xlvi 
FIFTH REPORT- 1835. 
here, and is to us the visible image of the head of that vast empire ; 
and the joy with which we welcome to our assemblies and to our ho¬ 
spitality those eminent strangers who have come to us from foreign 
lands, rises almost above the sphere of private friendship, and partakes 
of the dignity of a compact between all the nations of the earth. For¬ 
give me that I have not yet been able to speak calmly in such a pre¬ 
sence, and on such a theme. But it is not merely in its magnitude 
and universality, and consequently higher pow r er of stimulating intellect 
through sympathy, that this Association differs from others. It differs 
also from them in its constitution and details ; in the migratory charac¬ 
ter of its meetings, which visit, for a week each year, place after place 
in succession, so as to indulge and stimulate all, without wearying or 
burdening any; in encouraging oral discussion, throughout its several 
separate sections, as the principal medium of making known among 
members the opinions, views, and discoveries of each other ; in calling 
upon eminent men to prepare reports upon the existing state of know¬ 
ledge in the principal departments of science ; and in publishing only 
abstracts or notices of all those other contributions which it has not as 
a body called for; in short, in attempting to induce men of science to 
work more together than they do elsewhere, to establish a system of 
more strict cooperation between the labourers in one common field, and 
thus to effect, more fully than other societies can do, the combination 
of intellectual exertions. In other societies, the constitution and prac¬ 
tice are such, that the labours of the several members are compara¬ 
tively unconnected, and few attempts are systematically made to com¬ 
bine and harmonize them together; so that if we except that general 
and useful action of the social spirit upon the intellect of which I have 
already spoken, and the occasional incitement to specific research, by 
the previous proposal of prizes, there remains little beyond the publi¬ 
cation of Transactions, whereby they seek as bodies to cooperate in the 
work of science. In them an author, of his own accord, hands in a 
paper ; the title and subject are announced; it is referred to a Com¬ 
mittee for examination, and if it be approved of, it is published at the 
expense of the society. This is a very great and real good, because 
the most valuable papers are seldom the most attractive to common 
purchasers, and because the authors of these papers are rarely able to 
defray from their own funds the cost of an expensive publication. 
There is no doubt that if it had not been for this resource, many essays 
of the greatest value must have been altogether suppressed, for want of 
pecuniary means. Besides, the approbation of a body of scientific 
men, which is at least partially implied in their undertaking to publish 
# paper, however limited and guarded it may be by their disclaimer of 
