86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this incident, and the rejection of Moliere, Boileau, La Bruyere, 

 and Pascal ; but these were almost the only exceptions to the rule 

 that the greatest names in French literature were among the 

 " Forty Immortals." And, as a matter of fact, Corneille was later 

 on elected to membership, as were also Boileau and La Bruyere. 

 If Moliere was rejected because he was an actor, is it not currently 

 reported that Henry Irving in our day is denied a knighthood 

 for a like reason ? But even of this action the Academy has 

 thought better, for Moliere's bust, which has been placed in the 

 Salle des Seances, bears these words, " Bien ne manque a sa gloire ; 

 il manquait a la notre." 



There are no two opinions as to the influence of the Academy 

 upon the French language. It can be said, almost without exag- 

 geration, that the French language has made greater conquests 

 than the French army, for surely it has subdued courts where the 

 French soldier had been impotent. As to its efficiency as a ve- 

 hicle for literature classified as belles-lettres, it is the language 

 par excellence, and its influence upon the world's literature is still 

 tremendous. In clearness of expression, in perfection of form, in 

 all that is meant by style, the French language is perhaps second 

 only to the ancient Greek. 



What the schools and philosophers of Athens did toward the 

 perfection of the Ionic dialect, the French Academy has done for 

 the French. Could there be any higher term of encomium than 

 this ? Yet this is the heritage of the Academy not of one indi- 

 vidual or of one generation, but of the accretions of generations 

 of men laboring toward one end. 



II. Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 



III. Academie des Sciences. 



IV. Academie des Beaux-Arts. 



V. Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. 



From the halcyon days of le Grande Monarque, three of the 

 academies II, III, and IV date their beginning. 



L' Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, originally ap- 

 pointed to prepare inscriptions and mottoes for medals for King 

 Louis XIV, became a chartered body under Colbert in 1663, when 

 its scope was widened by assuming as its province the discussion 

 of archaeology in its various bearings. 



L' Academie des Beaux-Arts arose from the Academie de 

 Peinture, founded by Le Brun in 1648, and enlarged and incor- 

 porated by Colbert in 1664, as the Academie Boy ale de Peinture 

 et Sculpture; it busies itself with painting, sculpture, archi- 

 tecture, and music. 



L' Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques is the youngest 

 of the five, dating only from 1832, and has for its especial inves- 

 tigation mental philosophy, jurisprudence, and political economy. 



