THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN FRANCE. 



105 



est was thus created in the proceedings and debates of the 

 Academy, and the discoveries of its ilhistrious members 

 found their way into the lectures and text-books of the 

 professors. Whatever eminence German science may have 

 gained in this century, from a purely literary point of 

 view, through the works of A. von Humboldt, or English 

 science through those of Darwin, the history of both 

 literatures during the eighteenth century can be written 

 almost without any reference to science at all so small 

 was the direct influence of such giants as Newton and 

 Leibniz on the popular mind. But who could exclude 

 from a history of the elegant literature of France the 

 names of Voltaire, of Buffon, of D'Alembert, or of Con- 

 dorcet ? These form a connecting link between science 

 and general literature.-^ A study either of English or 



eighteenth century in France. But 

 it became pojjular through the in- 

 fluence of the great schools of Paris. 

 Before becoming popular with the 

 masses it became so in cultivated 

 and literary circles. The result 

 has been that science in France 

 alone has attained to a perfect form 

 of expression. Whereas in other 

 countries the great models of origi- 

 nal research and thought were writ- 

 ten in the severe style handed down 

 by the ancients (Newton's ' Prin- 

 cipia ' and Gauss's ' Disquisitiones 

 Arithmetics '), the great work of 

 Lagrange (the ' ilecanique analy- 

 tique ') is a model of literary style 

 in the modern sense. Science in our 

 age has become popular through 

 its applications. It is the utili- 

 tarian spirit that has popularised 

 science in Germany and England. 

 In France alone science, before com- 

 ing under the influence of the utili- 

 tarian, came under that of the lit- 

 erary spirit. It was the influence of 



the academies that brought this 

 about. See Maury, ' Les Acade- 

 mies d'autrefois,' vol. i. p. 178, &c. 

 More than with Richelieu, the in- 

 terest in science nowadays is un- 

 fortunately only too often purely 

 " metallic " (quoted from Lord 

 Chesterfield's Letters). See also 

 on the literary as compared with 

 the modern practical character of 

 science, Maury, ibid., p. 161. 



^ " On erigeait meme en prin- 

 cipe la n(?cessite pour un philosophe 

 de ne rester etranger h, aucune 

 science. ' L'esprit philosophique 

 fait tant de progres en France de- 

 puis quarante ans,' ecrivait Voltaire 

 a madame Du Chatelet, en lui d^- 

 dlant sa tragedie d'Alzire, ' que si 

 Boileau vivait encore, lui qui osait 

 se moquer d'une femme de condi- 

 tion, parce qu'elle voyait en secret 

 Roberval et Sauveur, il serait oblig^ 

 de respecter et d'imiter celles qui 

 profitent publiquement des lumieres 

 des Maupertuis, des Reaumur, des 



