truths on which such
applications are founded. Unless there exist peculiar institutions
for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly
interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit from his
ingenuity, whilst he who unravels the laws of light and vision, on which
multitudes of phenomena depend, shall descend unrewarded to the tomb.

Perhaps it may be urged, that sufficient encouragement is already
afforded to abstract science in our different universities, by the
professorships established at them. It is not however in the power of
such institutions to create; they may foster and aid the development of
genius; and, when rightly applied, such stations ought to be its fair
and honourable rewards. In many instances their emolument is small; and
when otherwise, the lectures which are required from the professor are
not perhaps in all cases the best mode of employing the energies of
those who are capable of inventing.

I cannot resist the opportunity of supporting these opinions by the
authority of one of the greatest philosophers of a past age, and of
expressing my acknowledgments to the author of a most interesting piece
of scientific biography. In the correspondence which terminated in the
return of Galileo to a professorship in his native country, he remarks,
"But, because my private lectures and domestic pupils are a great
hinderance and interruption of my studies, I wish to live entirely
exempt from the former, and in great measure from the latter."--LIFE
OF GALILEO, p.18. And, in another letter to Kepler, he speaks with
gratitude of Cosmo, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who "has now invited me
to attach myself to him with the annual salary of 1000 florins, and with
the title of Philosopher and principal Mathematician to his Highness,
without the duties of any office to perform, but with most complete
leisure; so that I can complete my treatise on Mechanics, &c."--p.31.
[Life of Galileo, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.]

Surely, if knowledge is valuable, it can never be good policy in a
country far wealthier than Tuscany, to allow a genius like Mr. Dalton's,
to be employed in the drudgery of elementary instruction. [I utter these
sentiments from no feelings of private friendship to that estimable
philosopher, to whom it is my regret to be almost unknown, and whose
modest and retiring merit, I may, perhaps, have the misfortune to offend
by these remarks.