ommission of second-lieutenant; in
1811, 400 for the school of noncommissioned officers at Fontainebleau,
20 for the Ile-de-Re and 84 who are to be quartermasters; and, in 1812,
112 more and so on. Naturally, thanks to annually increasing gaps made
by cannon and bayonet, the survivors in this body of youth mount the
faster; in 1813 and 1814, there are colonels and lieutenant-colonels of
the age of twenty-five.

In the civil service, if fewer are killed everybody is almost equally
over tasked. Under this reign one is soon used up, physically and
morally, even in pacific employments, and this also supplies vacancies.
Besides, in default of deaths, wounds and violent elimination, there is
another elimination, not less efficacious, operating in this direction,
and for a long time, in favor of men of ability, preparing places for
them and accelerating their advancement. Napoleon accepts none but
competent candidates; now, in 1800, there is a dearth of acceptable
candidates for places in the civil service and not, as in 1789, or at
the present time, a superabundance and even too great a crowd.--In the
military service especially, capacity is innate; natural endowments,
courage, coolness, quick perception, physical activity, moral
ascendancy, topographical imagination form its principal elements; men
just able to read, write and cipher became, in three or four years,
during the Revolution, admirable officers and conquering generals.--It
is not the same in relation to civil capacity; this requires long and
continuous study. To become a priest, magistrate, engineer, professor,
prefect or school-teacher, one must have studied theology or law,
mathematics or Latin, administration or the finances. If not, the
functionary is not qualified to serve: he must, at the very least, know
how to spell, be able to write French, examine a law-case, draw up
a report, keep accounts, and if needs be, comprehend a plan, make an
estimate and read off a map. Men of this stamp are rare at the beginning
of the Consulate. As notables,[3340] the Revolution mowed them down
first. Among all their sons and so many well-bred youth who have become
soldiers through patriotism, or who have left their families to prevent
these from becoming suspect, one half repose on the battlefield or have
left the hospital only for the cemetery; "the muscadin[3341] died from
the first campaign." In any event, for them and their younger brothers,
for the children beginning t