1832.] State of Science in En gland. 199 



In Dr. Brewster's Journal for October, which I have just received, 

 there is a somewhat tart critique upon a pamphlet written by a fo- 

 reigner, and prefaced by Mr. Faraday, on the subject I have mention- 

 ed ; and by it my attention has been particularly excited. This fo- 

 reigner comes forward in defence of the scientific men of England, 

 against the allegations of Sir H. Davy, Messrs. Babbage and Herschel, 

 Sir J. South, and others : and it seems sufficiently rash for a foreigner 

 to enter the lists with natives, or for any man to dispute the testimony 

 of witnesses so competent, upon such a subject. Indeed it appears 

 absurd to impugn their evidence upon any ground whatever, whether 

 of motive, capacity, or actual information. Yet there may be no ab~ 

 surdity in inquiring, what the real amount of their testimony is. And I 

 cannot but think there is something radically delusive in the phrase, 

 a Decline of Science in England" which has been adopted to ex- 

 press the conclusion to which their depositions lead. For surely it 

 could not be intended, that there is a literal decline of science in En- 

 gland, in such a manner that any thing previously known or acquired 

 has been lost, or is beyond the reach and attainment of the present 

 generation of our scientific men; or that the circle illuminated by 

 scientific information and accomplishments is contracted, and the vo- 

 taries of science in England are decreasing in numbers. No one would 

 credit such testimony, by whomsoever it was advanced. But in what 

 other sense can there be said to have been a decline of science in 

 England, unless it be that there is not the same progressive activity in 

 science which there was some little time ago ? Now if this be the de- 

 cline of science meant, we may — nay, I suppose, we must — admit it. But 

 in what is it either wonderful or alarming ? It is in strict analogy with 

 all other strenuous movements. They have their irresistible impulses 

 with succeeding pauses, in which strength is gathered for new and 

 still stronger efforts. What have we lost that has brought us up to the 

 present point of scientific progression ? The human mind in Great 

 Britain has not yet given any symptoms of dotage. Its powers 

 remain in their full strength. And there are now multitudes in their 

 cradles, and multitudes more unborn, who will bring to scientific inqui- 

 ry as acute penetration, as profound abstraction, and as inventive a 

 genius as any of their forefathers. The original faculties, by the 

 exercise of which science is to prosper, are unscathed ; and the facts 

 which we are now slumbering over, will, in due time, strike on the 

 minds of those who are to be our future Newtons, or Davys, or 

 Herschels, or Babbages, or Brewsters, and enkindle glorious concep- 

 tions to dazzle succeeding generations by their splendour and majesty. 



