“So long ago as October, 1832, I happened to meet Dr. Roget at dinner, who told me that the Catalogue of the Royal Society, of which a sheet had been set up in type as a specimen, had been found to require revision in passing through the press, and that a Committee, on that very day, had requested him to ask me whether I would undertake the task. I said that I had no objection, and I received from him a _proof_ of the sheet in question. The same evening, on my return home, glancing over it, I was astonished at the numberless errors by which it was disfigured. The more I looked into it, the worse did it appear, and I soon felt convinced that it was utterly incapable of correction. I immediately wrote a note to Dr. Roget, stating the conclusion to which I had come, and begging to decline to have anything to do with a work which I felt satisfied would be disgraceful to the Royal Society, and to any person who should venture to meddle with it. Either in that note, or verbally, shortly after, I mentioned to Dr. Roget that it would be necessary for the Royal Society to have an entirely new Catalogue, compiled in such a manner as would answer the expectations which the public had a right to form; adding, that, although I would never attempt to correct what had already been done, I was ready to undertake a new compilation. I had no idea when I so candidly expressed my opinion, that I was making a powerful and unrelenting enemy in one of the most influential officers of the Royal Society, who, as I have learned since, had put together the titles of books which were to form the Catalogue, and was so well satisfied with his performance as to order a very large number of titles to be set up in type; whatever, in fact, he included in classes, which he called: Mathematics, Astronomy and Navigation, Mechanics, Optics, Transactions, Tables and Journals. The Members of the Catalogue Committee, on being informed of what had passed between Dr. Roget and myself, perceived that my opinion, as to the value of the work done, was correct, and it was resolved that the compilation of a new Catalogue should be intrusted to my care. Thus, not only all that had been done was undone at once, but the time which had been lost, and, what is more, the unwarrantable expense incurred by sending so large a proportion of the ill-digested work to press, was thrown away. Such is the origin of my connection with the Royal Society.”