IMPRIMI PERMITTITUR. FR. THOMAS PETRIE, O. M. CAP., MIN. PROV. IMPRIMATUR. HUGO CAROLUS, EPISCOPUS PITTSBURGENSIS. COPYRIGHT, 1921, 4-71-39 > Vol. PREFACE. IN his latest Report the President of Columbia University, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, makes the following confession: "For a quarter century past, American educational practice has been steadily losing its hold upon guiding principle and has, therefore, increasingly come to float upon the tide of mere opinion, without standards, without purpose and without insight." Any one familiar with recent educational history will bear out the truth of this statement. Hence the writer ventures to think that The Science of Education by the late Dr. Otto Willmann, now made accessible to English readers, has a mission for our day and our country, since it offers those guiding principles of which American education stands in sore need. Dr. Willmann acts on the principle that the history of education must be our guide in educational matters. Whatever has stood the test of the ages, bids fair to prove of value in the future also. The present volume undertakes to ascertain from the history of education, what is the basis of our culture and civilization and what must, consequently, ever remain the essence of our courses of study. This volume is probably the best defence extant of what may be called the "ars educandi perennis." But Dr. Willmann is not a blind worshipper of past glory. He is fully alive to the achievements of modern educationists, |