367 
CHAP. III. 
ON THE MEANS POSSESSED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND 
UNIVERSITIES FOR PROTECTING AND ENCOURAGING 
SCIENCE.— ON TITULAR HONOURS. 
(252.) Iw extending the foregoing reflections to the 
suggestion of means for obviating the evils therein 
complained of, and for giving to the science of the 
country that efficient support which it so much 
requires, we feel that we are entering upon a sub- 
ject of difficulty and delicacy. Those who are 
averse to the innovation of established customs, 
institutions, or modes of thinking, are always more 
numerous than those who imagine they can be 
improved. This feeling is natural to the mass of 
mankind. Few have either the energy, or the in- 
clination, to look deeply into things which they 
have been accustomed to see go on, year after year, 
in the same course; and which, they therefore con- 
clude, require neither alteration nor amendment. 
Say what we will, the mind leans with a degree of 
fondness, if not of veneration, to every thing which 
has the authority of antiquity, or of long-continued 
usage; and these feelings are increased, if those 
whom we most esteem, and who may have to ad- 
minister our ancient laws, conscientiously defend 
their continuance. On the other hand it is to be 
