The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-22 00:00:00

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

There wu • very strong muter of ladies on Fri-
day evening at the Royal Institution to hear a lecture from
Mr. H. T. Buckle "On the Inthemos of Women en the
Progress of Knowledge." The seedistm also mimed
to take great interest in the subject, and the dopes of the
lecture theatre were opened some time before the usual hour
to clink the crowd that bad collected; indeed, at the usual
hour of opening the doors not a Nat was to be had, even in
the gallery. The ladles appeared to be determined to our.
rise their influence on the occasion, for not onto:edre they
very numerous, but the display of beauty well
was
greater than usual, and as to the talking before the lecture
commented. nothing like it (says the Morena Ant) wee
ever beard before, at least in the theatre of the Royal lud-
lion. If, u Mr. Buckle maintains, the conversation of
women be 'mainly conducive to the of knowledge, it
most have made some rapid strides on Friday night.
In the commencement of his subject Mr. Buckle alluded
to the condition of women in the times of ancient Greece end
Rome, and admitted, in apparent contradiction to his general
proposition, that as those States advanced in the arts and cd.
viluation, the condition of the women wu more degraded.
He did not attempt to explain this apparent anomaly, but it
might be gathered from a subsequent statement that the
ialluence of women in this country is traduced by their eye-
- Am he monickers the more ertilyttl they

two of

Nome the lus is thine harms" as She of hali-
te*. Bohn proonnag to 'spina swaster the it
el wawa is noon, Kr. Bands et sun hag& de-
emed whet lmowielis no W-
ised= of hots is ash insowisdge ; Ink batter than
some alike sake thin be a mind to consider
sail apply thus of amdring
Imowledips by arensliamigni=lYfacts poll ids" is how-
ever, he maraild, atarinheior promos in the ornsmont
ot kuonsdis, ens ol esharee truth% than didnotine rea-
soning, whkh peones been ideas sae Nalrms than she-
wards by esperisnos. Mr. Buckle minimised that the
greatest discomfits Is Wenn have been mods by deduction,
and not by induction, sad he instanced the Mmoovery of gra-
vitation by Sir lioao Newton. That philosopher was led
to direct his mind to the subject by rim so apple fall
from a tree, bat it was by redaction on that eons= occur-
rence, and not by experiment, that he was led to perceive the
cause of the moon being retained in her orbit, and of the
earth and the Masts revolving round the sun. The greatest
discovery in botany, that of the system of metamorphosis,
wma discovered by Goethe, and though he was laughed at
when he amid the leaf was developed in the flower, the bouts-
lets were at length obliged to yield, and to admit that the
imagination of the poet had imparted more knowledge
than all their previously collected facts. The system of
crystallography discovered by Melly wee adduced as another
instance of the contributions of an Imaginative mind to.
science; and Mr. Buckle thought that the grand discovery
of the indestructibility of matter might be seen in Hamlet's
reflections on the skull of Yorick. The tracing of the dust
of Alexander, till it might be found stopping a bung-hole.
was, Mr. Buckle observed, an indication that Shakapere had
conceived the indestructibility of matter ; and Horatio,
with his matter-of-fact remark, that it would be "to
inquire too curiously," might be taken as an illustration of
those individuals of the present day who endeavour to
stills and laugh at all speculations that are not founded on
facts. After expatiating largely on the superiority of the
ideal to the actual in the progress of knowledge, Mr.
Buckle endeavoured to show that the influence of women
is exerted principally in directing the minds of men from
mere facts, and imparting to them a larger shim of
imagi-
nation, and thus leading them from the inductive to the
deductive method of reasoning. The more lively Magni-
non and the greater quickness of intellect which WOO=
possess in this manner, he said, produce an important AIM
and the more its influence is exercised the greater will be the
advantage in the prosecution of scientific discovery. Mr.
Buckle admitted that important discoveries had been made
by induction, but that method alone would produce barren
results. its looked to the extending influence of women for
a greater combination of the deductive with the inductive
method of research, and, in conclusion, he alluded
to a coming struggle to lift the veil of troth which would task
all the faculties of man, and, unless the imaginative powers
were allowed to assist, the struggle would be in vain.
Mr. Buckle *poke with great energy and action, and was
loudly applauded when he concluded his lecture, which lasted
for an hour and a half.