THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 



237 



have such a poor opinion of the English scientific journals, 

 a different judgment is entertained abroad, as is well 

 proved by the eagerness with which the German journal- 

 ists seize upon every article issuing from the presses of 

 their British colleagues. The value which is set in 

 Germany upon the scientific pursuits of the English, 

 the rapidity with which translations are made in Germany 

 of whatever English philosophers of some reputation pub- 

 lish, shows abundantly that in that country at least, in 

 docta Germania, a far greater value is set upon the pro- 

 ductions of English science than is done by Mr Herschel 

 and his friends." 1 



has remedied this defect; and special 

 periodicals exist now in multitudes ; 

 but who could say that a third 

 point has been sufficiently attended 

 to viz., " the ignorance of foreign 

 languages, which prevails both in 

 England and in France : in Eng- 

 land the number of those who 

 acquire a smattering of French is 

 very small, and still smaller is the 

 number of those who know enough 

 of German to read a book in 

 that language without considerable 

 trouble " (Dr Moll, loc. cit., pp. 7, 8). 

 A fourth defect existing at that time 

 is worth mentioning, as we have long 

 left the age of such drawbacks ; it 

 "is the high price in England of 

 foreign books, in consequence of an 

 importation duty." The paper 

 duties were repealed in 1861. 



1 Moll, loc. cit., p. 7. Another pas- 

 sage is of interest, as bearing upon 

 the difference between the culture of 

 science in England and in France : 

 " At the time of the French Revolu- 

 tion it so happened, by the exer- 

 tions of d'Alembert, Clairault, Con- 

 dorcet, and others, that of all 

 sciences mathematics were the 

 most fashionable. . . . With this 

 view the Ecole Normale was 



founded, which, though of short 

 duration, was perhaps of more 

 utility towards the extension of 

 mathematical knowledge than all 

 the universities of Europe together. 

 It was there that Laplace, La- 

 grange, and Monge were lecturers, 

 and men like Lacroix among the 

 hearers. The study of classics 

 having been in a great measure 

 abolished by the French Revolu- 

 tion, mathematics were studied in 

 its stead ; and it thus happened 

 that a number of mathematicians, 

 unusually great, were scattered 

 over the soil of France, and every 

 one thought himself capable de 

 faire les x, as they themselves 

 called it, upon any given subject. 

 But most of these investigations 

 were all theoretical, and practical 

 applications were foregone in almost 

 every instance" (p. 11). "Mechan- 

 ics in particular do not seem acces- 

 sible, according to the tenets of the 

 French school, to any man not well 

 versed in sublime analysis. . . . 

 Hence it arises that many have 

 acquired a profound knowledge of 

 the higher branches of mathematics, 

 whilst the more elementary part of 

 mathematics, which leads to the 



