October 31, 1895] 



NATURE 



64= 



associates, and correspondants by the Minister of Public 

 Instruction. The reception-rooms of the Ministry had 

 been very elegantly adorned for the purpose. A whole 

 series of tapestries — from the celebrated Gobelins manu- 

 factory — illustrating Don Quichotte's life, after the pic- 

 tures by Coypel, decorated the walls of a large hall 

 which had been built for the purpose, at the end of 

 which a stage had been erected. M. Poincare, the 

 Minister, received most cordially his guests, who com- 

 prised, besides the members of the Institute, a 

 large admixture of very different elements, among 

 which political men were predominant. \ very 

 pleasant evening was provided by the singers and 

 actors, among which were the best of the Opera and of 

 the Theatre Frangais, and by the excellent orchestra of 

 the Opera. 



On the next day (Thursday, 24th) a general meeting 

 was held in the large hemicycle of the new Sor- 

 bonne, so splendidly decorated by the paintings of 

 Puvis de Chavannes. The President of the French 

 Republic was present with such Ministers as were not 

 professionally detained at the Chambre des Deputes, and 

 after the overture of Vi.&\vXi Joseph — Mdhul was the first 

 composer who belonged to the Institute — three speeches 

 were delivered. M. Ambroise Thomas bega.i, and was 

 short. M. Jules Simon came next, but, as his voice is 

 weak, he could not possibly make himself heard in more 

 than a small fraction of the hemicycle. M. Poincare, the 

 Minister of Public Instruction, spoke last, and very 

 appropriately. This long ceremony ended with a frag- 

 ment of Ators ct Vita, of Gounod, played by the 

 orchestra of the Opera. 



In the morning a short reception took place at the 

 Elysee, where- the President of the Republic received 

 the foreign members of the Institute. The foreign asso- 

 ciates and correspondants, to the number of fifty-five, 

 were presented to President Faure by the office-bearers 

 of their respective .Vcademies. The President wel- 

 comed them, and held a short conversation with each, 

 and M. Gaston-Boissier presented him with three 

 volumes containing the minutes of the Institute since its 

 foundation. 



In the evening a banquet took place at the Hotel Conti- 

 nental ; two hundred and fifty members were present. 

 After two short "after-dinner " speeches by .M. .Ambroise 

 Thomas and M. Poincare, M. .Max Miiller, acting asspokes- 

 man for all the foreign members and associates, proposed 

 the health of the Institute, "which, alone, remains unaltered 

 and immovable in its renown and glory, while so many 

 things have changed during this century," in very excel- 

 lent terms. Most happily inspired was Lord Kelvin in 

 his address. The very cordial and sympathetic expression 

 which the Royal Society gave to its feelings in 

 its address to the Institute, was received with much 

 satisfaction, and the icw words which closed the 

 orators speech went to the heart of all Frenchmen : 

 " Personally, I cannot express how much I appreciate 

 the great honour you have done me in electing me among 

 the associates of the Institute. But I owe to France an 

 even greater debt. .She has been, truly, the ahna tnatcr 

 of my scientific youth, and has inspired my admiration 

 for the beauty of science, which during my whole life has 

 kept me chained in her service. It was Laplace who 

 initiated nic into celestial mechanics, and a few years later 

 the venerable Biot led me by the hand and introduced me 

 to Regnault's laboratory. To Regnault and Liouville I shall 

 eternally be grateful for their kindness towards me, and 

 for the solid leaching they gave me, in 1849, on experi- 

 mental physics and mathematics. M. President of the 

 Institute, gentlemen, I thank you with all my heart. 

 From what I have said, you will understand wh)' I con- 

 sider with perfect gratefulness France as the alnui mater 

 of my scientific life." Lord Kelvin spoke with his heart 

 as well as with his reason, and the great applause which 



NO. 1357, VOL. 52] 



followed his speech must have told him that he had made 

 no mistake in doing so. 



The 25th was devoted to an afternoon in the Theatre 

 Fran^ais ; the programme, to be sure, was of somewhat an 

 austere character. The C/V/, the Ecole des Femmes, 

 and the Femmcs Savantes were exceedingly classical 

 and sedate. . . . though, what might have been put in 

 their place we could hardly decide, and classics were 

 probably more suitable for an audience comprising a large 

 number of foreigners than some modern play, where 

 the finesses might have been a little too subtle and 

 delicate. .-^ very nobly-felt and worded poem by Sully 

 Prudhomme — the most philosophical of French poets of 

 the period — was read by Mounet-SuUy, the doyen, the 

 veteran of the French theatre. In the evening a recep- 

 tion was held at the Elys& by the President, who most 

 graciously shook hands with the foreign members who 

 had already been at the Elysee in the morning. The 

 members of the Institute were all but lost in a crowd 

 of political men, senators, deputies, officers, and 

 functionaries who had been invited to meet them. 



The last act was a visit to the magnificent residence 

 of Chantilly, to the Due d'.Aumale. .A. special train 

 left the Noithem Railway Station at 1 1.15 a.m., carrying 

 239 members, and at Chantilly eleven large vehicles trans- 

 ported the whole assembly .to the chateau, through part 

 of the woods, the race-course, and the stables. The 

 Duke, who had hardly recovered from an attack of gout, 

 had to receive his guests silting in a rolling-chair, and 

 received them most cordially. Lord Kelvin and other 

 members of the British contingent had some con- 

 versation with the Duke in English, and the afternoon 

 was devoted to inspection of the residence itself, which 

 has been splendidly enlarged and embellished by the 

 present proprietor, and to the surrounding grounds. The 

 whole of Chantilly and of its contents, as we have already 

 said, has been bequeathed by the Duke to the Institute. 

 This represents nearly ^2,000,000, exactly 43,000,000 

 francs. .As the Institute owns already some 25,000,000 

 francs (;{J 1, 000,000), at the death of the Duke the whole 

 amount will be of some 70,000,000 francs (under 

 _^3,ooo,ooo). The whole Institute distributes over 

 725,000 francs in prizes each year. 



And now the festivities are over, and most of the 

 Institute's guests have gone back to their home or 

 country' — may their remembrances be pleasant. They 

 ha'.e met some of their fellow-workers, and new friend- 

 shijjs have been formed. -Such meetings are profitable. 

 While ill-feeling between nations are being daily sug- 

 gested and excited by the incautious and ill-advised 

 prose of a number of irresponsible men, it is well 

 that occasionally the heads and lights of different 

 countries should meet and mingle together. Knowing 

 each other better, appreciating each other, united by a 

 same bond to a same faith, they may, by their influence, 

 help to further the advent of the reign of reason and 

 goodwill. .A great number of men, like Moses, have 

 already expired in view of the Promised Land ; and 

 doubtless many more will do the same. The Promised 

 Land seems \cxy remote, and hardly " promised." But 

 this is no reason for not doing what should be done, and 

 international assemblies of the "best of the land" cannot 

 fail to exert a useful influence. 



Hl-.NRV DK \'.\R1GNY. 



This account of the fetes would be incomplete if we 

 did not give M. Jules Simon's discourse on the Institute, 

 the delivery of which formed the central feature at the 

 meeting in the Sorbonne. As M. Jules Simon is the 

 foremost French orator, and his style is remarkable not 

 only for its brilliancy but for its terseness, we give the 

 whole oration as it was delivered. 



