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beyond the benefits reaped by the members of these associations, to the powerful impulse given generally to the cultivation of science and natural history, by the opportunities thus extended to a certain class of the community, to direct their minds and devote their lives professionally to these studies. The effects of such excitement will, at no distant period, be felt throughout the nation, particularly when the rank and importance of these societies have increased sufficiently to render the office of lecturer an object of ambition as well as a source of emolument. There is one class of students, the cultivation of whose minds will be eminently favoured by access to lectures delivered in the provincial institutions; we mean those who belong to the different departments of the faculty of medicine. It is impossible to peruse the Transactions of the Manchester Society, or indeed the scientific publications of the country at large, without feeling that we are indebted to the exertions of the members of this profession, for a very large part of the progress made in science and natural history, particularly in chemistry, anatomy and physiology. Yet few only of the medical practitioners in our provinces are educated at our Universities. A large proportion have never resided in London or Edinburgh, or the other recognized schools of medical instruction, and they who have enjoyed these advantages, have been compelled to apply the short period allotted to such residence, to subjects immediately connected with the practical duties of their profession. The principal benefits of an university education will now, in many of our county towns, be placed within the reach of the followers of this profession. The frequent meetings of the members of the new societies must also be enumerated among their means of contributing to the improvement of students, in which authors equally participate. The active interchange of ideas and discussions on topics of common interest thus promoted, awakens and directs the spirit of inquiry, supplying a constant stimulus and fresh energies to the mind.

We have already expressed our opinion, when treating of the Memoirs of the Manchester Society, of the efficacy of the new institutions in promoting science, by defraying for authors the expenses of publication. We shall now, therefore, merely add, that the gratuitous labours of valuable writers are thus rendered available to the public, and rescued from the obscurity in which they in all likelihood must otherwise have remained. For, in the present age, a taste for philosophic investigation, and ambition of fame, acquired by discoveries in physical science, afford a sufficient excitement to the perseverance and industry of individuals of distinguished ability. As a proof of this gratifying fact, we may state, that at no former period were important communica

tions ever contributed so regularly to the Royal Society, nor has the publication of their Transactions ever proceeded so rapidly ;although the new societies that have sprung up in the metropolis and provinces have been co-operating with such activity in the same cause; while the many philosophical magazines and journals, now regularly published, afford new channels for the circulation of scientific intelligence.

The last point of view in which we shall consider the new philosophical institutions, is their instrumentality in augmenting the zeal, number and emulation of patrons. We include in the class of patrons all those members who enter institutions of this kind, without any expectation of sharing in the benefits conferred on students and authors, whether influenced by motives of disinterested public spirit, or of private friendship or local attachment, or ambition of adding to their personal and political importance. Whatever be the inducement, all contribute in different degrees, if discrimination be exercised in the election of candidates, and due regard paid to respectability of character, to enlarge the power and resources of the society.

With respect to the scientific institutions of London, we have put our readers in possession of so many facts concerning their organization and proceedings, that all further comment on their effect in augmenting the patronage of science is unnecessary. But the Provincial Institutions, particularly if they should continue to multiply and to extend their influence as rapidly as they have done of late years, would lead to consequences of such magnitude, that they deserve a more attentive consideration.

The most natural and desirable of these consequences would be the elevating and directing to nobler objects those provincial partialities and prepossessions which have never been dormant in the breasts of our countrymen, though their force has been too often enfeebled or misdirected. The lectures delivered in the institutions, the libraries, the museums of natural history and the fine arts, are calculated to diffuse amongst the higher and middling classes a taste for liberal studies, and a spirit of philosophical investigation, and to serve as schools, where the talents of native students, whether in science or art, may be cultivated, encouraged and matured. The general attachment of a people to birth-place, like an enthusiastic love of country at large, kindles a sentiment of admiration and gratitude towards those fellowcitizens who, by illustrious actions or works of industry and genius, confer rank and consideration on their native districts. There is the closest affinity between national and provincial feelings; both are naturally prolific sources of excitement, and alike capable of

being perverted to strengthen prejudices, or of operating to awaken a spirit of the most disinterested and exalted patriotism.

Had the northern part of our island always formed an integral part of our English monarchy, or even been united to it, like Wales, before civilization was far advanced, we should never have witnessed those literary and scientific exertions which have been carried far beyond the proportional wealth and number of its population. If Scotland had never flourished as an independent kingdom, and had not preserved to this day a national character and feeling, few only of those Scottish authors would have appeared, who have been an ornament to their age, and have contributed to raise the fame and glory of the empire at large. What now is Scotland would then have been a few insignificant northern counties of England, and England herself, augmented thus in territory, but without the rivalship of an active and intelligent neighbour, would never have achieved what she has now accomplished by her single efforts.

If we were called upon to select from the history of the past two eras in which nations of inconsiderable population have succeeded in raising the arts and sciences that demand the most powerful efforts of the human mind, from a low state of degradation to the fullest maturity and perfection, and, moreover, effected this great change in the shortest periods of time, we should point without hesitation to Greece between the battle of Marathon and the death of Alexander, and to Italy between the latter part of the 15th and the beginning of the 17th century. Both these epochs, scarcely exceeding a century and a half in duration, were in their commencement periods of darkness, and each gave birth to a large proportion of the most illustrious men whom the world has produced in poetry and the fine arts, in literature and philosophy. In their opinions and institutions, whether religious or political; in their laws, usages and systems of education-causes to which the growth of national character can usually be traced-the Greeks and Italians, during these parallel eras, presented a striking contrast to each other; and each differed no less widely in all these points of comparison from all the modern nations that now bear most resemblance to them in the superiority of their intellectual attainments. Both the Greeks and Italians had to contend against obstacles to the free advance of knowledge, such as the experience of modern times might have led us to consider insurmountable. Education was never generally diffused throughout the people. The mass of the Greek populace consisted of slaves; the majority of the Italian people was buried in the grossest superstition. The oligarchies and democracies of Greece, and repub

lies and absolute principalities of Italy, were the constant scenes of treacherous and sanguinary struggles between contending domestic factions. Mutual invasions of territory, either for conquest or for the avowed purpose of effecting political revolutions, were frequent and fatal to national independence. The destructive nature of their hostilities, conducted with the bitter animosity of civil war, was no less adverse to the progress of the arts and sciences. But there was one general feature of resemblance between the Greek and Italian nations, the only feature perhaps in the moral character of the two races in which any strong likeness is discoverable. In both countries national and provincial feelings had a remarkable warmth and elevation of character, and these, like the life-blood circulating from the heart into the most delicate extremities, were not confined to Athens, Florence, and the chief cities, but ramified into almost every petty town and village. The Greeks and Italians, enjoying equally the advantage of a common language, were subdivided into numerous independent states, each impressed with a sense of national dignity; and these small states again were composed of conquered towns or smaller republics incorporated with them, where a spirit of provincial emulation was kept alive in the bosom of each citizen, either by the proud recollection of former independence, or by the cherished hope of future emancipation. The immediate effect of the collision and rivalship of these numerous independent powers in the encouragement of talent and genius deserves an attentive examination, as suggesting instructive considerations applicable to the state of modern Europe.

Men are proud of the achievements and the glory of their fellow countrymen because they feel their lustre reflected on themselves. The gratification, for instance, is most perfect when they who have earned renown are of our own family. For the same reason more lively sensations of pleasure and individual exaltation are experienced when the glory of a fellow-citizen is shared with the population of a small state, than when it is equally participated with that of an immense empire. The decreasing energy of this sentiment as we enlarge the space in which it operates, may be compared to the rapidity of motion and the intensity of light and heat in the solar system, diminishing constantly as the planetary orbits widen, The circle as it is enlarged has a constant tendency to embrace within its limits the whole of mankind, and thus to leave us no farther title to participation in the intellectual triumphs or renown of others, than as they raise the character of our species, a sentiment too refined, and too incapable of administering to selflove, to be relied upon as a powerful stimulant of human action. Now in Greece, where the population was smaller and the subdi

vision still more minute than in modern Italy, these national and provincial feelings were excited even to enthusiasm. The glory of an illustrious man became so associated and identified with that of his birthplace, that the name of the one could not be pronounced without instantly recalling the other to the mind. Even to this day every lover of classic lore remembers well that Sappho was a Lesbian, Leonidas a Spartan, Thucydides and Plato Athenians; but however profound may be our admiration of Milton, Newton, Marlborough, few of us are acquainted with the towns or even the provinces that gave them birth. Thus in Greece and in Italy the value of the illustrious deeds of individuals was doubly enhanced to each separate portion of the people, while the united communities in each, still laid claim, as one nation separated from the rest of the world, to the glories of all their common citizens. Of this fact we might produce abundant proofs from their writings, if it were necessary. An elegant modern writer has clearly shown that when literature and the fine arts first began to make vigorous shoots in Italy towards the close of the 15th century, they were the subjects of rivalry between numerous independent republics, and those families which had established principalities in various states; and the impulse thus given acquired progressive force in the 16th century when cultivation was farther extended and matured.

The Italians, it may be said, never attained the same superiority in the mathematical and physical sciences that distinguished their poetry, history, painting and sculpture. We must not, however, infer from hence that national or provincial emulation is less efficacious in favouring the patronage of philosophical pursuits, and in promoting their rapid progress; but we must take into our consideration the opposition of hostile prejudices, such as were unknown to Greece in the age of Pericles, and such as happily have no existence in the present day in Great Britain. The fate of Galileo and the motives that led to his persecution will explain our meaning so fully, that farther illustration would be superfluous. In the age of Pericles, the spirit of emulation had more ample opportunities of developing itself than in the age of the Medici, as the subdivision of the Greek people was yet greater, and their public festivals, where the citizens of the different states assembled together, were an acknowledged stage for the exercise of national competition. Hence, they acquired their distinguishing national character- præter laudem nullius avari,'-and to this source of excitement, more than any other cause, may we ascribe that originality of mind, and those powers of invention in which they have scarcely been equalled by all succeeding generations.

*Roscoe, Leo. X. v. i. c. ii. p. 88. 94.

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