PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. 
31 
jects, and at the same time suggest the right methods of treating 
those subjects; whatever more may be wanting to accurate and 
successful investigation, natural sagacity and a longer experi¬ 
ence will not fail by degrees to supply. 
<( But even the experienced in science will benefit by con¬ 
sultation with each other; for there are different degrees of 
experience, and no solitary industry or talent can ever hope to 
equal the power of combined wisdom and concerted labour. 
Above all, consider, Gentlemen, the excitement to exertion 
which will be felt by those who are solicited to undertake an 
inquiry at one of these Meetings, and pledged to produce the 
investigation at another. The greatest minds require to be 
urged by outward impulses, and there is no impulse more power¬ 
ful than that which is exercised by publicly-esteemed bodies of 
men. Even Newton’s papers might have remained unfinished, 
but for the incentive of such a solicitation. In a letter which 
I have lately received from Mr. Conybeare, and in which he 
expresses a deep regret at finding himself unexpectedly pre¬ 
vented from attending this Meeting, the benefit in these respects 
which may be looked for from a general scientific combination 
is described with the energy of his ardent and comprehensive 
genius. £ Your proposal,’ he says, £ for ingrafting on the an¬ 
nual reunion of scientific men, a system for effecting such a 
concentration of the talent of the country as might tend more 
effectually to consolidate and combine its scattered powers, to 
direct its investigations to the points which an extensive survey 
thus generalized would indicate as the most important,—bene¬ 
fited by all the aids which the union of powerful minds, the 
enlarged comparison of different views, and a general system 
of intellectual cooperation could not fail to afford,—fills me with 
visions too extensive almost to allow me to write with sufficient 
calmness of approbation. The combined advantages, includ¬ 
ing at once the most powerful stimulus and the most efficient 
guidance of scientific research, which might emanate from such 
a point of central union, seem to me to be beyond calculation. 
If views like those you have sketched could be realized, they 
would almost give a local habitation and a name to the philoso¬ 
phical academy of Bacon’s Atlantis, when “ divers Meetings 
and consults” of the united body of Depredators, Compilers, 
Pioneers, &c., suggested new experiments of a higher light 
and more penetrating nature to the Lamps, and these at length 
yielded materials to the Interpreters of nature.’ 
“To that great model of a national Institution for the ad¬ 
vancement of science, I have already adverted today, as I have 
formerly directed to it the attention of the Yorkshire Philoso- 
