Reflections on the Decline of Science in England

Of national encouragement.

The little encouragement which at all previous periods has been afforded by the English Government to the authors of useful discoveries, or of new and valuable inventions, is justified on the following grounds: 

1.  The public, who consume the new commodity or profit by the new invention, are much better judges of its merit than the government can be.

2.  The reward which arises from the sale of the commodity is usually much larger than that which government would be justified in bestowing; and it is exactly proportioned to the consumption, that is, to the want which the public feel for the new article.

It must be admitted that, as general principles, these are correct:  there are, however, exceptions which flow necessarily from the very reasoning from which they were deduced.  Without entering minutely into these exceptions, it will be sufficient to show that all abstract truth is entirely excluded from reward under this system.  It is only the application of principles to common life which can be thus rewarded.  A few instances may perhaps render this position more evident.  The principle of the hydrostatic paradox was known as a speculative truth in the time of Stevinus; [About the year 1600] and its application to raising heavy weights has long been stated in elementary treatises on natural philosophy, as well as constantly exhibited in lectures.  Yet, it may fairly be regarded as a mere abstract principle, until the late Mr. Bramah, by substituting a pump instead of the smaller column, converted it into a most valuable and powerful engine.—­The principle of the convertibility of the centres of oscillation and suspension in the pendulum, discovered by Huygens more than a century and a half ago, remained, until within these few years, a sterile, though most elegant proposition; when, after being hinted at by Prony, and distinctly pointed out by Bonenberger, it was employed by Captain Kater as the foundation of a most convenient practical method of determining the length of the pendulum.—­The interval which separated the discovery, by Dr. Black, of latent heat, from the beautiful and successful application of it to the steam engine, was comparatively short; but it required the efforts of two minds; and both were of the highest order.—­The influence of electricity in producing decompositions, although of inestimable value as an instrument of discovery in chemical inquiries, can hardly be said to have been applied to the practical purposes of life, until the same powerful genius which detected the principle, applied it, by a singular felicity of reasoning, to arrest the corrosion of the copper-sheathing of vessels.  That admirably connected chain of reasoning, the truth of which is confirmed by its very failure as a remedy, will probably at some future day supply, by its successful application, a new proof of the position we are endeavouring to establish.

[I am authorised in stating, that this was regarded by Laplace as the greatest of Sir Humphry Davy’s discoveries.  It did not fail in producing the effect foreseen by Sir H. Davy,—­the preventing the corrosion of the copper; but it failed as a cure of the evil, by producing one of an Opposite character; either by preserving too perfectly from decay the surface of the copper, or by rendering it negative, it allowed marine animals and vegetables to accumulate on its surface, and thus impede the progress of the 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, and is admitted, that a knowledge of science is a recommendation to public appointments, and that a man does not make a worse ambassador because he has directed an observatory, or has added by his discoveries to the extent of our knowledge of animated nature.  Instances even are not wanting of ministers who have begun their career in the inquiries of pure analysis.  As such examples are perhaps more frequent than is generally imagined, it may be useful to mention a few of those men of science who have formerly held, or who now hold, high official stations in the governments of their respective countries.

Country.  Name.  Department of Public Office. 
Science.

France ..  Marquis Laplace¹ Mathematics President of the
Conservative
Senate.

France ..  M.Carnot Mathematics Minister of War.

France ..  Count Chaptal² Chemistry Minister of the
Interior.

France ..  Baron Cuvier[3]     Comparative       Minister of
Anatomy,           Public
History          Instruction

Prussia..  Baron Humboldt      Oriental          Ambassador
Languages         to England

Prussia..  Baron Alexander The celebrated Chamberlain to
Humboldt Traveller the King of
Prussia

Modena .  Marquis Rangoni⁴ Mathematics Minister of
Finance and
of Public
Instruction,
President of
Italian Academy
of Forty.

Tuscany .  Count Fossombroni Mathematics Prime Minister
[5] of the Grand Duke
of Tuscany.

Saxony ..  M. Lindenau⁶ Astronomy Ambassador.

[1] Author of the MECANIQUE COELESTE. [2] Author of TRAITE de CHIMIE APPLIQUE AUX arts. [3] Author of LECONS D’ANATOMIE COMPAREE—­RECHERCHES SUR OSSEMENS FOSSILES &c. &c. [4] Author of MEMORIA SULLE FUNZIONI GENERATRICI, Modena, 1824, and of various other memoirs on mathematical subjects. [5] Author of several memoirs on mechanics and hydraulics, in the Transactions of the Academy of Forty. [6] Author of tables BAROMETRIQUES, Gotha, 1809—­TABULAE VENERIS, NOVAE et CORRECTAE, Gothae, 1810—­INVESTIGATIO NOVA ORBITAE A MERCURIO CIRCA SOLEM DESCRIPTAE, Gothae, 1813, and of other works.

M. Lindenau, the Minister from the King of Saxony to the King of the Netherlands, commenced his career as astronomer at the observatory of the Grand Duke of Gotha, by whom he was sent as his representative at the German Diet.  On the death of the late reigning Duke, M. Lindenau was invited to Dresden, and filled the same situation under the King of Saxony; after which he was appointed his minister at the court of the King of the Netherlands.  Such occurrences are not to be paralleled in our own country, at least not in modern times.  Newton was, it is true, more than a century since, appointed Master of the Mint; but let any person suggest an appointment of a similar kind in the present day, and he will gather from the smiles of those to whom he proposes it that the highest knowledge conduces nothing to success, and that political power is almost the only recommendation.