December 9, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



28s 



knowledge which forms the pride of our civilization, and using 

 methods that are in direct antagonism to the teachings of modern 

 educational science.' What he asks is, that the Realschule, where 

 science is represented and the classics find but a small place, shall 

 be placed on equal footing with the Gymnasium ; that its certifi- 

 cate be on a par with that of the Gymnasitim as a credential for 

 entering the university and as a step toward official advancement. 

 When the two systems are allowed to compete on equal terms, a 

 healthy rivalry will give each its proper position in the educational 

 system. 



In support of this position. Professor Preyer recounts some inter- 

 esting facts. In the first place, the present constitution of the 

 Gymnasium is complained of. It puts too much strain on book- 

 knowledge, on memory-cram, on non-useful accumulation of dead 

 words, and allows no place to fresh, living facts. A very small 

 portion (only about fifteen per cent) go through the Gymnasium and 

 receive the mark of proficiency, and many of these are older than 

 they should be. The school must be arranged so that the majority 

 of the pupils pass the examination with credit. Their physical 

 health suffers, as is shown very conclusively by the number of re- 

 jections for the military service. The number suffering from short- 

 sightedness {myopia) is starding. Furthermore, the university pro- 

 fessors are very rapidly coming to prefer students who have some 

 practical training ; and more than half have, in answer to a circular, 

 expressed themselves in favor of placing the two schools on an 

 equal footing. The students of the sciences are increasing, in re- 

 cent years very rapidly ; and yet the whole world of science must 

 accept all such recognitions of its disciplinary and culture value as 

 patronizing concessions from the powerful ' dead-word ' scholars. 

 Professor Preyer wants no concessions, but a complete recognition 

 that the ' new education ' offers a training at least as valuable, from 

 a practical as well as a humanitarian standpoint, as the traditional 

 schooling of Germany. 



As the charge is often brought that the objectors do not state 

 what they want, but only what they object to, the author 

 sketches a plan of school which he regards as in harmony with the 

 needs of modern life and the teachings of a sound physiology. 

 " Much more time must be devoted in the schools to character- 

 building, that is, to moral education and to physical culture, and 

 much less to instruction, that is, memory work." First of all, he 

 asks a thorough systematic course in the mother-tongue, so that 

 every young man can express himself correctly and promptly, can 

 write a satisfactory letter, and arrange what he has to say so that 

 it is readily understood, — an accomplishment very rare among 

 present university students. He wants a sound course in general 

 practical ethics ; a good knowledge of French and English ; a 

 drill in Heimatskunde, so that every German knows his own 

 country ; a careful instruction in history ; a systematic training of 

 the senses and observing powers, by drawing, by manual skill, by 

 scientific tasks of all kinds, — mathematics, physics, chemistry, and 

 physiology. In addition, the hygienic condition of schools and 

 scholars should be under the official charge of a physician, whose 

 special duty it shall be to prevent the many causes of mental break- 

 down now so prevalent. 



The usual counter-arguments, that our culture is staked upon 

 that of Greece and Rome, that these things are necessary for their 

 culture-power, etc.. Professor Preyer admits, as far as they mean 

 that every opportunity should be given to study them, but entirely 

 opposes when it is held that all must study them without reference 

 to their future career. Those who believe in the ' new education ' 

 must now, like Professor Preyer, send their sons to the Gym- 

 nasium to spend years in (to them) comparatively useless instruc- 

 tion, spoiling their powers for fresh fact investigation, and then 

 suddenly emerge in the sphere of university freedom where they 

 attempt to forget their previous word-lore, and strive to re-adjust 

 themselves to a new field of activity ; must do this in order to se- 

 cure for their sons the entry into the full privileges of the university 

 and the governmental appointments. The removal of this restraint 

 he regards as a national necessity, and sees the fate of Germany 

 hanging upon its speedy adjustment to the needs of modern living. 



One sees from this pamphlet that the Germans have their educa- 

 tional problems still to work out, and must go through bitter con- 

 troversies before advance is realized, quite as much as we in 



America. Our institutions are younger and more plastic : • they 

 should accordingly be in the van of the ' new education.' 



M. Tulli Ciceronis Cato Major et Lcelius. With an Introduction 

 and Commentary by Austin Stickney, A.M. (Harper's Classi- 

 cal Series, under the editorial supervision of Henry Drisler,. 

 LL.D.) New York, Harper. 12°. 

 Professor Drisler is laying classical instructors under great 

 obligation to him by providing them with a series of text-books 

 whose editors have kept always in view the practical needs of the 

 college class-room. In so many of the editions of Greek and Latin 

 authors lately issued from the press, both in England and this, 

 country, there is an attempt on the part of the editors to overwhelm, 

 the student with a display of erudition whose only effect is to dis- 

 courage him from any attempt to search for the notes that he really 

 needs, but which are only to be found na/iies in gurgiievasio. In 

 the series now publishing, however, in which Professor Stickney 's 

 volume is the seventh, the results of careful and scholarly investi- 

 gation are set forth without any unnecessary and tiresome recapit- 

 ulation of details, that are of course interesting to the critical lin- 

 guist, but of no importance to the undergraduate, for whom these 

 volumes are primarily designed. 



Professor Stickney has, in the ' Cato Major et Laelius,' given us 

 a companion to his excellent edition of the ' De Officiis,' and one 

 that exhibits the same good judgment and knowledge of the needs- 

 of the class-room. The notes are admirably selected, concisely 

 given, and amply illustrated. Of course, after what Mr. Reid has 

 done in his masterly edition of these two treatises, one does not 

 look for much original matter ; but a great deal that Mr. Reid dis- 

 cusses and illuminates with the light of his own very elegant schol- 

 arship is of interest only to the critical student of Cicero, and pre- 

 supposes an extensive acquaintance with that author. Professor 

 Stickney's purpose is a different one. Conciseness is his object ;. 

 and the only criticism that one can reasonably make is, that brevity 

 is sometimes gained at the expense of strict accuracy of statement,, 

 as in the note on quo . . . via (vi. 16), where the true locative 

 force and form are ignored in his explanation ; while in the same 

 chapter the interesting form cede is passed over with a mere trans- 

 lation. So, too, Cicero's blundering derivation of occatio is allowed 

 to stand, and the famous viam guam . . . itigrediundum sit is dis- 

 missed with the perfunctory remark that it is " an archaism," 

 though any fifth-form boy of an inquiring turn of mind would feel 

 a genuine interest in a fuller explanation. 



The orthography of the book is, in the main, that of C. F. W. 

 Miiller's edition, and is consistent and Ciceronian, — a delightful 

 contrast with that of so many school editions published in this 

 country. The few changes which Professor Stickney has intro- 

 duced are, on the whole, improvements upon the Leipzig text. 



H. T. Pi. 



Die Kunst Glilcklich zu Sein. Von Paul Mantegazza. Jena.. 

 (Translated from the Italian.) 



We have recently become very much interested in the personal, 

 characteristics of eminent men. So many of us feel that the. 

 changed conditions of modern life carry with them so entire a re- 

 adjustment of habits and views, that many of the commonly ac- 

 cepted guides for conduct are no longer applicable. We thus look 

 about to see how men wiser than ourselves have solved these old. 

 yet ever new problems. A prominent magazine has recently col- 

 lected short accounts of the education of living scholars. In a sim- 

 ilar autobiographical strain they have discussed the ' objects of, 

 life,' and from what literary resources they drew most aid. Sir 

 John Lubbock reveals his practical philosophy by discoursing upon, 

 the ' pleasures of life.' 



In the above little volume the eminent Italian anthropologist,. 

 Mantegazza, expounds in a highly entertaining manner his opti- 

 mistic life-philosophy. The author has no sympathy with the view 

 that this life is a vale of tears : he believes that the good is the pro- 

 motion of life. Health and morality are both life-favoring, and 

 both lead to happiness. Practically, happiness is rare because it is 

 hunted after too eagerly and too consciously, and not quietly en- 

 joyed by the way ; again, because it is regarded as implying the 

 satisfaction of all wishes, while such a condition would really lead 



