108 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



lution, in the midst of the more pressing problems of 

 national safety and welfare, betook themselves to the 

 solution of the great problem of national education and 

 the instruction of all grades of society. "The Convention," 

 says the historian of public instruction, 1 " affords us the 

 strange and grand spectacle of an assembly, which on the 

 one side seems to have no other mission than to crush in 

 the name of public welfare everything that stands in the 

 17. way of the triumph of the Republican State, and which 



Promoted 



^y Govern- C an see no other way of attaining this than the most 

 Revolution, terrible and cruel of tyrannies ; and which on the other 

 side devotes itself, with a stoical calm and serenity, form- 

 ing a surprising contrast to its acts, to the study, the 

 examination, and the discussion of all the problems in- 

 volved in public instruction, of all the measures con- 

 ducive to the progress of science. It had the glory of 

 creating institutions, some of which were carried away by 

 the blast of the Revolution, but among which the most 

 important still exist for the great honour of France, and 

 bear proof of the loftiness of her ideas." 2 



d'histoire naturelle, d'anatomie, 

 d'antiquit5s, fond^s par un certain 

 nombre d'acade"mies et,entre autrel, 

 par Dijon, par Rouen, par Bordeaux, 

 par Toulouse, par Montpellier, et 

 dont les professeurs e"taient des 

 membres, non re'tribue's de ces 

 academies. ... A combieu de 

 jeunes talents les academies provin- 

 ciales n'ont-elles pas donne" 1'essor, 

 par leurs recompenses solennelles et 

 leurs encouragements Combien de 

 leurs laure*ats ne sont pas devenus 

 des hommes celebres?" (p. 81, &c. ) 

 Besides Bouillier, consult on these 

 matters the several articles, " Aca- 

 de"mie," " College," "Ecole," in the 

 ' Grande Encyciope'die.' 



1 C. Hippeau, 'I/Instruction pub- 

 lique en France pendant la Re"volu- 

 tion,' l e seYie, preface, p. xix. 



2 It appears nowadays a kind of 

 paradox that, as M. Hippeau re- 

 marks, in the very year 1793, when 

 "the Convention was labouring 

 with a feverish ardour at the crea- 

 tion of schools of all degrees," this 

 same Convention, on a report of the 

 Committee of Public Instruction, 

 voted on the 8th of August the 

 suppression of all the academies of 

 Paris and the provinces. On this 

 M. Bouillier (' L'Institut et les Aca- 

 de'mies,' p. 95) remarks : " Bientot 

 il est vrai, les academies devaient 

 renaitre apres la chute de la 



