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CHAP. III. 



ON THE MEANS POSSESSED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND 

 UNIVERSITIES FOR PROTECTING AND ENCOURAGING 

 SCIENCE. ON TITULAR HONOURS. 



(252.) In 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 



