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102 TRAVELS
{cience affected, unnatural, and guarded. It was like the farcé aéted
by Catharine IJ. when fhe ordered the body of Peter II]. emperor
of Ruffia, to be expofed on a platform in front of the palace, for
the infpection of medical men and all the world, while centinels
were placed at the different avenues for driving back any one who.
fhould have the curiofity and the boldnefs to approach it.
It has been obferved of academies, that they are of ufe only fo.
long as the encouragement they hold opt is neceflary to the pre-
fervation and progrefs of fcience. In times of ignorance, and
abounding in prejudice, it has been faid, fuch focieties are ufeful
as a barrier againft mountebanks and other impoftors, and for
maintaining a due influence and authority oyer public opinion.
But this influence and authority is the very thing to be dreaded.
Governments dire& the academies, and the academies the people;
and thus the fciences bend under defpotifm: and as they are obe-
dient to the nod, fo they imitate the ways and manners of courts..
They become fond of pomp and fhew, and more defirous of
adorning their focieties with men of titles and rank than with
thofe of genius and learning. A remarkable inftance of this pro-
penfity, I have heard, happened within the memory of the pre-
fent generation, where the Prefident of an illuftrious fociety in Eu-
rope had a throne erected for himfelf in place of the ufual rene,
with adjacent feats a little lower, for foreign ambaffadors and other
perfonages of great diftinGion, fome on his right hand and others.
on his left.
The Academy of Belles-Lettres at Stockholm, haying no other
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