258 Ten Years of ray Life. 



Germany, which has now adopted the Prussian system in its 

 perfection, may look on these 4veak endeavours of their rivals 

 without apprehension. 



The present generation in Prussia has groAvn up under this 

 system, conceived and introduced by enlightened statesmen, 

 and it has changed the whole character of the people in a 

 most wonderful manner. By this system the army, once a 

 hotbed of vice and degradation, notwithstanding its great effi- 

 ciency from a purely military point of v'iqw^ has become as it 

 were the high school for the nation, where young people ac- 

 quire those qualities which make them not only efficient sol- 

 diers, but also good men and citizens — both able to defend the 

 independence of the nation against foreign arrogance and 

 aggression, and the law and Government against internal 

 enemies. 



The Prussian schools have a reputation throughout the 

 world, but their progress and success was hindered greatly by 

 influences from which they have been freed only quite recently; 

 and without the course of training which every Prussian has 

 got to undergo in the army, where these hindering influences 

 were less powerful, Prussia would not have been enabled to get 

 to be the head of Germany and to make that country what it 

 is now. 



In Prussia every able-bodied young man must enter the 

 regular army, and for a certain time, varying from one to three 

 years, be a soldier ; that is, he must join some regiment, and 

 remain with it all the time. Nobody is exempted — -nobleman 

 and peasant, prince and artisan — all have to enter the army as 

 private soldiers : substitutes are not permitted. The time of 

 presence with the regiment is three years, as a rule, but excep^ 

 tions are made for the so-called volunteers, who have to serve 

 only one year. Though they have to pay a certain very mode- 

 rate amount of money for their equipment, this advantage is 

 by no means granted them by reason of this payment. A 

 young man might ofter hundreds of thousands for it without 

 success, if he were not able to prove that he has that degree 

 of education which permits the supposition that a shorter 

 presence with the army would be sufficient to make him a per- 

 fect soldier. Every one who claims this advantage has to sub- 

 mit to an examination, or to produce a testimony from the 

 head-master of one of the Royal Colleges (Gymnasiums), sta- 



