344 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



be attained by the study of the sciences, properly so 

 called. Even to be proposed as a foreign associate is an 

 honour of which the most illustrious philosophers of all 

 countries are ambitious. There is additionally attached to 

 each section a class of corresponding members, who may 

 be either natives or foreigners, and collectively number 

 one hundred. 



The Academic Fran^aise, the Academy of Inscriptions 

 and of the Belles-Lettres, that of the Fine Arts, and that 

 of Moral and Political Sciences, have each their special 

 constitution. 



The five Academies of which we have spoken together 

 constitute the entire body of the Institut de France; 

 which, in accordance with every successive form of 

 government, has in turn been characterised as National, 

 Royal, or Imperial. To the Convention belongs the 

 honour of having thus grouped into one whole all the sci- 

 entific, artistic, and literary associations of France ; and 

 to succeeding governments the honour, which is per- 

 haps scarcely less, of having resisted the excitement of 

 the day, and of having steadily maintained the line of 

 conduct first adopted by the members of the Convention. 



At the period of its constitution, according to the lavr 

 of the 5th Fructidor, in the year III. (22nd August, 1795), 

 the Institute comprised only three sections (viz. : the sec- 

 tion of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, that of Moral 

 and Political Sciences, and that of Literature and the Fine 

 Arts). Napoleon, when First Consul, increased this 

 number to four by dividing the section of Moral and 

 Political Sciences. Louis XVITL maintained, with slight 

 modifications, the same form of organisation, but he gave 

 to each section the title of Academy, and finally in 1832 

 Louis Philippe re-established the section of Moral and 

 Political Sciences under the title of an Academy. 



