A certain Mr P. Chester finishes the English condemnation of a school,
such as Benjamin's, by declaring that its pretensions to fit men for
life was "like the shearing of Hoggs, much Noyse and little Wooll,
nothing considerable taught that I know, butt only to fitt a man to be a
French chevalier, that is in plain English a Trooper."[270]
These comments are what one expects from Oxford, to be sure, but even M.
Jusserand acknowledges that the academies were not centres of
intellectual light, and quotes to prove it certain questions asked of a
pupil put into the Bastille, at the demand of his father:
"Was it not true that the Sieur Varin, his father, seeing that he had no
inclination to study, had put him into the Academie Royale to there
learn all sorts of exercises, and had there supported him with much
expense?
"He admitted that his father, while his mother was living, had put him
into the Academie Royale and had given him for that the necessary means,
and paid the ordinary pension, 1600 livres a year.
"Was it not true that after having been some time at the Academie
Royale, he was expelled, having disguised girls in boys' clothes to
bring them there?
