CIVILIZATION AND SCIENCE. 535 



dents, indeed, who in later years ever open an ancient author. So far 

 from having any warm love for the classics, most persons regard them 

 with indifference ; not a few with aversion. They are remembered only 

 as the instruments by means of which they were made familiar with the 

 rules of grammar, just as the only conception they retain of universal 

 history is that of learning by rote insignificant dates. Was it for this 

 that these youths sat for thirty hours weekly on a school-bench till their 

 eighteenth or twentieth year ? Was it for this that they devoted most 

 of their time to studying Greek, Latin, and history ? Is this the result 

 for the attainment of which the gymnasium remorselessly englooms the 

 life of the German boy ? 



In view of this state of things, we ask whether everything is going 

 on aright ; whether it is not time, and whether it is not worth our while, 

 to make an effort at reform ? Here as elsewhere it is easier, especially 

 for outsiders, to find fault than to determine how to repair the defect. 

 Here, as is so often the case in complicated questions of administration 

 and of human life in general, there are many causes in operation. We 

 take into consideration one, while ten others of no less importance escape 

 unnoticed. Still, though I expose myself to this danger, I will not re- 

 frain from expressing my views. 



Without meaning any offense to the distinguished men who have 

 taken an active part in organizing our gymnasia, or who are still so en- 

 gaged, I cannot conceal my conviction that the spirit of the gymnasium 

 does not sufficiently keep pace with the development of the human mind 

 in modern times. As is evident from what has already been said, I am 

 fully alive to the perils with which our intellectual culture is threatened 

 by an excess of realism. At the same time, we cannot shut our eyes 

 to the fact that natural science has given a new aspect to human ex- 

 istence. We should be imitating the ostrich in burying its head in the 

 sand were we to deny the mighty revolution described above, and it 

 were a vain and perilous thing to try to stop the rolling wheel of such 

 a process of development. But hitherto the gymnasium has not taken 

 this development sufficiently into account. Despite a few concessions, 

 which are apparent rather than real, it is still what the Reformation 

 made it, when as yet there was no natural science namely, a learned 

 school essentially designed as a means of preparing for the study of the 

 intellectual sciences. 



In this backwardness of the gymnasium and its refusal to comply 

 with the demands of the time lies the strength of the realschule. I do 

 not propose to enter here on the intricate question of the competencies 

 proper to each of these two kinds of institutions. For the rest, I agree 

 with the views of those who desire only one species of higher schools, 

 which should fit their pupils equally for the university, the industrial 

 or architectural academy, the army, etc. Plainly, this would be simply 

 the humanistic gymnasium transformed so as to meet these new require- 

 ments. Apart from measures of administration, all that is needed to 



