§ An analogous mistake often occurs to wealthy and benevolent persons residing in the country, who, finding in the son of their village blacksmith or other artificer, some great aptitude for figures, immediately conclude that if properly trained and then sent to College, he will turn out a great mathematician. Now although in very rare instances such cases may have occurred, the general result is quite different. The lad thus selected, if as is usually the case he is somewhat above the average intellect, will under such favourable circumstances probably acquire a considerable knowledge of science, and become a very respectable member of society. But if the benevolent person who thus totally changed the position in life of this young man, had first made inquiries at our national schools, he would probably have found several out of every hundred scholars, capable under similar treatment of acquiring a still larger amount of that knowledge. § With the increasing extension of science the labour of some of its details becomes excessive, and those who are able to afford the expense, gladly employ computers to relieve them from the more irksome portions of their toil. The reduction of astronomical and meteorological observations are of this kind. When once the formulæ to be used are decided upon, and a skeleton form is ruled or printed and a system of checks is devised, the remaining work may be executed by persons of very moderate attainments. This may be extended to the computation of the orbits of planets, of comets, and of double stars, and such assistance may usually be had on very moderate terms. In more extensive operations, the liability to error from the want of sufficient checks, and the great tediousness and even uncertainty of the result must remain, until mechanism shall entirely relieve the mind from these difficulties. § Let us now consider what is the present situation of men of science in England. The estimate which is formed of the social position of any class of society, depends mainly upon the answer to these two questions:— What are the salaries of the highest offices to which the most successful may aspire? What are the honorary distinctions which the most eminent can attain? Offices of a strictly scientific nature are few, and their salaries are generally of small amount: amongst these there are— A few of the professorships at our universities. The Astronomer Royal. The Astronomers of some of our Colonial Observatories. The Master of Mechanics to the Queen. The Conductor of the Nautical Almanac. The Director of the Museum of Economical Geology and of the Geological Survey. Various officers of the same institution. Some of the officers in the Natural History department of the British Museum. The most valuable of these, that of Astronomer Royal, receives about 1,300_l._ a-year, including a pension of 300_l._