176 Objections and Answers, continued. 



limits by, the kinds of scientific research done under 

 his direction at the' Royal Observatory. He further 

 adds "The Royal Observatory was founded express- 

 ly for a definite utilitarian purpose (the promotion of 

 navigation) necessarily connected with the highest 

 science. And this utilitarian purpose has been steadily 

 kept in view for two centuries, and is now followed 

 with greater vigour than ever before. To its original 

 plan have also been added but still in the utilitarian 

 sense the publication of time, the broader obser- 

 vation of terrestrial magnetism, and local meteorology.'' 

 His views therefore appear to be, that State aid to 

 research should be limited to utilitarian objects ; and 

 that it is with propriety given to his own department, 

 which is connected with the State. It has however 

 been abundantly proved that nearly all the great scien- 

 tific utilities of every-day life, had their origin in the 

 pursuit, not of utilities, but of pure truth, and that imme- 

 diate usefulness is neither the most successful nor the 

 highest motive in scientific research, nor should re- 

 search be limited by so narrow a condition. The in- 

 vestigations also made by the aid of Government Grants 

 possess the usual degree of definiteness and of utility 

 of such labours, and it cannot be reasonably expec- 

 ted that the world would be unanimous respecting 

 any measure, especially respecting a subject so 

 little understood by the public as the Endowment of 

 Research. 



If investigators were to limit their researches to 

 utilities, or what appeared to be such, scarcely any 



