Of all steps in the social scale, that which first elevates a man into the class of Gentlemen is by far the greatest. In this country, where the differences of rank are great, there is fortunately, until we approach royalty, no absolute line of demarcation between any classes, except the one alluded to; even the peerage to a private gentleman is not so great an advance. It is without doubt very desirable that all classes should contribute to the intellectual advancement of the country. But unless different advantages are proposed to different classes, it is not possible to apply any general stimulus to all. § Those who maintain that science is its own reward, cannot have remarked the vicious circle in which they reason. The delight derived from discovery is indeed a high intellectual reward, but the force of this maxim is only known practically to those who have already advanced in the career of discovery: it can, therefore, never direct the inquirer into that line. All men are subject to the same feelings and passions. It is assuredly true that men of wealth and rank will be happier if they cultivate their faculties, and add to the amount of human knowledge: but they cannot be aware of this truth until they are considerably advanced, consequently it cannot have induced them to commence this cultivation. § But it is for the interest of those who are the consumers of knowledge, that all other minds should be induced to advance it: therefore it is our interest to place even before the highest classes, at the commencement of their career, motives for its pursuit. Having raised such expectations, justice requires us to fulfil them; nor can we regret that the advantages derived from the course into which we have invited them, should have proved beneficial to them beyond even the limits of our prediction. It is of the very nature of knowledge that the recondite and apparently useless acquisition of to-day, becomes part of the popular food of a succeeding generation. Thus the nobleman who spends his wealth in constructing unrivalled instruments, and his nights in scrutinizing with them the remotest boundaries of space into which human vision has yet penetrated, is preparing a source of pleasure and happiness for the descendants of those very peasants whom his practical skill in engineering has raised by his own instructions above the ranks in which he originally found them. § Another question has been raised, but not yet answered, respecting those pensions which have been awarded for scientific discoveries. A certain definite limit has been fixed by practice, which has never yet been exceeded in pensions assigned to science. The sum of three hundred a-year, the maximum of reward to science, is almost the minimum of reward for other services.