4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



who were pupils of the most celebrated professors held a secondary- 

 rank in science ; and we have to admit that, while illustrious savants 

 may give good instruction, good teaching doe3 not make illustrious 

 savatits. A deplorable effect of instruction is to diminish originality, 

 without some proportion of which quality a scientific man can not rise 

 above the mean. 



When we inquire what is the influence of religion upon the de- 

 velopment of scientific men, we find that the non-Christian countries 

 are completely foreign to the scientific movement. We have no right 

 to conclude from this that one has to be a Christian to be distinguished 

 in science, for there are many examples to contradict such an assertion. 

 We can only say that the Christian religion has been favorable to sci- 

 ence by its general influence upon civilization. We can at least affirm 

 that it has been, in the modern epoch, the only religion which has 

 coincided with a real scientific development. Between the divisions 

 of Christendom, the advantage is vastly in favor of Protestantism. 

 While the proportion of Protestant to Roman Catholic populations is 

 one to one and a half, Europe, outside of France, has furnished four 

 times as many Protestant as Roman Catholic foreign associates to 

 the French Academy of Sciences. France, where most of the Roman 

 Catholic scientific men reside, has furnished about an equal number of 

 Protestant and Roman Catholic foreign members of the Royal Society 

 of London. No English or Irish Roman Catholic name appears on the 

 list of the French Academy, although that Church includes a fifth of 

 the population of the United Kingdom. Austria is not represented 

 there, and Roman Catholic Germany makes but a poor showing by the 

 side of Protestant Germany. In Switzerland, where the Catholics are 

 to the Protestants as one to one and a half, not one of the foreign as- 

 sociates is a Roman Catholic. A similar difference appears to exist 

 as among Swiss, English, and Irish, of the two cults in the lists of the 

 London and Berlin societies. The difference is not attributable to any- 

 thing in the doctrines of the churches, but rather to the different atti- 

 tude direct or indirect of their clergy toward education, according 

 as it is their habit to prescribe by authority or to leave every one 

 free to form his own opinion. The more we proceed in an authori- 

 tative way, the more we repress curiosity, the mother of science, and 

 increase mental timidity. A population educated for many generations 

 under the principle of authority naturally becomes timid in intellectual 

 affairs. But a population habituated from infancy to scrutinize con- 

 cerns which it is told are of the greatest importance, like those of 

 religion, will not be afraid to examine purely scientific questions, and 

 will know better how to proceed to the solution of them. The fact, 

 already referred to, should not be forgotten, that a large number of 

 distinguished men of science have been the sons of Protestant pastors. 

 Remove from the list of savants of Protestant countries the names ap- 

 pertaining to this class, and we shall find the scientific standing of the 



