PREFACE TO THE FIRST REPORT. 
1 O 
1 /V 
presence of an assembly concentrating a great part of the 
scientific talent of the nation, without kindling an increased 
ardour of emulous activity; it seems impossible that the de¬ 
puties of any Society should attend such meetings without 
bringing back into its bosom an enlargement of views, and 
communicating to its members new lights of knowledge, new 
motives for inquiry, and new encouragement to perseverance. 
“ The actual assembling of one of the meetings at the place 
in which any Society is established, has a tendency to produce 
the same effect in a still more powerful degree, and the Council 
does not hesitate to state that this institution has received a 
sensible impulse in all these respects, from the visit with which 
it has recently been honoured. The plan indeed on which it 
was first founded, and on which it has been since conducted, 
was in the spirit of the design which may now be contemplated 
for the whole kingdom. Its especial aim has been to collect 
information respecting its own County, and the end to which 
it aspires has been described in a former Report to be the ex¬ 
ecution of such a History of Yorkshire as the Natural Philo¬ 
sopher and the Antiquary may be contented to possess. But 
how greatly will the importance of this object be heightened 
when it is incorporated into a national system, and when all 
the results of our inquiries become part of the materials of a 
far more extensive analysis. It could not but be felt before by 
a provincial Society, that, in executing the task which it had 
undertaken, advice and consultation were wanted. With how 
much more confidence may it proceed when it has the advantage 
of consulting with the Committee of this great national Associa¬ 
tion. In comparing the views which it entertains, and the 
methods which it employs, with those that may be offered to 
its consideration, how largely may it profit by such a commerce, 
without sacrificing any portion of its real dignity or inde¬ 
pendence.” 
Should views like those which are here expressed be gene¬ 
rally adopted, should the Societies established in different 
districts be disposed to combine their exertions through the 
medium of this Association, for the purpose of carrying a 
general system of observations into effect, each Society would 
