4.96 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
same titles, be decorated with the same orders, and 
the mind and the arm of the nation will be indis- 
solubly united for its glory or for its defence. 
(293.) We cannot altogether abandon the hope, 
that at a period unexampled in our history for the dif- 
fusion of knowledge among the people, in a time when 
the name of Brougham will be inseparably connected 
with this new era of intellectual developement, and 
that not as a private individual, but as the Lord High 
Chancellor of these realms, possessing rank, power, 
learning, and eloquence, all that is necessary, in 
short, for conceiving and executing the most noble 
designs — we cannot abandon the hope, that some- 
thing effectual may yet be done, even in these our 
times, to remove the stigma that has so long rested 
upon our national character. We might suggest to 
that exalted individual a truth which he will at once 
perceive, that unless the spring-heads of knowledge 
are sedulously repaired and renovated, the stream 
will be soon exhausted; and that in proportion as 
we may anticipate a demand for more and more 
information, we cannot furnish that supply unless we 
sedulously protect those few secluded founts whence 
alone it will gush forth. While we are indefatig- 
able in diffusing that knowledge which is already 
possessed, let us be equally careful in creating a 
fresh supply, to be poured forth abroad when that 
which we have in keeping is exhausted. With- 
out such prudence, it is not difficult to foresee the 
injurious effects which will follow; for the science 
of the country already begins to show them in its 
declension. Knowledge, indeed, will be diffused, 
but it will become proportionably superficial: all 
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