concerned with external objects, acquaintance with the word-sign adds absolutely nothing to the clearness and definiteness of the inner knowledge for the knower himself, but simply brings it within the sphere of what can be communicated to others, which is an altogether different sphere. The clearness of that knowledge depends entirely on perception, and whatever man's imagination can create again at will in all its parts, just as it really is, is fully known, whether one has a word for it or not. Indeed, we are convinced that this perfection of the perception should precede acquaintance with the word-symbol. The opposite process leads straight to that world of shadow and mist, and to premature loqua city, both of which are rightly so hateful to Pestalozzi. He who wants to know the word as soon as possible, and considers his knowledge increased as soon as he knows it, lives in that very world of mist and is anxious merely to extend it. Considering Pestalozzi's system of thought as a whole, I believe that it was just this A B C of sensation that he aimed at as the first foundation of mental develop ment and as the content of his book for mothers. In all his statements about language he had a dim notion of it, and it was only lack of training in philosophy that prevented him from becoming quite clear on this point.
141. Now, presupposing this development of the knowing subject by means of sensation and setting it as the first foundation of the national education we have in view, Pestalozzi's A B C of sense-perception, the theory of the relations of number and measure, is the entirely appropriate and excellent consequence. With this per ception any part of the world of sense can be connected; it can be introduced into the domain of mathematics, until the pupil is sufficiently trained by these preliminary exercises to be led on to the planning of a social order of STARTING-POINT FOR NEW EDUCATION 167 mankind and to love of that order. This is the second and essential step in his training.
142. But in the first part of education another subject, which is also mentioned by Pestalozzi, is not to be over looked; the development of the pupil's bodily powers, which must necessarily go hand in hand with those of the mind. He demands an A B C of Art, i.e., of the bodily powers. His most striking statements about this are the following: l " Striking, carrying, throwing, pushing, pulling, turning, struggling, swinging, etc., are the simplest exercises of strength. There is a natural sequence in these exercises from the beginnings to the perfect art, i.e., to the highest stage of the nerve rhythm, which ensures blow and push, swing and throw, in a hundred different ways, and makes hand and foot certain." In this, everything depends on the natural sequence, and it is not enough that we should interfere in a blind arbitrary way and introduce any kind of exercise, just in order that it may be said of us that we too, like the Greeks perhaps, have physical education. Now, everything still remains to be done in this matter, for Pestalozzi has supplied no A B C of Art. This must first of all be sup plied, and that certainly requires a man who is versed in the anatomy of the human body and also in scientific mechanics, and who combines with this knowledge a high degree of philosophical spirit. Such a man will be capable of discovering in all-round perfection that machine which the human body is designed to be, and of showing how this machine may gradually be developed out of every healthy human body, so that every advance occurs 1 [An almost exact quotation from Pestalozzi's Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt; cf. Pestalozzi's Ausgewaehlte Schriften, ed. F. Mann, Langen- salza, vol. iii, p. 275, and see translation by Cooke, Sonnenschein & Co., 1907, pp. 177, 178.]
1 68 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION in the only possible correct sequence, thus preparing for and facilitating those that follow. Thereby the health and beauty of the body and the strength of the mind are not only not endangered, but are even confirmed and increased. It is obvious without further mention how indispensable this element is to an education which pro mises to train the whole man and is especially intended for a nation which shall restore again, and in the future maintain, its independence.
We reserve for the next address what there is still to say by way of further definition of our conception of German national education.
TENTH ADDRESS FURTHER DEFINITION OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL EDUCATION 143. THE training of the pupil to make clear to himself first his sensations and then his perceptions, which must be accompanied by a systematic art of training his body, is the first part of the new German national education. In regard to the education of perception, we have a suitable method from Pestalozzi. A method for the education of the power of sensation is still lacking, but he and his collaborators, who have been summoned chiefly to solve this problem, will be able to furnish this easily. A method for the systematic development of physical strength is still lacking. What is required for the solution of this problem has been indicated, and it is to be hoped that, if the nation should show any eager ness for this solution, it will be found. All this part of education is but a means and a preliminary exercise for the second essential part, the civic and religious education.) The general remarks that it is necessary at present to make about this have already been mentioned in our second and third addresses, and we have nothing to add to them. It is the business of that philosophy which proposes a German national education to furnish definite instruc tions for the art of this education — always, of course, taking into consideration and consultation Pestalozzi's own 169 ijo ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION art of education. Once the need for such instructions arises, through the first part being fully carried out, that philosophy will not be slow to supply it. Every pupil, even if born in the lowest class — for, in truth, the class into which children are born makes no difference to their talents — will grasp, and indeed grasp easily, the instruction in those subjects. Such instruction, indeed, comprises, if you like, the most profound metaphysics and is the result of the most abstract speculation, and those subjects at present even scholars and speculating brains find it impossible to grasp. Let no one grow weary just now, wondering how this may be possible; experience will teach this later, if only we will obey in regard to the first steps. It is only because our generation is held captive in the world of empty ideas and has not entered the world of true reality and perception at any point, that it is not to be expected that this generation should begin perception with the highest and most spiritual perception of all, and when it is already clever beyond measure. Philo sophy must require it to give up its present world and to provide itself with an entirely different one. It is no wonder if such a demand proves unavailing. But, from the very beginning, the pupil of our education has been at home in the world of perception and has never seen any other. He has not to change, but only to strengthen, his world; and this takes place of itself. This education is, as we have already pointed out, the only possible education for philosophy and also the sole means of making philosophy universal.
144. Education ends with this civic and religious instruction, and the pupil is now to be released. Thus we are clear at any rate in regard to the content of the proposed education.
145. The pupil's faculty of knowledge must never be NEW EDUCATION FURTHER DEFINED 171 stimulated without love for the known object being f stimulated at_jJhje_-same— time, for otherwise knowledge • remains dead; similarly, love must never be stimulated without becoming clear to knowledge, for otherwise love remains blind. This is one of the chief principles of our proposed education, with which Pestalozzi also must agree, since it is in accordance with his whole system of thought. Now, the stimulation and development of this love is connected with the systematic course of instruction by means of sensation and perception, and arises without our design or assistance. The child has a natural inclina tion for clearness and order. This is continually satisfied in that course of instruction, and so fills the child with joy and pleasure. But, while in this state of satisfaction, he is stimulated again by the new obscurities that now appear, and so he is satisfied anew. Thus life is passed in love of and pleasure in learning. It is this love by means of which each individual is connected with the world of ^thought; it is th.e..bQnd_Df_JJie__.sensuous and_ spiritual worlds. This love renders possible the easy develop menTof the faculty of knowledge and the success ful cultivation of the fields of science; a result that is certain and premeditated in this education, but which was formerly attained by chance in the case of a few specially favoured persons.
146. But there is yet another love, that which binds man to man and combines all individuals into one rational • community with the same disposition. The first kind of love fashions knowledge; this other kind fashions the life of action and stimulates people to show forth in them selves and in others that which has become part of their knowledge. Since for our special purpose it would be of little use simply to improve the scholar's education, and since the national education intended by us aims first of 172 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION all at training not scholars but simply men, it is clear that, in addition to that first love, the development of the second is also an essential duty of this education.
Pestalozzi speaks of this subject with soul-stirring enthusiasm. Yet we must confess that his statements did not seem at all clear to us, and, least of all, so clear that they could serve as the foundation for an art of developing that love. It is therefore necessary for us to state our own thoughts concerning such a foundation.
147. The usual assumption, that man is by nature selfish, that the child also is born with this selfishness, and that it is education alone which implants in him a moral motive, is founded on very superficial observation, and is utterly false. Nothing can be created from nothing, and the development of a fundamental instinct, no matter to what extent, can never make it the opposite of itself.
How then could education ever implant morality in the child, if morality did not exist in him originally and before all education? It does, therefore, actually exist in all V human children that are born into the world; the task I is simply to find out the purest and most primitive form ' in which it appears.
-'148. "The results of speculative thought, as well as common observation, agree that the purest and most primitive form of morality is the instinct for respect, and that from this instinct there arises our knowledge of what is moral as the only possible object of respect, the right, the good, veracity, and the power of self-control. In the child this instinct appears first of all as the desire to be respected by those who inspire in him the highest respect. This instinct goes to prove with certainty that love does not arise from selfishness at all, because it is directed as a rule far more strongly and decisively towards the sterner parent, the father, who is more often absent, NEW EDUCATION FURTHER DEFINED 173 and who does not appear directly as a benefactor, than towards the mother, who with her beneficence is ever present. The child wants to be noticed by him, wants to have his approval; only in so far as the father is satis fied with him is he satisfied with himself. This is the natural love of the child for the father, not as the guardian of his sensuous well-being, but as the mirror, from which his own worth or worthlessness is reflected for him. Now, the father himself can easily connect with this love obedience and every kind of self-denial; for the reward of his hearty approval the child obeys with joy. Then again, this is the love which the child longs for from the father; that he shall notice the child's effort to be good, and acknowledge it; that he shall show that it gives him joy when he can approve, and grieves him heartily when he must disapprove; that he desires nothing more than always to be able to be satisfied with him, and all his demands on the child have simply the intention of making him ever better and more worthy of respect. Again, the sight of this love continually animates and strengthens the child's love, and gives him new strength for all his further efforts. On the other hand, that love is killed by being disregarded, and by continual unjust misunderstanding; in particular, it produces even hate, if in dealing with the child one allows selfishness to appear, and, e.g., treats as a capital crime some damage caused by his carelessness. He then sees himself regarded as a mere tool, and this outrages his feeling that he must himself be of worth, a feeling that is dim, indeed, but yet not absent.
149. To prove this by an example. What is it that with the child adds shame to the pain of chastisement, and what is this shame? Obviously it is the feeling of self-contempt, which is an inevitable accompaniment when the displeasure of his parents and educators is shown 174 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION to him. Therefore, where punishment is not accompanied by shame, there is an end of education, and the punishment appears as an act of violence, which the pupil proudly disregards and ridicules.
150. The bond, therefore, which makes men of one mind, and the development of which is a chief part of education for manhood, is not sensuous love, but the instinct for mutual respect. That instinct appears in two forms; in the child it begins as unconditional respect for adults and becomes the desire to be respected by them, and to measure by means of their actual respect how far he also should respect himself. This confidence, not in one's own but in an external standard of self-respect, is also the special characteristic of childhood and youth. On its existence alone is based the possibility of all instruction and of all education of growing youths to perfect men. The adult has in himself his standard of self-esteem, and wishes to be respected by others only in so far as they have first of all made themselves worthy of his respect. With him that instinct assumes the form of demanding that he shall be able to respect others, and that he shall himself produce something worthy of respect. If there is no such fundamental instinct in man, whence then arises the phenomenon, that even the tolerably good man grieves to find men worse than he thought they were, and is deeply hurt at having to despise them; for selfishness, on the con trary, is necessarily pleased at being able to exalt itself haughtily above others? Now, the educator must exhibit this latter characteristic of adult manhood, just as, in the case of the pupil, the former characteristic is to be relied on with certainty. In this respect, the aim of education is just to produce adult manhood in the sense that we have mentioned. Only when that aim is attained is education really completed and ended. Hitherto many NEW EDUCATION FURTHER DEFINED 175 men have remained children all their lives, viz., those who needed for their satisfaction the approval of neigh bours, and believed they had done nothing right unless they pleased the latter. In contrast to these, strong robust characters have been those few who could rise above the judgment of others and satisfy themselves. As a rule, the latter have been hated, while the former were not, indeed, respected, but were, nevertheless, considered amiable.
151. The foundation of all moral education is this; that one should know there is such an instinct in the child and presuppose it firmly established; then, that one should recognize it when it appears, and gradually develop it more and more by suitable stimulation, and by pre senting to it material for its satisfaction. The very first principle is to direct it to the only object that is suitable, viz., to moral matters, but not to put it off with some material that is foreign to it. Learning, for instance, contains within itself its charm and its reward. Strenuous diligence could at most deserve approval as an exercise in self-control; but this free and supererogatory diligence will scarcely find a place, at least in the purely universal national education. That the pupil will learn what he ought to must, therefore, be regarded as a matter of course, of which nothing more is to be said. The quicker and better learning of the more capable mind must be regarded merely as a natural phenomenon, which entitles him to no praise or distinction, and above all does not palliate other defects. It is in moral matters alone that a sphere of action ought to be allotted to this instinct; but the root of all morality is self-possession, self-control, the subordination of the selfish instincts to the idea of the community. By this alone, and by absolutely nothing else, shall it be possible for the pupil to receive the educa- 176 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION tor's approval, which he is directed by his spiritual nature, and accustomed by education, to need for his own satisfaction. As we have already mentioned in our second address, there are two very different ways of subordinat ing the personal self to the community. First of all, that way which absolutely must exist and can in no wise be omitted by anyone, subordination to the law of the constitution which is drawn up merely for the regulation of the community. He who does not transgress this law is not blamed, and that is all; he does not, however, receive approbation. Similarly, real displeasure and censure would fall upon him who transgressed; this would take place in public if the wrong were, public, and if it remained ineffective, it could even be intensified by the addition of punishment. Secondly, there is that subordination of the individual to the community which cannot be demanded but can only be given voluntarily, viz., the raising and advancing of the well-being of the community by self-sacrifice. In order to impress correctly upon the pupils from youth upwards the mutual relationship of mere legality and this higher virtue, it will be appropriate to allow him only, against whom for a certain period there has been no complaint in regard to legality, to make these voluntary sacrifices as the reward, so to speak, of legality, but to refuse this permission to him who is not yet quite sure of himself in regard to regularity and order. The objects of such voluntary acts have already been pointed out in general, and will be indicated still more clearly later. Let this kind of sacrifice receive active approbation and real recognition of its merits, not in public in the form of praise, which might corrupt the heart, make it vain, and turn it from its independence, but in secret and with the pupil alone. This recognition ought to be nothing more than the outward expression of the pupil's own good NEW EDUCATION FURTHER DEFINED 177 conscience, the ratification of his satisfaction with him self and of his self-respect, and the encouragement to rely still further on himself. The following arrangement would promote admirably the advantages hereby intended. Where there are several male and female teachers, which we assume will be the rule, let each child choose freely, and as his feelings and confidence move him, one of them as a special friend and, as it were, adviser in matters of conscience. Let him seek his advice whenever it is difficult for him to do right. Let the teacher help him by friendly exhortation; let him be the confidant of the voluntary acts which he undertakes; and, finally, let him be the person who crowns excellence with his approval. Now, through these advisers in matters of conscience education would inevitably be of systematic aid to each individual in his own rise to ever greater power of self-control and self- possession. In this way steadiness and independence will i gradually arise; with their production, education comes I to an end and ceases. By our own deeds and actions is' the sphere of the moral world most clearly opened to us; when it is thus opened to anyone, it is in truth opened to him. Such a person himself now knows what is contained