234 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



of Playfair was against the English universities. 1 " That 

 science has long been neglected and declining in England 

 is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared 

 by many, and has been expressed by higher authority 

 than mine." 2 The author then proceeds to give ex- 

 tracts from the writings of Davy, Herschel, and others 

 on this subject. " It cannot," he says, " have escaped 

 the attention of those who have had opportunities of 

 examining the state of science in other countries, that 



1 Some of the causes of the de- 

 cline as given by Babbage are in- 

 teresting, the more so if we remem- 

 ber that they were written at the 

 period which marked the culmin- 

 ation of Wissenschaft in another 

 country (p. 10) : " The pursuit 

 of science does not in England 

 constitute a distinct profession, as 

 it does in many other countries. 

 . . . Even men of sound sense and 

 discernment can scarcely find means 

 to distinguish between the posses- 

 sors of knowledge merely elemen- 

 tary and those whose acquirements 

 are of the highest order. This 

 remark applies with peculiar force 

 to all the more difficult applications 

 of mathematics ; and the fact is 

 calculated to check the energies of 

 those who only look to reputation 

 in England." In 1794 Professor 

 Waring of Cambridge wrote : " I 

 have myself written on most sub- 

 jects in pure mathematics, and in 

 these books inserted nearly all the 

 inventions of the moderns with 

 which I was acquainted ; . . . but 

 I never could hear of any reader 

 in England, out of Cambridge, who 

 took the pains to read and under- 

 stand what I have written ; " and 

 "he then proceeds to console him- 

 self under this neglect in England 

 by the honour conferred on him by 

 D'Alembert, Euler, and Lagrange " 



(see Todhunter, * History of the 

 Theory of Probability,' p. 453). 

 Babbage remarks (p. 13) that "in 

 England the profession of the law 

 is that which seems to hold out the 

 strongest attraction to talent," that 

 science is pursued as a favourite 

 pastime, and that mathematics " re- 

 quire such overwhelming attention 

 that they can only be pursued by 

 those whose leisure is undisturbed 

 by other claims." " By a destruc- 

 tive misapplication of talent we ex- 

 change a profound philosopher for 

 but a tolerable lawyer " (p. 37). 



2 One of the causes given by the 

 Edinburgh Reviewer of 1822 (vol. 

 xxxvii. p. 222) is the following : 

 " In Cambridge there must always 

 be a great number of men devoted 

 to scientific pursuits ; but from the 

 want both of the facilities and the 

 excitements furnished by such an 

 association, apt to lose the spirit of 

 original investigation, a remark 

 peculiarly applicable to those young 

 men who yearly distinguish them- 

 selves in the favourite studies of 

 the University, and who, after the 

 laborious course of discipline by 

 which they have attained the first 

 object of their ambition, are prone, 

 if left alone, to become the mere 

 instruments for enabling others to 

 pursue the same course." 



