things of the past. At present, all we can say is, that matters are improving at such a rate that... that they may be allowed, without disadvantage, to improve a little longer. If men of science were suddenly called upon to administer any extensive scheme of public endowment for science, this improvement might be checked, which would be unfortunate.
As regards the class of men who would come forward if science were endowed, much would doubtless depend on the position offered to the candidates for office, and on the qualifications demanded. In these days of competitive examinations, it seems probable that careful preliminary inquiry would be made into the proficiency of the candidates, at least in departments of learning associated with their special science. Again, it may be presumed that every office under the new system would have definite duties attached to it, even though matters were so arranged that ample time would be left for original research. It ought certainly to be arranged, moreover, that from time to time every holder of a salaried office should be called upon to give satisfactory proof that he was not wasting his own time and the nation's money. It would be unpleasant if a large salary were assigned for life to a zealous student of science, and then, by some accident, his zeal diminished. The mere loss of so much money annually would be of little importance to the nation; but the discredit to science would be a very serious matter. Unfortunately, those who ought to know assert that among the persons who seem most earnest in the cause of science, and who not only seem, but are exceedingly earnest in advocating the endowment of science, there are not wanting men who may be characterized as "scientific Micawbers, waiting for something to turn up." They may be recognized by men of discernment, because of their tendency to dilate upon their own work, to take credit for the work or methods of others, and to urge (anticipating, perhaps, the endowment of science) that large salaries should be given for the discharge of exceedingly indefinite duties. In any wide scheme for the endowment of research these persons would have to be carefully watched. The money wasted on them would be a matter of very little moment; but science would be degraded in the eyes of the world, and mischief, not easily reparable, would be wrought, if such men as these worked their way into the best-paid offices.
It may, perhaps, be urged that a system of payment by results might be established. Mr. Mattieu Williams, the ingenious author of "The Fuel of the Sun," in a letter commenting upon a leading article (mine, as it chanced) in the Chemical News for September 5, 1873, advances this as the only sound and natural principle of public endowment for science. The case seems very simple as he presents it: "If a fund for the payment of scientific research existed," he says, "the genuine worker might send in his bill with the paper communicating the results of his researches, and such a bill, after being fairly
