THU PROBLEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 87 



and it was merely an historical accident that these branches were 

 taught in Latin, and, to a large extent, learned from Greek text-booka. 

 The same was true of the other faculties. It would be just as logical 

 to demand that our candidates for the degree "M. D." shall be exam- 

 ined in Latin on the contents of Greek texts on medicine as it is to 

 say that the degree of Bachelor or Master " of Arts " stands for the 

 languages in which the studies were taught and studied, instead of 

 standing for the subjects themselves. 



At the German universities the teaching was done in Latin as late 

 as the beginning of the eighteenth century, and, in one or two 

 branches, through the entire century, and, in one or two instances, 

 even into part of the nineteenth. It was then a necessity for the 

 higher school to require of its students familiarity with this language, 

 and it was the special business of the preparatory schools to give 

 them this familiarity. This is the original and true reason why Latin 

 even now occupies such a large place in German secondary instruction. 

 It is the force of tradition, to which has since been added the convic- 

 tion that the study is the best possible for all on account of its intrin- 

 sic value. This, however, was an after-thought of those whose busi- 

 ness it was to teach it, and the same is true of Greek. The example 

 of Latin naturally suggested the same reasoning for the study of 

 Greek, and the preparatory school did what it could to send to the uni- 

 versity students who should be able to use both these languages in 

 actual study, and for the purpose of gaining information from books 

 printed in them. But gradually and steadily the subjects taught at 

 the university took a wider range. What had been the very best 

 preparation for the few subjects originally taught at the university 

 became soon of special value only for a few subjects. The prepara- 

 tory schools were called on to meet the increasing demand. They had 

 to add many other branches, French among them, to their course, and 

 thus it happened that the German student who wished to prepare for 

 the university had to spend from eight to ten years in studies that 

 required his presence at the school for thirty-two hours per week, 

 about one half of which was devoted to the two specialties, Latin 

 and Greek. We say " specialties," for such they were, and still are, 

 although the strange claim is made that this preparatory school, the 

 " gymnasium," does not intend to teach specialties, but tries to guard 

 against the danger of the one-sidedness of special pursuits by the 

 introduction of the two ancient languages. Those who make this 

 claim fail to see that, were it not for the sixteen or seventeen hours of 

 other instruction that the school now imparts, the German student 

 would still be the same unpracticable pedant, distinguished only for his 

 absolutely dead learning, and all but total ignorance of everything else, 

 that he was a hundred years ago. It is only in a comparatively small 

 part that the occupation with Latin and Greek liberalized his intellect 

 and opened to him visions of intellectual growth. To a far greater 



