684 



NATURE 



[May 27, 1922 



The Royal Academy of Belgium. 



By Professor Charles Sarolea, LL.D., Foreign Member of the Royal Belgian Academy, 



IN connection with the celebration this week of the 

 one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Royal 

 Academy of Belgium a volume has been prepared 

 recording the varied activities of the Academy since 

 its foundation in 1772.^ Each section of the volume 

 has been allotted to a specialist. M. Paul Pelseneer, 

 the Permanent Secretary, contributes a luminous 

 general introduction and a history of the Prize Founda- 

 tions of the Institution. M. Stroobant contributes 

 the mathematical and physical section ; Prof. Massart 

 writes on the biological sciences and M. Fourmarier on 

 the mineral sciences. The historical sciences have been 

 undertaken by Prof.. Pirenne, the philological sciences 

 by Prof. Thomas, the juridical sciences by M. Cornil, the 

 philosophical sciences by Prof. Lecl^re, the economic 

 sciences by Prof. Mahaim. M. Lucien Solvay and 

 M, Paul Bergmans deal with painting, sculpture, 

 engraving, and architecture. 



The celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth 

 anniversary of the Academy is deservedly an event of 

 national import. The Royal Academy of Belgium 

 has been closely identified with the intellectual and 

 artistic life of the Belgian people, much more closely 

 perhaps than any similar body on the Continent, 

 because in Belgium the Academy has been the only 

 important public institution discharging the function 

 of intellectual leadership. 



The commemoration will be all the more enthusiastic- 

 ally celebrated because during the war the Royal 

 Academy, although its corporate life was interrupted 

 for four years, incarnated the patriotic conscience of the 

 Belgian people. During the war the German invaders 

 took possession of the imposing palace which the 

 Academy has occupied since 1874, polluted its premises, 

 stole its books and archives, and imprisoned or deported 

 several of its most illustrious members. The reply of 

 the Belgian Academicians was to raise again and again 

 indignant and courageous protests against the brutal 

 policy of the enemy ; and their fitting revenge was the 

 recent publication by the Academy of a collection of 

 photographs illustrating the shocking acts of vandalism 

 perpetrated by the apostles of German Kultur. 



When the Belgian Academy was founded in 1772 

 under the reign of Maria Theresa, literary and scientific 

 life was virtually extinct in the Belgian provinces. 

 Historians have often emphasised the contrast between 

 the intensity of artistic life in Belgium and the sterility 

 of literature and science. In the sixteenth century, 

 Belgium still produced men of science of world-wide 

 fame such as Mercator, Ortelius, Simon Stevin, von 

 Helmont, VesaHus, just as Belgian literature in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries produced a Froissart 

 and a Commines. But from the end of the sixteenth 

 century for two hundred years Belgian literature and 

 Belgian science are almost barren, at the very time when 

 Belgian painting enters its golden age. The explanation 

 of this contrast between the prosperity of art and the 

 paralysis of literature and science is obvious. Art may 

 flourish under conditions of political servitude. On 

 the contrary literature and science demand political 



• L'Acad^mie Royale de Belgique depuis sa fondation (1772-1922). 

 Pp. 343, (Bruxelles : M. Lamertin ; M, Hayez, 1922). 



NO. 2743, VOL. 109] 



freedom. Unfortunately from the end of the sixteenth 

 century the Belgian provinces, unlike the Dutch, were 

 reduced to a state of political slavery. 



The foundation of the Belgian Academy in 1772 

 coincides with the political awakening of the Belgian 

 people. After two centuries the Belgians prepare to 

 shake off the foreign yoke. They are only linked 

 with Austria by a loose political connexion. Un- 

 fortunately the Academy is scarcely launched when 

 the French Revolution and the Civil War which follows 

 suspend its activities. Nor can the new Institution 

 be restored under Napoleon. The Emperor had 

 had too many unpleasant relations with the French 

 Academy and with the ideologists of the French Insti- 

 tute to feel disposed to encourage abroad independent 

 scientific or literary institutions. Moreover, apart 

 from his suspicion of Academies in general, he looked 

 upon Belgium as a conquered province and as a mere 

 department of the French Empire. 



The Academy was restored in 1816 after Waterloo, 

 by the Dutch Government; and it is interesting to 

 note to-day, at a time when the conflict about the use 

 of the Flemish and the French languages has become 

 acute in Belgium, that even under Dutch supremacy 

 French did remain the sole official language of the 

 Academy of Brussels. But it was not merely the 

 French language which retained its supremacy ; the 

 very organisation of the Academy tended to follow 

 French models rather than German or English. When 

 the constitution of the Academy was finally adjusted 

 in 1845, its organisation came to resemble very closely 

 that of the French Institute. It contained the three 

 classes, physical and mathematical science, fine art, 

 and letters. This third class was itself eventually 

 subdivided into the two sections, the historical and 

 philological sciences, and the moral and political 

 sciences. The three classes and four sections of the 

 Belgian Academy therefore answer exactly four 

 of the sections of the French Institute. The chief 

 difference between the two institutions is that there is 

 nothing in the Belgian Academy corresponding to the 

 fifth and most famous section of the French Institute, 

 namely the French Academy, The French Academy 

 mainly represents pure literature, whereas literature 

 pure and simple is excluded from the Belgian Academy. 

 To do justice to the claims of literature, the Flemish 

 Men of Letters constituted themselves in 1888 into a 

 separate Flemish Academy. In 1921, the Franco- 

 Belgian writers followed their colleagues by establish- 

 ing an Academy of French Literature. 



There is one essential feature in which the Belgian 

 Academy resembles the French Institute rather than 

 the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh ; we 

 refer to the strict limitation of its membership. A 

 sure instinct convinced the founders and organisers 

 of the Academy that its influence must needs be in 

 inverse ratio to its numbers. The membership of each 

 class has therefore been restricted to thirty Belgian 

 members with an equal number of foreign associates. 

 It is probable that if the numbers of the Belgian Royal 

 Academy had been increased to some seven or eight 

 hundred as in the case of the Royal Societyjof Edinburgh, 



