I Have No Desire To Write My

Precedents Are Treated By Powerful Minds As Fetters With Which To Bind Down The Weak, As Reasons With Which To Mistify The Moderately Informed, And As Reeds Which They Themselves Fearlessly Break Through Whenever New Combinations And Difficult Emergencies Demand Their Highest Efforts.

Perhaps It Would Be Better For Science, That All Criticism Should Be Avowed.

Science In England Is Not A Profession: Its Cultivators Are Scarcely Recognised Even As A Class. Our Language Itself Contains No Single Term By Which Their Occupation Can Be Expressed. We Borrow A Foreign Word [savant] From Another Country Whose High Ambition It Is To Advance Science, And Whose Deeper Policy, In Accord With More Generous Feelings, Gives To The Intellectual Labourer Reward And Honour, In Return For Services Which Crown The Nation With Imperishable Renown, And Ultimately Enrich The Human Race.

[in Response To Alfred Tennyson's Poem "vision Of Sin," Which Included The Line "every Moment Dies A Man, Every Moment One Is Born."] If This Were True, The Population Of The World Would Be At A Stand-still. In Truth, The Rate Of Birth Is Slightly In Excess Of Death. I Would Suggest That The Next Edition Of Your Poem Should Read: "every Moment Dies A Man, Every Moment 1 [and] 1/16 Is Born." Strictly Speaking, The Actual Figure Is So Long I Cannot Get It Into A Line, But I Believe The Figure 1 [and] 1/16 Will Be Sufficiently Accurate For Poetry.

I Am Inclined To Attach Some Importance To The New System Of Manufacturing; And Venture To Throw It Out With The Hope Of Its Receiving A Full Discussion Among Those Who Are Most Interestedin The Subject.