TEE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



569 



had they lived earlier. The complexity 

 of knowledge and of civilization has 

 increased more rapidly within the past 

 four hundred years than the capacity 

 of the mind. A century ago it might 

 have been almost possible to be per- 

 sonally acquainted with the men of 

 the world who were doing work of im- 

 portance; now it is not possible to re- 

 member their names. 



THE NEW BRITISH ORDER AND 

 ACADEMY. 

 Is connection with the order of 

 merit established by King Edward on 

 the occasion of his coronation it is of 

 some interest to note that four men of 

 science — whose names are given above 

 — have been placed among the twelve 

 original members. There are in addi- 

 tion three generals, two admirals, two 

 men of letters and one artist. It would 

 thus appear that one third of the rec- 

 ognition for services rendered to the 

 nation fall to science, twice as much 

 as to letters and humanities and four 

 times as much as to art. The creation 

 of the British order of merit and the 

 selection of its recipients have appar- 

 ently met with general approval, but 

 its usefulness is not quite obvious. 

 The Prussian order ' Pour le Merite,' 

 established by Frederick the Great in 

 1740, was fitted to its age and environ- 

 ment, but it seems somewhat late to 

 found an English imitation. An emi- 

 nent German resident in America has 

 recently maintained that productive 

 scholarship here suffers because we 

 have no honorary recognitions such as 

 flourish in Germany. It must be ad- 

 mitted that men of science like such 

 honors. Even a man as great as Hux- 

 ley was obviously pleased at being 

 made a privy councilor and being 

 granted an audience with the Queen. 

 Sir William Thomson was willing to 

 give up the name of his father, him- 

 self a professor of mathematics, to be- 

 come Lord Kelvin, even though he has 

 no heir. It is said that he and Pro- 

 fessor Lister were made first baronets 



and then barons because they have no 

 heirs, a certain amount of property, 

 more likely to be possessed by brewers 

 than by scientific men, being required 

 before a hereditary title is granted. 

 But while men of science may like to 

 be Hofrats, Geheimrats, vons, sirs, 

 lords and LL.D.'s, it is not certain that 

 their work is thereby improved or that 

 these honorary distinctions will sur- 

 vive the twentieth century. 



Much the same may be said in re- 

 gard to the British Academy for the 

 promotion of historical, philosophical 

 and philological studies to which a 

 charter has just been granted by King 

 Edward. In so far as this academy is 

 intended to designate forty-nine ' im- 

 mortals ' in certain departments, per- 

 mitting them to attach several letters 

 to their names and letting their chief 

 corporate duty be the election of their 

 successors, membership is a kind of 

 order or title which belongs to an aris- 

 tocratic rather than to a democratic 

 age and people. When academies were 

 established, chiefly in the seventeenth 

 and the first part of the eighteenth 

 centuries, it was possible and desirable 

 for all the scientific men of the nation 

 to meet together for experiment and 

 discussion, and membership in the 

 academy usually carried with it a pen- 

 sion or other tangible advantage. 

 Whether membership in an academy 

 simply as an honorary distinction 

 stimulates scientific work in those who 

 are called and in those who would like 

 to be called is perhaps somewhat anal- 

 ogous to the question as to whether 

 good works are encouraged by the re- 

 wards and punishments formerly 

 prominent in theological systems. 

 There is partial truth in Tennyson's 

 verses : 



The man of science himself is fonder 



of glory, and vain; 

 An eye well-practiced in nature, a 



spirit bounded and poor. 



The desire for fame has doubtless been 

 useful in the course of social evolu- 



