Duruy Victor (1811-1894), Minister of Public Instruction from 1863 to 1869. Photogravure portrait shot of V. Duruy Notes and souvenris , t. 2, Paris, 2nd ed., 1902.
"Monseigneur,
In the struggle between Mr. Duruy and us, many of our venerable colleagues alarmed as I was myself, have rushed to raise their voices. You do not fail, my Lord, give to the great cause that we defend the powerful support of your word, as always so high and firm. The Church and all Christian families will thank you.
You say with Because, my lord, the company Mr. Duruy is "unprecedented in the history of societies, since, become Christians, they surrounded the woman of respect and deference." As you say still, "is an incredible fact that" a minister could well change, alone and in its discretion, and radically, the conditions for education of girls in France, the transport of the hands of women men's hands, for girls, its full authority throughout the French territory, the 3,000 teachers that the law gives young people, he dares such attempts, without consulting anyone, neither the State Council, neither the legislative body, neither the Senate nor the Board of Education, regardless of anything in it creates embarrassment and create more government, and finally starts this way, without restraint or guides, Through the most sensitive issues and the most sacred interests. [...]
What! regular courses, daily, girls, six days a week, twice a day, in the Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne, that is to say the place where professorships are held every literary and scientific, where are all over the young men, all examinations of bachelor, etc.. etc.. !
The Latin Quarter! Mr. Duruy Has he forgotten what it is? For me, despite the entry from the street Gerson, I am hardly reassured that district, and I could not but be very attentive to the words of one of the most honorable black city officials who cried , about all that: "the Latin Quarter, so it's changed since our time! Call girls, but it has no common sense!"
I myself was a professor at the Sorbonne, and I've never gone through the course and surrounding area, without seeing them, as they are still now filled with students who come and go, awaiting the opening lecture halls, or after the lessons teachers are formed into groups to discuss. This will be the middle and under the eyes of these young students, dispersed in the course or near the Sorbonne, that will constantly move the girls to go to lessons institution Mr. Duruy!
But, they say, these girls, they will not be alone, they will each, in default of his mother, a housekeeper. But how old will the housekeeper? Mr. Duruy do not fix more than the age of teachers. And those who do not governesses, and whose mothers are too busy, that is to say, the more they will come here with a good, more or less young: and instead of a risk, here are two. That's not all: they can only come because they are not required to be accompanied. But then what guarantees will there be on those who will come together and, in all honesty, what they can pick up there?
No, it is absolutely impossible. There is an absence, or at least one passenger forgetfulness of the moral sense, which is inconceivable. Mr. Duruy itself would be scared if I repeated the word as a statesman eminent told me a few days ago, on the peril of these students and these students and constantly forced to meet. [...]
These are the first steps in a path that lead away, if common sense does public resistance. Although blind does not see him! And those elsewhere who have not here their reasons for wearing gloves and masks, said things clearly, and ripped all the sails.
The same day my letter to Mr. Duruy and education of girls was printed, and before she appeared, The Century saw this circular Mr. Duruy way to snatch the women "the yoke of superstition ridiculous, and prepare new generations." (November 16).
When the letter was published, The Century wrote: "I ask Dupanloup said, we do not train for the future of free-thinking women ! We believe it without penalty. With Women free-thinkers, more superstitious, more brotherhoods of the Virgin led by priests, most of Peter's pence, more clerical influences, more rich offerings! " Then The Century added: "that (Mr. Duruy) created the earliest possible Normal School Superior professed ! To defeat the enemy that prevents any progress, there is only one way, only one: to educate women to educate girls, and form free-thinkers. "(The Century , Nov. 20.)
According The National Opinion , and that is why she applauds Mr. Duruy, the purpose of the circular is to wrest the education of girls religion, Catholicism, the Church. That L'Opinion organize calls "the secular education of women." "That, she says, a question vital for the country. Indeed, the clergy is to France by women, and it takes women through education. Most girls are higher in the nuns. By then, the priests are the masters of us in our homes. So low or so high that you wear looks, they have one eye in each interior constantly open and influence still active. "[...]
According Time , the scope of the Circular," c is to permanently remove the direction of the spirits in the church, is consuming the minds of secularization. [...] "( Time, November 21.) Time said: "It is whether the priest, still holding the woman will recover by using its influence over the society, if society was complete to get rid of the priest, by removing Women, for their participation in cultural life in general cl. At bottom, and ultimately, the fate of France is in question. " ( Time, November 21.) [...] Finally, a University professor, who is involved in the issue, chose to write what century is this: "We want our girls to secondary education that is more harmony with the teaching that our boys are .... they can read the same book and we will draw the same thoughts ": that is to say, as told The Age , become free-thinkers . Then he goes on to say:" you whose whole life is going to stifle all feelings that nature has placed in man, you want dominion over the woman dominate man in his turn, you want to retain it under your saddle and keep it under your authority to order by it in the family. "(The Century , 21 November). [...]
As a gentleman, I ask you: What do you want France to do? And it will remain there for decency and honor? And how far will you go last, since you are "still very modest effort that is now Mr. Duruy to pull women from ignorance, where the clergy is pleased to see them and keep them c ". (National Opinion , 23 November.) [...]
All this is deeply sad, my lord, but at one point of view, this is happy, and, in the sadness of my soul, I bless God . Because the risk has suddenly revealed did not start yesterday, but we do not see enough. In recent years the church is so threatened outside, and the wicked passions and demagoguery, throughout Europe, so any attack from religious, moral, and social, that we could not always follow closely enough the march and progress of wickedness among us. On this serious issue of public education, too long ago that the religious men were distracted. We are made in France. Fashion has surprising power to us. These questions have long been at the agenda: that of speeches, books and fees, petitions, plans on teaching for twenty years! Then we move on, and we think no more. Meanwhile, Mr. Duruy and its allies, books and circulars are doing their work. Well, if this last round we wake up, I say, she is happy.
to me long ago that the documents and books from Mr. Duruy especially me busy, and I have considered and examined, with the last treatment, not only his writing, but a quantity of historical works published in collaboration with him, under his personal direction (*), and spread with profusion in our schools and in our schools and I was scared.
When I think the Minister of Education of a nation like France, in a solemn introduction to our history, following in the footsteps of those who make man perfected an orangutan, dares to give ancestor to man the monkey, and a starting point for humanity in the wild and when I hear universal Monitor, the official journal of the empire, naming him also, and with approval, a former congener monkey man, perhaps his grandfather (May 2, 1864) and also give France the high moral lessons like this: "Man is not an intelligence served by organs, as has been said in pretentious style, but an organization that has high degrees to the proudest summits of thought. "And further down:" the true story of mankind as distinct from legends, certifies that the stomach was the precursor of the brain. Our first fathers, cannibals revered heads were very small, their skulls are authentic fossils. Digestion preceded the thought, and long and there are hundreds of centuries between these two kinds of phenomena. "(August 4, 1867).
When I see these despicable doctrines, honored as a patronage higher in the higher education chairs, decorated by fortune, but Truly, I wonder: where are we and where are we going? Is it with such meanness we prepare our young generations and valiant struggles of the future, and young French virtues without which the family and society will collapse into the abyss of shame and sorrow! The truth is that the social evil is abroad for ten years is matched only by the evil done in by the press impious, which is currently a minister blind is the least I can say, well willingly or unwillingly, gives the hand. And all this consistently, calmly, relentlessly. [...]
A few more years of this regime and resignation more or less explicit, more or less silent honest people, and they collect the harvest of what has been sown. And already it starts. The most fatal doctrines exploding, large schools of radical unbelief, atheism, materialism, and theories of the most subversive of all morality, boldly spreading, spreading with an eagerness intensified by the expectation of a next triumph is what we see.
For me, my conviction is that we can not ignore any longer. And when I see these serious issues education, which carry with them the life and death of companies, as they are processed by Minister of Public Instruction, I can not but be moved, and do not say. No, this is too much, and finally we need to know if big government have nothing to do on such enterprises. [...]
Accept, Sir, the homage of my respects very dedicated.
FELIX †, Bishop of Orleans. "
_________________ [note added]" 50 volumes, format in-12, issued by a company of professors and scholars, under the direction Duruy MV, 1852.
Felix Dupanloup Second letter of the Bishop of Orleans
on Mr. Duruy and education of girls , Paris, Charles Douniol, 1867 .
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