344 Decline of Science in England. 



the decline of chemical science, it is in vain to appeal to his 

 individual patriotism. 



2. The influence of institutions, whether universities or so- 

 cieties, in promoting or retarding the progress of science, is 

 universally admitted. The author of the present pamphlet, 

 to use a proverbial expression, admits this " with a vengeance, 11 

 when he declares that the establishment of the Ecole Normale 

 in Paris, " though of short duration, zcas perhaps of more uti~ 

 " Vity towards the extension of mathematical knowledge than 

 " all the Universities of Europe together. 11 All that 

 Mr Herschel and Mr Babbage have written on the low con- 

 dition of English mathematics, and all that we and others 

 have said of the inefficiency of our universities, sink into in- 

 significance compared with this heart-stroke against the ho- 

 nour and the usefulness of these institutions. The author of 

 this sentiment, who certainly cannot be a professor, must, if 

 he quits his mask, keep at a respectful distance from Cam- 

 bridge, for if the corporation spirit of this university, when sub- 

 jected to the gentlest admonitions of its true friends, has al- 

 ready bled where it was not wounded, and winced where it 

 was not galled, what powers of wrath will it not deploy against 

 the daring author of this alarming truth, or the flagitious 

 fabricator of this monstrous calumny ? That Cambridge, 

 backed by all the universities of Britain, and by all the uni- 

 versities of Europe, has done less for mathematical science 

 than the short-lived Normal School of Revolutionary France, 

 is indeed an assertion calculated to excite the patriotism of the 

 most unpatriotic, and to awaken the indignation of the most 

 phlegmatic Englishman. 



In thus stumbling among our venerable institutions in pur- 

 suit of the Lucasian professor, our foreign instructor blunders 

 out a series of the bitterest though well meant remarks. 

 ' : Most of the English institutions," 1 says he, " seem of so par- 

 " ticidar a nature, and so blended with other subjects totally 

 " different from what exists in other countries, that it would 

 " be unwise in a foreigner to give an opinion on matters which 

 " he cannot be expected to understand. * * * * But 

 " this certainly is a principle firmly entertained on the con- 

 " tinent, that the diffusion of knowledge is Jar better promoted 

 " by having the sciences taught in the universities by first rate 



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