husbandry and the useful arts. We have also proposed that your Majesty should ordain the drawing up of a new system of physical existences. Science demands this work; our country is that in which it can be most easily executed; and it would be desirable to see the name of Napoléon, which is already placed at the head of so many great monuments, so many wise laws, and so many useful institutions, decorating the title-page of a fundamental work in science. Of all the establishments formed, and of all the labours undertaken by the command of Alexander, Aristotle's History of Animals is the only one which now remains, an everlasting testimony of the love of that great prince for natural knowledge. A word from your Majesty can create a work which shall as much surpass that of Aristotle in extent, as your actions surpass in splendour those of the Macedonian conqueror."

The answer of the Emperor is very short.

"MM. the Presidents, Secretaries, and De

puties of the First Class of the Institute"I was desirous to hear you on the progress of the human mind in these later times, in order that what you should have to say to me might be heard by all nations, and might shut the mouths of those detractors from the present age, who represent knowledge as retrograde, only because they wish for its extinction.

"I was also willing to be informed of what remained for me to do to encourage your labours, that I might console myself for not being able otherwise to contribute to their success. The welfare of my people, and the glory of my throne, are equally interested in the prosperity of the sciences.

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My minister of the interior will make a report on your demands. You may constantly rely on the effects of my protection."

Though we admit that Delambre and Cuvier have done well; the first, in recommending a school for instruction in the higher parts of the mathematics, and an extension of those geodetical operations from which so much benefit has already resulted; and the second, in recommending some further care of the popular instruction in agriculture and the arts, as well as a new and fundamental work on natural history, in its most extensive sense-though we are not disposed to quarrel with the high compliment contained in the prediction, that this work would not farther surpass the natural history of Aristotle, than the achievements of Napoleon have exceeded those of Alexander; yet we are well aware that there are other improvements still more important, and more imperiously called for, which the spirit of philosophy would demand, if her real and unbiassed sentiments could be conveyed to the ears of Napoleon.

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Cease," she would say, "from the fatal and endless pursuit

of military aggrandisement. Give peace to Europe, for your victories enable you to do so; and let the moderation and liberality of the terms ensure its continuance. Restore that intercourse and mutual confidence among the nations which are essential to their happiness, no less than to the advancement of knowledge; and let their prosperity be considered as one of the means of promoting the welfare of your own people. The sciences will then flourish spontaneously, and will require no protection but that which secures their tranquillity and independence; and you yourself will have the felicity, more singular than all that you have yet experienced, of adding to the titles of Hero and Conqueror, that of the Father of your People."

The National Institute of France is divided into four classes. The first, is that of the mathematical and physical sciences; the second, that of the French language and literature; the third, has for its object history and ancient literature; the fourth, the fine arts. The two reports that we have considered, and which make the principal part of the book before us, are from the first class. The three others are of inferior interest; and, besides, the length to which our review has already extended precludes our entering on them particularly. In the report from the third class, on the subject of history and ancient literature, speculative philosophy seems, in a certain degree, to be included;

and we find, accordingly, some notice taken of the revolutions which that philosophy has undergone in Germany and elsewhere. The Ecole d'Ecosse, as the author of the report (M. Lévesque) is pleas. ed to call it, is also made honourable mention of. As no sect of philosophers is known in Scotland by a name which we owe to the politeness of our neighbours, we should have been at some loss to distinguish what system was understood by this phrase, if we had not before met with it in the Histoire Comparée des Systemes de Philosophie, by M. Degerando, where we find this title applied to a succession of philosophers which begins with Dr Hutcheson of Glasgow; comprehends in it Reid, Ferguson, &c. and at present terminates in Professor Dugald Stewart, to whose writings, as Degerando remarks, Reid's philosophy owes its fullest developement, and the greatest share of its celebrity with foreign nations. Sometimes, when the same author speaks more loosely, he appears to include, in the Scottish school, almost all the philosophers that have flourished in that country since the time of Hutcheson, whether they have supported or combated the philosophy of Locke. In this way he includes Lord Kames, David Hume, Adam Smith, &c.; forming a succession of eminent men, of which, in so short a period, and in so narrow a country, there are but few examples in the history of letters.

On the whole, throughout these reports we find great liberality with regard to foreign nations; and if more room is occupied by French improvements and discoveries than by any other, this may be in reality a just allotment; or it may in part be an effect of that perspective which, in intellectual as in visible objects, represents the nearest as the largest, so as sometimes to deceive the justest eye, and the most impartial judgment.

In one instance we think that this fairness is a little departed from, when it is said that no nation has cultivated historical composition so much as the French, or produced so great a number of historians that deserve to be quoted. "It was to a Frenchman," the report adds, "that Italy owed the first history of Rome, written by a modern ; and it was a Frenchman who first made the English acquainted with the history of their own country."

Those, however, who have studied history in the best school, will not be very apt to admit, that the dull and unphilosophical narrative of Rapin could bring an Englishman acquainted, as he ought to be, with the history of his country. Whatever the French themselves suppose, it is not the opinion of strangers that they excel in historical composition. For our part, we hope that we are not altogether deceived by national partiality when we say, that we do not know three modern historians,