"When public opinion shall be brought to bear upon the world of science, light will be thrown
on the characters of men, and the pretender and the charlatan will be driven into merited obscu-
rity. Without the action of public opinion, any administration, however anxious to countenance
the pursuits of science, and however ready to reward by wealth or honours those whom they think
most eminent, would run the risk of acting like the blind, man recently couched, who, having no
mode of estimating degrees of distance, mistook the nearest and most insignificant for the largest
objects in nature."-BABBAGE.
PUBLISHED BY M. SALMON,
MECHANICS' MAGAZINE OFFICE,
WINE OFFICE COURT, FLEET STREET.