d scientific authorities, gets them
together in a large hall, gives them arm-chairs to sit in, gives by-laws
to their groups, a purpose and a rank in the State, in brief, he adopts,
remakes, and completes the "National Institute" of France.[6235]

IV. Napoleon's stranglehold on science.

Hold of the government on the members of the Institute.--How
he curbs and keeps them down.--Circle in which lay power may
act.--Favor and freedom of the mathematical, physical and
natural sciences.--Disfavor and restrictions on the moral
sciences.--Suppression of the class of moral and political
sciences.--They belong to the State, included in the
imperial domain of the Emperor.--Measures against Ideology,
philosophic or historic study of Law, Political Economy and
Statistics.--Monopoly of History.

This "National Institute," is the Government's tool and an appendage of
the State. This is in conformity with the traditions of the old monarchy
and with the plans, sketched out and decreed by the revolutionary
assemblies,[6236] in conformity with the immemorial principle of French
law which enlarges the interference of the central power, not only in
relation to public instruction but to science, literature and the fine
arts. It is the State which has produced and shaped it, which has
given to it its title, which assigns it its object, its location,
its subdivisions, its dependencies, its correspondences, its mode of
recruitment, which prescribes its labors, its reports, its quarterly and
annual sessions, which gives it employment and defrays its expenses.
Its members receive a salary, and "the subjects elected[6237] must be
confirmed by the First Consul." Moreover, Napoleon has only to utter
a word to insure votes for the candidate whom he approves of, or to
blackball the candidate whom he dislikes. Even when confirmed by the
head of the State, an election can be cancelled by his successor; in
1816,[6238] Monge, Carnot, Guyton de Morveau, Gregoire, Garat, David and
others, sanctioned by long possession and by recognized merit, are to be
stricken off the list. By the same sovereign right, the State admits and
excludes them, the right of the creator over his creation, and, without
pushing his right as far as that, Napoleon uses it.

He holds the members of his Institute in check with singular rigidity,
even when, outside of the Institute and as private individuals, they
fail to observe in