France has taken a very important step in emancipating education from
the power of the church--completely secularizing education. Under the
present law religious associations are no longer allowed, as such, to
give instruction in public schools, and all schools taught by priests
are to be superseded by public schools. The Ultramontanes are bitterly
hostile to this law, and call it religious oppression, but it is
firmly maintained. The Minister of Instruction says that in public
instruction there cannot be two authorities, church and state, with
equal sovereignty. There is but one sovereignty, that of the State.
Clerical studies do not now attract young men as formerly, either in
America or France. The University of Paris last year had 11,000
alumni, but only thirty-five theological students. 3,786 studied for
the legal profession, 3,696 for the medical, 1,767 attended to
pharmacy, 928 to letters and 467 to science. There were 167 female
students, 108 of them preparing for medicine, fifty-one in literary
studies, seven in science and one preparing as a lawyer.
When France shall be sufficiently civilized to abolish duels and
dismiss her standing army, she may have an opportunity of reaching the
front rank in civilization and progress. Even at present France has
many elements of the highest civilization in courtesy and refinement
of manners, artistic skill, scientific progress and advancing wealth.
The French might give some valuable lessons to Americans, especially
in journalism. Mrs. J. C. Croly (Jennie June) in her recent address to
the Women's Press Association in Boston, gave a pungent criticism on
American journalism which, in justice it must be said, is not
applicable to the press generally, although the immense space given to
baseball, pugilism, races, and all species of crime, by our leading
journals, is disgraceful. "If the tail were large enough," said
Dundreary, "the tail would waggle the dog!" certainly the tail end of
society wags its journals. Mrs. Croly said:--
"What the newspaper seems to be principally valued for, just
now, is for doing individual gossiping, scolding and backbiting
on a large scale, and in a way that relieves the individual from
responsibility. The old women of the past have been royally
revenged for all the sneers and slights put upon their
spectacled talks, and tea parties; for back-door tittle-tattle
of the meanest, most reckless sort, has been made a business,
has become the staple of some journals. That people read such
stuff does not seem to me reason enough for printing it. Shall
we not have a daily paper some time, that is at once bright,
clear, pure, honest and strong; one that works upward, instead
of downward; that has its hold upon the best things, and
inspires us with new faith in them, and in their power to work
out race redemption."
Such criticisms do not apply to the Parisian press, which employs and
pays liberally the ablest writers.
The French have at last begun the publication of cheap literature for
the people. A firm in Paris "have begun the issue of what is termed
the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Populaire (the New Popular Library), at ten
centimes, or two cents, an issue, this to be a collection of the most
remarkable works of all literature, histories voyages, romances,
plays, religious and philosophical treatises, and poetry, etc. Each
volume is to be complete, and is to have thirty-two pages, printed in
clear text, the equivalent in its entirety to one hundred pages of an
ordinary French book. These volumes are to be published one each week,
at a subscription price of seven francs, or a little less than $1.40
per year."
They propose "to give a résumé of those parts of secondary interest,
and to publish in their entirety those salient passages which cannot
be ignored, the works thus presented having the appearance and the
interest of the originals. The reader who cannot spare the time to
carefully read the original may thus in a few hours acquire a fair
idea of its purpose and value. The second class will be a large number
of works that are now out of print, or which can only be procured at a
very high price. The third, and perhaps more popular class, will be
the works of authors of all ages, of all countries, and of all
schools, such as Shakespeare, Corneille, Pascal, Chateaubriand,
Sophocles, Racine, Lord Byron, etc. Ten of these volumes have already
been published."
In this country, John B. Alden of New York has taken the lead in
publishing valuable literature at the lowest possible prices.