France -- Civilization; France -- Politics and government; France -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
de Ségur, however, president of the committee,
he goes. In the evening, at the coucher, Napoleon advances to him before
the whole court and, in that terrifying tone of voice which, even today,
vibrates from the dead lines of the silent page,
"Sir," says he to him, "do the literary people really desire to set
France ablaze?... How dare the Academy speak of regicides?... I ought to
put you and M. de Fontanes, as Councillor of State and Grand-Master, in
Vincennes.... You preside over the second division of the Institute.
I order you to inform it that I will not allow politics at its
sessions.... If the class disobeys I will put an end to it as an
objectionable club!"
Thus warned, the members of the Institute remain within the circle
traced out for them and, for many, the circle is sufficiently large. Let
the first division of the Institute, in the mathematical, physical and
natural sciences, Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre, Carnot, Biot, Monge,
Cassini, Lalande, Burckardt and Arago, Poisson, Berthollet, Gay-Lussac,
Guyton de Morveau, Vauquelin, Thénard and Haüy, Duhamel, Lamarck,
Jussieu, Mirbel, Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, pursue their
researches; let Delambre and Cuvier, in their quarterly reports, sum up
and announce discoveries; let, in the second division of the Institute,
Volney, Destutt de Tracy, Andrieux, Picard, Lemercier and Chateaubriand,
if the latter desires to take part in its sittings, give dissertations
on language, grammar, rhetoric, rules of style and of taste; let, in the
third division of the Institute, Sylvestre de Sacy publish his Arabic
grammar; let Langlés continue his Persian, Indian and Tartar studies;
let Quatremère de Quincy, explaining the structure of the great
chryselephantine statues, reproduce conjecturally the surface of ivory
and the internal framework of the Olympian Jupiter; let D'Ansse de
Villoison discover in Venice the commentary of the Alexandrian critics
on Homer; let Larcher, Boissonade, Clavier, alongside of Coraÿ publish
their editions of the old Greek authors--all this causes no trouble,
and all is for the honor of the government. Their credit reflects on
the avowed promoter, the official patron and responsible director of
science, erudition and talent therefore, in his own interest, he favors
and rewards them. Laurent de Jussieu and Cuvier are titular councillors
of the University, Delambre is its treasurer, and Fontanes its
Grand-Master. Delille, Boissonade and Royer-Collard and Guizot teach in
the faculty of letters; Biot, Poisson, Gay-Lussac, Haüy, Thénard,
Brongniart, Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire in the faculty of the sciences;
Monge, Berthollet, Fourier, Andrieux in the Ecole Polytechnique; Pinel,
Vauquelin, Jussieu, Richerand, Dupuytren in the Ecole de Médecine.
Fourcroy is councillor of State, Laplace and Chaptal, after having been
ministers, become senators; in 1813, there are twenty-three members of
the Institute in the Senate; the zoologist Lacépede is grand-chancellor
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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