Connected with the primary schools in some Cantons is the _secundar-schule_, or secondary school; this school is open on Sundays and in the evenings, during the winter months; and the course includes book-keeping, business composition, such as letters, bills, contracts, and obligations of various kinds appertaining to trade and industry. In many Cantons the secondary or advanced division of the primary school is free, and attendance compulsory; in others, attendance optional, with a nominal charge of five francs. The course is three years for boys and four for girls. In the Cantons of Zurich and Luzern, the children from the primary schools are given four years of gratuitous instruction in these supplementary schools. By the last accessible report, it appears there were in attendance at the primary schools 455,490 pupils, under the care of 8763 teachers. Sixteen Cantons provided 437 secondary schools, with 20,500 pupils. The _intermediate_ schools present much variety, and have only one feature in common, in that they represent a higher grade than the primary, with an enlarged and more deepened course of study. They extend to elements of literature in the mother tongue, composition of an advanced kind, reading of classical authors, higher mathematics, and foreign languages (which practically are confined to French for the German and Italian Cantons, and to German for the French Cantons); geography and history also become much extended. These schools, however, do not have any pretensions beyond what their title of _intermediate_ indicates. There are several grades of these intermediate schools, such as the _district school_ and _under-gymnasium_. In these, still more advanced literary, technical, and artistic instructions are given. The ancient languages, Greek, Latin, natural history, physics, and chemistry are taught. Many of them are free, and in no case does the fee exceed 25 to 40 francs for the scholastic year. The greater portion of the expense of these schools is defrayed by the Communes, some of the cantonal governments assisting. The Canton of Bern pays one-half the salaries of the teachers, and pensions meritorious and indigent pupils from 50 to 100 francs per annum. The highest grade of an intermediate school is the high-school or _gymnasium_. The course is from three to six years, and is preparatory for the university. Pupils who obtain a “certificate” at the close of the gymnasium curriculum are, as a rule, enabled to enter the university or the polytechnic without examination. These schools are all subject to cantonal control and supported by them, except in a few of the largest towns, where they are under municipal authority, and then the towns bear much of the expense. With the exception of the federal palace, the most costly structure in Bern is the _gymnasium_, and the same relative superiority prevails as to these school buildings throughout Switzerland. The age for admission is from fifteen to