OFFICE OF PEDAGOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY 55 



the crown of our spiritual life, where dwells the real self. If we attain 

 this knowledge, we must also have the courage and the steadfast will 

 to esteem these spiritual goods the very essence of existence, and to 

 direct our lives accordingly, with firm faith in the unending, upward 

 evolution of spirit. 



An ethical system that sets forth these supreme moral standards, 

 both for reflection and for action, that presents them as a system of 

 moral ideals, must serve as the spiritual basis of educational doctrine. 

 As in the progress of mankind these ideals are brought forward with 

 increasing clearness, they should also with increasing clearness 

 count as decisive factors in that individual development which 

 education effects. 



(2) The relation of pedagogy to psychology. Essentially different is 

 the relation of pedagogy to psychology. When we have determined 

 the purpose that pedagogy has to achieve there still remains the diffi- 

 cult question how those ends are to be attained. Ethics contributes 

 the goal for which education should strive, but it has nothing to say 

 either concerning the relation this task sustains to the individual 

 that is to be educated, or concerning its feasibility. These matters 

 are to be decided by what psychology shall teach us about the pos- 

 sibilities of mental development. So we turn now to consider the 

 means which the educator employs to attain his ends. 



And let us note that it is not a question of what means in general 

 lead to that end, but it is of the first importance to know in what 

 order, in what combinations, under what circumstances, with w r hat in- 

 tensity we must employ those means to attain the given end. To 

 these questions the only science that can offer a solution is that which 

 treats of the laws that govern the inner life of man, psychology. 

 This science, then, decides what methods shall be employed, and what 

 their efficiency is. It informs us of the mental character of the 

 individual; for it is the individual that is the material on which the 

 artist in education has to work. This material is never laid bare in 

 all its peculiar features, nor does it admit of a priori construction. 

 Rather we have to search for it in the heart of each individual, and, 

 also, in the environment that is natural to him. This is to be done 

 with the help of psychology. Every artist must have a minute 

 acquaintance with his material if he would produce a work of art. 

 In like manner the educator will achieve nothing with his pupil 

 unless he knows those psychical laws that govern his inner life. 



This is of the greatest significance. For in education we are con- 

 cerned with the excitation and the fashioning of psychical life as 

 a result of external influences. These influences are only possible 

 in so far as there are invariable laws controlling our inner life. A 

 theory of education is conceivable only on the assumption that our 

 psychical activities and states follow universal laws determined by 



