46 A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



such, an establishment ; for it was not commenced till 

 tlie middle of the present century. So slow is the 

 progress of improvement^ that it is only when some 

 great good is accomplished that we awaken to a sense 

 of our dreaminess and sluggishness from age to age. 

 And let it be remembered,, that it was against this 

 dead weight of opposition, and worse, of apathy, that 

 Hartlib had to contend. There was a prevaihng fear 

 of breaking up and discarding good time-honoured 

 usages. The experience of an ancestor remained long 

 in a family as an invaluable heirloom. What had been 

 was best, especially if the experience of a century or 

 more could be appealed to, no stronger evidence being 

 required. Innovations were rare, and innovators were 

 obnoxious. 



But improvement is irresistible ; we may delay^ 

 but cannot stem its onward progress. Year by 

 year some little advance is made, and eventually the 

 stagnant stream bursts through every barrier. Justly 

 to estimate Hartlib's labours, toiling with his pen^ 

 publishing, and daily labouring to support deserving 

 worth and zealously to spread useful knowledge, we 

 must bear in mind how dreary and thankless, how 

 apparently unproductive, were all his kind offices^ 

 when we except the few who admired and were 

 astonished at the magnitude of his efforts to assist his 

 less favoured fellow- creatures. It is marvellous that, 

 in an age when mysticism, magic, astrology, and witch- 



