Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/50

40 who were pupils of the most celebrated professors held a secondary rank in science; and we have to admit that, while illustrious savants may give good instruction, good teaching does not make illustrious savants. A deplorable effect of instruction is to diminish originality, without some proportion of which quality a scientific man can not rise above the mean.

When we inquire what is the influence of religion upon the development of scientific men, we find that the non-Christian countries are completely foreign to the scientific movement. We have no right to conclude from this that one has to be a Christian to be distinguished in science, for there are many examples to contradict such an assertion. We can only say that the Christian religion has been favorable to science by its general influence upon civilization. We can at least affirm that it has been, in the modern epoch, the only religion which has coincided with a real scientific development. Between the divisions of Christendom, the advantage is vastly in favor of Protestantism. While the proportion of Protestant to Roman Catholic populations is one to one and a half, Europe, outside of France, has furnished four times as many Protestant as Roman Catholic foreign associates to the French Academy of Sciences. France, where most of the Roman Catholic scientific men reside, has furnished about an equal number of Protestant and Roman Catholic foreign members of the Royal Society of London. No English or Irish Roman Catholic name appears on the list of the French Academy, although that Church includes a fifth of the population of the United Kingdom. Austria is not represented there, and Roman Catholic Germany makes but a poor showing by the side of Protestant Germany. In Switzerland, where the Catholics are to the Protestants as one to one and a half, not one of the foreign associates is a Roman Catholic. A similar difference appears to exist as among Swiss, English, and Irish, of the two cults in the lists of the London and Berlin societies. The difference is not attributable to anything in the doctrines of the churches, but rather to the different attitude—direct or indirect—of their clergy toward education, according as it is their habit to prescribe by authority or to leave every one free to form his own opinion. The more we proceed in an authoritative way, the more we repress curiosity, the mother of science, and increase mental timidity. A population educated for many generations under the principle of authority naturally becomes timid in intellectual affairs. But a population habituated from infancy to scrutinize concerns which it is told are of the greatest importance, like those of religion, will not be afraid to examine purely scientific questions, and will know better how to proceed to the solution of them. The fact, already referred to, should not be forgotten, that a large number of distinguished men of science have been the sons of Protestant pastors. Remove from the list of savants of Protestant countries the names appertaining to this class, and we shall find the scientific standing of the