Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/532

528 the truth, and did not mean to withhold it from the people forever. But he believed in preparing them to receive it before giving it to them. Hence in part his interest in education, and an explanation of the famous rescript of September 5, 1774, which, as carried out b}' Minister von Zeidlitz, became the foundation of the improved methods in Prussian teaching. Logic, the king wrote, must be taught effectively after the manner of Locke and Quintilian, and Latin and Greek in such a way as to bring young men into their atmosphere. The sincerity with which the king held his opinion as to the proper treatment of the people is seen in the fact that he directed the academy to offer a prize for the best answer to the question, 'Is it lawful, i. e., right, to deceive the people?' At the time of d'Alembert's death the philosophical class in the academy had shrunk to three members. Again turning to a Frenchman for help the king asked Condorcet, permanent secretary of the French Academy, to take d'Alembert's place in directing the work of the Berlin