384 THE LATEST REFORM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 



"L'ennemi que nous avons a combattre, c'est le souci exclusif 

 de la preparation professionnelle. Le but a atteindre, c'est de for- 

 tifier sans cesse dans I'homme, d'u7te -profession I'es-prit scientifique. 

 Les Facultes n'ont pas cesse de lutter depuis dix ans pour arriver a 

 ce resultat." 



We may say now, that they are fairly on the high road to 

 success ; for the consequences of this high-minded struggle have 

 already considerably developed and are still developing in a 

 normal manner. There is nothing that could make us in the 

 least afraid, but this evolution should come to an unwished-for 

 ^stop. Attempts at the spread and advancement of science are 

 being made, which deserve universal attention and imitation. 

 Since 1898 prominent members of the teaching staff have been 

 delivering certain courses of lectures, which they call " con- 

 ferences de vulgarisation," to collective audiences of students 

 belonging to all the facultds. In 1899, after twelve of these lec- 

 tures, the rapporteur to the University Council could write down : 

 " The students have flocked in large numbers (over 800) to these 

 lectures ; and by their regular attendance, rather than by their 

 cordial applause, they have shown their gratitude to the lecturers, 

 who so gladly volunteered to undertake this increase of work foi 

 the pleasure and instruction of their keen and youthful audience 

 who manifested such genuine desire after ideas and knowledge." 



Besides, ever since 1898 masters and students have taken a 

 most active part in delivering and popularizing university exten- 

 sion lectures. All, to a man, spare no effort to fulfil their noble 

 task and conscientiously act up to the admirable principle, laid 

 down by Emile Boutroux, the famous professor of history : — 



"La tache de I'education intellectuelle est de former I'esprit, 

 tout en le munissant des idees et connaisance generales, qui pre- 

 sident a la vie et aux sciences." 



A powerful plea in favour of the training of the intellect, which 

 is at the basis of all university work. Indeed, these words must 

 sound like gospel in the ears of all that devote themselves to such 

 work. 



But I must not tax your kind patience any further. To con- 

 clude, I would ask only this question : Is there, amid all the good 

 things which it has been my privilege here to point out, amid all 

 that has been done and undone these 35 years, nothing that is 

 open to improvement or that is to be regretted? Nothing indeed 

 of vast importance. However, it was an act of gratuitous van- 

 dalism, eternally to be deplored, that the old Sorbonne of the 

 17th century should have been demolished, that grand, old quad- 

 rangle so remarkably pure in its lines, so eminently noble in its 

 pioportions, that historic pile, which from a point of view of pure 

 art was superior even to the p'cturesque and venerable university 

 and college buildings of Oxford and Cambridge, monuments and 

 relics, which the English people maintain in such beautiful state 

 of repair, and for which they show such fostering care, such strik- 

 ing piety. Indeed, nothing would have been easier than to appro- 

 priate the interior to the general wants and services of the 

 University and of the faculty of letters, without either defacing or 

 even altering the exterior in the least. The jaculti of sciences 

 could have been housed, as was originally planned, in a vast com- 



