58 MY LIFE 



Faraday, and Tyndall, as to justify the infringement of a 

 great principle? Would the grand series of scientific and 



mechanical inventions of this century have been more 

 thoroughly or more fruitfully worked out if Government had 



taken science and invention under its special patronage in 



the year 1800, and had subjected them to a process of forcing 

 (in a kind of LapUta College) from that day to this? No 

 one can really believe we should have got on any better under 

 such a regime, while it is certain that much power would have 

 been wasted in the attempt to develop inventions and dis- 

 coveries before the age was ripe for them, and which would 

 therefore have inevitably languished and been laid aside with- 

 out producing any great results. Experience shows that free 

 competition ensures a greater supply of the materials and a 

 greater demand for the products of science and art, and is 

 thus a greater stimulus to true and healthy progress than any 

 Government patronage. Let it but become an established rule 

 that all institutions solely for the advancement of science and 

 art must be supported by private munificence, and we may be 

 sure that such institutions would be quite as well kept up as 

 they are now, and I believe much better. If they were not 

 it would only prove more clearly how unjust it is to take 

 money from the public purse to pay for that which science 

 and art lovers would very much like to have, but are not will- 

 ing themselves to pay for. 



" The very common line of argument, which attempts to 

 prove the widespread uses and high educating influence of 

 art and of science, is entirely beside the question. Every 

 product of the human intellect is more or less valuable; but 

 it does not therefore follow that it is just to provide any 

 special product for those who want it at the expense of those 

 who either do not want or are not in a condition to make 

 use of it. Good architecture, for instance, is a very good 

 thing, and one we are much in want of; but it will hardly 

 be maintained that architects should be taught their profession 

 at the public expense. The history of old china, of old 

 clothes, or of postage-stamps are each of great interest to 

 more or less extensive sections of the community, and much 



