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Chap. IV. — State of the Arts and Sciences. — Academies. — King's Library.—Cabinets
of Natural Hiftory.—Cabinet of Models. — Gymnafia.—Public Schools.—Academy cf' Painting.—Patriotic Society. .
It cannot be diffembled that the number of learned Swedes is very inconfiderable;people read but little in general in Sweden , and are at very little pains for information ;the nobility efpecialiy may be looked upon as ignorant; the clergy there, as almoltevery where, are the belt informed ; yet in this clafs few are confpicuous. The lateKing, however, left the fciences in a far more improved ftate than that in which hefound them ; the academies, gymnafia, and fchools, all felt the benefit of the enlight-ened tafle of the fovereign.
The academies of Stockholm are three in number, exciufive of that of painting.
The-Academy of Sciences , founded in 1739,confifts of a hundred Swedifh members,,and a confiderable number of foreign affociates. Every three months it publifhes itsmemoirs in the Swedifh language ; its Prefident, like.wife, is nominated every quarter;it has no honorary, that is to fay ufelefs members, a Angularity we much admire. Ithas two perpetual fecretaries ; the cabinet of natural hiltory, and the obfervatory, ofwhich we {hall fpeak prefently, belong to the academy. The only fund it receives fromgovernment, confifts in its exciufive privilege of felling almanacs, which produces an-nually about two thbufand rix-dollars : its other revenues are derived from the gene-rofity of a number of citizens in eafy circumftances, among which M. Sahlgren, ofGottenburg, ftands foremoft. A part of the library of the academy is a donation ofM. Rofenadler; it contains fome valuable works—a Swedifh Bible, in {mail folio, printedat Upfal, ini 541, with wooden prints ; a New Teftament, in quarto, Stockholm , 1549 ;wooden prints, very rare; a New Teftament, the firft printed in Sweden, Stockholm ,1521, very rare ; this is a fmall folio, has fuffered from fire, and is not complete—theBattles of Duke Charles (Charles IX .), rare, on account of its being prohibited : thewhole of its firft apartment is filled with books in the Swedifh language. It is affirmed,that if contains all the works publifhed in that tongue, but for this we are far fromvouching. In a fmall room adjoining, are the memoirs of different academies, fomevoyages, works on natural hiftory, phyfics, &c. Such as treat of aftronomy are at theobfervatory.
The cabinet of natural hiftory is confided to the care of M. Sparmann , Dodtor ofPhvfic, known by his travels in Africa , and his refearches into natural hiftory ; he hasenriched this cabinet with a number of curious objedts colledted in his travels, eitherwhen by himfelf or with Captain Cook . The cabinet is claffed according to the fyftemof Linnaeus . When any fubjedt occurs wffiich is pofitively new, M. Sparmann ex-plains it at the fittings of the academy, at which the Swedifh language alone is fpoken*.In this colledtion we faw a great number of animals preferved in fpirits of wine.—Themember of a rhinoceros.— Mus pumilio from Africa . —An amphibious mcufe.—The
* We remarked before that the tranfaftions of the academy were publifhed in the Swedifh language.It is our opinion that the Swedifh language is not fufficiently diffufed, not well enough known, even to theliterary world, to juftify the omiffion on the part of the academy, of publifhing them in two languages, orat leaft in one more generally known. Many Swedifh authors have to attribute to this cirdrmftance thefmall fale of their publications, and the little fame they acquire. If Linnaeus had written in his own tonguehe would not have had lefs merit it is true, but certainly lefs celebrity.
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