68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



or other of the eighteen influences becoming favorable or unfavorable. 

 The author, himself descended from the Huguenots, lays just stress on 

 the influence of religious refugees, whose traditions were to work in a 

 disinterested way for the public good, and at the same time to avoid 

 politics. The refugees rarely had their property in land, of which the 

 oversight occupies time, but in movable securities ; thus they had 

 leisure for work. Then, again, as they were debarred from local poli- 

 tics, the ambition, especially of those who had taken refuge in small 

 countries, was to earn the approval of the enlightened men all over 

 Europe, and this could most easily be effected by doing good work in 

 science. Out of the ninety-two foreign associates of the French Acad- 

 emy, no less than ten were descended from religious refugees, usually 

 in the third or fourth generation. Switzerland had eight out of the 

 ten, and we may thence easily gather how enormously she is indebted 

 to the infusion of immigrant blood. Similarly, the only two American 

 associates Franklin and Rumford were descended from Puritans. 



The blighting effect of dogmatism upon scientific investigation is 

 shown both in Catholic and Protestant countries. The Catholics are 

 the more dogmatic of the two, and they supply, in proportion to their 

 population, less than one-quarter as many of the foremost scientific 

 men as the Protestants. There is not a single English or Irish Catho- 

 lic among the ninety-two French foreign associates. Austria contrib- 

 utes no name, and the rest of Catholic Germany is almost barren. 

 In Switzerland, the scientific productiveness of the Catholics is only 

 j that of the Protestants. Again, the Catholic missionaries have 

 done nothing for science, notwithstanding their splendid opportuni- 

 ties. In past days, when they were absolute masters of vast countries, 

 as Paraguay and the Philippines, the smallest encouragement and in- 

 struction given at the college of the Propaganda to young and apt 

 missionaries -would have enriched Rome with collections of natural 

 history. If any city more than others deserved to have the finest bo- 

 tanical garden and richest herbarium, it is Rome ; but she has scarce- 

 ly any thing to show. 



The most notable instance of the repressive force of Protestant 

 dogmatism is to be found in the history of the republic of Geneva. 

 During nearly 200 years (1535 to 1725) its laity as well as clergy were 

 absolutely subject to the principles of the early Reformers. Instruc- 

 tion was imposed on them ; nearly every citizen was made to pass 

 through the college, and many attended special courses at the Acad- 

 emy, yet, during the whole of that period, not a single Genevese dis- 

 tinguished himself in science. Then occurred the wane of the Calvin- 

 ist authority, between 1720 and 1735. Social life and education be- 

 ing country like England, the proportion of the youthful population to those of an age 

 sufficient to enable them to become distinguished is double what it is in Franco, where 

 population is stationary; and injustice may be done by these tables to England in some- 

 thing like that proportion. They require entire reconstruction. 



