admired.... They (the other Roman authors) write Latin, Cicero writes Roman" (Newman).

Of the Greeks the following belong to the same inner circle: Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, and Plato. Homer, the father and prince of poets, is the source of ancient culture and the basis of Greek learning and philosophy. Herodotus, "the Father of History," is distinguished alike for deep piety, glowing patriotism, and sagacity of judgment. Sophocles is the greatest of the Greek tragedians, and his plays still exhibit some connection with religious worship while reflecting the splendor of the Attic mind at its best. Plato presaged some of the religious and moral truths of Christianity.

What authors are to be taken up for the preparatory work must be determined by the needs of the course of instruction. There is need evidently of such a Roman poet as may offer suitable material for learning the elements of prosody and mythology. Ovid unquestionably meets this need admirably. There is need, too, of a prose writer with a simple narrative style, whose sentence construction is not too difficult. And such is Cæsar, though scant honor is done him, the "summus auctorum, divus Julius," by being thus given to the beginners in Latin; still in view of the needs of the whole course, it is unavoidable. In the schools of the Humanists the beginners in Greek read the Tablet of Cebes, for which modern practice has substituted Xenophon's Anabasis. However, both works should be read: the Anabasis is an ideal book for the young and a good preparation for Herodotus, while the Tablet of Cebes prepares for the didactic writers. The students will take as much interest in sketching the places named in the latter as in tracing the line of march of the Ten Thousand, and the allegory, being very vivid, offers no difficulties.

To the class of supplementary reading belong those authors whose works are educative in content and intelligible to the young, but which can not be made to assist directly the chief aim of the classical studies. To this class of authors belong of the Greeks the didactic and the lyric poets and the orators, and of both literatures the philosophical historians.

The gymnasium should train its students to write and speak Latin, but with respect to Greek it may rest satisfied with teaching them the understanding of texts. Latin composition writing may well be the object aimed at in Latin instruction. Mere retranslations are but a handle without a blade; and the attempts at Latin composition will not be over-ambitious, if the

narrative style is preferred and the exercises are modelled after the authors read in class. But the exercises in Greek composition should be reduced to the minimum. They may be employed in their simplest form in teaching Greek etymology; but used to a greater extent they will become parasites of the authors.

2. In the first class of the gymnasium the instruction in the mother-tongue may well be combined with the instruction in Latin. In the lower classes the classics treating of medieval tales and legends should be given the preference; and these readings should be interspersed with sketches of local and national history. In the middle and upper classes the students should read modern classics, and these latter should be paralleled with ancient classics. While some points of literary history are necessary for the full appreciation of a classic, the gymnasium may dispense with a chronological history of literature. By following up the classical period we arrive at the Romantic Age and the revival of the Christian-national element, and thus are led back to the Middle Ages; and the medieval classics had best be read now in the original texts. In reading Middle High German classics the teacher must strive to preserve the golden mean between full philological treatment, for which there is not time enough, and superficial guessing, which prevents the development of scientific habits. The historical material pertaining to the ancient languages and literatures as well as to the literature of the mother-tongue had best be collected in one textbook.

With regard to the modern foreign languages the gymnasium should not attempt too much. It would be idle to think of mastering any of them in the gymnasium; and the gymnasium should rest satisfied with removing some of the elementary difficulties, and should thus prepare the way for self-instruction or private study. It is not advisable to continue this elementary study during the whole course, and the lower classes had best confine themselves to Greek and Latin, reserving the study of modern foreign languages for the upper classes. The students will then, because more mature, appreciate the practical value of this study, and their previous studies will enable them to compare the new languages with Latin and the mothertongue. It goes without saying that if but one foreign language be required, better results will be attained than if two must be learned. Still the gymnasium student should be able to learn the elements of two foreign languages.

Form study should be taken up in the lower classes to prepare for methematics, which is the proper subject for the middle classes. Mathematics can well be correlated with the classical studies by taking note of the various points connecting it with classical antiquity. The instruction in mathematics should, as in classical antiquity, lead up to elementary astronomy (mathematical geography, science of the calendar); and the subjectmatter of mathematics, especially the examples and illustrations, should be selected from the very beginning from this point of view. Spherical trigonometry will then not be beyond the scope of the gymnasium, but analytical geometry is beyond its scope: analytical geometry is, if understood, unusually interesting, but requires so much time and attention as to be practically impossible in a course of study whose chief function is the study of the classics. Solid geometry is much inferior to trigonometry in educative content, and should, therefore, receive less attention than the latter. The problems of algebra should be grouped with a view to the relationship between mathematics and the other subjects.

We have elsewhere shown how the study of philosophy and theology can be correlated with the classics and thereby receive the character of gymnasial studies.1

3. The accessory disciplines will allow more time and energy. for the basic subjects and can also be taught more thoroughly, if they are taken up successively instead of being studied at one and the same time. Natural history should be studied as a department of home and general geography, and the latter subject should be taught in the lower classes only. This arrangement certainly precludes an exhaustive treatment of either natural history or geography. Still some of the viewpoints of modern geography can be brought out, especially in so far as they establish combinations and thus assist both the memory and the understanding. The chief object of the natural history instruction should be to teach the pupils to commune with nature; the collecting of specimens and the mounting of them. will materially assist in this; yet the teacher should never strive for anything like systematic completeness in this regard.

Historical instruction belongs to the middle classes. The use of maps is indispensable in teaching history. Local elements that may lend color, the refreshing spirit that breathes from original sources, and whatever historical materials are contained 1 Supra, ch. XXXV. and ch. XLV.

in the other branches-all should be turned to good account; and special care should be taken to preserve the epic character of the historical instruction. To correlate history with the classical studies should not be difficult, as some of the school authors are historians, and the teacher of history should miss no opportunity for quoting from classical source works (loci classici) and for citing historical, especially Latin, sayings.

Natural philosophy should be taught in the upper classes. It presupposes that mathematics has modified and perfected. the student's concepts of the sensuous world and has aroused in him a strong interest in causal relations. The instruction in the natural sciences supplements the philosophical instruction and leads the youth to understand the modern world, for whose battles the gymnasium must fit him. But here also the gymnasium may not strive for anything approaching systematic completeness. It must content itself with treating such parts of an immense field as are related to the other subjects of the course. The elements of mechanics should be studied because of their relation to mathematics and astronomy. The study of sound may claim a position similar to that occupied by the theory of music in the system of the seven liberal arts. The study of sound as well as of light is related to the arts and psychology; and the study of heat and of electricity and magnetism is related to geography. Some of these subjects were studied by the ancients and may easily be correlated in several ways with the classics. The materials for natural science instruction should also be selected from the viewpoint of experimentation and objectivation. The teacher should not attempt anything requiring elaborate experiments, and a series of school experiments should be determined upon. Whether chemistry should be taught in the gymnasium, still remains an open question. However, the gymnasium course of study will not be unduly enlarged by a brief course in chemistry; but this subject must not foster the encyclopedic tendency.

4. While the classical course of study is actually divided, for external considerations, over two grades of schools, it were better, in view as well of the students' mental development as of the nature of the branches themselves, if it were divided over three grades of schools.1 The three lowest classes of the gymnasium should constitute the lowest grade of classical school with the following subjects: religion, home and general geography,

1 Cf. supra, chapters XXXVII-XXXIX.

the mother-tongue, elements of Latin, first elements of Greek, form study, and arithmetic. All these branches are correlated, and thus no energy is wasted on heterogeneous materials. The three middle classes of the gymnasium should constitute the secondary classical school with the following subjects: religious instruction with special attention to historical development, universal history, the first reading of classical authors, and the first study of mathematics. A course of three years should constitute the highest grade of classical school, which prepares for the special studies at the university. The following subjects should be taught in this school: theology, philosophy, ancient and modern classics, elements of modern foreign languages, mathematics, and physics.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

Modern Schools.

1. The distinguishing trait of the Realschule and of the girls' academy is that they base their course of study on modern cultural subjects. A closer examination of the principle underlying this fact and its exact delimitation will disclose all the points to be considered.

The instruction in these schools is modern in the sense that their subjects are mainly taken from modern life, and that they prepare their pupils more directly than the gymnasium for the modern world. Consequently, modern foreign languages must occupy a more important place in these schools than they do in the gymnasium; hence they must be taken up earlier and more class periods must be devoted to them. In selecting the school authors attention must be given, not only to their moral worth, their style, and their clearness, but also to the consideration whether they be truly representative of the language and spirit of the respective nation. The literature to be read must not only be good French or good English, but genuinely French. or genuinely English. Hence even the beginners should read only such matter as breathes the spirit of the foreign nation, as nursery rimes, proverbs, tales, legends, etc. Mager's language book illustrates how the principle is to be applied in studying

1 What is said in the present chapter on the Realschule may readily be applied to the non-classical high school as well as to commercial schools.