Institut de France

“ THE Institute of France has been called the greatest educational work any government has ever organized and supported. Be that as it may, there is no denying that the service it has rendered learning and literature, scientific research and the fine arts, has been extensive and stimulating, that, beginning with the organization of the French Academy in the time of Richelieu, its history covers in a good degree the history of the intellectual and social development of the French people. ”

“ By the theory of all such institutions, the relative rank of great men is a determinable thing. The supreme object of the Institute of France, through the organization of its five great Academies, is the extension and improvement of human knowledge in all its comprehensive departments; while, subsidiary to this object, it assumes the function of honoring the men in foreign countries who have contributed in eminent ways to this advance of knowledge. Mr. Spencer is, therefore, to be estimated by the import of his contributions to the progress of thought. ”

“ Many countries have academies which may rival our own by the distinction of the persons composing them, and by the importance of their labours; France alone possesses an Institute in which all the efforts of the human mind are bound together as in a sheaf; where the philosopher, the historian, the philologer, the critic, the mathematician, the physicist, the astronomer, the analyst, the economist, the jurisconsult, the sculptor, the painter, the musician, may call one another colleagues. ”

“ I think it not improbable, that much amusement may be found in the conversation of the members; but I [259] confine my recommendation to the advantages which the “Lycée” affords, as an easy source of profitable knowledge.
“L’Institut national,” that celebrated society, which has succeeded “l’académie française,” which is held up as the great republican repository of genius and learning, and into which admittance is solicited with so much eagerness, both at home and abroad, consists of one hundred and forty-four members resident at Paris, and of twenty-four foreign associates. ”

“ The building of the Institute is surmounted by a splendid dome, and it presents a striking appearance to the stranger. It immediately fronts the foot-bridge which crosses the Seine to the Louvre.
The university of France it is supposed was founded by Charlemagne. It is a magnificent and truly liberal institution, and is under the authority of the minister of public instruction. It has five departments, an immense library and funds for aged or infirm teachers.
The Academy of Paris consists of five faculties—science letters, theology, law, and medicine. ”

“ This establishment was formed, agreeably to a decree of the National Assembly passed on the 3d of Brumaire, year IV (25th of October, 1796) . By that decree, it appears that the Institute belongs to the whole Republic, though its point of union is fixed in Paris. Its object is to extend the limits of the arts and sciences in general, by an uninterrupted series of researches, by the publication of discoveries, by a correspondence with the learned societies of foreign countries, and by such scientific and literary labours as tend to general utility and the glory of the Republic. ”

“ The École Centrale of Paris, in which the majority of French engineers who are not employed in the government service are trained, is a rare instance of an institution for higher technical instruction which is self-supporting and independent of government aid. Other special institutions in Paris, some of which are associated with the university of Paris, are the École des Mines, the École des Ponts et Chaussées, and the Collège de France, an old foundation in which facilities are afforded for the highest scientific research. ”

“ The members of suppressed universities and societies, who have taken degrees as professors in the old faculties, or who have filled the posts of superiors and principals of colleges, or chairs of philosophy or rhetoric, as also councillors, inspectors-general, rectors and inspectors of academies, and professors of faculties in the University of France, who may find themselves out of employment by the effect of the present decree, are eligible to all places whatever. ”

“ And, that the Doctors, Licentiates, Bachelors, students, and dependents of the aforesaid university, and their households and domestic servants, may be able the more freely and quietly to devote themselves to letters and scholastic deeds, we will, by our royal authority and plenary power, bestow upon these same Doctors, Licentiates, Bachelors, students, dependents, households, and domestic servitors, such and similar privileges, franchises, and liberties as have been granted, given, and bestowed by our predecessors the kings of France upon the rest of the universities of our kingdom. ”

“ It appears then, that in France, one person out of 427,000 is a member of the Institute. That in Italy and Prussia, about one out of 300,000 persons is a member of their Academies.
That in England, every 32,000 inhabitants produces a Fellow of the Royal Society. Looking merely at these proportions, the estimation of a seat in the Academy of Berlin, must be more than nine times as valuable as a similar situation in England; and a member of the Institute of France will be more than thirteen times more rare in his country than a Fellow of the Royal Society is in England. ”

“ We therefore, who with extreme longing desire to have our already-mentioned kingdom governed with justice and equity, and restored so far as we shall be able with God's help [to restore it] to its pristine glory, [establish this university] attentively considering the fact that no Studium in Civil Law has been established in our jurisdictions in France, and in the duchies of Normandy, Burgundy, and Brittany, the counties of Champagne and Flanders, the county of Picardy, and some other parts of the kingdom itself that are united in loyalty and obedience to us. ”

“ In the last place, experience shows that education carried on by the State is most expensive, and that it opens the way to intrigues and frauds. To confirm all these observations, it is sufficient to refer to France, where State influence has been supreme for the last seventy years in university education, and where the Government has exercised an exorbitant control over every branch of public instruction. ”

“ THE three principal establishments in France connected with “superior instruction” are the College of France, an independent institution where lectures free to everyone are delivered by the first literary and scientific men of the country; the University of France, whose chief function is to confer degrees; and the Sorbonne, which, when it does not mean the building of that name, is used to denote collectively the three faculties of which the Sorbonne may be considered the headquarters. ”

“ This Council decided all matters of importance, and exercised supervision and control over education of all kinds, from the lowest to the highest, throughout France. [4] To assist the Council, general inspectors for medicine, law, theology, letters, and science were provided for, to visit and "examine the condition of instruction and discipline in the faculties, lycées, and colleges; to inform themselves in regard to the fidelity and ability of professors, regents, and ushers; to examine the students; and to make a complete survey of those institutions, in their whole administration." ”

“ As the organization of the University of France differs essentially from that of English universities, each of which is localized in one place, and can be seen in its entirety from the top of a tower, the Englishman hears with contemptuous inattention any attempt to make him understand an institution without a parallel in his own country. Besides this, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are venerable and wealthy institutions, visibly beautiful, whilst the University of France is of comparatively recent origin ”

“ He founded an institute, the members of which after a careful training for the office of school-masters, were to devote their lives to the work of primary education. The Brotherhood extended its labours over France, it survived the Revolution of the Commune and carried its operations into other countries, and although the present Government has unhappily withdrawn from it all countenance and support, yet in Paris alone it has 60,000 scholars and is largely aided by the private benevolence of all classes, both the rich and the poor. ”

“ How else can we account for a scheme devoid of method or any notion of the future? "The Institut might be the central government of the moral and intellectual world; but it has been ruined lately by its subdivision into separate academies. So human science marches on, without a guide, without a system, and floats haphazard with no road traced out. "This vagueness and uncertainty prevails in politics as well as in science. In the order of nature means are simple, the end is grand and marvelous; here in science as in government, the means are stupendous, the end is mean. ”

“ THE FAÇADE OF THE INSTITUTE
From an original drawing of the Revolutionary period (Carnavalet Museum)
The Institute is not far, but for the ancient College of the Four [Pg 158] Nations to produce its best impression, it needs a special day—an extraordinary sitting, a sensational reception, when the prettiest costumes of the most elegant Parisian dames contrast with the Academicians' green uniforms. On one side, are beauty, charm, and grace; on the other, some of the noblest intelligences, the most illustrious names in Literature, Art, and Science. ”

“ It would be repugnant to the feelings of Englishmen to submit to the regulations of the Institute, which require official addresses, and the names of candidates for admission into their body to be approved by the Government before the first are delivered or the second elected. The French savants are, it is true, ennobled and decorated by orders, which the wiser among them, in common with true philosophers of any country, regard with indifference. ”

“ The local Universities were too numerous. France does not supply seventeen natural centres of high learning. Four or five would have sufficed, and more could not have been rendered successful or productive. The forgotten reform which I am here recalling had yet another fault. It was introduced too soon, and was the result, at once systematic and incomplete, of the meditations of certain men long impressed with the deficiencies of the University system, and not really the fruit of public impulse and opinion. ”

“ The board of trustees determined to make the property of the Institute the nucleus of a broad and comprehensive institution for the advancement of science and art, and its membership a large and active association, laboring not only for the advancement of knowledge, but also for the education of the people, through lectures and collections, in art and science. ”

“ Meanwhile, a new outburst of discord in the Royal Society arose out of a well-merited honour conferred on its President by the Institute of France, in 1802. It was inevitable that a body so eminent and illustrious as the French Institute should not only feel gratitude to Sir Joseph Banks for that liberality of spirit which had dictated, in the midst of war, his many gracious and generous acts of service to Frenchmen, but should long since have reached the conviction that they would be honouring themselves, not less than honouring him, by his reception in their midst. ”

“ Each University will be composed, first, of a council, presided over by a rector; secondly, of faculties; thirdly, of colleges; fourthly, of district colleges.
3. The mode of teaching and discipline in all the Universities will be regulated and superintended by a Royal Council of Public Instruction.
4. The Normal School of Paris will be common to all the Universities; it will provide, at the expense of the State, the number of professors and masters which may be required to give instruction in science and literature.
Title II.
Respecting the Universities. ”

“ With the encouragement of national grants—again from the great domain of Louis XIV—they have established universities with colleges of liberal arts and sciences, and schools of agriculture, forestry, mining, engineering, pharmacy, veterinary surgery, commerce, law, medicine, and philosophy. There is not a State in all that valley that has not its university in name and in most instances in fact. ”

“ All the schools belonging to the University shall take for the basis of their teaching loyalty to the Emperor, to the imperial monarchy to which the happiness of the people is confided and to the Napoleonic dynasty which preserves the unity of France and of all liberal ideas proclaimed by the Constitutions. ”

“ This forced him to send for a workman from Germany, whom he constantly employed, and who lived in his house. I was one day with the Count at a sitting of the first class of the Institute, when we heard one of the leading members declare that they would set their faces against any discovery which did not originate among themselves. ”

“ The Institute is also open to others who may be disposed to join, with this proviso—that every student must be either actually earning his or her living, or purposing to do so, by the arts and crafts here taught. ”

“ In almost all the writings about a nation's university, and of course in the two Senate bills now under discussion, there will be found the implication, if not the express assertion, that it is somehow the duty of our government to maintain a magnificent university. ”

“ French language and literature, (3) ancient history and literature, (4) fine arts. The class of moral and political science was restored on the proposal of M. Guizot in 1832, and the present Institute consists of the five classes named above. Each class or academy has its own special jurisdiction and work, with special funds; but there is a general fund and a common library, which, with other common affairs, are managed by a committee of the Institute—two chosen from each academy, with the secretaries. ”