[Page Head: MEN OF SCIENCE.]

Went to the Royal Institution last night in hopes of hearing
Faraday lecture, but the lecture was given by Mr. Pereira upon
crystals, a subject of which he appeared to be master, to judge
by his facility and fluency; but the whole of it was
unintelligible to me. Met Dr. Buckland and talked to him for an
hour, and he introduced me to Mr. Wheatstone, the inventor of the
electric telegraph, of the progress in which he gave us an
account. I wish I had turned my attention to these things and
sought occupation and amusement in them long ago. I am satisfied
that, apart from all considerations of utility, or even of
profit, they afford a very pregnant source of pleasure and
gratification. There is a cheerfulness, an activity, an
appearance of satisfaction in the conversation and demeanour of
scientific men that conveys a lively notion of the _pleasure_
they derive from their pursuits. I feel ashamed to go among such
people when I compare their lives with my own, their knowledge
with my ignorance, their brisk and active intellects with my dull
and sluggish mind, become sluggish and feeble for want of
exercise and use.

March 20th, 1838 {p.079}

Met Croker on Sunday, who came to speak to me about the picture
of the Queen's First Council on her accession which Wilkie is
painting. He is much scandalised because the Lord Mayor is
introduced, which he ought not to be, and Croker apprehends that
future Mayors will found upon the evidence of this picture claims
to be present at the Councils of future sovereigns on similar
occasions. I wrote to Lord Lansdowne about it and told him that
it so happens that I caused the Lord Mayor to be ejected, who was
lingering on in the room after the Proclamation had been
read.[18]

[18] [It is a vulgar error, which it would scarcely be
necessary to notice here except for the purpose of
correcting it, that the Lord Mayor of London has some
of the privileges of a Privy Councillor during his year
of office. The mistake has probably arisen from his
being styled 'Right Honourable,' but so are the Lord
Mayors of Dublin and of York. But he has none of the
rights of a Privy Councillor. He is, however, summoned
to attend the Privy Council at which a new Sovereign is
proclaimed, but having heard the Proclamation he
retires before the business of the Council is