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 Archæology 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 col lector 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 Insertions 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 tho 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 know ledge 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 tho academy for revision. In 1711 they completed L'Histoire Métallique du Roi, of which Saint-Simon was asked to
