EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES IN FRANCE 349 



toward English university centers. It is, therefore, easy to 

 understand why Americans went to the universities in Berlin, 

 Leipsic, Bonn, and Heidelberg, as well as to Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge. The influence of Americans who received their training 

 in German universities and are employed as teachers in many 

 institutions of learning throughout the United States has been very 

 sensibly felt. This is one of the reasons why hundreds of American 

 students could be counted in German university centers. The 

 inducements held out to foreign students in Germany were at- 

 tractive. They were hospitably received, and upon presenting 

 their credentials from an institution whose standing is known, were 

 ordinarily duly matriculated. Two years of serious work along 

 their chosen lines, together with a thesis showing some originality 

 and hard work, and the passing of an examination upon the entire 

 field covered, constituted a fair guarantee of receiving the degree 

 of doctor of philosophy. The value of this degree to a young man 

 intending to make teaching in his own country his life work nobody 

 will be disposed to question. 



II. THE EFFECT OF CENTRALIZATION IN FRANCE. 



The advantage, in all branches of learning, of a sojourn in 

 France, and especially in Paris, are unsurpassed. Nevertheless, 

 even for Romance studies, our students have gone in considerable 

 numbers to Germany. There, as has just been shown, besides a 

 hearty welcome and advantages of a high order, it was possible 

 for them to secure a reward in the shape of something tangible, 

 which upon their return home might prove of the most valuable 

 assistance in obtaining positions. These advantages were, gen- 

 erally speaking, very clearly understood by American students. 

 Why was it, then, that our students, who during the past fifty 

 years have known so well how to take advantage of the oppor- 

 tunities offered for study in England and Germany, have not been 

 attracted towards a friendly country no less distinguished in letters, 

 arts, and sciences than the other two foreign countries? 



In the first place, because the organization of the higher educa- 

 tion in France has hardly been known. Almost everybody in the 

 scholastic world has heard of the Universite de Paris, of the Sor- 

 bonne, and of the College de France ; also, perhaps, of the Universite 

 nationalede France, the ficole pratique deshautes etudes, and sundry 

 academies or universites in different parts of France, like Toulouse 



