书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
5010600001139

第1139章

[28] Pelet de la Lozère, ibid., pp.162, 163.167. (Speeches by Napoleon to the Council of State, sessions of Feb. 10, March 1, 11 and 20, April 7, and May 21 and 29, 1806.)[29] Napoleon himself said this: "I want a corporation, not of Jesuits whose sovereign is in Rome, but Jesuits who have no other ambition but to be useful and no other interest but the public interest."[30] This intention is formally expressed in the law. (Decree of March 17, 1808, art. 30.) "Immediately after the formation of the imperial university, the order of rank shall be followed in the appointment of functionaries, and no one can be assigned a place who has not passed through the lowest. The situations will then afford a career which offers to knowledge and good behavior the hope of reaching the highest position in the imperial university."[31] Pelet de la Lozère, ibid.

[32] "Procès-verbaux des séances du conseil de l'Université. " (In manuscript.) Memoir of February 1, 1811, on the means for developing the spirit of the corporation in the University. In this memoir, communicated to the Emperor, the above motive is alleged.

[33] Pelet de la Lozère.

[34] I can imagine the effect this description of Napoleon's genius and inventive spirit must have had on Lenin when he lived and studied in Paris and forged his plans for a communist state, a world revolution, an annihilation of the existing order and the creation of a new (and better) one. (SR.)[35] Decree of March 17, 1808, arts. 101, 102.

[36] In any pre-revolutionary society, authority must be undermined, women introduced whenever it can lessen the efficiency of the organization. But once the revolution has won, then Lenin's dictum about entrusting men of administrative talent with the full authority of the dictatorship of the proletariat is to be followed. As Taine was translated into German, Hitler is likely, directly or indirectly to have studied Napoleon. Hitler's "führerprincip" a principle which gave the Nazi society its terrible efficiency was probably the result.

(SR.)

[37] Decree of March 20, 1808, articles 40-46.

[38] For example, act of March 31, 1812, On leaves of absence. - Cf.

the regulations of April 8, 1810, for the " école de la Maternité, titres ix, x and xi). In this strict and special instance we see plainly what Napoleon meant by "the police" of a school.

[39] Pelet de la Lozère, Ibid.

[40] It seems to me probable that an aspiring revolutionary like Hitler, Lenin, Stalin or Trotsky) would attempt to copy Napoleon's once he had successfully taken power inside first the party and later the state. To enhance the dissolution of a democracy the opposite system, that is tenure irrespective of performance, the right to operate militant trade unions and to conduct strikes, would be demanded for all government employees. (SR.)[41] Decree of March 17, 1808, articles 47 and 48.

[42] Decree of Nov. 15, 1811, articles 66 and 69.

[43] Procès-verbaux et papiers du conseil supérior de l'Université (in manuscript).- (Two memoirs submitted to the Emperor, Feb. 1, 1811, on the means of strengthening the discipline and spirit of the body in the University.) - The memoir requests that the sentences of the university authorities be executable on the simple exequatur of the courts; it is important to diminish the intervention of tribunals and prefects, to cut short appeals and pleadings; the University must have full powers and full jurisdiction on its domain, collect taxes from its taxpayers, and repress all infractions of those amenable to its jurisdiction. (Please not the exequatur is a French ordnance by which the courts gives a decision by a third party or an umpire executory force. SR.)[44] "Statut sur l'administration, l'ensignement et la police de l'école normale, " March 30, 1810, title II, articles 20-23.

[45] Taine entered in L'Ecole Normale in October 1848, first in his year, having written an essay in philosophy (in Latin) with the title:

Si animus cum corpore extinguitur, quid sit Deus? Quid homo? Quid societas? Quid philosophia? (If the soul dies with the body what happens to God? Man? Society? Philosophy?) And an essay in French imagining that he was Voltaire writing to his English friend Cedeville pretending to give his impressions on England. When he had arrived on 30 October 1848 Taine wrote to Cornélis de Witt: "Here I am in the convent and prisoner for three years." (SR.)[46] I note, however, that the école Normale Superior produced Taine, and it seemed to have had the same effect upon him as by boarding school and its similar regime upon me, namely of making me informed and rebellious. I have also noted that the most uninteresting and smug young people I have met have followed school systems like that of the United States where no great effort is demanded but the peer pressure helps to produce ignorant, self-satisfied students. (SR.)[47] Villemain, "Souvenirs contemporaines," vol. I., 137-156. ("Une visite à l'école normale en 1812," Napoleon's own words to M. de Narbonne.) "Tacitus is a dissatisfied senator, an Auteuil grumbler, who revenges himself, pen in hand, in his cabinet. His is the spite of the aristocrat and philosopher both at once.. . . Marcus Aurelius is a sort of Joseph II., and, in much larger proportions, a philanthropist and sectarian in commerce with the sophists and ideologues of his time, flattering them and imitating them. . . . I like Diocletian better." - ". . . Public education lies in the future and in the duration of my work after I am gone."[48] Decree of March 17, 1808, art. 110 and the following.

[49] Circular of Nov. 13, 1813.

[50] Decree of March 17, 1808, article 38.

[51] Pelet de la Lozere, ibid., 158.