The mass of the English people contemplate
with admiration this development of energy. The statesmen of England
contemplate it with dread.
For some months, Napoleon, in the midst of all his other cares, had
been maturing a vast system of public instruction for the youth of
France. He drew up, with his own hand, the plan for their schools,
and proposed the course of study. It is a little singular that,
with his strong scientific predilections, he should have assigned
the first rank to classical studies. Perhaps this is to be accounted
for from his profound admiration of the heroes of antiquity. His
own mind was most thoroughly stored with all the treasures of Greek
and Roman story. All these schools were formed upon a military
model, for situated as France was, in the midst of monarchies, at
heart hostile, he deemed it necessary that the nation should be
universally trained to bear arms. Religious instruction was to be
communicated in all these schools by chaplains, military instruction
by old officers who had left the army, and classical and scientific
instruction by the most learned men Europe could furnish.
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