They made him an F.R.S., the first working man who had ever
attained that honour. They tried to get him put upon the Civil List,
but the First Lord of the Treasury had already, according to the usual
custom, given away the annual grant made by the House for Literature,
Science and Art, to the widows and daughters of Civil servants. This
attempt failing, the Royal Society, in order to take him away from his
drudgery, created a small sinecure post for him, and in this way found
an excuse for giving him a pension.
Then some writer in a London 'Daily' asked how it was that with his
genius for science, which, it was now recalled, had been remarked
while he was a student at the South London Poly, this man had been
allowed to remain at his trade.
And the answer was, 'Because there is no opening for such an one.'
It is very astonishing, when we consider the obvious nature of certain
truths, to remark how slow man is to find them out. Now, this
exclusion of all those who could not afford to pay his toll to the man
at the gate had, up to that moment, been accepted as if it were a law
of Nature. As in other things, men said, if they talked about the
matter at all, 'What is, must be. What is, shall be. What is, has
always been.
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