299 



of the deleterious effects of such prejudice, and to what 

 extent it has attained, we have only to refer to the pre- 

 lude to the first canto of a poem entitled the Loves of the 

 Triangles, and dedicated in ridicule, to Dr. Darwin. 

 This production was on its appearance attributed to no 

 less a genius than that of George Canning, though for- 

 tunately for his fame, this ascription is now known not 

 to have been correct, and the paternity of the piece has 

 been assigned to a less distinguished personage. It 

 however serves to show that we are not altogether mis- 

 taken when we attribute any deficiency in the literature 

 or science of the present day, to the prejudice by which 

 they have been separated. And we are the better enti- 

 tled to hope that this incapacity may be removed from 

 the knowledge that a similar state of things existed upon 



to the same extent to be found there now. 



About the time of founding the first independent asso- 

 ciations, the literature of the continent and the public 

 taste resembled much what exists now among us. The 

 poets and writers of fiction w^ere in the highest repute, 

 and amused themselves in pasquenading the university 

 and the doctors, who were held as sufficiently unintelli- 

 gible to be worthy of such notice. But after the acade- 

 mies had reconnected the two departments of knowledge 

 each of them obtained an increased value. In the 

 French particularly, the language acquired a certainty 

 which it had not possessed before, better fitting it for the 

 demonstrations of science, while its increased associa- 

 tion produced a fineness and delicacy as much available 

 in the more graceful developements of eloquence and 

 poetry. We can easily conceive that the effect must 

 have been beneficial when Colbert and Cassini and Ra- 

 cine and Bossuet occupied adjoining seats in the new 

 consistory of science, corroborating by union the pro- 

 ducts of their individual genius. And this consolidation 

 was the base for all the triumphs that followed — from 

 this period ridicule upon science became among French- 



