Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 413 



poraries. Their honest, but uncoutli, ways had nothing in common with the 

 manner's 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. Eather 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 a 

 correspondence, not with their own countrymen, but with philosophers in 

 England or France. Hevelke became a member of the Royal Society in 

 England ; Louis XIY. gave him a 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 hj the jjublic, 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 



