10 Observations on the Decline of Science in England. 



fore seeing the present work ; and we are glad to see this opinion 

 confirmed by one so much more competent to judge. He ob- 

 serves — ' A young man passes from our public schools to the 

 universities, ignorant almost of the elements of every branch of 

 useful knowledge ; and at these latter establishments, formed 

 originally for instructing those who are intended for the clerical 

 profession, classical and mathematical pursuits are nearly the 

 sole objects proposed to the student's ambition. 1 The perti- 

 nacity with which we cling to a system of education established 

 in the dark ages, and for a particular class, is indeed character- 

 istic of our nation — as one jealous of innovation and intolerant 

 of change. Yet the many practical evils of our perseverance in 

 so absurd a course, generally acknowledged as they are, would 

 seem to be more than sufficient warrant for a new experiment. 

 That some improvement must take place sooner cr later, seems 

 evident, but in the meantime we have lost ground in the race, 

 and have allowed ourselves to be outstripped by all the world, 

 even by that scion from our stock, America. 



" It is a consequence, it appears to us, of the little attention 

 paid to science in England, that, unlike the other countries of 

 Europe, it has no separate class or profession, devoting itself to 

 the exclusive cultivation of science. All our scientific charac- 

 ters belong to other professions, on which they depend for their 

 provision, their scientific labours being occasional and desultory. 

 One consequence of this state of things must be, that owing to 

 the claims on their time made by their profession, few of the 

 investigations they engage in can be pursued to a satisfactory 

 issue — nor is it scarcely possible that they should ever attain 

 excellence while their attention is thus divided. A second 

 consequence is, that there is wanting that stimulus of profes- 

 sional rivalry which would often prompt to great discoveries, 

 and equally that wholesome supervision exercised by a profes- 

 sion over all its members, which, giving to each man the credit 

 which he is justly entitled to, is as certain to reward merit as it 

 is to mark deficiency. If a man, ignorant of law and lawyers, 

 wish to employ the first counsel, let him inquire to whom the 

 profession generally look up, and he is not likely to be dis- 

 appointed in his choice. So also in other professions or dis- 

 tinct classes, in which an esprit i/c corps seems to give every, 



