2io THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



It is beyond dispute that the bitter relations existing 

 between England and France at this time were softened 

 by the attitude of literary and scientific men on both 

 sides of the Channel. The French naturalists, as a rule, 

 were ardent republicans, but they were Naturalists first. 

 The British scientists eschewed politics altogether, con- 

 tent with their traditions and with a national stability 

 which recent events in Europe seemed powerless to 

 disturb. Hence, such a body as the Institut National 

 occupied a unique position ; between the world and the 

 devil, it may be said. In one way, it was enabled to profit 

 by the prevailing disorders and dissensions, seeing that it 

 afforded an intellectual refuge for those who could not 

 entirely keep away from the storm. 



In November, 1801, Count Rumford sent word from 

 Paris to Sir Joseph, to the effect that the Institut had 

 elected a number of foreign members, including among 

 them Banks, Cavendish, Herschel, Maskelyne, and 

 Priestley. 



Sir Joseph Banks to the President and Secretaries of the 

 National Institut of France. 



" LONDON, January 21, 1802. 



" CITIZENS, Be pleased to offer to the Institut my 

 warmest thanks for the honour they have done me in 

 conferring upon me the title of Associate of this learned 

 and distinguished Body. 



" Assure at the same time my respectable brothers 

 that I consider this mark of their esteem as the highest 

 and most enviable literary distinction which I could 

 possibly attain. To be the first elected to be an Associate 

 of the first Literary Society in the world surpassed my 

 most ambitious hope, and I cannot be too grateful toward 

 a Society which has conferred upon me this honour, and 

 toward a nation of which it is the literary representative. 



