THE CLAIMS OF SCIENCE. 341 
in consequence?’ or has any efficient reform- 
ation actually commenced? Until these questions 
can be answered more satisfactorily than at present, 
the more frequently such demands are urged, the 
more likely are they finally to receive attention, 
even from the very weariness of the complain- 
ants. It is not to be supposed that the aristocracy 
of science, proud even in their degradation, can 
derive either individual pleasure, or popular re- 
spect, in proclaiming to the world the little es- 
timation in which they are held by the rulers of 
their country, — those, in fact, whose honourable 
duty it is to foster their exertions and reward their 
merit. They only seek to hold among the different 
grades of the national assemblies their proper rank 
and station, and equally to participate with others 
in those rewards and honours which should be the 
outward signs to the world at large of their intel- 
lectual merit. It is only, then, as a last resource, 
that they bring themselves to the humiliating alter- 
native of public complaint, consoled by the reflection 
that, however those complaints for a time may be 
disregarded, yet that, if they are repeatedly made, 
a season will come when honest conviction will 
see their justice, and grant theirdemands. Further- 
more, such statements should be more especially 
made in publications having a great circulation, 
as more likely to fix the attentton of the public, and 
to come within the circle of those very few, in an 
exalted sphere of life, who have so much in their 
_ power to remedy what is amiss. 
(239.) To arrive at a just conclusion on the 
questions before us, there is only one assertion 
Z3 
