432 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
brings with it no accession of scientific honour, if 
members are to be admitted upon the same easy 
terms as they are now. Besides, those who would 
raise the reputation of the society, must benefit us 
by their head more than by their purse. The third 
is a suggestion of Mr. Babbage, and is by far 
the most simple and practicable plan yet promul- 
gated. It proposes that, in the printed lists of the 
Royal Society, a star should be placed against the 
name of each fellow who has contributed two or 
more papers which have been printed in the Trans- 
actions, or that such a list should be printed _sepa- 
rately at the end. The immediate effect of printing 
such a list, it is urged, would be the division of the 
society into two classes. Now, if the working class. 
— which would of course comprise those whose 
names constitute the honour of the society —were to 
be distinguished by a separate designation (as that 
of fellow in opposition to member, or otherwise), the 
only real objection to this simple plan of proceeding 
would be done away with; but without a more 
marked distinction than an asterisk, a dagger, or 
those conventional signs used in printing, it may be 
fairly questioned, whether, if the higher class be 
not more plainly defined, it would become a matter 
of ambition to belong to it? As for the “ great 
objection” put forth against such distinctions —that 
they would be displeasing to the rest of the society 
—I really think it too trifling for discussion, . 
especially after what has been said upon it in an- 
other place.* ‘Trifling, however, as such an ob- 
* Decline of Science, p. 156. 
