Now, after as before the Revolution, this is understood as being all who have passed through the entire series of classes; under the system, subject to the drill in Latin and mathematics.

The young men have here acquired the habit of using clear, connected ideas, a taste for close reasoning, the art of condensing a phrase or a paragraph, an aptitude for attending to the daily business of a worldly, civil life, especially the faculty of carrying on a discussion, of writing a good letter, even the talent for composing a good report or memorial.[6220] A young man with these skills, some scraps of natural philosophy, and with still briefer notions of geography and history, has all the general, preliminary culture he needs, all the information he requires for aspiring to one of the careers called liberal.

The choice rests with himself; he will be what he wants to be, or what he is able to be--professor, engineer, physician, member of the bar, an administrator or a functionary.

In each of his qualifications he renders an important service to the public, he exercises an honorable profession; let him be competent and expert, that concerns society.

But that alone is all that society cares about; it is not essential that it should find in him additionally an erudite or a philosopher.
* Let him be competent and worthy of confidence in his particular profession, * let him know how to teach classes or frame a course of lectures, how to build a bridge, a bastion, an edifice, how to cure a disease, perform an amputation, draw up a contract, manage a case in court, and give judgment; * let the State, for greater public convenience, organize, check, and certify this special capacity, * let it verify this by examinations and diploma, * let it make of this a sort of coin of current value, duly minted and of proper standard; * let this be protected against counterfeits, not only by its preferences but again by its prohibitions, by the penalties it enacts against the illegal practice of pharmacy and of medicine, by the obligations it imposes on magistrates, lawyers and ministerial officials not to act until obtaining this or that grade,-- such is what the interest of society demands and what it may exact.
According to this principle, the State creates special schools, (today in 1998 called Grande Ecoles[6221]), and, through the indirect monopoly which it possesses, it fills them with listeners; henceforth, these are to furnish the youth of France with superior education.[6222] From the start, Napoleon, as logician, with his usual lucidity and precision, lays it down that they shall be strictly practical and professional.