Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/78

68 or other of the eighteen influences becoming favorable or unfavorable. The author, himself descended from the Huguenots, lays just stress on the influence of religious refugees, whose traditions were to work in a disinterested way for the public good, and at the same time to avoid politics. The refugees rarely had their property in land, of which the oversight occupies time, but in movable securities; thus they had leisure for work. Then, again, as they were debarred from local politics, the ambition, especially of those who had taken refuge in small countries, was to earn the approval of the enlightened men all over Europe, and this could most easily be effected by doing good work in science. Out of the ninety-two foreign associates of the French Academy, no less than ten were descended from religious refugees, usually in the third or fourth generation. Switzerland had eight out of the ten, and we may thence easily gather how enormously she is indebted to the infusion of immigrant blood. Similarly, the only two American associates—Franklin and Rumford—were descended from Puritans.

The blighting effect of dogmatism upon scientific investigation is shown both in Catholic and Protestant countries. The Catholics are the more dogmatic of the two, and they supply, in proportion to their population, less than one-quarter as many of the foremost scientific men as the Protestants. There is not a single English or Irish Catholic among the ninety-two French foreign associates. Austria contributes no name, and the rest of Catholic Germany is almost barren. In Switzerland, the scientific productiveness of the Catholics is only $1/26$ that of the Protestants. Again, the Catholic missionaries have done nothing for science, notwithstanding their splendid opportunities. In past days, when they were absolute masters of vast countries, as Paraguay and the Philippines, the smallest encouragement and instruction given at the college of the Propaganda to young and apt missionaries would have enriched Rome with collections of natural history. If any city more than others deserved to have the finest botanical garden and richest herbarium, it is Rome; but she has scarcely any thing to show.

The most notable instance of the repressive force of Protestant dogmatism is to be found in the history of the republic of Geneva. During nearly 200 years (1535 to 1725) its laity as well as clergy were absolutely subject to the principles of the early Reformers. Instruction was imposed on them; nearly every citizen was made to pass through the college, and many attended special courses at the Academy, yet, during the whole of that period, not a single Genevese distinguished himself in science. Then occurred the wane of the Calvinist authority, between 1720 and 1735. Social life and education