ADVANCED SCHOOLS OF FRANCE.

The question is, "Where shall I go now?" So thinks the student who has completed his four years of college life. Many men are obliged to go into business, others seek experience in travel, but there are a few who find themselves able to follow out some line of study in which they are interested. It is for such men that the following brief description of the great French schools is intended. The German universities are a favorite resort for the ambitions, but there is a kind of training that they do not give, and that want is supplied by the Frenchs school.

The Ecole des Chartes was founded in 1821 by a royal ordinance at Paris. It is supported by the government, and the design is to turn out efficient public servants. The school is now established in the rue de Paradise, No. 58, in a house adjoining the palais des archiues. The courses are public and free. The course of study takes three years to complete. The term opens in the middle of November and ends the first of August. The subjects taught are paleography, languages, bibliography, diplomacy, political, administrative and judiciary institutions; civil and canon law of the middle ages. Such a school is a heaven for the specialist in any of these subjects. The instructors are all eminent men, and the number of students is so limited that each and all of them come in direct contact with the lectures.

Many of the French students are paid to study in this school in order that the government may have well-trained librarians and keepers of the archives. Any one with a diploma from the schooI can gain a position in the public service. The three men who graduate highest in the class are entitled to a pension of 600 francs a year for three years. The Ecole des chartes is one of the roads which lead to the academy of inscriptions and belle-lettres.

Not more than twenty men are admitted in a year, according to the regulations, but an American student would not find much difficulty in obtaining entrance. The instruction is in the hands of seven professors and a secretary.

The Ecole des hautes etudes is run on the German Seminar system. The subjects taught are Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Natural History and Physiology, Historical and Philological Science, and Economic Sciences. Original work is carried on in every branch and competent men supervise this work. No age, grade or nationality is required for admission, but the candidates are taken on trial for three months and are then reported to the minister and the permanent committee. The course is three years in length. For students in natural history and physiology, there are scientific excursions directed by the professors; for men taking mathematics physics and chemistry, visits are planned to the renowned factories. Students who are found capable are sent on scientific missions to foreign countries. Graduates from this school can go directly into positions under the government.

The extremely practical character of these schools is very remarkable. The diploma is not easy to gain, but when gained it signifies in ever-case practical ability joined to most elevated theoretical knowledge. To a teacher such a course of training would be invaluable. The French government has spent a great deal of money on these schools with apparently little return, for the number of students is ridiculously small. The real benefit comes from the fact that the country is being supplied with teachers who are thoroughly grounded in their respective branches, and who can add the authority of actual experience to their statements.

In addition to the schools that I have mentioned. there is a school of oriental languages. This school is intended to make interpreters, and to instruct merchants or functionaries who are called to distant destinations. Courses are given in the following languages: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, the languages of Malay and Java, Armenian, modern Greek, Hindostani, Chinese, Japanese, and the language of Annam.