240 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



11. 



Academies 

 and univer- 

 sities not 

 always im- 

 partial. 



tion of party spirit, party criticism, and party shibbo- 

 leths, as the easiest method of enlisting popular favour ^ 

 and individual interest ; for here there exists no central 

 authority which can create powerful organisations or dis- 

 burse public means without the distinctly and repeatedly 

 expressed support of a large section of the people. But 

 all this must not induce us, in our historical survey, 

 to dwell on the defects rather than on the excellence of 

 the British contributions to the growth and the diffusion 

 of science. Brilliant is undoubtedly the array of British 

 names which have during the first half of this century 

 become immortal by scientific labours, and it would be 

 narrow-minded simply to emphasise the fact that they have 

 not done so by the same means and through the same 

 organisations as the Continental nations have established 

 and perfected. Eor we must not forget that these even, 

 with all their rightly extolled universality and breadth 

 of spirit, have sometimes failed to recognise merit or to 

 encourage genius. In spite of the impartial dealings of 

 the Institute, on which Cuvier congratulates the French 

 people, there are several instances in which contribu- 

 tions of the first order lay unnoticed for many years. 



^ Referring to the British Asso- 

 ciation itself, Charles Lyell wrote 

 in 1838, after the Newcastle meet- 

 ing, to Charles Darwin : " Do not 

 let any papers, whether of saints 

 or sinners, induce you to join in 

 running down the British Associa- 

 tion. I do not mean to insinuate 

 that you ever did so, but I have 

 myself often seen its faults in a 

 strong light, and am aware of what 

 may be urged against philosophers 

 turning public orators, &c. But I 

 am convinced, although it is not 

 the way I love to spend my own 



time, that in this country no im- 

 portance is attached to any body 

 of men who do not make occasional 

 demonstrations of their strength in 

 public meetings. It is a country 

 where, as Tom Moore justly com- 

 plained, a most exaggerated im- 

 portance is attached to the faculty 

 of thinking on your legs, and where, 

 as Dan O'Counell well knows, no- 

 thing is to be got in the way of hom- 

 age or influence, or even a fair share 

 of power, witliout agitation " (' Life, 

 Letters, and Journals of Sir C. Lyell,' 

 London, 1881, voL ii. p. 45, &c.) 



