We may fairly commence the following remarks with unqualified praise of a work of art, which is intended to honour the distinguished men of science who were living in Great Britain early in the present century, and who, with one surviving exception, having passed into a deathless fame, are yet remembered by philosophers equally great, who were their contemporaries. Mr. Wm. Walker, with the assistance of Mr. Zobel, has produced a really great historical engraving from a design by Mr. Gilbert, representing an assemblage of fifty eminent chemists, engineers, astronomers, naturalists, electricians and mechanical inventors, grouped in the library of the Royal Institution. The scene is thoroughly appropriate, for these men were living in the years 1807-8, while the Royal Institution itself dates from 1800, having been founded to promote the application of science to practical uses. The period marked by the pictorial gathering in question, belonged to an era as complete and brilliant as any that British science has yet passed through. A glance round the circle of intensely thoughtful faces composing this great portrait group will revive many a page of instructive and ennobling history. We see in the centre, seated round a table, James Watt, Sir Isambard Brunel, John Dalton, &c.... Such men were our fathers--patient, indomitable, calmly and wisely bold, modestly self-reliant; ever watching, ever toiling, ever adding to the store of knowledge that was to benefit not them alone but the great human race. Such men are their sons who carry on the appointed work of improvement and civilization. To such men do we point as examples for our children. Their sterling qualities may be best summed up in the words of Lord Jeffrey, written of that same John Playfair to whom we have already referred. Their's was the understanding "at once penetrating and vigilant, but more distinguished, perhaps, for the caution and sureness of its march than for the brilliancy or rapidity of its movements: and guided and adorned through all its progress by the most genuine enthusiasm for all that is grand, and the justest taste for all that is beautiful." ATHENÆUM. Messrs. Walker and Son have published a large engraving of fifty-one distinguished men of science, alive in 1807-8, grouped together in the library of the Royal Institution. This engraving, which is a beautiful production, is described as designed by Gilbert, &c.... It is accompanied by a book, the frontispiece of which is a reduced copy of the engraving, for reference, &c. ONCE A WEEK.