296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this particular series of reports, made in the manner in which they 

 were, they have still more serious objections, which we shall notice 

 later. 



Turning aside now to another phase of the subject, let us see 

 whether any influences have been at work which tend to give the gym- 

 nasia a better class of material to work with. If the boys who enter 

 the gymnasia are decidedly superior in ability to those entering the 

 real schools, we shall have a partial explanation of the better results 

 achieved by the former. 



The first point to be mentioned in this connection is that the tra- 

 ditions of Germany are classical. For decades and decades nearly 

 every prominent man in law, medicine, theology, teaching, and (so far 

 as nobility has not been accepted as a substitute for education) in the 

 civil and military service of the country, has enjoyed the benefits of a 

 classical education, if for no other reasons, simply because he was obliged 

 to " enjoy " them as a condition of entering these careers. We all 

 know how easily we associate two things which we always see together, 

 in the relation of caiise and effect. And so this eminence and culture 

 which, owing largely to the artificial pressure we have mentioned, 

 have for years and years in Germany been found in connection with a 

 more or less complete knowledge of Latin and Greek, have come to be 

 associated with the latter as effect from a cause. The sign has come 

 to be largely accepted in place of the thing signified. It can not have 

 escaped the observation of any reflective person who has ever lived in 

 Germany, that there is a very wide social chasm in that country 

 between the so-called liberally educated [die Studirten) and those who 

 have not pursued such courses. There is, so to speak, an educational 

 hierarchy, and the only path to it lies through the gymnasium. As in 

 all hierarchies, so in this, there is an immense amount of Pharisaism, 

 a touch-me-not and a come-not-near-with-unholy-hands kind of spirit 

 which looks down on everything not of its type as something infinitely 

 lower. The Studirter looks down, not only on the merchant or the 

 artisan, but also upon the Vblksschullehrer (common-school teacher) 

 with a calm sense of superiority and a provoking self-conceit — no 

 matter how successful the career of the latter may have been. A 

 small professor in a small university, of small ability and still less suc- 

 cess, commiserates the most successful common-school teacher because 

 he has not studied Latin and Greek ; and we must add that the latter 

 envies the former, taking the sign (Latin and Greek) for the thing sig- 

 nified (culture). No Studirter thinks of seriously discussing any ques- 

 tion with a Non-studirter^ but disposes of all difficult objections by 

 the crushing answer that his opponent is an ungehildeter Mensch. 



The artisan or merchant sees that no amount of culture derived from 

 the study of modern subjects, or in the pursuit of his calling, or from 

 the vigorous contact with active life, can secure for him a social recog- 

 nition or equality with the Gelehrter ; the common-school teacher sees 



