the Four Nations. Here the Academy holds its sessions, and here are its offices and library. This building received the name of Palace of the Institute. Louis XVIII officially re-established the name of Academy. Louis Philippe added a fifth section to the Institute under the name of Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Since then no modifications have been made in the organization of the Institute. It therefore includes at present: (1) The French Academy; (2) The Academy of Fine Arts; (3) The Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres; (4) The Academy of Sciences; (5) The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. What has been the influence of the French Academy? Some critics have reproached it with a tendency to hamper and crush originality. But it is the general opinion of scholars that it has corrected the judgment, purified the taste, and formed the language of French writers. Matthew Arnold, in his essay on "The Literary Influence of the Academies", praised it as a high court of letters and a rallying point for educated opinion. To it he ascribed the most, striking characteristics of the French language, its purity, delicacy, and flexibility.
Photo. Reutlinger
Academy of Fine Arts.—The Academy of Fine Arts replaced, in 1795, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and the Academy of Architecture founded in 1675. It was reorganized 23 January, 1803, and again 21 March, 1816. It is now composed of forty members: fourteen painters, eight sculptors, eight architects, four engravers, and six musical composers. There are, besides, ten honorary members, forty corresponding members, and ten honorary corresponding members. From among the members are chosen the Directors of the "Ecole des Beaux Arts", and of the Villa Medici, the Art Academy of France at Rome, founded by Colbert in 1666, for young painters, sculptors, architects, and musicians who, having been chosen by competition, are sent to Italy for four years to complete their studies at the expense of the Government.
Academy of Inscriptions and Belle-Lettres.—In 1663, at the suggestion of Colbert, Louis XIV appointed a committee of four members of the French Academy charged with the duty of furnishing legends and inscriptions for medals. This was the origin of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, founded in 1701. It was composed of ten honorary members, ten pensionnaires, ten associates, and ten pupils. The Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres deals with the history, geography, and antiquities of France, with Oriental, Greek, and Latin antiquities, the history of science among the ancients, and comparative philology.
Academy of Sciences.—The Academy of Sciences was founded in 1666, at the suggestion of Colbert. At first it dealt only with geometry, astronomy, mechanics, anatomy, chemistry, and botany. At present it numbers sixty-six members, divided into eleven sections of six members each: geometry, mechanics, physics, astronomy, geography and navigation, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, agriculture, anatomy and zoology, medicine and surgery. There are, besides, two perpetual secretaries, ten honorary members, eight foreign members, eight foreign associates, and one hundred French and foreign corresponding members.
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.—The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences was founded in 1795. Suppressed by Napoleon in 1803, it was re-established by Louis Philippe in 1832. It was then composed of thirty members divided into five sections: philosophy; morals; legislation, public law, and Jurisprudence; political economy; general and philosophic history. Another section was added in 1855: politics, administration, and finances. In 1872 the number of the members was fixed at forty, besides ten honorary members, six associates, and from thirty to forty corresponding members. Every year on 5 October, the five sections of the Institute hold a general public session, when prizes awarded by the several Academies are distributed. In 1877, the Duc d'Aumale left to the Institute of France by his will the château of Chantilly with its art collections.
Houssaye, The Forum, February, 1876; Vincent, The French Academy (Boston, 1901); Funck-Brentano, Richelieu et l'Académie (Paris, 1904); Fabre, Chapelain et nos deux premières Academies (Paris, 1890); Tastet, Histoire des guarante fauteuils de l'Académie française depuis sa fondation jusqu'-à nos jours (Paris, 1855); Pelisson-Olivet, ed. Livet, Histoire de l'Académie française (Paris, 1858); Jeanroy-Félix, Fauteuils contemporains de l'Académie française (Paris, 1900); Faguet, Histoire de la littérature française (Paris, 1900), II; Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française (Paris, 1897), IV.
Acadia.—The precise location and extent of Acadia was a subject of constant dispute and consequent warfare between the French and English colonists of America for more than one hundred and fifty years. When Henry IV of France granted to the Sieur de Monts the territory of "La Cadie", as it was called, it was "to cultivate, to cause to be peopled, and to search for gold and silver mines from the 46th to the 40th degree N. lat. "The Marquise de Guercheville, who purchased the claim from de Monts, fancied she owned from Florida to the St. Lawrence. Subsequently it was considered to be the present peninsula of Nova Scotia, and now is usually regarded as the small district on the south shore of the Bay of Fundy from Annapolis to the Basin of Minas. De Monts received his concession 8 November, 1603. Claims had previously been laid to the territory by Cartier's nephews; and de la Roche, Chauvin, and de Chastes had made attempts to found a colony there; but it had all resulted in nothing. De Monts was a Calvinist, but Henry enjoined on him to teach Catholicity to the tribe of Micmacs who inhabited those regions. With de Monts, on his journey out,
