fficiently steady instruction."]

[Footnote 3165: My maternal grandmother learned how to read from a nun
concealed in the cellar of the house.]

[Footnote 3166: Albert Duruy, ibid., 349. (Decree of the Directory,
Pluviose 17, year V, and circular of the minister Letourneur against
free schools which are "dens of royalism and superstition."--Hence the
decrees of the authorities in the departments of Eure, Pas de Calais,
Drome, Mayenne and La Manche, closing these dens.) "From Thermidor 27,
year VI, to Messidor 2, year VII, say the authorities of La Manche,
we have revoked fifty-eight teachers on their denunciation by the
municipalities and by popular clubs."]

[Footnote 3167: Archives nationales, cartons 3144 to 3145, No. 104.
(Reports of the Councillors of State on mission in the year IX.) Report
by Lacuee on the first military division. Three central schools at
Paris, one called the Quatre-Nations. "This school must be visited in
order to form any idea of the state of destruction and dilapidation
which all the national buildings are in. No repairs have been made since
the reopening of the schools; everything is going to ruin.... Walls are
down and the floors fallen in. To preserve the pupils from the risks
which the occupation of these buildings hourly presents, it is necessary
to give lessons in rooms which are very unhealthy on account of their
small dimensions and dampness. In the drawing-class the papers and
models in the portfolios become moldy."]

[Footnote 3168: Albert Duruy, ibid., 484. ("Proces-verbaux des
conseils-generaux," year IX, passim.)]

[Footnote 3169: Ibid., 476. ("Statistiques des prefets," Sarthe, year
X.) "Prejudices which it is difficult to overcome, as well on the
stability of this school as on the morality of some of the teachers,
prevented its being frequented for a time."--483. (Proces-verbaux des
conseils-generaux," Bas-Rhin.) "The overthrow of religion has excited
prejudices against the central schools."--482. (Ibid., Lot.) "Most of
the teachers in the central school took part in the revolution in a
not very honorable way. Their reputation affects the success of their
teaching. Their schools are deserted."]

[Footnote 3170: Albert Duruy, ibid., '94. (According to the reports of
15 central schools, from the year VI. to the year VIII.) The average for
each central school is for drawing, 89 pupils; for mathematics, 28; for
the classics, 24; for physics, chemistry and natural history, 19;