s to a forced culture, not in
view of learning and of knowing, but to answer questions well at an
examination, or tolerably well, and to obtain a certificate, on proof
or on semblance of proof, that he has received a complete classical
education.--Next after this, at the medical or law school, during the
four prescribed years, sixteen graduated inscriptions, four or five
superposed examinations, two or three terminal verifications, oblige
him to furnish the same proof, or semblance of proof, to verify, as each
year comes round, his assimilation of the lessons of the year, and thus
attest that, at the end of his studies, he possesses about the entire
scope and diversity of knowledge to which he is restricted.

In the schools where the number of pupils is limited, this culture,
carried still farther, becomes intense and constant. In the
Ecole Centrale and in the commercial or agronomic schools, in the
Polytechnique or Normale, he is there all day and all night,--he is
housed in a barracks.--And the pressure on him is twofold--the pressure
of examinations and that of competition. On entering, on leaving, and
during his stay there, not only at the end of each year but every six
or three months, often every six weeks, and even every fortnight, he
is rated according to his compositions, exercises and interrogatories,
getting so many marks for his partial value, so many for his total value
and according to these figures, classed at a certain rank among
his comrades who are his rivals. To descend on the scale would be
disadvantageous and humiliating; to ascend on the scale is advantageous
and glorious. Driven by this motive, so strong in France, his principal
aim is to go up or, at least, not to go down; he devotes all his energy
to this; he expends none of it on either side or beyond; he allows
himself no diversion, he abstains from taking any initiative; his
restrained curiosity never ventures outside of the circle traced for
him; he absorbs only what he is taught and in the order in which it
is taught; he fills himself to the brim, but only to disgorge at the
examination and not to retain and hold on to; he runs the risk of
choking and when relieved, of remaining empty. Such is the regime of our
Grande Ecoles. They are systematic, energetic and prolonged system of
gardening; the State, the gardener-in-chief, receiving or selecting
plants which it undertakes to turn out profitably, each of its kind. To
this end, it separates