Ignorance of research by practical men. 43 



though in very different degrees, in all men. Many 

 wealthy persons wish things to remain as they are. 

 Some manufacturers would not aid research unless 

 they could monopolize its advantages. Students 

 also generally prefer those subjects which are best 

 rewarded, and do not sufficiently consider their in- 

 trinsic value. The love of truth for truth's sake 

 alone is very weak in most men, and but few men 

 make the greatest good their chief object in life. 



The extreme ignorance in this country of the 

 value of scientific research, is also largely due to the 

 narrowness of the " practical " character of the 

 English mind ; men cannot perceive the deep-seated 

 and universal sources of their wealth, and they 

 prefer those occupations which yield the most obvi- 

 ously remunerative results. It is also partly due to 

 scientific investigators themselves not having pleaded 

 their own cause ; such men have been so absorbed 

 in the more important occupation of discovery, that 

 they have, probably more than any other class of 

 persons, neglected to enforce the just claims of their 

 own subject. It is, however, chiefly caused by the 

 influence of misapplied wealth, operating through 

 the old Universities and large public schools. The 

 sons of the wealthy are most of them educated at 

 those institutions, and according to evidence supplied 

 by University authorities to Royal Commissioners, 

 many persons send their sons to those places for 

 other purposes than to acquire learning, and allow 

 them too much money. The considerable wealth of 



