Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its CausesBabbage, Charles
History
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes
Babbage, Charles
Royal Society (Great Britain); Science -- Great Britain -- History
MR. BRANDE--Clerk of the Irons at the Royal Mint; Professor of Chemistry
at the Royal Institution; Analyser of Rough Nitre, &c. to the East-India
Company; Lecturer on Materia Medica, Apothecaries' Hall; Superintending
Chemical Operator at ditto; Lecturer on Chemistry at ditto; Editor
of the Royal Institution Journal; and Foreign Secretary to the Royal
Society.
One should be led to imagine, from these unions of scientific offices,
either that science is too little paid, and that gentlemen cannot be
found to execute the offices separately at the salaries offered;
or else, that it is too well paid, since each requires such little
attention, that almost any number can be executed by one person.
The Director of the Royal Observatory has a larger and better collection
of instruments, and more assistants to superintend, than any other
astronomer in the world; and, to do it properly, would require the
almost undivided attention of a man in the vigour of youth. Nor would
a superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, if he made a point of being
acquainted with every thing connected with his subject, find his
situation at all a sinecure. Slight as are the duties of the Foreign
Secretary of the Royal Society, it might have been supposed that Mr.
Brande would scarcely, amongst his multifarious avocations, have found
time even for them. But it may be a consolation to him to know, that
from the progress the Society is making, those duties must become
shortly, if they are not already, almost extinct.
Doubtless the President, in making that appointment, looked most
anxiously over the list of the Royal Society. He doubtless knew that the
Academics of Sweden, of Denmark, of Scotland, of Prussia, of
Hanover, and of France, derived honour from the discoveries of their
Secretaries;--that they prided themselves in the names of Berzelius, of
Oersted, of Brewster, of Encke, of Gauss, and of Cuvier. Doubtless the
President must have been ambitious that England should contribute to
this galaxy of glory, that the Royal Society should restore the lost
Pleiad [Pleiades, an assemblage of seven stars in the neck of the
constellation Taurus. There are now only six of them visible to the
naked eye.--HUTTON'S DICTIONARY--Art. Pleiades.] to the admiring science
of Europe. But he could discover no kindred name amongst the ranks of
his supporters, and forgot, for a moment, the interest of the Society,
in an amiable consideration for the feelings of his surrounding friends.
For had the President chosen a brighter star, the lustre of his other
officers might have been overpowered by its splendour: but relieved
from the pain of such a contrast, he may still retain the hope, that,
by their united brightness, these suns of his little system shall yet
afford sufficient light to be together visible to distant nations, as a
faint NEBULA in the obscure horizon of English science.
SECTION 6. OF THE FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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