240 FOEKSTEK, AND NEGLECTED FACTORS IN EDUCATION. 



of sexual confusion and demoralisation lay in a lack of knowledge. As 

 though the problem were one of knowledge instead of one of power and 

 resistance. 



And at this point the question of religion in school is dis- 

 cussed. 



Now it cannot be denied, as Du Bois Reymond has asserted : 



that the newest development in natural science has its origin largely in 

 Christianity. The terrible earnestness of this religion gave mankind 

 in. the course of ages that melancliolic tendency, delving in the lowest 

 strata of our being, which made it better adapted for earnest investiga- 

 tion, than the frivolous desire for life so characteristic of paganism. Thus 

 inspiring man with an earnest desire after pure knowledge, Christianity 

 furnished natural science what for a long period of time it had withheld. 



It is the ethical power of Christianity which acted so benefi- 

 cially in the region of science : that deep patience, that careftilness, 

 that earnestness and perseverance in detail, and that scrupulous- 

 ness and anxiety to enter into a question for its own sake — all 

 these Paganism had no conception of ; they are the ripe fruit of 

 the culture of conscience through Christianity. 



If these thitikers are right, there should be room for religion, 

 " Life has either got to be religious," says Mr. Wells, in one of 

 his last books, "Mr. Britling," " or it goes to pieces." 



Now it stands to reason that religion cannot be taught at 



school as it is taught in a German gymnasium. Mr. Holmes is 



right when he says : — 



The idea of holding formal examination in religious knowledge seems 

 scarcely less ridiculous than the idea of holding a formal examination in 

 unselfishness, and brotherly love. The test of religious knowledge is 

 necessarily practical and vital, not formal and mechanical. 



The driving force in an engine does not consist in an elaborate 

 system of valves an of pistons, all of which must be carefully 

 tabulated. A knowledge of all the valves and pistons does not 

 account for that driving power, the steam. Nor does a knowledge 

 of various theories as to generation of steam or heat as an 

 element in the production of steam helj) us to realize the power 

 in that driving force which sets the engine in motion. 



Foerster, in one of his works, quotes Jeremias Gotthelf, who 

 says : — 



I knew the Ten Commandments. Hut what help do they give, when 

 the soul is not known in its weakness and strength, life in its corruption 

 and evil tendencies? The names of virtues and vices may be known, 

 but they must be known in life in one's own soul. We need a geography 

 of the heart, as we need a geography of Spitzbergen, and the doctrine and 

 history of the soul seems to me as important as a knowledge of the geo- 

 graphical strata or of primeval mountain ranges and the history of the 

 three sons of Noah. The child comes to know the visible and the tan- 

 gible, but to the realm of spirit the key is withheld, viz.. the knowledge of 

 his own soul. 



Foerster's views on this point are not narrow, sectarian, do^ 

 matic, one-sided. But he insists on the inculcation of revereno.- 

 as an element in modern education. And what is reverence but 

 religion writ large? Again and again Foerster returns to this 

 point. Like Ligthart, in Holland, who lately passed from us, he 

 insists on the teacher being in life and thought and act an expo- 



