it may rapidly subside and shrink. Hence, that mistaken use, that
inordinate expenditure, that precocious waste of mental energy, and that
entire pernicious system which overburden for a substantial period the
young, not for their advantage, but, on reaching maturity, to their
intellectual detriment.

To reach the uncultivated masses, to address popular intellect and
imagination, one must use absolute, simple slogans. In the matter of
primary instruction, the simplest and most absolute slogan is that
which promises and offers it to all children, boys and girls, not merely
universal, but again, complete and gratuitous. To this end, from 1878
to 1891,[6392] the State has expended for school buildings and
installations 582,000,000 francs; for salaries and other expenses it
furnished the latter year 131,000,000. Somebody pays for all this, and
it is the tax-payer, and by force; aided by gendarmes, the collector
puts his hand forcibly into all pockets, even those containing only
sous, and withdraws these millions. Gratuitous instruction sounds well
and seems to designate a veritable gift, a present from the great vague
personage called the State, and whom the general public dimly sees
on the distant horizon as a superior, independent being, and hence a
possible benefactor. In reality, his presents are made with our money,
while his generosity consists in the fine name with which he here gilds
his fiscal exactions, a new constraint added to so many others which he
imposes on us and which we endure.[6393]--Besides, through instinct and
tradition, the State is naturally inclined to multiply constraints, and
this time there is no concealment. From six to thirteen years of age,
primary instruction becomes obligatory.[6394] The father is required to
prove that his children receive it, if not at the public school at least
in a private school or at home. During these seven years it continues,
and ten months are devoted to it each year. The school takes and keeps
the child three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon;
it pours into these little heads all that is possible in such a length
of time, all that they can hold and more too,--spelling, syntax,
grammatical and logical analysis, rules of composition and of
style, history, geography, arithmetic, geometry, drawing, notions of
literature, politics, law, and finally a complete moral system, "civic
morality."

It is obviously very useful for every adult to be able to