money in order that he might the more securely triumph over
revolutionary ideals and draw France insensibly back to the age of
Louis XIV.

While the legislator must always keep in reserve punishment as the
_ultima ratio_ for the lawless, he will turn by preference to
education as a more potent moralizing agency; and certainly education
urgently needed Bonaparte's attention. The work of carrying into
practice the grand educational aims of Condorcet and his coadjutors in
the French Convention was enough to tax the energies of a Hercules.
Those ardent reformers did little more than clear the ground for
future action: they abolished the old monastic and clerical training,
and declared for a generous system of national education in primary,
secondary, and advanced schools. But amid strifes and bankruptcy their
aims remained unfulfilled. In 1799 there were only twenty-four
elementary schools open in Paris, with a total attendance of less than
1,000 pupils; and in rural districts matters were equally bad. Indeed,
Lucien Bonaparte asserted that scarcely any education was to be found
in France. Exaggerated though this statement was, in relation to
secondary and advanced education, it was proximately true of the
elementary schools. The revolutionists had merely traced the outlines
of a scheme: it remained for the First Consul to fill in the details,
or to leave it blank.

The result can scarcely be cited as a proof of his educational zeal.
Elementary schools were left to the control and supervision of the
communes and of the _sous-prefets_, and naturally made little advance
amidst an apathetic population and under officials who cared not to
press on an expensive enterprise. The law of April 30th, 1802,
however, aimed at improving the secondary education, which the
Convention had attempted to give in its _ecoles centrales_. These were
now reconstituted either as _ecoles secondaires_ or as _lycees_. The
former were local or even private institutions intended for the most
promising pupils of the commune or group of communes; while the
_lycees_, far fewer in number, were controlled directly by the
Government. In both of these schools great prominence was given to the
exact and applied sciences. The aim of the instruction was not to
awaken thought and develop the faculties, but rather to fashion able
breadwinners, obedient citizens, and enthusiastic soldiers. The
training was of an almost military type, the pupils being regularl