4io UNIVERSAL ERUDITION; 



preceded by the (late, encouraged, and fome- 

 times rewarded with honours and emoluments 

 by the Ibvereign. Such are the Royal Society 

 of London , that which is called Nature Curto- 

 forum in Germany , that in the fame country 

 for the improvement of the language -, and ma- 

 ny others. Thefe focieties commonly fix their 

 aflemblies at fome determined place , chufe a 

 prefident or diredlor, a fecretary, &c. but at 

 the fame time they admit learned foreigners to 

 be enrolled with them. Before the connexions 

 between the European nations were folidly efta- 

 blifhed, before the invention of pofts, gazettes, 

 and literary journals, before navigation was fo 

 much improved, and travelling fo much prac- 

 tifed by learned men, ere yet the art of printing 

 was eftablifhed, and libraries were formed, in 

 every country, it was permiflible to fuppofe that 

 the mufes favoured certain privileged places; 

 and that the arts and fciences were there cultiva- 

 ted with an exclufive advantage. But fince thefe 

 happy alterations have taken place, the learned, 

 the men of genius, the artifts of Europe, and of 

 the whole world, form but one republic, in 

 which the inhabitants of the banks of the Ta- 

 gus, the Seine, and the Neva, have an equal 

 right. Experience Ihows that men are born 

 every where with the fame organs, the fame fa- 

 culties and dilpofitions of the mind , and that 

 there is no more difference between their mental 

 abilities, than between the oaks of different 

 countries. National diftincTions are, therefore, 



baniihed 



