Dr. Robinson of Armagh, a well-known investigator, has very properly pointed out[31] what has been done in this country towards giving assistance to those engaged in the pursuit of science, and mentions the Observatories maintained by the Universities and by the Nation. He says also that if anything more were to be done in increasing the amount of grants of money to assist scientific work, he thinks "it might be best applied in establishing in the great commercial {178} centres of the realm, physical and chemical laboratories such as that which the Duke of Devonshire has established at Cambridge, provided with the most refined apparatus, and accessible to all who are considered privileged by a competent tribunal." He also says "when there is found a man so far surpassing his fellows in any department of science that he may be expected to do work beyond their power, he ought to be made independent of any other pursuit, so that none of his time and energy may be lost, such a case is exceptional, and when it occurs it should be exceptionally provided for." Original research will for a long time to come, be opposed by a large section of the non-scientific public:--by the numerous persons whose source of income depends upon the ignorance of their fellow-men:--by those who are deficient of faith in demonstrable truth, and fear that their most cherished beliefs are endangered by it:--and by many of those who are insufficiently acquainted with it to perceive its great value to mankind. With regard to the fears of many objectors that the Endowment of Research would lead to jobbery and abuses, and thus retard the progress of discovery instead of promoting it; it is evident that such a risk is an inseparable concomitant of every remunerated office and is not peculiar to that of research, and must therefore be accepted as unavoidable and be provided against in the usual ways. It does not however appear probable that the risk in this respect is at all greater {179} than that already existing and provided against in many other appointments. Many persons, not clearly perceiving the difference between pure research and other scientific occupations, suppose that because science is encouraged in various ways in this country; and because sums of money are occasionally given to scientific institutions, and some scientific men are evidently receiving good incomes, that discoverers are remunerated, but this is a great mistake; there is probably not a scientific man in the kingdom who is wholly employed in such work in abstract physics or chemistry, and paid for his entire skill, time, and labour. Wherever payment is made for scientific labour, it is nearly always for that performed with a view to some immediate practical application. Inventors and expositors are remunerated, but discoverers are not.