Among the numerous other literary academies of Italy we may mention the Academy of Naples, founded about 1440 by Alfonso, the king; the Academy of Florence, founded 1540, to illustrate and perfect the Tuscan tongue, especially by a close study of Petrarch; the Intronati of Siena, 1525; the Infiammati of Padua, 1534; the Rozzi of Siena, suppressed by Cosmo, 1568.

The Academy of Humourists, Umoristi, had its origin at Rome in the marriage of Lorenzo Marcini, a Roman gentleman, at which several persons of rank were guests. It was carnival time, and so to give the ladies some diversion, they betook themselves to the reciting of verses, sonnets, speeches, first extempore, and afterwards premeditately, which gave them the denomination of Belli Humori. After some experience, and coming more and more into the taste of these exercises, they resolved to form an academy of belles lettres, and changed the title of Belli Humori for that of Humoristi.

In 1690 the Academy or Society of Arcadians was established at Rome, for the purpose of reviving the study of poetry. The founder Crescimbeni is the author of a well-known history of Italian poetry. It numbered among its members many princes, cardinals, and other ecclesiastics; and, to avoid disputes about pre-eminence, all appeared masked after the manner of Arcadian shepherds. Within ten years from its first establishment the number of academicians amounted to 600.

The Royal Academy of Savoy dates from 1719, and was made a royal academy by Charles Felix in 1848. Its emblem is a gold orange tree full of flowers and fruit; its motto "Flores fructusque perennes," being the same as those of the famous Florimentane Academy, founded at Annecy by St Francis de Sales. It has published valuable memoirs on the history and antiquities of Savoy.

Germany. Of the German literary academies, the most celebrated was Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, the Fruitful Society, established at Weimar 1617. Five princes enrolled their names among the original members. The object was to purify the mother tongue. The German academies copied those of Italy in their quaint titles and petty ceremonials, and exercised little permanent influence on the language or literature of the country.

France. The French Academy was established by order of the king in the year 1635, but in its original form it came into existence some four or five years earlier. About the year 1629 certain literary friends in Paris agreed to meet weekly at the house of one of their number. These meetings were quite informal, but the conversation turned mostly on literary topics; and when, as was often the case, one of the number had composed some work, he read it to the rest, and they gave their opinions upon it. The place of meeting was the house of M. Conrard, which was chosen as being the most central. The fame of these meetings, though the members were bound over to secrecy, reached at length the ears of Cardinal Richelieu, who conceived so high an opinion of them, that he at once promised them his protection, and offered to incorporate them by letters patent. Nearly all the members would have preferred the charms of privacy, but, considering the risk they would run in

The letters patent were at once granted by the king, but it was only after violent opposition and long delay that the president, who was jealous of the cardinal's authority, consented to grant the verification required by the old constitution of France.

The object for which the academy was founded, as set forth in its statutes, was the purification of the French language. "The principal function of the academy shall be to labour with all care and diligence to give certain rules to our language, and to render it pure, eloquent, and capable of treating the arts and sciences" (Art. 24). They proposed "to cleanse the language from the impurities it has contracted in the mouths of the common people, from the jargon of the lawyers, from the misusages of ignorant courtiers, and the abuses of the pulpit."-Letter of Academy to Cardinal Richelieu.

Their numbers were fixed at forty. The original members who formed the nucleus of the body were eight, and it was not till 1639 that the full number was completed. Their first undertaking consisted of essays written by all the members in rotation. To judge by the titles and specimens which have come down to us, these possessed no special originality or merit, but resembled the emideíĝeis of the Greek rhetoricians. They next, at the instance of Cardinal Richelieu, undertook a criticism of Corneille's Cid, the most popular work of the day. It was a rule of the academy that no work could be criticised except at the author's request. It was only the fear of incurring the cardinal's displeasure which wrung from Corneille an unwilling consent.

The critique of the academy was rewritten several times before it met with the cardinal's approbation. After six months of elaboration, it was published under the title, Sentiments de l'Académie Françoise sur le Cid. This judgment did not satisfy Corneille, as a saying attributed to him on the occasion shows. "Horatius," he said, referring to his last play, "was condemned by the Duumviri, but he was absolved by the people." But the crowning labour of the academy, commenced in 1639, was a dictionary of the French language. By the twenty-sixth article of their statutes, they were pledged to compose a dictionary, a grammar, a treatise on rhetoric, and one on poetry. M. Chapelain, one of the original members and leading spirits of the academy, pointed out that the dictionary would naturally be the first of these works to be undertaken, and drew up a plan of the work, which was to a great extent carried out. A catalogue was to be made of all the most approved authors, prose and verse: these were to be distributed among the members, and all words and phrases of which they approved to be marked by them in order to be incorporated in the dictionary. For this they resolved themselves into two committees, which sat on other than the regular days. M. de Vaugelas1

was appointed editor in chief. To remunerate him for his labours, he received from the cardinal a pension of 2000 francs. The first edition of this dictionary appeared in 1694, the last Complément in 1854.

Instead of following the history of the French Academy, which, like its two younger sisters, the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Inscriptions, was suppressed in 1793, and reconstituted in 1795, as a class of the Institute, a history which it would be impossible to treat adequately in the limit of an article, we will attempt briefly to estimate its influence on French literature and language, and point out its principal merits and defects. To begin with its merits, it may justly boast that there is hardly a single name of the first rank among French littérateurs that it has not enrolled among its members. Molière, it is true, was rejected as a player; but we can hardly blame the academy for a social prejudice which it shared with the age; and it is well known that it has, as far as was in its power, made the amende honorable. In the Salle des Séances is placed the bust of the greatest of modern comedians, with the inscription, "Rien ne manque à sa gloire; il manquait à la notre.' Descartes was excluded from the fact of his residing in Holland. Scarron was confined by paralysis to his own house. Pascal is the only remaining exception, and Pascal was better known to his contemporaries as a mathematician than a writer. His Lettres Provinciales were published anonymously; and just when his fame was rising he retired to Port-Royal, where he lived the life of a recluse. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the fauteuils have often been occupied by men of no mark in literature. Nor is the academy wholly exonerated by M. Livet's ingenious defence, that there are but eight marshals in the French army, and yet the number has never appeared too restricted; for its most ardent admirers will not assert that it has, as a rule, chosen the forty most distinguished living authors. Court intrigue, rank, and finesse have too often prevailed over real merit and honesty. Though his facts are incorrect, there is much truth in Courier's caustic satire Dans une compagnie de gens faisant profession d'esprit ou de savoir, nul ne veut près de soi un plus habile que soi, mais bien un plus noble, un plus riche: un duc et pair honore l'Académie Française, qui ne veut point de Boileau,1 refuse la Bruyère, fait attendre Voltaire, mais reçoit tout d'abord Chapelain et Conrart."

We have next to consider the influence of the French Academy on the language and literature, a subject on which the most opposite opinions have been advanced. On the one hand, it has been asserted that it has corrected the judgment, purified the taste, and formed the language of French writers, and that to it we owe the most striking characteristics of French literature, its purity, delicacy, and flexibility. Thus Mr Matthew Arnold, in his well-known Essay on the Literary Influence of Academies, has pronounced a glowing panegyric on the French Academy as a high court of letters, and rallying point for educated opinion, as asserting the authority of a master in matters of tone and taste. To it he attributes in a great measure that thoroughness, that openness of mind, that absence of vulgarity which he finds everywhere in French literature; and to the want of a similar institution in England he traces that eccentricity, that provincial spirit, that coarseness, which, as he thinks, is barely compensated by English genius. Thus, too, M. Renan, one of its most distinguished living members, says that it is owing to the academy "qu'on

peut tout dire sans appareil scholastique avec la langue des gens du monde." "Ah ne dites," he exclaims, "qu'ils n'ont rien fait, ces obscures beaux esprits dont la vie se passe à instruire le procès des mots, à peser les syllables. Ils ont fait un chef-d'œuvre-la langue française." On the other hand, its inherent defects have been so well summed up by M. Lanfrey, that we cannot do better than quote from his recent History of Napoleon. "This institution," he says, speaking of the French Academy, "had never shown itself the enemy of despotism. Founded by the monarchy and for the monarchy, eminently favourable to the spirit of intrigue and favouritism, incapable of any sustained or combined labour, a stranger to those great works pursued in common which legitimise and glorify the existence of scientific bodies, occupied exclusively with learned trifles, fatal to emulation, which it pretends to stimulate, by the compromises and calculations to which it subjects it, directed in everything by petty considerations, and wasting all its energy in childish tournaments, in which the flatteries that it showers on others are only the foretaste of the compliments it expects in return for itself, the French Academy seems to have received from its founders the special mission to transform genius into bel esprit, and it would be hard to produce a man of talent whom it has not demoralised. Drawn in spite of itself towards politics, it alternately pursues and avoids them; but it is specially attracted by the gossip of politics, and whenever it has so far emancipated itself as to go into opposition, it does so as the champion of ancient prejudices. If we examine its influence on the national genius, we shall see that it has given it a flexibility, a brilliancy, a polish, which it never possessed before; but it has done so at the expense of its masculine qualities, its originality, its spontaneity, its vigour, its natural grace. It has disciplined it, but it has emasculated, impoverished, and rigidified it. It sees in taste, not a sense of the beautiful, but a certain type of correctness, an elegant form of mediocrity. It has substituted pomp for grandeur, school routine for individual inspiration, elaborateness for simplicity, fadeur and the monotony of literary orthodoxy for variety, the source and spring of intellectual life; and in the works produced under its auspices we discover the rhetorician and the writer, never the man. By all its traditions the academy was made to be the natural ornament of a monarchical society. Richelieu conceived and created it as a sort of superior centralisation applied to intellect, as a high literary court to maintain intellectual unity, and protest against innovation. Bonaparte, aware of all this, had thought of re-establishing its ancient privileges; but it had in his eyes one fatal defect-esprit. Kings of France could condone a witticism even against themselves, a parvenu could not.”

In conclusion, we would briefly state our own opinion. The influence of the French Academy has been conservative rather than creative. While it has raised the general standard of writing, it has tended to hamper and crush originality. It has done much by its example for style, but its attempts to impose its laws on language have, from the nature of the case, failed. For, however perfectly a dictionary or a grammar may represent the existing language of a nation, an original genius is certain to arise-a Victor Hugo, or an Alfred de Musset, who will set at defiance all dictionaries and academic rules.

Spain. The Royal Spanish Academy at Madrid held its first meeting in July 1713, in the palace of its founder, the Duke d'Escalona. It consisted at first of 8 academicians, including the duke; to which number 14 others were afterwards added, the founder being chosen president or director. In 1714 the king granted them the royal confirmation and protection. Their device is a crucible in

the middle of the fire, with this motto, Limpia, fixa, y | da esplendor "It purifies, fixes, and gives brightness." The number of its members was limited to 24; the Duke d'Escalona was chosen director for life, but his successors were elected yearly, and the secretary for life. Their object, as marked out by the royal declaration, was to cultivate and improve the national language. They were to begin with choosing carefully such words and phrases as have been used by the best Spanish writers; noting the low, barbarous, or obsolete ones; and composing a dictionary wherein these might be distinguished from the former.

Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy was founded in the year 1786, for the purpose of purifying and perfecting the Swedish language. A medal is struck by its direction every year in honour of some illustrious Swede. This academy does not publish its transactions.

Belgium.-Belgium has always been famous for its literary societies. The little town of Diest boasts that it possessed a society of poets in 1302, and the Catherinists of Alost date from 1107. Whether or not there is any foundation for these claims, it is certain that numerous Chambers of Rhetoric (so academies were then called) existed in the first years of the rule of the house of Burgundy.

The present Royal Academy of Belgium was founded by the Count of Coblenzl at Brussels, 1769. Count Stahrenberg obtained for it in 1772 letters patent from Maria | Theresa, who also granted pensions to all the members, and a fund for printing their works. All academicians were ipso facto ennobled. It was reorganised, and a class of fine arts added in 1845 through the agency of M. Van de Weyer, the learned Belgian ambassador at London. It has devoted itself principally to national history and antiquities.

III. ACADEMIES OF ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORY.Italy. Under this class the Academy of Herculaneum properly ranks. It was established at Naples about 1755, at which period a museum was formed of the antiquities found at Herculaneum, Pompeii, and other places, by the Marquis Tanucci, who was then minister of state. Its object was to explain the paintings, &c., which were discovered at those places; and for this purpose the members met every fortnight, and at each meeting three paintings were submitted to three academicians, who made their report on them at their next sitting. The first volume of their labours appeared in 1775, and they have been continued under the title of Antichità di Ercolano. They contain engravings of the principal paintings, statues, bronzes, marble figures, medals, utensils, &c., with explanations. In the year 1807, an Academy of History and Antiquities, on a new plan, was established at Naples by Joseph Bonaparte. The number of members was limited to forty; twenty of whom were to be appointed by the king, and these twenty were to present to him, for his choice, three names for each of those wanted to complete the full number. Eight thousand ducats were to be annually allotted for the current expenses, and two thousand for prizes to the authors of four works which should be deemed by the academy most deserving of such a reward. A grand meeting was to be held every year, when the prizes were to be distributed, and analyses of the works read. The first meeting took place on the 25th of April 1807; but the subsequent changes in the political state of Naples prevented the full and permanent establishment of this institution. In the same year an academy was established at Florence for the illustration of Tuscan antiquities, which published some volumes of memoirs.

France. The old Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres was an off-shoot from the French Academy, which

then at least contained the élite of French learning. Louis XIV. was of all French kings the one most occupied with his own aggrandisement. Literature, and even science, he only encouraged so far as they redounded to his own glory. Nor were literary men inclined to assert their independence. Boileau well represented the spirit of the age when, in dedicating his tragedy of Berenice to Colbert, he wrote"The least things become important if in any degree they can serve the glory and pleasure of the king." Thus it was that the Academy of Inscriptions arose. At the suggestion of Colbert, a company (a committee we should now call it) had been appointed by the king, chosen from the French Academy, charged with the office of furnishing inscriptions, devices, and legends for medals. It consisted of four academicians: Chapelain, then considered the poet laureate of France, one of the authors of the critique on the Cid (see above); l'abbé de Bourzeis; François Carpentier, an antiquary of high repute among his contemporaries; and l'abbé de Capagnes, who owed his appointment more to the fulsome flattery of his odes than his really learned translations of Cicero and Sallust. This company used to meet in Colbert's library in the winter, at his country-house at Sceaux in the summer, generally on Wednesdays, to serve the convenience of the minister, who was constantly present. Their meetings were principally occupied with discussing the inscriptions, statues, and pictures intended for the decoration of Versailles; but M. Colbert, a really learned man and an enthusiastic collector of manuscripts, was often pleased to converse with them on matters of art, history, and antiquities. Their first published work was a collection of engravings, accompanied by descriptions, designed for some of the tapestries at Versailles. Louvois, who succeeded Colbert as a superintendent of buildings, revived the company, which had begun to relax its labours. Félibien, the learned architect, and the two great poets Racine and Boileau, were added to their number. A series of medals was commenced, entitled Médailles de la Grande Histoire, or, in other words, the history of le Grand Monarque.

But it was to M. de Portchartrain, comptroller-general of finance and secretary of state, that the academy owed its institution. He added to the company Renaudot and Tourreil, both men of vast learning, the latter tutor to his son, and put at its head his nephew, l'abbé Bignon, librarian to the king. By a new regulation, dated the 16th July 1701, the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Medals was instituted, 'being composed of ten honorary members, ten pensioners, ten associates, and ten pupils. On its constitution we need not dwell, as it was an almost exact copy of that of the Academy of Science. Among the regulations we find the following, which indicates clearly the transition from a staff of learned officials to a learned body:-"The academy shall concern itself with all that can contribute to the perfection of inscriptions and legends, of designs for such monuments and decorations as may be submitted to its judgment; also with the description of all artistic works, present and future, and the historical explanation of the subject of such works; and as the knowledge of Greek and Latin antiquities, and of these two languages, is the best guarantee for success in labours of this class, the academicians shall apply themselves to all that this division of learning includes, as one of the most worthy objects of their pursuit."

Among the first honorary members we find the indefatigable Mabillon (excluded from the pensioners by reason of his orders), Père La Chaise, the king's confessor, and Cardinal Rohan; among the associates Fontenelle, and Rollin, whose Ancient History was submitted to the academy for revision. In 1711 they completed L'Histoire Métallique du Roi, of which Saint-Simon was asked to

write the preface. In 1716 the regent changed its title to that of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, a title which better suited its new character.

In the great battle between the Ancients and the Moderns which divided the learned world in the first half of the 18th century, the Academy of Inscriptions naturally espoused the cause of the Ancients, as the Academy of Sciences did that of the Moderns. During the earlier years of the French Revolution the academy continued its labours uninterruptedly; and on the 22d of January 1793, the day after the death of Louis XVI., we find in the Proceedings that M. Bréquigny read a paper on the projects of marriage between Queen Elizabeth and the Dukes of Anjou and Alençon. In the same year were published the 45th and 46th vols. of the Mémoires de l'Académie. On the 2d of August of the same year the last séance of the old academy was held. More fortunate than its sister Academy of Sciences, it lost only three of its members by the guillotine. One of these was the astronomer Sylvain Bailly. Three others sat as members of the Convention; but for the honour of the academy, we must add that all three were distinguished by their mode

ration.

In the first draught of the new Institute, October 25, 1795, no class corresponded exactly to the old Academy of Inscriptions; but most of the members who survived found themselves re-elected either in the 2d class of moral and political science, under which history and geography were included as sections, or more generally under the 3d class of literature and fine arts, which embraced ancient languages, antiquities, and monuments.

In 1816 the academy received again its old name. The Proceedings of the Society embrace a vast field, and are of very various merits. Perhaps the subjects on which it has shown most originality are comparative mythology, the history of science among the ancients, and the geography and antiquities of France. The old academy has reckoned among its members De Sacy the Orientalist, Dansse de Villoison the philologist, Du Perron the traveller, Sainte-Croix and Du Theil the antiquarians, and Le Beau, who has been named the last of the Romans. The new academy has already inscribed on its lists the well-known names of Champollion, A. Rémusat, Raynouard, Burnouf, and Augustin Thierry.

Celtic Academy.-In consequence of the attention of several literary men in Paris having been directed to Celtic antiquities, a Celtic Academy was established in that city in the year 1800. Its objects were, first, the elucidation of the history, customs, antiquities, manners, and monuments of the Celts, particularly in France; secondly, the etymology of all the European languages, by the aid of the CeltoBritish, Welsh, and Erse; and, thirdly, researches relating to Druidism. The attention of the members was also particularly called to the history and settlements of the Galata in Asia. Lenoir, the keeper of the museum of French monuments, was appointed president. The academy still exists as La Société Royale des Antiquaires de France.

IV. ACADEMIES OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.-Germany. -The Academy of Nature Curiosi, called also the Leopoldine Academy, was founded in 1662, by J. L. Bausch, a physician of Leipsic, who, imitating the example of the English, published a general invitation to medical men to communicate all extraordinary cases that occurred in the course of their practice. The works of the Nature Curiosi were at first published separately; but this being attended with considerable inconvenience, a new arrangement was formed, in 1770, for publishing a volume of observations annually. From some cause, however, the first volume did not make its appearance until 1784, when it came 'orth under the title of Ephemerides. In 1687, the Emperor

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Leopold took the society under his protection, and established it at Vienna; hence the title of Leopoldine which it in consequence assumed. But though it thus acquired a name, it had no fixed place of meeting, and no regular assemblies; instead of which there was a kind of bureau or office, first established at Breslau, and afterwards removed to Nuremberg, where communications from correspondents were received, and persons properly qualified admitted as members. By its constitution the Leopoldine Academy consists of a president, two adjuncts or secretaries, and colleagues or members, without any limitation as to numbers. At their admission the last come under a twofold obligation-first, to choose some subject for discussion out of the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom, provided it has not been previously treated of by any colleague of the academy; and, secondly, to apply themselves to furnish materials for the annual Ephemerides. Each member also bears about with him the symbol of the academy, consisting of a gold ring, whereon is represented a book open, with an eye on one side, and on the other the academical motto of Nunquam otiosus.

The Academy of Surgery at Vienna was instituted by the present emperor, under the direction of the celebrated Brambella. In it there were at first only two professors; and to their charge the instruction of a hundred and thirty young men was committed, thirty of whom had formerly been surgeons in the army. But latterly the number both of teachers and pupils was considerably increased. Gabrielli was appointed to teach pathology and practice; Boecking, anatomy, physiology, and physics; Streit, medical and pharmaceutical surgery; Hunczowsky, surgical ope rations, midwifery, and chirurgia forensis; and Plenk, chemistry and botany. To these was also added Beindel, as prosecutor and extraordinary professor of surgery and anatomy. Besides this, the emperor provided a large and splendid edifice in Vienna, which affords accommodation both for the teachers, the students, pregnant women, patients for clinical lectures, and servants. For the use of this academy the emperor also purchased a medical library, which is open every day; a complete set of chirurgical instruments; an apparatus for experiments in natural philosophy; a collection of natural history; a number of anatomical and pathological preparations; a collection of preparations in wax, brought from Florence; and a variety of other useful articles. Adjoining the building there is also a good botanical garden. With a view to encourage emulation among the students of this institution, three prize medals, each of the value of 40 florins, are annually bestowed on those who return the best answers to questions proposed the year before. These prizes, however, are not entirely founded by the emperor, but are in part owing to the liberality of Brendellius, formerly protochirurgus at Vienna.

France.-Royal Academy of Medicine.-Medicine is a science which has always engaged the attention of the kings of France. Charlemagne established a school of medicine in the Louvre, and various societies have been founded, and privileges granted to the faculty by his successors. The Royal Academy of Medicine succeeded to the old Royal Society of Medicine and the Academy of Surgery. It was erected by a royal ordinance, dated December 20, 1820. It was divided into three sections-medicine, surgery, and pharmacy. In its constitution it closely resembled the Academy of Sciences (vid. sup.) Its function was to preserve or propagate vaccine matter, and answer inquiries addressed to it by the Government on the subject of epidemics, sanitary reform, and public health generally. It has maintained an enormous correspondence in all quarters of the globe, and published extensive minutes.

V. ACADEMIES OF THE FINE ARTS.-Russia.-The

academy at St Petersburg was established by the Empress | Elizabeth, at the suggestion of Count Shuvaloff, and annexed to the Academy of Sciences. The fund for its support was £4000 per annum, and the foundation admitted forty scholars. Catharine II. formed it into a separate institution, augmented the annual revenue to £12,000, and increased the number of scholars to three hundred; she also constructed, for the use and accommodation of the members, a large circular building, which fronts the Neva. The scholars are admitted at the age of six, and continue until they have attained that of eighteen. They are clothed, fed, and lodged at the expense of the crown; and are all instructed in reading and writing, arithmetic, the French and German languages, and drawing. At the age of fourteen they are at liberty to choose any of the following arts, divided into four classes, viz., first, painting in all its branches of history portraits, warpieces, and landscapes, architecture, mosaic, enamelling, &c.; secondly, engraving on copperplates, seal-cutting, &c.; thirdly, carving on wood, ivory, and amber; fourthly, watchmaking, turning, instrument making, casting statues in bronze and other metals, imitating gems and medals in paste and other compositions, gilding, and varnishing. Prizes are annually distributed to those who excel in any particular art; and, from those who have obtained four prizes, twelve are selected, who are sent abroad at the charge of the crown. A certain sum is paid to defray their travelling expenses; and when they are settled in any town, they receive an annual salary of £60, which is continued during four years. There is a small assortment of paintings for the use of the scholars; and those who have made great progress are permitted to copy the pictures in the imperial collection. For the purpose of design, there are models in plaster, all done at Rome, of the best antique statues in Italy, and of the same size with the originals, which the artists of the academy were employed to cast in bronze.

France. The Academy of Painting and Sculpture at Paris was founded by Louis XIV. in 1648, under the title of Académie Royale des Beaux Arts, to which was afterwards united the Academy of Architecture, erected 1671. The academy is composed of painters, sculptors, architects, engravers, and musical composers. From among the members of the society, who are painters, is chosen the director of the French Académie des Beaux Arts at Berne, also instituted by Louis XIV. in 1677. The director's province is to superintend the studies of the painters, sculptors, &c., who, having been chosen by competition, are sent to Italy at the expense of the Government, to complete their studies in that country. Most of the celebrated French painters have begun their career in this way.

The Royal Academy of Music is the name which, by a strange perversion of language, is given in France to the grand opera. In 1571 the poet Baïf established in his house an academy or school of music, at which ballets and masquerades were given. In 1645 Mazarin brought from Italy a troupe of actors, and established them in the Rue du Petit Bourbon, where they executed Jules Strozzi's "Achille in Sciro," the first opera performed in France. After Molière's death in 1673, his theatre in the Palais Royal was given to Sulli, and there were performed all Gluck's great operas; there Vestris danced, and there was produced Jean Jacques Rousseau's "Devin du Village." Italy. In 1778 an Academy of Painting and Sculpture was established at Turin. The meetings were held in the palace of the king, who distributed prizes among the most successful members. In Milan an Academy of Architecture was established so early as the year 1380, by Galeas Visconti. About the middle of the last century an Academy of the Arts was established there, after the

example of those at Paris and Rome. The pupils were furnished with originals and models, and prizes were distributed annually. The prize for painting was a gold medal, and no prize was bestowed till all the competing pieces had been subjected to the examination and criticism of competent judges. Before the effects of the French Revolution reached Italy this was one of the best establishments of the kind in that kingdom. In the hall of the academy were some admirable pieces of Correggio, as well as several ancient paintings and statues of great merit,— particularly a small bust of Vitellius, and a statue of Agrippina, of most exquisite beauty, though it wants the head and arms. The Academy of the Arts, which had been long established at Florence, fell into decay, but was restored in the end of last century. In it there are halls for nude and plaster figures, for the use of the sculptor and the painter. The hall for plaster figures had models of all the finest statues in Italy, arranged in two lines; but the treasures of this and the other institutions for the fine arts were greatly diminished during the occupancy of Italy by the French. In the saloon of the Academy of the Arts at Modena there are many casts of antique statues; but after being plundered by the French it dwindled into a petty school for drawings from living models; it contains the skull of Correggio. There is also an Academy of the Fine Arts in Mantua, and another at Venice.

Spain. In Madrid an Academy for Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, was founded by Philip V. The minister for foreign affairs is president. Prizes are distributed every three years. In Cadiz a few students are supplied by Government with the means of drawing and modelling from figures; and such as are not able to purchase the requisite instruments are provided with them.

Sweden.-An Academy of the Fine Arts was founded at Stockholm in the year 1733 by Count Tessin. In its hall are the ancient figures of plaster presented by Louis XIV. to Charles XI. The works of the students are publicly exhibited, and prizes are distributed annually. Such of them as display distinguished ability obtain pensions from Government, to enable them to reside in Italy for some years, for the purposes of investigation and improvement. In this academy there are nine professors, and generally about four hundred students. In the year 1705 an Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture was established at Vienna, with the view of encouraging and promoting the fine arts.

England.-The Royal Academy of Arts in London was instituted for the encouragement of designing, painting, sculpture, &c., in the year 1768, with Sir J. Reynolds for its president. This academy is under the immediate patronage of the queen, and under the direction of forty artists of the first rank in their several professions. It furnishes, in winter, living models of different characters to draw after; and in summer, models of the same kind to paint after. Nine of the ablest academicians are annually elected out of the forty, whose business it is to attend by rotation, to set the figures, to examine the performance of the students, and to give them necessary instructions. There are likewise professors of painting, sculpture, architecture, anatomy, and chemistry, who annually read public lectures on the subjects of their several departments; besides a president, a council, and other officers. The admission to this academy is free to all students properly qualified to reap advantage from the studies cultivated in it; and there is an annual exhibition at Burlington House of paintings, sculptures, and designs, open to all artists of distinguished merit.

The Academy of Ancient Music was established in London in 1710, by several persons of distinction, and other