356 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS. 



terminated by a short prayer. Accepted papers were never allowed to reach 

 the public until they had been submitted to the rigorous censorship of four 

 doctors of theology ; nor could the approbation of the high dignitaries of the 

 church -which the distinguished assembly always counted among its members 

 secure any dispensation from this humiliating formality." ( Arago ; Elogc de 

 BaiUy.) 



The interference of an external influence foreign to the spirit and embarrass- 

 ing to the ends of the institution certainly existed also in the case of the 

 Academy of Sciences ; but here it seems to have been limited to courtly in- 

 trigues for the admission or exclusion of particular persons. Arago shows us 

 in his Autobiography that he piqued himself in no small degree on having some- 

 times successfully disconcerted the unauthorized procedures of a minister, and 

 even on one occasion thrown discountenance on the advocacy of the king. 



The official term of Condorcet as perpetual secretary conducts us to the 

 period when, in common with other learned bodies of the kingdom, the Acade- 

 mies of Paris fell before the levelling force of the Revolution. Their suppres- 

 sion took place in 1793. They may be considered to have been revived by 

 an ordinance of 1795, in an associated form, under the name of the National 

 Institute, in which a distinction into classes superseded the ancient name of 

 Academies. Of these classes there were three : 1. The class of the physical and 

 mathematical sciences ; 2, that of the moral and political sciences ; 3, that 

 of literature and the fine arts. This latter class represented as well the Acad- 

 emic francaise as the former academy of inscriptions and that of painting. The 

 name of National Institute has survived all modifications of form and changes 

 of dynasty. 



M. Flourens thinks it worthy of note that on the day (1 pluviose an IV) 

 when the National Institute held its first public sitting, Cuvicr read before it 

 his memoir on the sjjecies of fossil elephants compared with living species. "In 

 this memoir," he observes, "the illu.strious savant announces, for the first time, 

 his views respecting lost animals. Thus on the very day when the Institute 

 opened the first of its public sessions, there was opened at the same time the 

 career of the grandest discoveries made by natural history in our age ; a sin- 

 gular coincidence, and one which the history of science should preserve." It 

 is more to the present purpose to remark, that after a few temporary appoint- 

 ments, Cuvier was chosen perpetual Secretary in the first class for the section 

 of physical sciences, and that M. Flourens survives to this day as his only and 

 immediate successor in that section, thus presenting through this long space of 

 time a permanence of official tenure which, taken in connexion Avith the in- 

 stances of I'ontenelle and Fouchy, must argue that in philosophical labors there 

 is at least nothing unfavorable to relative longevity. The order of succession 

 as perpetual Secretaries in the other section — that, namely, of the mathematical 

 sciences — is Dclambre, Joseph Fourier, Arago, Elie de Beaumont, (18-54.) 



In 1803, Napoleon, who was then First Consul, prescribed some modifications 

 in the form and probably in the spirit of the Institute. I'he class of moral and 

 political sciences Avas suppressed, and of the remainder a fourfold division 

 Avas formed: 1. The class of physical and mathematical sciences; 2, that of 

 French language and literature ; 3, chat of Ancient history and literature ; 

 4, that of the Fine Arts. Having thus eliminated the suspicious element of 

 ideology. Napoleon continued, as he had always done, to Avatch Avith judicious 

 and lively interest over the prosperity of the Institute, of Avhich he Avas him- 

 self a member, often selecting the objects of his trust and favor from its ranks, 

 and exacting from it reports upon the progress and prospects of science, Avhich 

 he received in person Avith a distuiction and eclat not usually bestoAved upon 

 such subjects in the courts of princes. This Avas cjuite conformable Avith tlu; 

 spirit wiiich had led him in the campaigns of Egypt to sign himself in his 



