228 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP. 



opposite attitude is indifferentism, founded on 

 sheer uncertainty of what is best to do, or on 

 despair of being strong enough to achieve useful 

 results ; a feeling such as that which has gene- 

 rally existed in recent years among wealthy men 

 in respect to pauperism and charitable gifts. A 

 common effect of indifferentism is to dissipate 

 the energy of the nation upon trifles ; and this 

 tendency seems to be a crying evil of the pre- 

 sent day in our own country. In illustration of 

 this view, I will quote the following extract from 

 a letter of one of my correspondents, who, I 

 should add, is singularly well qualified to form a 

 just opinion on the matter to which he so for- 

 cibly calls attention : " The principal hindrance 

 to inquiry and all other intellectual progress in 

 the people of whom I see much, is the elaborate 

 machinery for wasting time which has been 

 invented and recommended under the name of 

 ' social duties/ J Considering the mental and 

 material capital of which the richer classes have 

 the disposal, I believe that much more than half 

 the progressive force of the nation runs to waste 

 from this cause." 



