rsdays and Sundays there are no
classes, but the boys have their hours of study as on other days, and
fill up the time by a two-hours' walk in marching array, either in the
city or (if weather permit) in the country. Once a week in Paris, once a
fortnight in the provinces, a boy may go out for a holiday if his
parents or persons authorized by his parents come and take him from
school. He is allowed to see his parents or those representing them any
day between four and five P.M. in the _parloir_. On Sundays attendance
at mass and at vespers in the chapel of the lycee is compulsory for
pupils of the Roman Catholic faith. Pupils belonging to other faiths
have in Paris every opportunity for attending the services of their
religion, but in the provinces this is naturally not so easy. The
regular holidays are the 1st and 2d of January, a week at Easter and two
months in summer, commencing about the 10th of August. All corporal
punishment is strictly prohibited. The lads are punished by being kept
in in play-hours and on holidays, and in grave cases by being confined
_en sequestre_. It is very rarely that a pupil is expelled--a punishment
which may in extreme cases entail expulsion from every lyceum in France.

As will have been seen, the life led by the boarders at the lyceums is
pretty irksome and severe. If a boy's parents live in the city, he can
simply attend the classes as a day scholar, which experience has proved
to be the better of the two plans. From a sanitary point of view the
lyceums do not stand high by any means. Few among them were built on any
proper model, or, as will have been noticed, even constructed for their
present use. About four-fifths of them were old colleges belonging to
religious corporations confiscated at the Revolution, or they were
formerly convents, and have now been fitted up as well as possible for
purely educational purposes. The rooms are for the most part so small
that the lads are crowded and huddled together. On some of the benches
they have to sit on one side when they want to write. Every lyceum has
an infirmary, to which are attached two or three Sisters of Charity, and
the infirmary is often fuller than could be wished. The play-grounds are
in general miserably small, rarely planted with trees, and ill adapted
for boys to run about and play in. Some of the boys who are always kept
in do not get even this poor exercise. The contributions of the
government for the maintenance of the l