Not many mighty, not many
noble, received this gift, but it was the inexhaustible heritage of the
humble, it was the rich reward of the intelligent of all races that
peopled the earth. To whomsoever given, this gift was intended to
contribute to the health and the wealth of the human race, for the
bringing into existence new products, for their utilization for the
encouragement of the general intelligence of the nations, and for the
lightening of the burdens of the poor. It would also cause technical
education to be more highly valued as a means to an end--for true
inventive genius was never so likely to succeed as when it passed from the
summit of the known to the confines of the possible, when, having learnt
and appreciated what predecessors had accomplished, it went earnestly to
work to solve the next problem, to remove the next obstacle on the path
which to them had proved insurmountable.
More beneficial than any other change whatever in our legislation would be
a full and cordial recognition, a complete and efficient protection, of
property created by thought. Then the humblest individual in the land
might have confidence that he could call into existence property not
inferior in value to that of the richest landowner, the most successful
merchant, or the most wealthy manufacturer, in the whole world. As an
instance of this Admiral Selwyn mentioned two prominent cases arising out
of the pursuit of two widely differing branches of knowledge, in the one
case by an outsider, in the other by a specialist.
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