730 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



the people to look before and after. In a thousand ways philosophy 

 brings reinforcements to progi'ess. because it emphasises the things 

 that are unseen and eternal. As an instance of its influence in the 

 conflicts of life, commerce, and even war, one recalls the pronounce- 

 ment of a French officer after the tragic end of the campaign with 

 Prussia, quoted by the Bishop of Ripon in his History of the 

 Church of England — " Not only have we seen German generals 

 triumph over French armies, but we have seen also the triumph 

 of the speculative geniuses of Germany, of those who during the 

 last century have given an impetus to German literature, philo- 

 sophy and science and, ipso facto, to ' public spirit ' ; we have been 

 defeated by Kant and Fichte, by Goethe and Schiller, by Alexander 

 and William von Humboldt, by Gauss and Helmholtz, as well as 

 by Bismarck and Moltke." 



r..— THE PLACE OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE 

 TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 



By Dr. PERCIVAL R. COLE, Vke- Principal, Sydney Teachers' College. 



(Abstract.) 



In the normal schools and teachers' colleges of the United States 

 there is no professional subject as generally insisted upon as the 

 history of education. The college course in the history of education 

 may be dominated by any one of three motives. Firstly, it may 

 be viewed as a discipline in the patient extrication and elucidation 

 of educational facts from historical sources. Secondly, it may be 

 elevated to the height of a fountain of culture. Thirdly, it may be 

 subordinated to the purpose of professional utility. In the Sydney 

 Teachers' College, there is no attempt to subdivide the course in 

 the history of education, so as to allot this portion to the interests 

 of culture, that to professional utility, and that to discipline in 

 research ; but wherever the three motives enter into any sort of 

 competition, the mere exercise of diligence in the collection of facts 

 is minimised. Such a discipline, however, would be admirable for 

 'graduate students. 



On the whole, the attempt to stir up a triangular rivalry 

 between culture, utility and pure science in the field of the history 

 of education would be to mistake the fundamental meaning of the 

 ■history of education itself. The question of the value of the subject 

 resolves itself into the general question of the value of the historical 

 method in any field. Imagine political theory without political 

 history, law without the chronicles of early codes, psychology 

 stripped of genetic studies, ethics apart from the history of morals, 

 philosophy without the history of philosophy, and you have a 

 picture of educational theory without the history of education. It 

 is not easy to determine the exact and proper scope of the subject. 

 If, however, education may be defined as the process by which the 



