Ottoman scheme in the scope and character of the intellectual training which they give, do not provide a comparable systematic training of the body; and their control over the lives of their students ceases early. The superior comprehensiveness of the Ottoman system was, of course, based upon the fact that its members were slaves. Their master could keep them at school all their lives, in order that they might become better and better trained to serve him. At the same time, reward was considered more potent than the rod. Unequalled prizes were offered in this school, so skilfully disposed and graded as to call out the utmost strivings and the best work of every pupil. The first stages of the wide scheme, which constitute the educational system in its narrower sense, were a fitting introduction to the rest. All the recruits for the sultan’s slave-family, whether captured, bought, presented, or levied, to the number of probably three or four thousand annually, with an addition of ten or twelve thousand in the years of the _devshurmeh_,[193] were brought by a regular process before trained officials, carefully registered, and divided into two classes.[194] Those who best satisfied the criterions of bodily perfection, muscular strength, and intellectual ability so far as it could be judged without long testing,[195]—about one in every ten of the whole number,—were chosen for a superior quality of training, especially on the intellectual side. The remainder were destined for a different education, which was mainly physical.[196] The first regularly became pages and _Spahis_ of the Porte, and the ablest of them rose to the great offices of the army and the government. The others regularly became _Ajem-oghlans_ and Janissaries, but the ablest of these might also rise to positions as _Spahis_ of the Porte and even as generals and officers of state.[197] Failure to be selected for the higher school was not, therefore, a final restriction to low position. Merit was recognized everywhere, and regularly led to promotion. At the same time, it was a distinct advantage to a young man to be chosen for the higher training, since he would receive greater care, would acquire more of both ornamental and useful learning, and would associate with those already great, and perhaps with the sultan himself. THE COLLEGES OF PAGES