THE ENDOWMENT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 437 



THE ENDOWMENT OF SCIENTIFIC KESEAECH. 



Bt kichard a, peoctoe. 



II. 



THE public endowment of science presents itself as a desirable sup- 

 plement to the various means of maintenance considered in the 

 previous part of this article. Those departments of science, in par- 

 ticular, which require costly instruments, which can only be pursued 

 with the aid of trained assistants, or which, in other ways, involve 

 greater expense than a man of ordinary means can afford, seem to 

 require and deserve assistance from the national purse. On abstract 

 jDrinciples, this use of the nation's wealth is strongly to be recom- 

 mended. The subject is altogether worthy ; the expenses would not 

 be great, compared with others which are readily borne for purposes 

 far less worthy; and this manner of supporting science commends 

 itself to the respectful consideration of a nation accustomed, in spite 

 of repeated disappointments, to regard state control as a surer resource 

 than private efforts. I think every zealous student of science, to whom 

 the subject might be submitted, would be apt, at a first view, to decide 

 unhesitatingly that the endowment of science could not but be fruitful 

 in good results. 



So soon, however, as details are considered, and especially wdien 

 candidates for the nation's money come forward and tell us precisely 

 what they want, the matter assumes a different aspect. 



So far as the source whence money could be provided for the endow- 

 ment of science is concerned, there is little difficulty. The additional 

 taxation required to meet all probable expenses would be so light as 

 scarcely to be appreciable. But in truth a fund already exists out of 

 which the cost of the endowment of science might be defrayed either 

 wholly or in great part the sums bequeathed in old times to the uni- 

 versities. Nor would this application of university property involve 

 a departure from the purpose for which those sums were originally 

 bequeathed. On the contrary, we have evidence to show that the 

 universities were originally founded, not for educational purposes solely 

 or chiefly, but for the advancement and preservation of knowledge. 

 In the third report of the Commissioners for the Advancement of 

 Science, we find that the witnesses examined were " on no point more 

 united than in the expression of the feeling that it is a primary duty 

 of the universities to assist in the advancement of learning and science, 

 and not to be content with the position of merely educational bodies ;" 

 and the evidence quoted shows that this opinion was based on the fact 

 that such was the original purpose of the universities that, in fact, 

 "the coUegLate foundations of the universities were originally and 

 fimdamentally, although not absolutely and entirely, destined for" 



