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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the concluding part herewith published. 

 After a survey of the progress of the 

 human mind as illustrated in the great 

 scientific movement of 'modern times, 

 he comes to the practical question of 

 German education, considered in rela- 

 tion to those extreme utilitarian ten- 

 dencies of the age against which he 

 protests. How is the Americanization 

 of European culture to he withstood in 

 Germany ? that is his question. The 

 reply has been, through the liberalizing 

 influence of classical studies. The pro- 

 fessor acknowledges himself a devotee 

 to these studies, and has a high opinion 

 of their educational value ; but he ad- 

 mits that, although prosecuted with 

 great vigor, they have failed to produce 

 the desired effect. " "What other coun- 

 try can boast of imparting so thorough 

 and so learned a classical education, 

 and that to so large a proportion of its 

 youth, even of the less wealthy class- 

 es? " But all this is a humiliating fail- 

 ure. They neither acquired a critical 

 familiarity with Latin and Greek vo- 

 cabularies, nor did they arrive at any 

 such conception of the thought of the 

 ancients as to see in what way we are 

 their intellectual descendants. " Their 

 indifference toward broad ideas and 

 historic sequence makes it difficult for 

 me to believe that they are permeated 

 with the spirit of antiquity, or that 

 they had received a sound historical 

 training." This, it will be remem- 

 bered, is the complaint everywhere in 

 the English universities and the Amer- 

 ican colleges : not one in ten of those 

 who consume years in the study of 

 classics gets any intelligent acquaint- 

 ance with the subject. It is, moreover, 

 an old and cogent objection to the usual 

 study of Latin and Greek, both in Eng- 

 land and in this country, that, so far 

 from favoring a critical knowledge of 

 English, it hinders and defeats the 

 mastery of the mother-tongue. Prof. 

 Du Bois-Reymond alleges that the sajne 

 effect is produced in Germany. Of the 

 graduates of the gymnasia who had 



drilled so long, though ineffectually, in 

 Latin and Greek, he says, "For the 

 most part these young people wrote in 

 ungrammatical and inelegant German." 

 They " did not even suspect that any 

 one could care about purity of language 

 and pronunciation, force of expression, 

 brevity, or pointedness of style." The 

 study of classical authors is again ar- 

 raigned with us as obstructing the 

 proper study of the great English clas- 

 sics; and Prof. Du Bois-Reymond re- 

 marks, " This neglect of the mother- 

 tongue in the youth of the present day 

 is accompanied by a lack of acquaint- 

 ance with the German classics that is 

 oftentimes astounding." It is again 

 said that the classical students of Eng- 

 lish and American colleges very rarely 

 acquire any permanent interest in these 

 studies, so as to keep them up as a part 

 of the mental occupation in after-life. 

 The same complaint is made in Ger- 

 many. The professor says : 



"There are but few students, indeed, 

 who in later years ever open an ancient au- 

 thor. 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 instru- 

 ments by means of which they were made 

 familiar with the rules of grammar, just as 

 the only conception they retain of univer- 

 sal history is that of learning by rote insig- 

 nificant dates. Was it for this that these 

 youths sat for thirty hours weekly on a 

 school-bench till their eighteenth or twen- 

 tieth year? Was it for this that they de- 

 voted most of their time to studying Greek, 

 Latin, and history ? Is this the result for 

 the attainment of which the gymnasium re- 

 morselessly englooms the life of the Ger- 

 man boy ? " 



Prof. Du Bois-Reymond therefore 

 acknowledges a serious modification of 

 opinion in regard to the employment of 

 classical studies in the German schools. 

 The gymnasia, or higher schools, have 

 failed with their classics, and the indus- 

 trial schools in which these studies are 

 but little taught are entitled to increas- 

 ing consideration. Classical studies, he 



