ent
departments, endeavour to convince them that some alteration is
essentially necessary for the promotion of that very object which we
both by such different roads pursue.

I have found it necessary, in the course of this volume, to speak of the
departed; for the misgovernment of the Royal Society has not been
wholly the result of even the present race. It is said, and I think with
justice, in the life of Young, inserted amongst Dr. Johnson's, that the
famous maxim, "DE MORTUIS NIL NISI BONUM," "appears to savour more of
female weakness than of manly reason." The foibles and the follies of
those who are gone, may, without injury to society, repose in oblivion.
But, whoever would claim the admiration of mankind for their good
actions, must prove his impartiality by fearlessly condemning their evil
deeds. Adopt the maxim, and praise to the dead becomes worthless, from
its universality; and history, a greater fable than it has been hitherto
deemed.

Perhaps I ought to apologize for the large space I have devoted to the
Royal Society. Certainly its present state gives it no claim to that
attention; and I do it partly from respect for its former services,
and partly from the hope that, if such an Institution can be of use to
science in the present day, the attention of its members may be excited
to take steps for its restoration. Perhaps I may be blamed for having
published extracts from the minutes of its proceedings without the
permission of its Council. To have asked permission of the present
Council would have been useless. I might, however, have given the
substance of what I have extracted without the words, and no one could
then have reproached me with any infringement of our rules: but
there were two objections to that course. In the first place, it is
impossible, even for the most candid, in all cases, to convey precisely
the same sentiment in different language; and I thought it therefore
more fair towards those from whom I differed, as well as to the public,
to give the precise words. Again: had it been possible to make so
accurate a paraphrase, I should yet have preferred the risk of incurring
the reproach of the Royal Society for the offence, to escaping their
censure by an evasion. What I have done rests on my own head; and I
shrink not from the responsibility attaching to it.

If those, whose mismanagement of that Society I condemn, should accuse
me of hostility to the Royal Society; my answer is, that the