Chapter II (3)

We shall not enter into the merits of the long-standing dispute in France as to the superiority of secular or of clerical education. The parable of the mote and the beam might probably be applicable to both parties, but no impartial observer can fail to recognize that the triumph of Romanism in France, consequent upon the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, has formed one of the chief obstacles to the development of public education in that country. Huss, Luther, Calvin--in a word, all the leaders of the Reformation--inculcated the sacred duty devolving upon every man of reading the Bible for himself in his own tongue. Hence we now find education far more advanced in Protestant than in Catholic countries--a fact which has not a little contributed to the decadence of the Latin races. Richelieu, who held that a hungry people was the most submissive, was also of opinion that an ignorant people obeyed the most readily. Louis XIV. and Louis XV., without saying as much, acted up to the cardinal's maxim, doing absolutely nothing for popular education. The instruction of the upper classes was at that time in the hands of religious societies or _congregations_. The Revolution, displaying its usual iconoclastic zeal, upset this system, without reflecting for a moment that it might be as well to substitute some other system for it, and that it takes time to organize a body of teachers fit to undertake such a work. The Convention decreed that those parents should be punished who did not send their children to school, overlooking the fact that there were no schools to send them to. It proclaimed gratuitous instruction, but made no provision for the salaries of the teachers. These hastily instituted reforms were eminently characteristic of the feverish excitement amidst which matters affecting the most serious interests of the nation were disposed of. The First Empire and the Restoration saw but little done on behalf of primary education. Under Louis Philippe the question of gratuitous instruction and compulsory attendance got no farther, notwithstanding the fact of such men being in power as Victor Cousin, Villemain and Guizot.

The efforts of Jules Simon and of Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire to have the question settled by the Republican government in 1848 proved futile. Napoleon III., having found 44,000 schools in France at the commencement of his reign, left it with 54,000 at its close--a most insignificant rate of increase, as regards primary instruction, compared with the advances made in the same direction by foreign nations, and with the material progress of France itself during those eighteen eventful years. The Third Republic has, as was observed above, given to the question of education a prominent place among the reforms to be instituted. Scarcely had the most pressing financial and military questions been dealt with ere a searching examination into the educational system of the country was undertaken and its defects laid bare. In a report on primary and secondary education in different countries, read by M. Levasseur before the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences on the 29th of May, 1875, he establishes the fact that out of forty-five nations whose educational statistics he had examined, France only occupies the twentieth place--naturally a somewhat humiliating admission for a nation which has claimed to be the centre and radiating-point of modern civilization.

The map on which the departments figure tinged with black proportionately with the illiteracy of their inhabitants is in mourning to a most lamentable extent. It might be taken for the geological map of Pennsylvania, with the coal-regions indicated by black patches; and most assuredly the Lehigh Valley would appear no darker on such a map than does on the chart of ignorance the unfortunate department of the Ariege, with 66 per cent. of its inhabitants absolutely illiterate. Happily, since this map was issued matters have somewhat mended; nevertheless, the lack of appreciation of the benefits of education is still very noticeable in a large number of the departments.

The village schools are kept up by the communes, aided by contributions from the department and from the government. The total annual amount of the contributions from these three sources does not exceed 65,000,000 francs for the whole of France. Deduct from this paltry sum of $13,000,000 a certain quota for the construction and keeping in repair of school-houses, and it will at once be seen that what remains to be divided among the 54,000 teachers is scarcely sufficient to afford them even the barest subsistence. The recent reduction of school-teachers' salaries throughout the United States has given rise to much unfavorable comment, but happy indeed would teachers in France consider themselves were they to receive even anything approaching the reduced pay of their Transatlantic brethren. Of the school-teachers above spoken of, 26,000 receive 750 francs ($150) per annum, 14,000 receive 550 francs, and 10,000 but 450 francs, or less than the common farm-laborer, who has at least food and lodging provided for him by his master. True it is that many of the teachers receive a slight additional salary for acting as secretary at the _mairie_; but a much larger number of them have to eke out a scanty subsistence by manual labor during certain hours of the day, especially in harvest-time.

As for the school-houses, they are usually in such a dilapidated condition that the farmers would scarcely care to use them as cattle-sheds. We have visited schools--and they exist by the score, not to say by the hundred--without either benches or desks, blackboard or maps, and through the roofs of which the rain poured on teachers and pupils. On entering one of these schools and seeing the little fellows in their torn blouses, their feet simply encased in great wooden sabots, their lunch-baskets with coarse bread and a few nuts by their side, the stranger can hardly realize that he is in that country where there is a more even distribution of property, and where the peasantry are more prosperous and conservative, than anywhere else. Among the efforts made to improve things may be mentioned the frequent inspections, not only by government inspectors, but also by gentlemen called _delegues cantonaux,_ who are usually chosen from among the landed proprietary of the neighborhood by the prefects.

"Paris is not France," is a remark frequently uttered by French conservatives, and one which certainly holds good as regards education. The department of the Seine actually expends some $6,000,000 annually on education, which is something over 46 per cent. of the total expenditure for all France under this head. Considering that the population of the department of the Seine does not exceed 2,400,000, it will be seen that the expenditure there for educational purposes is not inferior to that of our own representative States. At the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 it may be recollected that Paris, conjointly with Saxony and Sweden, was awarded the diploma of honor for primary instruction. This branch of education is absolutely gratuitous, and, in view of the experience of other countries, is likely to remain so, in spite of the outcry that parents able to contribute toward the education of their offspring should be compelled to do so. Ink, paper, pens, books, models and maps are supplied free of charge to each pupil. During 1876 not less than 330,000 books, 1,490,000 copy-books and 1,440,000 steel pens were thus supplied in the primary schools of the capital. In Paris there are some 260,000 children of both sexes old enough to go to school. Of this number, 104,000 get some kind of education, either at home or at the boarding-schools, and 134,000 attend the public schools--either under secular or clerical management--and the _salles d'asile_, of which we shall presently speak. The great capital thus contains some 22,000 children who cannot read or write, and this will account for the fact of the educational status of the department of the Seine being inferior to that of many of the eastern departments, and occupying a far lower place on the list than might otherwise have been expected. Up to the age of two years the infants of parents too poor to watch over their offspring in the daytime are admitted into the _creches_. In these admirable private institutions--founded some thirty years ago by M. Marbeau--the infants are washed, fed and tended with maternal solicitude. Between the ages of two and six years the children are admitted into the _salles d'asile_, or children's homes, of which there are over a hundred in Paris. There it is first sought to develop the child's intellectual faculties, prepare it for school, inculcate habits of cleanliness and morality, and instruct it in the rudiments of reading and writing. Between the ages of six and fourteen children are admitted into the schools, and, nominally at least, go through the plan of study drawn up by the board of primary education, and which is as follows: Reading, writing, geography, spelling, arithmetic, compendium of sacred and French history, linear drawing, singing, the rudiments of physics, geometry and natural history, and calligraphy. Were this programme carried out in its integrity, education in France would, it need hardly be said, be considerably further advanced than it is at present. Even in Paris, however, the material obstacles are not slight. Most of the schools are far too cramped for space, especially in those wealthy and crowded parts of the city between the Rue de Rivoli and the Boulevards, for instance, where every foot of ground and every breathing-space are worth large sums of money. In a city where the people are so closely packed, and where a family is content to live on a flat, how is room to be found for spacious, airy school-buildings, with a detached seat and desk for each pupil, a large central hall and a play-ground adjoining? Such establishments must inevitably cost immense sums of money, but Paris, if we may judge by the annual increase in the educational appropriations, seems determined not to let this difficulty stand in the way of her children obtaining a good education.

A word as to the teachers. The female lay teachers are, it must be acknowledged, very greatly inferior to the lady teachers in the United States. It is said that in England when a man has failed at everything else he becomes a coal-merchant. We should not dream of applying this remark to French ladies as regards school-teaching. At the same time, it is an established fact that the French girls' schools which are managed by nuns, and especially those of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, are far above the other female educational establishments. Most of the male lay teachers are appointed from the primary normal schools which exist in the chief town of every department; and it is a noteworthy fact that the majority of them are ardent Republicans, notwithstanding the fact that during the Empire every effort was made to win them over to the imperial side. In every normal and primary school was the bust of Napoleon, and a liberal distribution took place of the famous _Journal des Instituteurs_, every paragraph of which, political or educational, was dressed up in Napoleonic attire. Possibly, some of the lay primary school-teachers may have adopted republicanism out of a spirit of natural opposition to their old adversaries and competitors, the _instituteurs congreganistes_. Of these, too, a word must be said. While in the secondary clerical schools most of the instructors are Jesuits, in the primary schools most of the teachers belong to the confraternity of the _Ecole Chretienne_, the members of which, without taking the vows and assuming a lifelong engagement, agree nevertheless to remain single, to submit to the discipline of the society and to wear the ecclesiastical dress. Strict Ultramontanists, these brethren have been somewhat unjustly nicknamed the _freres Ignorantins_. Living as they do in common, with but few wants, and receiving, whenever they require it, pecuniary aid from the wealthy party to which they belong, they are satisfied with a rate of pay less than one-half that of the lay teachers, and are thus preferred in a large number of communes on the simple ground of economy. Their plan of instruction is the same as that adopted in the secular primary schools, except that religious instruction and exercises of course play a larger part with them than with their lay brethren. The ultra radicals, who in a large measure control the educational appropriations in the town-council, are bitterly opposed to any portion of the public instruction remaining in the hands of the clerical element, and their most strenuous efforts are used to have all these _congregational_ schools of both sexes closed. They would concentrate the entire national educational system under the control of a body of lay teachers to be paid by the towns and by the state. In these views they are supported by the Republican party, while the clergy have on their side the majority of the Senate. Whether the absence of clerical competition would be likely to prove advantageous or not to the secular educational establishments, we shall not attempt to say, but certain it is that the long continuance of this bitter feud between the two parties has been anything but conducive to the educational progress of France.

At the age of fourteen the Parisian youth not intended for one of the learned professions leaves school to learn a trade. Should he desire to increase his stock of knowledge and have a taste for study, he can, after passing an examination, enter the excellent Ecole Turgot, wherein the programme of the primary schools is somewhat extended, without, however, embracing the study of Latin and Greek. At the Turgot the course comprises mathematics, linear and ornamental drawing, physics and mechanics, chemistry, natural history, calligraphy, bookkeeping, French language and literature, history, geography, English and German. All the pupils are day scholars. There could probably be no better devised programme for developing and exercising the intellectual faculties of those who have gone through the primary schools, and it may unhesitatingly be affirmed that for most of the pupils the training received at the Ecole Turgot is of lifelong value.

If a youth aim yet higher, he can apply for admittance at the College Chaptal, where he may eventually obtain gratuitously a classical education, and at its close a university degree. From the Chaptal school--the new building devoted to which forms a conspicuous feature on the Boulevard des Batignolles--the pupil may, on passing an examination, enter either of the two higher colleges, the Central or the Polytechnic. Then, too, the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers may be looked on in the light of a magnificent annex to the schools of primary instruction. The idea of such an institution originated with the celebrated mechanician of the last century, Vaucanson, who bequeathed to the government his splendid collection of models, drawings, tools, machines and automatons. The Convention decreed the establishment of the Conservatoire, which now contains some 12,000 models in its industrial museum. Among them may be mentioned Pascal's arithmetical machine, Lavoisier's instruments, the first highway locomotive constructed by Cugniot in 1770, a lock forged by Louis XVI., clocks and watches of historic interest, and those patents which have run out by lapse of time. The machinery is set in motion at certain hours of the day, during which the public is admitted free. The library, rich in works of science, art and industry, is always open. In the evening there are gratuitous lectures delivered by men of science on such subjects as geometry, mechanics and chemistry applied to the arts, industrial and agricultural chemistry, agriculture, spinning-looms, dyeing, etc. The Conservatoire turns out the best foremen and heads of workshops to be found in Paris. It occupies the fine old building once used as the abbey of St. Martin des Champs, which has been tastefully restored in the original style, and takes up one of the sides of a handsome square laid out with flowers and fountains.

Nor must we pass over entirely unnoticed the admirable gratuitous lectures given by the Polytechnic Association--_not_ the Polytechnic School--on such subjects as hygiene, linear drawing, French grammar, bookkeeping and geometry. These lectures are held in some twenty different buildings, so as to be within the reach of the working-classes, no matter what part of Paris they may reside in. Among the lecturers in recent years are to be found such names as those of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Barral and Batbie.

We have thus rapidly seen what Paris does for her poor youth. The city has often been called the focus of light and the centre of intelligence. Without going quite so far as this, it must nevertheless be acknowledged that with her public schools, her splendid libraries, her museums, her natural history and art collections, and her very numerous and valuable institutions open free to all, Paris affords unusual facilities for boys, taken even from the lowest strata of society, to rise by dint of hard study, a firm will and exemplary conduct to the very highest positions.

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

In France, children of parents in easy circumstances do not go to the primary schools at all. Every man occupying a higher social position than that of a mechanic does his utmost to procure for his children an education which shall place them above what the French call "the common people." Even a small farmer, with but a few thousand dollars at his command, strives to place his son in an institution where the higher cultivation of the intellectual faculties, the dress worn, and the very bearing, shall distinguish him from one of "the people." It need hardly be said that such a system as this, so diametrically opposed to that which prevails in the United States, tends to foster somewhat of jealousy and bitterness among the lower classes. As for those who have received this higher education, they would, as a general rule, consider it derogatory to their dignity ever in after life to perform any manual labor: this they leave to the illiterate and to those who have only attended the primary schools. The result may be imagined in the case of those whose parents, having paid their eight or nine years' schooling, are unable to do anything more for their offspring when they leave college. They cannot all earn their living in a professional capacity, or in the literary field, or as government employes, or, to be brief, in one of those situations which a graduate _can_ accept; and those who fail, insensibly and by degrees fall into the ranks of the _declasses_. The common workman may occasionally and for a short period suffer privation and want, but that becomes the chronic condition of the poor graduate. He becomes a misanthrope, hates his fellow-beings and resorts to petty shifts in order to live. Gradually his sense of honor and his moral feelings get weaker and weaker, and finally disappear altogether. Then he becomes one of those men who, like the conspirators denounced by Corneille,

Si tout n'est renverse ne sauraient subsister.

These men take a prominent part in every _emeute_, haranguing the populace, propagating socialistic theories, and gaining a baneful influence over the uneducated and the discontented among the workingmen, thus causing that bloodshed and destruction of which Paris has so often been the scene. Probably no more vivid picture of the life of these unfortunate persons has ever been drawn than that which Jules Valles has given us in his _Refractaires_. Most eloquently does he describe the vain hopes and reveries by which these men are elated, and the poignant misery they suffer. Valles, it will be recollected, was a Communist, a member of that revolutionary government which contained so many of these _declasses_.

Far be it from us to desire to limit the higher education to the children of the rich. By all means let every man in a position to do so give his sons the benefit of the secondary education. The fittest will always survive, the weakest inevitably go to the wall. At the same time, there are certain modifications which all will admit may be introduced with advantage into the present system, and these will become apparent as we proceed.

Secondary education is imparted in the national lyceums, which are established and governed by the state, and which now exist in eighty out of the eighty-six departments; in the municipal colleges, which are established and governed by the towns; and in the private colleges, the majority of which are kept by religious fraternities.

The most celebrated of the private colleges are Arcueil and Soreze, both of which belong to the Dominicans. The principal professors at Arcueil were, it will be recollected, taken to La Roquette in 1871, and there shot with Archbishop Darboy and the other hostages. Soreze will not be forgotten so long as the memory of Lacordaire lives. The Fathers of the Oratory own the college of Juilly, where Berryer and Montalembert were educated. It was to this order that belonged the illustrious Massillon a century and a half ago, and Father Gratry in our own time. As for the Jesuits, their colleges are distributed over the whole of France, and are distinguished for their comfort and elegance, their spacious halls, their fine grounds and the excellent gymnasia attached thereto. Their superiority over the national lyceums leads to the fact of their being as well attended as the latter, although pupils at the Jesuits' colleges pay three times as much as at the government schools. The large college of the Jesuits in the Rue des Postes at Paris furnishes a heavy contingent to St. Cyr and the polytechnic schools. The Stanislas College, although a private institution, has its corps of professors appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction, and its pupils are privileged to take part in the general examinations of the lyceum pupils. M. John Lemoinne, the eminent writer for the _Journal des Debats_, was educated at the Stanislas College, all the pupils of which, it may be mentioned, are day scholars. At the Rollin College only boarders are admitted.

There are quite a number of foreign colleges at Paris, such as the Egyptian, the Japanese, the Armenian and the Polish colleges. The former Irish college, now called _College des Fondations britanniques_, is under the patronage of the French Minister of Education. It is here that young men speaking the English language are specially educated for the priesthood, the whole of the instruction being given in English and the management being in the hands of British and Irish ecclesiastics. About 15,200 scholars attend the private colleges in Paris.

Proceeding now to speak of the actual condition of the _lycees_, or lyceums, it may at once be stated that boarders at one of these establishments in Paris pay from $200 to $300 annually, and in the provinces from $150 to $200, according to age. Considering that this one charge covers board, instruction, books, washing, clothes, writing materials, medical attendance and medicine, it will readily be understood that the income from this source is totally inadequate to meet the outlays. The government, besides providing a large number of gratuitous scholarships, makes up the deficit, whatever it may be, and thus really maintains the lyceums. There are in Paris five national lycees, besides the lyceum at Vanves, situated at a little distance to the south of the capital, at what was once the villa of the prince de Conde, on the Vaugirard route. At Vanves the younger pupils have the opportunity afforded them of pursuing their studies in the country, and only entering one of the Paris lycees when they have worked themselves into the fifth class. The most famous as well as the largest of the lyceums of Paris is the Lycee Descartes, formerly called the Lycee Louis-le-Grand. It stands in the Rue St. Jacques, on the spot formerly occupied by the Jesuits' College de Clermont, which was founded in 1563, and confiscated when the Jesuits were expelled from France by the duc de Choiseul in 1764. As is well known, Moliere and Voltaire, two of the bitterest enemies of the Jesuits, were educated at the College de Clermont. At Louis-le-Grand were also educated Crebillon, the author of the _Sopha_; Gresset, the writer of _Vert-vert_; Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Cremieux, Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo; the eminent surgeon Dupuytren; Jules Janin, Villemain, Littre and Laboulaye. At present 540 of its 1200 pupils are day scholars.

Sainte-Barbe, the most celebrated of the free colleges of Paris, sends its pupils to the course of instruction at the Lycee Descartes. Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 by the Abbe Lenormand, and reorganized after the Revolution by Delaneau: it stands in the Place du Pantheon, on a small plot of ground, and is so thickly surrounded by buildings that the play-ground is not even large enough for the pupils to move about in. The younger among them are therefore sent to the branch of the school at Fontenay-aux-Roses, a stately chateau with spacious grounds. Both Ignatius Loyola, who founded the order of Jesus, and Calvin, who did his best to destroy it, were educated at Sainte-Barbe, as were also in more modern times Eugene Scribe, the singer Nourrit, the celebrated painter in water-colors Eugene Lamy, and General Trochu. The present director of Sainte-Barbe is M. Dubief, formerly inspector of the Academy of Paris, and who succeeded in 1865 the lamented M. Labrouste, to whose untiring exertions Sainte-Barbe owes in great part the high reputation it has enjoyed in recent times.

On the Boulevard St. Michel, on the spot where once stood the old College d'Harcourt, is the Lycee St. Louis, now called, after the famous mathematician, the Lycee Monge. Although the Lycee Monge is specially devoted to scientific training, it has numbered among its pupils Charles Gounod the composer and Egger the Hellenist.

In the rear of the Pantheon, on the site of the abbey of Ste. Genevieve, founded by Clovis in 510, stands the Lycee Corneille, formerly called the Lycee Napoleon, and before that the College Henri IV. To the archaeologist the cellars, the kitchens, the chapel and the old tower of the twelfth century cannot fail to prove of the greatest interest, while the remainder of the structure, built during the reign of Louis XIV., makes this unquestionably the finest of the lyceums of Paris. At the Lycee Corneille were educated Casimir Delavigne (whose bust by David d'Angers adorns the interior), Sainte-Beuve, Haussmann, Alfred de Musset, St. Marc Girardin, Emile Augier, Remusat, the prince de Joinville and the dukes of Nemours, Aumale, Montpensier and Chartres. The three lyceums above mentioned are on the left bank, the remaining two on the right bank, of the Seine.

In the Rue Caumartin, near the Havre railway-station, on the site of the Capuchins' convent, stands the Lycee Condorcet, or, as it was called until recently, the Lycee Bonaparte. All the pupils are day scholars, and most of them come from the adjacent wealthy district of the Chaussee d'Antin, the Boulevards and the Madeleine. Among the pupils of this aristocratic educational establishment may be named J. J. Ampere, Alexandre Dumas _fils_, Adolphe Adam the composer, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt the novelists, Alphonse Karr, Henry Monnier, Nadar, Taine, Eugene Sue; the mulatto Schaelcher, now Senator of France; the celebrated Jesuit Father Ravignan, and the poet Theodore de Banville.

The Lycee Charlemagne is in a building in the Rue St. Antoine, formerly used as the Jesuits' convent. Being situated in one of the poorest sections of Paris, the children from which as a rule do not get beyond the primary schools, it receives most of its scholars from the numerous boarding-schools of the Quartier du Marais. Among the many well-known names formerly on the roll of the Lycee Charlemagne are those of Gustave Dore, Theophile Gautier, Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, Michelet; the dramatic critic Francisque Sarcey; Got the comedian, and Buffet the statesman.

These five lyceums of Paris, with their 7500 day scholars and boarders, and the eighty lyceums in the provinces, have precisely the same programme and rules of government throughout. The boarders are divided into three sections, the first being for the _petits_--viz., boys averaging from seven to twelve, who are instructed in the elementary course, comprising the eighth and seventh classes; the second is for the _moyens_, who receive instruction in the grammar course, comprising the sixth, fifth and fourth classes; the third is for the _grands_, who, taking their place in the third and second classes, proceed with the higher course, embracing rhetoric, philosophy, and, if desired, special mathematics. Although at playtime the boys meet in a common play-ground, during school-hours they are distributed in different rooms or studies (_etudes_), one class generally corresponding to a study. There is thus the eighth, fourth or second study, just as there is the eighth, fourth or second class. The professors--of whom there are from fifteen to thirty, the number of boys ranging from three hundred to twelve hundred--superintend the classes, while the dozen poor, ill-paid ushers have to keep order in the _etudes_. The scholars signify their contempt for the ushers--officially known as _maitres repetiteurs_--by nicknaming them _pions_ or watch-dogs. Yet not an usher but is appointed, like all others engaged in the lycee, by the minister. Each one of them has obtained his degree as bachelor, and many only accept the situation as a means of economically pursuing their studies toward the higher degrees and fellowships. Where the class is a large one, the corresponding study is usually divided into two, so as to reduce the number in one _etude_ to about thirty. The lads making up each _etude_ sleep in one dormitory on little iron bedsteads, only separated from each other by the width of the bed. The usher in charge sleeps at the extremity of the dormitory, his bed being the only one provided with curtains.

A boy entering the lyceum at seven or eight years of age has already learned the rudiments, and is accordingly placed in the eighth class. In those exceptional cases where the boy comes to school unable to read or write he passes the first year in the preparatory class. In the eighth class, and the next year in the seventh, he is taught French grammar, spelling, arithmetic, sacred history and elementary Latin exercises and translation. In the sixth and fifth and the fourth classes the Latin authors the boy has to study become gradually more and more difficult. The professor of history who accompanies the students throughout their lyceum course, instructs them as they advance each year to a higher class, in Greek and Roman history and modern and ancient geography. So also the professors of English and German, of physics, natural history and mathematics keep up with their pupils, and guide their studies, each in his special branch, until they graduate. Drawing and music are also taught without extra charge two hours a week, but those children whose parents really desire them to make progress in these special branches have to take--and pay extra for--private lessons called _repetitions_. In the third and second classes, as also when the pupils are going through the course of rhetoric, Greek as well as Latin is studied, together with the French classic authors, Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Bossuet, Boileau, La Bruyere, La Fontaine, Fenelon, Massillon and some of Voltaire's works. The history of France is also studied, but scarcely with that thoroughness which characterizes the study of history in the German gymnasia.

The pupil's last year is passed in the philosophy class, formerly called the logic class, which is specially devoted to the study of the human understanding; thus, as Mr. Matthew Arnold well puts it, "making the pupil busy himself with the substance of ideas, as in rhetoric he busied himself with their form, and developing his reflection as rhetoric developed his imagination and taste." During this last year, however, classic studies are pursued with none the less vigor, for on his proficiency in these branches depends very largely the student's success at the second and final examination for his degree. It is only since 1874 that this examination has been divided into two parts--the first at the close of the year of rhetoric, the second at the close of the year of philosophy, the student being required to pass on both occasions. Each of the two examinations is divided into the _epreuve ecrite_ and the _epreuve orale_. In the latter the candidate is examined generally on all the subjects studied. The epreuve ecrite consists, the first year, of a translation and Latin discourse--the second year, of a Latin dissertation and a French dissertation. Those educated in Paris have to pass their examination at the Sorbonne, while those educated in the provinces are examined by one of the sixteen faculties of France, at Poitiers, Caen, Toulouse, Bordeaux, etc. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the bachelor's degree confers no sort of privilege in France. The diploma which attests to its recipient having passed through a regular course of classical study opens up no career to him, but _with_ this diploma he can study law or medicine or qualify for the special schools, such as the Polytechnic, St. Cyr and the normal schools, and on leaving these his position is assured.

The life led by the boarders at the _lycees_ is as follows: At six o'clock in summer, and at half-past six in winter, the pupils get up at the sound of the drum. Ten minutes are allowed for dressing, and then they all march in procession to the preparation-room. One of the lads recites a short prayer in Latin, after which the boys study till half-past seven. They then proceed to the refectory, where all the pupils breakfast together, ten minutes being allowed for the meal. Thence the boys go into the play-ground, where the ranks are broken and a quarter of an hour is allowed for play and talk. (Out of the play-ground conversation among the pupils is prohibited by the rules, and not infrequently those caught talking are punished.) From eight to ten the boys are in school; from ten to half-past ten, at play; from half-past ten to twelve, in the study, writing exercises, getting ready for classes and solving problems. At twelve o'clock, dinner, then play till one; from one till two, in the study, learning by heart lessons for recitation; from two till four, school; from four to five, play; from five to half-past seven in the study, where the exercises for the following morning are written. At half-past seven, supper, then another prayer in Latin, and then to bed. On Thursdays and Sundays there are no classes, but the boys have their hours of study as on other days, and fill up the time by a two-hours' walk in marching array, either in the city or (if weather permit) in the country. Once a week in Paris, once a fortnight in the provinces, a boy may go out for a holiday if his parents or persons authorized by his parents come and take him from school. He is allowed to see his parents or those representing them any day between four and five P.M. in the _parloir_. On Sundays attendance at mass and at vespers in the chapel of the lycee is compulsory for pupils of the Roman Catholic faith. Pupils belonging to other faiths have in Paris every opportunity for attending the services of their religion, but in the provinces this is naturally not so easy. The regular holidays are the 1st and 2d of January, a week at Easter and two months in summer, commencing about the 10th of August. All corporal punishment is strictly prohibited. The lads are punished by being kept in in play-hours and on holidays, and in grave cases by being confined _en sequestre_. It is very rarely that a pupil is expelled--a punishment which may in extreme cases entail expulsion from every lyceum in France.

As will have been seen, the life led by the boarders at the lyceums is pretty irksome and severe. If a boy's parents live in the city, he can simply attend the classes as a day scholar, which experience has proved to be the better of the two plans. From a sanitary point of view the lyceums do not stand high by any means. Few among them were built on any proper model, or, as will have been noticed, even constructed for their present use. About four-fifths of them were old colleges belonging to religious corporations confiscated at the Revolution, or they were formerly convents, and have now been fitted up as well as possible for purely educational purposes. The rooms are for the most part so small that the lads are crowded and huddled together. On some of the benches they have to sit on one side when they want to write. Every lyceum has an infirmary, to which are attached two or three Sisters of Charity, and the infirmary is often fuller than could be wished. The play-grounds are in general miserably small, rarely planted with trees, and ill adapted for boys to run about and play in. Some of the boys who are always kept in do not get even this poor exercise. The contributions of the government for the maintenance of the lyceums being on a somewhat parsimonious scale, every kind of economy is practiced. The food, without being unwholesome, is far from being agreeable. The lighting of the buildings by oil lamps, not by gas, is often insufficient, and may possibly explain the fact of so many Frenchmen being short-sighted. The rooms are warmed in winter by small stoves, which send out noxious vapors.

At the head of every lyceum is a provost (_proviseur_), who is assisted by a _censeur_ or superintendent of instruction, by an inspector of studies, and by a bursar (_econome_), who controls the finances of the establishment. Toward the end of each scholastic year, about July, ten or a dozen of the brightest youths are selected from each of the classes in the lyceums of Paris, and are made to undergo an examination in composition at the Sorbonne. At its close prizes and _accessits_ are awarded, and these are distributed about the 15th of August in the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, and in presence of a distinguished assemblage under the presidency of the Minister of Public Instruction. The minister, having opened the proceedings with a speech in French, is followed by one of the professors, who, in accordance with a custom more than a century old, makes a speech in Latin. Since 1865 the provincial lyceums have competed among themselves, and as the subjects of composition are the same as those in the Paris lyceums, an opportunity is afforded for observing how very much farther advanced are the Parisian establishments than those in the interior. Not only has Paris the best professors, but also the best boys, many having been sent thither by their parents from the provincial lyceums on their displaying marked ability and intelligence. Thus the standard of the Paris lyceums is raised. Upon the result of the general examination undergone by the pupils of a public or private school depends the estimation in which that institution is held by the public. The more prizes taken by a lyceum or by an institution sending its pupils to the lyceum examinations, the greater will be the number of parents sending their children thither. The successful participants who have carried off the prizes of honor in special mathematics, philosophy and Latin are exempt from military service, while the professors of the class to which they belonged are often rewarded with the cross of the Legion of Honor. It will therefore be apparent that the heads of the educational establishments are, to say the least, quite as much interested in the results of the contest as are the pupils themselves. The natural consequence is, that the professors devote themselves to cramming those pupils whose assiduity and superior intelligence mark them out as fit partakers in such a contest. There are sometimes as many as sixty pupils in a class in the Paris Lycee, and yet the professor's attention may be confined to barely a dozen among them. The rest of the class read novels, go to sleep or remain listless during the lesson. The well-known writer M. Maxime du Camp may possibly have slightly exaggerated the evil when he asserted that "Ceux-la seuls travaillent qui se destinent aux ecoles speciales;" but we have no difficulty in believing his statement that on one occasion M. Emile Saisset--since a member of the Institute, then professor at the Lycee Henri IV.--left the platform, and taking a seat facing the front row, where he had got together the six best (_plus forts_), began reading to them in a low tone. When one of the other pupils began talking too loud, the professor cried out, "Ne faites donc pas tant de bruit: vous nous empechez de causer."

But, although these general examinations may operate somewhat disadvantageously toward the duller members of the class, it must be acknowledged that they have had the effect of inducing many a youth to put forth his best efforts in order to attain special distinction, and have thus laid the foundation of future success. Among those with whom such has been the case may be mentioned the names of Delille the poet, La Harpe the critic, Victor Cousin the philosopher, Adrien de Jussieu the naturalist, Drouyn de Lhuys, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, now president of the Agricultural Society of France; Taine, Edmond About, Prevost Paradol, etc.

Within the last thirty years the plan of study in the lycees has undergone many changes. Each successive Minister of Education has instituted some modifications, and the result has generally been an improvement. The most thoroughgoing revision took place under M. Jules Simon, who was Minister of Public Instruction in 1872. A well-known member of the Institute and professor of philosophy, M. Paul Janet, in defending the reforms instituted by M. Simon, makes some bold remarks on the subject. Secondary education in France is now composed of two branches of instruction mingled, which if separated might, according to M. Janet, each for itself furnish the materials for a very thorough and wide-reaching education. On the one hand is the classical course, consisting of Greek and Latin, and on the other what may be termed the modern course, composed of French, living foreign languages, history, geography, science and physical exercises,--these last embracing fencing, gymnastics, gun-practice, etc. Society at the time of the Renaissance had to be steeped once again in the study of classical literature in order to weld anew the links of that chain which had been broken by the invasion of the barbarians. So also, reasons M. Janet, it is necessary now for us to be prepared for the new conditions of modern and contemporary civilization. This civilization, he goes on to say, is marked by three distinguishing characteristics: the prodigious development of science and industry; the establishment of political institutions more or less liberal; the extension of the means of communication between various nations. Therefore he holds that the study of science should occupy a more prominent place in the system of French instruction. History, useless in a country despotically governed, becomes more and more necessary in a free country. Foreign languages and the literature of the Teutonic and English-speaking nations must occupy a larger place in the new plan of studies.

But the question arises, How can place be found for new studies when some of the old ones have to be crowded out? Evidently this can only be done by circumscribing within narrower limits classical instruction. Now-a-days, says M. Jules Simon, "on apprend les langues vivantes pour les parler et les langues mortes pour les lire." The day is past when Santeul gained for himself a reputation by his Latin verse, and when Cardinal de Polignac refuted Lucretius in his own tongue. Latin compositions have become purely artificial exercises, and the art of writing Latin must be sacrificed, just as the art of speaking Latin was sacrificed a century ago. Therefore it was that M. Simon did away with Latin verse. He retained for the present Latin speeches and dissertations, but contemplated abolishing these too in the future; and he proposed that there should be two kinds of exposition of Latin texts in the classes--the one very profound, and where much time should be given to but a few lines; the other, on the contrary, very rapid and extended, having for its object to exercise the pupil in reading and readily understanding what he reads. Since the reforms of 1872 the pupils read Latin with not less facility than before; which seems to show that Latin verse was not indispensable. It should also be mentioned that under M. Simon's auspices a law was made in 1872 requiring every pupil to pass an examination before being promoted from a lower to a higher class in the lycee. Those who fail in this examination, and who do not care to return to the lower class, are transferred to the so-called _classes de science_, where the subjects of study are mathematics, geometry, physics, chemistry and natural history.

M. Jules Simon retired from his post as Minister of Public Instruction under M. Thiers on the 24th of May, 1873, and the reforms he had instituted were overthrown by the clerical ministry which followed. The Republican elections of the 20th of February, 1876, having been the means of once more placing the government in the hands of M. Simon's friends, he himself was on the 12th of December last made president of the Council of Ministers, while M. Waddington resumed the portfolio of Public Instruction. M. Waddington, who besides being a Rugby and Cambridge man, has, like M. Simon, taken the doctor's degree at the Sorbonne, at once took measures to carry out the liberal and progressive reforms we have spoken of. His efforts were, however, frustrated by the enforced retirement of the Jules Simon ministry on the 16th of May, 1877, and the accession of the conservatives to power. There can be little doubt that the new ministry will set aside all the reforms planned and executed, and will return to the old paths until the seesaw of public opinion in France shall once more re-establish the Simon-Waddington reforms.

As has been shown, the progress made in the system of secondary instruction in France is but slow: indeed, it may be compared to that of certain pilgrims, who in fulfillment of their vows take three steps forward and two backward. Nevertheless, these party struggles and tentative efforts cannot fail in the end to result in a marked definitive improvement in the educational system. Before all things, it was necessary that the fallibility of the old system and of the antiquated shibboleths of instruction, which had hitherto exercised undisputed sway, be recognized. The rest will follow in due time. Whether minister or not, M. Jules Simon may justly claim the credit of having brought about a salutary educational crisis, the effects of which will be felt by the next, if not by the present, generation.

C. H. HARDING.

THE MARQUIS OF LOSSIE.

BY GEORGE MACDONALD, AUTHOR OF "MALCOLM."