st
difficult to say any wise word.

III.

The Plan of a University for the Government of Russia was the work of
Diderot's last years, but no copy of it was given to the public before
1813-14, when M. Guizot published extracts from an autograph manuscript
confided to him by Suard. Diderot, with a characteristic respect for
competence, with which no egotism can ever interfere in minds of such
strength and veracity as his, began by urging the Empress to consult
Ernesti of Leipsic, the famous editor of Cicero, and no less famous in
his day (1707-1781) for the changes that he introduced into the system
of teaching in the German universities. Of Oxford and Cambridge Diderot
spoke more kindly than they then deserved.

The one strongly marked idea of the plan is what might have been
expected from the editor of the Encyclopaedia, namely, the elevation of
what the Germans call real or technological instruction, and the
banishment of pure literature as a subject of study from the first to
the last place in the course. In the faculty of arts the earliest course
begins with arithmetic, algebra, the calculation of probabilities, and
geometry. Next follow physics and mechanics. Then astronomy. Fourthly,
natural history and experimental physics. In the fifth class, chemistry
and anatomy. In the sixth, logic and grammar. In the seventh, the
language of the country. And it was not until the eighth, that Greek and
Latin, eloquence and poetry, took their place among the objects or
instruments of education. Parallel with this course, the student was to
follow the first principles of metaphysics, of universal morality, and
of natural and revealed religion. Here, too, history and geography had a
place. In a third parallel, perspective and drawing accompanied the
science of the first, and the philosophy and history of the second.

In the thorny field of religious instruction, Diderot expresses no
opinion of his own, beyond saying that it is natural for the Empress's
subjects to conform to her way of thinking. As her majesty thinks that
the fear of pains to come has much influence on men's actions, and is
persuaded that the total of small daily advantages produced by belief
outweighs the total of evils wrought by sectarianism and intolerance,
therefore students ought to be instructed in the mystery of the
distinction of the two substances, in the immortality of the soul, and
so forth.[216]

[216] _Oeuv._, iii. 490.

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