224 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL vill 



" maintaining a due number of saddle horses," as 

 George Eliot somewhere puts it it is a question 

 of living or starving. 



If a student of my own subject shows power and 

 originality, I dare not advise him to adopt a 

 scientific career ; for, supposing he is able to 

 maintain himself until he has attained distinction, 

 I cannot give him the assurance that any amount 

 of proficiency in the Biological Sciences will be 

 convertible into, even the most modest, bread and 

 cheese. And I believe that the case is as bad, or 

 perhaps worse, with other branches of Science. 

 In this respect Britain, whose immense wealth 

 and prosperity hang upon the thread of Applied 

 Science, is far behind France, and infinitely behind 

 Germany. 



And the worst of it is, that it is very difficult to 

 see one's way to any immediate remedy for this 

 state of affairs which shall be free from a tendency 

 to become worse than the disease. 



Great schemes for the Endowment of Research 

 have been proposed. It has been suggested, that 

 Laboratories for all branches of Physical Science, 

 provided with every apparatus needed by the in- 

 vestigator, shall be established by the State : and 

 shall be accessible, under due conditions and 

 regulations, to all properly qualified persons. I 

 see no objection to the principle of such a proposal. 

 If it be legitimate to spend great sums of money 

 on public Libraries and public collections of Painting 



