At no time can the instruction given to a youth be otherwise considered than as a preparatory mean, whose object is to anticipate his taste and disposition, and enable him to enter with more firmness into the career which he is intended to follow.
From an attentive perusal of the plan, of which I have traced you the leading features, you will be convinced that the study of the sciences will gain by the new system, without that of literature being in danger of losing. The number of professors is increased, and yet the period of education is not prolonged. A pupil will always be at liberty to apply himself more intensely to the branch to which he is impelled by his particular inclination. He may confine himself to one course of lectures, or attend to several, according to his intellectual means. He will not be compelled to stop in his career, merely because the pupils of his class do not advance. In short, neither limits nor check have been put to the progress that may be made by talent.
I here give you only a principal idea, but the application of it, improved by your sagacity and knowledge, will be sufficient to answer all the objections which may be started against the new plan of instruction, and which, when carefully investigated, may be reduced to a single one; namely, that literature is sacrificed to the sciences.
[Footnote 1]: Counsellor of State, now charged with the direction and superintendance of public instruction. [Return to text]
[Footnote 2]: The new organization of public instruction was decreed by the government on the 11th of Floréal, year X. [Return to text]
[LETTER LII.]
Paris, January 18, 1802.
Of all the private lodgings in Paris, none certainly can be more convenient for the residence of a single man than those of
MILLINERS.
I have already said that such is the profession of my landlady. Whenever I am disposed for a little lively chitchat, I have only to step to the next door but one into her magazin de modes, where, like a favourite courtier, under the old régime, I have both les grandes et les petites entrées, or, in plain English, I may either introduce myself by the public front entrance, or slip in by the private back-door.