We may now follow the student through his course of two years’ study. [The first year’s work] may be mainly divided into three portions of unequal length; two of them of about four months each (with an additional fortnight of private study and examination,) are mainly given to hard lecturing, whilst the third portion of two months is devoted to private study and to the examinations.
In accordance with this arrangement of the year, the four hardest subjects are thus distributed. Analysis and descriptive geometry, the staple work of the school—its Latin, as M. de Barante called it—come in the first four months; there is then a pause for private study and a general examination in these two subjects (interrogations générales as distinct from the interrogations particulières of the répétiteurs.) This brings us to the middle of March. Analysis and geometry are then laid aside for the rest of the year, and for the next portion of four months the pupils work at mechanics and geodesy, private study and a general examination completing this course also. Important lectures on physics and chemistry run on during both these periods, and are similarly closed by private study and a general examination. The less telling evening classes of French literature and German end at the beginning of June, and landscape and figure drawing only last half the year. It may be observed also, that, as a general rule, there is on each day one, and only one, really difficult lecture. This is immediately preceded and followed by private study, but then comes something lighter, as a relief, such as drawing or work in the laboratories.
The chief feature in the third portion of the year is the complete break in the lectures for general private study (étude libre,) a month or six weeks before the closing examination at the end of the year. The immediate prospect of this prevents any undue relaxing of the work; and it is curious to observe here how private efforts and enforced system are combined together, for even the private efforts are thus systematized and directed. The closing examination of the first year begins on the 1st and ends on the 25th of September.
The total number of lectures in each branch of study, with the dates when they respectively commence and finish, and the period when the general examinations (interrogations générales) take place, are exhibited in the following tables, and we should add that the interval between the close of each course and the commencement of the chief yearly examination is devoted to free study.
TABLE FOR THE SECOND OR LOWER DIVISION, FOLLOWING THE FIRST YEAR’S COURSE OF STUDY.
NL No. of Lectures
E Annual Examination
| Subject of Study. | NL | Course of Lectures | General Examinations InterrogationsGénérales. | E | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commenced. | Finished. | Commenced. | Finished. | |||
| Analysis | 48 | 3rd Nov. | 25 Feb. | 13th March | 18th March | * |
| Mechanics & Machines | 40 | 21st March | 29th June | 24th July | 2nd August | |
| Descriptive Geometry | 38 | 3rd Nov. | 3rd March | 13th March | 18th March | |
| Physics | 34 | 2nd “ | 28th June | 10th July | 19th July | |
| Chemistry | 38 | 5th “ | 17th “ | 10th “ | 19th “ | |
| Geodesy | 35 | 20th March | 30th “ | 24th “ | 2nd August | |
| French Literature | 30 | 8th Nov. | 6th “ | |||
| German | 30 | 2nd “ | 15th “ | |||
| Figure and Landscape Drawing | 50 | 4th “ | 28th April | |||
| Total | 343 | |||||
* Begins on the 1st Sept., and ends on the 25th Sept.
[The work of the second year] is almost identical in its general plan with that of the first. A continuation of analysis with mechanics in place of descriptive geometry is the work of the first four months, then comes the private study and the interrogations générales, and then again, from the middle of March to the middle of July, work of a more professional character, stereotomy, the art of war and topography, forms the natural completion of the pupil’s studies. Chemistry and physics follow the same course as during the first year, and terminate with the private study and the general examination at the beginning of August. The evening lectures in French literature and German end about the middle of June, and those in figure and landscape drawing at the beginning of May. The last portion is again given to private study and the great Final Examination.