BY WHOM SCIENCE SHOULD BE PROTECTED. 355 



more rare is it to find, superadded to them, the 

 gifts of fortune. From whom, then, if abstract 

 science is to be fostered and rewarded, is this en- 

 couragement to come? Certainly not from the 

 public ; for what the multitude cannot appreciate, 

 they cannot be expected to reward. If, indeed, the 

 speculations of the philosopher can be turned into 

 immediate advantage by the manufacturer or the 

 merchant, the inventor is in a fair way of dividing 

 profits with the applier ; but we are not at present 

 considering such cases. Again, then, let us enquire 

 who are to be the patrons of our philosophy ? We 

 live not, unfortunately, in days when any thing of 

 this sort can be looked for from our nobles. '* We 

 may in vain search the aristocracy now for philo- 

 sophers," was the bitter truth extorted from Sir 

 Humphry Davy. If intellectual excellence is so 

 little cultivated among the higher orders, how is it 

 to be expected that they will foster and uphold in 

 others, those qualifications they neither possess nor 

 value ? Were it otherwise, we should not see nearly 

 all offices in the state, whose duties implied some 

 acquaintance with science, bestowed upon those 

 who were destitute of such qualifications. Philo- 

 sophy can, then, only look to national endowments 

 and institutions, or to the favour of the sovereign 

 and his ministers, for that support which she stands 

 in such need of; without which her realms cannot be 

 extended, her discoveries rendered beneficial, or her 

 votaries supported. That this has been the general 

 conviction in all ages, is attested by the uniform 

 agreement of the most enlightened governments to 

 take their philosophers under their own especial 

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