574 



NATURE 



[October 13, 1898 



any sign of a new educational wave, and then we find the 

 two which have had the greatest influence upon the history 

 •of the world — one of them depending upon the Reform- 

 ation itself, the other depending upon the birth of 

 •experimental inquiry. 



Before the Reformation the Universities were priestly 

 institutions, and derived their authority from the Popes. 



The Universities were for the few; the education of the 

 people, except in the various crafts, was unprovided for. 



The idea of a general education in secular subjects 

 at the expense of the State oir of communities is coeval 

 with the Reformation. In Germany, even before the 

 time of Luther, it was undreamt of, or rather, perhaps, one 

 should say, the question was decided in the negative. In 

 'his day, however, his zeal first made itself heard in favour 

 of education, as many are now making themselves heard 

 in favour of a better education, and in 1 524 he addressed a 

 letter to the Councils of all the towns in Germany, begging 

 them to vote money not merely for roads, dikes, guns, 

 and the like, but for schoolmasters, so that all children 

 might be taught ; and he states his opinion that if it be 

 the duty of a State to compel the able-bodied to carry 

 arms, it is ci fortiori its duty to compel its subjects to 

 send their children to school, and to provide schools for 

 those who without such aid would remain uninstructed. 



Here we have the germ of Germany's position at the 

 present day, not only in scientific instruction but in 

 everything which that instruction brings with it. 



With the Reformation this idea spread to France. In 

 1560 we find the States General of Orleans suggesting to 

 Francis II. a "levee d'une contribution sur les benefices 

 ecclesiastiques pour raisonablement stipendier des peda- 

 gogues et gens lettr^s, en toutes villes et villages, pour 

 rinstruction de la pauvre jeunesse du plat pays, et soient 

 tenus les pferes et mferes, k peine d'amende, k envoyer les 

 dits enfants k I'ecole, et k ce faire soient contraints par 

 les segnieurs et les juges ordinaires." 



Two years after this suggestion, however, the religious 

 wars broke out ; the material interests of the clerical party 

 had predominated, the new spirit was crushed under the 

 iron heel of priestcraft, and the French, in consequence, 

 had to wait for three centuries and a revolution before 

 they could get comparatively free. 



In the Universities, or at all events alongside them, we 

 find next the introduction, not so much yet of science, 

 as we now know it, with its experimental side, as of the 

 scientific spirit. 



The history of the College de France, founded in 

 1 53 1 by Francis the First, is of extreme interest. In 

 •the fifteenth century, the studies were chiefly literary, 

 and except m the case of a few minds they were confined 

 merely to scholastic subtleties, taught (I have it on the 

 authority of the Statistique de I'Enseignement Superieur) 

 in barbarous Latin. This was the result of the teaching 

 of the faculties ; but even then, outside the faculties, 

 which were immutable, a small number of distinguished 

 men still occupied themselves in a less rigid way in 

 investigation ; but still these studies were chiefly literary. 

 Among those men may be mentioned Dan^s, Postel, 

 Dole, Guillaume Bude, Lef^vre d'Etaples, and others, 

 who edited with notes and commentaries Greek and 

 Latin authors whom the University scarcely knew by name. 

 Hence the renaissance of the sixteenth century, which 

 .gave birth to the College de France, the function of 

 which, at the commencement, was to teach those things 

 which were not in the ordinary curriculum of the faculties. 

 It was called the College des Deux Langues, the languages 

 being Hebrew and Greek. It then became the College 

 des Trois Langttes, when the king, notwithstanding the 

 •opposition of the University, created in 1534 a chair of 

 Latin. There was another objection made by the 

 University to the new creation : from the commence- 

 ment the courses were free ; and this feeUng was not 

 •decreased by the fact that around the celebrated masters 



NO. 151 I, VOL. 58] 



of the Trois Langues a crowd of students was soon con- 

 gregated. 



The idea in the mind of Francis the First in creating 

 this Royal College may be gathered from the following 

 Edict, dated in 1 545 : " Francois, &c., savoir faisons k 

 tous presents et k venir que Nous, considerant que le 

 sqavoir des langues, qui est un des dons du Saint-Esprit, 

 fait ouverture et donne le moyen de plus entii*re connais- 

 sance et plus parfaite intelligence de toutes bonnes, 

 honnetes, saintes et salutaires sciences. . . . Avons fait 

 faire pleinement entendre k ceux qui, y voudraient 

 vacquer, les trois langues principales, Hebraique, Grecque, 

 et Latme, et les Livres esquels les bonnes sciences sont le 

 mieux et le plus profondement traitees. A laquelle fin, 

 et en suivant le decret du concile de Vienne, nous avons 

 pie^a ordonn^ et establi en notre bonne ville de Paris, 

 un bonne nombre de personnages de sgavoir excellent, 

 qui lisent et enseignent publiquement et ordinairement 

 les dites langues et sciences, maintenant florissant autant 

 ou plus qu'elles ne firent de bien longtemps. . . . 

 auxquels nos lecteurs avons donne honnetes gages et 

 salaires, et iceux fait pourvoir de plusieurs beaux bene- 

 fices pour les entretenir et donner occasion de mieux et 

 plus continuellement entendre au fait de leur charge. 

 . . . &c." 



The Statistique, which I am following in this account, 

 thus sums up the founder's intention : — " Le College 

 Royal avait pour mission de propager les nouvelles con- 

 naissances, les nouvelles decouvertes. II n'enseignait 

 pas la science faite, il la faisait." 



It was on account of this, more than on account of 

 anything else, that it found its greatest enemy in the 

 University. The founding of this new College, and the 

 great excitement its success occasioned in Paris, were, 

 there can be little doubt, among the factors which 

 induced Gresham to found his College in London in 1574. 



These two institutions played a great part in their 

 time. Gresham College, it is true, was subsequently 

 strangled, but not before its influence had been such 

 as to permit the Royal Society to rise phoenix-like from 

 its ashes, for it is on record that the first step in the 

 forming of this Society was taken after a lecture on 

 astronomy by Sir Christopher Wren at the College. All 

 connected with them felt in time the stupendous change 

 of thought in the century which saw the birth of Bacon, 

 Galileo, Gilbert, Hervey, Tycho Brahe, Descartes and 

 many others that might be named ; and of these, it is well 

 to remark, Gilbert,^ Hervey and Galileo were educated in 

 medical schools abroad. 



Bacon was not only the first to lay down regula; 

 philosopha7tdi, but he insisted upon the far-reaching 

 results of research, not forgetting to point out that 

 " lucifera experimental non fructifera qucerenda" ^ as a 

 caution to the investigator, though he had no doubt as 

 to the revolution about to be brought about by the 

 ultimate application of the results of physical inquiry. 



As early as 1560 the Academia Secretorum Natural 

 was founded at Naples, to be followed by the Lincei in 

 1609, the Royal Society in 1645, the Cimento in 1657, 

 and the Paris Academy in 1666. 



From that time the world may be said to have belonged 

 to science, now no longer based merely on observation 

 but on experiment. But, alas ! hpw slowly has it percolated 

 into our Universities. 



The first organised endeavour to teach science in 

 schools was naturally made in Germany (Prussia), where, 

 in 1747 (nearly a century and a half ago), Realschulen 

 were first started ; they were taken over by the Govern- 

 ment in 1832, and completely reorganised in 1859, this 

 step being demanded by the growth of industry and the 

 spread of the modern spirit. Eleven hours a week were 

 given to natural science in these schools forty years ago. 



1 " William Gilbert, of Colchester, on the Magnet." Mittelag, p. x. 



2 " Nov. Org.," 1. 70. Fowler's Edition, p. 255. 



