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historical view of the

at Paris was founded in the reign of Louis XIV. , underthe administration of Colbert, in 16'66. The Instituteof Bologna, and several others in various parts of Eu­ rope , date their origin at about the same period.

The Academy of Sciences at Paris has approachedmore nearly, in one respect, to the model proposed byBacon , than any other institution of the same nature.It recognised, besides independent members, a class ofpensionnaires, twenty in number, who received salariesfrom the government, and were bound in their turns tofurnish the meetings with scientific memoirs; and eachof them also, at the beginning of every year, was ex-pected to give an account of the work in which he wasto be employed. The benefits derivable from some sortof endowment thus bestowed, are incalculable. Todetach a number of men of ability from every thing butscientific pursuits ; to deliver them alike from the et.. -barrassments of poverty, or the temptations of wealth;to give them a place and a station in society the mostrespectable and independent, is to remove every impe-diment, and to add every stimulus to exertion. “ Tothis institution,” observes professor Playfair, “ operatingupon a people of great genius and indefatigable activityof mind, we are to ascribe that superiority in the ma-thematical sciences which, for the last seventy years, hasbeen so conspicuous.” We may add, that, fully con-curring in the truth of this representation as far asrelates to the state of science and scientific men inFrance , we do not feel by any means sure that a similarsystem would succeed equally well in countries wherethe general constitution of society may be different, antithe national genius of a character in many respects dis-similar.

The Royal Society of London is an association per-fectly independent ; and whose members, so far frombeing pensioned, contribute to defray the expenses oftheir meetings and Transactions, which, consisting in agreat measure of elaborate memoirs, many of them ofan abstruse nature, and none of a popular character,