Gerard Moll to Faraday   24 December 1830

Utrecht 24 December 1830

I am much obliged to you my dear Sir! for the kind notice which you have been pleased to take of my paper on the invention of the telescope¹. In future I shall be most happy in submitting to the approbation of the proprietors of the Journal of the Royal Institution any paper of mine which might appear to me not to be unworthy of appearing in such a respectable publication. I cannot indeed refrain from stating that I have a great mind to say a few words to Mr Babbage about his recent publication on the State of Science in England². I believe indeed that he took an erroneous view of the question and that many things which he admires in foreign countries are far inferior to what he might have found at home. You justly observe that you ought not remain ignorant of what is done elsewhere; but there is a great difference between a just estimate of foreign exertions and extolling them beyond measure above what is done in your own country. We certainly must endeavour not to suffer ourselves to be swayed by national prejudice but we must take equal care not to carry our admiration of foreigners so far, as to be unjustly severe against our own countrymen. This, I apprehend, is the case with Mr Babbage and with many other Englishmen, who cherish his opinions. You have long been, in a great measure ignorant of what was done on the continent; this want of information naturally occasioned self complacency, and very often it was with great reluctancy that English writers did justice to the conspicuous merits of french, Italian, and German philosophers. From this unjust contempt some amongst you have run in the other extreme of unbounded admiration. I believe you have been mistaken in both ways, and the truth lays between. The national, Imperial or royal Institute of France, is alike undeserving the sneers which have been thrown out against it, and of the high encomiums which have bestown upon its members. There, and every where there is much which is bad, mixed with a greater and smaller proportion of good. But be that ratio what it may, I do not see that Mr Babbage is at all justified in thus undervaluing what is done in his own country. My friend now Sir James South, follows on the same side, he is determined to see every thing in black in England and to speak highly on the Scientific institutions of foreign countries³. But he himself, the identical Sir James South is a direct proof of the fallaciousness of his own words. Show me such another man, show me a Surgeon in France, who rose to such a Scientific eminence in anything except surgery. Mr Bailey⁴ [sic] is another proof of the contrary of what I understand him & his friends to assert. Let it be shewn that there exists amongst the 30 millions of frenchman, one broker, nay even one merchant, who is an astronomer. Where am I to find on the exchange of Paris a merchant like Mr Roscoe⁵. They accuse the present Royal Astronomer⁶ of Selling the copies of the Greenwich observations to a grocer; at the Royal Observatory of Paris there can be little danger of such an irregular proceeding, since I heard it publicly stated by an eminent German Astronomer, at the late meeting of Philosophers at Hamburg that in the space of eight months, not even an Observation was made at Paris for ascertaining the rate of their clock!⁷ But all this would le[a]d me too far, and I will not enter deeper in to such an abundant source of recrimination[.]

The last article of your kind letter requires a distinct answer. The object of the proprietors of the Quarterly Journal is not profit, no more is mine! I have been publishing pretty much, perhaps too much; but I can safely swear that I never got the least pecuniary reward for my labours; nay, my country me<<n>> will very often take it into their heads that it is my bounden duty, to giv<<e>> my opinion upon any scheme which they may think proper to lay befor<<e me>> and that my time and exertions must be entirely at their disposal. Un<<der>> such circumstances I cannot accept the proposals of your Committee, but I would feel obliged to them if they would favour me with a few copies of my paper to be given to my particular friends; half a dozen will satisfy my utmost wishes. If when in London, they will confer upon me the favour of being admitted to the library & collections of the Royal Institution I will feel exceedingly obliged to them.

At the close of this year, I cannot, I presume, make you a better wish, than that you may succeed entirely in the course of the next, in furnishing opticians, with such flint glass, as may give full scope to the skill and dexterity of your own Dollonds and Tullys⁸.

I am Dear Sir! | Yours very truly | G. Moll

Any parcel directed to H. Braaksma Esq 71 Great Queensstreet Lincoln’s Inn fields⁹ will come to hand, as will any letter, which latter may be also simply directed to Prof. Moll Utrecht[.]