Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/417

Rh of new ideas; whilst the long period of repose which succeeds, is advantageous for the prosecution of the reasonings or the experiments then suggested; and the recurrence of the meeting in the succeeding year, will stimulate the activity of the inquirer, by the hope of being then enabled to produce the successful result of his labours. Another advantage is, that such meetings bring together a much larger number of persons actively engaged in science, or placed in positions in which they can contribute to it, than can ever be found at the ordinary meetings of other institutions, even in the most populous capitals; and combined efforts towards any particular object can thus be more easily arranged.

(457.) But perhaps the greatest benefit which will accrue from these assemblies, is the intercourse which they cannot fail to promote between the different classes of society. The man of science will derive practical information from the great manufacturers;the chemist will be indebted to the same source for substances which exist in such minute quantity, as only to become visible in most extensive operations;and persons of wealth and property, resident in each neighbourhood visited by these migratory assemblies, will derive greater advantages than either of those classes, from the real instruction they may procure respecting the produce and manufactures of their country, and the enlightened gratification which is ever attendant on the acquisition of knowledge.