270 PERSONAL PREPARATION FOR RESEARCH. 



it has always been a drag upon advancing truth, and in 

 cases where its interests have only appeared to be sacri- 

 ficed to those of new knowledge, it has always hated, and, 

 whenever it possessed the power, also persecuted scientific 

 discoverers. 



Eminent scientific men have expressed the opinion 

 that teaching is the occupation which is most favourable 

 to discovery ; and this appears to be true, because teaching 

 requires a man to study well his subject, and this excites 

 new questions. But teaching is not a necessary con- 

 dition of success in original research, because various 

 eminent investigators have not been teachers ; the late 

 Dr. Mattheissen was a notable instance. 1 Original re- 

 search requires a very large amount of time; in order, 

 therefore, for tuition to harmonise with it, the teaching 

 must be small in amount ; much tuition or examination 

 entirely prevents original research, and this incessant 

 ' trading in learning ' is a great cause why so few dis- 

 coveries are being made by professors of science in this 

 country. 



Other able scientific men have advocated popular 

 scientific writing as a means of remuneration and sub- 

 sistence for men of research, and no doubt such an oc- 

 cupation is quite as favourable as teaching to original 

 discovery, if not more so, and operates in a similar man- 

 ner ; but, like time employed in tuition, that occupied in 

 writing, is so much taken from the real and more im- 

 portant employment ; and unless it is small in amount, 

 it is quite fatal to much original investigation. A man 

 cannot obtain by it even a moderate income, and also do 

 any considerable amount of research. Sorby, an experi- 

 enced scientific investigator, has remarked upon this 



1 Dr. Mattheissen did a little teaching, but only during the last 

 few years of his life. 



