INTRODUCTION XX111 



and makes all rest on the example of others, whereas 

 youth should be accustomed to see, to scrutinize, and to 

 feel for itself, aided to draw much from its own deeps, 

 and set in quest not of elegance, not of poetry, but of truth. 

 A method of teaching founded on science, preaching ex- 

 amination and research, not recoiling from the minutiae 

 of analysis; seeking in all things to know the causes 

 and the consequences, leaving nothing to chance, culti- 

 vating in its proteges prudence and initiative, such a 

 teaching he thought would give to France a new existence. 



"I have tried on the children the effect of abstract 

 reasonings (1886). Alas, they do not comprehend them, 

 and, if other children resemble them, the teaching of the 

 exact sciences in the lower grades is very chimerical. 

 They want the concrete, always the concrete." 



He addressed himself to their understanding and their 

 conscience more often than to their memory. "In an 

 old volume of Montaigne at Olmet I found the two 

 fine chapters on ^'Institution des Enfants' full of penciled 

 markings. Such an education, free, strong and healthy, 

 seemed to him well adapted to furnish those two solid 

 foundations of character independence and sincerity. 

 But to this ideal of Montaigne he added what had been 

 the ruling principle of his own existence; forgetfulness 

 of self and the capacity of devoting himself to a high 

 end. To be a free man; to look in all things beyond 

 selfish interests; to love the truth and to speak it; to 

 act conformably to what seems just; to be mutually 

 helpful. These, unless I am deceived, were his five 

 commandments. ' ' 



His ideas on many subjects are full of interest: "It 

 is precisely because science is never sure of anything 

 that it always advances." 



"For the idea of specificity, still dominant ten years 

 ago when I wrote the first edition of my " Traite de Micro- 



