412 Proceedings. 



between the learned and unlearned, — that "learned Brahminism," as it has 

 been called, which shuts out the general public 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 everything 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 ex^^loded, 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, fi-om which the general community 

 was excluded. But the result of s\xch an experiment among ourselves would 

 be certain failure ; for, although it 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 

 ofi" 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 diff'erent countries of Europe during the seventeenth 

 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 diff'used among the public. Their labours were, to some extent, 

 understood and valued. In Germany, on the other hand, there was no such 

 commiinity 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 eflPorts at conciliation. There is a jiassage 

 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, " tlie learned were secluded from the world. Buried in their studies, 

 they only looked for honour from posterity while woi'king for their contem- 



