142 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



this epoch, 1 received an abundance of means, of which 

 up to that time there was no idea in France, and which 

 still form the finest ornament of the University." 



Similar passages might be collected in which Cuvier 

 enlarges on the influence of war and revolutions, of the 

 Continental blockade and the isolation of the country ; on 

 the reconstruction of hospitals and the admission of medi- 

 cal science into the Academy ; on the creation of new 

 industries ; on the development of the mining and mineral 

 wealth of the country ; on the scientific value of colonies 

 and travels, and many other interesting topics. In con- 

 fining myself more closely to the history of thought and 

 the growth of the modern scientific spirit, I will make 

 some reflections which his remarks force upon us. 



32. I have noted above how France more than any other 

 country worked for the popularisation of science, how her 



than other . 



countries to polite literature alone during the eighteenth century bears 



popularise * 



the strong impress of modern scientific ideas ; no other 

 country has a Fontenelle, a Voltaire, a Buffon. This 

 peculiarity must be recognised as a very powerful and 

 valuable stimulus to the growth of the scientific spirit. 

 It emanates largely, if not exclusively, from the peculiar 

 position of the old Academy of Science. It must, how- 

 ever, not be forgotten that it was not a popularisation of 

 the kind we witness nowadays. 



33. The class of literature which in our age spreads broad- 

 betwaenthe cast the discoveries or ideas of science ; the endless num- 



literary and r 



the national b e r of magazines, reviews, and daily papers; the small 

 tion. treatises, the cheap primers, the compact text-books, did 



1 They were the three " Ecoles de 

 Saute*" at Paris, Strasbourg, and 

 Montpellier (see Htppeau, ' L'ln- 



struction publique en France,' vol. 

 ii. p. 194). 



