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 spciety 



— 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. 



