THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 301 



interesting must it be for those who have been born 

 members of this international republic of learning to 

 trace the way in which this confederation has grown up 

 what have been the different national contributions to 

 its formation, and how the spirit of exact science, once 

 domiciled only in Paris, has gradually spread into all 

 countries, and leavened the thought and literature of the 

 world. 



