419 | Proceedings. 
between the learned and unlearned,—that *learned Brahminism," as it has 
been called, which shuts out the general publie from all participation in 
scientific enquiries—has, no doubt, in former times had the effect of causing 
science to languish. This Institute, on the other hand, recognizes the opposite 
and the wiser principle, that in learning, as in everythiug else, there are 
gradations of excellence—that none are so high as to be able to dispense with all 
help, and none so low as not to be capable of giving some assistance ; and that 
even those who can do nothing at all in the way of contributions to the 
general stock of knowledge can do much by encouraging and cheering on the 
others. It is not very long ago that an opinion prevailed that the more 
exclusive a learned society was—the more rigidly it discarded those who had 
not reached a high standard of excellence—the more profound would be the 
work done, and the more would the cause of science flourish. It was thought, 
and I am not sure that the opinion is altogether exploded, that learning was 
best advanced by being prosecuted, so to say, in a concentrated form—by 
confining it to a small knot of learned men, from which the general community 
was excluded. But the result of such an experiment among ourselves would 
be certain failure ; for, although 3t is indispensable to the very existence of such 
a society as this, that it should contain among its members persons of learning 
and science, it is neither indispensable nor desirable that it should cut itself 
off from those who make no pretensions to these acquirements. The evils of 
isolation from outside sympathy receive, I think, an apt illustration in the 
condition of learning in different countries of Europe during the seyenteenth 
century. 
The contrast presented between those countries where learning was 
honoured and appreciated, and where there was a free interchange of ideas 
between the learned and the people at large, and those where learning was 
a thing apart from ordinary life, would, I think, be an interesting subject of 
study. During that period which I have mentioned, England, France, and 
Italy belonged to the former of these classes. Here the influence of learned 
men was diffused among the publie. Their labours were, to some extent, 
understood and valued. In Germany, on the other hand, there was no such 
community of feeling. Learned men were a class altogether apart. The 
people, steeped in ignorance, or, at best, but very imperfectly educated, looked 
with distrust upon their learned men ; while these, in their turn, regarded the 
people with contempt, and made no efforts at conciliation. There is a passage 
by the French academician, Duclos, which sets forth very well the great 
advantage to both classes—to the learned no less than the unlearned—arising 
out of the reciprocal action of the one upon the other. “In former times," he 
says, “the learned were secluded from the world. Buried in their studies, 
they only looked for honour from posterity while working for their contem- 
