Its doors are open to whoever may choose to enter. The number who avail themselves of this privilege is not large, but it includes, on occasions, men of varied social status and of diverse races and colors--none of whom, so far as I could ever discern, attracts the slightest attention. At the German meeting, again, absolute silence reigns. No one thinks of leaving during the session, and to make any sound above a sigh would seem almost a sacrilege. But at the Royal Society an occasional auditor goes or comes, there are repeated audible signs of appreciation of the speaker's words, and at the close of the discourse there is vigorous and prolonged applause. There is also a debate, of the usual character, announced by the president, in which "strangers" are invited to participate, and to which the lecturer finally responds with a brief _Nachwort_, all of which is quite anomalous from the German or French stand-points. After that, however, the meeting is declared adjourned with as little formality in one case as in the others, and the fellows file leisurely out, while the attendant speedily removes the mace, in official token that the séance of the Royal Society is over. THE LIBRARY AND READING-ROOM But the "stranger" must not leave the building without mounting to the upper floor for an inspection of the library and reading-room. The rooms below were rather bare and inornate, contrasting unfavorably with the elegant meeting-room of the French institute. But this library makes full amends for anything that the other rooms may lack. It is one of the most charming--"enchanting" is the word that the Princess Christian is said to have used when she visited it recently--and perhaps quite the most inspiring room to be found in all London. It is not very large as library rooms go, but high, and with a balcony supported by Corinthian columns. The alcoves below are conventional enough, and the high tables down the centre, strewn with scientific periodicals in engaging disorder, are equally conventional. But the color-scheme of the decorations--sage-green and tawny--is harmonious and pleasing, and the effect of the whole is most reposeful and altogether delightful. Chief distinction is given the room, however, by a row of busts on either side and by certain pieces of apparatus on the centre tables.