226 



CHAPTEK III. 



THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IX ENGLAND. 



i. THE history of science in France and Germany during 



Scientific J 



organisation the first half of the present century is identical with the 



abroad. * * 



history of two great organisations, the Paris Institute and 

 the German Universities. It is to them that we owe 

 nearly all the great scientific work in the two countries : 

 to the former we owe the foundation of the modern 

 methods of scientific work during the last period of the 

 eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury; to the latter we owe pre-eminently the diffusion 

 and widespread application of those methods. 1 "We now 

 turn to the country which, in advance of France and Ger- 



1 In respect of this I cannot suffi- labours of the German universities 



ciently recommend M. Maury's during this century. The first im- 



volume on ' L'ancienne Acade"mie j pression we get from the perusal of 



des Sciences,' which is as eloquent j these two works is that for a long 



a testimonial to the scientific 

 labours of eminent Frenchmen 



period France almost monopolised 

 the exact sciences, just as later, 



during the eighteenth century as i for a similar period, Germany 

 the companion volume on ' L'an- 1 almost monopolised classical re- 

 cienne Acaddmie des Inscriptions search, the science of antiquity. 



et Belles Lettres ' is a proof of 

 the absence of philological studies 

 during that period. The recent 

 publication of Lexis' work, ' Die 

 deutschen Universitaten,' is just 



And yet the former was probably 

 as much indebted to the English- 

 man Newton as the latter was to 

 the Frenchman Joseph Scaliger for 

 the character each acquired during 



as eloquent a testimonial to the the two periods I refer to. 



