THE HISTORY OF THE CONGRESS 37 



occupied with business affairs. They throw in our faces the famous proverb,' Busi- 

 ness is Business,' and give it to us as the rule of conduct for Americans. We are 

 able to testify entirely to the contrary, since the inhabitants of this beautiful coun- 

 try are always seeking to extend to strangers a thousand courtesies. Above all, we 

 have encountered no one who has not been anxious to go out of his way to give 

 to us, even before we had asked it, such information as it was necessary for us to 

 have. And what shall I say of the welcome which we have received here at the 

 hands of our American confreres, Monsieur the President of the Exposition, 

 Monsieur the Director of Congresses and other worthy colaborers? The authori- 

 ties of the Exposition and the inhabitants of St. Louis have rivaled each other in 

 making our stay agreeable and our ways pleasant in the heart of this magnificent 

 Exposition, of which we shall ever preserve the most enchanting memory. 



We should have wished to see in a more leisurely manner, and to make 

 acquaintance with the attractions without number with which the Exposition 

 literally swarms (men of letters and men of science love at times to disport 

 themselves) and to study the exhibits classified in a method so exact in the 

 palaces of an architecture so original and so impressive. But Monsieur Newcomb 

 has not permitted this. The Congress of which he is the illustrious President offers 

 so much in the way of attractions, of a kind a little rigorous it is true, and so 

 much of work to be accomplished, that to our very great regret we have had to 

 refuse many invitations which it would have been most agreeable to accept. The 

 Americans will pardon us for this, I am sure; they know better than any one else 

 the value of time, but they know also that human strength has some limits, espe- 

 cially among us poor Europeans, for I doubt whether an American ever knows 

 the meaning of fatigue. 



Messieurs, the Congress which is about to terminate to-morrow has been truly 

 a very great event. It is the first time, I believe, that there has been seen assembled 

 in one grand international reunion that which our great minister, Colbert, had in 

 mind, and that which we have realized for the first time in our Institut de France, 

 the union of letters, science, and arts. That this union shall maintain itself in 

 the future is the dearest wish of my heart. 



Science is a unit, even as the Universe. The aspects which it presents know 

 neither boundaries of states nor the political divisions established between peoples. 

 In all civilized countries they calculate with the same figures, they measure with 

 the same instruments, they employ the same classifications, they study the same 

 historic facts, economics, and morals. If there exists among the different nations 

 some differences in methods, these differences are slight. They are a benefit at the 

 same time as well as a necessity. For the doing of the immense amount of work 

 of research imposed on that part of humanity which thinks, it is necessary that 

 the subjects of study should not be identically the same, or better, if they are 

 identical, that the difference between the points of view from which they are con- 

 sidered in the different countries contribute to our better knowledge of their 

 nature, their results, and their applications. It is necessary then that each people 

 preserve their distinctive genius, their particular methods which they use to 

 develop the qualities they have inherited. In exactly the same way that it is 

 important in an orchestra that each instrument play in the most perfect manner, 

 and with the timbre which accords with its nature, the part which is given to it, 

 so in science as in music, the harmony between the players is a necessary condi- 

 tion, which each one ought to exert himself to realize. Let us endeavor then in 

 scientific research to execute in the most perfect manner that part of the task 

 which fate has devolved upon us, but let us endeavor also to maintain that accord 

 which is a necessary condition to the harmony which will alone be able in the 

 future to assure the progress of humanity. 



Gentlemen, in this international reunion it would not be fitting that I dwell 



