CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN FRANCE, INDICATING THE COURSE OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CLASSICS AND SCIENCES.

1793. Destruction of old classical colleges, course of study in these as follows: Six years of letters (Latin, Greek, French); two years of philosophy, including elements of mathematics and physics. (Instruction given in Latin in classes of philosophy.)

1795. Law creating écoles centrales; programme including drawing, natural history, ancient languages (one professor), living languages, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and in the upper section general grammar, history, and legislation. (Schools essentially scientific; very few established.)

1802. Lycées created; programme organized in two parallel courses, viz, classical course (without Greek) and mathematical course.

1809. Consolidated course substituted for parallel courses; Greek restored. 1815. Lycées changed to Royal Colleges.

1821. Ancient supremacy of letters restored; mathematics postponed to, and natural history included in, classes of philosophy. (Instruction in philosophy again given in Latin.)

1826. Extension of mathematics from two to four years (without diminution of time allowed for literary studies).

1829. Attempt to reorganize secondary studies, with provision for living languages, extension of history, substitution of French for Latin as the medium of instruction in philosophy (never practically realized).

1840. Cousin, minister of public instruction, restores exclusively literary character of the regular course of secondary studies; special provision for scientific students (not leading to degree).

1847. Statute restoring sciences to regular programme.

1850. Name lycée restored.

1852. Secondary schools reorganized in accordance with the statute of 1847. Latin omitted from elementary section. Full course organized in two divisions-division of grammar, common to all students; superior division, two parallel courses, viz, course of letters, course of sciences. Two baccalaureates instituted-letters, sciences. Bifurcation advanced one class.

1863.

1864. Bifurcation suppressed in all classes.

EDUCATION REPORT, 1902.

1865. Lycées reorganized by Minister Duruy; bifurcation after second class, or for three upper classes; two degrees, viz, bachelor of letters, bachelor of sciences. Special course of four years created for modern studies. 1872. Jules Simon, minister of public instruction, issues circular proposing change in methods and standards of secondary schools.

1880. Programme modified; time devoted to Latin, Greek, and French in classical section slightly decreased; time for history, geography, and sciences proportionately increased.

1885. Time for letters slightly increased, with loss of time for sciences and modern languages.

1890. Lycées reorganized; bifurcation suppressed; time for Latin, Greek, and French increased, with loss to sciences, modern languages, history, and geography. Options allowed in philosophy between three branches. Single diploma inscribed with the elected study, i. e., "Lettres, philosophie;' "lettres, mathématiques; naturelles." Special secondary course changed to modern secondary of "lettres, sciences physiques et six years, with extension on the side of culture studies; electives allowed in the last year; new special diploma created, baccalaureate of modern secondary studies.

1901. Lycées reorganized; studies arranged in two cycles, one of four years, the other of three years.

First cycle offers two courses: (1) Classical course, with obligatory Latin throughout and optional Greek from the end of the third year; (2) Scientific course, without Latin or Greek.

Second cycle offers for election four groups of studies: (1) Latin, with Greek; (2) Latin, with extended study of modern languages; (3) Latin, with extended study of sciences; (4) modern languages and science, without Latin.

Single baccalaureate.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

To the department of higher education (Director M. Liard) belong the universities and the special schools of university rank which are under the minister of education. Paris is the seat of these special schools, and also of the principal university. Under the law of 1896, 15 of the former faculty groups have been organized into independent universities. They registered 29,377 students in 1900, an increase of 11,772, or 68 per cent above the number enrolled in the faculties in 1888.

The professors of the State universities are appointed by the President of the Republic in advice with the minister of public instruction. The choice is made from two lists, one furnished by the university council, the other by the superior council of public instruction. The salaries of professors are paid by the State, and they have a right to a pension.

a Collège de France (appropriation, 1900, $104,600), Museum of Natural History (appropriation, $193,500), Practical School of High Studies (École Pratique des Hautes Études (State appropriation, $64,200; city, $7,200)], Superior Normal School (110 students; appropriation, $103,120), School of Charts [École Nationale des Chartos (students, 69; appropriation, $14,990)], School of Oriental Languages (students, 415; appropriation, $33,600), French School of Archæology at Rome (appropriation, $14,600), French School at Athens (appropriation, $21,000), École Nationale des Beaux Arts (students, 2,000; appropriation, $84,052). The remaining special schools, such as the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, etc., are under the charge of other ministers.

a Statistique de l'enseignement, 1878-1888, pp. 133-418. b Statistique de l'enseignement, 1900, pp. 10-180. e Rapport portant fixation du Budget Général, Ministère de l'Instruction Publique, 1901 (Perreau), pp. 15, 16. d The same (by Maurice-Faure) for 1902.

The official statistics of higher education in France are published decennially, the last bearing date 1889-1899. But the great importance of the law of July 10, 1896, transforming the French faculties into universities, has been made the occasion for publishing a special report by the chief of the department of higher education, M. Liard. Our survey of movements in this department follows substantially this report.

In the introduction M. Liard traces the spirit of the new régime back to the ideas that were promulgated by the French Revolution. The law of 1896, he says—

Marks an epoch in our higher education: it is the end of one period and the beginning of another. For its full comprehension, therefore, it is necessary to consider it in the light of the previous history. The four articles which the law comprises, and which give it a very modest character, are in reality the outcome of a long and laborious process, whose beginnings are found in the action of the Revolutionary assemblies.

In the place of the ancient universities, destroyed by their constitutions, by their abuses, and by their hostility to the philosophy of the eighteenth century, the revolution which sprung from this very philosophy wished to have, for scientific

EDUCATION REPORT, 1902.

culture and training, establishments conceived and organized in a manner according with the spirit of science and of the sciences. The Revolution gave rise to a theory of higher education which has been nowhere surpassed and which is nowhere fully realized as yet, unless possibly in some universities in the United States.

From the first day the Revolution conceived higher education as a vast system, at the same time one and multiple, one like the human spirit, the source of all science; multiple as the diverse objects to which this spirit applies itself, open to everything that can be made a subject of study and of research-abstract mathematics, physical realities, moral realities, literary creations, creations of art, applications of science to the technical arts, with as many departments as there are natural divisions of objects, departments distinct but not separated, animated by the same life, the same spirit. This was the encyclopedia as a living reality.

That such was indeed the conception of higher education formed by the French Revolution no one can doubt. The first outlines of it appear in a paper by Mirabeau, and it is more fully expressed in the subsequent report of Talleyrand to the constitutional assembly, and is set forth in striking terms in the report of Condorcet to the legislative assembly. In less noticeable reports under the Convention and the Directory the same idea appears also as a natural expression of the Revolutionary spirit.

While thus recognizing the original of that conception of higher education which the Republic has endeavored to realize, M. Liard admits that it had hitherto failed of practical effect.

The Revolution [he continues] created only special schools; that is to say, establishments limited each to the study of a determinate or of a determined group of sciences: School of mathematics, schools of medicine, school of natural history, school of oriental languages, regarded each as complete in itself. ideal was of universities in the modern sense of the word; the realty was special schools. The

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The same policy, as M. Liard explains, was continued by the consulate and by the Emperor. The faculties created by Napoleon were above all things else examining bodies, but in so far as they were teaching establishments at all, they were "special schools of medicine, of law, of letters, of science, having neither the amplitude nor the development which pertains to liberal education in the full sense of the term."

Destitute, or nearly so, of the resources indispensable for scientific research, the special schools or faculties sank to mediocrity. At times, indeed, some one of them "enjoyed the services of eloquent professors, a transient and factitious distinction. Occasionally also an obscure laboratory was the place of a grand discovery. But as a whole these isolated establishments filled no place in the life of the nation or in scientific activity comparable to that of the German universities in Germany."

Through this long period of poverty and inactivity the ideal of the Revolution was not wholly ignored. During the reign of Louis Philippe (1830-1848) it was revived by Guizot on political as well as intellectual grounds. In his memoirs Guizot wrote, as cited by M. Liard, "Paris attracts and morally absorbs all France."

The remedy which Guizot proposed for this evil was the creation of several great universities in the departments.

There should be [he said] in various parts of France great centers of study and of intellectual life where letters and science in all their variety and richness should offer to eager minds solid instruction, equipments for research, honorable careers, intellectual satisfaction, the pleasure of cultivated society. Without doubt eminent teachers and young men of distinction would willingly remain where they should find so many advantages to be among us the chief center of literary activity and learning, would cease to and Paris, without ceasing be a gulf in which are lost many minds capable of a more useful and worthier life.

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At the outset the present Republic showed an earnest determination to reform higher education in the spirit of the ideals which had received the approval of the illustrious minister of Louis Philippe. The subject was opened by Jules Simon, minister of public instruction under President Thiers, who in an eloquent address before a united meeting of the learned societies at the Sorbonne urged the creation of universities of which France was destitute. The first general bill dealing with the subject was submitted to the National Assembly by Paul Bert, who proposed "to suppress the useless faculties and transform the others into universities."

Among the savants who advocated this or an equivalent measure are found the names of Claude Bernard, Pasteur, and Hermite. All the brilliant scholars of the day supported the cause. Says M. Liard: "Little by little Renan, Berthelot, Michel Bréal, Ernest Lavisse, Gabriel Monod and others created a literature explaining and justifying the demand for the restoration of higher education by means of universities."

Thanks to this literature, the conception of a university, as opposed to special schools such as had achieved great distinction in Paris, took possession of the leading minds of France, but the obstacles to its practical realization could not at once be overcome.

The law of 1875 which established the liberty of higher education really increased the number of special institutions, as several private faculties, that is, faculties independent of State control, were at once established by the church. However, this same law of 1875 charged the Government to proceed with the preparation of a measure for the reorganization of higher education having especial regard to the unification of the isolated faculties and making adequate provision for the new studies which modern conditions required. From that time successive ministers and the superior council were constantly occupied with the subject. Measure after measure was elaborated, but without results other than the increase of interest in the proposed reforms. In 1883 Minister Jules Ferry addressed a letter of inquiry to all the faculties setting before them the purpose which had taken shape in his own mind, and calling upon the professors for the expression of their own views in the matter.

It is easy to see [observed Minister Ferry], from the various measures that I have taken respecting the faculties during the last five years, that I attach the greatest importance to measures that promise to develop in our institutions of higher education the sense of responsibility and the habit of administering their own affairs. We should achieve great results if it were possible for us to constitute universities comprising, in intimate relation, the most varied departments of knowledge, managing their own affairs, conscious of their duties and of their importance, and animated each with purposes appropriate to their respective localities, but with due regard to the interests of national unity, rivaling the universities of neighboring countries, and exciting, also, between the great cities in which they are located a spirit of emulation which will react to their own advantage. I am aware that time is necessary for such an achievement; that in enterprises of this sort, however worthy the ambition, we should avoid hasty and rash action. I am convinced, however, that the time has come when the question should at least be thoroughly examined. In this serious matter, as in all others, it is through the opinion of the professors themselves, through their experience and devotion, that progress may be hoped for. In this connection I believe it my duty to ask for the expression of their views.

The replies to this circular letter showed that the greater part of the faculties, and especially those that were most fully possessed of the scientific spirit, were in favor of a university constitution. But in the opinion of the Government neither public opinion nor the experience of the faculties themselves justified an immediate radical change of their constitution.

The result of the inquiry, however, strengthened the Government in its purpose of accomplishing the proposed end by successive measures. The first decisive step was taken in 1885 by the passage of two important decrees. Of these decrees