Decline of Science in England - Charles Babbage (reading well .txt) 📗
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vessel.]
Other instances might, if necessary, be adduced, to show that
long intervals frequently elapse between the discovery of new
principles in science and their practical application: nor ought
this at all to surprise us. Those intellectual qualifications,
which give birth to new principles or to new methods, are of
quite a different order from those which are necessary for their
practical application.
At the time of the discovery of the beautiful theorem of Huygens,
it required in its author not merely a complete knowledge of the
mathematical science of his age, but a genius to enlarge its
boundaries by new creations of his own. Such talents are not
always united with a quick perception of the details, and of the
practical applications of the principles they have developed,
nor is it for the interest of mankind that minds of this high
order should lavish their powers on subjects unsuited to their
grasp.
In mathematical science, more than in all others, it happens that
truths which are at one period the most abstract, and apparently
the most remote from all useful application, become in the next
age the bases of profound physical inquiries, and in the
succeeding one, perhaps, by proper simplification and reduction
to tables, furnish their ready and daily aid to the artist and
the sailor.
It may also happen that at the time of the discovery of such
principles, the mechanical arts may be too imperfect to render
their application likely to be attended with success. Such was
the case with the principle of the hydrostatic paradox; and it
was not, I believe, until the expiration of Mr. Bramah’s patent,
that the press which bears his name received that mechanical
perfection in its execution, which has deservedly brought it into
such general use.
On the other hand, for one person who is blessed with the power
of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of
applying principles; and much of the merit ascribed to these
applications will always depend on the care and labour bestowed
in the practical detail.
If, therefore, it is important to the country that abstract
principles should be applied to practical use, it is clear that
it is also important that encouragement should be held out to the
few who are capable of adding to the number of those truths on
which such applications are founded. Unless there exist peculiar
institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the
Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may
derive profit from his ingenuity, whilst he who unravels the laws
of light and vision, on which multitudes of phenomena depend,
shall descend unrewarded to the tomb.
Perhaps it may be urged, that sufficient encouragement is already
afforded to abstract science in our different universities, by
the professorships established at them. It is not however in the
power of such institutions to create; they may foster and aid the
development of genius; and, when rightly applied, such stations
ought to be its fair and honourable rewards. In many instances
their emolument is small; and when otherwise, the lectures which
are required from the professor are not perhaps in all cases the
best mode of employing the energies of those who are capable of
inventing.
I cannot resist the opportunity of supporting these opinions by
the authority of one of the greatest philosophers of a past age,
and of expressing my acknowledgments to the author of a most
interesting piece of scientific biography. In the correspondence
which terminated in the return of Galileo to a professorship in
his native country, he remarks, “But, because my private lectures
and domestic pupils are a great hinderance and interruption of my
studies, I wish to live entirely exempt from the former, and in
great measure from the latter.”—LIFE OF GALILEO, p.18. And, in
another letter to Kepler, he speaks with gratitude of Cosmo, the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, who “has now invited me to attach myself
to him with the annual salary of 1000 florins, and with the title
of Philosopher and principal Mathematician to his Highness,
without the duties of any office to perform, but with most
complete leisure; so that I can complete my treatise on
Mechanics, &c.”—p.31.” [Life of Galileo, published by the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.]
Surely, if knowledge is valuable, it can never be good policy in
a country far wealthier than Tuscany, to allow a genius like Mr.
Dalton’s, to be employed in the drudgery of elementary
instruction. [I utter these sentiments from no feelings of
private friendship to that estimable philosopher, to whom it is
my regret to be almost unknown, and whose modest and retiring
merit, I may, perhaps, have the misfortune to offend by these
remarks. But Mr. Dalton was of no party; had he ever moved in
that vortex which has brought discredit, and almost ruin, on the
Royal Society of England;—had he taken part with those who vote
to each other medals, and, affecting to be tired of the fatigues
of office, make to each other requisitions to retain places they
would be most reluctant to quit; his great and splendid discovery
would long since have been represented to government. Expectant
mediocrity would have urged on his claims to remuneration, and
those who covered their selfish purposes with the cloak of
science, would have hastened to shelter themselves in the mantle
of his glory.—But the philosopher may find consolation for the
tardy approbation of that Society, in the applause of Europe. If
he was insulted by their medal, he escaped the pain of seeing his
name connected with their proceedings.] Where would have been
the military renown of England, if, with an equally improvident
waste of mental power, its institutions had forced the Duke of
Wellington to employ his life in drilling recruits, instead of
planning campaigns?
If we look at the fact, we shall find that the great inventions
of the age are not, with us at least, always produced in
universities. The doctrines of “definite proportions,” and of
the “chemical agency of electricity,”— principles of a high
order, which have immortalized the names of their discoverers,
—were not produced by the meditations of the cloister: nor is
it in the least a reproach to those valuable institutions to
mention truths like these. Fortunate circumstances must concur,
even to the greatest, to render them eminently successful. It is
not permitted to all to be born, like Archimedes, when a science
was to be created; nor, like Newton, to find the system of the
world “without form and void;” and, by disclosing gravitation, to
shed throughout that system the same irresistible radiance as
that with which the Almighty Creator had illumined its material
substance. It can happen to but few philosophers, and but at
distant intervals, to snatch a science, like Dalton, from the
chaos of indefinite combination, and binding it in the chains of
number, to exalt it to rank amongst the exact. Triumphs like
these are necessarily “few and far between;” nor can it be
expected that that portion of encouragement, which a country may
think fit to bestow on science, should be adapted to meet such
instances. Too extraordinary to be frequent, they must be left,
if they are to be encouraged at all, to some direct interference
of the government.
The dangers to be apprehended from such a specific interference,
would arise from one, or several, of the following
circumstances:—That class of society, from whom the government
is selected, might not possess sufficient knowledge either to
judge themselves, or know upon whose judgment to rely. Or the
number of persons devoting themselves to science, might not be
sufficiently large to have due weight in the expression of public
opinion. Or, supposing this class to be large, it might not
enjoy, in the estimation of the world, a sufficiently high
character for independence. Should these causes concur in any
country, it might become highly injurious to commit the
encouragement of science to any department of the government.
This reasoning does not appear to have escaped the penetration of
those who advised the abolition of the late Board of Longitude.
The question whether it is good policy in the government of a
country to encourage science, is one of which those who cultivate
it are not perhaps the most unbiassed judges. In England, those
who have hitherto pursued science, have in general no very
reasonable grounds of complaint; they knew, or should have known,
that there was no demand for it, that it led to little honour,
and to less profit.
That blame has been attributed to the government for not
fostering the science of the country is certain; and, as far as
regards past administrations, is, to a great extent, just; with
respect to the present ministers, whose strength essentially
depends on public opinion, it is not necessary that they should
precede, and they cannot remain long insensible to any expression
of the general feeling. But supposing science were thought of
some importance by any administration, it would be difficult in
the present state of things to do much in its favour; because, on
the one hand, the higher classes in general have not a profound
knowledge of science, and, on the other, those persons whom they
have usually consulted, seem not to have given such advice as to
deserve the confidence of government. It seems to be forgotten,
that the money allotted by government to purposes of science
ought to be expended with the same regard to prudence and economy
as in the disposal of money in the affairs of private life.
[Who, for instance, could have advised the government to incur
the expense of printing SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY copies of the
Astronomical Observations made at Paramatta, to form a third part
of the Philosophical Transactions for 1829, whilst of the
Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, two
hundred and fifty copies only are printed?
Of these seven hundred and fifty copies, seven hundred and ten
will be distributed to members of the Royal Society, to six
hundred of whom they will probably be wholly uninteresting or
useless; and thus the country incurs a constantly recurring
annual expense. Nor is it easy to see on what principle a
similar destination could be refused for the observations made at
the Cape of Good Hope.]
To those who measure the question of the national encouragement
of science by its value in pounds, shillings, and pence, I will
here state a fact, which, although pretty generally known, still,
I think, deserves attention. A short time since it was
discovered by government that the terms on which annuities had
been granted by them were erroneous, and new tables were
introduced by act of Parliament. It was stated at the time that
the erroneous tables had caused a loss to the country of between
two and three millions sterling. The fact of the sale of those
annuities being a losing concern was long known to many; and the
government appear to have been the last to be informed on the
subject. Half the interest of half that loss, judiciously applied
to the encouragement of mathematical science, would, in a few
years, have rendered utterly impossible such expensive errors.
To those who bow to the authority of great names, one remark may
have its weight. The MECANIQUE COELESTE, [The first volume of
the first translation of this celebrated work into our own
language, has just arrived in England from—America.] and the
THEORIE ANALYTIQUE DES PROBABILITES, were both dedicated, by
Laplace, to Napoleon. During the reign of that extraordinary
man, the triumphs of France were as eminent in Science as they
were splendid in arms. May the institutions which trained and
rewarded her philosophers be permanent as the benefits they have
conferred upon mankind!
In other countries it has been found,
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