190 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Victor Cousin, a distinguished philosopher, was born in Paris on 
the 28th November 1792, and was the son of a watchmaker. He 
was educated at the Charlemagne Lyceum, and he was so dis- 
tinguished a pupil, that at the competitions in all the French 
Lyceums he carried off the principal prize. Cousin had at first 
resolved to follow music as a profession, but having attended the 
lectures of Royer Collard on the History of Modern Philosophy, 
they made such a deep impression upon him, that he devoted him- 
self to the study of literature and philosophy. In 1812 he was 
appointed assistant teacher of Greek in the Ecole Norm ale for 
training professors, and he afterwards became a professor in the 
same institution. On the return of Napoleon from Elba he enrolled 
himself among the Royalist Volunteers; but on the Restoration of 
the Bourbons he resumed his studies, and though only twenty-three 
years of age, he was appointed the successor of Royer Collard at the 
Sorbonne. In this new position he assailed the opinions of the 
Doctrinaires, and expounded those of Reid and Dugald Stewart, 
which Royer Collard had first made known in France. A visit to 
Germany, however, unsettled his opinions, and on his return to 
France he expounded the views of Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and 
Schelling. Under the Restoration the boldness of his metaphysics 
exposed him to the royal displeasure. Suspended from his pro- 
fessorship, he became tutor to the present Duke of Montebello, and 
while he held that position he prepared his editions of Proclus and 
Descartes, and his translation of Plato. During a visit to Germany 
in 1825, he was arrested at Dresden, on the supposition of his belong- 
ing to the Carbonari, and being transferred to Berlin, he lay in prison 
for six months. On his return to Paris he opposed the Villele 
ministry along with Guizot and Villemain, but he was restored to 
his professorship under the more liberal ministry of Martignach. 
Under the Orleans dynasty Cousin obtained high preferment. 
Before the close of 1830 he was made Councillor of State, Member 
of the Royal Council of Public Instruction, Professor in the 
Sorbonne, Director of the Iilcole Normale, and Member of the French 
Academy. In 1832 he was made a Peer of France, and a Member 
of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. During the short 
ministry of Thiers in 1840, he filled the office of Minister of Public 
Instruction. 
