he arts of life.

The two courses are rarely compatible, only indeed when the discoverer,
having published his process, enters into equal competition with other
manufacturers.

If an individual adopt the first of these courses, and retaining his
secret, it perish with him, the world have no right to complain. During
his life, they profited by his knowledge, and are better off than if the
philosopher had not existed.

Monopolies, under the name of patents, have been devised to assist and
reward those who have chosen the line of pecuniary profit. Honorary
rewards and medals have been the feeble expressions of the sentiments
of mankind towards those who have preferred the other course. But these
have been, and should always be, kept completely distinct. [It is a
condition with the Society of Arts, never to give a reward to any thing
for which a patent has been, or is to be, taken out.]

Let us now consider the case of platina. A new process was discovered of
rendering it malleable, and the mere circumstance of so large a quantity
having been sent into the market, was a positive benefit, of no ordinary
magnitude, to many of the arts. The discoverer of this valuable process
selected that course for which no reasonable man could blame him;
and from some circumstance, or perhaps from accident, he preserved no
written record of the manipulations. Had Providence appointed for that
disorder, which terminated too fatally, a more rapid career, all the
knowledge he had acquired from the long attention he had devoted to the
subject, would have been lost to mankind. The hand of a friend recorded
the directions of the expiring philosopher, whose anxiety to render
useful even his unfinished speculations, proves that the previous
omission was most probably accidental.

Under such circumstances it was published to the world in the
Transactions of the Royal Society. But what could induce that body
to bestow on it their medal? To talk of adding lustre to the name of
Wollaston by their medal, is to talk idly. They must have done it then
as an example, as a stimulus to urge future inquiries in the career of
discovery. But did they wish discoveries to be so endangered?

The discoveries of Professor Mitscherlick, of Berlin, had long been
considered, by a few members of the Society, as having strong claims on
one of its honorary rewards; but difficulties had arisen, from so few
members of the Council having any knowledge of discoveries whi