m social rank.
Besides, the entrance to these Faculties is free and gratuitous, as well
as in all other establishments for superior instruction. Whoever chooses
and when he chooses may attend without paying a cent.

Thus constituted, the University seems to the public as a liberal,
democratic, humanitarian institution and yet economical, expending
very little. Its administrators and professors, even the best of them,
receive only a small salary--6000 francs at the Museum and the College
de France,[6320] 7500 at the Sorbonne, 5000 in the provincial Faculties,
4000 or 3000 in the lycees, 2000, 1500 and 1200 in the communal
colleges--just enough to live on. The highest functionaries live in a
very modest way; each keeps body and soul together on a small salary
which he earns by moderate work, without notable increase or decrease,
in the expectation of gradual promotion or of a sure pension at the end.
There is no waste, the accounts being well kept; there are no sinecures,
even in the libraries; no unfair treatment or notorious scandals. Envy,
notions of equality scarcely exist; there are enough situations for
petty ambitions and average merit, while there is scarcely any place
for great ambitions or great merit. Eminent men serve the State and
the public cheaply for a living salary, a higher rank in the Legion of
Honor, sometimes for a seat in the Institute, or for European fame
in connection with a university, with no other recompense than the
satisfaction of working according to conscience[6321] and of winning the
esteem of twenty or thirty competent judges who, in France or abroad,
are capable of appreciating their labor at its just value.[6322]

The last reason for accepting or tolerating the University; its work
at home, or in its surroundings, develops gradually and more or less
broadly according to necessities.--In 1815, there were 22,000 primary
schools of every kind; in 1829,[6323] 30,000; and in 1850, 63,000. In
1815, 737,000 children were taught in them; in 1829, 1,357,000; and
in 1850, 3,787,000. In 1815, there was only one normal school for the
education of primary teachers; in 1850, there are 78. Consequently,
whilst in 1827, 42 out of 100 conscripts could read, there were in 1877,
85; whilst in 1820, 34 out of 100 women could write their names on the
marriage contract, in 1879 there are 70.--Similarly, in the lycees and
colleges, the University which, in 1815, turned out 37,000 youths, turns
out 54,000 in