In this arrangement the fame obje&s are prefented under different
names, while other departments o f fcience are wholly omitted.
W h a t is the diftinition between natural hiftory and exterior phy-
fics? and between interior phyfics and experimental philofophy?
W h y is commerce detached from general oeconomy ? and why is
there no mention whatever made o f moral philofophy ? General
oeconomy itfelf, in a comprehenfive view o f things, falls under the
head o f moral philofophy. In this part o f the plan there is fome-
thing extremely unphilofophical and abfurd. I do not recoiled
an inltance o f luch glaring negleit o f the moil important branch
o f philofophy, except one, namely, that in a famous univerfity o f
England the Jchola philojophite moralis is appropriated tp the foie
purpofe o f lodging the Arundelian marbles, and other fculptures
and ilatues. Finally, why fet apart one dais o f the academicians
for the improvement o f hillory and the belles-lettres, when there
was already an academy devoted to thole particular purpoies;
and when the object implied in the title of the academy is not literature
but fcience ? It has been remarked that the grandelt
ilrokes o f policy have been llruck, and the moil beneficial improvements
in political affairs effected by the couniels and management
not o f diplomatiils and lawyers, or profeflional men o f
any kind, but by men o f the world, general fcholars, and what are
commonly called liberally educated gentlemen. In the fame way
■men o f liberal and unbiaifed minds might afford better advice for
regulating learned focieties, fchools, and univerfities, than profound
fcholars, whofe views are narrowed by the influence o f pedantry.
dantry. Thefe never think o f changing their own forms : nature,
they fancy, and the courfe o f human affairs ought to bend to
their forms and inilitutions ; and they would deem it below their
dignity to fubmit their eilabliihed notions to experiment and ob-
fervation. T he plan o f the national inilitute o f France is too liberal,
comprehenfive and grand, to be the work o f fchoolmen.
T h e divifions o f fcience and fcientifical purfuits in the academy
at Stockholm appear to have been made with a view to give general
fatisfaélion, and to open a door for the reception o f all men
who Ihould be o f confequence enough to add luilre to the fociety
by their rank, or rich enough to r bribe, or mean enough to gain
the members by flatteries. There is not a gentleman o f landed
eilate who may not become a member o f the firil clais, nor a
merchant who has not very plaufible pretenfions to be chofen into
the focond ; every entomologiil and ornithologiil, every collector
o f fiihes or infefts, may belong to the third or fourth clafs. By
various divifions and fubdivifions o f the department o f mathematics,
any clerk or fimple arithmetician, any conflruitor o f triangles
or compiler o f almanacks, might have been introduced into the
fifth clafs, if this abufe had not been refilled by Mr. Melander-
hielm and other gentlemen o f true philofophical difcrimination.
Thus the feventh clafs is open to every compofer o f ballads, novels,
madrigals, vocabularies and grammars. The great number which
compofe this academy has been made the fubjeél o f much boail
in Sweden. It Ihould however be eonfidered that the more co-
Q 2 pious