The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-02-24
The educational world has been very
,nNh ooorD;ad fheao ia. dar.

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keeping the fete OF st. Charlemsgne
he is the patron of learning fol-
France, as Francois /. was called thu
Father OF Letters. though be hanged
not few printers and publishers-so
dissemble perhaps his love. Formerly
the national tes cheers on the anniver,
cary Of st. Charlemsgne. had q mass
celebrated at the church of 81. Glen
dive, when q collection was made for
their sick and needy. Now the col
leges etc., stand banquet to the pro-
fessors and ushers, and the wags say,
it is the occasion for getting of stocks
OF artificial champagne. Guizot called
Charlemagne the fret intellectual
minister. However, it was from the
beginning OF toe reign of Charlie
mague-the eighth centufY-that the
mind OF the west re-awakened, that
decsdence was stopped and barbaiism
was thrown back.
Like Louis Philippe, Charlemsgne
vas school-master; he taught in q
school he had in his own palace,
hence, to this fact is traced the origin
OF the university of France. He died
learning. and be bad notions of elo.
quence. poetry, arithmetic and mu-
sic. But it is said he did net know
how 70 write; he made his mark with
the point OF his sword. like Norman
Baron. He initiated Solomon, by the
number OF his concubines, and
Henry VIII. by getting rid of his
wives. He had twenty legitimate
children, several of whom were
daughters; few of the girls turned
out bad. There is a legend that
Ohsrlemagne fell in love with beau.
tiful German. q "whits lady," and
neglected everything to devote him.
self to her; ard when she was dead,
he became enamored with the
corps. Charlemagne bad an idea tina.
canal-makers ignore; he proposed to
make ship canal connecting the
German Ocean with the Black Sea.
N. de Lesseps please note.
The election of M. Edmond About,
az a member of the French academy,
ct last. is not an ordinary election,
He has been kind of perpetual can
didate. and no writer ever ridiculed
that Olympus more unscsthiDgly,
than did About. As publjciss and
critic, he is best known; his dramas
and novels are not in the Fl st line.
Usually ranked by the Bonapartists
as friend of the family of the second
degree, he rallied to the republic
after the sinking of the second empire;
he then established a newspaper,
which made money by supporting
Theirs and combating MacMabon.
Since he has been able to live like
the mouse in the Dutch cheese, bis
writings display less ascerbity. He has
been rated a new Voltaire; il go, it is
the greatness of the dwarf when on
the shoulders of the giant.
The French academy will hence
forth cease to be a close-borough,
owing to the recent elections, the
axis Ct the majority is changed. it will
be modernized. and perhaps may be
able to complete iss dictionary. coms
menced 250 years ago, and which is
always in press. The academy was
first founded by a few literary men,
who met in secret. Cardinal Richie
lieu, hearing of their ability, offered
them his protection, and thrust upon
them greatness not to be refused, and
the result was, the constitution of the
academy, by royal patent in 1886.
Ii took its name from the suburb at
Athens of that name, near the Plato's
Villa residence, and where he canoe
to teach his philosophy during half
century. The original site was free
gift from citizen. Academus, bat
Gilman drained and planted the
ground, and the groves contained the
tombs OF celebrities. Sylla cut down
the trees to convert them into batter.
ing rams. when besiegipg Athens. It
was at sn opposite end of the city
that Aristotle had his Lyceum, and
his pupils, from drinking ia knewl-.
edge while perambu'ating, were
called peripaticians. A philosophical
cook has observed, I'VE digest on our
legs"
The number of our French acade-
micians was limited to forty, and
tauteniL reserved for each; the menu
bers were called "Immortals, be-
cause the ambitious motto on the
silver jetons OF attendance, was-a la
immortalits! The academy was to
publish q grammar and a dictionary,
aud ito cleanse che French language
from the Impurities ofthe common
people, the jargon of lawyers, the
misusages of ignorant cour!iers an
the abuses of the pulpit" The
academy never embellished the
French tongue, but it may have
purged it of imperfectiop. Some
trace the origin of the academy to
Charlemagne and bis tutor Alcuin;
wher the court read certain books,
each reader giving an account of what
he had perused; the members gener-
ally took the name OF their fsvoEite
author. The wits have not spared
the academy; they call it the Hotel
des LnraLides de Ia literature, because
once elected, the members work no
oro of fLo ior, Eronoh