50 EDUCATIONAL THEORY 



epigram: " The training of youth is a task greater than the conquest 

 of Troy." 



Then, too, we often hear it said that the power to teach cannot be 

 imparted, resting as it does on natural endowment; for all educa- 

 tional efficiency turns on personality, which is dispensed by God 

 alone; it is a matter rather of inspiration than of knowledge. Now 

 no one is so foolish as to deny the power of personality in education; 

 but neither can we question that everywhere true talent must be 

 sustained by definite knowledge. Great artists, whether poets or 

 musicians, painters or sculptors, never have despised knowledge, 

 but rather have felt the necessity of devoting themselves to the 

 scientific foundations of their art. Why should this be less true of 

 the artist in education? 



Art as a sum of capacities, combined for the attainment of a definite 

 result, is judged by the performance. But artistic activity would 

 ground itself on scientific principles; true power seeks the support of 

 precise knowledge. The art of education, in like manner, points to 

 the science of education. This is the meaning of Kant's dictum: 

 " If education is to achieve consistent practice it must transform its 

 routine methods into science." 



This transformation has been effected by sciences more ancient 

 than pedagogy, the practice of an art having led to systematic re- 

 search and to the scientific formulation of its results. Thus in the 

 domain of theology the art of preaching and of religious instruction 

 is sustained by the sciences of homiletics and catechetics; in that 

 of medicine, the art of surgery rests on the sciences of anatomy and 

 physiology; in husbandry, the practice of agriculture as an art rests 

 on chemistry and mineralogy, etc. Every type of activity that would 

 be rational and that would keep in touch with the active life of the 

 nation seeks secure foundations in science. Here let us recall a 

 saying of Cicero: " To insist that in matters of most weight there is 

 no science, though no trivial matter can dispense with it, is to speak 

 with little reflection, and to spread error in things of the greatest 

 importance." 



But how could this error creep in with regard to the education of 

 man? It is likely enough that it occurred through paying too exclu- 

 sive attention to the efficiency of particular educators. In so doing 

 each observer received the general impression that native endow- 

 ment is the chief requisite for productive effort. Then the well- 

 known proverb came to mind, Poeta non fit, nascitur; and so it came 

 about that very little value was assigned to what can be acquired 

 through scientific, systematic methods. 



This conclusion is the result of a twofold error. In the first place, 

 men ignored the fact that natural endowment, to achieve its full 

 perfection, stands in need of clarification and deepening by means 



