Note 7 — Chapter I

“L’ouvrage que l’on demande,” said Gregoire, speaking in the name of the Committee of Public Instruction, “doit donc tracer des regles de conduite pour le temps de la grossesse, des couches, de l’allaitement,” &c. Petit went farther back: according to him, “l’education en general doit aller chercher l’homme dans l’embryon de l’espece; les peres, les meres surtout, doivent d’abord fixer son attention.”—

An able writer has performed the useful task of bringing together in one work the various schemes of education which were attempted in France during the democratic tyranny, and the military tyranny which succeeded it. The title of his book is, Le Genie de la Revolution consideré dans l’Education; ou Memoires pour servir a l’Histoire de l’Instruction Publique, depuis 1789 jusqu’ à nos Jours; ou l’on voit les Efforts reunis de la Legislation et de la Philosophie du Dix-huitieme Siecle pour aneantir le Christianisme. Paris, 3 T. 1817–1818. One legislator maintained that a nation which had recovered its freedom wanted none but stirring, vigorous, and robust men; it was such men that they should endeavour to form: and the revolution had already provided inexhaustible sources of instruction for them; for the best schools in which youth could receive a republican education were the public assemblies of the departments, districts, and municipalities, the tribunals, and, above all, the popular societies, ... meaning the jacobine clubs! Lequinio would have had a daily journal edited by a committee of philosophers, for the purpose of enlightening the simple country people, ... the people of Paris and the large towns being sufficiently enlightened. Lakanal required that there should be at least one theatre in every canton, where the women were to learn dancing, and the men to practise it. And Rabaut de St. Etienne, who had been a Protestant minister, proposed that the mayors of every canton should deliver moral lectures on Sundays in the national temple. These legislators confined their views to France: but Dupont, the atheist, hoped to see a school established at Paris for propagating atheism and anarchy throughout Europe. These are his words: “Avec quel plaisir je me represente nos philosophes dont les noms sont connus dans toute l’Europe Petion, Sieyes, Condorcet, et autres, entourés dans le Pantheon, comme les philosophes Grecs à Athènes, d’une foule de disciples venus des differentes parties de l’Europe, se promenant à la mode des Peripateticiens, et enseignant, celui-la le systeme du monde, celui-ci perfectionnant le système social, montrant dans l’arrêté du 17 Juin le germe de l’insurrection du 14 Juillet, du 10 Août, et de toutes les insurrections qui vont se faire avec rapidité dans toute l’Europe, de telle manière que ces jeunes etrangers de retour dans leur pay s puissent y repandre les mêmes lumières, et opérer, pour le bonheur de l’humanité, les mêmes revolutions.”