422 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



but we also contend that both should be equally 

 honoured and rewarded by the nation. 



(289.) Let us now look to the consequences of 

 leaving scientific excellence in the " possession of its 

 own ennobling honours." And why not leave all other 

 excellence to the same fate ? Does science with 

 us, as with other nations, feed her children with the 

 necessaries of life ? Does she make her ways the 

 ways to estimation or preferment, to favour or to 

 patronage ? If she did, her votaries might then be 

 very well " left to the possession of their own en- 

 nobling honours;" they would have no cause for 

 complaint, they would then enjoy the substantial of 

 greatness, and would core very little for its nominal 

 privileges. But what is notoriously the result of 

 this system — this visionary scheme — by which 

 science is so respectfully neglected ? It is, in Bri- 

 tain, to come into an heritage of poverty, obscurity, 

 and neglect. To use the words of an eloquent 

 writer, " He whom the Almighty has chosen to make 

 known the laws and mysteries of his works — he who 

 has devoted his life, and sacrificed his health, and 

 the interests of his family, in the most profound and 

 ennobling pursuits — is allowed to live in poverty and 

 obscurity, and to sink into the grave without one 

 mark of the affection and gratitude of his country."* 

 Such is the " barren heritage" which the ministers 

 of this country would assign to her philosophers. 

 Such are the " ennobling honours," of which they are 

 to be left in possession. 



(290.) And why is this ? why are excuses sought 



* Quarterly Review. 



