[ARCHIBALD] MATHEMATICAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 97 
does not try his best; reasoning powers and independence of thought 
must be constantly exercised. The éléves are encouraged to consult 
the various text-books to be found in all the lycée libraries and for those 
less bright this may be almost a necessity from time to time; but on 
personal inspection in different lycées I found the note books of éléves 
of 14 or 15 alike remarkable for their neatness and completeness. The 
habits thus gained in the lycée stand in good stead when the student 
reaches the university. The rapidity of the lecturer and the complexity 
of his theme seem to make little difference, for at the close of the hour 
the whole is in the note books as neat as copper-plate. There is surely 
a lesson to be learned here for improving our secondary and superior 
education. 
4.—The large number of hours in class recitation which may not at 
first appear very imposing. But we cannot fail to be astonished that 8 
hours per day (in class and in preparation of lessons) may be demanded 
from éléves in the premier cycle, and 104 in summer, 10 in winter from 
those in the second cycle. The law further explicitly states that 
there is no limit to the number of hours which may be demanded of 
the éléves in the Classe de Mathématiques Spéciales. When we later 
come to look more closely at their programme we shall not be surprised, 
but nevertheless wonder, how these undoubtedly happy and healthy 
young men of 17 or 18 have survived the treatment. In more advanced 
lycée courses as well as at the universities I was also impressed 
with the almost appalling intensity and seriousness of the auditors— 
the strife is too strenuous, the competition too keen, to admit of a 
moment’s levity or wandering thought. But when the lesson is over, 
every care is instantly banished and the national gaiety is once more in 
evidence. 
To return to our table. We remark that the two groups of éléves 
who elect sciences on entering the Second Cycle have the same number 
of hours per week in mathematics—indeed the courses are identical. 
To give greater definiteness to our ideas as to their general attainments 
let us consider the programme of studies for Premiére D, when the 
boy is 15 or 16 years old. 
French.—Lectures and questions on the principal French writers 
of the nineteenth century. Study of selections from prose writers and 
poets, from moralists, orators, politicians, scientists and historians 
of the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 
History.—Political history of Europe in the eighteenth century. 
Detailed history of France at the close of the eighteenth century. 
Geography.—Detailed study of France, its geological constitution, 
its climatology, physiography, topography, economic and military 
organization; its colonies, ete. 
Sec. III., 1910. 7. 
