JULY 28, 1899. ] 
his Vita, in which the candidate tells when he 
was born, the rank or occupation of his father, 
his religious adherence, etc.; this is to be writ- 
ten in Latin if his subjects are the classical 
languages, and in French or English if they 
are the modern languages. His application is 
not regarded as satisfactory if the commis- 
sioners are left in any doubt as to his moral 
character, or if they suspect him of being dis- 
loyal in either religion or politics. But after 
all these requirements have been met, and the 
examination has been successfully passed, the 
candidate is by no means ready to enter upon 
his profession ; two years of purely pedagogical 
training must follow, first a year of study in a 
pedagogical seminary, and then a year of trial- 
teaching, under inspection. For this year of 
teaching he receives no remuneration, and if 
his work is not satisfactory he may, on the re- 
port of his director, be dismissed from the serv- 
ice. This last year of his preparation has 
brought him, counting in the one year of mili- 
tary service which he must have passed 
through, to the age of twenty-six at the very 
least, and more frequently he is two or three 
years older than that; having reached this 
stage his name is inscribed on the list of 
teachers eligible to appointment, and after a 
period of waiting, which lasts on the average 
from five to six years, he is at the end sure of 
an occupation for the rest of his life, and of a 
decent retiring pension at the close of his term 
of service. 
In comparison with the easy-going methods 
which we are accustomed to in this country, all 
this looks like hardship in the extreme for the 
poor teacher. But what admirable provision it 
makes for the training of the coming scholar! 
With an educational system which is laid out 
on such a scale as this, it is no wonder that 
learning and research have their home in Ger- 
many, and that in industrial matters as well 
England and France have discovered that their 
supremacy is in imminent danger of passing 
away. The great pressure in Germany upon 
the means of subsistence, and in particular the 
extreme social prestige which attaches to the 
occupations which presuppose learning, and 
the social repression which is exerted upon 
those whose wealth is their only claim to recog- 
_ SCIENCE. 
117 
nition, have brought it about that the profession 
of teacher, whether in high school or in univer- 
sity, is one of extreme attractiveness ; it follows 
from this that-young men are willing to undergo 
long and expensive training for the privilege of 
entering it, and that the requirements can be 
made more and more exacting with only the 
result of securing better and better material. 
If a high civilization consists in a form of society 
in which the real things of life receive their 
rightful appreciation, in which an unselfish de- 
votion to learning, to art, and to the discharge 
of the duties of public office is the quality above 
all others which is rewarded with the respect 
and honor of the whole comuunity, then Ger- 
many may well claim to be at the present 
moment the most civilized nation upon the face 
of the earth. Certainly there is no other 
country where the art of securing the comforts, 
the artistic enjoyments, and, to a large extent, 
the elegances of life for a small expenditure of 
time and of money has been brought to such a 
state of perfection as here. This is largely, of 
course, because the Germans are free from the 
vulgar love of luxury and passion for display 
which the higher classes, that is, the intellectual 
classes, have not wholly succeeded in putting 
down in England and America ; ‘conspicuous 
consumption,’ to use the happy characteriza- 
tion of Mr. Veblen, has not for them the bane- 
ful attractiveness which it has for the English 
and the Americans. 
This is the bright side of the picture. The 
other and painful feature of intellectual life in 
Germany is that it is the possession of one-half 
of the population only; the women have 
thrown away the inheritance which should 
have been theirs from their splendid early Ger- » 
man ancestors, and have sunk low in the abyss 
of household drudgery. The only way to effect 
a change in this sad state of things is to begin 
at the top; when it has once become not only 
possible, but a matter of course, for the clever 
woman to follow university courses, the stand- 
ard as regards the proper consumption of time 
will be quickly raised throughout all ranks; 
-professor’s wives will no longer sit up all night 
to finish Christmas presents in worsted work as 
they do now, but will save their eyes for better 
uses. Great changes have been effected in 
