litical changes occurred which threw out a literary administration.
France and Italy have gloried in great national academies, and even in
provincial ones. With us, the curious history and the fate of the
societies at Spalding, Stamford, and Peterborough, whom their zealous
founder lived to see sink into country clubs, is that of most of our
_rural_ attempts at literary academies! The Manchester society has but
an ambiguous existence; and that of Exeter expired in its birth. Yet
that a great purpose may be obtained by an inconsiderable number, the
history of "The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures,"
&c., may prove; for that originally consisted only of twelve persons,
brought together with great difficulty, and neither distinguished for
their ability nor their rank.

The opponents to the establishment of an academy in this country may
urge, and find Bruyere on their side, that no corporate body generates a
single man of genius. No Milton, no Hume, no Adam Smith, will spring out
of an academical community, however they may partake of one common
labour. Of the fame, too, shared among the many, the individual feels
his portion too contracted, besides that he will often suffer by
comparison. Literature, with us, exists independent of patronage or
association. We have done well without an academy; our dictionary and
our style have been polished by individuals, and not by a society.

The advocates for such a literary institution may reply, that in what
has been advanced against it we may perhaps find more glory than profit.
Had an academy been established in this country, we should have
possessed all our present advantages, with the peculiar ones of such an
institution. A series of volumes composed by the learned of England had
rivalled the precious "Memoirs of the French Academy," probably more
philosophical, and more congenial to our modes of thinking! The
congregating spirit creates by its sympathy; an intercourse exists
between its members which had not otherwise occurred; in this attrition
of minds, the torpid awakens, the timid is emboldened, and the secluded
is called forth; to contradict, and to be contradicted, is the privilege
and the source of knowledge. Those original ideas, hints, and
suggestions, which some literary men sometimes throw out once or twice
during their whole lives, might here be preserved; and if endowed with
sufficient funds, there are important labours, which surpass the means
a