GALILEO, LEIBNITZ, FRAUNHOFER 99 



in his own case, he was justified by what the world 

 knew of the lives of men of science on the Continent. 

 He could say, as Galileo said before him, " My private 

 lectures and domestic pupils are a great hindrance 

 and interruption to my studies ; I wish to be entirely 

 exempt from the former, and in great measure from 

 the latter." Herschel had the same wishes, but not 

 the same success, for Galileo was relieved of all pro- 

 fessional duty, except giving lectures on extraordinary 

 occasions to sovereign princes and other strangers of 

 distinction. He was honoured with pensions and 

 rewards from a petty prince in Italy, far superior at 

 first to what Herschel enjoyed from the bounty of the 

 wealthiest monarch and the richest country in the 

 world. 



Galileo was only one example out of a multitude. 

 Leibnitz, the contemporary and rival of Newton, was 

 another. He was laden with honours and rewards 

 showered on him from one end of Europe to the other. 

 He left "a fortune of sixty thousand crowns, which 

 were found, after his death, accumulated in sacks in 

 various kinds of specie." Descartes, Euler, the two 

 Bernoullis, Huyghens, and many more are proofs of 

 the encouragement given to science by kings and 

 princes. But the example of Fraunhofer, the con- 

 temporary of Herschel, of Dollond, of Wollaston, first 

 a common worker, then a great inventor and discoverer, 

 shows best what George ill. might have done for 

 Herschel, and what Herschel was justly entitled to 

 expect from a prince who was twofold his sovereign, 

 as Elector of Hanover and King of Great Britain. Of 

 Fraunhofer it is said " his own sovereign, Maximilian 

 Joseph, was his earliest and his latest patron; and by 



