— 70 — 



directly beneficiai are more than counter-balanced by inclirect effects that are de- 

 trimental. 



« Too large a space would be required were I to state in full the reasons 

 which bave forced this belief upon me, and which bave led me to decline scientific 

 honours in England. I may, however, give the chief reason, by quoting a passage 

 from my reply to the President of the Koyal Society, on the last occasion on which 

 I was invited to become a candidate for fellowship. 



« Other reasons, however, remain. In the case of the Koyal Society, as in the 

 case of other learned bodies, there grows up, in addition to the first purpose, a 

 second purpose, which eventually becomes predominant. Cooperation for the advance 

 of knowledge is the originai purpose ; the wearing a badge of honour in the derived 

 purpose ; and eventually the derived purpose become more important than the ori- 

 ginai purpose. New badges of honour of this kind are beneficiai or mischievous ac- 

 cording to circumstances. When given to men early in their careers, they serve them 

 as authoritative endorsements ; and thus diminish the difficulties to be contended 

 with. When, contrariwise, they are not given, an increase of these difficulties results. 

 Absence of the endorsement becomes an additional hindrance. The world at large, 

 little capable of judging, and led by marks of this kind, thinks lightly of those 

 who do not bear them, and pays relatively less attention to any thing they do. There 

 arises in fact, to use a sporting metaphor, a kind of inverse handicapping — a sy- 

 stem under which those who, from youth or other causes, are already at a disad- 

 vantage, are artificially disadvantaged stili more; while those who bave already 

 surmounted their difficulties, bave their progress artificially facilitated. Evils arise 

 from this, of which my own experience has made me conscious. If, within a mo- 

 derate time after the publication of the Pmiciples of Psychology, in 1855, a pro- 

 posai to join the Koyal Society had been made to me, it is possible that the hope 

 of having my path made somewhat easier, might bave overridden the feeling descri- 

 bed ab ove. But during the long period through which I was frittering away what 

 property I possessed in publishing books that did not pay their expenses, there 

 carne no such aid. There came, rather, the hindrance which, as I bave said, results 

 from the non-possession of a mark of distinction possessed by others — a hindrance 

 shown at home by the long neglect of my books by the press, and abroad by the 

 absence, until recently, of translations. The naturai difficulties, which are quite great 

 enough and often prove fatai, and were more than once nearly proving fatai in my 

 own case, are thus made greater than naturai. That many aspirant should be killed 

 off" in the struggle to gain recognition, may be, on the whole, salutary ; though, 

 among them, adverse circumstances probably extinguish some of the best. But I thinke 

 it undesirable that the naturai struggle should be made artificially more severe for 

 those whose circumstances are already unfavorable. » 



« The conviction which prompted me to take the course thus intimated, not with 

 respect to the title of P. K. S. only, but with respect to other titles, is one which 

 I stili entertain, and in conformity with which I must continue to act. If, therefore, 

 it is observed that on the title-pages of my books, my name appears without inti- 

 mation of that corresponding membership which the Koman Academy has honoured 



