France -- Civilization; France -- Politics and government; France -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
As it must be secular, there must be no hold on it through dogma
or faith, paradise or hell, no spiritual incitements; consequently,
temporal means are to be employed, not less effective, when one knows
how to manage them,--self-esteem, pride, (amour propre), competition,
imagination, ambition, magnificent hopes and vague dreams of unlimited
promotion, in short, the means and motives already maintaining the
temper and zeal of the army. "The educational corps must copy the
classification of military grades; "an order of promotion," a hierarchy
of places is to be instituted; no one will attain superior rank without
having passed through the inferior; "no one can become a principal
without having been a teacher, nor professor in the higher classes
without having taught in the lower ones."--And, on the other hand, the
highest places will be within reach of all; "the young, who devoted
themselves to teaching, will enjoy the perspective of rising from one
grade to another, up to the highest dignities of the State." Authority,
importance, titles, large salaries, pre-eminence, precedence,--these are
to exist in the University as in other public careers and furnish the
wherewithal for the most magnificent dreams.[6130] "The feet of this
great body[6131] will be on the college benches and its head in the
senate." Its chief, the Grand-Master, unique of his species, less
restricted, with freer hands than the ministers themselves, is to be one
of the principal personages of the empire; his greatness will exalt the
condition and feeling of his subordinates. In the provinces, on every
festive occasion or at every public ceremony, people will take pride in
seeing their rector or principal in official costume seated alongside of
the general or prefect in full uniform.[6132]
The consideration awarded to their chief will reflect on them; they will
enjoy it along with him; they will say to themselves that they too, like
him and those under him, all together, form an élite; by degrees, they
will feel that they are all one body; they will acquire the spirit of
the association and attach themselves to the University, the same as a
soldier to his regiment or like a monk to his brethren in a monastery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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