142 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



tion introduced for all those whose schooling extended 

 beyond their thirteenth or fourteenth year. One of its 

 most important results is to be found in the complete 

 destruction of that difference of class which clung to 

 the few older and celebrated classical schools. These 

 resembled in some ways the public schools of England, 

 through which class distinctions are still intentionally 

 or unintentionally upheld.^ 



For the moment this subject is for us only of 

 collateral importance, our present object being to follow 

 the critical spirit in its various developments. That, 

 applied to the study of the classical authors, it led to 

 the establishment of a rigid met.hod and a strict 

 discipline was one of its chief recommendations in the 

 eyes of educationalists. This brought about its wide- 

 spread introduction in the learned schools. In the 

 year 1872, thirty - eight headmasters and thirty - six 

 professors were counted as belonging to the school 

 of Eitschl.^ But at that time the critical spirit 



^ The difference of class wliich in 

 England is expressed by the term 

 higher and middle class was, 

 through the teaching at the older 

 Fiirsteuschulen of Saxony, exhib- 

 ited rather in the distinction be- 

 tween classical and non-classical edu- 

 cation ; the absence of a thoi-ough 

 knowledge of Latin in reading, 

 writing, and poetical composition 

 being considered by many as 

 equivalent to an ab.sence of real 

 culture. This standard shut out 

 not only the uneducated, the 

 industrial, and the tradesman, but 

 also those who possessed merely 

 literary attainments such as polite 

 learning and proficiency in modern 

 languages. 



^ Of Ritschl's enormous activity 



and extraordinary personal influ- 

 ence both at Bonn and later in 

 Leipzig, a full account is given in 

 Otto Ribbeck's ' Life of Ritschl ' 

 (2 vols., 1879-1881 ; see especially 

 vol. ii. pp. 42, 299, 408, &c., also 

 the long list of eminent classical 

 scholars who were trained in 

 Ritschl's seminary, p. 560, &c. ) A 

 very interesting and spirited 

 picture of Ritschl's personality and 

 influence during the heyday of his 

 career is to be found in the Bio- 

 graphy of Fr. Nietzsche by his 

 sister E. Forster-Nietzsche (3 vols., 

 1895-1904). It is, however, in- 

 teresting to note that Nietzsche, 

 in spite of his admiration for 

 Ritschl, had some misgivings that 

 the value of the method might 



