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ence, which has kept it unshackled from any arrangement 

 of the schools, and perhaps, also, to the fact, that the 

 honors and emoluments of these institutions have almost 

 always been conferred upon the most learned and deserv- 

 ing, without regard to creed, to business, or to nation. 

 The bounty of Louis the XIV., brought to the French 

 Academy, from Italy, the elder Cassini, and from the 

 Netherlands, Huyghens*— while Cardinal Richelieu, as 

 if to atone for the persecutions which science had recent- 

 ly suffered from the church, compelled Gassendi to come 

 to Paris, and lecture upon what the worthy divine was 

 pleased to call, in his apologetic discourse, " the profane 

 science of Geometry." From this period, the French 

 Academy continued to advance in reputation and influ- 

 ence, and contained at the commencement of the revolu- 

 tion a body of talent, such as had scarce ever been col- 

 lected before. After a suspension of two years, between 

 1794 and 1796, it revived as the National Institute, and 

 with a constitution differing essentially from that of the 

 Academy. The number of members was augmented to 

 eighty, and divided into departments. That referring to 

 mathematical and physical, holds the old designation of 

 the Academy of Sciences. There is then the Academy 

 of Inscriptions for antiquities; the Academy Francois, 

 for belles lettres or French literature; the Academy of 

 Arts, and an Academy for the political and moral sciences. 

 The members receive each a pension of fifteen hundred 

 francs, and may, therefore, in virtue of their seats as 

 Academicians, be considered functionaries of the go- 

 vernment, of which indeed the institute is a department. 

 Upon its reports are grounded all public operations, con- 

 cerning the arts and sciences, the national industry and 

 public education. It examines by its committees the 

 treatises of its members, and those intended to be used 

 for instruction, and the present arrangement and depend- 

 ance of schools, now used in France, was discussed and 

 perfected at one of it s earliest sittings. In ihis^ ^Jj}: 

 * See Note 8. 



