1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



391 



he went to study in the higher school of Magde 

 burg. Here it was that he received fifteen blows 

 in one day, for Luther was no saint, either as boy 

 or man, and was by no means so fortunate as toes- 

 cape the rod. A f'iend in Berlin has told me, how- 

 ever, that in this matter, the translator of Dr. Mer- 

 le's History of the Reformation has made Luther's 

 master little better than a brute, representing that 

 he gave the child fifteen floggings in one day. The 

 reader who has the History at hand, would do well 

 to turn to its pages, and correct the error, for it is 

 hardly creditable to Luther's school-days, that it 

 should stand recorded in a book so well known as 

 Merle's History, that he received fifteen floggings 

 within six hours. 



Externally the school-room has the same appear- 

 ance as when Martin Luther entered its door. Over 

 that stands now a statue in relief of one of the 

 counts of Mansfeld, with these lines written beneath : 



Cen Trojanus equns piignaces ventre cohortes 

 Edidit, educt'^s &i<; schola docta viros. 

 In plures nobis, Maunorum Eques, ede Lutheros 

 Et surgent Christo plura trophuea duci. 



"As the Trojan horse sent out from its belly war- 

 like bands, so a well-taught school sends forth cul- 

 tivated men. Give more Luthers to us, knight of 

 Mansfeld, and trophies will yet rise to the viciori- 

 ous CJhrist." 



Within, all is changed : the stone pavement 

 whereon his feet trod, alone remains untouched. 

 The walls are white-washed, the upper rooms turned 

 into a dwelling-house for the present teacher ; the 

 old seats on which Luther used to sit have been re- 

 moved and destroyed. On one the name of the 

 Reformer was cut with a knife ; that too is gone. 

 When the last, and perhaps the only Americans 

 who have ever been here before, visited the school 

 five years since, the old seats were still to be seen, 

 but since then the teacher who received them in so 

 friemlly a manner has died, and the building has 

 been made more conformable to the wants of the 

 present generation. 



Still the spirit of Luther dwells in the place: it 

 is called Luther's school ; the Reformer's portrait 



IS to be seen m every room and the thick walls, the Italian, which we use, and the Deutsch or na- 

 the windows ^iththeir small panes, the low-stud- tional hand, well adapted to rapid writing, but stiff 

 ded ceiling, all bring those olden times to mind, and utterly ungiinly. It is well known to our read- 



ing town of Eisleben, the birth-place of Luther, to 

 enter the Re-al School, and to advance to the high- 

 er stages of instruction. 



_ The instruction given is of the most thorough 

 kind. Everything is systematized after the general 

 custom in Germany, and an hour is given to every 

 class. The teachers enter thoroughly into the spir- 

 it of their work, and everything that the stranger 

 notices bears that air of earnestness which is so 

 grateful to see. The order of the school was 

 nearly perfect. During the half day which I spent 

 there, I saw no instance of whisp"ering, nor any 

 breach of good manners. This is the more to be 

 wondered at, when we consider the crowded state 

 of the rooms. The desks are not separate, as with 

 us, and each accommodated about ten pupils. So 

 closely are they placed together, that at the end of 

 the session I noticed that it was impossible for the 

 pupils to rise and walk into the aisle ; they were 

 obliged to work their way along in a very primitive 

 manner. 



At the entrance of a stranger, the pupils rise to- 

 gether, and give in concert, the common salutation, 

 "Ich empfeh]emich,"I recommend myself; and as 

 he leaves the room, all rise again and say, "Adieu!" 

 This originally French expression has become thor- 

 oughly Germanized, and is daily to be heard in all 

 the streets and in the shops. The school closes in 

 this instance as with us, the teacher addressing 

 himself to those sitting on each bench, but there 

 was this difference : as each scholar left the room 

 he said "Adieu." These were the only things which 

 were novel, and which seem peculiar to the German 

 character. 



I had the pleasure of witnessing four school ex- 

 ercises, in writing, map-drawing, reading and anal- 

 ysis. The writing was excellent : such neat pages 

 and carefully written copies I have never seen. — 

 One recognizes here that great feature of the na- 

 tional character, that exact knowledge of the rela- 

 tions of parts and of sounds, which gives them 

 their excellence in drawing and music. 



The German children have this advantage in 

 writing ; they have two separate hands to learn : 



and one can easily imagine the sickly little boy, the 

 miner's son, on the l)enches before him. 



This is the first school for young children which 

 I have visited in Germany, and a description of its 

 appearance, of the method of teaching, so far as a 

 half day would admit of seeing it, may not be un- 

 interesting to the readers of the "Teacher." M}' 

 own investigations have therefore been confined to 

 the Re-al schools and the Gymansiums; and of 

 these I shall speak in future letters. 



The Luther School in Mansfeld contains about 

 one hundred scholars. Two classes are taught in 

 the building where the Reformer first received in- 

 struction; another, the class for girls, meets under 

 the church, where Luther often preached; and the 

 elementary school, where both sexes are initiated 

 into the mysteries of the German alphabet, is held 

 in a neighboring room. These four classes form 

 one school, and are under the general direction of 

 Mr. Polhmann, the instructor of the highest class. 

 The age of the pupils is the same as in the summer 

 schools with us ; and when they have been here 

 grounded in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, 

 history, and morals, they are sent to the neighbor- 



ers of the Teacher that German books are every 

 year more and more printed in the Roman charac- 

 ter. All scientific books are so ; railway tickets, 

 cards of admission to lectures, the laws printed by 

 order of government are so, and the people are 

 gradually becoming reconciled to the change. But 

 the old hand-writing is still clung to. I do not 

 think that it will ever be entirely superseded. For 

 stenographic purposes it is admirable. I have of- 

 ten seen students at the University, take down a 

 lecture word for word from the Professor's lips ; 

 and a system of handwriting that has this advantage, 

 may well dispense with ornament. 



The exercise in analysis which I witnessed was 

 excellent. The terms used in German grammar 

 are much more intelligible to children than those 

 of Latin origin which are employed with us. The 

 substantive or noun, which conveys to our children 

 no idea, because they do not know Latin, is to the 

 German children the -'Hanpt-wort," the head-word ; 

 the conjunction is the Bind-wort, the translation of 

 which is so obvious that I will not write it. What 

 life such a nomenclature gives to this usually un 

 meaning exercise, can readily be imagined. 



