by minds of a common order. It is an
error of the present age to believe that the time for what is called
patronage is altogether passed away. Let me mention two instances to
the contrary: one in which kindly help would have saved fifteen years of
a noble life; another in which that kindly help did actually permit a
man of exceptional endowment and equally exceptional industry to pursue
investigations for which no other human being was so well qualified, and
which were entirely incompatible with the earning of the daily bread.
Dr. Carpenter has lately told us that, finding it impossible to unite
the work of a general practitioner with the scientific researches upon
which his heart was set, he gave up nine-tenths of his time for twenty
years to popular lecturing and writing, in order that he might exist and
devote the other tenth to science. "Just as he was breaking down from
the excessive strain upon mind and body which this life involved, an
appointment was offered to Dr. Carpenter which gave him competence and
sufficient leisure for the investigations which he has conducted to such
important issues." Suppose that during those twenty years of struggle he
_had_ broken down like many another only a little less robust--what
then? A mind lost to his country and the world. And would it not have
been happier for him and for us if some of those men (of whom there are
more in England than in any other land), who are so wealthy that their
gold is positively a burden and an encumbrance, like too many coats in
summer, had helped Dr. Carpenter at least a few years earlier, in some
form that a man of high feeling might honorably accept? The other
example that I shall mention is that of Franz Woepke, the
mathematician and orientalist. A modest pension, supplied by an Italian
prince who was interested in the history of mathematics, gave Woepke
that peace which is incompatible with poverty, and enabled him to live
grandly in his narrow lodging the noble intellectual life. Was not this
rightly and well done, and probably a much more effectual employment of
the power of gold than if that Italian prince had added some rare
manuscripts to his own library without having time or knowledge to
decipher them? I cannot but think that the rich may serve the cause of
culture best by a judicious exercise of patronage--unless, indeed, they
have within themselves the sense of that irresistible vocation which
made Humboldt use his fortune as the serva