Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/555

Rh COUSIN 523 Paris had been sluce the days of Abelard. The lecturer had a singular power of identifying himself for the time with the system which he expounded, and the historical character he pourtrayei. Clear and comprehensive in the grasp of the general outlines of his subject, he was at the same time exceedingly methodical and vivid in the repre sentation of details. In exposition he had the rare art of unfolding and aggrandizing. Beginning with the simple or particular, he proceeded readily and easily to complete the listener s grasp of the matter in hand. There was a rich deep-toned resonant eloquence mingled with the speculative exposition ; his style of expression was clear, elegant, and forcible, abounding in happy turns and striking antitheses. To this was joined a singular power of rhetorical climax. His philosophy exhibited in a striking manner the generalizing tendency of the French intellect, and its logical need of grouping details round central principles. The pretension even to grasp and formulize the history of philosophy was dazzling to the imagination of a Parisian auditory, however little ground it might have in fact or reason. ace There was withal a moral earnestness and elevation in his spiritual philosophy which came home to the hearts of Qg his hearers, and which seemed to afford a ground for higher development in national literature and art, and even in politics, than the traditional philosophy of France had appeared capable of yielding. It was thus not to be wondered at that the philosophical orator was received with enthusiasm, and that his lectures produced more ardent disciples, imbued at least with his spirit, than it has been the fortune of any other professor of philosophy in France to gather round him in this century. Tested by the power and effect of his teaching influence, Victor Cousin occupies a foremost place in the rank of professors of philosophy, who like Jacobi and Schelling in Germany and Dugald Stewart in Scotland, have united the rare gifts of speculative, ex pository, and imaginative faculty. Tested even by the strength of the reaction which his writings have in some cases occasioned, his influence is hardly less remarkable, and the degree of petulant detraction to which he himself and his philosophy have been subjected even in France may be taken as the tribute of envy to his power. The taste for philosophy, especially its history, was revived in France to an extent unknown since the 17th century. les Among the more distinguished men who were influenced by the teaching and example of Cousin, and who have ers carried on philosophical work in his manner and spirit, we may note Jouffroy, Damiron, Gamier, Barthelemy St Hilaire, Eavaisson, Remusat, Jules Simon, and Franck. Jouffroy and Damiron were first fellow students, and then auditors and disciples. Jouffroy, however, always kept firm to the early the French and Scottish impulses of Cousin s teaching. The best research in the history of philosophy, and the best thought of France during the period from 1830 to 1848, were doubtless due to the teaching and writings of Cousin. In fact, for fully fifty years of the philosophical life of France, Cousin has been the greatest power. He continued to lecture regularly for two years and a half after his return to the chair. The three bloody days of July 1830 led to the flight of Charles X. This was followed by the accession of Louis Philippe, &quot; by the will of the people,&quot; which meant very much the bourgeoisie of Paris and the middle class of the country. Cousin sympathized entirely with the revolution of July, and he was at once recognized by the new Government as a friend of national liberty and constitutional rights. Writing in June 1833 he explains both his philosophical and his political position : &quot;I had the advantage of holding united against me for many years, both the sensational and the theological school. In 1830 both schools descended into the arena of politics. The sensational school quite naturally produced the demagogic party, and the theo logical school became quite as naturally absolutism, safe to borrow from time to time the mask of the demagogue in order the better to reach its ends, as in philosophy it is by scepticism that it under takes to restore theocracy. On the other hand, he who combated any exclusive principle in science was bound to reject also any exclusive principle in the state, and to defend representative government. &quot; The Government was not tardy in honouring his public services as a professor and his contributions to the philo sophical literature of the country. He was induced by the ministry of which his friend Guizot was the head to take a part in national administration. He ceased to lecture, but retained the title of professor of philosophy. He became a member of the council of public instruction and coun sellor of state, and in 1832 he was made a peer of France. Finally, he accepted the position of minister of public in struction in 1840 under Thiers. He was besides director of the Normal School and virtual head of the university, and from 1840 a member of the Institute (Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences). His character and his official position at this period gave him great power in the university and in the educational arrangements of the country. In fact, during the seventeen and a half years of the reign of Louis Philippe, Cousin mainly moulded the philosophical and even the literary tendencies of the culti vated class in France. But the most important work he accomplished during this period was doubtless the organization of primary instruction in the country. It was to the efforts of Cousin that France owed her advance, in primary education, from 1830 to 1848. Prussia and Saxony had set the national example, and France was guided into it by Cousin. Forgetful, as has been well said, of &quot;national calamity and of personal wrong,&quot; he looked to Prussia as affording the best example of an organized system of national education ; and he was persuaded that &quot; to carry back the education of Prussia into France afforded a nobler (if a bloodless) triumph than the trophies of Austerlitz and Jena.&quot; In the summer of 1831, commissioned by the Government, he proceeded to Germany, visiting Frankfort and Saxony, and spending some time in Berlin. The result was a series of reports to the minister, afterwards published as Rapport sur VEtat de r Instruction Publique dans quelques pays de VAllemagne et particulierement en Prusse. (Compare also De V Instruction Publique en Hollande, 1837.) His views were readily accepted on his return to France, and soon afterwards through his influence there was passed the law of primary instruction. (See his Expose des Motifs et Projet de Loi sur T Instruction Primaire,presentes a la Chambre des Deputes, Seance du 2 Janvier 1833.) In the words of a reviewer at the time (Edinbiirgli Review, July 1833), these documents &quot; mark an epoch in the progress of national education, and are directly con ducive to results important not only to France but to Europe.&quot; The Report was translated by Mrs Austin in 1834. The translation was frequently reprinted in the United States of America. The legislatures of New Jersey and Massachusetts distributed it in the schools at the expense of the States. Cousin remarks that, among all the literary distinctions which he had received, &quot; None has touched me more than the title of foreign member of the American Institute for Education.&quot; To the enlightened views of the ministries of Gnizot and Thiers under the citizen-king, and to the zeal, energy, and ability of Cousin in the work of organization, France owes what is best in her system of primary education, a national interest which had been neglected under the Revolution, the Empire, and the Restoration (see Expose, p. 17). In the first two years of the reign of Louis Philippe more was done for the fie ation primary in France.