The examination that has now been described is obviously one for which preparation may be made in the common public schools, and under the usual civilian teachers. A young man of seventeen need not have been positively destined to the military profession, nor have gone through special preparation for any length of time beforehand. The boards of local military examiners are content to take them as they are offered, inquiry only being made as to their birth and connections, and their previous behavior at school or under tuition.
In fact, those who have passed successfully through the full course of a school which prepares for the universities (a gymnasium,) are excused the ensign’s examination. The certificate they have received on going away from school, upon the abiturient’s or leaving examination, as it is called, is considered quite sufficient; except in the case of candidates for the artillery or engineers, who are expected to show greater proficiency in mathematics; and certainly a boy in the head class of a gymnasium ought to be able to pass the preliminary examination with perfect ease and with credit. The amount of knowledge required and the particular subjects selected are not those of the first, and are scarcely those of the second class of a gymnasium; and the assertion was even made that a boy from the upper third class might very well hope to pass for an ensigncy. Possibly a little extra tuition from the preparatory establishments, which are said to have sprung up with the special function of “fabricating Fähnrichs” might in this instance be required.
The official programme is here given, and may be compared with the studies prescribed in the upper classes of the Cadet House at Berlin, (see the account of that school.)
1. In their own language, good legible handwriting, a correct style, free from orthographical or grammatical mistakes, facility of expression in writing and speaking; some evidence of a knowledge of German literature.
2. In Latin, facility in understanding the Latin prose writers ordinarily read in the second class of a Prussian gymnasium. A written exercise in translation from Latin into German; grammatical analysis of some passages.
3. In French, facility in reading and in translating from German into French, and French into German, grammatical analysis of French sentences, and a knowledge of syntax.
4. Mathematics:—
(a.) Arithmetic and Algebra;—familiarity with the ordinary rules for the extraction of the square root of whole numbers and of fractions; Proportion and its applications including questions in Partnership and Compound Proportion; the theory of powers and roots, with integral and fractional, positive and negative exponents. Equations of the two first degrees, with one or more unknown quantities; Logarithms, Logarithmic Equations, Arithmetical and Geometrical Progression, and practice in the application of the various theories.
(b.) The complete elements of Plane Geometry, measuration of rectilineal figures and of the circle, transformation and division of figures; the first elements of the application of Algebra to Geometry.
(c.) Plane Trigonometry, Trigonometrical functions and their Logarithms. Use of trigonometrical tables. Calculation of particular cases of triangles, regular polygons, and segments of circles.