The Conſtituent Aſſembly, the Legiſlative Aſſembly, and the National Convention, all ſeem to have acted from a perſuaſion, that their ſole duty as revolutioniſts was compriſed in the deſtruction of whatever exiſted under the monarchy. If an inſtitution were diſcovered to have the ſlighteſt defect in principle, or to have degenerated a little in practice, their firſt ſtep was to aboliſh it entirely, and leave the replacing it for the preſent to chance, and for the future to their ſucceſſors. In return for the many new words which they have introduced into the French language, they have expunged that of reform; and the havock and devaſtation, which a Mahometan conqueror might have performed as ſucceſſfully, are as yet the only effects of philoſophy and republicaniſm.
This ſyſtem of ignorance and violence ſeems to have perſecuted with peculiar hoſtility all the ancient eſtabliſhments for education; and the ſame plan of ſuppreſſing daily what they have neither leiſure nor abilities to ſupply, which I remarked to you two years ago, has directed the Convention ever ſince. It is true, the interval has produced much diſſertation, and engendered many projects; but thoſe who were ſo unanimous in rejecting, were extremely diſcordant in adopting, and their own diſputes and indeciſion might have convinced them of their preſumption in condemning what they now found it ſo difficult to excel. Some decided in favour of public ſchools, after the example of Sparta— this was objected to by others, becauſe, ſaid they, if you have public ſchools you muſt have edifices, and governors, and profeſſors, who will, to a certainty, be ariſtocrats, or become ſo; and, in ſhort, this will only be a revival of the colleges of the old government—A third party propoſed private ſeminaries, or that people might be at liberty to educate their children in the way they thought beſt; but this, it waſ declared, would have a ſtill greater tendency to ariſtocracy; for the rich, being better able to pay than the poor, would engroſs all the learning to themſelves. The Jacobins were of opinion, that there ſhould be no ſchools, either public or private, but that the children ſhould merely be taken to hear the debates of the Clubs, where they would acquire all the knowledge neceſſary for republicans; and a few ſpirits of a yet ſublimer caſt were adverſe both to ſchools or clubs, and recommended, that the riſing generation ſhould "ſtudy the great book of Nature alone." It is, however, at length concluded, that there ſhall be a certain number of public eſtabliſhments, and that people ſhall even be allowed to have their children inſtructed at home, under the inſpection of the conſtituted authorities, who are to prevent the inſtillation of ariſtocratic principles.*
* We may judge of the competency of many of theſe people to be official cenſors of education by the following ſpecimens from a report of Gregoire's. Since the rage for deſtruction has a little ſubſided, circular letters have been ſent to the adminiſtrators of the departments, diſtricts, &c. enquiring what antiquities, or other objects of curioſity, remain in their neighbourhood.—"From one, (ſays Gregoire,) we are informed, that they are poſſeſſed of nothing in this way except four vaſes, which, as they have been told, are of porphyry. From a ſecond we learn, that, not having either forge or manufactory in the neighbourhood, no monument of the arts is to be found there: and a third announces, that the completion of itſ library cataloges has been retarded, becauſe the perſon employed at them ne fait pas la diplomatique!"—("does not underſtand the ſcience of diplomacy.")
The difficulty as to the mode in which children were to be taught being got over, another remained, not leſs liable to diſpute—which was, the choice of what they were to learn. Almoſt every member had a favourite article—-muſic, phyſic, prophylactics, geography, geometry, aſtronomy, arithmetic, natural hiſtory, and botany, were all pronounced to be requiſites in an eleemoſynary ſyſtem of education, ſpecified to be chiefly intended for the country people; but as this debate regarded only the primary ſchools for children in their earlieſt years, and as one man for a ſtipend of twelve hundred livres a year, was to do it all, a compromiſe became neceſſary, and it has been agreed for the preſent, that infants of ſix years ſhall be taught only reading, writing, gymnaſtics, geometry, geography, natural philoſophy, and hiſtory of all free nations, and that of all the tyrants, the rights of man, and the patriotic ſongs. —Yet, after theſe years of conſideration, and days of debate, the Aſſembly has done no more than a pariſh-clerk, or an old woman with a primer, and "a twig whilom of ſmall regard to ſee," would do better without its interference.
The ſtudents of a more advanced age are ſtill to be diſpoſed of, and the taſk of deviſing an inſtitution will not be eaſy; becauſe, perhaps a Collot d'Herbois or a Duhem is not ſatiſfied with the ſyſtem which perfectioned the genius of Monteſquieu or Deſcartes. Change, not improvement, is the object—whatever bears a reſemblance to the paſt muſt be proſcribed; and while other people ſtudy to ſimplify modes of inſtruction, the French legiſlature is intent on rendering them aſ difficult and complex as poſſible; and at the moment they decree that the whole country ſhall become learned, they make it an unfathomable ſcience to teach urchins of half a dozen years old their letters.
Foreigners, indeed, who judge only from the public prints, may ſuppoſe the French far advanced towards becoming the moſt erudite nation in Europe: unfortunately, all theſe ſchools, primary, and ſecondary, and centrical, and divergent, and normal,* exiſt as yet but in the repertories of the Convention, and perhaps may not add "a local habitation" to their names, till the preſent race** ſhall be unfit to reap the benefit of them.
* Les Ecoles Normaleſ were ſchools where maſters were to be inſtructed in the art of teaching. Certain deputies objected to them, as being of feudal inſtitution, ſuppoſing that Normale had ſome reference to Normandy. ** This was a miſtake, for the French ſeem to have adopted the maxim, "that man is never too old to learn;" and, accordingly, at the opening of the Normal ſchools, the celebrated Bougainville, now eighty years of age, became a pupil. This Normal project was, however, ſoon relinquiſhed—for by that fatality which has hitherto attended all the republican inſtitutions, it was found to have become a mere nurſery for ariſtocrats.
But this revolutionary barbariſm, not content with ſtopping the progreſſ of the riſing generation, has ravaged without mercy the monuments of departed genius, and perſecuted with ſenſeleſs deſpotiſm thoſe who were capable of replacing them. Pictures have been defaced, ſtatueſ mutilated, and libraries burnt, becauſe they reminded the people of their Kings or their religion; while artiſts, and men of ſcience or literature, were waſting their valuable hours in priſon, or expiring on the ſcaffold.—The moral and gentle Florian died of vexation. A life of abſtraction and utility could not ſave the celebrated chymiſt, Lavoiſier, from the Guillotine. La Harpe languiſhed in confinement, probably, that he might not eclipſe Chenier, who writes tragedies himſelf; and every author that refuſed to degrade his talents by the adulation of tyranny has been proſcribed and perſecuted. Paliſſot,* at ſixty years old, waſ deſtined to expiate in a priſon a ſatire upon Rouſſeau, written when he was only twenty, and eſcaped, not by the interpoſition of juſtice, but by the efficacity of a bon mot.
* Paliſſot was author of "The Philoſophers," a comedy, written thirty years ago, to ridicule Rouſſeau. He wrote to the municipality, acknowledged his own error, and the merits of Rouſſeau; yet, ſays he, if Rouſſeau were a god, you ought not to ſacrifice human victims to him.—The expreſſion, which in French iſ well tuned, pleaſed the municipality, and Paliſſot, I believe, waſ not afterwards moleſted.
—A ſimilar fate would have been awarded Dorat, [Author of "Les Malheurſ de l'Inconſtance," and other novels.] for ſtyling himſelf Chevalier in the title-pages of his novels, had he not commuted his puniſhment for baſe eulogiums on the Convention, and with the ſame pen, which has been the delight of the French boudoir, celebrated Carrier's murders on the Loire under the appellation of "baptemes civiques." Every province in France, we are informed by the eloquent pedantry of Gregoire, exhibitſ traces of theſe modern Huns, which, though now excluſively attributed to the agents of Robeſpierre and Mr. Pitt,* it is very certain were authorized by the decrees of the Convention, and executed under the ſanction of Deputies on miſſion, or their ſubordinates.