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things out of the common road. Or if here and there 

 one should venture to use a liberty of judging, he can 

 only impose the task upon himself, without obtaining as- 

 sistance from his fellows: and if he could dispense with 

 this, he will still find his industry and resolution a great 

 hindrance to the raising of his fortune; for the studies of 

 men in such places are confined and pinned down to the 

 writings of certain authors, from which, if any man hap- 

 pen to differ, he is presently reprehended as a disturber 

 and an innovator. But there is certainly a great differ- 

 ence between arts and sciences and civil affairs: for the 

 danger is not the same from new light as from new com- 

 motion. In civil affairs it is true a change even for the 

 better is suspected through fear of disturbance, because 

 these affairs depend upon authority, consent and reputa- 

 tion, and opinion, and not upon demonstration. But arts 

 and sciences should be like mines, resounding on all sides 

 with new works and farther progress; and thus it ought 

 to be according to right reason, but the case is in fact 

 quite otherwise; for the above mentioned administration 

 and policy of schools and universities, generally opposes 

 and greatly prevents the improvement of the sciences." 



These opinions of Bacon, so early expressed, and 

 which in their fullest sense, might seem applicable only 

 to the elder institutions, appear nevertheless to have been 

 strongly corroborated nearly in our own times, by Adam 

 Smith, Playfair and Babbage.* The remark of Smith, 

 which being made with more temper than the criticisms 

 of the others, is entitled to more credit, that " the great- 

 er part of universities have not been very forward to 

 adopt improvements after they were made : and that seve- 

 ral of those learned societies have chosen to remain for 

 a long time the sanctuaries in which exploded systems 

 found shelter and protection, after they had been hunted 

 out of every other corner of the world,"! should be good 

 ground for us to believe that in general much of the old 

 mischief may belong to establishments of more recent 

 • See Note 6. t Smith's Wealth of Nations, Book 5, Chap. 1 . 



