STUDY AND RESEARCH. 661 



in contents that tlie desire for knowledge is constantly stimulated, and, 

 on tlie other hand, by their essential nature they offer wide opi)ortuuity 

 for original investigation. These advantages explain why their study 

 schools the mind of the young so thoroughly that it easily familiarizes 

 itself with the work of any of the faculties. 



Instruction in at least the elements of these branches has long been 

 part of the regular course at our higher institutions. Onlythe amount 

 of knowledge to be considered the standard has varied from time to 

 time. The opinions of teachers and of the state officials authorized to 

 make decisions changed frequently, and in the end the overwhelm- 

 ingly i)hilological character of their education always militated against 

 a more extended engagement in those studies. Only the necessity of 

 meeting the exigencies of swiftly progressing technics and of the indus- 

 trial arts keeping pace therewith extorted concessions, and as it was 

 believed that they could not be carried out at the humanistic institu- 

 tions a division of labor was finally resolved upon, and produced the 

 Real-Schule and Real-Gymnasium, and, as a further result, the higher 

 technical schools. 



The expedient has not proved successful in establishing permanent 

 peace. We are in the heat of the conflict about the prerogatives of the 

 different kinds of higher schools, particularly the admission of the grad- 

 uates of the Eeal-Schule first to university courses and then to state 

 offices. Again and again the cry resounds for a homogeneous school 

 system, and especially for the radical reform of gymnasium methods. 

 Probably not all these pretensions are equally just. 



As a rule the universities have refused to support the demand of the 

 Eeal-Schule to admit its graduates as such. They are apt to be partial 

 to the Gymnasium. As intimated above, the interests of the diflereut 

 faculties with regard to the character of preparatory education are not 

 identical. The faculties that depend upon philological aids in the fur- 

 therance of their pecnliar educational mission will not be satisfied with 

 preparatory work that assigns a more or less subordinate place to the 

 classical languages; while those in w^hose departments knowledge of 

 the ancient languages is not the indispensable condition for the under- 

 standing of their specialties must consider to what extent a full course 

 in mathematics and the natural sciences offers adequate compensation 

 for deficiencies in the classical education. Experience has not yet 

 helped us to come to a decision on this point. This circumstance may, 

 however, be adduced: Among the foreigners admitted to our various 

 departments not a few have attended the lectures zealously and with 

 praiseworthy results, in spite of not having enjoyed Gymnasium training 

 in our sense of the term. 



The practical requirements of the different faculties with regard to 

 the i)reparatory work of the matriculates differ undeniably. It remains 

 for the future to show whether a single sort of higher educational insti- 

 tution can fulfill all. One assertion can even now be definitely made. 



