text:  A learned writer of the present day has the following passage in reference to the state of science in England as contrasted with other countries:--"When the proud science of England pines in obscurity blighted by the absence of the royal favour and the nation's sympathy; when her chivalry fall unwept and unhonoured how can it sustain the conflict against the honoured and marshalled genius of foreign lands?"[25] [25] Brewster's Life of Newton p