150 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



which Delambre and Cuvier drew up at his request, 

 touching the progress of science during the twenty years 

 which followed the outbreak of the Eevolution, have 

 become classical as monuments of the achievements of a 

 great age, 1 and as examples of the best style in which to 

 treat such a subject. Written immediately under his eye, 

 they cannot be considered quite impartial, so far as the tone 

 is concerned in which they refer to his personal favours 

 and protection. 2 . There can, however, be no doubt that 

 he recognised scientific merit, and drew many eminent 

 men of science into the service of the Government. The 

 institutions on which he prided himself so much, the 

 cole Normale, the cole Polytechnique, and the unfin- 

 ished scheme of a great centralised Institution of Learn- 

 ing and Education, descending from the heights of the 

 Institute, through the various branches of the higher and 

 secondary into a multitude of primary schools, bearing 

 the name of the " University," had either existed, or 

 been planned before him. 3 



1 Napoleon in discussing at the i miers ; le 3 fevr. 1808, acconi- 

 council meeting the decree which j pagnes de Bougainville, president, 

 ordered the several reports, said to ! et des doyens de toutes les sections. 

 Regnaud : "Soignez bien cette re- La ceremonie fut solennelle ; Fern- 

 daction, car elle sera examinee par i pereur fit une belle reponse, qui 

 les pedagogues de toute 1'Europe" I est imprimee a la fin du rapport. 

 (Thibaudeau, loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 496). j Je sus le lendemain, par M., de 



2 See what Cuvier himself says , Segur et d'autres conseillers d'Etat, 

 on this subject (Memoires, &c., in j qu'il avait exprime une grande satis- 



Flourens, ' Eloges,' vol. iii. p. 187) : 

 " Un rapport sur le progres des 

 sciences devait etre presente aux 

 consuls en fructidor an xi. . . . 

 Ou ne fut pret qu'a la fin de 1807 : 

 ce n'etait plus aux consuls mais a 

 1'einpereur que Ton avait a pre- 

 senter le travail. II le re?ut avec 



faction de iiion rapport eii parti- 

 culier : ' II m'a loue comme j'aime a 

 1'etre, dit-il.' Cepeudant je m'etais 

 borne a 1'inviter a imiter Alexan- 

 dre et a faire tourner sa puissance 

 au profit de 1'histoire naturelle." 



3 Regarding the University, see 

 ' Code Universitaire ou Lois, Statuts 



un grand appareil dans la seance du : e t Reglemens de I'L'uiversite Royale 

 conseil d'Etat. M. Delambre et de France, mis en ordre par M. 

 nioi presentames le notre les pre- ; Ambroise Rendu,' Paris, 1SS5. In 



