134 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



personal contact with that spirit of general education 

 and universal training which then animated the German- 

 speaking nations of the Continent, thoroughly grounded 

 in classics and mathematics, with a cosmopolitan know- 

 ledge of languages and literature, which fitted him to 

 understand the merits of different nations, he became 

 the great exponent of that peculiar system of higher 

 culture which since the time of Colbert the French had 

 elaborated the academic system. 1 The centre of this 



telligence and acquisitions by which 

 we have benefited up to modern 

 times" (Perthes, p. 510). We know 

 the other and older side of the 

 picture from the ' Life of Schiller ' 

 (see, inter alia, Carlyle, 'Life of 

 Schiller,' collected works, library 

 edition, vol. v. p. 258). Cuvier 

 gives a long description of the " Karl- 

 schule " : " C'etait un etablisse- 

 ment vraiment magnifique. Envi- 

 ron quatre cents boursiers et pen- 

 sionnaires, loges dans un edifice tel 

 qu'il n'y en a aucun d'approchant 

 en Europe (parmi ceux qui sont 

 consacres a 1'instruction de la jeun- 

 esse), vetus d'un bel uniforme, con- 

 duits par des officiers et des sous- 

 officiers tires des regiments du due, 

 re9evaient des legons de tout genre 

 de plus de quatre-vingts maitres ou 

 professeurs. On a beaucoup parle 

 de 1'esprit de despotisme avec lequel 

 le due disposait de leurs personnes 

 et choisissait pour chacun d'eux 

 1'etat qu'il devait embrasser, et je 

 crois en effet qu'il en etait ainsi 

 dans 1'origine de 1'etablissement ; 

 mais de mon temps, je n'ai rien 

 vu de semblable, et ce qui est cer- 

 tain, c'est que personne ne pretendit 

 meme me donner de conseil a cet 

 egard. II y avait cinq facultes 

 superieures, droit, medecine, admin- 

 istration, militaire et commerce" 

 (Flourens, loc. cit., p. 171). 



1 The first great representative 



of this academic spirit and culture 

 was Fontenelle, who, living during 

 a hundred years, from 1657 to 1757, 

 was Secretary of the Academic des 

 Sciences during forty - two years, 

 from 1699 (the year of the recon- 

 stitution of the Academy) to 1741. 

 Among his successors were men like 

 Condorcet, Delambre, Cuvier, and 

 Arago. Fontenelle gave to scien- 

 tific subjects a dignified popularity, 

 separated the departments of science 

 and metaphysics, kept the scientific 

 interest free from the commercial, 

 and through his connection with the 

 Academic francaise did probably 

 more than any other writer to es- 

 tablish that superiority of style and 

 diction for which the great French 

 men of science are so remarkable and 

 so superior to those of other coun- 

 tries. Bertrand, himself a successor 

 of Fontenelle, says of him : "Pretant 

 aux travaux de ses confreres la 

 finesse de ses ape^us et la vivacite 

 ingenieuse de son style, il a su dans 

 leurs portraits, qui sont des chefs- 

 d'oeuvre, plus encore que dans 1'ana- 

 lyse de leurs de"couvertes, donner 

 aux plus humbles et aux plus 

 modestes une celebrite imprevue 

 et durable, et le juste et serieux 

 hommage qu'il rend au vrai merite 

 fait aimer et respecter tout h la fois 

 les savants et la science" ('L'Aca- 

 demie des Sciences et les Academi- 

 ciens,' p. 113). See also Voltaire's 



