New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-06-22

more generous, and or course moro healCny'
In the same rubro, mems impressions and preju-
dices are the same. They have no chance for cor
recting each other. Their ideas become twisted,
and distorted, and out Of joint. There is no such
potent remedy for this as the society of their
antpodes in point of character, pursuits, and
tastes. 1t is an excellent thing for doctors OF
divinity to meet doctors of medicine on COM
mon ground; for the Psychologist and meta
physician to hear the sound OF each others
voices on the broad platform of universal
sciences for the college professor and recluse
student to join hands with the popular novel
list, the famous poet, the secular Journalist, the
sagaciOus mechanican and engineer If this
network of academies, though to our inexpe-
rienced eye it seems rather complicated, we
must confess, shall bring these various classes
of worthless into something like intellectual and
social communion, we shall accept the miracle
as the proof of saving mission.
We rather think the new Institute may do
little also toward diminishing the ryalres
and jcalousics of professional life. Not that
these are without SAVIOR of good, but they need
to be kept well in hand, or they make FAINT
our recOlIectons of the garden of Eden 1t
seems to be an inevitable condition that great
artists, great scientists great scholars, great
divines, great journalists, great doctors In any
line, should look with more or less jealousy on
one another. We believe in original sin too
profoundly to cavil at this arrangement; but
it may be limited, and to some extent neu-
tralized by other influences. 1t would be
better We have no doubt if the spirit of
rivalry were tempered and sOftened by unity
of purpose in more general relations. Let the
most rabid antagonists in politics, literature, or
art, unite their efforts for some common end,
it is curious to see how the faces
which were before wlinkled i'll scOwls
will melt into smiles. Some balance
wheel is necessary in the midst of our seething,
fermenting, agitatng competitions. Personal
convictions, zeal, even a noble enthusiasm soon
grow sour, if left to themselves. If Thomas
Carlyle had been subject to a vigorous pressure
from intimate relations with his intellectual
peers, he would not have been thrown off the
track. transforming the earnest prophet of
"Sartor Resartus" into the captions, crooked,
gnarled, and lnotted author of the Latter
Day Pamphlets" In this point Of view, we
own we have some hopcs-not too brilliantly
colored-of the Institute. 1t may prove con-
posing and recOncng element amid the fierce
conflicts of modern life.
As a means of dilusing knowledge, we think,
it may also have a good effect. We have no
faith in this or any other association as an in
strument of discovery and progress. We doubt
it will kndlc no new lights, though it may
pass them from hand to hand when they begin
to blaze. Truth is found not by the acclama
tons of Il crowd, but in the lonely meditations
and experiments of the solitary thinker We
are not aware that any great original results
have been obtained from the combined action
of Institutes and Academies, though they may
have given an impulse to individual minds.
Newton was not led by the Royal Society to
deduce the law of grayitation from the fall of
an apple; Herschcl swept the sky with his tel
escopc with no cheers from learned bodies;
Iaplace reconstructed the mechanism of the
heavens without the behests of the Academy
and Mayer and Joule lab0rcd alone and in
silence till their experiments in heat changed
the face of modern science by discovering the
equivalence of force
Nor can the proposed Institute assume the
place of an authority among the independent
thinkers of our land. 1t cannot even give the
law To our language, rs the French Academy
does 10 theirs. Men who wish TO speak well
VIII take COunScl WIN Johnson, anu w custer,
and Worcester, and Goold Brown, and
Marsh, in spite of the Institute. The
mass of our countrymcn are apt enough
to murder honest English in defiance
of the dictionaries a free and easy mode of
expression is as much the natural right of the
freebom American rs whisky drinking tobacco
chewing, and splitting; and we apprehend that
every full-blooded Yankee, will continue to
speak as it peascs Providence and himself,
with a sublime disregard of academic rules.
On the whole. we do not hesitate TO give
this young candidate for public favor a
friendly clap on the shoulder. We like its
Constitution very well indeed. The plot is ex-
cellent; very good plot and very good
friends We hope to see it handsomely car
ried out. We are not over crcdulous with re-
gard to its success, but we think it promises
fair Ono thing is certain. 1t must be admin
istered in broad and catholic spirit or it
will find no favor with our people. 1t must
show no trace of pcdantry, or Pharisaism.
Anything savOring of the spirit of the lnqui-
siton or the Vatican would bring it into de-
served contempt. AS it cannot command the
lightnings of heaven, let it not attempt to
WELD the thundcrs of Jove.
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TIEUS or THE COPPERHEADS.
M Oty,,1ou thu Hon Ron Wno1's