then, not let them? Look at the vast contributions to geological knowledge
that have been made throughout the Union by men who were content with a
bare support, and glad to have the results of their labors published, as
they have been, at the public cost. Such men ask no copyright. When they
publish, it is almost always at a loss. Wilson lived and died poor. So did
Audubon, to whose labors we are indebted for so much ornithological
knowledge. Morton expended a large sum in the preparation and publication
of his work on crania. Agassiz did the same with his great work on fishes.
Cuvier had nothing but fame to bequeath to his family. Lamarck's great
work on the _invertebratae_ sold so slowly that very many years elapsed
before the edition was exhausted; but he would have found his reward had
he lived to see his ideas appropriated without acknowledgment, and
reclothed by the author of 'Vestiges of Creation,' of which the sale has
been so large. This, my friend, is the use for which such men as Lamarck
and Cuvier were intended. They collect and classify the facts, and we
popularize them to our own profit. Look at my works and see, bulky as they
are, how many editions have been printed, and think how profitable they
must have been to the publisher and myself. Look further, and see how
numerous are the books to which my labors have indirectly given birth. See
the many school-books in relation to botany and other departments of
natural science, the authors of which know little of what they undertake
to teach, except what they have drawn from me and others like myself.
Again, see how numerous are the 'Flora's Emblems,' and the 'Garlands of
Flowers,' and the 'Flora's Dictionaries,' and how large is their sale--
and how large must be the profits of those engaged in their production. To
recognize in such men as Cuvier and Lamarck the existence of any right to
either their facts or their deductions would be an act of great injustice
towards the race of literary men, while most inexpedient as regards the
world at large, now so cheaply supplied with knowledge. As regards the
question of international copyright now before the Senate, my views are