THE CLASSICAL QUESTION IN GERMANY. 297 



that no career of public service in his sphere, however useful or suc- 

 cessful, can secure entrance for him into that charmed circle of the 

 Gelehrtenthum, and silently resolves that his boy must have a different 

 chance from that which he has had. Of the force which this tradi- 

 tional influence exerts no one can form an adequate idea who has not 

 had the opportunity of associating intimately with the various classes 

 of the people ; for, although a similar spirit may be met in America, 

 it is of such small influence as hardly to be discernible. 



A classical education has, then, come to be the proper thing in 

 Germany for every aspiring man. It is a stamp of gentility, an ab- 

 solute essential to high social position and influence. Every parent 

 desires to give it to his boy, if for no other reason, simply on account 

 of this different social position which it confers upon him. To give 

 him this education he must send him to the gymnasium. 



But there is another and still more powerful influence at work 

 to secure the attendance at the classical schools. We have already 

 corrected President Porter's statement that the graduates of the real 

 schools are admitted to all the privileges of the university. They 

 are not allowed to enter the law, medical, or theological facul- 

 ties, and their privileges in the philosophical faculty are practically 

 limited to the study of natural science, mathematics, and modern 

 languages. That is to say, if a father wishes to keep open to his son 

 when he becomes twenty years of age the choice of the learned pro- 

 fessions, and the possibility of obtaining any of the higher positions 

 of the civil service, he must put him through the gymnasium in the 

 first place. 



Of course, under such circumstances, all professional men desire 

 their boys to follow one of the learned professions, and send them 

 consequently to a gymnasium. During an extensive tour in Germany 

 last summer, the writer had the opportunity of meeting a large num- 

 ber of university and other professional men. In answer to the ques- 

 tion which was quite regularly asked, " What school do your boys at- 

 tend ? " they replied, almost without exception : " The gymnasium, of 

 course ; we send them to the real school only w T hen they are too 

 stupid or too lazy to keep up in the gymnasium." Thus the educated 

 and intelligent classes send their boys, who, to some extent at least, 

 have inherited their intelligence and ability, to the gymnasium. Those 

 members of the mercantile or artisan class, who have bright boys 

 from whom they hope much, strain every nerve to support them at 

 the school which forms the sole avenue to all government honors and 

 social position. 



t)o we not find here the explanation we are seeking ? Is not this 

 the secret why the boys who graduate from the gymnasium are as 

 a class superior to those who finish a real-school course ? They are 

 the brighter boys of the community ; they are, as a rule, of educated 

 blood, from homes where education and refinement prevail, and life 



