by Dr Thomas Young 447 



professions in this country and among our neighbours, we shall feel little reason 

 to regret the total want of pecuniary patronage that is remarkable in Great 

 Britain, with respect to every independent department of letters, while it is so 

 amply compensated by the greater degree of credit and respectability attached 

 to the possession of successful talent. It must not however be denied, that even 

 in this point of view there might be some improvement in the public spirit of 

 the country: Mr Cavendish was indeed neither fond of giving nor of receiving 

 praise ; and he was little disposed to enliven the intervals of his serious studies 

 by the promotion of social or convivial cheerfulness: but it would at all times 

 be very easy for an individual, possessed of high rank and ample fortune, of 

 correct taste and elegant manners, to confer so much dignity on science and 

 literature by showing personal testimonies of respect to acknowledged merit, 

 as greatly to excite the laborious student to the unremitting exertions of patient 

 application, and to rouse the man of brilliant talent to the noblest flights of 

 genius. 



