As regards the higher schools, especially military ones, the following may be observed:—
There are two establishments at present:
(a.) The Military Academy and Wiener Neustadt for general education.
(b.) The Engineer Academy, as a special school for the engineers, and for the instruction of officers in general.
The latter of the two is not efficient enough, for not more than eight or ten persons at most are instructed as engineers in it, the rest being detailed for the infantry, cavalry, &c. As by the establishment and organization of division schools a sufficient supply of officers aspirant is provided, and as the officers detailed from the above-named academies to the line are not more efficient than the scholars of the division schools (especially when the extra cost of the academy education is considered), the Engineer Academy must be looked upon as much too expensive. I agree, therefore, with those who recommend its abolition. On the other hand, the Neustadt Academy, which offers to its students a more general, and therefore a better founded education, and where highly instructed officers can be educated in larger numbers, may be allowed to remain, both in consideration of its efficiency and in honor of its serene foundress, the great Empress Maria Theresa, but on condition of its being reorganized in accordance with the principles laid down by that noble lady in the following words:—“That in this school shall be formed men only, and of them soldiers.”
The said academy must, however, seek to attain to a higher degree of perfection than of late. The classics must be more cultivated, as also national economy and a general civilized education. It should be organized for a course of six years, and it should receive students, sons of officers or military officials, who have successfully passed two or three Latin or technical schools.
The following subjects should be taught, besides the military and mathematical sciences:—
(1.) The Latin language, sufficient to understand the Roman classics.
(2.) All human sciences; particular attention should be paid to style, as it has been observed that since Latin has not been taught in the Wiener Neustadt Academy, there has been a great falling off in this respect. Rhetoric is to be taught in a practical manner, as the knowledge of how to speak is of importance in our constitutional era.
(3.) Philosophy, two years; in the first year, psychology; in the second year, logic to its full extent, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy.