714 THE CENTENNIAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. 



place, it forbade the vacant places to be filled again, and, finally, in 

 August, 1793, it suppressed all the academies and literary associations 

 established by the nation. 



It has often been remarked that this very revolution which had sup- 

 pressed all academies, created the institute, which is an academy. This 

 was not inconsistent on the part of the assemblies. The idea of cre- 

 ating an entirely new and complete academy was contemporary with 

 the resolution to make an end of the old academies. The Constituent 

 Assembly had directed Mirabeauto submit to them a plan for a national 

 academy. Mirabeau called in Chamfort, who was just then engaged in 

 a quarrel with the French Academy; hence he wrote a violent diatribe 

 and prepared a plan which Mirabeau never found time to read from the 

 tribune. 



Plans for a national academy were numerous under the convention. 

 Condorcet, d'Alembert, Dannou, Talleyrand, all who had high aims, 

 presented their contributions. It is said that Talleyrand accepted the 

 paternity of a scheme, which was entirely the work of the Abbe Des- 

 renandes, who had been his vicar- general at Autun, and who was 

 known to have been a member of the council of public instruction. 



Talleyrand was one of those who could have dispensed with the 

 aid o± a secretary, but the tradition is both old and persistent. All 

 who had formed plans for a national academy jealously laid claims to 

 the glorious title of founder of the institute. But historic truth com- 

 pels us to inscribe another name at the head of this list of honor, and 

 that is the name of Richelieu, the founder of the French Academy. 



We, of our day, are more just than our fathers were. Our admira- 

 tion for the great achievements of the revolution does not blind us to 

 the glories of the monarchy, which are the glories of France. We 

 celebrate the centennial of the Institute of France, but we are perfectly 

 ready to associate with the glory of this day the fo under, or rather the 

 founders of the academies, from whom the institute has inherited its 

 glory: Louis XIII, and Louis XIV, Richelieu, Seguier, and Colbert. 

 The institute has been in existence since October 25, 1795, but the 

 academies of which it is composed go back to 1635. Most assuredly 

 the Institute of France counts, from its foundation, among its mem- 

 bers a number of illustrious men. I shall quote some of the names, 

 regretting only that I can not mention them all: Chateaubriand, 

 Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Alfred de Musset, Alfred de Vigny, Guizot, 

 Thiers, Cousin, in the French Academy; Monge, Berthollet, Lagrange, 

 Laplace, Lavoisier, Fresnel, Ampere, Arago, Cuvier, Geoffroy Saint 

 Hilaire, Cauchy, Chasles, Claude Bernard in the Academy of Sciences; 

 Dannou, Victor Le Clerc, Littre, Boissonade, Hase, Xaudet, Burnouf, 

 in the Academy of Inscriptions; Louis David, Ingres, Delacroix, Meis- 

 sonier, David (dAngers), in the Academy of Fine Arts. I had ended 

 here the list of our glorious contemporaries in obedience to the law 

 which does not permit me to mention the name of anyone living at the 



