[13] "The non-sectarian school is not the work of a few advanced thinkers imposed upon a docile country. They would not have been able to create anything enduring if the French conscience had not been ready to follow them. This is what the adversaries of our schools do not wish to understand, cannot understand, or are anxious to conceal from those whom they direct. Certainly they have the right to attempt a reaction according to their own preferences. They have no right to believe, nor even to allow it to be believed, that the creation of the non-sectarian school was the coup de force of an audacious minority. The non-sectarian school has come because the nation wished it. The program of moral instruction, long prophesied, conceived, and hoped for, was in the traditions of France as she marched forward toward her republican aspirations. This program is not only the conscious effort of the men who gave the school a new mission— that of laying the foundation of social peace through elementary instruction; it is the expression of the republican conscience of 1882." (Moulet, Alfred, D'une éducation morale démocratique.)
[14] "To each man his proper sphere; to the minister of religion the liberty of preaching the doctrine of the different churches, to teachers who teach in the name of the State, that is, of society, the right of limiting themselves to the field of universal human morals, together with the duty of refraining from any attack on religious beliefs. Neutrality is guaranteed by the secularization of the teaching body, and it must be strictly observed." (Compayré, Gabriel.)
[15] "The most striking feature is that, in place of the one single and uniform course for all pupils, several are provided for their selection. Here is obvious the influence of the elective courses common in the United States, whose existence and success were reported on to the Minister of Public Instruction by the Commission to the World Exposition at Chicago, in 1893. The courses last seven years. The school period is divided into two cycles, first one of four years, and then one of three. In the first cycle, the pupils have a choice of two sections, one emphasizing the ancient and modern languages, the other the modern languages and science. In the second cycle there are four sections, viz., Graeco-Latin; Latin- modern languages; Latin-scientific; and scientific-modern languages." (Compayré, Gabriel, Education in France.)
[16] Arnold, Matthew, Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 115, (London, 1868.)
[17] For example, by the Peace of Lunéville (1801), by which Napoleon took from the Germans all territory west of the Rhine and consolidated it, he extinguished 118 free cities, principalities, and petty states. In addition, he extinguished the separate existence of 160 others east of the Rhine. The importance of such consolidations for the future of Germany has been large.
[18] Bologna, for example, had 166 professors in the early seventeenth century, but by 1737 it had but 62. The universities came chiefly to be places where young men obtained degrees but not learning. At Naples a noble family by the name of Avellino came to have the power of virtually selling degrees in law and medicine.
[19] Not only were schools built up, but commerce, roads, and in particular scientific agriculture were subjects of deep interest to Cavour. He saw, very clearly, that if Sardinia was to be the nucleus of a future Italy, Sardinia must show unmistakably her worthiness to lead.
[20] By 1859 Sardinia had come to include Savoy and Lombardy, and was the largest State in northern Italy. A year later all but Venetia and the States of the Church had been added.
[21] The Law of 1877 fixed the instruction in the primary schools, for the three compulsory years, as reading, writing, the Italian language, elements of civics, arithmetic, and the metric system. The omission of religious instruction excited much opposition from church authorities, but without effect.