32 Increased value of land due to discovery. 



consequence of the increased facilities of communi- 

 cation. All these great additions to the value of 

 land are largely due to the unpaid labours of scien- 

 tific discoverers, and it may be said that this nation 

 has largely gained its wealth, and is still living in a 

 great degree on the products of those labours. 

 Those great additions to the value of land are also 

 permanent, are continually increasing, and are 

 largely independent of any exertions on the part of 

 the owners. That many other influences, besides 

 that of science, have contributed to the development 

 of our manufacturing and commercial prosperity is 

 also true, but it would be foreign to the subject of 

 the present chapter to point them out. 



It is a fallacious argument to say that scientific 

 discovery and increased value of land are only 

 remotely connected together, a cause as certainly 

 produces its effect, however many connections lie 

 between them, provided the connections are certain 

 the number of links in a chain makes no differ- 

 ence in the transmission of motion from one 

 end of it to the other. Great causes are frequently 

 distant and wide-spread in their effects. Persons 

 in general ean easily understand that an acorn 

 planted in the ground will in the course of 

 time become an oak, because it is a palpable and 

 visible effect ; but they cannot so readily perceive 

 that the benefits resulting from a knowledge of 

 science ramify through all our manufacturing, artistic, 

 and commercial occupations, our social and moral 



