Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 413 
poraries. Their honest, but uncouth, ways had nothing in common with the 
manners of society. Men of the world, at that time less educated than now, 
respected indeed their labours and, still more, their renown, though they 
considered themselves incapable of holding intercourse with them. Rather out 
of respect than from aversion the learned were kept at a distance. Gradually, 
however, the taste for art and science made itself felt, so that at last those 
who had no natural liking for them thought it necessary to affect it. Now 
the men of science began to be sought out, and the more they mixed with the 
world, so much the greater was the pleasure afforded by their society. On 
both sides there was something gained. The men of the world cultivated their 
minds ; they became refined, and enjoyed new pleasures. The men of science 
gained for themselves favour and respect. Their intellectual faculties were 
brought into play ; their manners became more gentle, and they gained an 
insight into many truths which they never would have got from books.” Such 
is a description of the intellectual state of France and Italy and England 
during the seventeenth century. 
In Germany, on the other hand, the case was altogether different. Bacon’s 
philosophy had, indeed, not been altogether without effect here also ; but it 
had only taken possession of a few distinguished individuals, who either 
received no encouragement at all, or else were obliged to look for sympathy 
to foreign countries. The great Kepler, the discoverer of the laws of motion 
of the planetary bodies, died a beggar at Ratisbon, while soliciting from the 
Diet the arrears of his wretched pension. Otho, of Guericke, the inventor of 
the air-pump, and Hevelke, the discoverer of the libration of the moon, both 
pursued their studies in seclusion and at their own expense, carrying on à 
correspondence, not with their own countrymen, but with philosophers in 
England or France. Hevelke became a member of the Royal Society in 
England ; Louis XIV. gave him а pension, and it was a Frenchman who 
bought his writings. Learned societies, such as those which had been formed 
in London and Paris, were not so formed in Germany at that time. While 
such a state of things existed, one can understand the complaint of Leibnitz, 
that among all nations Germany alone was so unwise as not to recognize its 
learned men, and that, in the absence of that support from the people at large, 
the finest intellects of Germany would either be destroyed, or would seek an 
asylum with some other community more alive to the value of their services 
and to the advantage of their presence in its midst. Thus two evils affected 
the learned class ; on one hand it was held in no esteem by the public, and 
on the other it lost its own self-respect by being forced to exist in a state of 
servile dependence upon the caprice of the rich and powerful, either at home 
or abroad. While the learned of other nations could address their country- 
men in their mother tongue, those of Germany found it useless to write in 
