ABSTRACT

In the last chapter we reached the very threshold of the nineteenth century at the moment when the work of the Revolution, after a transitory existence for six years (year 4 to year 10), foundered on the rock of the Consular reaction. The Central Schools created by the Convention, whose perhaps premature originality we have witnessed, disappeared. The old academic organisation was reformed, using the partially new name of lycées and colleges. Lastly, Latin regained its old predominance. Apart from the fact that for sheerly practical reasons it was no longer possible to divest the sciences completely of the right of citizenship which they had won, the position reverted to what it had been fifteen years before, and everything had to be begun again.