OF FORMER TIMES. 



297 



and analytical science. Polite literature and statistics were almost swal- 

 lowed up ill the vortex of natural philosophy; and logic, or rather dialectics, 

 usurped the place of induction. Rome, moreover, like Athens, does not 

 appear to have been possessed of any public establishment for a general 

 course of science, similar either to the universities or the Institutions of the 

 present day. 



There are various writers who have endeavoured to draw up lists of Greek 

 and Roman names, from the books that have descended to us of persons who 

 were celebrated, in their respective eras, in different branches of the arts and 

 sciences. Among the most complete of these are the tables of the Baron de 

 Sainte Croix, of the Academy of Belles Lettres : and as nothing can give us 

 a clearer idea of the prevailing taste and inclination of a people, than a com- 

 parison of the numbers of those engaged in one department with those en- 

 gaged in others, I have taken some pains to form, from these tables, an esti- 

 mate to this effect. The tables extend through nearly the whole range of 

 Grecian history (though they are confined to that history), from the uncer- 

 tain times of Orpheus and Cadmus to that of Euclid ; or, in other words, from 

 the commencement of the twelfth or thirteenth to the close of the third cen- 

 tury before the Christian era. 



They contain the names of 863 persons, as artists or men of literature : and 

 upon arranging them into their different classes, I find the relative proportion 

 as follows : — 



Legislators and Philosophers 152 



Orators, Rhetoricians, and Sophists 54 



Grammariaas-, Editors of earlier works, and Critics. . 13 



Astronomers, Mathematicians, and Geometers 38 



Physicians 28 



Zoologists, and Agricultural Writers 12 



Geographers and Navigators 17 



Mechanics 9 



Founders and Metallurgists 6 



Engravers 7 



Architects 32 



Statuaries and Sculptors 95 



Poets, Painters, and Musicians 400 



863 



Hence it appears, that far more persons were engaged in the two last 

 classes, or those of poetry, music, and painting, and of statuary and sculpture, 

 than in all the other classes collectively ; that next to these, the legislators 

 and philosophers were most numerous, and then the orators, rhetoricians, and 

 sophists ; that, but little comparative attention was paid to natural history 

 and agriculture, and still less to mechanics ; and that not a single name has 

 reached us in the departments of mineralogy, statics, hydrostatics, trades, 

 and manufactures ; to say nothing of chemistry and pneumatics, which may 

 principally be regarded as sciences of modern times. 



That several of these latter departments were studied to a certain extent 

 is unquestionable ; but it is also unquestionable that that extent must have 

 been very limited, since otherwise the names of those who had studied or 

 cultivated them must have descended to the present day in some of the 

 writings that have reached us. 



This comparative view of the arts and sciences of Greece may, with little 

 variation, be applied to those of Rome. The study of the fine arts, however, 

 was here less extensive ; and the race of orators and political demagogues, in 

 consequence of the peculiar character of the government and of the people, 

 more numerous. Natural history and agriculture, moreover, appear to have 

 made more progress, and various branches of trade and manufacture to have 

 been cultivated with more success. 



Upon the whole, however, Rome added but little to what she derived from 

 Greece : nor has much been added in any subsequent era, or by any nation 

 amid which the variable fortunes of science and literature have compelled 

 them to take shelter, till within the course of the last two centuries ; towards 



