494 -^ short Account of the 



of thirty pupils, who are received gratis, from the age 

 of eleven to thirteen years, and who remain in the 

 Academy four years. The second class, which is de- 

 signed to assist the poorer nobility and less opulent 

 among the merchants, citizens, and servants of govern- 

 ment, in giving their sons a good general education, 

 consists of sixty pupils, who are received from the age 

 of eleven to fifteen years, and who pay to the Academy 

 twelve florins a month, for which sum they are fed, 

 clothed, and instructed. The third class, consisting of 

 ninety pupils, from the age of fifteen to twenty years, 

 who are all admitted gratis, is designed principally to 

 bring forward such youths among the lower classes of 

 the people as show evident signs of uncommon talents 

 and genius, joined to a sound constitution of body and 

 a good moral character. 



All commanding officers of regiments, and public 

 officers in civil departments, and all civil magistrates, 

 are authorized and invited to recommend subjects for 

 this class of the Academy, and they are not confined in 

 their choice to any particular ranks of society, but they 

 are allowed to recommend persons of the lowest extrac- 

 tion and most obscure origin. Private soldiers, and the 

 children of soldiers, and even the children of the mean- 

 est mechanics and day-labourers are admissible, pro- 

 vided they possess the necessary requisites, — namely, 

 very extrao7^dinary natural genitis, a healthy constitu- 

 tion, and a good character ; but, if the subject recom- 

 mended should be found wanting in any of these 

 requisite qualifications, he would not only be refused 

 admittance into the Academy, but the person who rec- 

 ommended him would be very severely reprimanded. 



The greatest severity is necessary upon these oc- 



