GOVERNMENT AID TO SCIENCE. 99 



in that long and remarkable career of progress which 

 was inaugurated toward the close of the sixteenth 

 century. Hitherto those who have been able and will- 

 ing to take part in scientific researches have had the 

 means of doing so without incurring great expense, 

 and many have even found it possible to do good and 

 useful service in the cause of science while prosecuting, 

 at the same time, the labors of their profession or trade. 

 But now the case is very different. A man who would 

 assist in forwarding the progress of science must give 

 his whole energies to the cause ; he must be prepared 

 to incur large expenses ; and all this he must do with- 

 out the hope that science will make him any pecuniary 

 return. Theoretically, indeed, it may bo argued that 

 he will labor best who hopes for no return for his 

 labors ; who works, not for profit, but from pure love 

 of science, and so on. But, as a matter of fact, many 

 of those who would serve science best, and hundreds 

 of those who could do yeoman's service in her cause, 

 are simply debarred from scientific pursuits by the 

 necessity of earning the means of subsistence. And 

 there are crowds of others who, though they may be 

 independent in means, are yet unable to provide them- 

 selves with the expensive instruments by which alone 

 any useful work can now be done. For, as Colonel 

 Strange observes, " Science can no longer be cultivated 

 as in by-gone times it used to be. In astronomy the 

 man with his table spy-glass cannot now furnish ac- 



