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HISTORY OF

[ 1780 — 85 .

sent and rewarded them. And more; those very do-nations were so liberally planned by that attention toscience which has ever distinguished his present Ma-jesty’s reign, and will for ever bear testimony of hisenlarged mind, and disposition favourable to the ad-vancement of true knowledge ; that the surplus aloneenabled you, with his Royal approbation, to instituteexperiments on the attraction of mountains, amidst thebarren and bleak precipices of the highlands of Scot-land ; which then, for the first time, beheld instrumentsof the nicest construction transported to the summitsof their pathless crags, and men used to other habi-tations voluntarily residing in temporary huts, eager toexpress a grateful sense of their Royal Patron’s libe-rality, by thus promoting to the utmost the cause ofscience, in which they were under his protection em-barked. Gifts like these, unsolicited and unconditionallybestowed, might have satisfied the impulses even ofa Princely Munificence; but not so with our RoyalPatron. Amply informed in every branch of real know-ledge, he resolved to bestow a still more distinguishedmark of his favor on science which he loved, and inthis his last best gift has fulfilled his Royal resolution:Such a donation, so suited to our present prosperousand flourishing condition under his Royal patronageand protection, is admirably calculated to increase therespect, great as it is, which ye have ever receivedfrom the learned of all Europe ; placing you at once, inevery point of splendid accommodation, as much aboveall foreign Academies, as the labours of your learnedpredecessors had raised you above them in literaryreputation. Let then gratitude to a Sovereign fromwhom ye have received such conspicuous encourage-ment, engage you, by an application to a promotion of