182 Nations latelx) become Literary. [CilXXVI. 



regularly attend the literary fairs, and that their 

 number is rapidly increasing. 



In Great Britain and Ireland there are seven 

 universities. In Germany there are thirty-nine* ; 

 each of which maybe considered as a grand focus 

 from which the rays of light are thrown over the 

 Avhole adjacent country, thus illuminating the 

 empire, and bringing the means of knowledge to 

 almost every door. 



Within a few years a taste for the acquisi- 

 tion of living languages has remarkably prevailed 

 in Germ.any. Perhaps the inhabitants of no 

 country are so much disposed as those of the Ger- 

 man empire to learn the languages of other na- 

 tions. Beside the English and French, which 

 have a very general currency (being read and 

 spoken by a very large portion of their literary 

 men), the Italian, Spanish, and Swedish are taught 

 in many of their seminaries of learning. The 

 great increase of this taste is one of the circum- 

 stances which preeminently distinguish German 

 literature in the eighteenth century. 



The interests of letters and science have seldom 

 received very extensive or permanent aid from 

 government in Germany. The constitution of the 

 empire prevents any material aid of this kind from 

 being rendered, especially on a large scale, A 

 few of the subordinate princes have distinguished 

 themselves by their efforts for the advancement 



* Six of these universities were founded during the eighteenth 

 century ; viz. those of Gdtnngen, Erlahgen, Fulda, Bom> Butzow, 

 and Stutgard. 



