his remaining quiet and inactive. These characters exaggerate danger when it exists. They see mites through a highly-magnifying medium. In their optics, a small hindrance swells to an appalling magnitude. Fear and sloth form a marvellous double-lens, transforming a monod into a mammoth-a mere furrow into a range of mountains. And where no real difficulties exist, they can raise imaginary ones: they conjure up the semblance of them, and are affrighted at their own fancies.

"Is the road fair, they loiter; clogg'd with mire,

They stick, or else retire:

A lamb appears a lion; and they fear

Each bush they see's a bear."

It has been well said, that " Idleness is the sepulchre of the living man." His faculties lie entombed, inert and lifeless; and, of necessity, they deteriorate. For any purpose of real utility, the idler might as well be sleeping beneath the sod. He can scarcely be said to live. He brings on himself misery and disgrace. His self-respect is forfeited, and all his interests are sacrificed. We said, at the outset, that "exercise is indispensable to the healthy development of our entire nature." We repeat the sentiment. Inaction enfeebles the body. The eye dims, the cheek pales, the muscles relax, the nerves are weakened-in fact, the whole system suffers, and many diseases are induced: and so also it is with the mind. Our mental powers must be exercised-braced by action-or they will decline. Now, many may be industrious in the work of their outward calling, their hands may ply diligently their daily labour, but they never tax their minds with effort. Mental indolence may co-exist with great physical exertions. The activity of spirit consists in thought. To this we would incite men. We would say to them, "While you are diligent in all your ordinary engagements, find work also for your higher nature. Employ your minds. There is ample material within reach upon which to try their energies. You have been endowed with intelligence and reason, and with a voluntary power. Do justice to your lofty nature. Be assiduous in its culture. It demands much training, but the results will more than recompense your pains. Habituate yourselves to think, to discriminate, to judge." To acquire habits of mental activity, is more difficult than many suppose, and requires a decision and vigour of will to which few are equal. The mind should not only be employed constantly, but well. To allow light and superficial, foolish and trivial, thoughts to engross it, or to permit it to reflect on subjects unconnected, fortuitous, and desultory, were simply to indulge it in certain forms of indolence. Our thinkings should be directed to worthy themes-themes that will instruct, purify, elevate, and ennoble us. "An idle brain is the devil's workshop;" there he will produce thoughts of folly and vanity, or fabricate designs of mischief and vice, if we are not careful to eject him. We must have the workshop preoccupied by great thoughts-thoughts of truth, benevolence, beauty, and holiness-and purposes of practical piety and virtue. "Son of man! child of reason!" we would say to cach, "be eager to improve: let the law of progress be the condition of your inner being; let intellect and the moral nature co-ordinately advance. The ascent of light is before you the toil may be arduous, but there are celestial forms beck

oning to you, and bidding you be brave. Perfection is the reward of many struggles. Upward, ye heirs of promise! press boldly on to your natural birthright! Ye shall surely possess an inheritance in the region of knowledge, and purity, and bliss!"

The noblest faculty of our humanity is that which connects us with our Maker with His rule, and with eternity. The duties which have a primary claim upon us are those which arise from this connection. The destinies of all most momentous, are those hinging upon the performance of these duties. Their lot will be fixed in gloom who disregard these duties-in whom this faculty is latent. In this, the highest and holiest sphere of exertion, every energy must be strained. Beware of sloth, in this department of human effort. Man is a creature capable of a vast intelligence, and of a lofty purpose, and destined to an immortal life. Is it, then, fitting that he should sleep away his days on earth? that he should waste them on trifles, or permit them to pass in stolid indifference, and a heedless slothfulness? Nay. Let him rouse the activities of his being! Labour is our duty; and, when directed to worthy ends, it is our dignity and interest. Let us be truly what we are in name, working men; doing our life-task with fortitude.

"Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footsteps on the shores of time.

Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother,
Seeing, may take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labour, and to wait."

The cure proper for the Idler is a moral one, because the origin of his malady must be sought in the depths of his moral nature. A judicious use of the rod may indeed instigate the faculties of the juvenile sluggard, and a physical application might be found a very wholesome stimulus to some adults. In those cases where inertness arises, in part, from a morbid corpulence, an abstemious dietetic regimen would be found of great advantage. But the cure which will be most surely and generally effective, is a moral one:-a resolute will, prompted by a right conscience. Here we are sent to act. A brief repose will ere long succeed. We shall rest in the tomb, until we are awakened to an undying, untiring, eternal being.

"Sloth yieldeth not happiness; the bliss of the spirit is action.

Rest dwelleth only on an island in the midst of the ocean of Existence,
Where the world-weary soul for a while may fold its tired wings,
Until, after a short, sufficient slumber, it is quicken'd into deathless energy,
And speedeth in eagle-flight to the Sun of unapproachable perfection."

49

ACCOUNT OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE

IN 1850.

[We have been indebted to SIR DAVID BREWSTER for the facts in this article.-Ed.] THIS noble institution, to which reference has been already made in our pages (No. III., p. 102), has undergone various modifications since its first establishment under this name, in the year 1795. The different classes of which it was then composed, were derived from pre-existing academies which had at different times been established in the metropolis of France.

As early as 1635, the French Academy was established by Cardinal Richelieu, for the purpose of improving the French language. An Academy of Painting and Sculpture was soon after instituted on the old foundation of the Academy of St Luke. An Academy of Inscriptions and Medals, which first met as a private reunion in the library of M. Colbert, was established by that great statesman in the year 1663, under royal patronage. But all these institutions, important as they are, were thrown into the shade by the establishment of the Royal Academy of Sciences, in 1666, under the protection of Louis XIV. After the peace of the Pyrenees, this noble-minded sovereign instructed the illustrious Colbert to organise an academy consisting of four classes-Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, History, and Belles Lettres, to be conducted by individuals who were most distinguished by their knowledge in these different departments, and the greater number of whom had already received considerable pensions from the king.

This academy soon became distinguished throughout Europe, by the talents and labours of its members, and in the course of time became a model for other institutions, both foreign and domestic. In its constitution, it underwent various modifications in the years 1699, 1716, and 1795; and, at the commencement of the French Revolution, it was merged in the National Institute of France, which embraced all the academies which we have mentioned.

By a law passed on the 22d August, 1795, it was ordained, that "there is, for the whole republic, a National Institute charged with collecting discoveries, and perfecting the arts and the sciences." It was not, however, till the 25th October of the same year, that the Institute was organised under the title of the National Institute of Science and the Arts. Paris was fixed upon as its locality, and its object was declared to be-first, to perfect the sciences and arts by uninterrupted researches, by the publication of discoveries, and by correspondence with learned and foreign societies; and, secondly, by pursuing, conformably to the laws and decrees of the executive directory, scientific and literary works which should have for their object the general utility, and the glory of the Republic. The Institute was composed of 144 members resident in Paris, of an equal number of associates in different parts of the Republic, and of 24 foreign associates, or 8 for each of the three classes. It was divided into three classes, viz.—

VOL. II.

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FIRST CLASS-Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

Members in Paris. Members in the Departments

SECOND CLASS-Moral and Political Sciences.

1. Analysis of Sensations and Ideas ...

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The three classes thus composed held their meetings separately, but they assembled together at four public sittings, which took place every year. On the formation of the Institute, the executive directory nominated 48 members, to whom they gave the power of electing the other 96 members; and the 144 members thus chosen had the power of electing the associates, whether foreign or domestic, and of filling up all future vacancies. Each of the three classes had in its own locality a collection of the productions of nature and art, and also a library relative to the sciences and arts with which it was occupied.

In order to promote the objects of the institution, the Institute was ordained to nominate, every year, twenty citizens, who should be charged with travelling and making observations relative to agriculture, both in the departments of the Republic, and in foreign countries. The candidates for these appointments, required to be at least twenty five years of age to be either a proprietor, or the son of a proprietor of a rural domain or a farmer, or the son of a farmer, occupying a farm of one or more ploughs, on a lease of at least thirty years to know the theory and practice of the principal operations of agriculture, and to be skilled in arithmetic, elementary geometry, political economy, natural history in general, but particularly botany and mineralogy.

The twenty citizens thus named and qualified, were to travel three years at the expense of the Republic, to keep a journal, correspond with the Institute, and transmit for publication, every three months, the result of their observations.

The National Institute likewise appointed, annually, six of its members to travel, either together or separately, in order to make researches in branches of human knowledge, different from agriculture.

The national palace at Rome was to be destined, as it had been, for French pupils in painting, sculpture, and architecture, and to be directed by a French painter who had sojourned in Italy; and the French artists proposed by the Institute, but named by the executive directory, were to reside five years at this national palace, and be lodged and boarded at the expense of the Republic.

Such was the constitution of the original National Institute of France, which, under different forms of Government, was destined to undergo very considerable changes.

About seven months after its establishment, on the 4th April, 1796, the council of 500 passed a series of minute regulations, for carrying on the business of the institution. The Council of Ancients approved of the regulations, and they were ordered to be carried into effect by the executive directory.

On the 30th April, 1802, a number of new special schools were established by the Government of the Republic; and a certain power in nominating the professors was given to the National Institute. addition to the special schools already existing, the following were established:

do.

7. Schools of Design, besides those existing at Paris, Dijon, & Toulouse 1

8. Every Observatory to have a Professor of Astronomy.

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9. Professors of the living Languages in several of the Lyceums. 10. Professors of Music and Composition

The patronage of these different offices was placed in the Corresponding Classes of the Institute, who named one candidate, while the three Inspectors-General of Studies named a second. The First Consul then appointed one of the two candidates to the vacant office.

In the year 1803, the Government of the Republic, on the report of the Minister of the Interior, made a new division of the National Institute into four classes, in place of three-namely:

1st Class-Of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

The first class was thus composed a new section of Geography and Navigation having been added to it, together with 8 associates: