If he be intended for St. Cyr, he may very well leave at the end of his year in Rhetoric, taking of course his degree. One year in the course of Special Mathematics will be required before he can have a chance for the Polytechnic. Usually the number of students admitted at the latter, who have not passed more than one year in the _mathematiques spéciales_ is very small. Very probably the young aspirant would try at the end of his first year in this class, and would learn by practice to do better at the end of the second. The following are the studies of the mathematical section of the upper division as laid down by the ordinance of 30th August, 1854. THE THIRD CLASS (_Troisième_,) at fourteen years old. Arithmetic and first notions of Algebra. Plane Geometry and its applications. First notions of Chemistry and Physics. General notions of Natural History; Principles of classification. Linear and imitative Drawing. THE SECOND CLASS (_Seconde_,) at fifteen years old. Algebra; Geometry, figures in space, recapitulation; Applications of Geometry, notions of the geometrical representations of bodies by projections; Rectilineal Trigonometry; Chemistry; Physics; and Drawing. THE RHETORIC, at sixteen years old. Exercises in Arithmetic and Algebra; Geometry; notions on some common curves; and general recapitulation; Applications of Geometry; notions of leveling and its processes; recapitulation of Trigonometry; Cosmography; Mechanics; Chemistry concluded and reviewed; Zoölogy and Animal Physiology; Botany and Vegetable Physiology; Geology; Drawing. (The pupil may now be ready for the Degree and for St. Cyr.) THE LOGIC, at seventeen years old. Six lessons a week are employed in preparation for the bachelorship of science, and in a methodical recapitulation of the courses of the three preceding years according to the state of the pupil’s knowledge. Two lessons a week are allowed for reviewing the literary instruction; evening lessons in Latin, French, English, and German, and in History and Geography, having been given through the whole previous time. THE SPECIAL MATHEMATICS, at eighteen and nineteen years old. Five lessons a week are devoted to these studies; in the other lessons the pupils join those of the Logic class for reviewing all their previous subjects, whether for the bachelorship in science or for competition for admission at the _Ecole Normale_ or the Polytechnic.