Observations on the Decline of Science in England. 11 



even the lowest, member a sort of interest and pride in the suc- 

 cess and efficiency of the highest. But scientific men in Eng- 

 land have no esprit de corps — the consequence is, they are di- 

 vided into coteries, parties, cabals. The interests of science are 

 thus lost in the squabbles and party differences of individuals, 

 and the result is every way mischievous. It is not the least 

 evil of this state of things, that no union of effort, or concert of 

 aim, can be expected from them. 



" Our system of education is undoubtedly the root of the evil, 

 yet it is not sufficient to account altogether for the low estima- 

 tion into which true science has fallen, or for the fact of its 

 having been almost universally replaced by the contemptible 

 system of tricking and puffery here exposed. An almost equal- 

 ly powerful cause will be found in the want of national encou- 

 ragement, which is the disgrace of England. In the true spirit 

 of a nation boutiquiere, it is said that every commodity, and 

 science amongst the rest, will always, if left to itself, fetch its 

 true value ; and that, if required by the public, the demand 

 will necessarily occasion the requisite supply. But the maxim 

 thus applied is as erroneous as it is contemptible. Mr Bab- 

 bagc has well shown that science consists of two parts, theory 

 and practice — in other words, principles and useful results. 

 The latter are the effect of the application of those principles to 

 the affairs of life. Now the investigation of each class of truths 

 is so distinct, that seldom or ever do the qualities of mind, re- 

 quisite for their discovery, unite in the same individual. But 

 it is the latter alone that the public know any thing of, and con- 

 sequently to those who excel in the discovery of practical ap- 

 plications, and to them alone, is the encouragement of the pub- 

 lic given. The investigator of the principles which have been 

 applied, though equally entitled to the reward, is altogether 

 lost sight of. The discoverer, for instance, of the principle of 

 latent heat, as it has been called, had no share of the immense 

 reward which fell to his lot, who suggested merely one applica- 

 tion of so general a law. Yet had Watt not known of this 

 law, would he have ever stumbled on the capital improvement 

 of condensing the steam in a separate vessel. The inventor of 

 the reflecting quadrant could have done little but for the pre- 

 viously known laws of optics ; nor could the astronomer have 



