First meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science / [Jas. F.W. Johnston].

  • James Finlay Weir Johnston
Date:
[1832]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science / [Jas. F.W. Johnston]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    contribute in means what they are unable to give in actual labour, but such a council, if able, active, and themselves known for their labours ? And who so well as such a body could apply to government for aid, either direct or indirect, in the promotion of any scientific object, important either to the honour or to the prosperity of the country P Who can believe for instance, that, had the scientific societies of Edinburgh, been represented by such an active and stirringbody, they would have been obliged to this day to pay to government a yearly rent* for the rooms which they occupy ? As if the members of any enlightened government might not by such men have been at length persuaded, to how much better purpose this money might be employed in encouraging the labours of scientific men. To the committee of the British Association all the active and working men of the day have a right to belong ; and though we cannot tell what age may effect in retarding or impairing the efficiency of its operations, the united labours of so many diligent and talented men must have a powerful, and, it is to be hoped, a highly beneficial effect on the science of Great Britain. The scenes at the meeting of the men of science at York were neither so numerous nor so interesting as I had previous¬ ly found them at Hamburgh.*!* Englishmen meet in quiet, and they rarely indulge in those forms of greeting which are common with our continental neighbours,—yet something striking might have been elicited even from English philosophers on their first coming together, had the arrangements of the York committee provided any place of general public rencounter. As it was, introductions or first meetings generally took place in private, and thus their moral and instructive effect was lost. Few things give us a better idea of the character of any individual, and of the general estimation in which he is held, than the manner in which we find him treated by others. Where respect is paid, we involuntarily pay respect also without inquiring why; and where we see one man of known talent deferring to, and tacitly acknowledging by his bearing, the superiority of another, we have obtained an important element towards the forming a true * The rent, tuxes, &c. paid by the Royal Society alone amount to about I,. 40 for each sitting. T See this Journal, No. viii. New Series, p. 189.
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