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    intellect ^ Either intellect is the first of all human possessions , that which in its own nature id fitted to rule , and which for the good , not of its possessors , but of the world , ought to be exalted over the heads of all , and to have the sole guidance of human affairs , all persons being ranked and estimated according to the share they possess of it ; eithet this , or it is a mere instrument of the convenience and pleasure of those

    to whom , by some totally different title , the direction of the world ' s affairs happens to belong , and is to be rated at the value which they put upon it , in proportion to the u&e it is of to them , and to its relative importance among the other things which conduce to their gratification . Whoever deems more highly of wisdom than he deems of rope-dancing , vy nucvcr ueems mure mguiy ui wisuom man ne aeems or rope-aancmg ,

    or at most of cotton-spinning , cannot think less of it than that it ought to rule the world ; and , knowing that to be its proper station , he will , on the one hand , by the conscientious use of such power as it gives him , do the utmost which an individual can do to place it there ; and , on the other , he will never , by any act of his , acknowledge the title of any competitor ; far less put up a petition that a nod or a civil word from

    the usurper may be occasionally vouchsafed to the rightful prince . The State ought to yield obedience to intellect , not to sit in judgment upon it , and affect to determine on its pretensions , w So long as no conventional distinctions are conferred upon intellect , the State abstains from putting any value upon it , and leaves it to assume its proper place , without deciding what that place is : but when it affects to confer a distinction , and confers the very lowest in the

    conventional scale , it does set a value on intellect , and rates the highest honour which is due to intellectual attainments exactly on a par with the lowest which can be claimed from any adventitious circumstance . Is this the ' honour to science' which scientific men should be desirous of ? There is but one thing which Government , as at present constituted , can do for scientific men , and that is the one thing wnich is not thought of . It is absurd in the State to confer upon them what it calls honouru ; but it may afford them the means of subsistence , not as a reward , but

    to enable them to devote themselves to their scientific pursuits , without hinderance from those petty occupations which they are mostly obliged to follow for their daily bread . Every Arson of scientific eminence , whose genius and acquirements , destined m the best to perish so soon out of the world , are in a great measure lost to it while he is living , for want of some small provision which would keep him independent of

    mechanical drudgery : every person of distinguished intellectual powers , whom society has not sense enough to place in the situation in which he can be of the greatest use to it , is a reproach to society , and to the age in which he lives . It is here , if any where , that improvement may be hoped for ; and we hope it is here that we shall in time , see it contended for .

    28 th May . The change in the Ministry . —We have had little faith hitherto in the impression which generally prevailed , of divisions in the Ministry , amounting to a decided difference of principle between two sections of it . We had been so much accustomed to find members of the Cabinet who were reputed the most liberal , making themselves tfe organs of whatever was most illiberal in its practical policy , that the pM * sent Bchismin the Cabinet has taken us almost by surprise . We confess

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    Honovrs to Science . 455

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 455, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/73/