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Paris As It Was and As It Is

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LYCEUMS.

There is to be one Lyceum at least in the district of every tribunal
of appeal.

Here are to be taught ancient languages, rhetoric, logic, morality,
and the elements of the mathematical and physical sciences. To these
are to be added drawing, military exercises and the agreeable arts.

Instruction is to be given to the pupils placed here by the
government, to those of the Secondary Schools admitted through
competition, to those whose parents may put them here as boarders,
and also to day-scholars.

In each Lyceum is to be a director, who is to have immediately under
him a censor of studies, and an administrator who are all to be
nominated by the First Consul.

In the former institutions, which are to be replaced by these new
ones, a vigilant eye was not constantly kept on the state of the
schools themselves, nor on that of the studies pursued in them.
According to the new plan, three inspectors-general, appointed by the
First Consul, are to visit them carefully, and report to the
government their situation, success, and defects. This new
supervisorship is to be, as it were, the key-stone of the arch, and
to keep all the parts connected.

The fourth and highest degree of public instruction is to be acquired
in the

SPECIAL SCHOOLS.

This is the name to be applied to those of the upper schools, where
are particularly taught, and in the most profound manner, the useful
sciences, jurisprudence, medicine, natural history, &c. But schools
of this kind must not be confounded with the Schools for Engineers,
Artillery, Bridges and Highways, Hydrography, &c. which, _special_ as
they are essentially, in proportion to the sciences particularly
taught in them, are better described, however, by the name of
_Schools for Public Services_, on account of the immediate utility
derived from them by the government.

In addition to the _Special_ Schools now in existence, which are to
be kept up, new ones are to be established in the following
proportion:

Ten Schools of Jurisprudence. These useful institutions, which have
been abolished during the last ten years, are, by a new organization,
to resume the importance that they had lost long before the
revolution. The pupils are to be examined in a manner more certain
for determining their capacity, and better calculated for securing
the degree of confidence to be reposed in those men to whose
knowledge and integrity individuals are sometimes forced to intrust
their character and fortune.

Three new Schools of Medicine, in addition to the three at present in
being. These also are to be newly organized in the most perfect
manner.

The mathematical and physical sciences have made too great a progress
in France, their application to the useful arts, to the public
service, and to the general prosperity, has been too direct, says
FOURCROY, for it not to be necessary to diffuse the taste for them,
and to open new asylums where the advantages resulting from them may
be extended, and their progress promoted. There are therefore to be
four new _Special_ Schools of Natural History, Physics, and
Chymistry, and also a _Special_ School devoted to transcendent
Mathematics.

The mechanical and chymical arts, so long taught in several
universities in Germany under the name of _technology_, are to have
two _Special_ Schools, placed in the cities most rich in industry and
manufactures. These schools, generally wished for, are intended to
contribute to the national prosperity by the new methods which they
will make known, the new instruments and processes which they will
bring into use, the good models of machines which they will
introduce, in a word, by every means that mechanics and chymistry can
furnish to the arts.

A School of Public Economy, enlightened by Geography and History, is
to be opened for those who may be desirous to investigate the
principles of governments, and the art of ascertaining their
respective interests. In this school it is proposed to unite such an
assemblage of knowledge as has not yet existed in France.

To the three principal schools of the arts dependent on design, which
are at present open, is to be added a fourth, become necessary since
those arts bring back to France the pure taste of the beautiful
forms, of which Greece has left such perfect models.

In each of the observatories now in use is to be a professor of
astronomy, and the art of navigation is expected to derive new
succour from these schools, most of which are placed in the principal
sea-ports. A knowledge of the heavens and the study of the movements
of the celestial bodies, which every year receives very remarkable
augmentations from the united efforts of the most renowned
geometricians and the most indefatigable observers, may have a great
influence on the progress of civilization. On which account the
French government is extremely eager to promote the science of
astronomy.

The language of neighbouring nations, with whom the French have such
frequent intercourse, is to be taught in several Lyceums, as being a
useful introduction to commerce.

The art of war, of which modern times have given such great examples
and such brilliant lessons, is to have its _special_ school, and this
school, on the plan which it is intended to be established by
receiving as soldiers youths from the Lyceums, will form for the
French armies officers equally skilful in theory as in practice.

This new Military School must not be confounded with the old _école
militaire_. Independently of its not being destined for a particular
class, which no longer exists in this country, the mode of
instruction to be introduced there will render it totally different
from the establishment which bore the same name.

It is to be composed of five hundred pupils, forming a battalion, and
who are to be accustomed to military duty and discipline; it is to
have at least ten professors, charged to teach all the theoretical,
practical, and administrative parts of the art of war, as well as the
history of wars and of great captains.

Of the five hundred pupils of the Special Military School, two
hundred are to be taken from among the national pupils of the
Lyceums, in proportion to their number in each of those schools, and
three hundred from among the boarders and day-scholars, according to
the examination which they must undergo at the end of their studies.
Every year one hundred of the former are to be admitted, and two
hundred of the latter. They are to be maintained two years in the
Special Military School, at the expense of the Republic. These two
years are to be considered as part of their military service.

According to the report made of the behaviour and talents of the
pupils of the Military School, the government is to provide them with
appointments in the army.

NATIONAL PUPILS.

There are to be maintained at the expense of the Republic six
thousand four hundred pupils, as boarders in the Lyceums and Special
Schools.

Out of these six thousand four hundred boarders, two thousand four
hundred are to be chosen by the government from among the sons of
officers and public functionaries of the judicial, administrative, or
municipal order, who shall have served the Republic with fidelity,
and for ten years only from among the children of citizens belonging
to the departments united to France, although they have neither been
military men nor public functionaries.

These two thousand four hundred pupils are to be at least nine years
of age, and able to read and write.

The other four thousand are to be taken from double the number of
pupils of the Secondary Schools, who, according to an examination
where their talents are put in competition, are to be presented to
the government.

The pupils, maintained in the Lyceums, are not to remain there more
than six years at the expense of the nation. At the end of their
studies, they are to undergo an examination, after which a fifth of
them are to be placed in the different Special Schools according to
their disposition, in order to be maintained there from two to four
years at the expense of the Republic.

The annual cost of all these establishments is estimated at near
eight millions of francs, (_circa_ £336,000 sterling) which exceeds
by at least two millions the amount of the charges of the public
instruction for the few preceding years; but this augmentation, which
will only take place by degrees, and at soonest in eighteen months,
appears trifling, compared to the advantages likely to result from
the new system.

Whenever this plan is carried into execution, what hopes may not
France conceive from the youth of the rising generation, who, chosen
from among those inclined to study, will, in all probability, rise to
every degree of fame! The surest pledge of the success of the measure
seems to consist in the spirit of emulation which is to be
maintained, not only among the pupils, but even among the professors
in the different schools; for emulation, in the career of literature,
arts and sciences, leads to fame, and never fails to turn to the
benefit of society; whereas jealousy, in the road of ambition and
fortune, produces nothing but hatred and discord.

"Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
Is emulation in the learn'd and brave."

So much for the plan.[2] In your last letter, you desire that I will
afford you some means of appreciating the essential difference
between the old system of education pursued in France, and the basis
on which public instruction is now on the point of being reorganised
and established. You must be sensible that the comparison of the two
modes, were I to enter deeply into the question, would far exceed the
limits of a letter. But, though I have already extended this to a
certain length, I can, in a few more lines, enable you to compare and
judge, by informing you, from the best authority, what has been the
spirit which has dictated the new organization.

There are very few men who know how to confine themselves within just
bounds. Some yield to the mania of innovation, and imagine that they
create only because they destroy and change. Others bend under the
yoke of old habits. Some, solely because they have remained strangers
to the sciences, would wish that youth should be employed only in the
study of languages and literature. Others who, no doubt, forget that
every learned man, who aims at a solid reputation, ought to sacrifice
to the Muses, before he penetrates into the sanctuary of science,
would wish education to be confined to the study of the exact
sciences, and that youth should be occupied on things, before they
are acquainted with words.

For the sole reason that the old system of instruction bore too
exclusively on the study of the learned languages, it was to be
feared that the new one, through a contrary excess, would proscribe
the Greek and Latin. The study of these two languages, as FOURCROY
has observed to me, is not merely useful to those who wish to acquire
a thorough knowledge of the French, which has borrowed from them no
small number of words, but it is only from the perusal of the great
writers of antiquity, on whom the best among the moderns have formed
themselves, that we can imbibe the sentiment of the beautiful, the
taste, and the rectitude of mind equally necessary, whether we feel
ourselves attracted towards eloquence or poetry, or raise ourselves
to the highest conceptions of the physical or mathematical sciences.

At no time can the instruction given to a youth be otherwise
considered than as a preparatory mean, whose object is to anticipate
his taste and disposition, and enable him to enter with more firmness
into the career which he is intended to follow.

From an attentive perusal of the plan, of which I have traced you the
leading features, you will be convinced that the study of the
sciences will gain by the new system, without that of literature
being in danger of losing. The number of professors is increased, and
yet the period of education is not prolonged. A pupil will always be
at liberty to apply himself more intensely to the branch to which he
is impelled by his particular inclination. He may confine himself to
one course of lectures, or attend to several, according to his
intellectual means. He will not be compelled to stop in his career,
merely because the pupils of his class do not advance. In short,
neither limits nor check have been put to the progress that may be
made by talent.

I here give you only a principal idea, but the application of it,
improved by your sagacity and knowledge, will be sufficient to answer
all the objections which may be started against the new plan of
instruction, and which, when carefully investigated, may be reduced
to a single one; namely, that literature is sacrificed to the
sciences.

[Footnote 1: Counsellor of State, now charged with the direction and
superintendance of public instruction.]

[Footnote 2: The new organization of public instruction was decreed
by the government on the 11th of Floréal, year X.]



LETTER LII.

_Paris, January 18, 1802._

Of all the private lodgings in Paris, none certainly can be more
convenient for the residence of a single man than those of

MILLINERS.

I have already said that such is the profession of my landlady.
Whenever I am disposed for a little lively chitchat, I have only to
step to the next door but one into her _magazin de modes_, where,
like a favourite courtier, under the old _régime_, I have both _les
grandes et les petites entrées_, or, in plain English, I may either
introduce myself by the public front entrance, or slip in by the
private back-door.

Here, twenty damsels are employed in making up head-dresses which are
hourly produced and varied by fashion. Closely confined to the
counter, with a needle in their hand, they are continually throwing
their eyes towards the street. Not a passenger escapes their notice.
The place the nearest to the window is in the greatest request, as
being most favourable for catching the transient homages of the
crowds of men continually passing and repassing. It is generally
occupied by the beauty of the _magazin_ or warehouse; for it would be
resented as an almost unpardonable offence to term this emporium of
taste a _boutique_ or shop.

Before each of them is a block, on which they form and adjust the
gallant trophy destined to heighten the loveliness of some ambitious
fair who has set her heart on surpassing all her rivals at an
approaching ball. Montesquieu observes, in his Persian letters, that
"if a lady has taken it into her head to appear at an assembly in a
particular dress, from that moment fifty persons of the working class
must no longer sleep, or have time to eat and drink. She commands,
and is obeyed more expeditiously than the king of Persia, because
interest has greater sway than the most powerful monarch on earth."

In the morning, some of these damsels wait on the ladies with
bandboxes of millinery. Obliged by their profession to adorn the
heads of other women, they must stifle the secret jealousy of their
sex, and contribute to set off the person of those who not
unfrequently treat them with hauteur. However, they are now and then
amply revenged: sometimes the proud rich lady is eclipsed by the
humble little milliner. The unadorned beauty of the latter destroys
the made up charms of the coquette: 'tis the triumph of nature over
art.

If, perchance, the lover drops in, fatal consequences ensue. His
belle cannot but lose by the comparison: her complexion appears still
more artificial beside the natural bloom of the youthful _marchande_.

In a word, the silent admirer all at once becomes faithless.

Many a young Parisian milliner has made a jump from behind the
counter into a fashionable carriage, even into that of an English
peer. Strange revolution of fortune! In the course of a few days, she
returns to the same shop to make purchases, holding high her head;
and exulting in her success. Her former mistress, sacrificing her
rage to her interest, assumes a forced complaisance; while her
once-dear companions are ready to burst with envy.

Millinery here constitutes a very extensive branch of trade. Nothing
short of the creative genius of the French could contrive to give,
again and again, a new form to things the most common. In vain do
females of other countries attempt to vie with them; in articles of
tasteful fancy they still remain unrivaled.

From Paris, these studious mistresses of invention give laws to the
polished world. After passing to London, Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna,
their models of fashion are disseminated all over Europe. These
models alike travel to the banks of the Neva and the shores of the
Propontis. At Constantinople, they find their way into the seraglio
of the Grand Signior; while, at Petersburg, they are servilely copied
to grace the Empress of Russia. Thus, the fold given to a piece of
muslin or velvet, the form impressed on a ribband, by the hand of an
ingenious French milliner, is repeated among all nations.

A fashion here does not last a week, before it is succeeded by
another novelty; for a French woman of _bon ton_, instead of wearing
what is commonly worn by others, always aims at appearing in
something new. It is unfortunately too true, that the changeableness
of taste and inconstancy of fashion in France furnish an aliment to
the luxury of other countries; but the principle of this
communication is in the luxury of this gay and volatile people.

You reproach me with being silent respecting the _bals masqués_ or
masquerades, mentioned in my enumeration of the amusements of Paris.
The fact is that a description of them will scarcely furnish matter
for a few lines, still less a subject for a letter. However, in
compliance with custom, I have been more than once to the

BAL DE L'OPÉRA.

This is a masquerade frequently given in the winter, at the theatre
of the grand French opera, where the pit is covered over, as that is
of our opera-house in the Haymarket. From the powerful draught of
air, which, coming from behind the scenes, may well be termed _vent
de coulisse_, the room is as cold as the season.

Since the revolution, masquerades were strictly forbidden, and this
prohibition continued under the directorial government. It is only
since BONAPARTE'S accession to the post of Chief Magistrate, that the
Parisians have been indulged with the liberty of wearing disguises
during the carnival.

Of all the amusements in Paris, I have ever thought this the most
tiresome and insipid. But it is the same at the _Bal de l'Opéra_ as
at _Frascati_, _Longchamp_, and other points of attraction here;
every one is soon tired of them, and yet every one flocks thither. In
fact, what can well be more tiresome than a place where you find
persons masked, without wit or humour? Though, according to the old
French saying, "_I faut avoir bien peu d'esprit pour ne pas en avoir
sous le masque?_"

The men, who at a masquerade here generally go unmasked, think it not
worth while to be even complaisant to the women, who are elbowed,
squeezed, and carried by the tide from one end of the room to the
other, before they are well aware of it. Dominos are the general
dress. The music is excellent; but it is not the fashion to dance;
and _les femmes de bonne compagnie_, that is, well-bred women, are
condemned to content themselves with the dust they inhale; for they
dare not quit their mask to take any refreshment. But,
notwithstanding these inconveniences, it is here reckoned a fine
thing to have been at a _bal masqué_ when the crowd was great, and
the pressure violent; as the more the ladies have shared in it, the
more they congratulate themselves on the occasion.

Before the revolution, the _grand ton_ was for gentlemen to go to the
_Bal de l'Opéra_ in a full-dress suit of black, and unmasked. Swords
were here prohibited, as at Bath. This etiquette of dress, however,
rendered not the company more select.

I remember well that at a masked ball at the Parisian opera, in the
year 1785, the very first beau I recognized in the room, parading in
a _habit de cour_, was my own _perruquier_. As at present, the
amusement of the women then consisted in teazing the men; and those
who had a disposition for intrigue, gave full scope to the impulse of
their nature. The _fille entretenue_, the _duchesse_, and the
_bourgeoise_, disguised under a similar domino, were not always
distinguishable; and I have heard of a certain French marquis, who
was here laid under heavy contribution for the momentary
gratification of his caprice, though the object of it proved to be no
other than his own _cara sposa_.



LETTER LIII.

_Paris, January 19, 1802._

When you expressed your impatience to be informed of the dramatic
amusements in Paris, I promised to satisfy you as soon as I was able;
for I knew that you would not be contented with a superficial
examination. Therefore, in reviewing the principal scenic
establishments, I shall, as I have done before, exert my endeavours
not only to make you acquainted with the _best_ performers in every
department, but also with the _best_ stock-pieces, in order that, by
casting your eye on the _Affiches des Spectacles_, when you visit
this capital, you may at once form a judgment of the quality and
quantity of the entertainment you are likely to enjoy at the
representation of a particular piece, in which certain performers
make their appearance. Since the revolution, the custom of printing
the names of the actors and dancers in each piece, has been
introduced. Formerly, amateurs often paid their money only to
experience a disappointment; for, instead of seeing the hero or
heroine that excited their curiosity, they had a bad duplicate, or,
as the French term it, a _double_, imposed on them, more frequently
through caprice than any other motive. This is now obviated; and,
except in cases of sudden and unforeseen indisposition, you may be
certain of seeing the best performers whenever their name is
announced.

In speaking of the theatres, the pieces represented, and the merits
of the performers, I cannot be supposed to be actuated by any
prejudice or partiality whatever. I have, it is true, been favoured
with the oral criticism of a man of taste, who, as a very old
acquaintance, has generally accompanied me to the different
_spectacles_; but still I have never adopted his sentiments, unless
the truth of them had been confirmed by my own observation. From him
I have been favoured with a communication of such circumstances
respecting them as occurred during the revolution, when I was absent
from Paris. You may therefore confidently rely on the candour and
impartiality of my general sketch of the theatres; and if the stage
be considered as a mirror which reflects the public mind, you will
thence be enabled to appreciate the taste of the Parisians. Without
forgetting that

"_La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile_,"

I shall indulge the hope that you will be persuaded that truth alone
has guided my pen in this attempt to trace the attractions of the

THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE.

The house, now occupied by the performers of this theatre, was built
at the beginning of the revolution by the late duke of Orleans, who,
according to the opinion of those best acquainted with his schemes of
profit, intended it for the representation of the grand French opera,
for which, nevertheless, it is not sufficiently spacious.

It stands adjoining to the south-west angle of the _Palais du
Tribunat_, with its front entrance in the _Rue de la Loi_. Its façade
presents a row of twelve Doric columns, surmounted by as many
Corinthian pilasters, crowned by their entablature. On the first
story is an exterior gallery; ornamented by an iron balustrade, which
runs the whole length of the façade, and communicates with the lobby.
On the north side, and at the back of the theatre, on the
ground-floor, are several covered galleries, bordered by shops,
which communicate with the _Rue St. Honoré_ and the _Palais du
Tribunat_.

The vestibule, where four stair-cases terminate, is of an elliptic
form, surrounded by three rows of Doric pillars. Above the vestibule,
which is on the ground-floor, are the pit and lobby. The inside of
the house, which is immoderately lofty, presents seven tiers of
boxes, and, in the circumference, six Corinthian pillars. The
ornaments, numerously scattered, are in relief. At a certain
elevation, the plan of the house is changed by a recess made facing
the stage. Two angels, above the stage-boxes, shock the eye by their
enormous size. The boxes to the number of two hundred and twenty-two,
are said to contain thirteen hundred persons; and the pit, including
the _orchestre_,[1] seven hundred and twenty-four, making in all two
thousand and twenty persons. The construction of this house is
remarkable for iron only being employed in lieu of wood. The
architect was LOUIS.

This theatre, which was begun in 1787, was finished in 1790, when,
all privileges having been done away, it was first opened by a
company of French comedians, who played tragedy and comedy. It then
took the name of _Théâtre Français de la Rue de Richelieu_, which
street was afterwards and is now called _Rue de la Loi_. Being opened
at the commencement of the revolution, it naturally adopted its
principles; and, when the National Convention had proclaimed the
Republic, it assumed the pompous name of _Théâtre de la République_.
The greater part of the actors who performed here, rendered
themselves remarkable for their _revolutionary_ ardour, and, during
the reign of terror, it became a privileged theatre.

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