ESTABLISHMENT OF ACADEMIES, &C.
About the middle of the seventeenth century were formed those associations of scienti fic men, which, under the appellation of Academies or Philosophical Societies, have con tributed so much to the advancement of knowledge in Europe. The Academia del Ci mento of Florence, founded in 1651, carried in its name the impression of the new phi losophy. It was in the country of Galileo where the first institution for the prosecution of experimental knowledge might be expected to arise, and the monuments which it has left behind it will ever create regret for the shortness of its duration.
England soon after showed the same example. It has been already remarked, that, dur ing the civil wars, a number of learned and scientific men sought, in the retirement of Oxford, an asylum from the troubles to which the country was then a prey. They had met as early as 1645 ; most of them were attached to the royal cause ; and after the re storation of Charles the Second, they were incorporated by a royal charter in 1662.
The first idea of this institution seems to have been suggested by the writings of Bacon, who; in recommending the use of experiment, had Severely censured the schools, colleges, and academies of his own time, as adverse to the advancement of knowledge ; and, in the Nova Atlantis, had given a most interesting sketch of the form of a society, di rected to scientific improvement. In Germany, the Academia Nature Curiosorum dates its commencement from 1652, and the historian of that institution ascribes the spirit which produced it to the writings of the philosopher just named. These examples, and a feeling that the union and co-operation of numbers was necessary .to the progress of expe rimental philosophy, more extensively. The Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris was founded in 1666, in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, and during the admi nistration of Colbert. The Institute of Bologna in Italy belongs nearly to the same pe riod ; but almost all the other philosophical associations, of which there are now so many, had their beginning in the eighteenth century.
Frequent communication of ideas, and a regular method of keeping up such communi cation, are evidently essential to works in which great labour and industry are to be em ployed, and to which much time must necessarily be devoted ; when the philosopher must not always. sit quietly in his cabinet, but must examine nature own eyes, and be present in the work-shop of the mechanic, or the laboratory of the chemist. These ope rations are facilitated by the institutions now referred to, which, therefore, are of more importance to the physical sciences than to the other branches of knowledge. They who cultivate the former are also fewer in number, and being, of course, farther separated, are less apt• to meet together in the common intercourse of the world. The historian, the critic, the poet, finds everywhere men who can enter in some degree at least into his pur suits, who can appreciate his merit, and derive pleasure from his writings or his conversa tion. The mathematician, the astronomer, the mechanician, sees few men who have much sympathy with his pursuits, or who do not look with indifference on the objects which he pursues. The world, to him, consists of a few individuals, by the censures or approbation of whom the public opinion must be finally determined ; with them it is ma terial that he should have more frequent intercourse than could be obtained by casual ren counter ; and he feels that the society of men engaged in pursuits similar to his oivn, is a necessary stimulus to his exertions. Add to this, that such societies become centers in which information concerning facts is collected from all quarters. For all these reasons, the greatest benefit has resulted from the scientific institutions which, since the middle of the seventeenth century, have become so numerous in Europe.
The Royal Society of London is an association of men, who, without salaries or appoint ment from Government, defray, by private contribution, the expence of their meetings, and of their publications. This last is another important service, which a society so con .