XJfF FORMER TlMEb*. 



gether with equal force, to those of the Romans. Elegance and accom- 

 plishment seem rather to have been the chief objects of attainment than 

 deep physical and analytical science. Polite literature and statistics were 

 almost swallowed up in 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 prevaihng taste and inclination of 

 a people, than a comparison of the numbers of those engaged in one de- 

 partment with those engaged in others, I have taken some pains to form, 

 from these tables, an estimate to this effect. The tables extend through 

 nearly the whole range of Grecian history, (though they are confined to that 

 history,) from the uncertain time 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 century 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 pro- 

 portion as follows : 



Legislators and Philosophers - - =• - - 152 



Orators, Rhetoricians, and Sophists - - - - 54 



Grammarians, Editors of early works, and Critics - - IS 



Astronomers; Mtithematicians, and Geometers -. - 38 



Physicians 28 



Zoologists and Agricultural Writers - - - - 12 



Geograi)hers and Navigators - - - - - 17 



Mechanics - g- 



Founders and Metallurgists - - - ^ - 6 



Engravers - -- -- -- 7 



Architects ------- 32 



Statuaries and Sculptors - - - - - 95 . 



Poets, Painters, and Musicians ----- 400 



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 miquestionable ; but it is also equally 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 pre&ent day in some 

 of the writings that have reached us. 



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