230 
Notices of Books. 
[July 
Our system of education is undoubtedly the root of the evil : yet it is not suf- 
ficient to account altogether for the low estimation into which true science has 
fallen, or for the fact of its having been almost universally replaced by the con- 
temptible system of tricking and puffery here exposed. An almost equally power- 
ful cause will be found in the want of national encouragement, which is the 
disgrace of England. In the true spirit of a nation bontiquiere, it is said that 
every commodity, and science amongst the rest, will always, if left to itself, fetch 
its true value ; and that if required by the public, the demand will necessarily 
occasion the requisite supply. But the maxim thus applied is as erroneous as 
it is contemptible. Mr. Babbage has well shown, that science consists of two 
parts, theory and practice — in other words, principles and useful results. The latter 
are the effect of the application of those principles to the affairs of life. Now the 
investigation of each class of truths is so distinct, that seldom or ever do the 
qualities of mind, requisite for their discovery, unite in the same individual. But 
it is the latter alone that the public know any thing of, and consequently to 
those who excel in the discovery of practical applications, and to them alone, 
is the encouragement of the public given. The investigator of the principles 
which have been applied, though equally entitled to the reward, is altogether 
lost sight of. The discoverer, for instance, of the principle of latent heat, as 
it has been called, had no share of the immense reward which fell to his lot, who 
suggested merely one application of so general a law. Yet had Watt not known 
of this law, would he have ever stumbled on the capital improvement of condens- 
ing the steam in a separate vessel. The inventor of the reflecting quadrant could 
have done little but for the previously known laws of optics ; nor could the astro- 
nomer have derived much benefit from the instrument, when invented as applicable 
to determine the longitude, but for those abstruse researches of the mathematician, 
which, assisted by a~ few observations, enables him to predict the exact place of 
the heavenly bodies. It will, in fact, be found throughout, that theory and practice 
must go on together, or, to speak more correctly, practice cannot move a step but 
as she leans on theory. The limits of the latter will be the limits of the former. 
Now what encouragement has any one, however well qualified by nature, to devote 
himself to this branch of the subject? If he be independent, he may perhaps, urged 
by the strong bias implanted by nature, pursue a path where neither profit nor 
distinction, as emanating from the Government, await him ; but if he has to struggle 
against the angustas res domi, he will of course turn his attention and talents to 
some more promising occupation. 
In other countries the case is different; there men of science not only reap dis- 
tinction and pecuniary reward, but are considered eligible to the first appointments 
in the state. Mr. Babbage gives a long list of these ; amongst which we may men- 
tion, as known to all our readers, Laplace, a Marquis, and President of the Con- 
servative Senate ; Carnot, Minister of War •, Cliaptal, a Count, and Minister of the 
Interior; Cuvier, a Baron, and Minister of Public Instruction: the latter, too, 
having to struggle with the prejudice against his religion, (the reformed.) The 
consequence of this difference of system is, that on the continent, and specially in 
France, science is in the most flourishing and prosperous condition; while in Eng- 
land we are day after day losing all that once made our distinction. Even our 
mechanical arts connected with science, the encouragement of which can never be 
trusted to the commercial spirit, are fast losing ground. The achromatic teles- 
copes of Dollond, which once made us a name all over the globe, have been eclipsed 
by the productions of an establishment at Munich 2 , assisted as they were by the 
successful efforts of an obscure Swiss clock-maker 3 , to manufacture glass of a 
superior quality, and in larger pieces. This is one of the many practical evils 
attending that total indifference to the scientific character of the country, which is 
particularly indicative of a Government incapable of appreciating the value of 
science, and ignorant of the fostering cares required to assist its progress. 
We wish our limits would permit us to give a more complete idea of this work, 
but we can but glance at some of his topics. Amongst other causes of the decline 
of science, he considers the fallen condition of the Royal Society as not the least 
influential. To be a Fellow of that Society, is evidently no longer a distinction; 
a circumstance the more to be regretted in a country where the Government is 
passive with regard to science. The picture given of the proceedings of this So - 
ciety i s pitiable in the extreme, and must, we should think, from the strong 
revulsion of feeling which it will occasion in the public, lead to a reform. We 
cannot afford space to enter into all the statements given on this subject, but one 
I 
a Frauen hofer’s. * M. Guiuand, 
