 He entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1878, taking the philosophy "agrégation" in 1881, and becoming a provincial philosophy instructor at Brest and elsewhere.In 1899 he succeeded Lucien Lévy-Bruhl as professor of philosophy at the "lycée" Louis-le-Grand.In 1911 he was appointed Inspector of the Paris Academy, and in 1913 he became Inspector-General of Secondary Instruction.