in testimony of his happiness offered a hecatomb to the gods ; 
whilst a Sicilian philosopher, when he found how to ascertain the 
specific gravity of bodies, was so overjoyed, that he rushed out of 
his bath naked into the streets, mad with delight. Our own Sir 
Isaac Newton became so elated or agitated when approaching the 
end of his calculations, which he saw would prove that the plane- 
tary movements were all governed by the law of gravitation, — that 
law which he was the first to discover, — that he was obliged to 
hand over his calculations to a friend to complete them. These 
men, and thousands more of the same stamp, were all animated 
by a heaven-born instinct to pry into the mysteries of nature, to 
study the mechanism of the universe, and deduce the rules or 
principles which the Almighty had followed in the work of crea- 
tion, and still follows in the equally great work of upholding the 
universe. Their tastes were noble, because pure ; their researches 
and labours also were noble, because disinterested. They worked 
not for their own individual benefit, nor even for that of their own 
kin or country, but for that of the human race. Men characterised 
by such tastes, such motives, and such pursuits, surely deserve 
encouragement, and if scientific societies afford it — their usefulness 
is unquestionable. 
How these societies afford this encouragement I have already 
partly explained, when adverting to our own operations, and 
in particular to the stimulus given to men of science, when 
by means of our meetings, and our Transactions, they obtain 
an opportunity of intimating their discoveries and publishing 
them. It is probable that there are thousands of discoveries — 
the groundwork of important inventions, — which never w r ould 
have become known, — nay, which never would have been made, 
but for the existence of such societies as ours. For example, the 
Principia of Newton would not have been given to the world at 
the time they were given, had the Royal Society of London not 
agreed to print them ; for Newton was so poor, that he could not 
afford to continue his subscription as a member of the Society, 
small as that was. 
