0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

386
RECENT TIMES.
important arid valuable series of publications extant* .
Upon these followed the Academy of Berlin which was
^established in 1700 through the efforts of LEIBNITZ ; the
-PhilosophicaLSociety of Gottingen in 1733.; the Academy of
St. Petersburg, which was built, certainly, on Russian soil,
but the members of which were chiefly Germans, in 1725;
the Academy of Mannheim in 1755; and that of Munich in
1760.
The scientific life of this period brought forth rich fruit
in England and the Netherlands. Italy too saw the ripen-.
ing of some late harvests, which called to mind the best I
periods of that country's great past. The splendid Court j
of LOUIS XIV. threw upon France broad beams of light \
which rendered conspicuous a surprising quantity of talent
and energy combined with much inward unsoundness.
During the 18th and far into the 19th century, the French •'
people stood at the head of intellectual progress; the'0
learned men and investigators of France not only worked |
strictly as pioneers in the advance of science, but they also :j
•widened its boundaries and increased its subject-matter in
various ways. Germany was checked in political and intel- ,j
lectual development by the miserable religious war, which
laid the land waste during 30 years, and did not until two
centuries later enjoy an assured peace for the full exercise
of her power.
; ^At the end of the 16th century, the academies and
educational establishments in the different countries were
sufficient in number, as a general rule, to satisfy existing
requirements. In England the ancient universities of
Oxford and Cambridge formed the most important centres •
for the higher studies. France centralized scientific study
more and more in Paris. Holland acquired new academies, 5
at Groningen (1614), Utrecht (1634) and Harderwyk (1648).
In Italy universities arose at Parma, Cagliari, Mantua,
Urbino, Piacenza, Sassari, and Milan, some of which»c
indeed, owed their origin merely to the petty jealousies of
* CH. R. WELD: History of the Royal Society, London 1848, 2 Vols.'