UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 63 



objection to the principle of such a proposal. If it be legitimate to 

 spend great sums of money on public libraries and public collections 

 of painting and sculpture, in aid of the man of letters, or the artist, 

 or for the mere sake of affording pleasure to the general public, I ap- 

 prehend that it cannot be illegitimate to do as much for the promotion 

 of scientific investigation. To take the lowest ground, as a mere in- 

 vestment of money, the latter is likely to be much more immediately 

 profitable. To my mind, the difficulty in the way of such schemes is 

 not theoretical, but practical. Given the laboratories, how are the in- 

 vestigators to be maintained ? What career is open to those who have 

 been thus encouraged to leave bread-winning pursuits ? If they are 

 to be provided for by endowment, we come back to the college fellow- 

 ship system, the results of which, for literature, have not been so 

 brilliant that one would wish to see it extended to science ; unless 

 some much better securities, than at present exist, can be taken that 

 it will foster real work. You know that, among the bees, it depends 

 on the kind of cell in which the Qg^ is deposited, and the quantity and 

 quality of food which is supplied to the grub, whether it shall turn 

 out a busy little worker or a big idle queen. And, in the human hive, 

 the cells of the endowed larvae are always tending to enlarge, and 

 their food to* improve, until we get queens, beautiful to behold, but 

 which gather no honey and build no comb. 



I do not say that these difficulties may not be overcome, but their 

 gravity is not to be lightly estimated. 



In the mean while, there is one step in the direction of the endow- 

 ment of research which is free from such objections. It is possible to 

 place the scientific inquirer in a position in which he shall have ample 

 leisure and opportunity for original work, and yet shall give a fair and 

 tangible equivalent for those privileges. The establishment of a fac- 

 ulty of science in every university, implies that of a corresponding 

 number of professional chairs, the incumbents of which need not be 

 so burdened with teaching as to deprive them of ample leisure for 

 original work. I do not think that it is any impediment to an original 

 investigator to have to devote a moderate portion of his time to lect- 

 uring, or superintending practical instruction. On the contrary, I 

 think it may be, and often is, a benefit to be obliged to take a com- 

 prehensive survey of your subject ; or to bring your results to a point, 

 and give them, as it were, a tangible objective existence. The beset- 

 ting sins of the investigator are two : the one is the desire to put aside 

 a subject, the general bearings of which he has mastered himself, and 

 pass on to something which has the attraction of novelty ; and the 

 other, the desire for too much perfection, which leads him to 



"Add and alter many times, 

 Till all be ripe and rotten ; " 



to spend the energies which should be reserved for action, in whiten- 

 ing the decks and polishing the guns. 



