Page images
PDF
EPUB

Finally, it is impossible to calculate the happy results of a system which ought to keep the sciences and the arts in perpetual union; and to subject them to a habitual reciprocal reaction of progress and usefulness.

We have borrowed from Talleyrand and Condorcet the plan of a national institute; a grand and majestic scheme, the execution of which ought to outshine in splendor all the academies of kings, as the destinies of republican France outshine already the most brilliant epochs of monarchic France. This is in a manner to be the world of science in miniature, the representative corps of the republic of letters, the honorable goal of all the ambitions of science and of talent, the most magnificent recompense of great efforts and great success; it will be in a manner a temple of reason, whose portals always closed to the voice of intrigue, shall be opened only at the conscientious suminons of deserved renown. This institute shall reconcile all branches of instruction; it shall impress upon them the only unity which does not sadden genius nor restrain its flight; it shall make known all discoveries so that which is nearest to perfection may be most highly esteemed and may become universal, because it shall be felt to be the best. You will see tending to this common centre, and tending thither by a rational and necessary inclination, all which every year shall bring forth that is grand, useful, or beautiful, upon the fertile soil of France. Here skillful hands shall divide, diffuse, and spread over all these treasures of science and reason; these enlightened bestowers of the crowns of talent, lighting on all sides the fire of emulation, shall call out the wonders which French activity needs and has the power to produce. There the men most worthy of being united shall meet, shall each encourage and comprehend the other; they will find themselves united as the representatives of all species of literary fame; and truly it is time that the strife for glory should feel the influence of universal equality, and that she may open at once her temple to the scholar who reveres Racine, to the orator, the historian, the artist, the renowned actor who recreates the masterpieces of the stage, in giving them the soul of gesture, glance, and speech, and who thus completes Corneille and Voltaire.

In the meantime, citizens, in the plan which we propose to you, the republic reserves many other means of encouraging the progress of the sciences of letters and of arts; she encourages effort; she recompenses success; she contributes with discernment to all the expenses of instruction; to those honorable investigations, to travels of research, to those severe experiments by which genius interrogates nature, calls forth truth, enlarges in the human mind the faculties of thought and knowledge; she awakens on all sides the power of emulation, that generous sentiment, the purest principle of human activity, without which social equality would be like the bed of that tyrant who mutilated his victims; in fine she distributes and spreads abroad over different points of the land the most instructive monuments of nature and of art, and above all, books, that heritage of the ages, which forms to-day one of the most precious parts of national wealth.

It is by these means, Representatives of the people, that you are about to multiply, and disseminate the causes or at least the occasions which aid the birth and d'velopment of talents, and intimates to them their destination, their tastes, and their might.

But the most powerful means of public education is in the establishment of national feasts. There nature is truly manifested and animated, that nature of which books reflect only obscure and indistinct images, even when they do not present her under false and deceptive aspects.

Receive then into the bosom of France those brilliant festivals which once offered to the assembled communities of Greece the ravishing spectacle of all pleasures, all talents, and all glory. I do not know if there be in the annals of the world pictures more thronged with life and with feeling, more fit to give to the members of humanity the consciousness of their power and their faculties; better able to awaken in genius profound sensations, of leading it to great and angust thought, than those ancient games which have connected with the names of certain small communities immortal memories. You have but to will it, and these wonders shall be born again in the midst of your departments. Do you not dwell in a smiling and abundant land? Do you not find an active and industrious people? Surely if to any other, it belongs to that people, to display in the eyes of the nations and the ages a rich and productive activity, and of measuring the long duration of its liberty and its glory by the periods of its emulation and its solemn pleasures. Renew,-the time has come, these institutions produc

tive of weal; bring together there the exercises of every age, the music and the dance, the race and the contest, the military evolutions and the scenic representations; display there the wealth of the population, of industry and the arts; let the national activity come there to exhibit the measure of its progress in every field; let commerce bring there the products of the manufacturer; there let artists bring their masterpieces, and sages their discoveries, while history, poetry, eloquence shall proclaim the triumphs of liberty, and shall adorn with imperishable splendor, all that shall have been great, useful, republican, and generous.

The plan which it is my office to present to you has at least this advantage, that it brings into clear view the fact that these national solemnities may exist without putting them into opposition with the private exercises of religion. Moreover, what we propose to you is only a beginning which ought in better times to receive further developments. In the midst of different beliefs, freely exercised, but subject to the laws of the republic, patriotism will soon become the common creed of all the people of France.

Representatives of the people, after so many violent shocks, so many unquiet suspicions, so many necessary wars, so many justifiable challenges; after five years so full of agony, effort, and sacrifice, the nced most universally felt is no doubt that of kindly feeling, of mutual approach and union, of repose in the bosom of gentle passions and peaceful sentiments.

But, what shall exercise this ministry of general reconciliation better than public instruction? Is not education the centre whither should tend from all parts those at least who have not been divided by the counsels of prejudice? Is not the temple of arts the necessary asylum where all those who are worthy of working a great influence upon their country should make haste to unite, since, after all they must consent to see themselves at some time mingled together in the same r cords of glory; and since, despite their transitory differences, the same calendar of immortality shall receive their names and deeds?

Yes, it is reserved to letters to perfect the revolution which their champions have commenced, to extinguish all dissension, to re-establish peace amidst all those who nourish them; and none can doubt that in France, in the eighteenth century and under the empire of reason the peace of enlightened men shall be the signal of the peace of the world.

In spite of its efforts, and its power, the revolution, which had created a new France, heaped up ruins mainly in regard to public instruction. It was in vain that a decree of the 13th of October, 1790, ordered that while awaiting the operation of the new establishments, the old schools should re-open as formerly; it was in vain that a law of the 21st of January, 1792, granted a sum of a hundred and fifty thousand francs, from the public finances, in order to meet the expense of the colleges. The universities, constrained particularly in their moral life, deprived of this consciousness of their future, one of the primordial elements of the existence of institutions, as of man, died, so to speak, voluntary death. The decrees which suppressed the academic tribunal (22d February, 1792), after having placed the colleges under the surveillance of the administrative authorities (23 October, 1791), those who were connected with the abolishment or redemption of Feudal tenures (1789–1792), with the civil oath of the ecclesiastical founders (April, 1792,) the law of the 8th of March, which ordered the sale of the college effects for the benefit of the state, had in other ways seriously disorganized the mechanism of these establishments.* At last

*May 17, 1793, on a motion of Lakanal, the Academy of Sciences was excepted, by a conven tional decree, from the law which had previously interdicted the ancient learned societies from proceeding to the election of new members. Then it was that Carnot, Monge, Chaptal, Berthollet, Fourcroy, etc., organized victory, by the revolutionary improvisation of the discoveries which are usually the fruit of long and calm research, and which suddenly enlarged the domain of science.

after one of these fleeting decisions (15 September,) which constructed on paper a new system of public instruction, a decision which was destined to repeal the next day, the Convention pronounced the abolition of all the colleges in full operation, and the faculties. So perished the ancient University of Paris, so perished the similar institutions to which it had given rise; without even the nominal honor of a death-sentence, and without the special exertion of any power for that end.

The 9 Thermidor (27 July, 1794) was about to close by a sudden crisis, the bloody period of the revolution. After this period the soil began to be slowly strengthened, and the laborers of the future could work on a firmer basis. After the 14 Fructidor following, Fourcroy, bringing vividly before the convention the educational destitution which threatened to plunge France anew into the darkness of barbarism, entreated members to prevent an event so shameful. At the same time Giraud (de l'Aude) earnestly desired that their sittings every ten days might be devoted to public instruction. After these appeals the convention returned to the work with fresh ardor, and the first fruits of this zeal (9 Brumaire, year III, Oct. 30, 1794,) was the creation of the Normal School designed to train a body of professors. On the 17th of November, (27 Brumaire, year III,) the establishment of primary schools was ordered. New medical schools, entitled Schools of Health, were opened by Law of 14 Frimaire, year III, or 4 Dec., 1794. The law of the 7 Ventose (year III, 25 Feb. 1795,) organized Central Schools which were to succeed the former colleges. The Polytechnic school, the schools of mining, of civil engineering, the hydrographical engineers, were founded by the decree of the 30th Vendémiaire, year IV (22 Oct. 1795). At last, on the 25th of Oct. 1795, (3 Brumaire IV,) appeared the great law of public instruction founded on the report of Daunou. This law formed five degrees, or classes of establishments, primary schools, middle schools, special schools, free establishments, and over all the National Institute of France. To these creations may be added the Museum or conservatoire of the arts (20-23 Feb. 1793, and 27 Nivôse year II, 16 Jan. 1794); the school of living Oriental languages (10 Germinal, III, 30 March, 1795); the Course of Archeology in the National Library (Law of 20 Prairial, III-8 June, 1795); the Bureau of Longitude (11 Messidor, III-29 June, 1795); the collection of Archeological Monuments, known as Museum of the Petits Augustins; the Conservatory of Music reorganized on a grander scale (18 Brumaire II, and 16 Thermidor III-8 Nov. 1793, 3 Aug. 1795); the Veterinary Schools (17 Vendémiaire 2 Floréal, III-8 Oct., 1794, 21 April, 1795); the Conservatory of Arts and Trades (19 Vendémiaire, III-10 Oct. 1794); the Museum of Natural History (21 Frimaire, III-11 Dec., 1794);

• Erected by a law of the 29 Vendémiaire, year IV (Oct. 20, 1795); organized in 1795 under the minister Bénézech, by the efforts of Alexandre Lenoir; suppressed by the restoration in 1816. A resolution of the Committee of Public Safety established at Meudon (10 Brumaire, III, Oct 31, 1794,) a National Aerostic School for the use of armics. It consisted of 60 pupils divided into two companies of aerostats. This establishment lasted three years, and disappeared about the time of the fall of the Directory.

the National Library (25 Vendémiaire, IV-17 Oct., 1795) as well as other public libraries; even this enumeration does not exhaust the services rendered to science, letters, and art, by this "tireless areopagus," which closed its sittings on the 26th of October, 1795, and was succeeded by the Directory, the heir of the executive power, which the convention had accumulated in the constitution of the year III.

(4.) One of the earliest acts of the Directory was to inaugurate the National Institute* by naming forty-eight members, who assembled 15 Frimaire, year IV (Jan. 3, 1796,) at the convocation of Bénézech, minister of the interior, and elected 96 associates who together composed the 144 resident members. The institute was then divided into three classes: 1. Physical and mathematical science; 2. Moral and political science; 3. Literature and the Fine Arts. Each class was divided into sections. The first public sitting or seance of inauguration took place with great pomp and splendor the 15 Germinal of the same year (April 4, 1796). The Conservatories, Museums, Veterinary Schools, Schools of Health, Polytechnic School, Schools of Oriental Languages, etc., entered on their duties at the date of the decrees which had instituted them. But other establishments did not spring into being with the same facility or promptitude.

The normal school established at Paris without any clear idea of the practical necessities which it was to provide for, lasted only a few months and was discontinued by a decree of the 7 Floreal, year III (April 26, 1795).

The law of 7 Ventôse, year III, which established the central schools, defined their plan in a very vague and general manner. They were to be distributed in the proportion of one institution for every three hundred thousand inhabitants,-each to have fifteen masters to teach as many courses on subjects, whose connection and gradation was not clearly defined. By the law of 3 Brumaire, year IV, the course of study was modified and divided into three sections or series. The first, to which pupils were admitted under the age of twelve, comprehended drawing, natural history, ancient and living languages. To enter the second the student must have attained his fourteenth year; the course comprised the elements of mathematics, natural philosophy, and experimental chemistry. The third series, open to pupils of sixteen, embraced general grammar, literature, history, and legislation. In the year IV out of 105, viz. 5 in Paris, and one in the chief town of every department, only one was organized. Forty central schools

*The Institute received its final organization by decree of Pluviose in year IV (Jan. 23, 1803). It was then divided into four classes, viz. 1. Physical and mathematical science, of 65 members; 2. French language and literature of forty members; 3. History and ancient literature of 40 members; 4. Fine arts of 28 members. Under Napoleon the name was changed to Imperial Institute; by royal ordinance, the name institute was applied only to the whole body, and the first rank was assigned to the Academie Francaise, which is charged with the composition of the French Dictionary; the next, to the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, to which is entrusted the erection and conservation of public monuments; the third, to the Academie des Sciences and the fourth, to the Academie des Beaux Arts. To each academy was attached ten honorary members. Each can elect any number of corresponding members.

were inscribed in the national almanac in the year V; fifty-two in the year VI; fifty-nine in the year VII; eighty-six in the year VIII; and ninety-one in the year IX. But the institution was not eminently successful, it had neither external administration nor interior discipline. Every professor, equal in authority to his colleagues, governed a part of the school. The law only regarded day-scholars; the government showed an intention of attaching a pensionnat to every school; but this idea was not wholly realized. The pupils, from twelve to sixteen years of age, were left to their own free will. The instruction of the central schools supposed previous study and attainments which in fact had no existence. These were the chief reasons why the central schools languished and dissolved.*

The hindrances to the development of public primary schools were still more formidable. The law of 27 Brumaire, year III, which had been preceded by three others with the same title, was modified in the year following (3 Brumaire, IV,) by which each commune was required to provide a locality for the elementary school; and a previous provision appropriating the priest's house for this purpose, was repealed. Not only were places thus left unprovided, but the thousands of teachers and func tionaries competent for work so delicate, austere, and unprecedented in the habits of the nation, could not be had in time of war, and in a country so disturbed by many causes. Fortunately under these circumstances many boarding schools and other private institutions remained and were well frequented, and thus perpetuated the habits of instruction among families in spite of the chance or languishing condition of the public establishment. Thus the system of public instruction in its higher, as well as in it lower institutions, remained undeveloped, when the democratic phase of the revolution ended, and the will of one man again absorbed the government and destinies of France.

(5.) One of the earliest labors, in which the organizing talent of the First Consul was displayed, was in the restoration and perfecting of public instruction. Amongst the colleges of Paris was one which, founded in 1567 and recognized by successive kings, had survived all the storms of the revolution- the Louis le-Grand, but known in the times of the Convention as College de l' Egalitè, and under the Directory the Institut des Bour siers-from whom it received a grant of 200,000 francs together with the buildings of the ancient college. In the year VI it received from the Minister of the Interior, the designation of French Prytaneum (Prytanée Francais), and its scholarships were all given to the sons of soldiers. By an order of the consuls, 1 Germinal, year VII (March 22, 1800), it was divided into four sections. The first was maintained at Paris in the same locality; the second at Fontainbleau; the third at St. Germain; and the fourth at St. Cyr. A few weeks later a fifth was established at Brussels, and a sixth devoted to the mechanical arts and navigation, at Compiegne. A hundred

** Kilian (secretary of M. Villemain, minister of public instruction). Tableau historique de l' instruction secondaire, etc., 1841, p. 78.

« PreviousContinue »