416 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



from the influence of one of the ruling passions of 

 our nature — ambition. That such men can derive 

 no personal gratification from such marks and tokens 

 as at once show to the world the gratitude of their 

 country, the esteem of its ministers, or the favour 

 of its sovereign ; that they are quite indifferent to 

 the public acknowledgment of their merit ; that they 

 are well content to be received in society on the 

 same footing as the most illiterate citizen ; and that, 

 in the " pride of place/' they have not the least sense 

 of humiliation in being jostled in the crowd, and 

 ordered to make way for a city alderman, carrying up 

 an address for which he is to be knighted. Now all 

 these are the inevitable consequences of withholding 

 national honours from men of science. What are 

 such honours made for, but to be given to those 

 who deserve them ? Why are they created, but that 

 the nation should know to whom it is indebted for 

 its glory? If such honours cannot confer higher 

 dignity, in a worldly sense, than genius or talent, of 

 what possible use do they become? they are alto- 

 gether as worthless to the warrior, the statesman, or 

 the nobleman by birth, as to the philosopher. What, 

 it has been asked, " could a blue riband or a collar 

 do for a Newton ? would they make his name more 

 hallowed, his family more durable?" — What, let us 

 in turn demand, can a multitude of ribands, and 

 crosses, and collars, do for a Wellington ; will they 

 make his name more famous, his family more en- 

 durable? The answer to both has been already 

 given, " No, certainly not." What, then, is the 

 use of such things? — baubles though they be. 

 The answer is obvious — they evince the gratitude of 



