236 FOKRSTER, AND NEGLICCTKD FACTORS IN i:DUtATION. 



Many educationists suffer shipwreck not through lack uf knowledge, 

 but through lack of knowledge of human nature, lack of knowledge of 

 the child's soul. Many a man is a failure in society or in the kingdom of 

 God, because in youth he was roughly handled, as a piano on which 

 fists have been banging in order to beat out a tune. 



By ethical training, therefore, i.s meant the development of 

 the whole man — body, .soul, and spirit. And in man the centre of 

 all activity is the will. Kant's opening sentence in his " Meta- 

 physic of Ethics " is : " There is nothing in the world which can 

 be termed absolutely and altogether good, a good will alone ex- 

 cepted." And Foerster insists u])on the formation of the will in 

 the child. He combats very strongly, in language glowing with 

 fervour, the views of those who. like Mrs. Stetson, sneer at the 

 great significance of obedience in the early training of the child. 

 While this American educationist maintains that self-suppression, 

 the habit of bowing before authority, eventually leads to filling 

 the world with a number of spiritless, will-less beings, the sport of 

 every tyrant who insists upon obedience to hiniiself and himself 

 alone, Foerster declares that strong personalities at all times 

 have been those who m early years have learnt to obey. For 

 obedience teaches man to lift himself above the natural tendencies 

 of his will. To speak of the autonomy of the will means the 

 possession of the " auto," but not the '* nomy " ; an inflated self, 

 not self-legislation ; obstinacy, which is will stiffened, hardened, 

 useless, dead. Again and again Foerster returns to this point : 



The so-called "individual" will (he says) is the greatest hindrance to 

 the development of the personality, because it is in the highest degree 

 exposed to external influences and the stimulus of passing events. The 

 struggle against this " peripheric will " is a means of strengthening the 

 "central will," the real initiative in personality. 



This so-called ''individualism '" he combats elsewhere in 

 one of his most interesting books, " Autoritat und Freiheit." 

 Take a few sentences at random : — 



Der Individualismus bedeutet nichts anders als die Herrschaft des 

 absoluten Dilettantismus. . . . Ihr redet von der Autonomic des 

 Individums halit ilir denn auch schon einmal ueber seine Kompetenz nach- 

 gedacht? . . . Comte bezeichnet den Individualismus als die 

 "abendlandische Krankheit" an der die Europaische Kulltir noch zugrunde 

 gehen muss. 



The primary lesson, therefore, is " obedience " : the object, 

 the training of the will. 



It is interesting to note that another great German Educa- 

 tionist, the late Prof. Paitlsen, of Berlin, gives expression to 

 similar views : — 



Three imperatives stand out as guideposts to all true education : 

 Learn to obey. Learn to apply yourself. Learn to suppress and overcome 

 desires. 



He, too, insists on the training of the will. He warns against 

 excessive physical training, so characteristic of the modern 

 school, and quotes an old maxim slightly altered to suit the case : 



Qui proficit in physicis et deficit in moril)Us, plus deficit quam pro- 

 ficit. 



