54 Discoverers less rewarded than inventors. 



appointment, receiving, however, 500 as compensa- 

 tion. An application was therefore made to the 

 Government, and a partial recompense to him was 

 obtained, by Her Majesty granting him one hundred 

 pounds a year " for eminence in chemical attain- 

 ments, and on account of loss by suppression of 

 office in the Mint." The only difference in these two 

 instances, was, that in the second there was a very 

 much greater amount of pure research and discovery, 

 and a much smaller degree of applied knowledge. 



These instances illustrate the statement, that how- 

 ever great an amount of valuable knowledge in pure 

 science a man may discover and publish, or however 

 freely he may provide others with the materials of 

 invention and wealth, if he never invents anything, 

 nor applies his knowledge to useful purposes, he is 

 usually less rewarded even than an inventor. " The 

 more intrinsically valuable the labour, and the greater 

 the degree of profound original thought required to 

 direct it, the less is it usually appreciated by the 

 governing men of a nation." Absorbed in exciting 

 questions relating to political emergencies, and 

 national matters requiring immediate attention, 

 even men of great administrative ability fail to 

 appreciate the less direct though more fundamental 

 sources of a nation's happiness and wealth. In 

 harmony with these instances also, we find that it is 

 not the pure sciences, but the concrete and applied 

 ones, such as meteorology, geology, natural his- 

 tory, &c., in the Meteorological Department, the 



