The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors

by Bence Jones

‘In the original plan, as the prime object was the founding a collection of models and the diffusing the knowledge of useful mechanical inventions, it was but strict justice that these models should be regarded as private property, and belong to the persons by whom they were originally purchased or their heirs, and that this property, being of the nature of common property, might be also transferred by sale.

‘But, this idea being found impracticable, and new and more exalted objects having arisen from this foundation, and the Royal Institution having fortunately taken the form of a body for promoting experimental science and for diffusing every species of philosophical knowledge, it is obvious that the principles upon which its funds are to be raised and its members elected will require considerable alteration.

‘On the new plan it is proposed upon a compensation, which, after long discussion, has been regarded as the most equitable, to do away entirely the saleable and hereditary rights, so as to leave no vestiges of them in the constitution of the body, and to elect new members, properly recommended, only by ballot.

‘The original scheme, by making the proprietary interest perpetual, left no means for the renovation of the funds, except by adding new burdens to the establishment.

‘In giving up their private interests for the purpose of founding what may be called a national establishment, the proprietors of the Royal Institution have a right to expect the support and encouragement of their countrymen; and though they will be promoting a general benefit, yet they may perhaps make a particular appeal to some of the most distinguished classes of society—to the great landed proprietors. Whatever specimens they send will be carefully examined and reported upon. The simple truth will be stated by men whose character, as well as motives, will secure them from any suspicion of inaccuracy; and, if a general system of this kind is pursued, much error and disappointment, and even dishonesty, will be prevented.

‘On the attention of the statesman and the politician we have likewise no inconsiderable claim. The Royal Institution is able to offer assistance in investigations of great interest connected with public works and the promotion of arts and manufactures.

‘Our doors are to be open to all who wish to profit by knowledge; and I may venture to hope that even the female part of our audiences may not diminish, and that they will honour the plan with an attention which is independent of fashion or the taste of the moment, and connected with the use, the permanence, and the pleasure of intellectual acquisitions. It is not our intention to invite them to assist in the laboratories, but to partake of that healthy and refined amusement which results from a perception of the variety, order, and harmony existing in all the kingdoms of nature, and to encourage the study of those more elegant departments of science which at once tend to exalt the understanding and purify the heart.

‘The leisure of the higher female classes is so great, and their influence in society so strong, that it is almost a duty that they should endeavour to awaken and keep alive a love of improvement and instruction.

‘Let them make it disgraceful for men to be ignorant, and ignorance will vanish, and that part of their empire founded upon mental improvement will be strengthened and exalted by time, will be untouched by age, will be immortal in its youth.

‘Even in the common relations of society how much must be referred to the conduct of the female mind. The mother gives, or ought to give, most of the early impressions to the child, and his future habits may depend in some measure upon her influence. It may in some measure depend upon her whether he become an honour or a disgrace to his country. Her power of enforcing instruction is the most effectual, as flowing from love. We know that without feeling the human being is mere clay, the dust of the earth without the living soul. Whatever is to be permanently infixed on the understanding must be associated with hope, or with joy, or with passion. How much more efficacious must instruction be when communicated by an object beloved and venerated, and in infancy almost adored, and when, instead of being afforded with an effort of pain and of labour, it is carried into the heart by kindness and made delightful by caresses and smiles.