Natural History in Foreign Countries, 75 



expect to see, unless from M. Decandolle, till our Encyclopadia and 

 Hortus have been some time in circulation. 



The naturalists and other scientific men of Paris have great advantages 

 over those of London. The French government devotes a large sum 

 annually to the support of scientific and literary institutions in the metro- 

 polis. Public lectures on every subject may be attended gratis ; the most 

 complete museums and libraries are of the easiest access. The social meet- 

 ings at the houses of distinguished individuals, or of public bodies, such, 

 for example, as those of the Baron Cuvier, the Baron F^russac, the Insti- 

 tute, the Athenaeum, &c., are frequent ; and the intercourse at such meet- 

 ings is of real use to literary men, because difference of worldly circum- 

 stances enters into them for little or nothing. It is not to be wondered, 

 therefore, that with superior native vivacity and acuteness, and all these 

 opportunities, the French philosophers should be the first in the world. To 

 profit from this state of things, a stranger should reside in Paris at least 

 two years ; and this we would most strongly recommend to parents, as the 

 finishing process previous to travelling, for young men of from sixteen to 

 twenty years of age. 



Man in the North of France, — As we gave our opinion (Vol. I. p. 482.) 

 on the natural and artificial character of man in the south of Germany, we 

 hope to be excused for offering a few remarks in a natural-history point of 

 view on man in the north of France. Whether our opinion be considered 

 right or wrong, we shall only say that it is not to be considered as hastily 

 formed after a single visit ; because we have been in France at different 

 times since 1814, and met with French people in various parts of Europe 

 before and after that period. Our opinion is, that the Frenchman of the 

 northern provinces is, by nature, a superior animal to either the English* 

 man or the German ; but that by education, including the influence of 

 government, religion, and the backward state of the useful arts, he is, at 

 present, inferior to them. The cause of the natural superiority we con- 

 sider to be principally the climate, and chiefly the superior purity and free- 

 dom from moisture of the air. This element is inhaled by us for what may 

 be called its nutriment, during every moment of our existence, and its 

 quality must, therefore, have an effect upon our constitution and character, 

 so much greater than all the other elements of nutrition put together, that 

 it is hardly possible for us to form an adequate idea of the full extent of 

 its influence. The next powerful natural agent is temperature, and, we 

 think, it may be very safely affirmed that of any two people, alike in respect 

 to education and civilisation, those will be highest in the scale of excel- 

 lence, who have been born, and who live, in the purest air and mildest 

 climate. If agriculture and the useful arts, including government and reli- 

 gion, were as far advanced in France as in England, we think the French- 

 man would be the superior character to the Englishman ; and were the arts 

 in France equal to the arts in England, and the state of education equal 

 to what it is in Wurtemburg, we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that 

 the Frenchman in the latitudes of Paris and Rouen would be the first being 

 in the west of Europe. Some may think this conclusion humbling, but \ve 

 cannot see how it is to be avoided. There is some presumption that man in 

 certain parts of Asia Minor and Greece, and possibly of Italy, might attain 

 to a higher degree of perfection than in France, as civilisation first began to 

 spread in these countries ; but our comparison does not extend to them. 



The native excellence of the character of the French consists in the 

 warmth of their affections, and in the clearness and rapidity of their intel- 

 lectual faculties. Their native faults are, of course, the extremes of their 

 native virtues; insincerity, because they are led by the warmth of their 

 feelings to promise more than, upon trial, theyiind they can perform ; and 

 speculative rather than useful science, because the reward of the latter is 

 the work of time, and requires the exercise of patience, while the lustre of 



