_Paris, January 25, 1802._
I have already observed that the general effervescence to which the
revolution gave birth, soon extended to the seminaries of learning.
The alarm-bell resounded even in the most silent of those retreats.
Bands of insurgents, intermixed with women, children, and men of
every condition, came each moment to interrupt the studies, and,
forcing the students to range themselves under their filthy banner,
presented to them the spectacle of every excess. It required not all
this violence to disorganize institutions already become
antiquated,[1] and few of which any longer enjoyed much consideration
in the public opinion. The colleges and universities were deserted,
and their exercises ceased. Not long after, they were suppressed. The
only establishment of this description which has survived the storms
of the revolution, and which is no less important from its utility
than extensive in its object, is the