446 Life of Cavendish 



the tranquillity of perfect solitude: but the servant's impatience to watch his 

 master diligently having induced him to infringe the order, he was severely 

 reproved for his indiscretion, and took care not to repeat the offence until the 

 scene was finally closed. Mr Cavendish died on the 24th of February, 1810; 

 and was buried in the family vault at Derby. He left a property in the funds 

 of about 700,000, which he divided into six equal parts, giving two to Lord 

 George Cavendish, the son of his first cousin, one to each of his sons, and one 

 to the Earl of^Besborough, whose mother was also his first cousin. Some other 

 personal property devolved to Lord George as residuary legatee; and a landed 

 estate of 6,000 a year descended to his only brother, Mr Frederic Cavendish, 

 of Market Street, Herts, a single man, and of habits of life so peculiarly retired, 

 that any further increase of income would have been still more useless to him 

 than it had been to the testator. 



Much as Mr Cavendish effected for the promotion of physical science 

 throughout his life, it has not been unusual, even for his warmest admirers, to 

 express some regret that he did not attempt to do still more after his death, by 

 the appropriation of a small share of his immense and neglected wealth, to the 

 perpetual encouragement of those objects, which he had himself pursued with 

 so much ardour. But however we might be disposed to lament such an omission, 

 we have surely no reason to complain of his determination to follow more nearly 

 the ordinary course of distribution of his property, among those whose relation- 

 ship would have given them a legal claim to the succession, if he had not con- 

 cerned himself in directing it. We may observe on many other occasions, that 

 the most successful cultivators of science are not always the most strenuous 

 promoters of it in others; as we often see the most ignorant persons, having 

 been rendered sensible by experience of their own deficiencies, somewhat 

 disposed to overrate the value of education, and to bestow more on the improve- 

 ment of their children than men of profounder learning, who may possibly 

 have felt the insufficiency of their own accomplishments for insuring success 

 in the world. But even if Mr Cavendish had been inclined to devote a large 

 share of his property to the establishment of fellowships or professorships, for 

 the incitement of men of talents to a more complete devotion of their lives to 

 the pursuit of science, it is very doubtful whether he could have entertained a 

 reasonable hope of benefiting his country by such an institution: for the highest 

 motives that stimulate men to exertion are not those which are immediately 

 connected with their pecuniary interests: the senators and the statesmen of 

 Great Britain are only paid in glory; and where we seek to obtain the co- 

 operation of the best educated and the most enlightened individuals in any 

 pursuit or profession, we must hold out as incentives the possession of high 

 celebrity and public respect; assured that they will be incomparably more 

 effectual than any mercenary considerations, which are generally found to 

 determine a crowd of commercial speculators to enter into competition for the 

 proposed rewards, and to abandon all further concern with the objects intended 

 to be pursued, as soon as their avarice is gratified. To raise the rank of science 

 in civil life is therefore most essentially to promote its progress : and when we 

 compare the state, not only of the scientific associations, but also of the learned 



