t, by national neglect, the _cause_ of
science is injured, her progress retarded. Not only is she not
honoured, she is dishonoured; and in no civilized nation is this
contempt of physical science carried to a greater extent than in
England, the country of commerce and of manufactures.

In this country, should a father observe in his gifted son a tendency
to physical philosophy, he anxiously endeavours to dissuade him from
this career, knowing that not only will it tend to no worldly
aggrandizement, but that it will have the inevitable effect of
lowering his position in what is called, and justly called, good
society--the society of the most highly educated classes. At one of
our universities, physical science is utterly neglected; at the other,
only certain branches of it are cultivated. There are, it is true,
university professors of each branch of physics, some of whom are able
to collect a moderate number of pupils; others are obliged to carry
with them an assistant, to whom alone they lecture, as Dean Swift
preached to his clerk. But what part of the regular academic education
does the study of Natural Philosophy occupy? It forms no necessary
part of the examinations for degrees; no credit is attached to those
who excel in its pursuit; no prizes, no fellowships, no university
distinction, conferred upon its most successful votaries. On the
contrary, physical, or at all events experimental, science is tabooed;
it is written down "snobbish," and its being so considered has much
influence in making it so: the necessity of manipulation is a sad
drawback to the gentlemanliness of a pursuit. Bacon rebuked this
fastidiousness, but in vain. "We will, moreover, show those who, in
love with contemplation, regard our frequent mention of experiments as
something harsh, unworthy, and mechanical, how they oppose the
attainment of their own wishes, since abstract contemplation, and the
construction and invention of experiments, rest upon the same
principles, and are brought to perfection in a similar manner."[19]

[19] Impetus Philosophici, p. 681.

Unfortunately, the fact of experimental science being rejected by the
educated classes and thrown in a great measure upon the artizans of a
country, has conducted, among other evils, to one of a most
detrimental character; viz. the want of accuracy in scientific
language, and consequently the want of accuracy in ideas. Perfection
in language, as in every thing else, is not to be