Under the existing system the _enseignement spécial_ includes two modern languages instead of one, and of these one is taken as “principal,” the other as “accessory,” at the student’s choice, he being more severely examined in that which he selects as “principal.” The present varieties of public secondary education may be described under three heads. [Sidenote: Present Varieties in French Secondary Education.] 1. Ancient languages, with a little science and one modern language. 2. Scientific education, with a little Latin and one modern language. 3. Scientific education, with two modern languages, no Latin. [Sidenote: Necessity for using Acquirements.] Enough has been already said in this chapter on the degrees of proficiency attained. My own belief is that no acquirement whatever really becomes our own until we make constant use of it for ourselves, and it is impossible to make a constant use of more than a very few acquirements. It is here, in my opinion, that is to be found the true explanation of that perpetual disappointment which attends almost all educational experiments. They may provide the instrument; they cannot insure its use. This is what makes professional education, of all kinds, so much more real than any other, and the scientific professions do certainly keep up the scientific spirit. There is not any profession (certainly not school-teaching or hack-writing) which maintains the pure literary spirit in the same way. CHAPTER III ARTISTIC EDUCATION [Sidenote: Qualities of French Art Education.] [Sidenote: Serious Nature of French Teaching.] In both music and drawing the French have shown themselves far better educators than in languages. Their ways of teaching drawing are especially marked by seriousness, by the discouragement of false, ignorant, and premature finish, by the wise use of simple and common materials, and by the consistent aim at sound knowledge rather than vain display. As the French have taught painting and sculpture they are both most serious pursuits; I mean that, if the French may often have been frivolous in the subsequent employment of their knowledge, they were assuredly not frivolous in the acquisition of it. For them the fine arts have been a discipline, a culture that has penetrated beyond the artist class. [Sidenote: French Disinterestedness.] [Sidenote: Generosity of distinguished French Artists.]