Higher Schools of Europe! Grammar is no longer a system of dry arbitrary rules, but, in the higher forms of a well taught Gymnasium, a branch of philosophical inquiry, fitted to interest and to assist. With what enhanced interest a Latin or a Greek classic, and, I may add to Native students here, an English classic, is studied, when each period of literature has been defined, the light of contemporaneous history used to verify the allusion, and the character of each author and his work elucidated by original and learned critical research.

I have directed your attention, gentlemen, to these two schools of educationists, because I do not think it possible to appreciate the Higher School Education of the age without noticing them. You find their influence very distinctly marked, for instance, in those schools which have attracted, and deservedly, so much attention in this age, the Gymnasia of Prussia. You will find in these, in the first place, a very careful attempt to elevate the Trivium, by introducing an interesting and critical method of studying literature. There is, at the same time, a strenuous effort made to give to scientific studies such a place as they merit-quite other than that they held in the old Saxon School, or even the Gymnasium of Sturmius. These changes were entrusted to German educationists of distinguished ability, and the success they have gained has been considerable, although it is not to be overlooked that errors were committed. As Dr. Wiese, in his German letters on English education, has frankly confessed these, it may be instructive here to notice them.* Even with such deductions, we must still admit the Prussian Gymnasia as magnificent institutions of learning.

Perhaps the leading error in these institutions was what the Germans would call Vielwisserei, or teaching too many things. This is a blunder into which, I, must remind you, other educationists than the Germans have fallen, and it is very injurious. The mind of the scholar, if overburdened thus, is apt to get jaded and worn out by too many sciences and too many masters.

*Deutsche Briefe über Englische Erziehung. VOL. I.-64

Another defect in the Prussian system was, that the teacher too often taught after the professorial method, suitable to the University, rather than in that catechetical way which is the very life of a Gymnasium. Dr. Wiese observes, as a defect of the German teacher, frequently-and it is a very serious defect in a master,—that they had the Wissen rather than the Können-the science rather than the skill of imparting knowledge. Again, there was often a great want of unity in the instructions of the masters. German pedagogues often differed as widely in their views of grammar, or in their conclusions as to history and science, as the professors of the University. The consequence of this want of unity in the lessons was, that the scholar, at an age when his mind was not prepared for it, was distracted in his judgment by conflicting theories, so that his mind was, wanting in that firmness of conviction which is the basis of real progress in learning.

The Prussian Government has, by its recent regulations, endeavoured to amend these defects of the Gymnasial system. We have before us the circular of the Minister of Religion and Education dated 7th January 1856, containing, with a series of valuable directions for the regulation of the Gymnasia, a Lehrplan or method of study. With few exceptions, it has been introduced, I believe, into all the hundred and fifty Gymnasia of Prussia. (See next page.)

I can scarcely fulfil my duty of giving you some conception of higher school education without briefly running over this programme. A Prussian boy begins Gymnasial studies probably at the age of nine or ten. Unlike the school of Sturmius, it is assumed that he has been at a preparatory school, where he has been taught the elements of his own language. The class into which he enters is called Sexta or the sixth, reversing the order, thus, of names in the English public schools. The class which he joins is not a large one, as large classes are rightly disapproved of by German educationists. The elements of Latin grammar are here studied, with writing, geography, history, and arithmetic. He also continues his German education, which he carries on through every class

of the Gymnasium until he leaves for the University. You see how carefully thus the vernacular element is considered in the higher modern education. The pupil also acquires the elements of natural science at this stage, only his master is particularly directed to see that this be not in a scientific way, but suited to his age; and so that he may understand something at first hand-not by books, but by his eyes, and ears, and senses. This, gentlemen, is the true basis of inductive inquiry, first the careful observation of objects before us. At the end of half a year, his master, called the Ordinarius, examines the boy, and, if the result is satisfactory, he gets his remove. On reaching the fifth class, the same course is pursued, only that his hours of study are extended to 30 instead of 28 a week, and that he begins French,

recently permitted in the Gymnasium to obtain a dispensation from studying Greek, one section of the school confining their classical studies to Latin. But this is no longer permitted in Prussia, except in those smaller towns which have no other school than the Gymnasium in which to study Latin. Mercantile education is thought best to be attained by a separate class of institutions, which you find in most of the larger cities of Germany-the "Bürger or Real Schule." The reason is the same that has decided the exclusion of modern branches in the Higher Schools of England. If classical learning is to be made, not a branch, but a basis of education, unity of purpose must regulate all the arrangements the schools. The attention of the Master, from beginning to end, must not be distracted by a variety of objects, and the time of the scholar must not be frittered away on a multiplicity of subjects. The practical meaning of this is, that German educationists have decided in favour of the expediency separating the education of the Professions from that of the Merchant. They adhere to the classical basis for the former, while introducing as much of other elements as may consist with this; but for the Merchant, they admit a more eclectic system, with less of

which he must study on to the end of his school course. The removal to the fourth class rests on the same principles. Greek is begun, to be continued also for the following six years of his Gymnasial life. The modern Gymnasium thus appreciates the importance and beauty of that exquisite language that once resistless fulmined over Greece." To make room for this study, Natural Science is here displaced; and writing, while enjoined as an object of strict attention to the higher Masters, forms no longer a separate branch. It was until

66

ancient literature and more of the modern languages, and with science occu

of

of

more important place.

But we come now to Tertia, or the third class. With it begin the studies of the higher Gymnasium. This division is founded on the natural distinction betwixt the capabilities of the boy, and the higher mental vigour of the youth. Every branch is now studied on higher principles-Natural Science, for instance, is again taught, but the teacher is to present a connected and systematic outline of the relations of the branches of this department of knowledge. Zumpt's Grammar and Vömel's Greek Exercises, with other works, may be used, but grammar and syntax are taught, less on the basis of arbitrary rules than on the inductive principles which belong to higher grammatical studies. The classics read in the lower forms of the school may be rehearsed, but they are now to be taught by the Master, not as furnishing matter for drill in syntax or in antiquities, but in connection with the particular genius of the author, and the scope of his writings.

In the second and first classes, this higher course is continued. The studies are all of a severer character. Natural Science is left out, for other studies (Physik) more nearly allied to Mathematics. In Latin, Virgil, Horace, Livy, Cicero, are generally read; with the higher syntax of Zumpt; Latin themes, and exercises in conversation, are prescribed; but we miss the hexameters or alcaics of the English school. In Greek, the Odyssey is often read before the Iliad. Xenophon or Herodotus are studied as historians, and with these the Greek orators. Attic is the form chiefly studied, and to which all others referred. Our scholar thus reaches the first class (Prima) in his seventeenth or eighteenth year. He is expected there to have so far completed his study of the classics as to be able, at the University, to proceed to the higher investigation of philosophy and criticism. In Latin, Cicero, and the satires of Horace, are frequently read, with exercises on style. In Greek, Plato, the tragedians, Hesiod and Thucydides, may be studied. In German, the history of its literature has now been completed. In Mathematics, analytic geometry and

For

merly, also, the elements of philosophy were taught as a distinct branch, but it has been latterly felt that such science belongs to the University, and that all formal prelections are to be excluded from the school. The elements of Logic are still taught, but only as a branch of German instruction.

The scholar is now prepared for the Abiturienten Examen, which, if passed, entitles him, without any matriculation examination, to enter the University. This examination lasts about four days, and embraces a wide range-the Latin and Greek classics, Greek and Latin exercises, universal history, geography, ancient and modern, with conic sections, spherical trigonometry, and other higher studies of mathematics, &c. We believe that this system too often involved cramming on the part of the scholars; but Prussian educationists have sought to remedy this, and the system is less open now to this objection.

We have thus imperfectly sketched the existing Prussian Gymnasial system. You will have observed how extensive is the plan of study which it carries out. Compared with the German School of the sixteenth century, how much more complete is its equipment in the Trivium. The scholar has mastered the course of German literature, and the Greek language has assigned to it the place which its chaste and nervous compositions merit. In the Quadrivium, also, no department is neglected: music, arithmetic, geometry, natural science, form branches of careful study. The weak point of the programme is, perhaps, its extensive range. The instructions of the Minister of Education, Von Raumer, accompanying the Lehrplan, seek indeed to guard against this defect. The Rector and the Ordinarius, or subornate Master, are frequently to consult together; they are to allow no teacher following what Dr. Wiese calls "our inflexible self-will," or German individuality to engross the studies of the scholar, to the detriment of his progress in other branches. They are to see that their scholars are not jaded and exhausted by their home work, especially by too lengthy and frequent written exercises. They are not to permit

the conflicts of the University prematurely to enter the School, distracting the mind of youth by opposing theories of grammar or of history. Teachers are enjoined, also, to keep closely to the classic they are reading, and not to wander too discursively into other subjects. Every precaution is thus used which the ablest educationist can suggest. Perhaps in the hands of a Rector of high ability and energy, a safe course may thus be steered; but we must still hazard a doubt if too much is not attempted. Might not French be left more as an optional study? Is it not aiming too high to propose to furnish a complete general education? If it is a great evil of our Scottish system to have boys listening to the prelections of professors, we think it is a defect of the German system to have youths of nineteen or twenty drudging at school, in place of enjoying the higher mental stimulus of University life. Were it not better to limit some of the studies of the Gymnasium, as, for example, mathematics, and shortening the course, to admit in the University what is awanting in Germany, a preliminary course in the Arts, prior to strict professional training? It is a remarkable fact, if you consider it, that the length of Higher School Education in Germany and England has led to results seemingly opposite in the University. In Oxford and Cambridge, is it not a defect that there is a felt want of thorough professional training for the student in ław, theology, or medicine?

In Ger

many, on the other hand, the course of the University, from beginning to end, is strictly professional. We know that a deficiency is felt here, and deplored by eminent German educationists.

Having thus described the Prussian method, we shall not dwell on the general state of Gymnasia on the Continent of Europe. They are very much modelled on the same system; but whether in France, Austria, or Holland, they have not attained to equal repu

tation.

The public schools of England deserve a far less cursory notice than the limits of this lecture will admit. They well deserve, indeed, lengthened and careful study. While indebted to German learning, they are no copy of a foreign

system. An indigenous plant, rooted in the rich old Saxon soil, they have developed themselves according to their own nature. They thus merit the distinct consideration of the educationist. We agree with Dr. Wiese, the German educationist, that " we have never met a schoolmaster who came up to the idea one has formed of Dr. Arnold." Few had equal ability to impart the higher elements of classical learning, and none had, we believe, greater power to ennoble the cause of education, to inspire the scholar with the impres sion of the responsibility of the life he was leading, and, in the language of Tom Brown, "to witness and plead for the Lord the King of Righteousness and Love and Glory, with whose spirit he was filled, and whose power he spoke." The characteristics, also, which distinguished Dr. Arnold and his school, were thoroughly English, and we doubt, indeed, if higher educational results have ever been obtained in the Gymna sium than by him, by Dr. Tait, and by Dr. Vaughan, lately of Harrow.

There are many analogies betwixt the English Public School and the Prussian Gymnasium. Both have found it necessary to extend the time of study to seven or eight years, to afford a sufficient course of reading in Latin and Greek. The order in which the classics are introduced to the scholars is, general, similar, but in England less is read. In both, the school editions of the classics are excellent, founded on the results of the latest scholarship. I agree with Dr. Donaldson in thinking that England is indebted for this less to German than to English learning. English schools have also been obliged. in compliance with modern demands, to give a higher place to the study of the vernacular tongue, although I ques tion if yet the English school is, in its study of this, at all abreast, as it ought to be, of the German. We find the real or scientific element in the English school in the study of geography, antiquity, and generally in the treatment of ancient history, and in the introduction of ma thematics. At the same time, it has been wisely decided not to attempt so extended a programme as the Prussian. Po lite scholarship has been the aim, rather than erudition. This is, in

our opinion, better.

A correct taste may be formed in youth; reason only is developed in the man: we have early poets; how few premature philosophers. Classical studies are also best adapted for this culture. They furnish us rather with the loftiest and purest forms for the expression of ideas, than with the matter of thought. We are advocates, then, for the English system, with its exactness of reading, its addiction to the old fashion in the School of Greek and Roman plays, and its fastidiousness in versification. A false quantity at school or in Parliament may be in itself a matter of trifling importance, but it is not insignificant in connection with the culture of classical taste and refinement. We prefer that the Gymnasium should be mouseion rather than a phrontisterion. The shorter English hours of lessons are better suited also to promote vigour and intensity of thought. Dr. Arnold has well said—" Education is a dynamical, not a mechanical process, and the more powerful and vigorous the mind of the teacher-the more clearly he can grasp things-the better fitted is he to cultivate the mind of another." There are many other elements, on which our time forbids me to dwell, which contribute to the education of the great public English School-its manly spirit, its truthfulness of character, its disdain of meanness and contempt for sycophancy, its training bravely to meet the mishaps and joltings of the great world, and, above all, that high conscientiousness of purpose, with which the great English Masters have inspired many of their pupils, investing with a new interest and sacredness the days of school-boy life.

In writing this Lecture, the question of the Higher School Education of India has often been present to my mind. But after so short a residence in this country, and with a knowledge so imperfect of your educational institutions, gathered chiefly from your Indian Blue Books, I feel that it would be quite inexcusable in me to venture an opinion on the details of the existing system. I may say, in general, that the Government of India has; I think, acted wisely in beginning its educational efforts with

the higher class of schools, before attempting what I hope India may possess at no distant day-a well-devised, comprehensive system of primary education, embracing all classes and all castes. The history of European education, which we have been sketching, reminds us that the Higher School held historically the earliest place; and it forms, perhaps, the best basis on which to rest a larger system, going downwards and rising upwards, that shall adequately embrace all the educational wants of a country.

Looking more particularly at Higher School Education, various questions suggest themselves: as, for instance, the inquiry may be made on what basis, to speak technically, should the Trivium be established? In our European system, we may say that Latin and Greek furnish chiefly the materials employed in teaching the arts of grammar and rhetoric. But these will scarcely suit the Indian educationist. It appears to me, that Sanscrit and English must naturally occupy the same place in the Higher Indian School,-Sanscrit, from its perfection as a tongue, and from its place as the root-language of India, forming the best matter for grammatical instruction; while English, enriched with so noble a literature, and forming so needful a study to the Indian scholar, supplying in rhetoric what is needed for the formation of style, and the culture of taste and of the imaginative faculties. As regards the Ars Logica, the high development of European science, compared with Indian, points to the former as in our judgment alone a satisfactory basis of study in this department.

There is another question which, as I have already hinted, appears as yet unsolved for the school of the future. I mean the relative place of the Trivium and Quadrivium, or of literature and science. In the European School, the educational system is, we may say, a Literary one, based on the study of classical language, supplemented by such acquaintance with science as is found compatible with this fundamental principle. But in India, where the system to be followed has scarcely yet been finally determined, the question, I think, may fairly arise, whether Literature