Recapitulation. 3\9^ 



former period. This remark may be extended to 

 the republic of letters. In all preceding ages, 

 learned men were in a great measure insulated. 

 Those of one country knew little of those of an- 

 other ; and if any one wished to obtain more par- 

 ticular information concerning the treasures of 

 knowledge possessed by an individual, or a na- 

 tion, he was under the necessity of travelling into 

 the country with which he sought to be acquaint- 

 ed, and of making personal inquiry for this p'ar- 

 pose. And even after the art of printing was dis- 

 covered, the intercourse between different parts 

 of the learned world was so small, for more tlian 

 two centuries, that some of the greatest benefac- 

 tors to the cause of knowledge were little known 

 out of their own country, and some but imper- 

 fectly even within these limits. 



In the eighteenth century it was remarkably 

 otherwise. The great extension of the art of 

 printing in this period, joined with the circum- 

 stances above stated, have brought all classes of 

 men in the literary world better acquainted with 

 each other, and especially those who are devoted 

 to the improvement of letters and science. The 

 number of literary journals in every part of Eu- 

 rope has greatly increased within the last fifty 

 years, their plans have been much improved, and 

 their circulation prodigiously extended j learned 

 individuals and societies now maintain a more free 

 and friendly correspondence than formerly; the 

 great improvements in post-office establishments, 

 within this period, have facilitated, to an unparal- 

 leled degree, the intercourse between distant pact? 



