292 



a source of jealousy and quarrel among the learned men 

 of Europe. Even in our own day, the credit of having 

 succeeded in a difficult experiment in electro-magnetism, 

 made about the same time by our associate, Professor 

 Henry, and Mr. Faraday, has been secured to our coun- 

 tryman, merely from his having announced the results in 

 a communication to the American Philosophical Society. 

 These associations, therefore, by preventing discontent 

 and bickering and jealousy among men of science give 

 a certainty to their labors, and a moral excellence to 

 their characters, which could scarce be attained in any 

 other way.* 



Such associations have also much influence in prevent- 

 ing the vicious and demoralizing effects of empyricism and 

 pretence. We are not long in discovering that it does not 

 require much knowledge of a science to be able to talk 

 about it: And we have all met men of very plausible but 

 shallow attainment, who have nevertheless held for a 

 long time reputations to which they had but little title. 

 But when men associate, and are actively engaged in 

 scientific or literary pursuits, such dissimulation can be 

 but of short duration. When minds come into contact 

 with each other, the weak always bow to the powerful, 

 nor is there any panoply by which ignorance may be 

 made either defensible or strong. In such combinations 

 therefore, talent always finds its appropriate place, and 

 those who have for any length of time been thus connect- 

 ed, have an acknowledged value entitling them to great- 

 er trust, and of course enlarging the sphere of their use- 

 fulness. Men thus associated, have also greater indivi- 

 dual influence in society than they could otherwise pos- 

 sess; and are enabled to a very great extent to direct ap- 

 plications of industry and of ingenuity, which may chance 

 to fall under their observation. It is, for instance, no 

 uncommon thing, to find imperfectly educated mechanics 

 and artists, wasting time and skill and money upon pro- 

 j ects which are either impossible or useless, and^ which 

 •See Note 13. 



