PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. 
27 
were dispatched in various directions at home and abroad, to 
gather information and bring back specimens of the productions 
of nature; it had its depredators who were deputed to examine 
histories of countries, and to question the travellers who had 
visited them, in order that queries might be framed which were 
then addressed to the Society’s correspondents in foreign lands, 
among whom Consuls and Ambassadors were proud to be 
numbered. It employed some of its members as auxiliaries to 
the arts; to some it proposed the solution of the most important 
problems in mathematics, whilst it referred to others the charge 
of experimental researches, the mode of conducting which was 
discussed before-hand, and the results re-examined by a public 
Meeting. I may mention as examples of the effect of this sy¬ 
stem, that we are indebted to it, practically, for Evelyn s Hi¬ 
story of Forest Trees, by which the planting of the country 
was so materially promoted, and, theoretically, for the determi¬ 
nation of the law of the collision of bodies, simultaneously ob¬ 
tained from Huygens, Wallis, and Wren. 
“ This was indeed to execute a noble plan in the spirit in 
which it was designed. The noise of works and inventions 
resounded on every side; new facts and original discoveries of 
the laws of the universe were daily brought to light; the con¬ 
veniences and safeguards of life, the measurements of time, the 
construction of ships, the tilling and planting of the earth began 
to be rapidly improved. But the vigour of these exertions soon 
declined, and within thirty years we find Leibnitz suggesting 
to one of the original founders* of the Royal Society that it 
wanted new warmth to be infused into its constitution, and re¬ 
commending that it should be remodelled after the example 
of the French Academy. 
“ Leibnitz indeed had no right to consider a Society effete, 
which within a few years had elicited a workf from Newton, 
that eclipsed the fame even of the great German philosopher. 
Nor to this hour has it ever lost its title to public respect. It 
still embodies in its list every name which stands high in British 
science; it still communicates to the world the most important 
of our discoveries; it still crowns with the most coveted honours 
the ambition of successful talent; and when the public service 
requires the aid of philosophy, it still renders to the nation the 
ablest assistance, and the soundest counsel. Nevertheless it 
must be admitted, Gentlemen, that the Royal Society no longer 
* Dr. Wallis. 
f The Principia, as well as the Optics, of Newton were published at the 
solicitation of the Royal Society. 
