vestigation, the long and painful road which
alone surely leads to profound general conceptions, those grand ideas
which are verifiable and solidly based.--And, on the other hand,
their quick, summary mode of preparation suffices for the positive and
appreciable needs of the new society. The problem is to fill the gaps
made in it by the Revolution and to provide the annual and indispensable
quota of educated youth. Now, after as before the Revolution, this is
understood as being all who have passed through the entire series
of classes; under the system, subject to the drill in Latin and
mathematics. The young men have here acquired the habit of using clear,
connected ideas, a taste for close reasoning, the art of condensing a
phrase or a paragraph, an aptitude for attending to the daily business
of a worldly, civil life, especially the faculty of carrying on a
discussion, of writing a good letter, even the talent for composing
a good report or memorial.[6220] A young man with these skills,
some scraps of natural philosophy, and with still briefer notions of
geography and history, has all the general, preliminary culture he
needs, all the information he requires for aspiring to one of the
careers called liberal. The choice rests with himself; he will be
what he wants to be, or what he is able to be--professor, engineer,
physician, member of the bar, an administrator or a functionary. In each
of his qualifications he renders an important service to the public, he
exercises an honorable profession; let him be competent and expert, that
concerns society. But that alone is all that society cares about; it is
not essential that it should find in him additionally an erudite or a
philosopher.

* Let him be competent and worthy of confidence in his particular
profession,

* let him know how to teach classes or frame a course of lectures, how
to build a bridge, a bastion, an edifice, how to cure a disease, perform
an amputation, draw up a contract, manage a case in court, and give
judgment;

* let the State, for greater public convenience, organize, check, and
certify this special capacity,

* let it verify this by examinations and diploma,

* let it make of this a sort of coin of current value, duly minted and
of proper standard;

* let this be protected against counterfeits, not only by its
preferences but again by its prohibitions, by the penalties it enacts
against the illegal practice of pharmacy and of medicine, by