i88o.] 
Report on Scientific Societies. 
55i 
Continent as an unexpected revelation proof against all 
doubt, because it was appropriated by names possessing 
authority. What constitutes authority in science it were 
difficult to define ; yet its worship, although it be opposed 
to the very spirit of science, is in Germany and France, so 
to speak, without bounds. It were easy to prove by example 
that the test of infallibility is not applicable, if such a thing 
could be imagined, with respeCt to a human mind. Not 
only are the instances numerous where the authorities of 
one age have been scouted by those of the succeeding ; but 
even in the works of the greatest among them, whose repu- 
tations were acquired on the strength of real intellect and 
conspicuous services, schoolboys nowadays frequently may 
point out glaring mistakes committed or upheld by great 
masters only one generation behind. 
I have mentioned in a former letter the well-known faCt 
that a German philosopher who wished to bring out some 
novel theory in his country encountered so many difficulties 
that he absolutely went mad. Another who started similar 
ideas about the same time, having been repulsed in one 
quarter, took it for granted that the same had happened to 
him also in another, where it was not the case, so hopeless 
did he consider his endeavour to obtain a hearing. Adbually 
these ideas took wing in England, but not before, communi- 
cated also to the French Academy, they had been allowed to 
rest unnoticed in its archives for years (like the memoirs of 
Abel), notwithstanding repeated instances to have them exa- 
mined. I also have it out of the mouth of one, who is actually 
himself a chief authority on physical science in Germany, that 
an early work of his, now the principal foundation of his 
fame, had proved injurious to his university career, for being 
of too novel a character. It is a slight consolation to the 
individuals concerned, for the anxiety or pain they have 
suffered, to have had their names recently enrolled on the 
list of members of the French Academy, or to have received 
an honorary title from a German University ; and the 
damage which is done to Science by such proceedings, in 
all cases serious, is in many irreparable. Authority, 
whether exercised by academies or universities, would have 
its uses if it facilitated the endeavours of students during 
the early and more trying periods of their career, in which 
encouragement and aid are most welcome and needed ; but 
if, instead, it check or impede novices, and establish merely 
a kind of confraternity, the chief end of which is to keep 
new men out as long as feasible, and to uphold its own 
sway, I make bold to say that the liberty of thought 
