STATE VAILS AND CHARITABLE FUNDS 415 

 The following passages illustrate his point of view. 



To the Bev. M. J. Berkeley 



January 9, 1859. 



I am quite sick and ashamed too of this constantly 

 begging Govt. for pensions for persons whose claims can in 

 no way be called national. Science suffers by the refusals 

 we get, and really national claims suffer too. We should 

 do much better to have a private fund for such unfortunate 

 men as A., B., etc. whose most meritorious labors are neither 

 sufficient to raise themselves to scientific hero-worship nor 

 are directly beneficial to the Arts or otherwise. I do not 

 think it fair to apply to the nation except in cases of great 

 eminence or services of great practical value. It is the duty 

 of Govt. to encourage and stimulate the first and to reward 

 the second, but if the Govt. pensions such men as A. and 

 B., they must also pension no end of literary characters with 

 equivalent claims and less chance of private help. Few 

 people look at this in a sensible manner, they regard pensions 

 as State Vails to be scrambled for in the most undignified 

 manner. 



To W. H. Harvey 



I see too, what I specially dislike, a sectarian view of the 

 case arising it is the Microscope versus all science ; or 

 Nat. Hist, versus all other branches. I strongly object 

 on all grounds of policy and fairness too, to the establish- 

 ment of a * Naturalists' ' fund, except indeed the Physicists 

 prefer to have a separate one when I shall gladly join the 

 Naturalists ; though even then I should feel myself in 

 honour bound to join a Physical Science one too. Any 

 attempt to segregate Nat. Hist, will do it great harm : it 

 cannot stand alone, it owes the Microscope to Phys. Science, 

 and all Physiolog. Botany too. Their narrow-minded views 

 are the bane of science. 



As to the particular encouragements to Science that con- 

 sisted in the bestowal of medals for distinguished work accom- 

 plished, he came to find the whole thing unsatisfactory, after 

 it had fallen to him both to receive and to allot these. The 

 great difficulty lay in holding the balance between individual 



