ing to gain in novelties; but after all, it is observed by one of
our great authors four thousand years ago, that 'he who studies old
books will always find in them something new, and he who reads new books
will always find in them something old.' But to return to the question
you have raised, there being then amongst us no stimulus to painstaking
labour, whether in desire of fame or in pressure of want, such as have
the poetic temperament, no doubt vent it in song, as you say the bird
sings; but for lack of elaborate culture it fails of an audience,
and, failing of an audience, dies out, of itself, amidst the ordinary
avocations of life."

"But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of
literature do not operate against that of science?"

"Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of truth
apart from all consideration of fame, and science with us too is devoted
almost solely to practical uses, essential to our social conversation
and the comforts of our daily life. No fame is asked by the inventor,
and none is given to him; he enjoys an occupation congenial to his
tastes, and needing no wear and tear of the passions. Man must have
exercise for his mind as well as body; and continuous exercise, rather
than violent, is best for both. Our most ingenious cultivators of
science are, as a general rule, the longest lived and the most free from
disease. Painting is an amusement to many, but the art is not what it
was in former times, when the great painters in our various communities
vied with each other for the prize of a golden crown, which gave them a
social rank equal to that of the kings under whom they lived. You
will thus doubtless have observed in our archaeological department how
superior in point of art the pictures were several thousand years ago.
Perhaps it is because music is, in reality, more allied to science than
it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurable arts, music is that which
flourishes the most amongst us. Still, even in music the absence of
stimulus in praise or fame has served to prevent any great superiority
of one individual over another; and we rather excel in choral music,
with the aid of our vast mechanical instruments, in which we make great
use of the agency of water,* than in single performers."

* This may remind the student of Nero's invention of a musical machine,
by which water was made to perform the part of an orchestra, and on
which he was employed wh