foremost of those who assured it.




IV

PARIS AFTER THE GERMANS LEFT

Ferdinand Foch entered the Polytechnic School at Paris on the 1st of
November, 1871, just after he had completed his twentieth year.

This school, founded in 1794, is for the technical education of
military and naval engineers, artillery officers, civil engineers in
government employ, and telegraphists--not mere operators, of course,
but telegraph engineers and other specialists in electric
communication. It is conducted by a general, on military principles,
and its students are soldiers on their way to becoming officers.

Its buildings cover a considerable space in the heart of the great
school quarter of Parts. The Sorbonne, with its traditions harking
back to St. Louis (more than six centuries) and its swarming thousands
of students, is hard by the Polytechnic. So is the College de France,
founded by Francis I. And, indeed, whichever way one turns, there are
schools, schools, schools--of fine arts and applied arts; of medicine
in all its branches; of mining and engineering; of war; of theology; of
languages; of commerce in its higher developments; of pedagogy; and
what-not.

Nowhere else in the world is there possible to the young student, come