ACADEMY 



IS 



ACADIA 



leaves. Some of these do not open unless the 

 sun is shining. 



ACACIA 

 Branch and fruit. 



ACADEMY, a school or an association for 

 the promotion of literature, science or art. 

 Nearly 2,300 years ago the great Greek philos- 

 opher Plato conducted a school in a shady 

 grove a mile from Athens. This grove, accord- 

 ing to legend, once belonged to a certain 

 Academus, a hero of the Trojan War, and from 

 him Plato's school took its name. The term 

 academy, as now applied to schools, is used 

 mainly in the eastern part of Canada and the 

 United States, where it means a secondary 

 school, primarily to prepare boys for college. 

 Before the development of the high school 

 system, these institutions, usually under the 

 patronage of a church or religious society, 

 afforded the only means of obtaining a second- 

 ary education. 



Plato's academy, however, was not a school 

 for boys ; it was, rather, an association of young 

 men, eager for knowledge, who sought guidance 

 from a great teacher. The word academy, 

 therefore, is also applied to modern associa- 

 tions of men who are engaged in any learned, 

 scientific or artistic pursuits. The most famous 

 of all such academies is the French Academy, 

 established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635. Its 

 object is to obtain a high standard in French 



language and literature, partly by the example 

 of its members and partly by the ponderous 

 method of preparing the standard French dic- 

 tionary. This dictionary has gone through 

 many editions, the last in 1878. To be elected 

 a member of the Academy is one of the highest 

 honors a Frenchman can receive, and its mem- 

 bers are popularly called the "forty immortals." 

 There are many other noted European acad- 

 emies, including the Royal Academy, of British 

 artists; the British Academy, of historians, 

 jurists, economists, philosophers and philolo- 

 gists; and the Royal Academy of Sciences at 

 Berlin, similar in scope to the British Academy. 



American Academies. The first learned 

 academy in America was the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, founded in Philadelphia in 

 1743, largely through the influence of Benjamin 

 Franklin. The American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences was chartered by the state of Massa- 

 chusetts in 1780, and the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia was established in 

 1812. The American Academy of Arts and Let- 

 ters was founded in 1898, the purpose of its 

 founders being the organization of a body cor- 

 responding to the French Academy. The 

 membership is limited to fifty, and the chief 

 qualification for membership is "notable 

 achievement in art, music, or literature." 

 Among its members, past and present, are Wil- 

 liam Dean Howells, Augustus Saint Gaudens, 

 Samuel L. Clemens, Edward A. McDowell, 

 Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow 

 Wilson, Daniel C. French, Thomas Nelson 

 Page, Joseph Jefferson and Joel Chandler Har- 

 ris. See AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND 

 LETTERS. 



ACADIA , a kay ' di a, the name which the 

 early French settlers gave to the territory now 

 comprising Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 

 has sentimental and romantic associations that 

 quite overshadow its historic interest. When 

 the French. and English began their long and 

 bitter struggle for the possession of the North 

 American continent (see FRENCH AND INDIAN 

 WAR), Acadia was the home of peace-loving 

 French farmers 



"Men whose lives glided on like rivers 

 that water the woodlands." 



During Queen Anne's War (1697-1713), Port 

 Royal, the seat of the Acadian government, 

 surrendered to the English, and when in 1713 

 the treaty of peace was signed, Acadia was 

 definitely ceded to England. During the years 

 that followed, the Acadians, though nominal 

 subjects of Great Britain, were a source of 



