OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 753 



losophy, and paid special attention to good conduct and bodily exer- 

 cise. The instruction was conducted by most perfect mechanism, the 

 memory was inordinately developed, and obedience absolute. This 

 system served the Church ; and no better scholars, according to this 

 standard, could be found than those who came from the institutes of 

 the Jesuits. 



The first condition for education is freedom a freedom limited 

 by nothing except the individual conscience and the rights of our fel- 

 low-men. Therefore any educational system established solely for the 

 benefit of a special party or creed can have value for those persons 

 only who, of choice, belong to the party, and of choice accept the 

 creed. We have seen that middle-age training was exclusively a con- 

 tra-earthly training. We have seen, also, that education was not 

 allowed the necessary freedom by the reformers. Their liberty of 

 conscience, as all know, was but slavery compared with the later and 

 fuller realization. Our present point of outlook is the wide-spread 

 attention given to the subject of education. The thing to be done is 

 to sever education from its constrained, unnatural relation to the 

 Church. During the last years of Luther's life (154G), this work 

 was commenced by the two Germans Trotzendorf and Sturm. Most 

 noticeable here is the unconsciousness of these men as to the signifi- 

 cance of their undertaking. John Sturm was born at Schleiden in 

 1507. In 1537 he came to Strasburg, organized the gymnasium here, 

 and remained as its rector from 1538 to 1583. It is said that the 

 schools established by Sturm and under the direction of his teachers 

 numbered many thousand students, among them pupils from Portugal, 

 Poland, and England. 



Tlie central thing in all right education was, according to Sturm, 

 the Latin language. Unlike Melanchthon, he wished Latin to be stud- 

 ied for its own sake, not for the Church. " He would secure for the 

 German youth the same culture which distinguished the youths of 

 Greece and Rome." Education is passing from the control of the 

 Church to the control of Greece and Rome. This exchange was an 

 advantage, though it was by no means the liberty which maketh free 

 indeed. For centuries boys were to study Greek and Latin nolens 

 volenSy up, down, and all around. Here is the origin, the natural 

 origin, of that supremacy of the classics in education which, inevitable 

 and serviceable for many years, seeks in vain to maintain itself for- 

 ever. We shall appreciate Sturm's system best by looking at the plan 

 of his schools, which, fortunately, has been preserved. 



"For the first seven years the mother shall bring up the child. 

 At the seventh year the boy is brought to school. The school-train- 

 ing lasts nine years. Then begins the freer method, such as hearing 

 lectures and practicing disputations. Of the nine classes which the 

 scholar must pass through in nine years, seven classes and seven years 

 are set apart for the mastery of the extra pure Latin speech, two 

 vol. xxix. 48 



