of the ſage Laws of the former, and improv'd upon others.
Two Things, and thoſe the moſt eſſential to Man, are wanting in the Royal Society of London, I mean Rewards and Laws. A Seat in the Academy at Paris is a ſmall, but ſecure Fortune to a Geometrician or a Chymiſt; but this is ſo far from being the Caſe at London, that the ſeveral Members of the Royal Society are at a continual, tho' indeed ſmall Expence. Any Man in England who declares himſelf a Lover of the Mathematicks and natural Philoſophy, and expreſſes an Inclination to be a Member of the Royal Society, is immediately elected into it[1]. But in France 'tis not enough that a Man who aſpires to the Honour of being a Member of the Academy, and of receiving the Royal Stipend, has a love
- ↑ The Reader will call to Mind that theſe Letters were written about 1728 or 30, ſince which Time the Names of the ſeveral Candidates are, by a Law of the Royal Society, poſted up in it, in order that a Choice may be made of ſuch Perſons only as are qualified to be Members. The celebrated Mr. de Fontenelle had the Honour to paſs thro' this Ordeal.
