278 



But the developeraents of science at this period were 

 too splendid to admit of concealment. By the aid of the 

 new philosophy, the laws of planetary motion had been 

 discovered, and the investigation of the motive force was 

 in progress. The social fabric had been analyzed and 

 just principles of government established, and men of 

 genius of every nation seem to have arisen at once, and 

 consentaneously to convict error and purify the world. 



It was discovered, however, that, while this process 

 had been going on, much had been lost from lack of 

 concert. The same principle had, at the same time, 

 been elaborated by different philosophers, and disco- 

 veries had been made of which it was difficult to fix 

 the paternity. These considerations, together with the 

 operation of those natural affinities which men of sci- 

 ence have always for each other, produced about the 

 middle of the 17th century the establishment of nation- 

 al academies.* The earliest of these was the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences of France, which commenced its 

 sittings as a private association in 1629, was patron- 

 ized by Cardinal Richelieu soon after, and established by 

 Royal Edict in 1635. It was remodelled by successive 

 constitutions in 1666 and 1689, under the reign of the 

 same monarch, (Louis XIV,) and patronage of the same 

 minister, and reorganized at the revolution as the Nation- 

 al Institute. About the same period originated the Roy- 

 al Society of London, which, though only chartered m 

 1660, had held its meetings privately at Oxford, under the 

 style of the Philosophic College, as far back as 1638. 

 Next in order of time were founded the Academia del 

 Cimento of Florence, and the German Academia Natu- 

 re Curiosorum. These four, which may be considered 

 as the germ of modern science, produced soon after the 

 academies of Petersburgh, of Berlin and of Stockholm, 

 among whose associates have been numbered the most 

 distinguished men of their ages. There was no longer 

 i^nyr easons for concealment, when princes becam e^ 

 * See Note 5. 



