THE FRENCH EXILES IN EUROPE 



73 



education the French led the way to higher medical 

 training, and in scientific knowledge. The French Col- 

 lege of Berlin was a notable institution. Poole goes so 

 far as to assert that the society of Berlin was the creation 

 of the exile, and it was the refugees who gave it that 

 mobile course of thought, that finer culture, that tact 

 in matters of art and that instinct of conversation which 

 had before been the unique possession of France. They 

 diffused their own spirit, quick, fine, lucid ; the spirit 

 of French vivacity and precision. And thus they ex- 

 erted, whether in Germany or Switzerland or England, 

 that influence peculiar to France, upon the society into 

 the midst of which they were thrown. 



Having thus seen something of the exiles in European 

 countries, we shall be prepared to understand them and 

 their influence in our own land, where we may be sure 

 they would be not less influential along the same lines, 

 social, commercial and religious. We can somewhat 

 estimate also the loss to France of such an element ; in 

 reality its great middle class, the reliable and thoughtful 

 and inventive class, combining the artisan, agricultural 

 and professional, which gives to a nation its best life and 

 its material and moral soundness and strength. 



Church and 

 Education 



Peculiar Per- 

 sonal Quality 



