THE IN^STITUTE OF FKA:N^CE m 1894. 



By M. LoEWY, 



rresident of the French Academy of Sciences and FiesidenI of the Institute. 



Gentlemen: It is on the eve of an anniversary that tlie mind 

 seems to me best disposed to yield to those reflections wliich every 

 great commemoration naturally evokes in us. On the day of tlie cele- 

 bration itself, we are apt to be overcome by the brilliancy of the solemn 

 occasion and the enthusiasm of thenioment. Since, then, custom bidsme 

 celebrate by a direct address to its members the foundation of the Insti- 

 tute, wbicli will next year attain its completed century, this seems tome 

 a fit occasion to consider not what lias so often been admired in you — the 

 picturesque variety, if I may venture to call it so, of the talents wliich com- 

 pose each one of the academies and their totality — but rather the close 

 union which binds into one great whole all the works of the mind, for in 

 this solidarity I see the true reason for the existence of your society ; this 

 is its true principle, this is its true life. Such was also, as you well know, 

 the feeling of the convention Avhen it converted our previously isolated 

 classes into one great whole. This creation realized the idea that the 

 men of that period had formed of the human mind in its rich unity. 

 It also realized the dream of a model republic, in which the autonomy 

 of admission and the perfect liberty of individual efforts, so far from 

 impeding rather secure that harmonious concert of action where even 

 tradition results in progress. On that day was born the ''living ency- 

 clopedia," which so justly deserves its name. Like the other written 

 work, it was fit that this also should see the light on French soil, and if 

 such an example is unique in the world's history, it will create no sur- 

 prise to see that it is set by France, the home of liberal initiative, the 

 laud in which even the language seems to be the offspring of good 

 sense. Time has shown that this bold foresight, one of the last acts of 

 the eighteenth century, was by no means Utopian. The powerful vitality 

 of the institute is the strongest argument in favor of a brotherhood in 

 the ideal of sciences, arts, and letters. As the part it plays in the moral 

 and intellectual development of the nation is continually becoming 



'Address at the annual public meeting of the five academies. Translated from 

 Revue Scientifique, 4th series, Vol. II, November 3, 1894. 



697 



