Galileo was confident that the most important part of his contributions to the knowledge of the solar system was his Theory of the Tides--a theory which all succeeding astronomers have rejected as utterly baseless and untenable. Descartes probably placed far above his beautiful explanation of the rainbow, his _à priori_ theory of the existence of the vortices which caused the motion of the planets and satellites. Newton perhaps considered as one of the best parts of his optical researches his explanation of the natural colour of bodies, which succeeding optical philosophers have had to reject; and he certainly held very strongly the necessity of a material cause for gravity, which his disciples have disregarded. Davy looked for his greatest triumph in the application of his discoveries to prevent the copper bottoms of ships from being corroded. And so in other matters.--_Edinburgh Review_, No. 216. RELICS OF GENIUS. Professor George Wilson, in a lecture to the Scottish Society of Arts, says: “The spectacle of these things ministers only to the good impulses of humanity. Isaac Newton’s telescope at the Royal Society of London; Otto Guericke’s air-pump in the Library at Berlin; James Watt’s repaired Newcomen steam-engine in the Natural-Philosophy class-room of the College at Glasgow; Fahrenheit’s thermometer in the corresponding class-room of the University of Edinburgh; Sir H. Davy’s great voltaic battery at the Royal Institution, London, and his safety-lamp at the Royal Society; Joseph Black’s pneumatic trough in Dr. Gregory’s possession; the first wire which Faraday made rotate electro-magnetically, at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; Dalton’s atomic models at Manchester; and Kemp’s liquefied gases in the Industrial Museum of Scotland,--are alike personal relics, historical monuments, and objects of instruction, which grow more and more precious every year, and of which we never can have too many.” THE ROYAL SOCIETY: THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL. The Royal Society was formed with the avowed object of increasing knowledge by direct experiment; and it is worthy of remark, that the charter granted by Charles II. to this celebrated institution declares that its object is the extension of natural knowledge, as opposed to that which is supernatural. Dr. Paris (_Life of Sir H. Davy_, vol. ii. p. 178) says: “The charter of the Royal Society states that it was established for the improvement of _natural_ science. This epithet _natural_ was originally intended to imply a meaning, of which very few persons, I believe, are aware. At the period of the establishment of the society, the arts of witchcraft and divination were very extensively encouraged; and the word _natural_ was therefore introduced in contradistinction to _supernatural_.” THE PHILOSOPHER BOYLE.