342 Decline of Science in England. 



perversion of reasoning will appear still more prominently when 

 we consider that science never can decline except in a country 

 where it has flourished, and which has given birth to great men ; 

 so that the very circumstance which must necessarily have pre- 

 ceded the decline of science, namely, the birth of two great 

 men such as Davy and Herschel, is held by our author as an 

 irrefragable proof that science has not declined. 



In order to follow the other arguments of our author, we 

 must explain the circumstances under which science may be 

 said to decline in any country. 



1. Science must decline by the death, especially the prema- 

 ture death, of one or more of its most eminent and active cul- 

 tivators. 



2. Science must decline, when the principal scientific insti- 

 tutions of a country cease to be presided over, and managed 

 by distinguished men, and are conducted in a slovenly routine, 

 and in a way in no respect calculated to encourage genius or 

 promote the advancement of science. 



3. Science must decline when the sovereign and his mini- 

 sters take no interest in scientific pursuits, — when, in place of 

 establishing new scientific institutions, they destroy old ones, 

 — when the honours and offices of the state are conferred only 

 on military and naval merit, — and when those duties which 

 require to be discharged by men of scientific knowledge, are 

 entrusted to persons who have no other claim but those of fa- 

 mily connections and political subserviency. 



4. Science must be considered as declining in any country, 

 even when none of the preceding causes exist, provided it is 

 making less progress than formerly in that country, either in 

 the number or nature of its discoveries, or provided its pro- 

 gress does not keep pace with that of rival nations. 



Admitting: the most favourable views of the talents of Bri- 

 tish philosophers, and the importance of British discoveries, 

 there is no upright and well informed man in the community, 

 who will not acknowledge with bitterness and sorrow that 

 from all the preceding causes, science has declined, and is de- 

 clining, in England. The truth of this sad conclusion, which 

 has been fully established in Mr Babbage's work, and in the 

 Quarterly Review for October 1830, will appear from a brief 

 view of the subject. 



