Bergson visited the (Click link for more info and facts about University of Oxford) University of Oxford, where he delivered two lectures entitled La Perception du Changement (The Perception of Change), which were published in French in the same year by the (Click link for more info and facts about Clarendon Press) Clarendon Press. As he had a delightful gift of lucid and brief exposition, when the occasion demands such treatment, these lectures on Change formed a most valuable synopsis or brief survey of the fundamental principles of his thought, and served the student or general reader alike as an excellent introduction to the study of the larger volumes. Oxford honoured its distinguished visitor by conferring upon him the degree of (An honorary degree in science) Doctor of Science.

Two days later he delivered the Huxley Lecture at (Click link for more info and facts about Birmingham University) Birmingham University, taking for his subject Life and Consciousness. This subsequently appeared in (Click link for more info and facts about The Hibbert Journal) The Hibbert Journal (Oct., 1911), and since revised, forms the first essay in the collected volume L'Energie spirituelle or Mind-Energy. In October he was again in England, where he had an enthusiastic reception, and delivered at (Click link for more info and facts about University College London) University College London four lectures on La Nature de l'Ame.

In 1913 he visited the (North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776) United States of America, at the invitation of (A university in New York City) Columbia University, (A Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies) New York, and lectured in several American cities, where he was welcomed by very large audiences. In February, at Columbia University, he lectured both in French and English, taking as his subjects: Spiritualité et Liberté and The Method of Philosophy. Being again in England in May of the same year, he accepted the Presidency of the British Society for Psychical Research, and delivered to the Society an impressive address: Fantômes des Vivants et Recherche psychique (Phantoms of Life and Psychic Research).

Meanwhile, his popularity increased, and translations of his works began to appear in a number of languages: (An Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the Commonwealth countries) English, (A person of German nationality) German, (A native or inhabitant of Italy) Italian, (A Scandinavian language that is the official language of Denmark) Danish, (A Scandinavian language that is the official language of Sweden and one of two official languages of Finland) Swedish, (A native or inhabitant of Hungary) Hungarian, (The property of being smooth and shiny) Polish and (A native or inhabitant of Russia) Russian. In 1914 he was honoured by his fellow-countrymen in being elected as a member of the (Click link for more info and facts about Académie française) Académie française. He was also made President of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques, and in addition he became Officier de la (Click link for more info and facts about Légion d'honneur) Légion d'honneur, and Officier de l'Instruction publique.

Bergson found disciples of many varied types, and in France movements such as (Click link for more info and facts about Neo-Catholicism) Neo-Catholicism or (Practices typical of contemporary life or thought) Modernism on the one hand and (A radical political movement that advocates bringing industry and government under the control of labor unions) Syndicalism on the other, endeavoured to absorb and to appropriate for their own immediate use and propaganda some of the central ideas of his teaching. That important continental organ of socialist and syndicalist theory, Le Mouvement (Click link for more info and facts about socialiste) socialiste, suggested that the realism of (Founder of modern communism; wrote the Communist Manifesto with Engels in 1848; wrote Das Kapital in 1867 (1818-1883)) Karl Marx and (Click link for more info and facts about Pierre-Joseph Proudhon) Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is hostile to all forms of intellectualism, and that, therefore, supporters of Marxian socialism should welcome a philosophy such as that of Bergson. Other writers, in their eagerness, asserted the collaboration of the Chair of Philosophy at the College de France with the aims of the Confederation Generale du Travail and the (A former international labor union and radical labor movement in the United States; founded in Chicago in 1905 and dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism; its membership declined after World War I) Industrial Workers of the World. It was claimed that there is harmony between the flute of personal philosophical meditation and the trumpet of social revolution.

While social revolutionaries were endeavouring to make the most out of Bergson, many leaders of religious thought, particularly the more liberal-minded theologians of all creeds, e.g., the Modernists and Neo-Catholic Party in his own country, showed a keen interest in his writings, and many of them endeavoured to find encouragement and stimulus in his work. The (The Christian Church based in the Vatican and presided over by a pope and an episcopal hierarchy) Roman Catholic Church, however, which still believed that finality was reached in philosophy with the work of ((Roman Catholic Church) Italian theologian and Doctor of the Church who is remembered for his attempt to reconcile faith and reason in a comprehensive theology; presented philosophical proofs of the existence of God (1225-1274)) Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, and consequently had made that mediaeval philosophy her official, orthodox, and dogmatic view, took the step of banning Bergson's three books by placing them upon the (Click link for more info and facts about Index of prohibited books) Index of prohibited books (Decree of June 1, 1914).

In 1914, the Scottish Universities arranged for Bergson to deliver the famous (Click link for more info and facts about Gifford Lectures) Gifford Lectures, and one course was planned for the spring and another for the autumn. The first course, consisting of eleven lectures, under the title of The Problem of Personality, was delivered at (Click link for more info and facts about Edinburgh University) Edinburgh University in the Spring of that year. The course of lectures planned for the autumn months had to be abandoned because of the outbreak of war. Bergson was not, however, silent during the conflict, and he gave some inspiring addresses. As early as November 4, 1914, he wrote an article entitled La force qui s'use et celle qui ne s'use pas (Wearing and Nonwearing forces), which appeared in that unique and interesting periodical of the poilus, Le Bulletin des Armees de la Republique Française. A presidential address delivered in December, 1914, to the Academie des sciences morales et politiques, had for its title La Significance de la Guerre. This, together with the preceding article, has been translated and published in England as The Meaning of the War.

Bergson contributed also to the publication arranged by (Click link for more info and facts about The Daily Telegraph) The Daily Telegraph in honour of the King of the (A native or inhabitant of Belgium) Belgians, King Albert's Book (Christmas, 1914). In 1915 he was succeeded in the office of President of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques by M. (Click link for more info and facts about Alexandre Ribot) Alexandre Ribot, and then delivered a discourse on The Evolution of German (A policy of extending your rule over foreign countries) Imperialism. Meanwhile he found time to issue at the request of the Minister of Public Instruction a delightful little summary of French Philosophy. Bergson did a large amount of travelling and lecturing in America during the war. He was there when the French Mission under M. (Click link for more info and facts about Viviani) Viviani paid a visit in April and May of 1917, following upon America's entry into the conflict. M. Viviani's book La Mission française en Amérique (1917), contains a preface by Bergson.

Early in 1918 he was officially received by the Académie française, taking his seat among "The Select Forty" as successor to (Click link for more info and facts about Emile Ollivier) Emile Ollivier, the author of the large and notable historical work L'Empire libéral. A session was held in January in his honour at which he delivered an address on Ollivier. In the war, Bergson saw the conflict of Mind and Matter, or rather of Life and Mechanism; and thus he shows us the central idea of his own philosophy in action. To no other philosopher has it fallen, during his lifetime, to have his philosophical principles so vividly and so terribly tested.

As many of Bergson's contributions to French periodicals were not readily accessible, he agreed to the request of his friends that these should be collected and published in two volumes. The first of these was being planned when war broke out. The conclusion of strife was marked by the appearance of a delayed volume in 1919. It bears the title L'Energie spirituelle: Essais et Conférences (Spiritual Energy: Essays and Lectures). The noted expounder of Bergson's philosophy in England, Dr. Wildon Carr, prepared an English translation under the title Mind-Energy. The volume opens with the Huxley Memorial Lecture of 1911, Life and Consciousness, in a revised and developed form under the title Consciousness and Life. Signs of Bergson's growing interest in social ethics and in the idea of a future life of personal survival are manifested. The lecture before the Society for Psychical Research is included, as is also the one given in France, L'Ame et le Corps, which contains the substance of the four London lectures on the Soul. The seventh and last article is a reprint of Bergson's famous lecture to the Congress of Philosophy at Geneva in 1904, Le paralogisme psycho-physiologique (The Psycho-Physiolgical Paralogism), which now appears as Le Cerveau et la Pensee: une illusion philosophique. Other articles are on the False Recognition, on Dreams, and Intellectual Effort. The volume is a most welcome production and serves to bring together what Bergson wrote on the concept of mental force, and on his view of "tension" and "detension" as applied to the relation of matter and mind.

In June, 1920, the (Click link for more info and facts about University of Cambridge) University of Cambridge honoured him with the degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt). In order that he may be able to devote his full time to the great new work he was preparing on ethics, religion, and sociology, Bergson was relieved of the duties attached to the Chair of Modern Philosophy at the Collège de France. He retained the chair, but no longer delivered lectures, his place being taken by his noted pupil Edouard Le Roy. Living with his wife and daughter in a modest house in a quiet street near the Porte d'Auteuil in Paris, Henri Bergson won the (Click link for more info and facts about Nobel Prize for Literature) Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927.

After his retirement from the Collège, Bergson faded into obscurity, because he was suffering from a degenerative illness. He completed his great new work, Les Deux Sources de la religion et de la Morale, which extended his philosophical theories to the realms of morality, religion and art, in 1935. It was respectfully received by the public and the philosophical community, but all by that time realized that Bergson's days as a philosophical luminary were past. He was, however, able to reiterate his core beliefs near the end of his life, by renouncing all of the posts and honours previously awarded him, rather than accept exemption from the (Click link for more info and facts about antisemitic) antisemitic laws imposed by the (A town in central France (south of Paris) noted for hot mineral springs; was capital of the unoccupied part of France during World War II) Vichy government. Though wanting to convert to Catholicism, he held off instead and showed solidarity with his fellow Jews by signing the registry books.