At the same time, we believe that no teaching ever has provided or will provide against many failures out of one hundred and seventy pupils, even among those who promised well at first: and if the standard of the majority of pupils is high at the Polytechnique, and the point reached by the first few _very_ high, it is no reproach that the descent amongst the last few should be very rapid. With regard to the assertion, that the teaching is excessive and leads too much to abstract pursuits for soldiers, it may be partially true. Perhaps the general passion for science has led to an overstrained teaching for the army, even for its scientific corps; and yet would it be allowed by officers of the highest scientific ability, either in the French or the English army, that less science is required for the greatest emergencies of military than for those of civil engineering, or for the theory of projectiles than for working the department of saltpetre? It may, however, be true that an attempt is made at the Polytechnic to exact _from all_ attainments which can only be reached by _a few_. 7. With this deduction, we must express our opinion strongly in favor of the influence of the Polytechnic on the French army. We admit that in some instances pupils who have failed in their attempt at civil prizes enter the army unwillingly, but they are generally soon penetrated with its _esprit de corps_, and they carry into it talent which it would not otherwise have obtained. Cases of overwork no doubt occur, as in the early training for every profession, but (following the evidence we have received) we have no reason to think them so numerous as to balance the advantage of vigorous, thoughtful study directed early towards a profession which, however practical, is eminently benefited by it. “It can not be said,” was the verdict of one well fitted to express an opinion, “that there is too much science in the French army.” 8. Assuming, however, the value of the scientific results produced in the French army by the Polytechnic, it by no means follows that a similar institution would be desirable in another country. Without much discussion it may be safely said that the whole history and nature of the institution--the offspring of a national passion for system and of revolutionary excitement--make it thoroughly peculiar to France.