Wednesday, September 26, 2012

A PRAYER FOR BETTER DAYS

God protect France is the royalist devise on the ceiling of the chapelle of the Château de Chantilly. The chapel which had been destroyed during the French Revolution was rebuilt in 1882 by Henri d'Orléans, the duc d'Aumale and son of the former king Louis-Philippe, amid the grandes réformes of the Third Republic. After two republics, three constitutional monarchies and two empires, the Trosième République (1870-1940) was the first long-lasting regime to be established in France since the 1789 revolution. It's worth noting that one of the most important reforms of  1882 was Jules Ferry's program of mandatory primary instruction for all children six to thirteen years old. And it's worth noting that the duke legged the entire Domaine de Chantilly to the Institut de France, the French academic institution founded in 1795 which regrouped a new science academy with the letters and science academies originally established by Louis XIV in the 17th century.

©2012 P.B. Lecron

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