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We are therefore led, however reluctantly, to the con- 

 clusion that the character of English learning has for 

 some time been gradually loosing weight. Indeed this 

 was almost a necessary consequence after the splendid 

 demonstrations of the last century. Such eras are al- 

 ways followed by an age of imitation, from which we can 

 not expect the bold and strong developements of origi- 

 nality and invention. But in these matters as in every 

 thing human, the downward tendency has always a limit, 

 at which some strong hand arrests and sustains the sub- 

 ject, and gives it an impulse and direction towards new 

 excellence. We may therefore hope that we are now 

 approaching a new era in literature of a higher and more 

 rational character. These remarks will not be deemed 

 invidious. Babbage's reasons for the decay of science 

 in England, though in general characterized by petu- 

 lance and acerbity, are nevertheless, not groundless, 

 and though a refutation has been attempted, it has not 

 been either satisfactory or triumphant. 



If these premises be true, and the expectation of a 

 change for the better be as reasonable as I have supposed, 

 the effect of associations tending to combine science with 

 literature cannot fail to be a most efficient agent in has- 

 tening such results. For without discussing the more 

 minute and particular causes alleged for the decay of 

 science in England, such as the exclusive character of 

 the universities, and the inaction and silence of their pro- 

 fessorships, we may notice that nearly from the time of 

 Newton a prejudice has been at work in England, whose 

 direct effect must be to disparage science by detracting 

 from its uses, and to emasculate and unnerve literature 

 by washy or trivial subjects. Up to this time, English 

 literature and science had been closely allied; there had 

 till then been no boundary drawn between them, from 

 which the domain of the one was accounted luxuriant 

 and benignant, and that of the other harsh and sterile. 

 The poets till then had remembered the advice of Quintil- 

 lian, that there is no science or art with which they should 



