initial commit of ebook 28146HEADmain

12 files changed, 16140 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/28146-0.txt b/28146-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67cdb0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3971 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: On the Future of our Educational Institutions
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Editor: Oscar Levy
+
+Translator: J. M. Kennedy
+
+Release Date: February 20, 2009 [EBook #28146]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
+    | a complete list, please see the end of this document.     |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+  THE COMPLETE WORKS
+
+  OF
+
+  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
+
+  _The First Complete and Authorised English Translation_
+
+  EDITED BY
+
+  Dr. OSCAR LEVY
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  VOLUME THREE
+
+  ON THE FUTURE OF OUR
+  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+  _FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE_
+
+  ON THE FUTURE OF OUR
+  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
+
+
+  TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY
+
+  J.M. KENNEDY
+
+  T.N. FOULIS
+  13 & 15 FREDERICK STREET
+  EDINBURGH: and LONDON
+  1910
+
+
+
+
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+  _Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+(_To be read before the lectures, although it in no way relates to
+them._)
+
+
+The reader from whom I expect something must possess three qualities:
+he must be calm and must read without haste; he must not be ever
+interposing his own personality and his own special "culture"; and he
+must not expect as the ultimate results of his study of these pages
+that he will be presented with a set of new formulæ. I do not propose
+to furnish formulæ or new plans of study for _Gymnasia_ or other
+schools; and I am much more inclined to admire the extraordinary power
+of those who are able to cover the whole distance between the depths
+of empiricism and the heights of special culture-problems, and who
+again descend to the level of the driest rules and the most neatly
+expressed formulæ. I shall be content if only I can ascend a tolerably
+lofty mountain, from the summit of which, after having recovered my
+breath, I may obtain a general survey of the ground; for I shall never
+be able, in this book, to satisfy the votaries of tabulated rules.
+Indeed, I see a time coming when serious men, working together in the
+service of a completely rejuvenated and purified culture, may again
+become the directors of a system of everyday instruction, calculated
+to promote that culture; and they will probably be compelled once more
+to draw up sets of rules: but how remote this time now seems! And what
+may not happen meanwhile! It is just possible that between now and
+then all _Gymnasia_--yea, and perhaps all universities, may be
+destroyed, or have become so utterly transformed that their very
+regulations may, in the eyes of future generations, seem to be but the
+relics of the cave-dwellers' age.
+
+This book is intended for calm readers,--for men who have not yet been
+drawn into the mad headlong rush of our hurry-skurrying age, and who
+do not experience any idolatrous delight in throwing themselves
+beneath its chariot-wheels. It is for men, therefore, who are not
+accustomed to estimate the value of everything according to the amount
+of time it either saves or wastes. In short, it is for the few. These,
+we believe, "still have time." Without any qualms of conscience they
+may improve the most fruitful and vigorous hours of their day in
+meditating on the future of our education; they may even believe when
+the evening has come that they have used their day in the most
+dignified and useful way, namely, in the _meditatio generis futuri_.
+No one among them has yet forgotten to think while reading a book; he
+still understands the secret of reading between the lines, and is
+indeed so generous in what he himself brings to his study, that he
+continues to reflect upon what he has read, perhaps long after he has
+laid the book aside. And he does this, not because he wishes to write
+a criticism about it or even another book; but simply because
+reflection is a pleasant pastime to him. Frivolous spendthrift! Thou
+art a reader after my own heart; for thou wilt be patient enough to
+accompany an author any distance, even though he himself cannot yet
+see the goal at which he is aiming,--even though he himself feels only
+that he must at all events honestly believe in a goal, in order that a
+future and possibly very remote generation may come face to face with
+that towards which we are now blindly and instinctively groping.
+Should any reader demur and suggest that all that is required is
+prompt and bold reform; should he imagine that a new "organisation"
+introduced by the State, were all that is necessary, then we fear he
+would have misunderstood not only the author but the very nature of
+the problem under consideration.
+
+The third and most important stipulation is, that he should in no case
+be constantly bringing himself and his own "culture" forward, after
+the style of most modern men, as the correct standard and measure of
+all things. We would have him so highly educated that he could even
+think meanly of his education or despise it altogether. Only thus
+would he be able to trust entirely to the author's guidance; for it is
+only by virtue of ignorance and his consciousness of ignorance, that
+the latter can dare to make himself heard. Finally, the author would
+wish his reader to be fully alive to the specific character of our
+present barbarism and of that which distinguishes us, as the
+barbarians of the nineteenth century, from other barbarians.
+
+Now, with this book in his hand, the writer seeks all those who may
+happen to be wandering, hither and thither, impelled by feelings
+similar to his own. Allow yourselves to be discovered--ye lonely ones
+in whose existence I believe! Ye unselfish ones, suffering in
+yourselves from the corruption of the German spirit! Ye contemplative
+ones who cannot, with hasty glances, turn your eyes swiftly from one
+surface to another! Ye lofty thinkers, of whom Aristotle said that ye
+wander through life vacillating and inactive so long as no great
+honour or glorious Cause calleth you to deeds! It is you I summon!
+Refrain this once from seeking refuge in your lairs of solitude and
+dark misgivings. Bethink you that this book was framed to be your
+herald. When ye shall go forth to battle in your full panoply, who
+among you will not rejoice in looking back upon the herald who rallied
+you?
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The title I gave to these lectures ought, like all titles, to have
+been as definite, as plain, and as significant as possible; now,
+however, I observe that owing to a certain excess of precision, in its
+present form it is too short and consequently misleading. My first
+duty therefore will be to explain the title, together with the object
+of these lectures, to you, and to apologise for being obliged to do
+this. When I promised to speak to you concerning the future of our
+educational institutions, I was not thinking especially of the
+evolution of our particular institutions in Bâle. However frequently
+my general observations may seem to bear particular application to our
+own conditions here, I personally have no desire to draw these
+inferences, and do not wish to be held responsible if they should be
+drawn, for the simple reason that I consider myself still far too much
+an inexperienced stranger among you, and much too superficially
+acquainted with your methods, to pretend to pass judgment upon any
+such special order of scholastic establishments, or to predict the
+probable course their development will follow. On the other hand, I
+know full well under what distinguished auspices I have to deliver
+these lectures--namely, in a city which is striving to educate and
+enlighten its inhabitants on a scale so magnificently out of
+proportion to its size, that it must put all larger cities to shame.
+This being so, I presume I am justified in assuming that in a quarter
+where so much is _done_ for the things of which I wish to speak,
+people must also _think_ a good deal about them. My desire--yea, my
+very first condition, therefore, would be to become united in spirit
+with those who have not only thought very deeply upon educational
+problems, but have also the will to promote what they think to be
+right by all the means in their power. And, in view of the
+difficulties of my task and the limited time at my disposal, to such
+listeners, alone, in my audience, shall I be able to make myself
+understood--and even then, it will be on condition that they shall
+guess what I can do no more than suggest, that they shall supply what
+I am compelled to omit; in brief, that they shall need but to be
+reminded and not to be taught. Thus, while I disclaim all desire of
+being taken for an uninvited adviser on questions relating to the
+schools and the University of Bâle, I repudiate even more emphatically
+still the rôle of a prophet standing on the horizon of civilisation
+and pretending to predict the future of education and of scholastic
+organisation. I can no more project my vision through such vast
+periods of time than I can rely upon its accuracy when it is brought
+too close to an object under examination. With my title: _Our_
+Educational Institutions, I wish to refer neither to the
+establishments in Bâle nor to the incalculably vast number of other
+scholastic institutions which exist throughout the nations of the
+world to-day; but I wish to refer to _German institutions_ of the kind
+which we rejoice in here. It is their future that will now engage our
+attention, _i.e._ the future of German elementary, secondary, and
+public schools (Gymnasien) and universities. While pursuing our
+discussion, however, we shall for once avoid all comparisons and
+valuations, and guard more especially against that flattering illusion
+that our conditions should be regarded as the standard for all others
+and as surpassing them. Let it suffice that they are our institutions,
+that they have not become a part of ourselves by mere accident, and
+were not laid upon us like a garment; but that they are living
+monuments of important steps in the progress of civilisation, in some
+respects even the furniture of a bygone age, and as such link us with
+the past of our people, and are such a sacred and venerable legacy
+that I can only undertake to speak of the future of our educational
+institutions in the sense of their being a most probable approximation
+to the ideal spirit which gave them birth. I am, moreover, convinced
+that the numerous alterations which have been introduced into these
+institutions within recent years, with the view of bringing them
+up-to-date, are for the most part but distortions and aberrations of
+the originally sublime tendencies given to them at their foundation.
+And what we dare to hope from the future, in this behalf, partakes so
+much of the nature of a rejuvenation, a reviviscence, and a refining
+of the spirit of Germany that, as a result of this very process, our
+educational institutions may also be indirectly remoulded and born
+again, so as to appear at once old and new, whereas now they only
+profess to be "modern" or "up-to-date."
+
+Now it is only in the spirit of the hope above mentioned that I wish
+to speak of the future of our educational institutions: and this is
+the second point in regard to which I must tender an apology from the
+outset. The "prophet" pose is such a presumptuous one that it seems
+almost ridiculous to deny that I have the intention of adopting it.
+No one should attempt to describe the future of our education, and
+the means and methods of instruction relating thereto, in a prophetic
+spirit, unless he can prove that the picture he draws already exists
+in germ to-day, and that all that is required is the extension and
+development of this embryo if the necessary modifications are to be
+produced in schools and other educational institutions. All I ask,
+is, like a Roman haruspex, to be allowed to steal glimpses of the
+future out of the very entrails of existing conditions, which, in
+this case, means no more than to hand the laurels of victory to any
+one of the many forces tending to make itself felt in our present
+educational system, despite the fact that the force in question may
+be neither a favourite, an esteemed, nor a very extensive one. I
+confidently assert that it will be victorious, however, because it
+has the strongest and mightiest of all allies in nature herself; and
+in this respect it were well did we not forget that scores of the
+very first principles of our modern educational methods are
+thoroughly artificial, and that the most fatal weaknesses of the
+present day are to be ascribed to this artificiality. He who feels in
+complete harmony with the present state of affairs and who acquiesces
+in it _as something_ "_selbstverständliches_,"[1] excites our envy
+neither in regard to his faith nor in regard to that egregious word
+"_selbstverständlich_," so frequently heard in fashionable circles.
+
+He, however, who holds the opposite view and is therefore in despair,
+does not need to fight any longer: all he requires is to give himself
+up to solitude in order soon to be alone. Albeit, between those who
+take everything for granted and these anchorites, there stand the
+_fighters_--that is to say, those who still have hope, and as the
+noblest and sublimest example of this class, we recognise Schiller as
+he is described by Goethe in his "Epilogue to the Bell."
+
+    "Brighter now glow'd his cheek, and still more bright
+    With that unchanging, ever youthful glow:--
+    That courage which o'ercomes, in hard-fought fight,
+    Sooner or later ev'ry earthly foe,--
+    That faith which soaring to the realms of light,
+    Now boldly presseth on, now bendeth low,
+    So that the good may work, wax, thrive amain,
+    So that the day the noble may attain."[2]
+
+I should like you to regard all I have just said as a kind of preface,
+the object of which is to illustrate the title of my lectures and to
+guard me against any possible misunderstanding and unjustified
+criticisms. And now, in order to give you a rough outline of the range
+of ideas from which I shall attempt to form a judgment concerning our
+educational institutions, before proceeding to disclose my views and
+turning from the title to the main theme, I shall lay a scheme before
+you which, like a coat of arms, will serve to warn all strangers who
+come to my door, as to the nature of the house they are about to
+enter, in case they may feel inclined, after having examined the
+device, to turn their backs on the premises that bear it. My scheme is
+as follows:--
+
+Two seemingly antagonistic forces, equally deleterious in their
+actions and ultimately combining to produce their results, are at
+present ruling over our educational institutions, although these were
+based originally upon very different principles. These forces are: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible _extension of education_ on
+the one hand, and a tendency _to minimise and to weaken it_ on the
+other. The first-named would fain spread learning among the greatest
+possible number of people, the second would compel education to
+renounce its highest and most independent claims in order to
+subordinate itself to the service of the State. In the face of these
+two antagonistic tendencies, we could but give ourselves up to
+despair, did we not see the possibility of promoting the cause of two
+other contending factors which are fortunately as completely German as
+they are rich in promises for the future; I refer to the present
+movement towards _limiting and concentrating_ education as the
+antithesis of the first of the forces above mentioned, and that other
+movement towards the _strengthening and the independence_ of education
+as the antithesis of the second force. If we should seek a warrant for
+our belief in the ultimate victory of the two last-named movements, we
+could find it in the fact that both of the forces which we hold to be
+deleterious are so opposed to the eternal purpose of nature as the
+concentration of education for the few is in harmony with it, and is
+true, whereas the first two forces could succeed only in founding a
+culture false to the root.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Selbstverständlich = "granted or self-understood."
+
+[2] _The Poems of Goethe._ Edgar Alfred Bowring's Translation. (Ed.
+1853.)
+
+
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 16th of January 1872._)
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen,--The subject I now propose to consider with you
+is such a serious and important one, and is in a sense so disquieting,
+that, like you, I would gladly turn to any one who could proffer some
+information concerning it,--were he ever so young, were his ideas ever
+so improbable--provided that he were able, by the exercise of his own
+faculties, to furnish some satisfactory and sufficient explanation. It
+is just possible that he may have had the opportunity of _hearing_
+sound views expressed in reference to the vexed question of the future
+of our educational institutions, and that he may wish to repeat them
+to you; he may even have had distinguished teachers, fully qualified
+to foretell what is to come, and, like the _haruspices_ of Rome, able
+to do so after an inspection of the entrails of the Present.
+
+Indeed, you yourselves may expect something of this kind from me. I
+happened once, in strange but perfectly harmless circumstances, to
+overhear a conversation on this subject between two remarkable men,
+and the more striking points of the discussion, together with their
+manner of handling the theme, are so indelibly imprinted on my memory
+that, whenever I reflect on these matters, I invariably find myself
+falling into their grooves of thought. I cannot, however, profess to
+have the same courageous confidence which they displayed, both in
+their daring utterance of forbidden truths, and in the still more
+daring conception of the hopes with which they astonished me. It
+therefore seemed to me to be in the highest degree important that a
+record of this conversation should be made, so that others might be
+incited to form a judgment concerning the striking views and
+conclusions it contains: and, to this end, I had special grounds for
+believing that I should do well to avail myself of the opportunity
+afforded by this course of lectures.
+
+I am well aware of the nature of the community to whose serious
+consideration I now wish to commend that conversation--I know it to be
+a community which is striving to educate and enlighten its members on
+a scale so magnificently out of proportion to its size that it must
+put all larger cities to shame. This being so, I presume I may take it
+for granted that in a quarter where so much is _done_ for the things
+of which I wish to speak, people must also _think_ a good deal about
+them. In my account of the conversation already mentioned, I shall be
+able to make myself completely understood only to those among my
+audience who will be able to guess what I can do no more than suggest,
+who will supply what I am compelled to omit, and who, above all, need
+but to be reminded and not taught.
+
+Listen, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I recount my harmless
+experience and the less harmless conversation between the two
+gentlemen whom, so far, I have not named.
+
+Let us now imagine ourselves in the position of a young student--that
+is to say, in a position which, in our present age of bewildering
+movement and feverish excitability, has become an almost impossible
+one. It is necessary to have lived through it in order to believe that
+such careless self-lulling and comfortable indifference to the moment,
+or to time in general, are possible. In this condition I, and a friend
+about my own age, spent a year at the University of Bonn on the
+Rhine,--it was a year which, in its complete lack of plans and
+projects for the future, seems almost like a dream to me now--a dream
+framed, as it were, by two periods of growth. We two remained quiet
+and peaceful, although we were surrounded by fellows who in the main
+were very differently disposed, and from time to time we experienced
+considerable difficulty in meeting and resisting the somewhat too
+pressing advances of the young men of our own age. Now, however, that
+I can look upon the stand we had to take against these opposing
+forces, I cannot help associating them in my mind with those checks we
+are wont to receive in our dreams, as, for instance, when we imagine
+we are able to fly and yet feel ourselves held back by some
+incomprehensible power.
+
+I and my friend had many reminiscences in common, and these dated from
+the period of our boyhood upwards. One of these I must relate to you,
+since it forms a sort of prelude to the harmless experience already
+mentioned. On the occasion of a certain journey up the Rhine, which we
+had made together one summer, it happened that he and I independently
+conceived the very same plan at the same hour and on the same spot,
+and we were so struck by this unwonted coincidence that we determined
+to carry the plan out forthwith. We resolved to found a kind of small
+club which would consist of ourselves and a few friends, and the
+object of which would be to provide us with a stable and binding
+organisation directing and adding interest to our creative impulses in
+art and literature; or, to put it more plainly: each of us would be
+pledged to present an original piece of work to the club once a
+month,--either a poem, a treatise, an architectural design, or a
+musical composition, upon which each of the others, in a friendly
+spirit, would have to pass free and unrestrained criticism.
+
+We thus hoped, by means of mutual correction, to be able both to
+stimulate and to chasten our creative impulses and, as a matter of
+fact, the success of the scheme was such that we have both always felt
+a sort of respectful attachment for the hour and the place at which it
+first took shape in our minds.
+
+This attachment was very soon transformed into a rite; for we all
+agreed to go, whenever it was possible to do so, once a year to that
+lonely spot near Rolandseck, where on that summer's day, while sitting
+together, lost in meditation, we were suddenly inspired by the same
+thought. Frankly speaking, the rules which were drawn up on the
+formation of the club were never very strictly observed; but owing to
+the very fact that we had many sins of omission on our conscience
+during our student-year in Bonn, when we were once more on the banks
+of the Rhine, we firmly resolved not only to observe our rule, but
+also to gratify our feelings and our sense of gratitude by reverently
+visiting that spot near Rolandseck on the day appointed.
+
+It was, however, with some difficulty that we were able to carry our
+plans into execution; for, on the very day we had selected for our
+excursion, the large and lively students' association, which always
+hindered us in our flights, did their utmost to put obstacles in our
+way and to hold us back. Our association had organised a general
+holiday excursion to Rolandseck on the very day my friend and I had
+fixed upon, the object of the outing being to assemble all its members
+for the last time at the close of the half-year and to send them home
+with pleasant recollections of their last hours together.
+
+The day was a glorious one; the weather was of the kind which, in our
+climate at least, only falls to our lot in late summer: heaven and
+earth merged harmoniously with one another, and, glowing wondrously in
+the sunshine, autumn freshness blended with the blue expanse above.
+Arrayed in the bright fantastic garb in which, amid the gloomy
+fashions now reigning, students alone may indulge, we boarded a
+steamer which was gaily decorated in our honour, and hoisted our flag
+on its mast. From both banks of the river there came at intervals the
+sound of signal-guns, fired according to our orders, with the view of
+acquainting both our host in Rolandseck and the inhabitants in the
+neighbourhood with our approach. I shall not speak of the noisy
+journey from the landing-stage, through the excited and expectant
+little place, nor shall I refer to the esoteric jokes exchanged
+between ourselves; I also make no mention of a feast which became both
+wild and noisy, or of an extraordinary musical production in the
+execution of which, whether as soloists or as chorus, we all
+ultimately had to share, and which I, as musical adviser of our club,
+had not only had to rehearse, but was then forced to conduct. Towards
+the end of this piece, which grew ever wilder and which was sung to
+ever quicker time, I made a sign to my friend, and just as the last
+chord rang like a yell through the building, he and I vanished,
+leaving behind us a raging pandemonium.
+
+In a moment we were in the refreshing and breathless stillness of
+nature. The shadows were already lengthening, the sun still shone
+steadily, though it had sunk a good deal in the heavens, and from the
+green and glittering waves of the Rhine a cool breeze was wafted over
+our hot faces. Our solemn rite bound us only in so far as the latest
+hours of the day were concerned, and we therefore determined to employ
+the last moments of clear daylight by giving ourselves up to one of
+our many hobbies.
+
+At that time we were passionately fond of pistol-shooting, and both of
+us in later years found the skill we had acquired as amateurs of great
+use in our military career. Our club servant happened to know the
+somewhat distant and elevated spot which we used as a range, and had
+carried our pistols there in advance. The spot lay near the upper
+border of the wood which covered the lesser heights behind Rolandseck:
+it was a small uneven plateau, close to the place we had consecrated
+in memory of its associations. On a wooded slope alongside of our
+shooting-range there was a small piece of ground which had been
+cleared of wood, and which made an ideal halting-place; from it one
+could get a view of the Rhine over the tops of the trees and the
+brushwood, so that the beautiful, undulating lines of the Seven
+Mountains and above all of the Drachenfels bounded the horizon against
+the group of trees, while in the centre of the bow formed by the
+glistening Rhine itself the island of Nonnenwörth stood out as if
+suspended in the river's arms. This was the place which had become
+sacred to us through the dreams and plans we had had in common, and to
+which we intended to withdraw, later in the evening,--nay, to which we
+should be obliged to withdraw, if we wished to close the day in
+accordance with the law we had imposed on ourselves.
+
+At one end of the little uneven plateau, and not very far away, there
+stood the mighty trunk of an oak-tree, prominently visible against a
+background quite bare of trees and consisting merely of low undulating
+hills in the distance. Working together, we had once carved a
+pentagram in the side of this tree-trunk. Years of exposure to rain
+and storm had slightly deepened the channels we had cut, and the
+figure seemed a welcome target for our pistol-practice. It was already
+late in the afternoon when we reached our improvised range, and our
+oak-stump cast a long and attenuated shadow across the barren heath.
+All was still: thanks to the lofty trees at our feet, we were unable
+to catch a glimpse of the valley of the Rhine below. The peacefulness
+of the spot seemed only to intensify the loudness of our
+pistol-shots--and I had scarcely fired my second barrel at the
+pentagram when I felt some one lay hold of my arm and noticed that my
+friend had also some one beside him who had interrupted his loading.
+
+Turning sharply on my heels I found myself face to face with an
+astonished old gentleman, and felt what must have been a very powerful
+dog make a lunge at my back. My friend had been approached by a
+somewhat younger man than I had; but before we could give expression
+to our surprise the older of the two interlopers burst forth in the
+following threatening and heated strain: "No! no!" he called to us,
+"no duels must be fought here, but least of all must you young
+students fight one. Away with these pistols and compose yourselves. Be
+reconciled, shake hands! What?--and are you the salt of the earth,
+the intelligence of the future, the seed of our hopes--and are you
+not even able to emancipate yourselves from the insane code of honour
+and its violent regulations? I will not cast any aspersions on your
+hearts, but your heads certainly do you no credit. You, whose youth is
+watched over by the wisdom of Greece and Rome, and whose youthful
+spirits, at the cost of enormous pains, have been flooded with the
+light of the sages and heroes of antiquity,--can you not refrain from
+making the code of knightly honour--that is to say, the code of folly
+and brutality--the guiding principle of your conduct?--Examine it
+rationally once and for all, and reduce it to plain terms; lay its
+pitiable narrowness bare, and let it be the touchstone, not of your
+hearts but of your minds. If you do not regret it then, it will merely
+show that your head is not fitted for work in a sphere where great
+gifts of discrimination are needful in order to burst the bonds of
+prejudice, and where a well-balanced understanding is necessary for
+the purpose of distinguishing right from wrong, even when the
+difference between them lies deeply hidden and is not, as in this
+case, so ridiculously obvious. In that case, therefore, my lads, try
+to go through life in some other honourable manner; join the army or
+learn a handicraft that pays its way."
+
+To this rough, though admittedly just, flood of eloquence, we replied
+with some irritation, interrupting each other continually in so doing:
+"In the first place, you are mistaken concerning the main point; for
+we are not here to fight a duel at all; but rather to practise
+pistol-shooting. Secondly, you do not appear to know how a real duel
+is conducted;--do you suppose that we should have faced each other in
+this lonely spot, like two highwaymen, without seconds or doctors,
+etc. etc.? Thirdly, with regard to the question of duelling, we each
+have our own opinions, and do not require to be waylaid and surprised
+by the sort of instruction you may feel disposed to give us."
+
+This reply, which was certainly not polite, made a bad impression upon
+the old man. At first, when he heard that we were not about to fight a
+duel, he surveyed us more kindly: but when we reached the last passage
+of our speech, he seemed so vexed that he growled. When, however, we
+began to speak of our point of view, he quickly caught hold of his
+companion, turned sharply round, and cried to us in bitter tones:
+"People should not have points of view, but thoughts!" And then his
+companion added: "Be respectful when a man such as this even makes
+mistakes!"
+
+Meanwhile, my friend, who had reloaded, fired a shot at the pentagram,
+after having cried: "Look out!" This sudden report behind his back
+made the old man savage; once more he turned round and looked sourly
+at my friend, after which he said to his companion in a feeble voice:
+"What shall we do? These young men will be the death of me with their
+firing."--"You should know," said the younger man, turning to us,
+"that your noisy pastimes amount, as it happens on this occasion, to
+an attempt upon the life of philosophy. You observe this venerable
+man,--he is in a position to beg you to desist from firing here. And
+when such a man begs----" "Well, his request is generally granted,"
+the old man interjected, surveying us sternly.
+
+As a matter of fact, we did not know what to make of the whole matter;
+we could not understand what our noisy pastimes could have in common
+with philosophy; nor could we see why, out of regard for polite
+scruples, we should abandon our shooting-range, and at this moment we
+may have appeared somewhat undecided and perturbed. The companion
+noticing our momentary discomfiture, proceeded to explain the matter
+to us.
+
+"We are compelled," he said, "to linger in this immediate
+neighbourhood for an hour or so; we have a rendezvous here. An eminent
+friend of this eminent man is to meet us here this evening; and we had
+actually selected this peaceful spot, with its few benches in the
+midst of the wood, for the meeting. It would really be most unpleasant
+if, owing to your continual pistol-practice, we were to be subjected
+to an unending series of shocks; surely your own feelings will tell
+you that it is impossible for you to continue your firing when you
+hear that he who has selected this quiet and isolated place for a
+meeting with a friend is one of our most eminent philosophers."
+
+This explanation only succeeded in perturbing us the more; for we saw
+a danger threatening us which was even greater than the loss of our
+shooting-range, and we asked eagerly, "Where is this quiet spot?
+Surely not to the left here, in the wood?"
+
+"That is the very place."
+
+"But this evening that place belongs to us," my friend interposed. "We
+must have it," we cried together.
+
+Our long-projected celebration seemed at that moment more important
+than all the philosophies of the world, and we gave such vehement and
+animated utterance to our sentiments that in view of the
+incomprehensible nature of our claims we must have cut a somewhat
+ridiculous figure. At any rate, our philosophical interlopers regarded
+us with expressions of amused inquiry, as if they expected us to
+proffer some sort of apology. But we were silent, for we wished above
+all to keep our secret.
+
+Thus we stood facing one another in silence, while the sunset dyed the
+tree-tops a ruddy gold. The philosopher contemplated the sun, his
+companion contemplated him, and we turned our eyes towards our nook in
+the woods which to-day we seemed in such great danger of losing. A
+feeling of sullen anger took possession of us. What is philosophy, we
+asked ourselves, if it prevents a man from being by himself or from
+enjoying the select company of a friend,--in sooth, if it prevents him
+from becoming a philosopher? For we regarded the celebration of our
+rite as a thoroughly philosophical performance. In celebrating it we
+wished to form plans and resolutions for the future, by means of quiet
+reflections we hoped to light upon an idea which would once again help
+us to form and gratify our spirit in the future, just as that former
+idea had done during our boyhood. The solemn act derived its very
+significance from this resolution, that nothing definite was to be
+done, we were only to be alone, and to sit still and meditate, as we
+had done five years before when we had each been inspired with the
+same thought. It was to be a silent solemnisation, all reminiscence
+and all future; the present was to be as a hyphen between the two. And
+fate, now unfriendly, had just stepped into our magic circle--and we
+knew not how to dismiss her;--the very unusual character of the
+circumstances filled us with mysterious excitement.
+
+Whilst we stood thus in silence for some time, divided into two
+hostile groups, the clouds above waxed ever redder and the evening
+seemed to grow more peaceful and mild; we could almost fancy we heard
+the regular breathing of nature as she put the final touches to her
+work of art--the glorious day we had just enjoyed; when, suddenly, the
+calm evening air was rent by a confused and boisterous cry of joy
+which seemed to come from the Rhine. A number of voices could be heard
+in the distance--they were those of our fellow-students who by that
+time must have taken to the Rhine in small boats. It occurred to us
+that we should be missed and that we should also miss something:
+almost simultaneously my friend and I raised our pistols: our shots
+were echoed back to us, and with their echo there came from the valley
+the sound of a well-known cry intended as a signal of identification.
+For our passion for shooting had brought us both repute and ill-repute
+in our club. At the same time we were conscious that our behaviour
+towards the silent philosophical couple had been exceptionally
+ungentlemanly; they had been quietly contemplating us for some time,
+and when we fired the shock made them draw close up to each other. We
+hurried up to them, and each in our turn cried out: "Forgive us. That
+was our last shot, and it was intended for our friends on the Rhine.
+They have understood us, do you hear? If you insist upon having that
+place among the trees, grant us at least the permission to recline
+there also. You will find a number of benches on the spot: we shall
+not disturb you; we shall sit quite still and shall not utter a word:
+but it is now past seven o'clock and we _must_ go there at once.
+
+"That sounds more mysterious than it is," I added after a pause; "we
+have made a solemn vow to spend this coming hour on that ground, and
+there were reasons for the vow. The spot is sacred to us, owing to
+some pleasant associations, it must also inaugurate a good future for
+us. We shall therefore endeavour to leave you with no disagreeable
+recollections of our meeting--even though we have done much to perturb
+and frighten you."
+
+The philosopher was silent; his companion, however, said: "Our
+promises and plans unfortunately compel us not only to remain, but
+also to spend the same hour on the spot you have selected. It is left
+for us to decide whether fate or perhaps a spirit has been responsible
+for this extraordinary coincidence."
+
+"Besides, my friend," said the philosopher, "I am not half so
+displeased with these warlike youngsters as I was. Did you observe
+how quiet they were a moment ago, when we were contemplating the sun?
+They neither spoke nor smoked, they stood stone still, I even believe
+they meditated."
+
+Turning suddenly in our direction, he said: "_Were_ you meditating?
+Just tell me about it as we proceed in the direction of our common
+trysting-place." We took a few steps together and went down the slope
+into the warm balmy air of the woods where it was already much darker.
+On the way my friend openly revealed his thoughts to the philosopher,
+he confessed how much he had feared that perhaps to-day for the first
+time a philosopher was about to stand in the way of his
+philosophising.
+
+The sage laughed. "What? You were afraid a philosopher would prevent
+your philosophising? This might easily happen: and you have not yet
+experienced such a thing? Has your university life been free from
+experience? You surely attend lectures on philosophy?"
+
+This question discomfited us; for, as a matter of fact, there had been
+no element of philosophy in our education up to that time. In those
+days, moreover, we fondly imagined that everybody who held the post
+and possessed the dignity of a philosopher must perforce be one: we
+were inexperienced and badly informed. We frankly admitted that we had
+not yet belonged to any philosophical college, but that we would
+certainly make up for lost time.
+
+"Then what," he asked, "did you mean when you spoke of
+philosophising?" Said I, "We are at a loss for a definition. But to
+all intents and purposes we meant this, that we wished to make earnest
+endeavours to consider the best possible means of becoming men of
+culture." "That is a good deal and at the same time very little,"
+growled the philosopher; "just you think the matter over. Here are our
+benches, let us discuss the question exhaustively: I shall not disturb
+your meditations with regard to how you are to become men of culture.
+I wish you success and--points of view, as in your duelling questions;
+brand-new, original, and enlightened points of view. The philosopher
+does not wish to prevent your philosophising: but refrain at least
+from disconcerting him with your pistol-shots. Try to imitate the
+Pythagoreans to-day: they, as servants of a true philosophy, had to
+remain silent for five years--possibly you may also be able to remain
+silent for five times fifteen minutes, as servants of your own future
+culture, about which you seem so concerned."
+
+We had reached our destination: the solemnisation of our rite began.
+As on the previous occasion, five years ago, the Rhine was once more
+flowing beneath a light mist, the sky seemed bright and the woods
+exhaled the same fragrance. We took our places on the farthest corner
+of the most distant bench; sitting there we were almost concealed, and
+neither the philosopher nor his companion could see our faces. We were
+alone: when the sound of the philosopher's voice reached us, it had
+become so blended with the rustling leaves and with the buzzing
+murmur of the myriads of living things inhabiting the wooded height,
+that it almost seemed like the music of nature; as a sound it
+resembled nothing more than a distant monotonous plaint. We were
+indeed undisturbed.
+
+Some time elapsed in this way, and while the glow of sunset grew
+steadily paler the recollection of our youthful undertaking in the
+cause of culture waxed ever more vivid. It seemed to us as if we owed
+the greatest debt of gratitude to that little society we had founded;
+for it had done more than merely supplement our public school
+training; it had actually been the only fruitful society we had had,
+and within its frame we even placed our public school life, as a
+purely isolated factor helping us in our general efforts to attain to
+culture.
+
+We knew this, that, thanks to our little society, no thought of
+embracing any particular career had ever entered our minds in those
+days. The all too frequent exploitation of youth by the State, for its
+own purposes--that is to say, so that it may rear useful officials as
+quickly as possible and guarantee their unconditional obedience to it
+by means of excessively severe examinations--had remained quite
+foreign to our education. And to show how little we had been actuated
+by thoughts of utility or by the prospect of speedy advancement and
+rapid success, on that day we were struck by the comforting
+consideration that, even then, we had not yet decided what we should
+be--we had not even troubled ourselves at all on this head. Our little
+society had sown the seeds of this happy indifference in our souls and
+for it alone we were prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its
+foundation with hearty gratitude. I have already pointed out, I think,
+that in the eyes of the present age, which is so intolerant of
+anything that is not useful, such purposeless enjoyment of the moment,
+such a lulling of one's self in the cradle of the present, must seem
+almost incredible and at all events blameworthy. How useless we were!
+And how proud we were of being useless! We used even to quarrel with
+each other as to which of us should have the glory of being the more
+useless. We wished to attach no importance to anything, to have strong
+views about nothing, to aim at nothing; we wanted to take no thought
+for the morrow, and desired no more than to recline comfortably like
+good-for-nothings on the threshold of the present; and we did--bless
+us!
+
+--That, ladies and gentlemen, was our standpoint then!--
+
+Absorbed in these reflections, I was just about to give an answer to
+the question of the future of _our_ Educational Institutions in the
+same self-sufficient way, when it gradually dawned upon me that the
+"natural music," coming from the philosopher's bench had lost its
+original character and travelled to us in much more piercing and
+distinct tones than before. Suddenly I became aware that I was
+listening, that I was eavesdropping, and was passionately interested,
+with both ears keenly alive to every sound. I nudged my friend who was
+evidently somewhat tired, and I whispered: "Don't fall asleep! There
+is something for us to learn over there. It applies to us, even
+though it be not meant for us."
+
+For instance, I heard the younger of the two men defending himself
+with great animation while the philosopher rebuked him with ever
+increasing vehemence. "You are unchanged," he cried to him,
+"unfortunately unchanged. It is quite incomprehensible to me how you
+can still be the same as you were seven years ago, when I saw you for
+the last time and left you with so much misgiving. I fear I must once
+again divest you, however reluctantly, of the skin of modern culture
+which you have donned meanwhile;--and what do I find beneath it? The
+same immutable 'intelligible' character forsooth, according to Kant;
+but unfortunately the same unchanged 'intellectual' character,
+too--which may also be a necessity, though not a comforting one. I ask
+myself to what purpose have I lived as a philosopher, if, possessed as
+you are of no mean intelligence and a genuine thirst for knowledge,
+all the years you have spent in my company have left no deeper
+impression upon you. At present you are behaving as if you had not
+even heard the cardinal principle of all culture, which I went to such
+pains to inculcate upon you during our former intimacy. Tell me,--what
+was that principle?"
+
+"I remember," replied the scolded pupil, "you used to say no one would
+strive to attain to culture if he knew how incredibly small the number
+of really cultured people actually is, and can ever be. And even this
+number of really cultured people would not be possible if a prodigious
+multitude, from reasons opposed to their nature and only led on by an
+alluring delusion, did not devote themselves to education. It were
+therefore a mistake publicly to reveal the ridiculous disproportion
+between the number of really cultured people and the enormous
+magnitude of the educational apparatus. Here lies the whole secret of
+culture--namely, that an innumerable host of men struggle to achieve
+it and work hard to that end, ostensibly in their own interests,
+whereas at bottom it is only in order that it may be possible for the
+few to attain to it."
+
+"That is the principle," said the philosopher,--"and yet you could so
+far forget yourself as to believe that you are one of the few? This
+thought has occurred to you--I can see. That, however, is the result
+of the worthless character of modern education. The rights of genius
+are being democratised in order that people may be relieved of the
+labour of acquiring culture, and their need of it. Every one wants if
+possible to recline in the shade of the tree planted by genius, and to
+escape the dreadful necessity of working for him, so that his
+procreation may be made possible. What? Are you too proud to be a
+teacher? Do you despise the thronging multitude of learners? Do you
+speak contemptuously of the teacher's calling? And, aping my mode of
+life, would you fain live in solitary seclusion, hostilely isolated
+from that multitude? Do you suppose that you can reach at one bound
+what I ultimately had to win for myself only after long and determined
+struggles, in order even to be able to live like a philosopher? And do
+you not fear that solitude will wreak its vengeance upon you? Just
+try living the life of a hermit of culture. One must be blessed with
+overflowing wealth in order to live for the good of all on one's own
+resources! Extraordinary youngsters! They felt it incumbent upon them
+to imitate what is precisely most difficult and most high,--what is
+possible only to the master, when they, above all, should know how
+difficult and dangerous this is, and how many excellent gifts may be
+ruined by attempting it!"
+
+"I will conceal nothing from you, sir," the companion replied. "I have
+heard too much from your lips at odd times and have been too long in
+your company to be able to surrender myself entirely to our present
+system of education and instruction. I am too painfully conscious of
+the disastrous errors and abuses to which you used to call my
+attention--though I very well know that I am not strong enough to hope
+for any success were I to struggle ever so valiantly against them. I
+was overcome by a feeling of general discouragement; my recourse to
+solitude was the result neither of pride nor arrogance. I would fain
+describe to you what I take to be the nature of the educational
+questions now attracting such enormous and pressing attention. It
+seemed to me that I must recognise two main directions in the forces
+at work--two seemingly antagonistic tendencies, equally deleterious in
+their action, and ultimately combining to produce their results: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible _expansion_ of education on
+the one hand, and a tendency to _minimise and weaken_ it on the
+other. The first-named would, for various reasons, spread learning
+among the greatest number of people; the second would compel education
+to renounce its highest, noblest and sublimest claims in order to
+subordinate itself to some other department of life--such as the
+service of the State.
+
+"I believe I have already hinted at the quarter in which the cry for
+the greatest possible expansion of education is most loudly raised.
+This expansion belongs to the most beloved of the dogmas of modern
+political economy. As much knowledge and education as possible;
+therefore the greatest possible supply and demand--hence as much
+happiness as possible:--that is the formula. In this case utility is
+made the object and goal of education,--utility in the sense of
+gain--the greatest possible pecuniary gain. In the quarter now under
+consideration culture would be defined as that point of vantage which
+enables one to 'keep in the van of one's age,' from which one can see
+all the easiest and best roads to wealth, and with which one controls
+all the means of communication between men and nations. The purpose of
+education, according to this scheme, would be to rear the most
+'current' men possible,--'current' being used here in the sense in
+which it is applied to the coins of the realm. The greater the number
+of such men, the happier a nation will be; and this precisely is the
+purpose of our modern educational institutions: to help every one, as
+far as his nature will allow, to become 'current'; to develop him so
+that his particular degree of knowledge and science may yield him the
+greatest possible amount of happiness and pecuniary gain. Every one
+must be able to form some sort of estimate of himself; he must know
+how much he may reasonably expect from life. The 'bond between
+intelligence and property' which this point of view postulates has
+almost the force of a moral principle. In this quarter all culture is
+loathed which isolates, which sets goals beyond gold and gain, and
+which requires time: it is customary to dispose of such eccentric
+tendencies in education as systems of 'Higher Egotism,' or of 'Immoral
+Culture--Epicureanism.' According to the morality reigning here, the
+demands are quite different; what is required above all is 'rapid
+education,' so that a money-earning creature may be produced with all
+speed; there is even a desire to make this education so thorough that
+a creature may be reared that will be able to earn a _great deal_ of
+money. Men are allowed only the precise amount of culture which is
+compatible with the interests of gain; but that amount, at least, is
+expected from them. In short: mankind has a necessary right to
+happiness on earth--that is why culture is necessary--but on that
+account alone!"
+
+"I must just say something here," said the philosopher. "In the case
+of the view you have described so clearly, there arises the great and
+awful danger that at some time or other the great masses may overleap
+the middle classes and spring headlong into this earthly bliss. That
+is what is now called 'the social question.' It might seem to these
+masses that education for the greatest number of men was only a means
+to the earthly bliss of the few: the 'greatest possible expansion of
+education' so enfeebles education that it can no longer confer
+privileges or inspire respect. The most general form of culture is
+simply barbarism. But I do not wish to interrupt your discussion."
+
+The companion continued: "There are yet other reasons, besides this
+beloved economical dogma, for the expansion of education that is being
+striven after so valiantly everywhere. In some countries the fear of
+religious oppression is so general, and the dread of its results so
+marked, that people in all classes of society long for culture and
+eagerly absorb those elements of it which are supposed to scatter the
+religious instincts. Elsewhere the State, in its turn, strives here
+and there for its own preservation, after the greatest possible
+expansion of education, because it always feels strong enough to bring
+the most determined emancipation, resulting from culture, under its
+yoke, and readily approves of everything which tends to extend
+culture, provided that it be of service to its officials or soldiers,
+but in the main to itself, in its competition with other nations. In
+this case, the foundations of a State must be sufficiently broad and
+firm to constitute a fitting counterpart to the complicated arches of
+culture which it supports, just as in the first case the traces of
+some former religious tyranny must still be felt for a people to be
+driven to such desperate remedies. Thus, wherever I hear the masses
+raise the cry for an expansion of education, I am wont to ask myself
+whether it is stimulated by a greedy lust of gain and property, by
+the memory of a former religious persecution, or by the prudent
+egotism of the State itself.
+
+"On the other hand, it seemed to me that there was yet another
+tendency, not so clamorous, perhaps, but quite as forcible, which,
+hailing from various quarters, was animated by a different
+desire,--the desire to minimise and weaken education.
+
+"In all cultivated circles people are in the habit of whispering to
+one another words something after this style: that it is a general
+fact that, owing to the present frantic exploitation of the scholar in
+the service of his science, his _education_ becomes every day more
+accidental and more uncertain. For the study of science has been
+extended to such interminable lengths that he who, though not
+exceptionally gifted, yet possesses fair abilities, will need to
+devote himself exclusively to one branch and ignore all others if he
+ever wish to achieve anything in his work. Should he then elevate
+himself above the herd by means of his speciality, he still remains
+one of them in regard to all else,--that is to say, in regard to all
+the most important things in life. Thus, a specialist in science gets
+to resemble nothing so much as a factory workman who spends his whole
+life in turning one particular screw or handle on a certain instrument
+or machine, at which occupation he acquires the most consummate skill.
+In Germany, where we know how to drape such painful facts with the
+glorious garments of fancy, this narrow specialisation on the part of
+our learned men is even admired, and their ever greater deviation
+from the path of true culture is regarded as a moral phenomenon.
+'Fidelity in small things,' 'dogged faithfulness,' become expressions
+of highest eulogy, and the lack of culture outside the speciality is
+flaunted abroad as a sign of noble sufficiency.
+
+"For centuries it has been an understood thing that one alluded to
+scholars alone when one spoke of cultured men; but experience tells us
+that it would be difficult to find any necessary relation between the
+two classes to-day. For at present the exploitation of a man for the
+purpose of science is accepted everywhere without the slightest
+scruple. Who still ventures to ask, What may be the value of a science
+which consumes its minions in this vampire fashion? The division of
+labour in science is practically struggling towards the same goal
+which religions in certain parts of the world are consciously striving
+after,--that is to say, towards the decrease and even the destruction
+of learning. That, however, which, in the case of certain religions,
+is a perfectly justifiable aim, both in regard to their origin and
+their history, can only amount to self-immolation when transferred to
+the realm of science. In all matters of a general and serious nature,
+and above all, in regard to the highest philosophical problems, we
+have now already reached a point at which the scientific man, as such,
+is no longer allowed to speak. On the other hand, that adhesive and
+tenacious stratum which has now filled up the interstices between the
+sciences--Journalism--believes it has a mission to fulfil here, and
+this it does, according to its own particular lights--that is to say,
+as its name implies, after the fashion of a day-labourer.
+
+"It is precisely in journalism that the two tendencies combine and
+become one. The expansion and the diminution of education here join
+hands. The newspaper actually steps into the place of culture, and he
+who, even as a scholar, wishes to voice any claim for education, must
+avail himself of this viscous stratum of communication which cements
+the seams between all forms of life, all classes, all arts, and all
+sciences, and which is as firm and reliable as news paper is, as a
+rule. In the newspaper the peculiar educational aims of the present
+culminate, just as the journalist, the servant of the moment, has
+stepped into the place of the genius, of the leader for all time, of
+the deliverer from the tyranny of the moment. Now, tell me,
+distinguished master, what hopes could I still have in a struggle
+against the general topsy-turvification of all genuine aims for
+education; with what courage can I, a single teacher, step forward,
+when I know that the moment any seeds of real culture are sown, they
+will be mercilessly crushed by the roller of this pseudo-culture?
+Imagine how useless the most energetic work on the part of the
+individual teacher must be, who would fain lead a pupil back into the
+distant and evasive Hellenic world and to the real home of culture,
+when in less than an hour, that same pupil will have recourse to a
+newspaper, the latest novel, or one of those learned books, the very
+style of which already bears the revolting impress of modern barbaric
+culture----"
+
+"Now, silence a minute!" interjected the philosopher in a strong and
+sympathetic voice. "I understand you now, and ought never to have
+spoken so crossly to you. You are altogether right, save in your
+despair. I shall now proceed to say a few words of consolation."
+
+
+
+
+SECOND LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 6th of February 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--Those among you whom I now have the pleasure of
+addressing for the first time and whose only knowledge of my first
+lecture has been derived from reports will, I hope, not mind being
+introduced here into the middle of a dialogue which I had begun to
+recount on the last occasion, and the last points of which I must now
+recall. The philosopher's young companion was just pleading openly and
+confidentially with his distinguished tutor, and apologising for
+having so far renounced his calling as a teacher in order to spend his
+days in comfortless solitude. No suspicion of superciliousness or
+arrogance had induced him to form this resolve.
+
+"I have heard too much from your lips at various times," the
+straightforward pupil said, "and have been too long in your company,
+to surrender myself blindly to our present systems of education and
+instruction. I am too painfully conscious of the disastrous errors and
+abuses to which you were wont to call my attention; and yet I know
+that I am far from possessing the requisite strength to meet with
+success, however valiantly I might struggle to shatter the bulwarks
+of this would-be culture. I was overcome by a general feeling of
+depression: my recourse to solitude was not arrogance or
+superciliousness." Whereupon, to account for his behaviour, he
+described the general character of modern educational methods so
+vividly that the philosopher could not help interrupting him in a
+voice full of sympathy, and crying words of comfort to him.
+
+"Now, silence for a minute, my poor friend," he cried; "I can more
+easily understand you now, and should not have lost my patience with
+you. You are altogether right, save in your despair. I shall now
+proceed to say a few words of comfort to you. How long do you suppose
+the state of education in the schools of our time, which seems to
+weigh so heavily upon you, will last? I shall not conceal my views on
+this point from you: its time is over; its days are counted. The first
+who will dare to be quite straightforward in this respect will hear
+his honesty re-echoed back to him by thousands of courageous souls.
+For, at bottom, there is a tacit understanding between the more nobly
+gifted and more warmly disposed men of the present day. Every one of
+them knows what he has had to suffer from the condition of culture in
+schools; every one of them would fain protect his offspring from the
+need of enduring similar drawbacks, even though he himself was
+compelled to submit to them. If these feelings are never quite
+honestly expressed, however, it is owing to a sad want of spirit among
+modern pedagogues. These lack real initiative; there are too few
+practical men among them--that is to say, too few who happen to have
+good and new ideas, and who know that real genius and the real
+practical mind must necessarily come together in the same individuals,
+whilst the sober practical men have no ideas and therefore fall short
+in practice.
+
+"Let any one examine the pedagogic literature of the present; he who
+is not shocked at its utter poverty of spirit and its ridiculously
+awkward antics is beyond being spoiled. Here our philosophy must not
+begin with wonder but with dread; he who feels no dread at this point
+must be asked not to meddle with pedagogic questions. The reverse, of
+course, has been the rule up to the present; those who were terrified
+ran away filled with embarrassment as you did, my poor friend, while
+the sober and fearless ones spread their heavy hands over the most
+delicate technique that has ever existed in art--over the technique of
+education. This, however, will not be possible much longer; at some
+time or other the upright man will appear, who will not only have the
+good ideas I speak of, but who in order to work at their realisation,
+will dare to break with all that exists at present: he may by means of
+a wonderful example achieve what the broad hands, hitherto active,
+could not even imitate--then people will everywhere begin to draw
+comparisons; then men will at least be able to perceive a contrast and
+will be in a position to reflect upon its causes, whereas, at present,
+so many still believe, in perfect good faith, that heavy hands are a
+necessary factor in pedagogic work."
+
+"My dear master," said the younger man, "I wish you could point to
+one single example which would assist me in seeing the soundness of
+the hopes which you so heartily raise in me. We are both acquainted
+with public schools; do you think, for instance, that in respect of
+these institutions anything may be done by means of honesty and good
+and new ideas to abolish the tenacious and antiquated customs now
+extant? In this quarter, it seems to me, the battering-rams of an
+attacking party will have to meet with no solid wall, but with the
+most fatal of stolid and slippery principles. The leader of the
+assault has no visible and tangible opponent to crush, but rather a
+creature in disguise that can transform itself into a hundred
+different shapes and, in each of these, slip out of his grasp, only in
+order to reappear and to confound its enemy by cowardly surrenders and
+feigned retreats. It was precisely the public schools which drove me
+into despair and solitude, simply because I feel that if the struggle
+here leads to victory all other educational institutions must give in;
+but that, if the reformer be forced to abandon his cause here, he may
+as well give up all hope in regard to every other scholastic question.
+Therefore, dear master, enlighten me concerning the public schools;
+what can we hope for in the way of their abolition or reform?"
+
+"I also hold the question of public schools to be as important as you
+do," the philosopher replied. "All other educational institutions must
+fix their aims in accordance with those of the public school system;
+whatever errors of judgment it may suffer from, they suffer from also,
+and if it were ever purified and rejuvenated, they would be purified
+and rejuvenated too. The universities can no longer lay claim to this
+importance as centres of influence, seeing that, as they now stand,
+they are at least, in one important aspect, only a kind of annex to
+the public school system, as I shall shortly point out to you. For the
+moment, let us consider, together, what to my mind constitutes the
+very hopeful struggle of the two possibilities: _either_ that the
+motley and evasive spirit of public schools which has hitherto been
+fostered, will completely vanish, or that it will have to be
+completely purified and rejuvenated. And in order that I may not shock
+you with general propositions, let us first try to recall one of those
+public school experiences which we have all had, and from which we
+have all suffered. Under severe examination what, as a matter of fact,
+is the present _system of teaching German_ in public schools?
+
+"I shall first of all tell you what it should be. Everybody speaks and
+writes German as thoroughly badly as it is just possible to do so in
+an age of newspaper German: that is why the growing youth who happens
+to be both noble and gifted has to be taken by force and put under the
+glass shade of good taste and of severe linguistic discipline. If this
+is not possible, I would prefer in future that Latin be spoken; for I
+am ashamed of a language so bungled and vitiated.
+
+"What would be the duty of a higher educational institution, in this
+respect, if not this--namely, with authority and dignified severity to
+put youths, neglected, as far as their own language is concerned, on
+the right path, and to cry to them: 'Take your own language seriously!
+He who does not regard this matter as a sacred duty does not possess
+even the germ of a higher culture. From your attitude in this matter,
+from your treatment of your mother-tongue, we can judge how highly or
+how lowly you esteem art, and to what extent you are related to it. If
+you notice no physical loathing in yourselves when you meet with
+certain words and tricks of speech in our journalistic jargon, cease
+from striving after culture; for here in your immediate vicinity, at
+every moment of your life, while you are either speaking or writing,
+you have a touchstone for testing how difficult, how stupendous, the
+task of the cultured man is, and how very improbable it must be that
+many of you will ever attain to culture.'
+
+"In accordance with the spirit of this address, the teacher of German
+at a public school would be forced to call his pupil's attention to
+thousands of details, and with the absolute certainty of good taste,
+to forbid their using such words and expressions, for instance, as:
+'_beanspruchen_,' '_vereinnahmen_,' '_einer Sache Rechnung tragen_,'
+'_die Initiative ergreifen_,' '_selbstverständlich_,'[3] etc., _cum
+tædio in infinitum_. The same teacher would also have to take our
+classical authors and show, line for line, how carefully and with what
+precision every expression has to be chosen when a writer has the
+correct feeling in his heart and has before his eyes a perfect
+conception of all he is writing. He would necessarily urge his pupils,
+time and again, to express the same thought ever more happily; nor
+would he have to abate in rigour until the less gifted in his class
+had contracted an unholy fear of their language, and the others had
+developed great enthusiasm for it.
+
+"Here then is a task for so-called 'formal' education[4] [the
+education tending to develop the mental faculties, as opposed to
+'material' education,[5] which is intended to deal only with the
+acquisition of facts, _e.g._ history, mathematics, etc.], and one of
+the utmost value: but what do we find in the public school--that is to
+say, in the head-quarters of formal education? He who understands how
+to apply what he has heard here will also know what to think of the
+modern public school as a so-called educational institution. He will
+discover, for instance, that the public school, according to its
+fundamental principles, does not educate for the purposes of culture,
+but for the purposes of scholarship; and, further, that of late it
+seems to have adopted a course which indicates rather that it has even
+discarded scholarship in favour of journalism as the object of its
+exertions. This can be clearly seen from the way in which German is
+taught.
+
+"Instead of that purely practical method of instruction by which the
+teacher accustoms his pupils to severe self-discipline in their own
+language, we find everywhere the rudiments of a historico-scholastic
+method of teaching the mother-tongue: that is to say, people deal with
+it as if it were a dead language and as if the present and future were
+under no obligations to it whatsoever. The historical method has
+become so universal in our time, that even the living body of the
+language is sacrificed for the sake of anatomical study. But this is
+precisely where culture begins--namely, in understanding how to treat
+the quick as something vital, and it is here too that the mission of
+the cultured teacher begins: in suppressing the urgent claims of
+'historical interests' wherever it is above all necessary to _do_
+properly and not merely to _know_ properly. Our mother-tongue,
+however, is a domain in which the pupil must learn how to _do_
+properly, and to this practical end, alone, the teaching of German is
+essential in our scholastic establishments. The historical method may
+certainly be a considerably easier and more comfortable one for the
+teacher; it also seems to be compatible with a much lower grade of
+ability and, in general, with a smaller display of energy and will on
+his part. But we shall find that this observation holds good in every
+department of pedagogic life: the simpler and more comfortable method
+always masquerades in the disguise of grand pretensions and stately
+titles; the really practical side, the _doing_, which should belong to
+culture and which, at bottom, is the more difficult side, meets only
+with disfavour and contempt. That is why the honest man must make
+himself and others quite clear concerning this _quid pro quo_.
+
+"Now, apart from these learned incentives to a study of the language,
+what is there besides which the German teacher is wont to offer? How
+does he reconcile the spirit of his school with the spirit of the
+_few_ that Germany can claim who are really cultured,--_i.e._ with the
+spirit of its classical poets and artists? This is a dark and thorny
+sphere, into which one cannot even bear a light without dread; but
+even here we shall conceal nothing from ourselves; for sooner or later
+the whole of it will have to be reformed. In the public school, the
+repulsive impress of our æsthetic journalism is stamped upon the still
+unformed minds of youths. Here, too, the teacher sows the seeds of
+that crude and wilful misinterpretation of the classics, which later
+on disports itself as art-criticism, and which is nothing but
+bumptious barbarity. Here the pupils learn to speak of our unique
+_Schiller_ with the superciliousness of prigs; here they are taught to
+smile at the noblest and most German of his works--at the Marquis of
+Posa, at Max and Thekla--at these smiles German genius becomes
+incensed and a worthier posterity will blush.
+
+"The last department in which the German teacher in a public school is
+at all active, which is often regarded as his sphere of highest
+activity, and is here and there even considered the pinnacle of public
+school education, is the so-called _German composition_. Owing to the
+very fact that in this department it is almost always the most gifted
+pupils who display the greatest eagerness, it ought to have been made
+clear how dangerously stimulating, precisely here, the task of the
+teacher must be. _German composition_ makes an appeal to the
+individual, and the more strongly a pupil is conscious of his various
+qualities, the more personally will he do his _German composition_.
+This 'personal doing' is urged on with yet an additional fillip in
+some public schools by the choice of the subject, the strongest proof
+of which is, in my opinion, that even in the lower classes the
+non-pedagogic subject is set, by means of which the pupil is led to
+give a description of his life and of his development. Now, one has
+only to read the titles of the compositions set in a large number of
+public schools to be convinced that probably the large majority of
+pupils have to suffer their whole lives, through no fault of their
+own, owing to this premature demand for personal work--for the unripe
+procreation of thoughts. And how often are not all a man's subsequent
+literary performances but a sad result of this pedagogic original sin
+against the intellect!
+
+"Let us only think of what takes place at such an age in the
+production of such work. It is the first individual creation; the
+still undeveloped powers tend for the first time to crystallise; the
+staggering sensation produced by the demand for self-reliance imparts
+a seductive charm to these early performances, which is not only quite
+new, but which never returns. All the daring of nature is hauled out
+of its depths; all vanities--no longer constrained by mighty
+barriers--are allowed for the first time to assume a literary form:
+the young man, from that time forward, feels as if he had reached his
+consummation as a being not only able, but actually invited, to speak
+and to converse. The subject he selects obliges him either to express
+his judgment upon certain poetical works, to class historical persons
+together in a description of character, to discuss serious ethical
+problems quite independently, or even to turn the searchlight inwards,
+to throw its rays upon his own development and to make a critical
+report of himself: in short, a whole world of reflection is spread out
+before the astonished young man who, until then, had been almost
+unconscious, and is delivered up to him to be judged.
+
+"Now let us try to picture the teacher's usual attitude towards these
+first highly influential examples of original composition. What does
+he hold to be most reprehensible in this class of work? What does he
+call his pupil's attention to?--To all excess in form or thought--that
+is to say, to all that which, at their age, is essentially
+characteristic and individual. Their really independent traits which,
+in response to this very premature excitation, can manifest themselves
+only in awkwardness, crudeness, and grotesque features,--in short,
+their individuality is reproved and rejected by the teacher in favour
+of an unoriginal decent average. On the other hand, uniform mediocrity
+gets peevish praise; for, as a rule, it is just the class of work
+likely to bore the teacher thoroughly.
+
+"There may still be men who recognise a most absurd and most dangerous
+element of the public school curriculum in the whole farce of this
+German composition. Originality is demanded here: but the only shape
+in which it can manifest itself is rejected, and the 'formal'
+education that the system takes for granted is attained to only by a
+very limited number of men who complete it at a ripe age. Here
+everybody without exception is regarded as gifted for literature and
+considered as capable of holding opinions concerning the most
+important questions and people, whereas the one aim which proper
+education should most zealously strive to achieve would be the
+suppression of all ridiculous claims to independent judgment, and the
+inculcation upon young men of obedience to the sceptre of genius. Here
+a pompous form of diction is taught in an age when every spoken or
+written word is a piece of barbarism. Now let us consider, besides,
+the danger of arousing the self-complacency which is so easily
+awakened in youths; let us think how their vanity must be flattered
+when they see their literary reflection for the first time in the
+mirror. Who, having seen all these effects at _one_ glance, could any
+longer doubt whether all the faults of our public, literary, and
+artistic life were not stamped upon every fresh generation by the
+system we are examining: hasty and vain production, the disgraceful
+manufacture of books; complete want of style; the crude,
+characterless, or sadly swaggering method of expression; the loss of
+every æsthetic canon; the voluptuousness of anarchy and chaos--in
+short, the literary peculiarities of both our journalism and our
+scholarship.
+
+"None but the very fewest are aware that, among many thousands,
+perhaps only _one_ is justified in describing himself as literary, and
+that all others who at their own risk try to be so deserve to be met
+with Homeric laughter by all competent men as a reward for every
+sentence they have ever had printed;--for it is truly a spectacle meet
+for the gods to see a literary Hephaistos limping forward who would
+pretend to help us to something. To educate men to earnest and
+inexorable habits and views, in this respect, should be the highest
+aim of all mental training, whereas the general _laisser aller_ of the
+'fine personality' can be nothing else than the hall-mark of
+barbarism. From what I have said, however, it must be clear that, at
+least in the teaching of German, no thought is given to culture;
+something quite different is in view,--namely, the production of the
+afore-mentioned 'free personality.' And so long as German public
+schools prepare the road for outrageous and irresponsible scribbling,
+so long as they do not regard the immediate and practical discipline
+of speaking and writing as their most holy duty, so long as they treat
+the mother-tongue as if it were only a necessary evil or a dead body,
+I shall not regard these institutions as belonging to real culture.
+
+"In regard to the language, what is surely least noticeable is any
+trace of the influence of _classical examples_: that is why, on the
+strength of this consideration alone, the so-called 'classical
+education' which is supposed to be provided by our public school,
+strikes me as something exceedingly doubtful and confused. For how
+could anybody, after having cast one glance at those examples, fail to
+see the great earnestness with which the Greek and the Roman regarded
+and treated his language, from his youth onwards--how is it possible
+to mistake one's example on a point like this one?--provided, of
+course, that the classical Hellenic and Roman world really did hover
+before the educational plan of our public schools as the highest and
+most instructive of all morals--a fact I feel very much inclined to
+doubt. The claim put forward by public schools concerning the
+'classical education' they provide seems to be more an awkward evasion
+than anything else; it is used whenever there is any question raised
+as to the competency of the public schools to impart culture and to
+educate. Classical education, indeed! It sounds so dignified! It
+confounds the aggressor and staves off the assault--for who could see
+to the bottom of this bewildering formula all at once? And this has
+long been the customary strategy of the public school: from whichever
+side the war-cry may come, it writes upon its shield--not overloaded
+with honours--one of those confusing catchwords, such as: 'classical
+education,' 'formal education,' 'scientific education':--three
+glorious things which are, however, unhappily at loggerheads, not only
+with themselves but among themselves, and are such that, if they were
+compulsorily brought together, would perforce bring forth a
+culture-monster. For a 'classical education' is something so unheard
+of, difficult and rare, and exacts such complicated talent, that only
+ingenuousness or impudence could put it forward as an attainable goal
+in our public schools. The words: 'formal education' belong to that
+crude kind of unphilosophical phraseology which one should do one's
+utmost to get rid of; for there is no such thing as 'the opposite of
+formal education.' And he who regards 'scientific education' as the
+object of a public school thereby sacrifices 'classical education' and
+the so-called 'formal education,' at one stroke, as the scientific man
+and the cultured man belong to two different spheres which, though
+coming together at times in the same individual, are never reconciled.
+
+"If we compare all three of these would-be aims of the public school
+with the actual facts to be observed in the present method of teaching
+German, we see immediately what they really amount to in
+practice,--that is to say, only to subterfuges for use in the fight
+and struggle for existence and, often enough, mere means wherewith to
+bewilder an opponent. For we are unable to detect any single feature
+in this teaching of German which in any way recalls the example of
+classical antiquity and its glorious methods of training in languages.
+'Formal education,' however, which is supposed to be achieved by this
+method of teaching German, has been shown to be wholly at the pleasure
+of the 'free personality,' which is as good as saying that it is
+barbarism and anarchy. And as for the preparation in science, which is
+one of the consequences of this teaching, our Germanists will have to
+determine, in all justice, how little these learned beginnings in
+public schools have contributed to the splendour of their sciences,
+and how much the personality of individual university professors has
+done so.--Put briefly: the public school has hitherto neglected its
+most important and most urgent duty towards the very beginning of all
+real culture, which is the mother-tongue; but in so doing it has
+lacked the natural, fertile soil for all further efforts at culture.
+For only by means of stern, artistic, and careful discipline and
+habit, in a language, can the correct feeling for the greatness of our
+classical writers be strengthened. Up to the present their recognition
+by the public schools has been owing almost solely to the doubtful
+æsthetic hobbies of a few teachers or to the massive effects of
+certain of their tragedies and novels. But everybody should, himself,
+be aware of the difficulties of the language: he should have learnt
+them from experience: after long seeking and struggling he must reach
+the path our great poets trod in order to be able to realise how
+lightly and beautifully they trod it, and how stiffly and swaggeringly
+the others follow at their heels.
+
+"Only by means of such discipline can the young man acquire that
+physical loathing for the beloved and much-admired 'elegance' of style
+of our newspaper manufacturers and novelists, and for the 'ornate
+style' of our literary men; by it alone is he irrevocably elevated at
+a stroke above a whole host of absurd questions and scruples, such,
+for instance, as whether Auerbach and Gutzkow are really poets, for
+his disgust at both will be so great that he will be unable to read
+them any longer, and thus the problem will be solved for him. Let no
+one imagine that it is an easy matter to develop this feeling to the
+extent necessary in order to have this physical loathing; but let no
+one hope to reach sound æsthetic judgments along any other road than
+the thorny one of language, and by this I do not mean philological
+research, but self-discipline in one's mother-tongue.
+
+"Everybody who is in earnest in this matter will have the same sort of
+experience as the recruit in the army who is compelled to learn
+walking after having walked almost all his life as a dilettante or
+empiricist. It is a hard time: one almost fears that the tendons are
+going to snap and one ceases to hope that the artificial and
+consciously acquired movements and positions of the feet will ever be
+carried out with ease and comfort. It is painful to see how awkwardly
+and heavily one foot is set before the other, and one dreads that one
+may not only be unable to learn the new way of walking, but that one
+will forget how to walk at all. Then it suddenly become noticeable
+that a new habit and a second nature have been born of the practised
+movements, and that the assurance and strength of the old manner of
+walking returns with a little more grace: at this point one begins to
+realise how difficult walking is, and one feels in a position to laugh
+at the untrained empiricist or the elegant dilettante. Our 'elegant'
+writers, as their style shows, have never learnt 'walking' in this
+sense, and in our public schools, as our other writers show, no one
+learns walking either. Culture begins, however, with the correct
+movement of the language: and once it has properly begun, it begets
+that physical sensation in the presence of 'elegant' writers which is
+known by the name of 'loathing.'
+
+"We recognise the fatal consequences of our present public schools, in
+that they are unable to inculcate severe and genuine culture, which
+should consist above all in obedience and habituation; and that, at
+their best, they much more often achieve a result by stimulating and
+kindling scientific tendencies, is shown by the hand which is so
+frequently seen uniting scholarship and barbarous taste, science and
+journalism. In a very large majority of cases to-day we can observe
+how sadly our scholars fall short of the standard of culture which the
+efforts of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and Winckelmann established; and
+this falling short shows itself precisely in the egregious errors
+which the men we speak of are exposed to, equally among literary
+historians--whether Gervinus or Julian Schmidt--as in any other
+company; everywhere, indeed, where men and women converse. It shows
+itself most frequently and painfully, however, in pedagogic spheres,
+in the literature of public schools. It can be proved that the only
+value that these men have in a real educational establishment has not
+been mentioned, much less generally recognised for half a century:
+their value as preparatory leaders and mystogogues of classical
+culture, guided by whose hands alone can the correct road leading to
+antiquity be found.
+
+"Every so-called classical education can have but one natural
+starting-point--an artistic, earnest, and exact familiarity with the
+use of the mother-tongue: this, together with the secret of form,
+however, one can seldom attain to of one's own accord, almost
+everybody requires those great leaders and tutors and must place
+himself in their hands. There is, however, no such thing as a
+classical education that could grow without this inferred love of
+form. Here, where the power of discerning form and barbarity gradually
+awakens, there appear the pinions which bear one to the only real home
+of culture--ancient Greece. If with the solitary help of those pinions
+we sought to reach those far-distant and diamond-studded walls
+encircling the stronghold of Hellenism, we should certainly not get
+very far; once more, therefore, we need the same leaders and tutors,
+our German classical writers, that we may be borne up, too, by the
+wing-strokes of their past endeavours--to the land of yearning, to
+Greece.
+
+"Not a suspicion of this possible relationship between our classics
+and classical education seems to have pierced the antique walls of
+public schools. Philologists seem much more eagerly engaged in
+introducing Homer and Sophocles to the young souls of their pupils, in
+their own style, calling the result simply by the unchallenged
+euphemism: 'classical education.' Let every one's own experience tell
+him what he had of Homer and Sophocles at the hands of such eager
+teachers. It is in this department that the greatest number of deepest
+deceptions occur, and whence misunderstandings are inadvertently
+spread. In German public schools I have never yet found a trace of
+what might really be called 'classical education,' and there is
+nothing surprising in this when one thinks of the way in which these
+institutions have emancipated themselves from German classical writers
+and the discipline of the German language. Nobody reaches antiquity by
+means of a leap into the dark, and yet the whole method of treating
+ancient writers in schools, the plain commentating and paraphrasing of
+our philological teachers, amounts to nothing more than a leap into
+the dark.
+
+"The feeling for classical Hellenism is, as a matter of fact, such an
+exceptional outcome of the most energetic fight for culture and
+artistic talent that the public school could only have professed to
+awaken this feeling owing to a very crude misunderstanding. In what
+age? In an age which is led about blindly by the most sensational
+desires of the day, and which is not aware of the fact that, once that
+feeling for Hellenism is roused, it immediately becomes aggressive and
+must express itself by indulging in an incessant war with the
+so-called culture of the present. For the public school boy of to-day,
+the Hellenes as Hellenes are dead: yes, he gets some enjoyment out of
+Homer, but a novel by Spielhagen interests him much more: yes, he
+swallows Greek tragedy and comedy with a certain relish, but a
+thoroughly modern drama, like Freitag's 'Journalists,' moves him in
+quite another fashion. In regard to all ancient authors he is rather
+inclined to speak after the manner of the æsthete, Hermann Grimm, who,
+on one occasion, at the end of a tortuous essay on the Venus of Milo,
+asks himself: 'What does this goddess's form mean to me? Of what use
+are the thoughts she suggests to me? Orestes and Å’dipus, Iphigenia
+and Antigone, what have they in common with my heart?'--No, my dear
+public school boy, the Venus of Milo does not concern you in any way,
+and concerns your teacher just as little--and that is the misfortune,
+that is the secret of the modern public school. Who will conduct you
+to the land of culture, if your leaders are blind and assume the
+position of seers notwithstanding? Which of you will ever attain to a
+true feeling for the sacred seriousness of art, if you are
+systematically spoiled, and taught to stutter independently instead of
+being taught to speak; to æstheticise on your own account, when you
+ought to be taught to approach works of art almost piously; to
+philosophise without assistance, while you ought to be compelled to
+_listen_ to great thinkers. All this with the result that you remain
+eternally at a distance from antiquity and become the servants of the
+day.
+
+"At all events, the most wholesome feature of our modern institutions
+is to be found in the earnestness with which the Latin and Greek
+languages are studied over a long course of years. In this way boys
+learn to respect a grammar, lexicons, and a language that conforms to
+fixed rules; in this department of public school work there is an
+exact knowledge of what constitutes a fault, and no one is troubled
+with any thought of justifying himself every minute by appealing (as
+in the case of modern German) to various grammatical and
+orthographical vagaries and vicious forms. If only this respect for
+language did not hang in the air so, like a theoretical burden which
+one is pleased to throw off the moment one turns to one's
+mother-tongue! More often than not, the classical master makes pretty
+short work of the mother-tongue; from the outset he treats it as a
+department of knowledge in which one is allowed that indolent ease
+with which the German treats everything that belongs to his native
+soil. The splendid practice afforded by translating from one language
+into another, which so improves and fertilises one's artistic feeling
+for one's own tongue, is, in the case of German, never conducted with
+that fitting categorical strictness and dignity which would be above
+all necessary in dealing with an undisciplined language. Of late,
+exercises of this kind have tended to decrease ever more and more:
+people are satisfied to _know_ the foreign classical tongues, they
+would scorn being able to _apply_ them.
+
+"Here one gets another glimpse of the scholarly tendency of public
+schools: a phenomenon which throws much light upon the object which
+once animated them,--that is to say, the serious desire to cultivate
+the pupil. This belonged to the time of our great poets, those few
+really cultured Germans,--the time when the magnificent Friedrich
+August Wolf directed the new stream of classical thought, introduced
+from Greece and Rome by those men, into the heart of the public
+schools. Thanks to his bold start, a new order of public schools was
+established, which thenceforward was not to be merely a nursery for
+science, but, above all, the actual consecrated home of all higher and
+nobler culture.
+
+"Of the many necessary measures which this change called into being,
+some of the most important have been transferred with lasting success
+to the modern regulations of public schools: the most important of
+all, however, did not succeed--the one demanding that the teacher,
+also, should be consecrated to the new spirit, so that the aim of the
+public school has meanwhile considerably departed from the original
+plan laid down by Wolf, which was the cultivation of the pupil. The
+old estimate of scholarship and scholarly culture, as an absolute,
+which Wolf overcame, seems after a slow and spiritless struggle rather
+to have taken the place of the culture-principle of more recent
+introduction, and now claims its former exclusive rights, though not
+with the same frankness, but disguised and with features veiled. And
+the reason why it was impossible to make public schools fall in with
+the magnificent plan of classical culture lay in the un-German, almost
+foreign or cosmopolitan nature of these efforts in the cause of
+education: in the belief that it was possible to remove the native
+soil from under a man's feet and that he should still remain standing;
+in the illusion that people can spring direct, without bridges, into
+the strange Hellenic world, by abjuring German and the German mind in
+general.
+
+"Of course one must know how to trace this Germanic spirit to its lair
+beneath its many modern dressings, or even beneath heaps of ruins; one
+must love it so that one is not ashamed of it in its stunted form, and
+one must above all be on one's guard against confounding it with what
+now disports itself proudly as 'Up-to-date German culture.' The German
+spirit is very far from being on friendly times with this up-to-date
+culture: and precisely in those spheres where the latter complains of
+a lack of culture the real German spirit has survived, though perhaps
+not always with a graceful, but more often an ungraceful, exterior. On
+the other hand, that which now grandiloquently assumes the title of
+'German culture' is a sort of cosmopolitan aggregate, which bears the
+same relation to the German spirit as Journalism does to Schiller or
+Meyerbeer to Beethoven: here the strongest influence at work is the
+fundamentally and thoroughly un-German civilisation of France, which
+is aped neither with talent nor with taste, and the imitation of which
+gives the society, the press, the art, and the literary style of
+Germany their pharisaical character. Naturally the copy nowhere
+produces the really artistic effect which the original, grown out of
+the heart of Roman civilisation, is able to produce almost to this day
+in France. Let any one who wishes to see the full force of this
+contrast compare our most noted novelists with the less noted ones of
+France or Italy: he will recognise in both the same doubtful
+tendencies and aims, as also the same still more doubtful means, but
+in France he will find them coupled with artistic earnestness, at
+least with grammatical purity, and often with beauty, while in their
+every feature he will recognise the echo of a corresponding social
+culture. In Germany, on the other hand, they will strike him as
+unoriginal, flabby, filled with dressing-gown thoughts and
+expressions, unpleasantly spread out, and therewithal possessing no
+background of social form. At the most, owing to their scholarly
+mannerisms and display of knowledge, he will be reminded of the fact
+that in Latin countries it is the artistically-trained man, and that
+in Germany it is the abortive scholar, who becomes a journalist. With
+this would-be German and thoroughly unoriginal culture, the German can
+nowhere reckon upon victory: the Frenchman and the Italian will always
+get the better of him in this respect, while, in regard to the clever
+imitation of a foreign culture, the Russian, above all, will always be
+his superior.
+
+"We are therefore all the more anxious to hold fast to that German
+spirit which revealed itself in the German Reformation, and in German
+music, and which has shown its enduring and genuine strength in the
+enormous courage and severity of German philosophy and in the loyalty
+of the German soldier, which has been tested quite recently. From it
+we expect a victory over that 'up-to-date' pseudo-culture which is now
+the fashion. What we should hope for the future is that schools may
+draw the real school of culture into this struggle, and kindle the
+flame of enthusiasm in the younger generation, more particularly in
+public schools, for that which is truly German; and in this way
+so-called classical education will resume its natural place and
+recover its one possible starting-point.
+
+"A thorough reformation and purification of the public school can only
+be the outcome of a profound and powerful reformation and purification
+of the German spirit. It is a very complex and difficult task to find
+the border-line which joins the heart of the Germanic spirit with the
+genius of Greece. Not, however, before the noblest needs of genuine
+German genius snatch at the hand of this genius of Greece as at a firm
+post in the torrent of barbarity, not before a devouring yearning for
+this genius of Greece takes possession of German genius, and not
+before that view of the Greek home, on which Schiller and Goethe,
+after enormous exertions, were able to feast their eyes, has become
+the Mecca of the best and most gifted men, will the aim of classical
+education in public schools acquire any definition; and they at least
+will not be to blame who teach ever so little science and learning in
+public schools, in order to keep a definite and at the same time ideal
+aim in their eyes, and to rescue their pupils from that glistening
+phantom which now allows itself to be called 'culture' and
+'education.' This is the sad plight of the public school of to-day:
+the narrowest views remain in a certain measure right, because no one
+seems able to reach or, at least, to indicate the spot where all these
+views culminate in error."
+
+"No one?" the philosopher's pupil inquired with a slight quaver in his
+voice; and both men were silent.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] It is not practicable to translate these German solecisms by similar
+instances of English solecisms. The reader who is interested in the
+subject will find plenty of material in a book like the Oxford _King's
+English_.
+
+[4] German: _Formelle Bildung._
+
+[5] German: _Materielle Bildung._
+
+
+
+
+THIRD LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 27th of February 1872._)
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen,--At the close of my last lecture, the
+conversation to which I was a listener, and the outlines of which, as
+I clearly recollect them, I am now trying to lay before you, was
+interrupted by a long and solemn pause. Both the philosopher and his
+companion sat silent, sunk in deep dejection: the peculiarly critical
+state of that important educational institution, the German public
+school, lay upon their souls like a heavy burden, which one single,
+well-meaning individual is not strong enough to remove, and the
+multitude, though strong, not well meaning enough.
+
+Our solitary thinkers were perturbed by two facts: by clearly
+perceiving on the one hand that what might rightly be called
+"classical education" was now only a far-off ideal, a castle in the
+air, which could not possibly be built as a reality on the foundations
+of our present educational system, and that, on the other hand, what
+was now, with customary and unopposed euphemism, pointed to as
+"classical education" could only claim the value of a pretentious
+illusion, the best effect of which was that the expression "classical
+education" still lived on and had not yet lost its pathetic sound.
+These two worthy men saw clearly, by the system of instruction in
+vogue, that the time was not yet ripe for a higher culture, a culture
+founded upon that of the ancients: the neglected state of linguistic
+instruction; the forcing of students into learned historical paths,
+instead of giving them a practical training; the connection of certain
+practices, encouraged in the public schools, with the objectionable
+spirit of our journalistic publicity--all these easily perceptible
+phenomena of the teaching of German led to the painful certainty that
+the most beneficial of those forces which have come down to us from
+classical antiquity are not yet known in our public schools: forces
+which would train students for the struggle against the barbarism of
+the present age, and which will perhaps once more transform the public
+schools into the arsenals and workshops of this struggle.
+
+On the other hand, it would seem in the meantime as if the spirit of
+antiquity, in its fundamental principles, had already been driven away
+from the portals of the public schools, and as if here also the gates
+were thrown open as widely as possible to the be-flattered and
+pampered type of our present self-styled "German culture." And if the
+solitary talkers caught a glimpse of a single ray of hope, it was that
+things would have to become still worse, that what was as yet divined
+only by the few would soon be clearly perceived by the many, and that
+then the time for honest and resolute men for the earnest
+consideration of the scope of the education of the masses would not be
+far distant.
+
+After a few minutes' silent reflection, the philosopher's companion
+turned to him and said: "You used to hold out hopes to me, but now you
+have done more: you have widened my intelligence, and with it my
+strength and courage: now indeed can I look on the field of battle
+with more hardihood, now indeed do I repent of my too hasty flight. We
+want nothing for ourselves, and it should be nothing to us how many
+individuals may fall in this battle, or whether we ourselves may be
+among the first. Just because we take this matter so seriously, we
+should not take our own poor selves so seriously: at the very moment
+we are falling some one else will grasp the banner of our faith. I
+will not even consider whether I am strong enough for such a fight,
+whether I can offer sufficient resistance; it may even be an
+honourable death to fall to the accompaniment of the mocking laughter
+of such enemies, whose seriousness has frequently seemed to us to be
+something ridiculous. When I think how my contemporaries prepared
+themselves for the highest posts in the scholastic profession, as I
+myself have done, then I know how we often laughed at the exact
+contrary, and grew serious over something quite different----"
+
+"Now, my friend," interrupted the philosopher, laughingly, "you speak
+as one who would fain dive into the water without being able to swim,
+and who fears something even more than the mere drowning; _not_ being
+drowned, but laughed at. But being laughed at should be the very last
+thing for us to dread; for we are in a sphere where there are too many
+truths to tell, too many formidable, painful, unpardonable truths, for
+us to escape hatred, and only fury here and there will give rise to
+some sort of embarrassed laughter. Just think of the innumerable crowd
+of teachers, who, in all good faith, have assimilated the system of
+education which has prevailed up to the present, that they may
+cheerfully and without over-much deliberation carry it further on.
+What do you think it will seem like to these men when they hear of
+projects from which they are excluded _beneficio naturæ_; of commands
+which their mediocre abilities are totally unable to carry out; of
+hopes which find no echo in them; of battles the war-cries of which
+they do not understand, and in the fighting of which they can take
+part only as dull and obtuse rank and file? But, without exaggeration,
+that must necessarily be the position of practically all the teachers
+in our higher educational establishments: and indeed we cannot wonder
+at this when we consider how such a teacher originates, how he
+_becomes_ a teacher of such high status. Such a large number of higher
+educational establishments are now to be found everywhere that far
+more teachers will continue to be required for them than the nature of
+even a highly-gifted people can produce; and thus an inordinate stream
+of undesirables flows into these institutions, who, however, by their
+preponderating numbers and their instinct of 'similis simile gaudet'
+gradually come to determine the nature of these institutions. There
+may be a few people, hopelessly unfamiliar with pedagogical matters,
+who believe that our present profusion of public schools and teachers,
+which is manifestly out of all proportion, can be changed into a real
+profusion, an _ubertas ingenii_, merely by a few rules and
+regulations, and without any reduction in the number of these
+institutions. But we may surely be unanimous in recognising that by
+the very nature of things only an exceedingly small number of people
+are destined for a true course of education, and that a much smaller
+number of higher educational establishments would suffice for their
+further development, but that, in view of the present large numbers of
+educational institutions, those for whom in general such institutions
+ought only to be established must feel themselves to be the least
+facilitated in their progress.
+
+"The same holds good in regard to teachers. It is precisely the best
+teachers--those who, generally speaking, judged by a high standard,
+are worthy of this honourable name--who are now perhaps the least
+fitted, in view of the present standing of our public schools, for the
+education of these unselected youths, huddled together in a confused
+heap; but who must rather, to a certain extent, keep hidden from them
+the best they could give: and, on the other hand, by far the larger
+number of these teachers feel themselves quite at home in these
+institutions, as their moderate abilities stand in a kind of
+harmonious relationship to the dullness of their pupils. It is from
+this majority that we hear the ever-resounding call for the
+establishment of new public schools and higher educational
+institutions: we are living in an age which, by ringing the changes on
+its deafening and continual cry, would certainly give one the
+impression that there was an unprecedented thirst for culture which
+eagerly sought to be quenched. But it is just at this point that one
+should learn to hear aright: it is here, without being disconcerted by
+the thundering noise of the education-mongers, that we must confront
+those who talk so tirelessly about the educational necessities of
+their time. Then we should meet with a strange disillusionment, one
+which we, my good friend, have often met with: those blatant heralds
+of educational needs, when examined at close quarters, are suddenly
+seen to be transformed into zealous, yea, fanatical opponents of true
+culture, _i.e._ all those who hold fast to the aristocratic nature of
+the mind; for, at bottom, they regard as their goal the emancipation
+of the masses from the mastery of the great few; they seek to
+overthrow the most sacred hierarchy in the kingdom of the
+intellect--the servitude of the masses, their submissive obedience,
+their instinct of loyalty to the rule of genius.
+
+"I have long accustomed myself to look with caution upon those who are
+ardent in the cause of the so-called 'education of the people' in the
+common meaning of the phrase; since for the most part they desire for
+themselves, consciously or unconsciously, absolutely unlimited
+freedom, which must inevitably degenerate into something resembling
+the saturnalia of barbaric times, and which the sacred hierarchy of
+nature will never grant them. They were born to serve and to obey; and
+every moment in which their limping or crawling or broken-winded
+thoughts are at work shows us clearly out of which clay nature moulded
+them, and what trade mark she branded thereon. The education of the
+masses cannot, therefore, be our aim; but rather the education of a
+few picked men for great and lasting works. We well know that a just
+posterity judges the collective intellectual state of a time only by
+those few great and lonely figures of the period, and gives its
+decision in accordance with the manner in which they are recognised,
+encouraged, and honoured, or, on the other hand, in which they are
+snubbed, elbowed aside, and kept down. What is called the 'education
+of the masses' cannot be accomplished except with difficulty; and even
+if a system of universal compulsory education be applied, they can
+only be reached outwardly: those individual lower levels where,
+generally speaking, the masses come into contact with culture, where
+the people nourishes its religious instinct, where it poetises its
+mythological images, where it keeps up its faith in its customs,
+privileges, native soil, and language--all these levels can scarcely
+be reached by direct means, and in any case only by violent
+demolition. And, in serious matters of this kind, to hasten forward
+the progress of the education of the people means simply the
+postponement of this violent demolition, and the maintenance of that
+wholesome unconsciousness, that sound sleep, of the people, without
+which counter-action and remedy no culture, with the exhausting strain
+and excitement of its own actions, can make any headway.
+
+"We know, however, what the aspiration is of those who would disturb
+the healthy slumber of the people, and continually call out to them:
+'Keep your eyes open! Be sensible! Be wise!' we know the aim of those
+who profess to satisfy excessive educational requirements by means of
+an extraordinary increase in the number of educational institutions
+and the conceited tribe of teachers originated thereby. These very
+people, using these very means, are fighting against the natural
+hierarchy in the realm of the intellect, and destroying the roots of
+all those noble and sublime plastic forces which have their material
+origin in the unconsciousness of the people, and which fittingly
+terminate in the procreation of genius and its due guidance and proper
+training. It is only in the simile of the mother that we can grasp the
+meaning and the responsibility of the true education of the people in
+respect to genius: its real origin is not to be found in such
+education; it has, so to speak, only a metaphysical source, a
+metaphysical home. But for the genius to make his appearance; for him
+to emerge from among the people; to portray the reflected picture, as
+it were, the dazzling brilliancy of the peculiar colours of this
+people; to depict the noble destiny of a people in the similitude of
+an individual in a work which will last for all time, thereby making
+his nation itself eternal, and redeeming it from the ever-shifting
+element of transient things: all this is possible for the genius only
+when he has been brought up and come to maturity in the tender care of
+the culture of a people; whilst, on the other hand, without this
+sheltering home, the genius will not, generally speaking, be able to
+rise to the height of his eternal flight, but will at an early moment,
+like a stranger weather-driven upon a bleak, snow-covered desert,
+slink away from the inhospitable land."
+
+"You astonish me with such a metaphysics of genius," said the
+teacher's companion, "and I have only a hazy conception of the
+accuracy of your similitude. On the other hand, I fully understand
+what you have said about the surplus of public schools and the
+corresponding surplus of higher grade teachers; and in this regard I
+myself have collected some information which assures me that the
+educational tendency of the public school _must_ right itself by this
+very surplus of teachers who have really nothing at all to do with
+education, and who are called into existence and pursue this path
+solely because there is a demand for them. Every man who, in an
+unexpected moment of enlightenment, has convinced himself of the
+singularity and inaccessibility of Hellenic antiquity, and has warded
+off this conviction after an exhausting struggle--every such man knows
+that the door leading to this enlightenment will never remain open to
+all comers; and he deems it absurd, yea disgraceful, to use the Greeks
+as he would any other tool he employs when following his profession or
+earning his living, shamelessly fumbling with coarse hands amidst the
+relics of these holy men. This brazen and vulgar feeling is, however,
+most common in the profession from which the largest numbers of
+teachers for the public schools are drawn, the philological
+profession, wherefore the reproduction and continuation of such a
+feeling in the public school will not surprise us.
+
+"Just look at the younger generation of philologists: how seldom we
+see in them that humble feeling that we, when compared with such a
+world as it was, have no right to exist at all: how coolly and
+fearlessly, as compared with us, did that young brood build its
+miserable nests in the midst of the magnificent temples! A powerful
+voice from every nook and cranny should ring in the ears of those who,
+from the day they begin their connection with the university, roam at
+will with such self-complacency and shamelessness among the
+awe-inspiring relics of that noble civilisation: 'Hence, ye
+uninitiated, who will never be initiated; fly away in silence and
+shame from these sacred chambers!' But this voice speaks in vain; for
+one must to some extent be a Greek to understand a Greek curse of
+excommunication. But these people I am speaking of are so barbaric
+that they dispose of these relics to suit themselves: all their modern
+conveniences and fancies are brought with them and concealed among
+those ancient pillars and tombstones, and it gives rise to great
+rejoicing when somebody finds, among the dust and cobwebs of
+antiquity, something that he himself had slyly hidden there not so
+very long before. One of them makes verses and takes care to consult
+Hesychius' Lexicon. Something there immediately assures him that he is
+destined to be an imitator of Æschylus, and leads him to believe,
+indeed, that he 'has something in common with' Æschylus: the miserable
+poetaster! Yet another peers with the suspicious eye of a policeman
+into every contradiction, even into the shadow of every
+contradiction, of which Homer was guilty: he fritters away his life in
+tearing Homeric rags to tatters and sewing them together again, rags
+that he himself was the first to filch from the poet's kingly robe. A
+third feels ill at ease when examining all the mysterious and
+orgiastic sides of antiquity: he makes up his mind once and for all to
+let the enlightened Apollo alone pass without dispute, and to see in
+the Athenian a gay and intelligent but nevertheless somewhat immoral
+Apollonian. What a deep breath he draws when he succeeds in raising
+yet another dark corner of antiquity to the level of his own
+intelligence!--when, for example, he discovers in Pythagoras a
+colleague who is as enthusiastic as himself in arguing about politics.
+Another racks his brains as to why Å’dipus was condemned by fate to
+perform such abominable deeds--killing his father, marrying his
+mother. Where lies the blame! Where the poetic justice! Suddenly it
+occurs to him: Å’dipus was a passionate fellow, lacking all Christian
+gentleness--he even fell into an unbecoming rage when Tiresias called
+him a monster and the curse of the whole country. Be humble and meek!
+was what Sophocles tried to teach, otherwise you will have to marry
+your mothers and kill your fathers! Others, again, pass their lives in
+counting the number of verses written by Greek and Roman poets, and
+are delighted with the proportions 7:13 = 14:26. Finally, one of them
+brings forward his solution of a question, such as the Homeric poems
+considered from the standpoint of prepositions, and thinks he has
+drawn the truth from the bottom of the well with ἀνά and κατά.
+All of them, however, with the most widely separated aims in view, dig
+and burrow in Greek soil with a restlessness and a blundering awkwardness
+that must surely be painful to a true friend of antiquity: and thus it
+comes to pass that I should like to take by the hand every talented or
+talentless man who feels a certain professional inclination urging him
+on to the study of antiquity, and harangue him as follows: 'Young sir,
+do you know what perils threaten you, with your little stock of school
+learning, before you become a man in the full sense of the word? Have
+you heard that, according to Aristotle, it is by no means a tragic
+death to be slain by a statue? Does that surprise you? Know, then,
+that for centuries philologists have been trying, with ever-failing
+strength, to re-erect the fallen statue of Greek antiquity, but
+without success; for it is a colossus around which single individual
+men crawl like pygmies. The leverage of the united representatives of
+modern culture is utilised for the purpose; but it invariably happens
+that the huge column is scarcely more than lifted from the ground when
+it falls down again, crushing beneath its weight the luckless wights
+under it. That, however, may be tolerated, for every being must perish
+by some means or other; but who is there to guarantee that during all
+these attempts the statue itself will not break in pieces! The
+philologists are being crushed by the Greeks--perhaps we can put up
+with this--but antiquity itself threatens to be crushed by these
+philologists! Think that over, you easy-going young man; and turn
+back, lest you too should not be an iconoclast!'"
+
+"Indeed," said the philosopher, laughing, "there are many philologists
+who have turned back as you so much desire, and I notice a great
+contrast with my own youthful experience. Consciously or
+unconsciously, large numbers of them have concluded that it is
+hopeless and useless for them to come into direct contact with
+classical antiquity, hence they are inclined to look upon this study
+as barren, superseded, out-of-date. This herd has turned with much
+greater zest to the science of language: here in this wide expanse of
+virgin soil, where even the most mediocre gifts can be turned to
+account, and where a kind of insipidity and dullness is even looked
+upon as decided talent, with the novelty and uncertainty of methods
+and the constant danger of making fantastic mistakes--here, where dull
+regimental routine and discipline are desiderata--here the newcomer is
+no longer frightened by the majestic and warning voice that rises from
+the ruins of antiquity: here every one is welcomed with open arms,
+including even him who never arrived at any uncommon impression or
+noteworthy thought after a perusal of Sophocles and Aristophanes, with
+the result that they end in an etymological tangle, or are seduced
+into collecting the fragments of out-of-the-way dialects--and their
+time is spent in associating and dissociating, collecting and
+scattering, and running hither and thither consulting books. And such
+a usefully employed philologist would now fain be a teacher! He now
+undertakes to teach the youth of the public schools something about
+the ancient writers, although he himself has read them without any
+particular impression, much less with insight! What a dilemma!
+Antiquity has said nothing to him, consequently he has nothing to say
+about antiquity. A sudden thought strikes him: why is he a skilled
+philologist at all! Why did these authors write Latin and Greek! And
+with a light heart he immediately begins to etymologise with Homer,
+calling Lithuanian or Ecclesiastical Slavonic, or, above all, the
+sacred Sanskrit, to his assistance: as if Greek lessons were merely
+the excuse for a general introduction to the study of languages, and
+as if Homer were lacking in only one respect, namely, not being
+written in pre-Indogermanic. Whoever is acquainted with our present
+public schools well knows what a wide gulf separates their teachers
+from classicism, and how, from a feeling of this want, comparative
+philology and allied professions have increased their numbers to such
+an unheard-of degree."
+
+"What I mean is," said the other, "it would depend upon whether a
+teacher of classical culture did _not_ confuse his Greeks and Romans
+with the other peoples, the barbarians, whether he could _never_ put
+Greek and Latin _on a level with_ other languages: so far as his
+classicalism is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether the
+framework of these languages concurs with or is in any way related to
+the other languages: such a concurrence does not interest him at all;
+his real concern is with _what is not common to both_, with what shows
+him that those two peoples were not barbarians as compared with the
+others--in so far, of course, as he is a true teacher of culture and
+models himself after the majestic patterns of the classics."
+
+"I may be wrong," said the philosopher, "but I suspect that, owing to
+the way in which Latin and Greek are now taught in schools, the
+accurate grasp of these languages, the ability to speak and write them
+with ease, is lost, and that is something in which my own generation
+distinguished itself--a generation, indeed, whose few survivers have
+by this time grown old; whilst, on the other hand, the present
+teachers seem to impress their pupils with the genetic and historical
+importance of the subject to such an extent that, at best, their
+scholars ultimately turn into little Sanskritists, etymological
+spitfires, or reckless conjecturers; but not one of them can read his
+Plato or Tacitus with pleasure, as we old folk can. The public schools
+may still be seats of learning: not, however of _the_ learning which,
+as it were, is only the natural and involuntary auxiliary of a culture
+that is directed towards the noblest ends; but rather of that culture
+which might be compared to the hypertrophical swelling of an unhealthy
+body. The public schools are certainly the seats of this obesity, if,
+indeed, they have not degenerated into the abodes of that elegant
+barbarism which is boasted of as being 'German culture of the
+present!'"
+
+"But," asked the other, "what is to become of that large body of
+teachers who have not been endowed with a true gift for culture, and
+who set up as teachers merely to gain a livelihood from the
+profession, because there is a demand for them, because a superfluity
+of schools brings with it a superfluity of teachers? Where shall they
+go when antiquity peremptorily orders them to withdraw? Must they not
+be sacrificed to those powers of the present who, day after day, call
+out to them from the never-ending columns of the press 'We are
+culture! We are education! We are at the zenith! We are the apexes of
+the pyramids! We are the aims of universal history!'--when they hear
+the seductive promises, when the shameful signs of non-culture, the
+plebeian publicity of the so-called 'interests of culture' are
+extolled for their benefit in magazines and newspapers as an entirely
+new and the best possible, full-grown form of culture! Whither shall
+the poor fellows fly when they feel the presentiment that these
+promises are not true--where but to the most obtuse, sterile
+scientificality, that here the shriek of culture may no longer be
+audible to them? Pursued in this way, must they not end, like the
+ostrich, by burying their heads in the sand? Is it not a real
+happiness for them, buried as they are among dialects, etymologies,
+and conjectures, to lead a life like that of the ants, even though
+they are miles removed from true culture, if only they can close their
+ears tightly and be deaf to the voice of the 'elegant' culture of the
+time."
+
+"You are right, my friend," said the philosopher, "but whence comes the
+urgent necessity for a surplus of schools for culture, which further
+gives rise to the necessity for a surplus of teachers?--when we so
+clearly see that the demand for a surplus springs from a sphere which is
+hostile to culture, and that the consequences of this surplus only lead
+to non-culture. Indeed, we can discuss this dire necessity only in so
+far as the modern State is willing to discuss these things with us, and
+is prepared to follow up its demands by force: which phenomenon
+certainly makes the same impression upon most people as if they were
+addressed by the eternal law of things. For the rest, a 'Culture-State,'
+to use the current expression, which makes such demands, is rather a
+novelty, and has only come to a 'self-understanding' within the last
+half century, _i.e._ in a period when (to use the favourite popular
+word) so many 'self-understood' things came into being, but which are in
+themselves not 'self-understood' at all. This right to higher education
+has been taken so seriously by the most powerful of modern
+States--Prussia--that the objectionable principle it has adopted, taken
+in connection with the well-known daring and hardihood of this State, is
+seen to have a menacing and dangerous consequence for the true German
+spirit; for we see endeavours being made in this quarter to raise the
+public school, formally systematised, up to the so-called 'level of the
+time.' Here is to be found all that mechanism by means of which as many
+scholars as possible are urged on to take up courses of public school
+training: here, indeed, the State has its most powerful inducement--the
+concession of certain privileges respecting military service, with the
+natural consequence that, according to the unprejudiced evidence of
+statistical officials, by this, and by this only, can we explain the
+universal congestion of all Prussian public schools, and the urgent and
+continual need for new ones. What more can the State do for a surplus of
+educational institutions than bring all the higher and the majority of
+the lower civil service appointments, the right of entry to the
+universities, and even the most influential military posts into close
+connection with the public school: and all this in a country where both
+universal military service and the highest offices of the State
+unconsciously attract all gifted natures to them. The public school is
+here looked upon as an honourable aim, and every one who feels himself
+urged on to the sphere of government will be found on his way to it.
+This is a new and quite original occurrence: the State assumes the
+attitude of a mystogogue of culture, and, whilst it promotes its own
+ends, it obliges every one of its servants not to appear in its presence
+without the torch of universal State education in their hands, by the
+flickering light of which they may again recognise the State as the
+highest goal, as the reward of all their strivings after education.
+
+"Now this last phenomenon should indeed surprise them; it should
+remind them of that allied, slowly understood tendency of a philosophy
+which was formerly promoted for reasons of State, namely, the
+tendency of the Hegelian philosophy: yea, it would perhaps be no
+exaggeration to say that, in the subordination of all strivings after
+education to reasons of State, Prussia has appropriated, with success,
+the principle and the useful heirloom of the Hegelian philosophy,
+whose apotheosis of the State in _this_ subordination certainly
+reaches its height."
+
+"But," said the philosopher's companion, "what purposes can the State
+have in view with such a strange aim? For that it has some State
+objects in view is seen in the manner in which the conditions of
+Prussian schools are admired by, meditated upon, and occasionally
+imitated by other States. These other States obviously presuppose
+something here that, if adopted, would tend towards the maintenance
+and power of the State, like our well-known and popular conscription.
+Where everyone proudly wears his soldier's uniform at regular
+intervals, where almost every one has absorbed a uniform type of
+national culture through the public schools, enthusiastic hyperboles
+may well be uttered concerning the systems employed in former times,
+and a form of State omnipotence which was attained only in antiquity,
+and which almost every young man, by both instinct and training,
+thinks it is the crowning glory and highest aim of human beings to
+reach."
+
+"Such a comparison," said the philosopher, "would be quite
+hyperbolical, and would not hobble along on one leg only. For, indeed,
+the ancient State emphatically did not share the utilitarian point of
+view of recognising as culture only what was directly useful to the
+State itself, and was far from wishing to destroy those impulses which
+did not seem to be immediately applicable. For this very reason the
+profound Greek had for the State that strong feeling of admiration and
+thankfulness which is so distasteful to modern men; because he clearly
+recognised not only that without such State protection the germs of
+his culture could not develop, but also that all his inimitable and
+perennial culture had flourished so luxuriantly under the wise and
+careful guardianship of the protection afforded by the State. The
+State was for his culture not a supervisor, regulator, and watchman,
+but a vigorous and muscular companion and friend, ready for war, who
+accompanied his noble, admired, and, as it were, ethereal friend
+through disagreeable reality, earning his thanks therefor. This,
+however, does not happen when a modern State lays claim to such hearty
+gratitude because it renders such chivalrous service to German culture
+and art: for in this regard its past is as ignominious as its present,
+as a proof of which we have but to think of the manner in which the
+memory of our great poets and artists is celebrated in German cities,
+and how the highest objects of these German masters are supported on
+the part of the State.
+
+"There must therefore be peculiar circumstances surrounding both this
+purpose towards which the State is tending, and which always promotes
+what is here called 'education'; and surrounding likewise the culture
+thus promoted, which subordinates itself to this purpose of the State.
+With the real German spirit and the education derived therefrom, such
+as I have slowly outlined for you, this purpose of the State is at
+war, hiddenly or openly: _the_ spirit of education, which is welcomed
+and encouraged with such interest by the State, and owing to which the
+schools of this country are so much admired abroad, must accordingly
+originate in a sphere that never comes into contact with this true
+German spirit: with that spirit which speaks to us so wondrously from
+the inner heart of the German Reformation, German music, and German
+philosophy, and which, like a noble exile, is regarded with such
+indifference and scorn by the luxurious education afforded by the
+State. This spirit is a stranger: it passes by in solitary sadness,
+and far away from it the censer of pseudo-culture is swung backwards
+and forwards, which, amidst the acclamations of 'educated' teachers
+and journalists, arrogates to itself its name and privileges, and
+metes out insulting treatment to the word 'German.' Why does the State
+require that surplus of educational institutions, of teachers? Why
+this education of the masses on such an extended scale? Because the
+true German spirit is hated, because the aristocratic nature of true
+culture is feared, because the people endeavour in this way to drive
+single great individuals into self-exile, so that the claims of the
+masses to education may be, so to speak, planted down and carefully
+tended, in order that the many may in this way endeavour to escape the
+rigid and strict discipline of the few great leaders, so that the
+masses may be persuaded that they can easily find the path for
+themselves--following the guiding star of the State!
+
+"A new phenomenon! The State as the guiding star of culture! In the
+meantime one thing consoles me: this German spirit, which people are
+combating so much, and for which they have substituted a gaudily
+attired _locum tenens_, this spirit is brave: it will fight and redeem
+itself into a purer age; noble, as it is now, and victorious, as it
+one day will be, it will always preserve in its mind a certain pitiful
+toleration of the State, if the latter, hard-pressed in the hour of
+extremity, secures such a pseudo-culture as its associate. For what,
+after all, do we know about the difficult task of governing men,
+_i.e._ to keep law, order, quietness, and peace among millions of
+boundlessly egoistical, unjust, unreasonable, dishonourable, envious,
+malignant, and hence very narrow-minded and perverse human beings; and
+thus to protect the few things that the State has conquered for itself
+against covetous neighbours and jealous robbers? Such a hard-pressed
+State holds out its arms to any associate, grasps at any straw; and
+when such an associate does introduce himself with flowery eloquence,
+when he adjudges the State, as Hegel did, to be an 'absolutely
+complete ethical organism,' the be-all and end-all of every one's
+education, and goes on to indicate how he himself can best promote the
+interests of the State--who will be surprised if, without further
+parley, the State falls upon his neck and cries aloud in a barbaric
+voice of full conviction: 'Yes! Thou art education! Thou art indeed
+culture!'"
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 5th of March 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--Now that you have followed my tale up to this
+point, and that we have made ourselves joint masters of the solitary,
+remote, and at times abusive duologue of the philosopher and his
+companion, I sincerely hope that you, like strong swimmers, are ready
+to proceed on the second half of our journey, especially as I can
+promise you that a few other marionettes will appear in the
+puppet-play of my adventure, and that if up to the present you have
+only been able to do little more than endure what I have been telling
+you, the waves of my story will now bear you more quickly and easily
+towards the end. In other words we have now come to a turning, and it
+would be advisable for us to take a short glance backwards to see what
+we think we have gained from such a varied conversation.
+
+"Remain in your present position," the philosopher seemed to say to
+his companion, "for you may cherish hopes. It is more and more clearly
+evident that we have no educational institutions at all; but that we
+ought to have them. Our public schools--established, it would seem,
+for this high object--have either become the nurseries of a
+reprehensible culture which repels the true culture with profound
+hatred--_i.e._ a true, aristocratic culture, founded upon a few
+carefully chosen minds; or they foster a micrological and sterile
+learning which, while it is far removed from culture, has at least
+this merit, that it avoids that reprehensible culture as well as the
+true culture." The philosopher had particularly drawn his companion's
+attention to the strange corruption which must have entered into the
+heart of culture when the State thought itself capable of tyrannising
+over it and of attaining its ends through it; and further when the
+State, in conjunction with this culture, struggled against other
+hostile forces as well as against _the_ spirit which the philosopher
+ventured to call the "true German spirit." This spirit, linked to the
+Greeks by the noblest ties, and shown by its past history to have been
+steadfast and courageous, pure and lofty in its aims, its faculties
+qualifying it for the high task of freeing modern man from the curse
+of modernity--this spirit is condemned to live apart, banished from
+its inheritance. But when its slow, painful tones of woe resound
+through the desert of the present, then the overladen and gaily-decked
+caravan of culture is pulled up short, horror-stricken. We must not
+only astonish, but terrify--such was the philosopher's opinion: not to
+fly shamefully away, but to take the offensive, was his advice; but he
+especially counselled his companion not to ponder too anxiously over
+the individual from whom, through a higher instinct, this aversion for
+the present barbarism proceeded, "Let it perish: the Pythian god had
+no difficulty in finding a new tripod, a second Pythia, so long, at
+least, as the mystic cold vapours rose from the earth."
+
+The philosopher once more began to speak: "Be careful to remember, my
+friend," said he, "there are two things you must not confuse. A man
+must learn a great deal that he may live and take part in the struggle
+for existence; but everything that he as an individual learns and does
+with this end in view has nothing whatever to do with culture. This
+latter only takes its beginning in a sphere that lies far above the
+world of necessity, indigence, and struggle for existence. The
+question now is to what extent a man values his ego in comparison with
+other egos, how much of his strength he uses up in the endeavour to
+earn his living. Many a one, by stoically confining his needs within a
+narrow compass, will shortly and easily reach the sphere in which he
+may forget, and, as it were, shake off his ego, so that he can enjoy
+perpetual youth in a solar system of timeless and impersonal things.
+Another widens the scope and needs of his ego as much as possible, and
+builds the mausoleum of this ego in vast proportions, as if he were
+prepared to fight and conquer that terrible adversary, Time. In this
+instinct also we may see a longing for immortality: wealth and power,
+wisdom, presence of mind, eloquence, a flourishing outward aspect, a
+renowned name--all these are merely turned into the means by which an
+insatiable, personal will to live craves for new life, with which,
+again, it hankers after an eternity that is at last seen to be
+illusory.
+
+"But even in this highest form of the ego, in the enhanced needs of
+such a distended and, as it were, collective individual, true culture
+is never touched upon; and if, for example, art is sought after, only
+its disseminating and stimulating actions come into prominence, _i.e._
+those which least give rise to pure and noble art, and most of all to
+low and degraded forms of it. For in all his efforts, however great
+and exceptional they seem to the onlooker, he never succeeds in
+freeing himself from his own hankering and restless personality: that
+illuminated, ethereal sphere where one may contemplate without the
+obstruction of one's own personality continually recedes from him--and
+thus, let him learn, travel, and collect as he may, he must always
+live an exiled life at a remote distance from a higher life and from
+true culture. For true culture would scorn to contaminate itself with
+the needy and covetous individual; it well knows how to give the slip
+to the man who would fain employ it as a means of attaining to
+egoistic ends; and if any one cherishes the belief that he has firmly
+secured it as a means of livelihood, and that he can procure the
+necessities of life by its sedulous cultivation, then it suddenly
+steals away with noiseless steps and an air of derisive mockery.[6]
+
+"I will thus ask you, my friend, not to confound this culture, this
+sensitive, fastidious, ethereal goddess, with that useful
+maid-of-all-work which is also called 'culture,' but which is only
+the intellectual servant and counsellor of one's practical
+necessities, wants, and means of livelihood Every kind of training,
+however, which holds out the prospect of bread-winning as its end and
+aim, is not a training for culture as we understand the word; but
+merely a collection of precepts and directions to show how, in the
+struggle for existence, a man may preserve and protect his own person.
+It may be freely admitted that for the great majority of men such a
+course of instruction is of the highest importance; and the more
+arduous the struggle is the more intensely must the young man strain
+every nerve to utilise his strength to the best advantage.
+
+"But--let no one think for a moment that the schools which urge him on
+to this struggle and prepare him for it are in any way seriously to be
+considered as establishments of culture. They are institutions which
+teach one how to take part in the battle of life; whether they promise
+to turn out civil servants, or merchants, or officers, or wholesale
+dealers, or farmers, or physicians, or men with a technical training.
+The regulations and standards prevailing at such institutions differ
+from those in a true educational institution; and what in the latter
+is permitted, and even freely held out as often as possible, ought to
+be considered as a criminal offence in the former.
+
+"Let me give you an example. If you wish to guide a young man on the
+path of true culture, beware of interrupting his naive, confident,
+and, as it were, immediate and personal relationship with nature. The
+woods, the rocks, the winds, the vulture, the flowers, the butterfly,
+the meads, the mountain slopes, must all speak to him in their own
+language; in them he must, as it were, come to know himself again in
+countless reflections and images, in a variegated round of changing
+visions; and in this way he will unconsciously and gradually feel the
+metaphysical unity of all things in the great image of nature, and at
+the same time tranquillise his soul in the contemplation of her
+eternal endurance and necessity. But how many young men should be
+permitted to grow up in such close and almost personal proximity to
+nature! The others must learn another truth betimes: how to subdue
+nature to themselves. Here is an end of this naive metaphysics; and
+the physiology of plants and animals, geology, inorganic chemistry,
+force their devotees to view nature from an altogether different
+standpoint. What is lost by this new point of view is not only a
+poetical phantasmagoria, but the instinctive, true, and unique point
+of view, instead of which we have shrewd and clever calculations, and,
+so to speak, overreachings of nature. Thus to the truly cultured man
+is vouchsafed the inestimable benefit of being able to remain
+faithful, without a break, to the contemplative instincts of his
+childhood, and so to attain to a calmness, unity, consistency, and
+harmony which can never be even thought of by a man who is compelled
+to fight in the struggle for existence.
+
+"You must not think, however, that I wish to withhold all praise from
+our primary and secondary schools: I honour the seminaries where boys
+learn arithmetic and master modern languages, and study geography and
+the marvellous discoveries made in natural science. I am quite
+prepared to say further that those youths who pass through the better
+class of secondary schools are well entitled to make the claims put
+forward by the fully-fledged public school boy; and the time is
+certainly not far distant when such pupils will be everywhere freely
+admitted to the universities and positions under the government, which
+has hitherto been the case only with scholars from the public
+schools--of our present public schools, be it noted![7] I cannot,
+however, refrain from adding the melancholy reflection: if it be true
+that secondary and public schools are, on the whole, working so
+heartily in common towards the same ends, and differ from each other
+only in such a slight degree, that they may take equal rank before the
+tribunal of the State, then we completely lack another kind of
+educational institutions: those for the development of culture! To say
+the least, the secondary schools cannot be reproached with this; for
+they have up to the present propitiously and honourably followed up
+tendencies of a lower order, but one nevertheless highly necessary. In
+the public schools, however, there is very much less honesty and very
+much less ability too; for in them we find an instinctive feeling of
+shame, the unconscious perception of the fact that the whole
+institution has been ignominiously degraded, and that the sonorous
+words of wise and apathetic teachers are contradictory to the dreary,
+barbaric, and sterile reality. So there are no true cultural
+institutions! And in those very places where a pretence to culture is
+still kept up, we find the people more hopeless, atrophied, and
+discontented than in the secondary schools, where the so-called
+'realistic' subjects are taught! Besides this, only think how immature
+and uninformed one must be in the company of such teachers when one
+actually misunderstands the rigorously defined philosophical
+expressions 'real' and 'realism' to such a degree as to think them the
+contraries of mind and matter, and to interpret 'realism' as 'the road
+to knowledge, formation, and mastery of reality.'
+
+"I for my own part know of only two exact contraries: _institutions
+for teaching culture and institutions for teaching how to succeed in
+life_. All our present institutions belong to the second class; but I
+am speaking only of the first."
+
+About two hours went by while the philosophically-minded couple
+chatted about such startling questions. Night slowly fell in the
+meantime; and when in the twilight the philosopher's voice had sounded
+like natural music through the woods, it now rang out in the profound
+darkness of the night when he was speaking with excitement or even
+passionately; his tones hissing and thundering far down the valley,
+and reverberating among the trees and rocks. Suddenly he was silent:
+he had just repeated, almost pathetically, the words, "we have no true
+educational institutions; we have no true educational institutions!"
+when something fell down just in front of him--it might have been a
+fir-cone--and his dog barked and ran towards it. Thus interrupted, the
+philosopher raised his head, and suddenly became aware of the
+darkness, the cool air, and the lonely situation of himself and his
+companion. "Well! What are we about!" he ejaculated, "it's dark. You
+know whom we were expecting here; but he hasn't come. We have waited
+in vain; let us go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I must now, ladies and gentlemen, convey to you the impressions
+experienced by my friend and myself as we eagerly listened to this
+conversation, which we heard distinctly in our hiding-place. I have
+already told you that at that place and at that hour we had intended
+to hold a festival in commemoration of something: and this something
+had to do with nothing else than matters concerning educational
+training, of which we, in our own youthful opinions, had garnered a
+plentiful harvest during our past life. We were thus disposed to
+remember with gratitude the institution which we had at one time
+thought out for ourselves at that very spot in order, as I have
+already mentioned, that we might reciprocally encourage and watch over
+one another's educational impulses. But a sudden and unexpected light
+was thrown on all that past life as we silently gave ourselves up to
+the vehement words of the philosopher. As when a traveller, walking
+heedlessly across unknown ground, suddenly puts his foot over the edge
+of a cliff, so it now seemed to us that we had hastened to meet the
+great danger rather than run away from it. Here at this spot, so
+memorable to us, we heard the warning: "Back! Not another step! Know
+you not whither your footsteps tend, whither this deceitful path is
+luring you?"
+
+It seemed to us that we now knew, and our feeling of overflowing
+thankfulness impelled us so irresistibly towards our earnest
+counsellor and trusty Eckart, that both of us sprang up at the same
+moment and rushed towards the philosopher to embrace him. He was just
+about to move off, and had already turned sideways when we rushed up
+to him. The dog turned sharply round and barked, thinking doubtless,
+like the philosopher's companion, of an attempt at robbery rather than
+an enraptured embrace. It was plain that he had forgotten us. In a
+word, he ran away. Our embrace was a miserable failure when we did
+overtake him; for my friend gave a loud yell as the dog bit him, and
+the philosopher himself sprang away from me with such force that we
+both fell. What with the dog and the men there was a scramble that
+lasted a few minutes, until my friend began to call out loudly,
+parodying the philosopher's own words: "In the name of all culture and
+pseudo-culture, what does the silly dog want with us? Hence, you
+confounded dog; you uninitiated, never to be initiated; hasten away
+from us, silent and ashamed!" After this outburst matters were cleared
+up to some extent, at any rate so far as they could be cleared up in
+the darkness of the wood. "Oh, it's you!" ejaculated the philosopher,
+"our duellists! How you startled us! What on earth drives you to jump
+out upon us like this at such a time of the night?"
+
+"Joy, thankfulness, and reverence," said we, shaking the old man by
+the hand, whilst the dog barked as if he understood, "we can't let you
+go without telling you this. And if you are to understand everything
+you must not go away just yet; we want to ask you about so many things
+that lie heavily on our hearts. Stay yet awhile; we know every foot of
+the way and can accompany you afterwards. The gentleman you expect may
+yet turn up. Look over yonder on the Rhine: what is that we see so
+clearly floating on the surface of the water as if surrounded by the
+light of many torches? It is there that we may look for your friend, I
+would even venture to say that it is he who is coming towards you with
+all those lights."
+
+And so much did we assail the surprised old man with our entreaties,
+promises, and fantastic delusions, that we persuaded the philosopher
+to walk to and fro with us on the little plateau, "by learned lumber
+undisturbed," as my friend added.
+
+"Shame on you!" said the philosopher, "if you really want to quote
+something, why choose Faust? However, I will give in to you, quotation
+or no quotation, if only our young companions will keep still and not
+run away as suddenly as they made their appearance, for they are like
+will-o'-the-wisps; we are amazed when they are there and again when
+they are not there."
+
+My friend immediately recited--
+
+    Respect, I hope, will teach us how we may
+    Our lighter disposition keep at bay.
+    Our course is only zig-zag as a rule.
+
+The philosopher was surprised, and stood still. "You astonish me, you
+will-o'-the-wisps," he said; "this is no quagmire we are on now. Of
+what use is this ground to you? What does the proximity of a
+philosopher mean to you? For around him the air is sharp and clear,
+the ground dry and hard. You must find out a more fantastic region for
+your zig-zagging inclinations."
+
+"I think," interrupted the philosopher's companion at this point, "the
+gentlemen have already told us that they promised to meet some one
+here at this hour; but it seems to me that they listened to our comedy
+of education like a chorus, and truly 'idealistic spectators'--for
+they did not disturb us; we thought we were alone with each other."
+
+"Yes, that is true," said the philosopher, "that praise must not be
+withheld from them, but it seems to me that they deserve still higher
+praise----"
+
+Here I seized the philosopher's hand and said: "That man must be as
+obtuse as a reptile, with his stomach on the ground and his head
+buried in mud, who can listen to such a discourse as yours without
+becoming earnest and thoughtful, or even excited and indignant.
+Self-accusation and annoyance might perhaps cause a few to get angry;
+but our impression was quite different: the only thing I do not know
+is how exactly to describe it. This hour was so well-timed for us, and
+our minds were so well prepared, that we sat there like empty vessels,
+and now it seems as if we were filled to overflowing with this new
+wisdom: for I no longer know how to help myself, and if some one asked
+me what I am thinking of doing to-morrow, or what I have made up my
+mind to do with myself from now on, I should not know what to answer.
+For it is easy to see that we have up to the present been living and
+educating ourselves in the wrong way--but what can we do to cross over
+the chasm between to-day and to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," acknowledged my friend, "I have a similar feeling, and I ask
+the same question: but besides that I feel as if I were frightened
+away from German culture by entertaining such high and ideal views of
+its task; yea, as if I were unworthy to co-operate with it in carrying
+out its aims. I only see a resplendent file of the highest natures
+moving towards this goal; I can imagine over what abysses and through
+what temptations this procession travels. Who would dare to be so bold
+as to join in it?"
+
+At this point the philosopher's companion again turned to him and
+said: "Don't be angry with me when I tell you that I too have a
+somewhat similar feeling, which I have not mentioned to you before.
+When talking to you I often felt drawn out of myself, as it were, and
+inspired with your ardour and hopes till I almost forgot myself. Then
+a calmer moment arrives; a piercing wind of reality brings me back to
+earth--and then I see the wide gulf between us, over which you
+yourself, as in a dream, draw me back again. Then what you call
+'culture' merely totters meaninglessly around me or lies heavily on my
+breast: it is like a shirt of mail that weighs me down, or a sword
+that I cannot wield."
+
+Our minds, as we thus argued with the philosopher, were unanimous,
+and, mutually encouraging and stimulating one another, we slowly
+walked with him backwards and forwards along the unencumbered space
+which had earlier in the day served us as a shooting range. And then,
+in the still night, under the peaceful light of hundreds of stars, we
+all broke out into a tirade which ran somewhat as follows:--
+
+"You have told us so much about the genius," we began, "about his
+lonely and wearisome journey through the world, as if nature never
+exhibited anything but the most diametrical contraries: in one place
+the stupid, dull masses, acting by instinct, and then, on a far higher
+and more remote plane, the great contemplating few, destined for the
+production of immortal works. But now you call these the apexes of the
+intellectual pyramid: it would, however, seem that between the broad,
+heavily burdened foundation up to the highest of the free and
+unencumbered peaks there must be countless intermediate degrees, and
+that here we must apply the saying _natura non facit saltus_. Where
+then are we to look for the beginning of what you call culture; where
+is the line of demarcation to be drawn between the spheres which are
+ruled from below upwards and those which are ruled from above
+downwards? And if it be only in connection with these exalted beings
+that true culture may be spoken of, how are institutions to be founded
+for the uncertain existence of such natures, how can we devise
+educational establishments which shall be of benefit only to these
+select few? It rather seems to us that such persons know how to find
+their own way, and that their full strength is shown in their being
+able to walk without the educational crutches necessary for other
+people, and thus undisturbed to make their way through the storm and
+stress of this rough world just like a phantom."
+
+We kept on arguing in this fashion, speaking without any great ability
+and not putting our thoughts in any special form: but the
+philosopher's companion went even further, and said to him: "Just
+think of all these great geniuses of whom we are wont to be so proud,
+looking upon them as tried and true leaders and guides of this real
+German spirit, whose names we commemorate by statues and festivals,
+and whose works we hold up with feelings of pride for the admiration
+of foreign lands--how did they obtain the education you demand for
+them, to what degree do they show that they have been nourished and
+matured by basking in the sun of national education? And yet they are
+seen to be possible, they have nevertheless become men whom we must
+honour: yea, their works themselves justify the form of the
+development of these noble spirits; they justify even a certain want
+of education for which we must make allowance owing to their country
+and the age in which they lived. How could Lessing and Winckelmann
+benefit by the German culture of their time? Even less than, or at all
+events just as little as Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe, or every one of
+our great poets and artists. It may perhaps be a law of nature that
+only the later generations are destined to know by what divine gifts
+an earlier generation was favoured."
+
+At this point the old philosopher could not control his anger, and
+shouted to his companion: "Oh, you innocent lamb of knowledge! You
+gentle sucking doves, all of you! And would you give the name of
+arguments to those distorted, clumsy, narrow-minded, ungainly,
+crippled things? Yes, I have just now been listening to the fruits of
+some of this present-day culture, and my ears are still ringing with
+the sound of historical 'self-understood' things, of over-wise and
+pitiless historical reasonings! Mark this, thou unprofaned Nature:
+thou hast grown old, and for thousands of years this starry sky has
+spanned the space above thee--but thou hast never yet heard such
+conceited and, at bottom, mischievous chatter as the talk of the
+present day! So you are proud of your poets and artists, my good
+Teutons? You point to them and brag about them to foreign countries,
+do you? And because it has given you no trouble to have them amongst
+you, you have formed the pleasant theory that you need not concern
+yourselves further with them? Isn't that so, my inexperienced
+children: they come of their own free will, the stork brings them to
+you! Who would dare to mention a midwife! You deserve an earnest
+teaching, eh? You should be proud of the fact that all the noble and
+brilliant men we have mentioned were prematurely suffocated, worn out,
+and crushed through you, through your barbarism? You think without
+shame of Lessing, who, on account of your stupidity, perished in
+battle against your ludicrous gods and idols, the evils of your
+theatres, your learned men, and your theologians, without once daring
+to lift himself to the height of that immortal flight for which he
+was brought into the world. And what are your impressions when you
+think of Winckelmann, who, that he might rid his eyes of your
+grotesque fatuousness, went to beg help from the Jesuits, and whose
+disgraceful religious conversion recoils upon you and will always
+remain an ineffaceable blemish upon you? You can even name Schiller
+without blushing! Just look at his picture! The fiery, sparkling eyes,
+looking at you with disdain, those flushed, death-like cheeks: can you
+learn nothing from all that? In him you had a beautiful and divine
+plaything, and through it was destroyed. And if it had been possible
+for you to take Goethe's friendship away from this melancholy, hasty
+life, hunted to premature death, then you would have crushed him even
+sooner than you did. You have not rendered assistance to a single one
+of our great geniuses--and now upon that fact you wish to build up the
+theory that none of them shall ever be helped in future? For each of
+them, however, up to this very moment, you have always been the
+'resistance of the stupid world' that Goethe speaks of in his
+"Epilogue to the Bell"; towards each of them you acted the part of
+apathetic dullards or jealous narrow-hearts or malignant egotists. In
+spite of you they created their immortal works, against you they
+directed their attacks, and thanks to you they died so prematurely,
+their tasks only half accomplished, blunted and dulled and shattered
+in the battle. Who can tell to what these heroic men were destined to
+attain if only that true German spirit had gathered them together
+within the protecting walls of a powerful institution?--that spirit
+which, without the help of some such institution, drags out an
+isolated, debased, and degraded existence. All those great men were
+utterly ruined; and it is only an insane belief in the Hegelian
+'reasonableness of all happenings' which would absolve you of any
+responsibility in the matter. And not those men alone! Indictments are
+pouring forth against you from every intellectual province: whether I
+look at the talents of our poets, philosophers, painters, or
+sculptors--and not only in the case of gifts of the highest order--I
+everywhere see immaturity, overstrained nerves, or prematurely
+exhausted energies, abilities wasted and nipped in the bud; I
+everywhere feel that 'resistance of the stupid world,' in other words,
+_your_ guiltiness. That is what I am talking about when I speak of
+lacking educational establishments, and why I think those which at
+present claim the name in such a pitiful condition. Whoever is pleased
+to call this an 'ideal desire,' and refers to it as 'ideal' as if he
+were trying to get rid of it by praising me, deserves the answer that
+the present system is a scandal and a disgrace, and that the man who
+asks for warmth in the midst of ice and snow must indeed get angry if
+he hears this referred to as an 'ideal desire.' The matter we are now
+discussing is concerned with clear, urgent, and palpably evident
+realities: a man who knows anything of the question feels that there
+is a need which must be seen to, just like cold and hunger. But the
+man who is not affected at all by this matter most certainly has a
+standard by which to measure the extent of his own culture, and thus
+to know what I call 'culture,' and where the line should be drawn
+between that which is ruled from below upwards and that which is ruled
+from above downwards."
+
+The philosopher seemed to be speaking very heatedly. We begged him to
+walk round with us again, since he had uttered the latter part of his
+discourse standing near the tree-stump which had served us as a
+target. For a few minutes not a word more was spoken. Slowly and
+thoughtfully we walked to and fro. We did not so much feel ashamed of
+having brought forward such foolish arguments as we felt a kind of
+restitution of our personality. After the heated and, so far as we
+were concerned, very unflattering utterance of the philosopher, we
+seemed to feel ourselves nearer to him--that we even stood in a
+personal relationship to him. For so wretched is man that he never
+feels himself brought into such close contact with a stranger as when
+the latter shows some sign of weakness, some defect. That our
+philosopher had lost his temper and made use of abusive language
+helped to bridge over the gulf created between us by our timid respect
+for him: and for the sake of the reader who feels his indignation
+rising at this suggestion let it be added that this bridge often leads
+from distant hero-worship to personal love and pity. And, after the
+feeling that our personality had been restored to us, this pity
+gradually became stronger and stronger. Why were we making this old
+man walk up and down with us between the rocks and trees at that time
+of the night? And, since he had yielded to our entreaties, why could
+we not have thought of a more modest and unassuming manner of having
+ourselves instructed, why should the three of us have contradicted him
+in such clumsy terms?
+
+For now we saw how thoughtless, unprepared, and baseless were all the
+objections we had made, and how greatly the echo of _the_ present was
+heard in them, the voice of which, in the province of culture, the old
+man would fain not have heard. Our objections, however, were not
+purely intellectual ones: our reasons for protesting against the
+philosopher's statements seemed to lie elsewhere. They arose perhaps
+from the instinctive anxiety to know whether, if the philosopher's
+views were carried into effect, our own personalities would find a
+place in the higher or lower division; and this made it necessary for
+us to find some arguments against the mode of thinking which robbed us
+of our self-styled claims to culture. People, however, should not
+argue with companions who feel the weight of an argument so
+personally; or, as the moral in our case would have been: such
+companions should not argue, should not contradict at all.
+
+So we walked on beside the philosopher, ashamed, compassionate,
+dissatisfied with ourselves, and more than ever convinced that the old
+man was right and that we had done him wrong. How remote now seemed
+the youthful dream of our educational institution; how clearly we saw
+the danger which we had hitherto escaped merely by good luck, namely,
+giving ourselves up body and soul to the educational system which
+forced itself upon our notice so enticingly, from the time when we
+entered the public schools up to that moment. How then had it come
+about that we had not taken our places in the chorus of its admirers?
+Perhaps merely because we were real students, and could still draw
+back from the rough-and-tumble, the pushing and struggling, the
+restless, ever-breaking waves of publicity, to seek refuge in our own
+little educational establishment; which, however, time would have soon
+swallowed up also.
+
+Overcome by such reflections, we were about to address the philosopher
+again, when he suddenly turned towards us, and said in a softer tone--
+
+"I cannot be surprised if you young men behave rashly and
+thoughtlessly; for it is hardly likely that you have ever seriously
+considered what I have just said to you. Don't be in a hurry; carry
+this question about with you, but do at any rate consider it day and
+night. For you are now at the parting of the ways, and now you know
+where each path leads. If you take the one, your age will receive you
+with open arms, you will not find it wanting in honours and
+decorations: you will form units of an enormous rank and file; and
+there will be as many people like-minded standing behind you as in
+front of you. And when the leader gives the word it will be re-echoed
+from rank to rank. For here your first duty is this: to fight in rank
+and file; and your second: to annihilate all those who refuse to form
+part of the rank and file. On the other path you will have but few
+fellow-travellers: it is more arduous, winding and precipitous; and
+those who take the first path will mock you, for your progress is more
+wearisome, and they will try to lure you over into their own ranks.
+When the two paths happen to cross, however, you will be roughly
+handled and thrust aside, or else shunned and isolated.
+
+"Now, take these two parties, so different from each other in every
+respect, and tell me what meaning an educational establishment would
+have for them. That enormous horde, crowding onwards on the first path
+towards its goal, would take the term to mean an institution by which
+each of its members would become duly qualified to take his place in
+the rank and file, and would be purged of everything which might tend
+to make him strive after higher and more remote aims. I don't deny, of
+course, that they can find pompous words with which to describe their
+aims: for example, they speak of the 'universal development of free
+personality upon a firm social, national, and human basis,' or they
+announce as their goal: 'The founding of the peaceful sovereignty of
+the people upon reason, education, and justice.'
+
+"An educational establishment for the other and smaller company,
+however, would be something vastly different. They would employ it to
+prevent themselves from being separated from one another and
+overwhelmed by the first huge crowd, to prevent their few select
+spirits from losing sight of their splendid and noble task through
+premature weariness, or from being turned aside from the true path,
+corrupted, or subverted. These select spirits must complete their
+work: that is the _raison d'être_ of their common institution--a work,
+indeed, which, as it were, must be free from subjective traces, and
+must further rise above the transient events of future times as the
+pure reflection of the eternal and immutable essence of things. And
+all those who occupy places in that institution must co-operate in the
+endeavour to engender men of genius by this purification from
+subjectiveness and the creation of the works of genius. Not a few,
+even of those whose talents may be of the second or third order, are
+suited to such co-operation, and only when serving in such an
+educational establishment as this do they feel that they are truly
+carrying out their life's task. But now it is just these talents I
+speak of which are drawn away from the true path, and their instincts
+estranged, by the continual seductions of that modern 'culture.'
+
+"The egotistic emotions, weaknesses, and vanities of these few select
+minds are continually assailed by the temptations unceasingly murmured
+into their ears by the spirit of the age: 'Come with me! There you are
+servants, retainers, tools, eclipsed by higher natures; your own
+peculiar characteristics never have free play; you are tied down,
+chained down, like slaves; yea, like automata: here, with me, you will
+enjoy the freedom of your own personalities, as masters should, your
+talents will cast their lustre on yourselves alone, with their aid you
+may come to the very front rank; an innumerable train of followers
+will accompany you, and the applause of public opinion will yield you
+more pleasure than a nobly-bestowed commendation from the height of
+genius.' Even the very best of men now yield to these temptations: and
+it cannot be said that the deciding factor here is the degree of
+talent, or whether a man is accessible to these voices or not; but
+rather the degree and the height of a certain moral sublimity, the
+instinct towards heroism, towards sacrifice--and finally a positive,
+habitual need of culture, prepared by a proper kind of education,
+which education, as I have previously said, is first and foremost
+obedience and submission to the discipline of genius. Of this
+discipline and submission, however, the present institutions called by
+courtesy 'educational establishments' know nothing whatever, although
+I have no doubt that the public school was originally intended to be
+an institution for sowing the seeds of true culture, or at least as a
+preparation for it. I have no doubt, either, that they took the first
+bold steps in the wonderful and stirring times of the Reformation, and
+that afterwards, in the era which gave birth to Schiller and Goethe,
+there was again a growing demand for culture, like the first
+protuberance of that wing spoken of by Plato in the _Phaedrus_, which,
+at every contact with the beautiful, bears the soul aloft into the
+upper regions, the habitations of the gods."
+
+"Ah," began the philosopher's companion, "when you quote the divine
+Plato and the world of ideas, I do not think you are angry with me,
+however much my previous utterance may have merited your disapproval
+and wrath. As soon as you speak of it, I feel that Platonic wing
+rising within me; and it is only at intervals, when I act as the
+charioteer of my soul, that I have any difficulty with the resisting
+and unwilling horse that Plato has also described to us, the
+'crooked, lumbering animal, put together anyhow, with a short, thick
+neck; flat-faced, and of a dark colour, with grey eyes and blood-red
+complexion; the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf,
+hardly yielding to whip or spur.'[8] Just think how long I have lived
+at a distance from you, and how all those temptations you speak of
+have endeavoured to lure me away, not perhaps without some success,
+even though I myself may not have observed it. I now see more clearly
+than ever the necessity for an institution which will enable us to
+live and mix freely with the few men of true culture, so that we may
+have them as our leaders and guiding stars. How greatly I feel the
+danger of travelling alone! And when it occurred to me that I could
+save myself by flight from all contact with the spirit of the time, I
+found that this flight itself was a mere delusion. Continuously, with
+every breath we take, some amount of that atmosphere circulates
+through every vein and artery, and no solitude is lonesome or distant
+enough for us to be out of reach of its fogs and clouds. Whether in
+the guise of hope, doubt, profit, or virtue, the shades of that
+culture hover about us; and we have been deceived by that jugglery
+even here in the presence of a true hermit of culture. How steadfastly
+and faithfully must the few followers of that culture--which might
+almost be called sectarian--be ever on the alert! How they must
+strengthen and uphold one another! How adversely would any errors be
+criticised here, and how sympathetically excused! And thus, teacher, I
+ask you to pardon me, after you have laboured so earnestly to set me
+in the right path!"
+
+"You use a language which I do not care for, my friend," said the
+philosopher, "and one which reminds me of a diocesan conference. With
+that I have nothing to do. But your Platonic horse pleases me, and on
+its account you shall be forgiven. I am willing to exchange my own
+animal for yours. But it is getting chilly, and I don't feel inclined
+to walk about any more just now. The friend I was waiting for is
+indeed foolish enough to come up here even at midnight if he promised
+to do so. But I have waited in vain for the signal agreed upon; and I
+cannot guess what has delayed him. For as a rule he is punctual, as we
+old men are wont, to be, something that you young men nowadays look
+upon as old-fashioned. But he has left me in the lurch for once: how
+annoying it is! Come away with me! It's time to go!"
+
+At this moment something happened.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] It will be apparent from these words that Nietzsche is still under
+the influence of Schopenhauer.--TR.
+
+[7] This prophecy has come true.--TR.
+
+[8] _Phaedrus_; Jowett's translation.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 23rd of March 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--If you have lent a sympathetic ear to what I
+have told you about the heated argument of our philosopher in the
+stillness of that memorable night, you must have felt as disappointed
+as we did when he announced his peevish intention. You will remember
+that he had suddenly told us he wished to go; for, having been left in
+the lurch by his friend in the first place, and, in the second, having
+been bored rather than animated by the remarks addressed to him by his
+companion and ourselves when walking backwards and forwards on the
+hillside, he now apparently wanted to put an end to what appeared to
+him to be a useless discussion. It must have seemed to him that his
+day had been lost, and he would have liked to blot it out of his
+memory, together with the recollection of ever having made our
+acquaintance. And we were thus rather unwillingly preparing to depart
+when something else suddenly brought him to a standstill, and the foot
+he had just raised sank hesitatingly to the ground again.
+
+A coloured flame, making a crackling noise for a few seconds,
+attracted our attention from the direction of the Rhine; and
+immediately following upon this we heard a slow, harmonious call,
+quite in tune, although plainly the cry of numerous youthful voices.
+"That's his signal," exclaimed the philosopher, "so my friend is
+really coming, and I haven't waited for nothing, after all. It will be
+a midnight meeting indeed--but how am I to let him know that I am
+still here? Come! Your pistols; let us see your talent once again! Did
+you hear the severe rhythm of that melody saluting us? Mark it well,
+and answer it in the same rhythm by a series of shots."
+
+This was a task well suited to our tastes and abilities; so we loaded
+up as quickly as we could and pointed our weapons at the brilliant
+stars in the heavens, whilst the echo of that piercing cry died away
+in the distance. The reports of the first, second, and third shots
+sounded sharply in the stillness; and then the philosopher cried
+"False time!" as our rhythm was suddenly interrupted: for, like a
+lightning flash, a shooting star tore its way across the clouds after
+the third report, and almost involuntarily our fourth and fifth shots
+were sent after it in the direction it had taken.
+
+"False time!" said the philosopher again, "who told you to shoot
+stars! They can fall well enough without you! People should know what
+they want before they begin to handle weapons."
+
+And then we once more heard that loud melody from the waters of the
+Rhine, intoned by numerous and strong voices. "They understand us,"
+said the philosopher, laughing, "and who indeed could resist when
+such a dazzling phantom comes within range?" "Hush!" interrupted his
+friend, "what sort of a company can it be that returns the signal to
+us in such a way? I should say they were between twenty and forty
+strong, manly voices in that crowd--and where would such a number come
+from to greet us? They don't appear to have left the opposite bank of
+the Rhine yet; but at any rate we must have a look at them from our
+own side of the river. Come along, quickly!"
+
+We were then standing near the top of the hill, you may remember, and
+our view of the river was interrupted by a dark, thick wood. On the
+other hand, as I have told you, from the quiet little spot which we
+had left we could have a better view than from the little plateau on
+the hillside; and the Rhine, with the island of Nonnenwörth in the
+middle, was just visible to the beholder who peered over the
+tree-tops. We therefore set off hastily towards this little spot,
+taking care, however, not to go too quickly for the philosopher's
+comfort. The night was pitch dark, and we seemed to find our way by
+instinct rather than by clearly distinguishing the path, as we walked
+down with the philosopher in the middle.
+
+We had scarcely reached our side of the river when a broad and fiery,
+yet dull and uncertain light shot up, which plainly came from the
+opposite side of the Rhine. "Those are torches," I cried, "there is
+nothing surer than that my comrades from Bonn are over yonder, and
+that your friend must be with them. It is they who sang that peculiar
+song, and they have doubtless accompanied your friend here. See!
+Listen! They are putting off in little boats. The whole torchlight
+procession will have arrived here in less than half an hour."
+
+The philosopher jumped back. "What do you say?" he ejaculated, "your
+comrades from Bonn--students--can my friend have come here with
+_students_?"
+
+This question, uttered almost wrathfully, provoked us. "What's your
+objection to students?" we demanded; but there was no answer. It was
+only after a pause that the philosopher slowly began to speak, not
+addressing us directly, as it were, but rather some one in the
+distance: "So, my friend, even at midnight, even on the top of a
+lonely mountain, we shall not be alone; and you yourself are bringing
+a pack of mischief-making students along with you, although you well
+know that I am only too glad to get out of the way of _hoc genus
+omne_. I don't quite understand you, my friend: it must mean something
+when we arrange to meet after a long separation at such an
+out-of-the-way place and at such an unusual hour. Why should we want a
+crowd of witnesses--and such witnesses! What calls us together to-day
+is least of all a sentimental, soft-hearted necessity; for both of us
+learnt early in life to live alone in dignified isolation. It was not
+for our own sakes, not to show our tender feelings towards each other,
+or to perform an unrehearsed act of friendship, that we decided to
+meet here; but that here, where I once came suddenly upon you as you
+sat in majestic solitude, we might earnestly deliberate with each
+other like knights of a new order. Let them listen to us who can
+understand us; but why should you bring with you a throng of people
+who don't understand us! I don't know what you mean by such a thing,
+my friend!"
+
+We did not think it proper to interrupt the dissatisfied old grumbler;
+and as he came to a melancholy close we did not dare to tell him how
+greatly this distrustful repudiation of students vexed us.
+
+At last the philosopher's companion turned to him and said: "I am
+reminded of the fact that even you at one time, before I made your
+acquaintance, occupied posts in several universities, and that reports
+concerning your intercourse with the students and your methods of
+instruction at the time are still in circulation. From the tone of
+resignation in which you have just referred to students many would be
+inclined to think that you had some peculiar experiences which were
+not at all to your liking; but personally I rather believe that you
+saw and experienced in such places just what every one else saw and
+experienced in them, but that you judged what you saw and felt more
+justly and severely than any one else. For, during the time I have
+known you, I have learnt that the most noteworthy, instructive, and
+decisive experiences and events in one's life are those which are of
+daily occurrence; that the greatest riddle, displayed in full view of
+all, is seen by the fewest to be the greatest riddle, and that these
+problems are spread about in every direction, under the very feet of
+the passers-by, for the few real philosophers to lift up carefully,
+thenceforth to shine as diamonds of wisdom. Perhaps, in the short time
+now left us before the arrival of your friend, you will be good enough
+to tell us something of your experiences of university life, so as to
+close the circle of observations, to which we were involuntarily
+urged, respecting our educational institutions. We may also be allowed
+to remind you that you, at an earlier stage of your remarks, gave me
+the promise that you would do so. Starting with the public school, you
+claimed for it an extraordinary importance: all other institutions
+must be judged by its standard, according as its aim has been
+proposed; and, if its aim happens to be wrong, all the others have to
+suffer. Such an importance cannot now be adopted by the universities
+as a standard; for, by their present system of grouping, they would be
+nothing more than institutions where public school students might go
+through finishing courses. You promised me that you would explain this
+in greater detail later on: perhaps our student friends can bear
+witness to that, if they chanced to overhear that part of our
+conversation."
+
+"We can testify to that," I put in. The philosopher then turned to us
+and said: "Well, if you really did listen attentively, perhaps you can
+now tell me what you understand by the expression 'the present aim of
+our public schools.' Besides, you are still near enough to this sphere
+to judge my opinions by the standard of your own impressions and
+experiences."
+
+My friend instantly answered, quickly and smartly, as was his habit,
+in the following words: "Until now we had always thought that the sole
+object of the public school was to prepare students for the
+universities. This preparation, however, should tend to make us
+independent enough for the extraordinarily free position of a
+university student;[9] for it seems to me that a student, to a greater
+extent than any other individual, has more to decide and settle for
+himself. He must guide himself on a wide, utterly unknown path for
+many years, so the public school must do its best to render him
+independent."
+
+I continued the argument where my friend left off. "It even seems to
+me," I said, "that everything for which you have justly blamed the
+public school is only a necessary means employed to imbue the youthful
+student with some kind of independence, or at all events with the
+belief that there is such a thing. The teaching of German composition
+must be at the service of this independence: the individual must enjoy
+his opinions and carry out his designs early, so that he may be able
+to travel alone and without crutches. In this way he will soon be
+encouraged to produce original work, and still sooner to take up
+criticism and analysis. If Latin and Greek studies prove insufficient
+to make a student an enthusiastic admirer of antiquity, the methods
+with which such studies are pursued are at all events sufficient to
+awaken the scientific sense, the desire for a more strict causality of
+knowledge, the passion for finding out and inventing. Only think how
+many young men may be lured away for ever to the attractions of
+science by a new reading of some sort which they have snatched up with
+youthful hands at the public school! The public school boy must learn
+and collect a great deal of varied information: hence an impulse will
+gradually be created, accompanied with which he will continue to learn
+and collect independently at the university. We believe, in short,
+that the aim of the public school is to prepare and accustom the
+student always to live and learn independently afterwards, just as
+beforehand he must live and learn dependently at the public school."
+
+The philosopher laughed, not altogether good-naturedly, and said: "You
+have just given me a fine example of that independence. And it is this
+very independence that shocks me so much, and makes any place in the
+neighbourhood of present-day students so disagreeable to me. Yes, my
+good friends, you are perfect, you are mature; nature has cast you and
+broken up the moulds, and your teachers must surely gloat over you.
+What liberty, certitude, and independence of judgment; what novelty
+and freshness of insight! You sit in judgment--and the cultures of all
+ages run away. The scientific sense is kindled, and rises out of you
+like a flame--let people be careful, lest you set them alight! If I go
+further into the question and look at your professors, I again find
+the same independence in a greater and even more charming degree:
+never was there a time so full of the most sublime independent folk,
+never was slavery more detested, the slavery of education and culture
+included.
+
+"Permit me, however, to measure this independence of yours by the
+standard of this culture, and to consider your university as an
+educational institution and nothing else. If a foreigner desires to
+know something of the methods of our universities, he asks first of
+all with emphasis: 'How is the student connected with the university?'
+We answer: 'By the ear, as a hearer.' The foreigner is astonished.
+'Only by the ear?' he repeats. 'Only by the ear,' we again reply. The
+student hears. When he speaks, when he sees, when he is in the company
+of his companions when he takes up some branch of art: in short, when
+he _lives_ he is independent, _i.e._ not dependent upon the
+educational institution. The student very often writes down something
+while he hears; and it is only at these rare moments that he hangs to
+the umbilical cord of his alma mater. He himself may choose what he is
+to listen to; he is not bound to believe what is said; he may close
+his ears if he does not care to hear. This is the 'acroamatic' method
+of teaching.
+
+"The teacher, however, speaks to these listening students. Whatever
+else he may think and do is cut off from the student's perception by
+an immense gap. The professor often reads when he is speaking. As a
+rule he wishes to have as many hearers as possible; he is not content
+to have a few, and he is never satisfied with one only. One speaking
+mouth, with many ears, and half as many writing hands--there you have
+to all appearances, the external academical apparatus; the university
+engine of culture set in motion. Moreover, the proprietor of this one
+mouth is severed from and independent of the owners of the many ears;
+and this double independence is enthusiastically designated as
+'academical freedom.' And again, that this freedom may be broadened
+still more, the one may speak what he likes and the other may hear
+what he likes; except that, behind both of them, at a modest distance,
+stands the State, with all the intentness of a supervisor, to remind
+the professors and students from time to time that _it_ is the aim,
+the goal, the be-all and end-all, of this curious speaking and hearing
+procedure.
+
+"We, who must be permitted to regard this phenomenon merely as an
+educational institution, will then inform the inquiring foreigner that
+what is called 'culture' in our universities merely proceeds from the
+mouth to the ear, and that every kind of training for culture is, as I
+said before, merely 'acroamatic.' Since, however, not only the
+hearing, but also the choice of what to hear is left to the
+independent decision of the liberal-minded and unprejudiced student,
+and since, again, he can withhold all belief and authority from what
+he hears, all training for culture, in the true sense of the term,
+reverts to himself; and the independence it was thought desirable to
+aim at in the public school now presents itself with the highest
+possible pride as 'academical self-training for culture,' and struts
+about in its brilliant plumage.
+
+"Happy times, when youths are clever and cultured enough to teach
+themselves how to walk! Unsurpassable public schools, which succeed in
+implanting independence in the place of the dependence, discipline,
+subordination, and obedience implanted by former generations that
+thought it their duty to drive away all the bumptiousness of
+independence! Do you clearly see, my good friends, why I, from the
+standpoint of culture, regard the present type of university as a mere
+appendage to the public school? The culture instilled by the public
+school passes through the gates of the university as something ready
+and entire, and with its own particular claims: _it_ demands, it gives
+laws, it sits in judgment. Do not, then, let yourselves be deceived in
+regard to the cultured student; for he, in so far as he thinks he has
+absorbed the blessings of education, is merely the public school boy
+as moulded by the hands of his teacher: one who, since his academical
+isolation, and after he has left the public school, has therefore been
+deprived of all further guidance to culture, that from now on he may
+begin to live by himself and be free.
+
+"Free! Examine this freedom, ye observers of human nature! Erected
+upon the sandy, crumbling foundation of our present public school
+culture, its building slants to one side, trembling before the
+whirlwind's blast. Look at the free student, the herald of
+self-culture: guess what his instincts are; explain him from his
+needs! How does his culture appear to you when you measure it by three
+graduated scales: first, by his need for philosophy; second, by his
+instinct for art; and third, by Greek and Roman antiquity as the
+incarnate categorical imperative of all culture?
+
+"Man is so much encompassed about by the most serious and difficult
+problems that, when they are brought to his attention in the right
+way, he is impelled betimes towards a lasting kind of philosophical
+wonder, from which alone, as a fruitful soil, a deep and noble culture
+can grow forth. His own experiences lead him most frequently to the
+consideration of these problems; and it is especially in the
+tempestuous period of youth that every personal event shines with a
+double gleam, both as the exemplification of a triviality and, at the
+same time, of an eternally surprising problem, deserving of
+explanation. At this age, which, as it were, sees his experiences
+encircled with metaphysical rainbows, man is, in the highest degree,
+in need of a guiding hand, because he has suddenly and almost
+instinctively convinced himself of the ambiguity of existence, and has
+lost the firm support of the beliefs he has hitherto held.
+
+"This natural state of great need must of course be looked upon as the
+worst enemy of that beloved independence for which the cultured youth
+of the present day should be trained. All these sons of the present,
+who have raised the banner of the 'self-understood,' are therefore
+straining every nerve to crush down these feelings of youth, to
+cripple them, to mislead them, or to stop their growth altogether;
+and the favourite means employed is to paralyse that natural
+philosophic impulse by the so-called "historical culture." A still
+recent system,[10] which has won for itself a world-wide scandalous
+reputation, has discovered the formula for this self-destruction of
+philosophy; and now, wherever the historical view of things is found,
+we can see such a naive recklessness in bringing the irrational to
+'rationality' and 'reason' and making black look like white, that one
+is even inclined to parody Hegel's phrase and ask: 'Is all this
+irrationality real?' Ah, it is only the irrational that now seems to
+be 'real,' _i.e._ really doing something; and to bring this kind of
+reality forward for the elucidation of history is reckoned as true
+'historical culture.' It is into this that the philosophical impulse
+of our time has pupated itself; and the peculiar philosophers of our
+universities seem to have conspired to fortify and confirm the young
+academicians in it.
+
+"It has thus come to pass that, in place of a profound interpretation
+of the eternally recurring problems, a historical--yea, even
+philological--balancing and questioning has entered into the
+educational arena: what this or that philosopher has or has not
+thought; whether this or that essay or dialogue is to be ascribed to
+him or not; or even whether this particular reading of a classical
+text is to be preferred to that. It is to neutral preoccupations with
+philosophy like these that our students in philosophical seminaries
+are stimulated; whence I have long accustomed myself to regard such
+science as a mere ramification of philology, and to value its
+representatives in proportion as they are good or bad philologists. So
+it has come about that _philosophy itself_ is banished from the
+universities: wherewith our first question as to the value of our
+universities from the standpoint of culture is answered.
+
+"In what relationship these universities stand to _art_ cannot be
+acknowledged without shame: in none at all. Of artistic thinking,
+learning, striving, and comparison, we do not find in them a single
+trace; and no one would seriously think that the voice of the
+universities would ever be raised to help the advancement of the
+higher national schemes of art. Whether an individual teacher feels
+himself to be personally qualified for art, or whether a professorial
+chair has been established for the training of æstheticising literary
+historians, does not enter into the question at all: the fact remains
+that the university is not in a position to control the young
+academician by severe artistic discipline, and that it must let happen
+what happens, willy-nilly--and this is the cutting answer to the
+immodest pretensions of the universities to represent themselves as
+the highest educational institutions.
+
+"We find our academical 'independents' growing up without philosophy
+and without art; and how can they then have any need to 'go in for'
+the Greeks and Romans?--for we need now no longer pretend, like our
+forefathers, to have any great regard for Greece and Rome, which,
+besides, sit enthroned in almost inaccessible loneliness and majestic
+alienation. The universities of the present time consequently give no
+heed to almost extinct educational predilections like these, and found
+their philological chairs for the training of new and exclusive
+generations of philologists, who on their part give similar
+philological preparation in the public schools--a vicious circle which
+is useful neither to philologists nor to public schools, but which
+above all accuses the university for the third time of not being what
+it so pompously proclaims itself to be--a training ground for culture.
+Take away the Greeks, together with philosophy and art, and what
+ladder have you still remaining by which to ascend to culture? For, if
+you attempt to clamber up the ladder without these helps, you must
+permit me to inform you that all your learning will lie like a heavy
+burden on your shoulders rather than furnishing you with wings and
+bearing you aloft.
+
+"If you honest thinkers have honourably remained in these three stages
+of intelligence, and have perceived that, in comparison with the
+Greeks, the modern student is unsuited to and unprepared for
+philosophy, that he has no truly artistic instincts, and is merely a
+barbarian believing himself to be free, you will not on this account
+turn away from him in disgust, although you will, of course, avoid
+coming into too close proximity with him. For, as he now is, _he is
+not to blame_: as you have perceived him he is the dumb but terrible
+accuser of those who are to blame.
+
+"You should understand the secret language spoken by this guilty
+innocent, and then you, too, would learn to understand the inward
+state of that independence which is paraded outwardly with so much
+ostentation. Not one of these noble, well-qualified youths has
+remained a stranger to that restless, tiring, perplexing, and
+debilitating need of culture: during his university term, when he is
+apparently the only free man in a crowd of servants and officials, he
+atones for this huge illusion of freedom by ever-growing inner doubts
+and convictions. He feels that he can neither lead nor help himself;
+and then he plunges hopelessly into the workaday world and endeavours
+to ward off such feelings by study. The most trivial bustle fastens
+itself upon him; he sinks under his heavy burden. Then he suddenly
+pulls himself together; he still feels some of that power within him
+which would have enabled him to keep his head above water. Pride and
+noble resolutions assert themselves and grow in him. He is afraid of
+sinking at this early stage into the limits of a narrow profession;
+and now he grasps at pillars and railings alongside the stream that he
+may not be swept away by the current. In vain! for these supports give
+way, and he finds he has clutched at broken reeds. In low and
+despondent spirits he sees his plans vanish away in smoke. His
+condition is undignified, even dreadful: he keeps between the two
+extremes of work at high pressure and a state of melancholy
+enervation. Then he becomes tired, lazy, afraid of work, fearful of
+everything great; and hating himself. He looks into his own breast,
+analyses his faculties, and finds he is only peering into hollow and
+chaotic vacuity. And then he once more falls from the heights of his
+eagerly-desired self-knowledge into an ironical scepticism. He divests
+his struggles of their real importance, and feels himself ready to
+undertake any class of useful work, however degrading. He now seeks
+consolation in hasty and incessant action so as to hide himself from
+himself. And thus his helplessness and the want of a leader towards
+culture drive him from one form of life into another: but doubt,
+elevation, worry, hope, despair--everything flings him hither and
+thither as a proof that all the stars above him by which he could have
+guided his ship have set.
+
+"There you have the picture of this glorious independence of yours, of
+that academical freedom, reflected in the highest minds--those which
+are truly in need of culture, compared with whom that other crowd of
+indifferent natures does not count at all, natures that delight in
+their freedom in a purely barbaric sense. For these latter show by
+their base smugness and their narrow professional limitations that
+this is the right element for them: against which there is nothing to
+be said. Their comfort, however, does not counter-balance the
+suffering of one single young man who has an inclination for culture
+and feels the need of a guiding hand, and who at last, in a moment of
+discontent, throws down the reins and begins to despise himself. This
+is the guiltless innocent; for who has saddled him with the
+unbearable burden of standing alone? Who has urged him on to
+independence at an age when one of the most natural and peremptory
+needs of youth is, so to speak, a self-surrendering to great leaders
+and an enthusiastic following in the footsteps of the masters?
+
+"It is repulsive to consider the effects to which the violent
+suppression of such noble natures may lead. He who surveys the
+greatest supporters and friends of that pseudo-culture of the present
+time, which I so greatly detest, will only too frequently find among
+them such degenerate and shipwrecked men of culture, driven by inward
+despair to violent enmity against culture, when, in a moment of
+desperation, there was no one at hand to show them how to attain it.
+It is not the worst and most insignificant people whom we afterwards
+find acting as journalists and writers for the press in the
+metamorphosis of despair: the spirit of some well-known men of letters
+might even be described, and justly, as degenerate studentdom. How
+else, for example, can we reconcile that once well-known 'young
+Germany' with its present degenerate successors? Here we discover a
+need of culture which, so to speak, has grown mutinous, and which
+finally breaks out into the passionate cry: I am culture! There,
+before the gates of the public schools and universities, we can see
+the culture which has been driven like a fugitive away from these
+institutions. True, this culture is without the erudition of those
+establishments, but assumes nevertheless the mien of a sovereign; so
+that, for example, Gutzkow the novelist might be pointed to as the
+best example of a modern public school boy turned æsthete. Such a
+degenerate man of culture is a serious matter, and it is a horrifying
+spectacle for us to see that all our scholarly and journalistic
+publicity bears the stigma of this degeneracy upon it. How else can we
+do justice to our learned men, who pay untiring attention to, and even
+co-operate in the journalistic corruption of the people, how else than
+by the acknowledgment that their learning must fill a want of their
+own similar to that filled by novel-writing in the case of others:
+_i.e._ a flight from one's self, an ascetic extirpation of their
+cultural impulses, a desperate attempt to annihilate their own
+individuality. From our degenerate literary art, as also from that
+itch for scribbling of our learned men which has now reached such
+alarming proportions, wells forth the same sigh: Oh that we could
+forget ourselves! The attempt fails: memory, not yet suffocated by the
+mountains of printed paper under which it is buried, keeps on
+repeating from time to time: 'A degenerate man of culture! Born for
+culture and brought up to non-culture! Helpless barbarian, slave of
+the day, chained to the present moment, and thirsting for
+something--ever thirsting!'
+
+"Oh, the miserable guilty innocents! For they lack something, a need
+that every one of them must have felt: a real educational institution,
+which could give them goals, masters, methods, companions; and from
+the midst of which the invigorating and uplifting breath of the true
+German spirit would inspire them. Thus they perish in the wilderness;
+thus they degenerate into enemies of that spirit which is at bottom
+closely allied to their own; thus they pile fault upon fault higher
+than any former generation ever did, soiling the clean, desecrating
+the holy, canonising the false and spurious. It is by them that you
+can judge the educational strength of our universities, asking
+yourselves, in all seriousness, the question: What cause did you
+promote through them? The German power of invention, the noble German
+desire for knowledge, the qualifying of the German for diligence and
+self-sacrifice--splendid and beautiful things, which other nations
+envy you; yea, the finest and most magnificent things in the world, if
+only that true German spirit overspread them like a dark thundercloud,
+pregnant with the blessing of forthcoming rain. But you are afraid of
+this spirit, and it has therefore come to pass that a cloud of another
+sort has thrown a heavy and oppressive atmosphere around your
+universities, in which your noble-minded scholars breathe wearily and
+with difficulty.
+
+"A tragic, earnest, and instructive attempt was made in the present
+century to destroy the cloud I have last referred to, and also to turn
+the people's looks in the direction of the high welkin of the German
+spirit. In all the annals of our universities we cannot find any trace
+of a second attempt, and he who would impressively demonstrate what is
+now necessary for us will never find a better example. I refer to the
+old, primitive _Burschenschaft_.[11]
+
+"When the war of liberation was over, the young student brought back
+home the unlooked-for and worthiest trophy of battle--the freedom of
+his fatherland. Crowned with this laurel he thought of something still
+nobler. On returning to the university, and finding that he was
+breathing heavily, he became conscious of that oppressive and
+contaminated air which overhung the culture of the university. He
+suddenly saw, with horror-struck, wide-open eyes, the non-German
+barbarism, hiding itself in the guise of all kinds of scholasticism;
+he suddenly discovered that his own leaderless comrades were abandoned
+to a repulsive kind of youthful intoxication. And he was exasperated.
+He rose with the same aspect of proud indignation as Schiller may have
+had when reciting the _Robbers_ to his companions: and if he had
+prefaced his drama with the picture of a lion, and the motto, 'in
+tyrannos,' his follower himself was that very lion preparing to
+spring; and every 'tyrant' began to tremble. Yes, if these indignant
+youths were looked at superficially and timorously, they would seem to
+be little else than Schiller's robbers: their talk sounded so wild to
+the anxious listener that Rome and Sparta seemed mere nunneries
+compared with these new spirits. The consternation raised by these
+young men was indeed far more general than had ever been caused by
+those other 'robbers' in court circles, of which a German prince,
+according to Goethe, is said to have expressed the opinion: 'If he had
+been God, and had foreseen the appearance of the _Robbers_, he would
+not have created the world.'
+
+"Whence came the incomprehensible intensity of this alarm? For those
+young men were the bravest, purest, and most talented of the band both
+in dress and habits: they were distinguished by a magnanimous
+recklessness and a noble simplicity. A divine command bound them
+together to seek harder and more pious superiority: what could be
+feared from them? To what extent this fear was merely deceptive or
+simulated or really true is something that will probably never be
+exactly known; but a strong instinct spoke out of this fear and out of
+its disgraceful and senseless persecution. This instinct hated the
+Burschenschaft with an intense hatred for two reasons: first of all on
+account of its organisation, as being the first attempt to construct a
+true educational institution, and, secondly, on account of the spirit
+of this institution, that earnest, manly, stern, and daring German
+spirit; that spirit of the miner's son, Luther, which has come down to
+us unbroken from the time of the Reformation.
+
+"Think of the _fate_ of the Burschenschaft when I ask you, Did the
+German university then understand that spirit, as even the German
+princes in their hatred appear to have understood it? Did the alma
+mater boldly and resolutely throw her protecting arms round her noble
+sons and say: 'You must kill me first, before you touch my children?'
+I hear your answer--by it you may judge whether the German university
+is an educational institution or not.
+
+"The student knew at that time at what depth a true educational
+institution must take root, namely, in an inward renovation and
+inspiration of the purest moral faculties. And this must always be
+repeated to the student's credit. He may have learnt on the field of
+battle what he could learn least of all in the sphere of 'academical
+freedom': that great leaders are necessary, and that all culture begins
+with obedience. And in the midst of victory, with his thoughts turned to
+his liberated fatherland, he made the vow that he would remain German.
+German! Now he learnt to understand his Tacitus; now he grasped the
+signification of Kant's categorical imperative; now he was enraptured by
+Weber's "Lyre and Sword" songs.[12] The gates of philosophy, of art,
+yea, even of antiquity, opened unto him; and in one of the most
+memorable of bloody acts, the murder of Kotzebue, he revenged--with
+penetrating insight and enthusiastic short-sightedness--his one and only
+Schiller, prematurely consumed by the opposition of the stupid world:
+Schiller, who could have been his leader, master, and organiser, and
+whose loss he now bewailed with such heartfelt resentment.
+
+"For that was the doom of those promising students: they did not find
+the leaders they wanted. They gradually became uncertain,
+discontented, and at variance among themselves; unlucky indiscretions
+showed only too soon that the one indispensability of powerful minds
+was lacking in the midst of them: and, while that mysterious murder
+gave evidence of astonishing strength, it gave no less evidence of the
+grave danger arising from the want of a leader. They were
+leaderless--therefore they perished.
+
+"For I repeat it, my friends! All culture begins with the very
+opposite of that which is now so highly esteemed as 'academical
+freedom': with obedience, with subordination, with discipline, with
+subjection. And as leaders must have followers so also must the
+followers have a leader--here a certain reciprocal predisposition
+prevails in the hierarchy of spirits: yea, a kind of pre-established
+harmony. This eternal hierarchy, towards which all things naturally
+tend, is always threatened by that pseudo-culture which now sits on
+the throne of the present. It endeavours either to bring the leaders
+down to the level of its own servitude or else to cast them out
+altogether. It seduces the followers when they are seeking their
+predestined leader, and overcomes them by the fumes of its narcotics.
+When, however, in spite of all this, leader and followers have at last
+met, wounded and sore, there is an impassioned feeling of rapture,
+like the echo of an ever-sounding lyre, a feeling which I can let you
+divine only by means of a simile.
+
+"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange,
+shrivelled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German
+orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious
+goddess 'form'! What noses and ears, what clumsy, _danse macabre_
+movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never
+dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking
+upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their
+performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealising
+effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern,
+medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this
+harmonious parody on the _homo sapiens_.
+
+"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned,
+and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the
+head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless
+fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene,
+you listen--but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads
+out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see
+only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the
+rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see the
+orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humoured, and even wearisome
+crowd of players.
+
+"But set a genius--a real genius--in the midst of this crowd; and you
+instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this
+genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these
+mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed
+forth out of them all. Now look and listen--you can never listen
+enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming,
+now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every
+muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too
+will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and
+followers, and how in the hierarchy of spirits everything impels us
+towards the establishment of a like organisation. You can divine from
+my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution,
+and why I am very far from recognising one in the present type of
+university."
+
+     [From a few MS. notes written down by Nietzsche in the spring
+     and autumn of 1872, and still preserved in the Nietzsche
+     Archives at Weimar, it is evident that he at one time
+     intended to add a sixth and seventh lecture to the five just
+     given. These notes, although included in the latest edition
+     of Nietzsche's works, are utterly lacking in interest and
+     continuity, being merely headings and sub-headings of
+     sections in the proposed lectures. They do not, indeed,
+     occupy more than two printed pages, and were deemed too
+     fragmentary for translation in this edition.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] The reader may be reminded that a German university student is
+subject to very few restrictions, and that much greater liberty is
+allowed him than is permitted to English students. Nietzsche did not
+approve of this extraordinary freedom, which, in his opinion, led to
+intellectual lawlessness.--TR.
+
+[10] Hegel's.--TR.
+
+[11] A German students' association, of liberal principles, founded for
+patriotic purposes at Jena in 1813.
+
+[12] Weber set one or two of Körner's "Lyre and Sword" songs to music.
+The reader will remember that these lectures were delivered when
+Nietzsche was only in his twenty-eighth year. Like Goethe, he afterwards
+freed himself from all patriotic trammels and prejudices, and aimed at a
+general European culture. Luther, Schiller, Kant, Körner, and Weber did
+not continue to be the objects of his veneration for long, indeed, they
+were afterwards violently attacked by him, and the superficial student
+who speaks of inconsistency may be reminded of Nietzsche's phrase in
+stanza 12 of the epilogue to _Beyond Good and Evil_: "Nur wer sich
+wandelt, bleibt mit mir verwandt"; _i.e._ only the changing ones have
+anything in common with me.--TR.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                   |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Page 124: neigbourhood replaced with neighbourhood        |
+    | Page 130: universites replaced by universities            |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 28146-0.txt or 28146-0.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/4/28146/
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/28146-0.zip b/28146-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14fb1f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-0.zip
diff --git a/28146-8.txt b/28146-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..02483e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3976 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: On the Future of our Educational Institutions
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Editor: Oscar Levy
+
+Translator: J. M. Kennedy
+
+Release Date: February 20, 2009 [EBook #28146]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Greek has been transliterated and marked +like so+.       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
+    | a complete list, please see the end of this document.     |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+  THE COMPLETE WORKS
+
+  OF
+
+  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
+
+  _The First Complete and Authorised English Translation_
+
+  EDITED BY
+
+  Dr. OSCAR LEVY
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  VOLUME THREE
+
+  ON THE FUTURE OF OUR
+  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+  _FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE_
+
+  ON THE FUTURE OF OUR
+  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
+
+
+
+  TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY
+  J.M. KENNEDY
+
+
+
+
+  T.N. FOULIS
+  13 & 15 FREDERICK STREET
+  EDINBURGH: and LONDON
+  1910
+
+
+
+
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+  _Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+(_To be read before the lectures, although it in no way relates to
+them._)
+
+
+The reader from whom I expect something must possess three qualities:
+he must be calm and must read without haste; he must not be ever
+interposing his own personality and his own special "culture"; and he
+must not expect as the ultimate results of his study of these pages
+that he will be presented with a set of new formulæ. I do not propose
+to furnish formulæ or new plans of study for _Gymnasia_ or other
+schools; and I am much more inclined to admire the extraordinary power
+of those who are able to cover the whole distance between the depths
+of empiricism and the heights of special culture-problems, and who
+again descend to the level of the driest rules and the most neatly
+expressed formulæ. I shall be content if only I can ascend a tolerably
+lofty mountain, from the summit of which, after having recovered my
+breath, I may obtain a general survey of the ground; for I shall never
+be able, in this book, to satisfy the votaries of tabulated rules.
+Indeed, I see a time coming when serious men, working together in the
+service of a completely rejuvenated and purified culture, may again
+become the directors of a system of everyday instruction, calculated
+to promote that culture; and they will probably be compelled once more
+to draw up sets of rules: but how remote this time now seems! And what
+may not happen meanwhile! It is just possible that between now and
+then all _Gymnasia_--yea, and perhaps all universities, may be
+destroyed, or have become so utterly transformed that their very
+regulations may, in the eyes of future generations, seem to be but the
+relics of the cave-dwellers' age.
+
+This book is intended for calm readers,--for men who have not yet been
+drawn into the mad headlong rush of our hurry-skurrying age, and who
+do not experience any idolatrous delight in throwing themselves
+beneath its chariot-wheels. It is for men, therefore, who are not
+accustomed to estimate the value of everything according to the amount
+of time it either saves or wastes. In short, it is for the few. These,
+we believe, "still have time." Without any qualms of conscience they
+may improve the most fruitful and vigorous hours of their day in
+meditating on the future of our education; they may even believe when
+the evening has come that they have used their day in the most
+dignified and useful way, namely, in the _meditatio generis futuri_.
+No one among them has yet forgotten to think while reading a book; he
+still understands the secret of reading between the lines, and is
+indeed so generous in what he himself brings to his study, that he
+continues to reflect upon what he has read, perhaps long after he has
+laid the book aside. And he does this, not because he wishes to write
+a criticism about it or even another book; but simply because
+reflection is a pleasant pastime to him. Frivolous spendthrift! Thou
+art a reader after my own heart; for thou wilt be patient enough to
+accompany an author any distance, even though he himself cannot yet
+see the goal at which he is aiming,--even though he himself feels only
+that he must at all events honestly believe in a goal, in order that a
+future and possibly very remote generation may come face to face with
+that towards which we are now blindly and instinctively groping.
+Should any reader demur and suggest that all that is required is
+prompt and bold reform; should he imagine that a new "organisation"
+introduced by the State, were all that is necessary, then we fear he
+would have misunderstood not only the author but the very nature of
+the problem under consideration.
+
+The third and most important stipulation is, that he should in no case
+be constantly bringing himself and his own "culture" forward, after
+the style of most modern men, as the correct standard and measure of
+all things. We would have him so highly educated that he could even
+think meanly of his education or despise it altogether. Only thus
+would he be able to trust entirely to the author's guidance; for it is
+only by virtue of ignorance and his consciousness of ignorance, that
+the latter can dare to make himself heard. Finally, the author would
+wish his reader to be fully alive to the specific character of our
+present barbarism and of that which distinguishes us, as the
+barbarians of the nineteenth century, from other barbarians.
+
+Now, with this book in his hand, the writer seeks all those who may
+happen to be wandering, hither and thither, impelled by feelings
+similar to his own. Allow yourselves to be discovered--ye lonely ones
+in whose existence I believe! Ye unselfish ones, suffering in
+yourselves from the corruption of the German spirit! Ye contemplative
+ones who cannot, with hasty glances, turn your eyes swiftly from one
+surface to another! Ye lofty thinkers, of whom Aristotle said that ye
+wander through life vacillating and inactive so long as no great
+honour or glorious Cause calleth you to deeds! It is you I summon!
+Refrain this once from seeking refuge in your lairs of solitude and
+dark misgivings. Bethink you that this book was framed to be your
+herald. When ye shall go forth to battle in your full panoply, who
+among you will not rejoice in looking back upon the herald who rallied
+you?
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The title I gave to these lectures ought, like all titles, to have
+been as definite, as plain, and as significant as possible; now,
+however, I observe that owing to a certain excess of precision, in its
+present form it is too short and consequently misleading. My first
+duty therefore will be to explain the title, together with the object
+of these lectures, to you, and to apologise for being obliged to do
+this. When I promised to speak to you concerning the future of our
+educational institutions, I was not thinking especially of the
+evolution of our particular institutions in Bâle. However frequently
+my general observations may seem to bear particular application to our
+own conditions here, I personally have no desire to draw these
+inferences, and do not wish to be held responsible if they should be
+drawn, for the simple reason that I consider myself still far too much
+an inexperienced stranger among you, and much too superficially
+acquainted with your methods, to pretend to pass judgment upon any
+such special order of scholastic establishments, or to predict the
+probable course their development will follow. On the other hand, I
+know full well under what distinguished auspices I have to deliver
+these lectures--namely, in a city which is striving to educate and
+enlighten its inhabitants on a scale so magnificently out of
+proportion to its size, that it must put all larger cities to shame.
+This being so, I presume I am justified in assuming that in a quarter
+where so much is _done_ for the things of which I wish to speak,
+people must also _think_ a good deal about them. My desire--yea, my
+very first condition, therefore, would be to become united in spirit
+with those who have not only thought very deeply upon educational
+problems, but have also the will to promote what they think to be
+right by all the means in their power. And, in view of the
+difficulties of my task and the limited time at my disposal, to such
+listeners, alone, in my audience, shall I be able to make myself
+understood--and even then, it will be on condition that they shall
+guess what I can do no more than suggest, that they shall supply what
+I am compelled to omit; in brief, that they shall need but to be
+reminded and not to be taught. Thus, while I disclaim all desire of
+being taken for an uninvited adviser on questions relating to the
+schools and the University of Bâle, I repudiate even more emphatically
+still the rôle of a prophet standing on the horizon of civilisation
+and pretending to predict the future of education and of scholastic
+organisation. I can no more project my vision through such vast
+periods of time than I can rely upon its accuracy when it is brought
+too close to an object under examination. With my title: _Our_
+Educational Institutions, I wish to refer neither to the
+establishments in Bâle nor to the incalculably vast number of other
+scholastic institutions which exist throughout the nations of the
+world to-day; but I wish to refer to _German institutions_ of the kind
+which we rejoice in here. It is their future that will now engage our
+attention, _i.e._ the future of German elementary, secondary, and
+public schools (Gymnasien) and universities. While pursuing our
+discussion, however, we shall for once avoid all comparisons and
+valuations, and guard more especially against that flattering illusion
+that our conditions should be regarded as the standard for all others
+and as surpassing them. Let it suffice that they are our institutions,
+that they have not become a part of ourselves by mere accident, and
+were not laid upon us like a garment; but that they are living
+monuments of important steps in the progress of civilisation, in some
+respects even the furniture of a bygone age, and as such link us with
+the past of our people, and are such a sacred and venerable legacy
+that I can only undertake to speak of the future of our educational
+institutions in the sense of their being a most probable approximation
+to the ideal spirit which gave them birth. I am, moreover, convinced
+that the numerous alterations which have been introduced into these
+institutions within recent years, with the view of bringing them
+up-to-date, are for the most part but distortions and aberrations of
+the originally sublime tendencies given to them at their foundation.
+And what we dare to hope from the future, in this behalf, partakes so
+much of the nature of a rejuvenation, a reviviscence, and a refining
+of the spirit of Germany that, as a result of this very process, our
+educational institutions may also be indirectly remoulded and born
+again, so as to appear at once old and new, whereas now they only
+profess to be "modern" or "up-to-date."
+
+Now it is only in the spirit of the hope above mentioned that I wish
+to speak of the future of our educational institutions: and this is
+the second point in regard to which I must tender an apology from the
+outset. The "prophet" pose is such a presumptuous one that it seems
+almost ridiculous to deny that I have the intention of adopting it.
+No one should attempt to describe the future of our education, and
+the means and methods of instruction relating thereto, in a prophetic
+spirit, unless he can prove that the picture he draws already exists
+in germ to-day, and that all that is required is the extension and
+development of this embryo if the necessary modifications are to be
+produced in schools and other educational institutions. All I ask,
+is, like a Roman haruspex, to be allowed to steal glimpses of the
+future out of the very entrails of existing conditions, which, in
+this case, means no more than to hand the laurels of victory to any
+one of the many forces tending to make itself felt in our present
+educational system, despite the fact that the force in question may
+be neither a favourite, an esteemed, nor a very extensive one. I
+confidently assert that it will be victorious, however, because it
+has the strongest and mightiest of all allies in nature herself; and
+in this respect it were well did we not forget that scores of the
+very first principles of our modern educational methods are
+thoroughly artificial, and that the most fatal weaknesses of the
+present day are to be ascribed to this artificiality. He who feels in
+complete harmony with the present state of affairs and who acquiesces
+in it _as something_ "_selbstverständliches_,"[1] excites our envy
+neither in regard to his faith nor in regard to that egregious word
+"_selbstverständlich_," so frequently heard in fashionable circles.
+
+He, however, who holds the opposite view and is therefore in despair,
+does not need to fight any longer: all he requires is to give himself
+up to solitude in order soon to be alone. Albeit, between those who
+take everything for granted and these anchorites, there stand the
+_fighters_--that is to say, those who still have hope, and as the
+noblest and sublimest example of this class, we recognise Schiller as
+he is described by Goethe in his "Epilogue to the Bell."
+
+    "Brighter now glow'd his cheek, and still more bright
+    With that unchanging, ever youthful glow:--
+    That courage which o'ercomes, in hard-fought fight,
+    Sooner or later ev'ry earthly foe,--
+    That faith which soaring to the realms of light,
+    Now boldly presseth on, now bendeth low,
+    So that the good may work, wax, thrive amain,
+    So that the day the noble may attain."[2]
+
+I should like you to regard all I have just said as a kind of preface,
+the object of which is to illustrate the title of my lectures and to
+guard me against any possible misunderstanding and unjustified
+criticisms. And now, in order to give you a rough outline of the range
+of ideas from which I shall attempt to form a judgment concerning our
+educational institutions, before proceeding to disclose my views and
+turning from the title to the main theme, I shall lay a scheme before
+you which, like a coat of arms, will serve to warn all strangers who
+come to my door, as to the nature of the house they are about to
+enter, in case they may feel inclined, after having examined the
+device, to turn their backs on the premises that bear it. My scheme is
+as follows:--
+
+Two seemingly antagonistic forces, equally deleterious in their
+actions and ultimately combining to produce their results, are at
+present ruling over our educational institutions, although these were
+based originally upon very different principles. These forces are: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible _extension of education_ on
+the one hand, and a tendency _to minimise and to weaken it_ on the
+other. The first-named would fain spread learning among the greatest
+possible number of people, the second would compel education to
+renounce its highest and most independent claims in order to
+subordinate itself to the service of the State. In the face of these
+two antagonistic tendencies, we could but give ourselves up to
+despair, did we not see the possibility of promoting the cause of two
+other contending factors which are fortunately as completely German as
+they are rich in promises for the future; I refer to the present
+movement towards _limiting and concentrating_ education as the
+antithesis of the first of the forces above mentioned, and that other
+movement towards the _strengthening and the independence_ of education
+as the antithesis of the second force. If we should seek a warrant for
+our belief in the ultimate victory of the two last-named movements, we
+could find it in the fact that both of the forces which we hold to be
+deleterious are so opposed to the eternal purpose of nature as the
+concentration of education for the few is in harmony with it, and is
+true, whereas the first two forces could succeed only in founding a
+culture false to the root.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Selbstverständlich = "granted or self-understood."
+
+[2] _The Poems of Goethe._ Edgar Alfred Bowring's Translation. (Ed.
+1853.)
+
+
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 16th of January 1872._)
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen,--The subject I now propose to consider with you
+is such a serious and important one, and is in a sense so disquieting,
+that, like you, I would gladly turn to any one who could proffer some
+information concerning it,--were he ever so young, were his ideas ever
+so improbable--provided that he were able, by the exercise of his own
+faculties, to furnish some satisfactory and sufficient explanation. It
+is just possible that he may have had the opportunity of _hearing_
+sound views expressed in reference to the vexed question of the future
+of our educational institutions, and that he may wish to repeat them
+to you; he may even have had distinguished teachers, fully qualified
+to foretell what is to come, and, like the _haruspices_ of Rome, able
+to do so after an inspection of the entrails of the Present.
+
+Indeed, you yourselves may expect something of this kind from me. I
+happened once, in strange but perfectly harmless circumstances, to
+overhear a conversation on this subject between two remarkable men,
+and the more striking points of the discussion, together with their
+manner of handling the theme, are so indelibly imprinted on my memory
+that, whenever I reflect on these matters, I invariably find myself
+falling into their grooves of thought. I cannot, however, profess to
+have the same courageous confidence which they displayed, both in
+their daring utterance of forbidden truths, and in the still more
+daring conception of the hopes with which they astonished me. It
+therefore seemed to me to be in the highest degree important that a
+record of this conversation should be made, so that others might be
+incited to form a judgment concerning the striking views and
+conclusions it contains: and, to this end, I had special grounds for
+believing that I should do well to avail myself of the opportunity
+afforded by this course of lectures.
+
+I am well aware of the nature of the community to whose serious
+consideration I now wish to commend that conversation--I know it to be
+a community which is striving to educate and enlighten its members on
+a scale so magnificently out of proportion to its size that it must
+put all larger cities to shame. This being so, I presume I may take it
+for granted that in a quarter where so much is _done_ for the things
+of which I wish to speak, people must also _think_ a good deal about
+them. In my account of the conversation already mentioned, I shall be
+able to make myself completely understood only to those among my
+audience who will be able to guess what I can do no more than suggest,
+who will supply what I am compelled to omit, and who, above all, need
+but to be reminded and not taught.
+
+Listen, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I recount my harmless
+experience and the less harmless conversation between the two
+gentlemen whom, so far, I have not named.
+
+Let us now imagine ourselves in the position of a young student--that
+is to say, in a position which, in our present age of bewildering
+movement and feverish excitability, has become an almost impossible
+one. It is necessary to have lived through it in order to believe that
+such careless self-lulling and comfortable indifference to the moment,
+or to time in general, are possible. In this condition I, and a friend
+about my own age, spent a year at the University of Bonn on the
+Rhine,--it was a year which, in its complete lack of plans and
+projects for the future, seems almost like a dream to me now--a dream
+framed, as it were, by two periods of growth. We two remained quiet
+and peaceful, although we were surrounded by fellows who in the main
+were very differently disposed, and from time to time we experienced
+considerable difficulty in meeting and resisting the somewhat too
+pressing advances of the young men of our own age. Now, however, that
+I can look upon the stand we had to take against these opposing
+forces, I cannot help associating them in my mind with those checks we
+are wont to receive in our dreams, as, for instance, when we imagine
+we are able to fly and yet feel ourselves held back by some
+incomprehensible power.
+
+I and my friend had many reminiscences in common, and these dated from
+the period of our boyhood upwards. One of these I must relate to you,
+since it forms a sort of prelude to the harmless experience already
+mentioned. On the occasion of a certain journey up the Rhine, which we
+had made together one summer, it happened that he and I independently
+conceived the very same plan at the same hour and on the same spot,
+and we were so struck by this unwonted coincidence that we determined
+to carry the plan out forthwith. We resolved to found a kind of small
+club which would consist of ourselves and a few friends, and the
+object of which would be to provide us with a stable and binding
+organisation directing and adding interest to our creative impulses in
+art and literature; or, to put it more plainly: each of us would be
+pledged to present an original piece of work to the club once a
+month,--either a poem, a treatise, an architectural design, or a
+musical composition, upon which each of the others, in a friendly
+spirit, would have to pass free and unrestrained criticism.
+
+We thus hoped, by means of mutual correction, to be able both to
+stimulate and to chasten our creative impulses and, as a matter of
+fact, the success of the scheme was such that we have both always felt
+a sort of respectful attachment for the hour and the place at which it
+first took shape in our minds.
+
+This attachment was very soon transformed into a rite; for we all
+agreed to go, whenever it was possible to do so, once a year to that
+lonely spot near Rolandseck, where on that summer's day, while sitting
+together, lost in meditation, we were suddenly inspired by the same
+thought. Frankly speaking, the rules which were drawn up on the
+formation of the club were never very strictly observed; but owing to
+the very fact that we had many sins of omission on our conscience
+during our student-year in Bonn, when we were once more on the banks
+of the Rhine, we firmly resolved not only to observe our rule, but
+also to gratify our feelings and our sense of gratitude by reverently
+visiting that spot near Rolandseck on the day appointed.
+
+It was, however, with some difficulty that we were able to carry our
+plans into execution; for, on the very day we had selected for our
+excursion, the large and lively students' association, which always
+hindered us in our flights, did their utmost to put obstacles in our
+way and to hold us back. Our association had organised a general
+holiday excursion to Rolandseck on the very day my friend and I had
+fixed upon, the object of the outing being to assemble all its members
+for the last time at the close of the half-year and to send them home
+with pleasant recollections of their last hours together.
+
+The day was a glorious one; the weather was of the kind which, in our
+climate at least, only falls to our lot in late summer: heaven and
+earth merged harmoniously with one another, and, glowing wondrously in
+the sunshine, autumn freshness blended with the blue expanse above.
+Arrayed in the bright fantastic garb in which, amid the gloomy
+fashions now reigning, students alone may indulge, we boarded a
+steamer which was gaily decorated in our honour, and hoisted our flag
+on its mast. From both banks of the river there came at intervals the
+sound of signal-guns, fired according to our orders, with the view of
+acquainting both our host in Rolandseck and the inhabitants in the
+neighbourhood with our approach. I shall not speak of the noisy
+journey from the landing-stage, through the excited and expectant
+little place, nor shall I refer to the esoteric jokes exchanged
+between ourselves; I also make no mention of a feast which became both
+wild and noisy, or of an extraordinary musical production in the
+execution of which, whether as soloists or as chorus, we all
+ultimately had to share, and which I, as musical adviser of our club,
+had not only had to rehearse, but was then forced to conduct. Towards
+the end of this piece, which grew ever wilder and which was sung to
+ever quicker time, I made a sign to my friend, and just as the last
+chord rang like a yell through the building, he and I vanished,
+leaving behind us a raging pandemonium.
+
+In a moment we were in the refreshing and breathless stillness of
+nature. The shadows were already lengthening, the sun still shone
+steadily, though it had sunk a good deal in the heavens, and from the
+green and glittering waves of the Rhine a cool breeze was wafted over
+our hot faces. Our solemn rite bound us only in so far as the latest
+hours of the day were concerned, and we therefore determined to employ
+the last moments of clear daylight by giving ourselves up to one of
+our many hobbies.
+
+At that time we were passionately fond of pistol-shooting, and both of
+us in later years found the skill we had acquired as amateurs of great
+use in our military career. Our club servant happened to know the
+somewhat distant and elevated spot which we used as a range, and had
+carried our pistols there in advance. The spot lay near the upper
+border of the wood which covered the lesser heights behind Rolandseck:
+it was a small uneven plateau, close to the place we had consecrated
+in memory of its associations. On a wooded slope alongside of our
+shooting-range there was a small piece of ground which had been
+cleared of wood, and which made an ideal halting-place; from it one
+could get a view of the Rhine over the tops of the trees and the
+brushwood, so that the beautiful, undulating lines of the Seven
+Mountains and above all of the Drachenfels bounded the horizon against
+the group of trees, while in the centre of the bow formed by the
+glistening Rhine itself the island of Nonnenwörth stood out as if
+suspended in the river's arms. This was the place which had become
+sacred to us through the dreams and plans we had had in common, and to
+which we intended to withdraw, later in the evening,--nay, to which we
+should be obliged to withdraw, if we wished to close the day in
+accordance with the law we had imposed on ourselves.
+
+At one end of the little uneven plateau, and not very far away, there
+stood the mighty trunk of an oak-tree, prominently visible against a
+background quite bare of trees and consisting merely of low undulating
+hills in the distance. Working together, we had once carved a
+pentagram in the side of this tree-trunk. Years of exposure to rain
+and storm had slightly deepened the channels we had cut, and the
+figure seemed a welcome target for our pistol-practice. It was already
+late in the afternoon when we reached our improvised range, and our
+oak-stump cast a long and attenuated shadow across the barren heath.
+All was still: thanks to the lofty trees at our feet, we were unable
+to catch a glimpse of the valley of the Rhine below. The peacefulness
+of the spot seemed only to intensify the loudness of our
+pistol-shots--and I had scarcely fired my second barrel at the
+pentagram when I felt some one lay hold of my arm and noticed that my
+friend had also some one beside him who had interrupted his loading.
+
+Turning sharply on my heels I found myself face to face with an
+astonished old gentleman, and felt what must have been a very powerful
+dog make a lunge at my back. My friend had been approached by a
+somewhat younger man than I had; but before we could give expression
+to our surprise the older of the two interlopers burst forth in the
+following threatening and heated strain: "No! no!" he called to us,
+"no duels must be fought here, but least of all must you young
+students fight one. Away with these pistols and compose yourselves. Be
+reconciled, shake hands! What?--and are you the salt of the earth,
+the intelligence of the future, the seed of our hopes--and are you
+not even able to emancipate yourselves from the insane code of honour
+and its violent regulations? I will not cast any aspersions on your
+hearts, but your heads certainly do you no credit. You, whose youth is
+watched over by the wisdom of Greece and Rome, and whose youthful
+spirits, at the cost of enormous pains, have been flooded with the
+light of the sages and heroes of antiquity,--can you not refrain from
+making the code of knightly honour--that is to say, the code of folly
+and brutality--the guiding principle of your conduct?--Examine it
+rationally once and for all, and reduce it to plain terms; lay its
+pitiable narrowness bare, and let it be the touchstone, not of your
+hearts but of your minds. If you do not regret it then, it will merely
+show that your head is not fitted for work in a sphere where great
+gifts of discrimination are needful in order to burst the bonds of
+prejudice, and where a well-balanced understanding is necessary for
+the purpose of distinguishing right from wrong, even when the
+difference between them lies deeply hidden and is not, as in this
+case, so ridiculously obvious. In that case, therefore, my lads, try
+to go through life in some other honourable manner; join the army or
+learn a handicraft that pays its way."
+
+To this rough, though admittedly just, flood of eloquence, we replied
+with some irritation, interrupting each other continually in so doing:
+"In the first place, you are mistaken concerning the main point; for
+we are not here to fight a duel at all; but rather to practise
+pistol-shooting. Secondly, you do not appear to know how a real duel
+is conducted;--do you suppose that we should have faced each other in
+this lonely spot, like two highwaymen, without seconds or doctors,
+etc. etc.? Thirdly, with regard to the question of duelling, we each
+have our own opinions, and do not require to be waylaid and surprised
+by the sort of instruction you may feel disposed to give us."
+
+This reply, which was certainly not polite, made a bad impression upon
+the old man. At first, when he heard that we were not about to fight a
+duel, he surveyed us more kindly: but when we reached the last passage
+of our speech, he seemed so vexed that he growled. When, however, we
+began to speak of our point of view, he quickly caught hold of his
+companion, turned sharply round, and cried to us in bitter tones:
+"People should not have points of view, but thoughts!" And then his
+companion added: "Be respectful when a man such as this even makes
+mistakes!"
+
+Meanwhile, my friend, who had reloaded, fired a shot at the pentagram,
+after having cried: "Look out!" This sudden report behind his back
+made the old man savage; once more he turned round and looked sourly
+at my friend, after which he said to his companion in a feeble voice:
+"What shall we do? These young men will be the death of me with their
+firing."--"You should know," said the younger man, turning to us,
+"that your noisy pastimes amount, as it happens on this occasion, to
+an attempt upon the life of philosophy. You observe this venerable
+man,--he is in a position to beg you to desist from firing here. And
+when such a man begs----" "Well, his request is generally granted,"
+the old man interjected, surveying us sternly.
+
+As a matter of fact, we did not know what to make of the whole matter;
+we could not understand what our noisy pastimes could have in common
+with philosophy; nor could we see why, out of regard for polite
+scruples, we should abandon our shooting-range, and at this moment we
+may have appeared somewhat undecided and perturbed. The companion
+noticing our momentary discomfiture, proceeded to explain the matter
+to us.
+
+"We are compelled," he said, "to linger in this immediate
+neighbourhood for an hour or so; we have a rendezvous here. An eminent
+friend of this eminent man is to meet us here this evening; and we had
+actually selected this peaceful spot, with its few benches in the
+midst of the wood, for the meeting. It would really be most unpleasant
+if, owing to your continual pistol-practice, we were to be subjected
+to an unending series of shocks; surely your own feelings will tell
+you that it is impossible for you to continue your firing when you
+hear that he who has selected this quiet and isolated place for a
+meeting with a friend is one of our most eminent philosophers."
+
+This explanation only succeeded in perturbing us the more; for we saw
+a danger threatening us which was even greater than the loss of our
+shooting-range, and we asked eagerly, "Where is this quiet spot?
+Surely not to the left here, in the wood?"
+
+"That is the very place."
+
+"But this evening that place belongs to us," my friend interposed. "We
+must have it," we cried together.
+
+Our long-projected celebration seemed at that moment more important
+than all the philosophies of the world, and we gave such vehement and
+animated utterance to our sentiments that in view of the
+incomprehensible nature of our claims we must have cut a somewhat
+ridiculous figure. At any rate, our philosophical interlopers regarded
+us with expressions of amused inquiry, as if they expected us to
+proffer some sort of apology. But we were silent, for we wished above
+all to keep our secret.
+
+Thus we stood facing one another in silence, while the sunset dyed the
+tree-tops a ruddy gold. The philosopher contemplated the sun, his
+companion contemplated him, and we turned our eyes towards our nook in
+the woods which to-day we seemed in such great danger of losing. A
+feeling of sullen anger took possession of us. What is philosophy, we
+asked ourselves, if it prevents a man from being by himself or from
+enjoying the select company of a friend,--in sooth, if it prevents him
+from becoming a philosopher? For we regarded the celebration of our
+rite as a thoroughly philosophical performance. In celebrating it we
+wished to form plans and resolutions for the future, by means of quiet
+reflections we hoped to light upon an idea which would once again help
+us to form and gratify our spirit in the future, just as that former
+idea had done during our boyhood. The solemn act derived its very
+significance from this resolution, that nothing definite was to be
+done, we were only to be alone, and to sit still and meditate, as we
+had done five years before when we had each been inspired with the
+same thought. It was to be a silent solemnisation, all reminiscence
+and all future; the present was to be as a hyphen between the two. And
+fate, now unfriendly, had just stepped into our magic circle--and we
+knew not how to dismiss her;--the very unusual character of the
+circumstances filled us with mysterious excitement.
+
+Whilst we stood thus in silence for some time, divided into two
+hostile groups, the clouds above waxed ever redder and the evening
+seemed to grow more peaceful and mild; we could almost fancy we heard
+the regular breathing of nature as she put the final touches to her
+work of art--the glorious day we had just enjoyed; when, suddenly, the
+calm evening air was rent by a confused and boisterous cry of joy
+which seemed to come from the Rhine. A number of voices could be heard
+in the distance--they were those of our fellow-students who by that
+time must have taken to the Rhine in small boats. It occurred to us
+that we should be missed and that we should also miss something:
+almost simultaneously my friend and I raised our pistols: our shots
+were echoed back to us, and with their echo there came from the valley
+the sound of a well-known cry intended as a signal of identification.
+For our passion for shooting had brought us both repute and ill-repute
+in our club. At the same time we were conscious that our behaviour
+towards the silent philosophical couple had been exceptionally
+ungentlemanly; they had been quietly contemplating us for some time,
+and when we fired the shock made them draw close up to each other. We
+hurried up to them, and each in our turn cried out: "Forgive us. That
+was our last shot, and it was intended for our friends on the Rhine.
+They have understood us, do you hear? If you insist upon having that
+place among the trees, grant us at least the permission to recline
+there also. You will find a number of benches on the spot: we shall
+not disturb you; we shall sit quite still and shall not utter a word:
+but it is now past seven o'clock and we _must_ go there at once.
+
+"That sounds more mysterious than it is," I added after a pause; "we
+have made a solemn vow to spend this coming hour on that ground, and
+there were reasons for the vow. The spot is sacred to us, owing to
+some pleasant associations, it must also inaugurate a good future for
+us. We shall therefore endeavour to leave you with no disagreeable
+recollections of our meeting--even though we have done much to perturb
+and frighten you."
+
+The philosopher was silent; his companion, however, said: "Our
+promises and plans unfortunately compel us not only to remain, but
+also to spend the same hour on the spot you have selected. It is left
+for us to decide whether fate or perhaps a spirit has been responsible
+for this extraordinary coincidence."
+
+"Besides, my friend," said the philosopher, "I am not half so
+displeased with these warlike youngsters as I was. Did you observe
+how quiet they were a moment ago, when we were contemplating the sun?
+They neither spoke nor smoked, they stood stone still, I even believe
+they meditated."
+
+Turning suddenly in our direction, he said: "_Were_ you meditating?
+Just tell me about it as we proceed in the direction of our common
+trysting-place." We took a few steps together and went down the slope
+into the warm balmy air of the woods where it was already much darker.
+On the way my friend openly revealed his thoughts to the philosopher,
+he confessed how much he had feared that perhaps to-day for the first
+time a philosopher was about to stand in the way of his
+philosophising.
+
+The sage laughed. "What? You were afraid a philosopher would prevent
+your philosophising? This might easily happen: and you have not yet
+experienced such a thing? Has your university life been free from
+experience? You surely attend lectures on philosophy?"
+
+This question discomfited us; for, as a matter of fact, there had been
+no element of philosophy in our education up to that time. In those
+days, moreover, we fondly imagined that everybody who held the post
+and possessed the dignity of a philosopher must perforce be one: we
+were inexperienced and badly informed. We frankly admitted that we had
+not yet belonged to any philosophical college, but that we would
+certainly make up for lost time.
+
+"Then what," he asked, "did you mean when you spoke of
+philosophising?" Said I, "We are at a loss for a definition. But to
+all intents and purposes we meant this, that we wished to make earnest
+endeavours to consider the best possible means of becoming men of
+culture." "That is a good deal and at the same time very little,"
+growled the philosopher; "just you think the matter over. Here are our
+benches, let us discuss the question exhaustively: I shall not disturb
+your meditations with regard to how you are to become men of culture.
+I wish you success and--points of view, as in your duelling questions;
+brand-new, original, and enlightened points of view. The philosopher
+does not wish to prevent your philosophising: but refrain at least
+from disconcerting him with your pistol-shots. Try to imitate the
+Pythagoreans to-day: they, as servants of a true philosophy, had to
+remain silent for five years--possibly you may also be able to remain
+silent for five times fifteen minutes, as servants of your own future
+culture, about which you seem so concerned."
+
+We had reached our destination: the solemnisation of our rite began.
+As on the previous occasion, five years ago, the Rhine was once more
+flowing beneath a light mist, the sky seemed bright and the woods
+exhaled the same fragrance. We took our places on the farthest corner
+of the most distant bench; sitting there we were almost concealed, and
+neither the philosopher nor his companion could see our faces. We were
+alone: when the sound of the philosopher's voice reached us, it had
+become so blended with the rustling leaves and with the buzzing
+murmur of the myriads of living things inhabiting the wooded height,
+that it almost seemed like the music of nature; as a sound it
+resembled nothing more than a distant monotonous plaint. We were
+indeed undisturbed.
+
+Some time elapsed in this way, and while the glow of sunset grew
+steadily paler the recollection of our youthful undertaking in the
+cause of culture waxed ever more vivid. It seemed to us as if we owed
+the greatest debt of gratitude to that little society we had founded;
+for it had done more than merely supplement our public school
+training; it had actually been the only fruitful society we had had,
+and within its frame we even placed our public school life, as a
+purely isolated factor helping us in our general efforts to attain to
+culture.
+
+We knew this, that, thanks to our little society, no thought of
+embracing any particular career had ever entered our minds in those
+days. The all too frequent exploitation of youth by the State, for its
+own purposes--that is to say, so that it may rear useful officials as
+quickly as possible and guarantee their unconditional obedience to it
+by means of excessively severe examinations--had remained quite
+foreign to our education. And to show how little we had been actuated
+by thoughts of utility or by the prospect of speedy advancement and
+rapid success, on that day we were struck by the comforting
+consideration that, even then, we had not yet decided what we should
+be--we had not even troubled ourselves at all on this head. Our little
+society had sown the seeds of this happy indifference in our souls and
+for it alone we were prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its
+foundation with hearty gratitude. I have already pointed out, I think,
+that in the eyes of the present age, which is so intolerant of
+anything that is not useful, such purposeless enjoyment of the moment,
+such a lulling of one's self in the cradle of the present, must seem
+almost incredible and at all events blameworthy. How useless we were!
+And how proud we were of being useless! We used even to quarrel with
+each other as to which of us should have the glory of being the more
+useless. We wished to attach no importance to anything, to have strong
+views about nothing, to aim at nothing; we wanted to take no thought
+for the morrow, and desired no more than to recline comfortably like
+good-for-nothings on the threshold of the present; and we did--bless
+us!
+
+--That, ladies and gentlemen, was our standpoint then!--
+
+Absorbed in these reflections, I was just about to give an answer to
+the question of the future of _our_ Educational Institutions in the
+same self-sufficient way, when it gradually dawned upon me that the
+"natural music," coming from the philosopher's bench had lost its
+original character and travelled to us in much more piercing and
+distinct tones than before. Suddenly I became aware that I was
+listening, that I was eavesdropping, and was passionately interested,
+with both ears keenly alive to every sound. I nudged my friend who was
+evidently somewhat tired, and I whispered: "Don't fall asleep! There
+is something for us to learn over there. It applies to us, even
+though it be not meant for us."
+
+For instance, I heard the younger of the two men defending himself
+with great animation while the philosopher rebuked him with ever
+increasing vehemence. "You are unchanged," he cried to him,
+"unfortunately unchanged. It is quite incomprehensible to me how you
+can still be the same as you were seven years ago, when I saw you for
+the last time and left you with so much misgiving. I fear I must once
+again divest you, however reluctantly, of the skin of modern culture
+which you have donned meanwhile;--and what do I find beneath it? The
+same immutable 'intelligible' character forsooth, according to Kant;
+but unfortunately the same unchanged 'intellectual' character,
+too--which may also be a necessity, though not a comforting one. I ask
+myself to what purpose have I lived as a philosopher, if, possessed as
+you are of no mean intelligence and a genuine thirst for knowledge,
+all the years you have spent in my company have left no deeper
+impression upon you. At present you are behaving as if you had not
+even heard the cardinal principle of all culture, which I went to such
+pains to inculcate upon you during our former intimacy. Tell me,--what
+was that principle?"
+
+"I remember," replied the scolded pupil, "you used to say no one would
+strive to attain to culture if he knew how incredibly small the number
+of really cultured people actually is, and can ever be. And even this
+number of really cultured people would not be possible if a prodigious
+multitude, from reasons opposed to their nature and only led on by an
+alluring delusion, did not devote themselves to education. It were
+therefore a mistake publicly to reveal the ridiculous disproportion
+between the number of really cultured people and the enormous
+magnitude of the educational apparatus. Here lies the whole secret of
+culture--namely, that an innumerable host of men struggle to achieve
+it and work hard to that end, ostensibly in their own interests,
+whereas at bottom it is only in order that it may be possible for the
+few to attain to it."
+
+"That is the principle," said the philosopher,--"and yet you could so
+far forget yourself as to believe that you are one of the few? This
+thought has occurred to you--I can see. That, however, is the result
+of the worthless character of modern education. The rights of genius
+are being democratised in order that people may be relieved of the
+labour of acquiring culture, and their need of it. Every one wants if
+possible to recline in the shade of the tree planted by genius, and to
+escape the dreadful necessity of working for him, so that his
+procreation may be made possible. What? Are you too proud to be a
+teacher? Do you despise the thronging multitude of learners? Do you
+speak contemptuously of the teacher's calling? And, aping my mode of
+life, would you fain live in solitary seclusion, hostilely isolated
+from that multitude? Do you suppose that you can reach at one bound
+what I ultimately had to win for myself only after long and determined
+struggles, in order even to be able to live like a philosopher? And do
+you not fear that solitude will wreak its vengeance upon you? Just
+try living the life of a hermit of culture. One must be blessed with
+overflowing wealth in order to live for the good of all on one's own
+resources! Extraordinary youngsters! They felt it incumbent upon them
+to imitate what is precisely most difficult and most high,--what is
+possible only to the master, when they, above all, should know how
+difficult and dangerous this is, and how many excellent gifts may be
+ruined by attempting it!"
+
+"I will conceal nothing from you, sir," the companion replied. "I have
+heard too much from your lips at odd times and have been too long in
+your company to be able to surrender myself entirely to our present
+system of education and instruction. I am too painfully conscious of
+the disastrous errors and abuses to which you used to call my
+attention--though I very well know that I am not strong enough to hope
+for any success were I to struggle ever so valiantly against them. I
+was overcome by a feeling of general discouragement; my recourse to
+solitude was the result neither of pride nor arrogance. I would fain
+describe to you what I take to be the nature of the educational
+questions now attracting such enormous and pressing attention. It
+seemed to me that I must recognise two main directions in the forces
+at work--two seemingly antagonistic tendencies, equally deleterious in
+their action, and ultimately combining to produce their results: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible _expansion_ of education on
+the one hand, and a tendency to _minimise and weaken_ it on the
+other. The first-named would, for various reasons, spread learning
+among the greatest number of people; the second would compel education
+to renounce its highest, noblest and sublimest claims in order to
+subordinate itself to some other department of life--such as the
+service of the State.
+
+"I believe I have already hinted at the quarter in which the cry for
+the greatest possible expansion of education is most loudly raised.
+This expansion belongs to the most beloved of the dogmas of modern
+political economy. As much knowledge and education as possible;
+therefore the greatest possible supply and demand--hence as much
+happiness as possible:--that is the formula. In this case utility is
+made the object and goal of education,--utility in the sense of
+gain--the greatest possible pecuniary gain. In the quarter now under
+consideration culture would be defined as that point of vantage which
+enables one to 'keep in the van of one's age,' from which one can see
+all the easiest and best roads to wealth, and with which one controls
+all the means of communication between men and nations. The purpose of
+education, according to this scheme, would be to rear the most
+'current' men possible,--'current' being used here in the sense in
+which it is applied to the coins of the realm. The greater the number
+of such men, the happier a nation will be; and this precisely is the
+purpose of our modern educational institutions: to help every one, as
+far as his nature will allow, to become 'current'; to develop him so
+that his particular degree of knowledge and science may yield him the
+greatest possible amount of happiness and pecuniary gain. Every one
+must be able to form some sort of estimate of himself; he must know
+how much he may reasonably expect from life. The 'bond between
+intelligence and property' which this point of view postulates has
+almost the force of a moral principle. In this quarter all culture is
+loathed which isolates, which sets goals beyond gold and gain, and
+which requires time: it is customary to dispose of such eccentric
+tendencies in education as systems of 'Higher Egotism,' or of 'Immoral
+Culture--Epicureanism.' According to the morality reigning here, the
+demands are quite different; what is required above all is 'rapid
+education,' so that a money-earning creature may be produced with all
+speed; there is even a desire to make this education so thorough that
+a creature may be reared that will be able to earn a _great deal_ of
+money. Men are allowed only the precise amount of culture which is
+compatible with the interests of gain; but that amount, at least, is
+expected from them. In short: mankind has a necessary right to
+happiness on earth--that is why culture is necessary--but on that
+account alone!"
+
+"I must just say something here," said the philosopher. "In the case
+of the view you have described so clearly, there arises the great and
+awful danger that at some time or other the great masses may overleap
+the middle classes and spring headlong into this earthly bliss. That
+is what is now called 'the social question.' It might seem to these
+masses that education for the greatest number of men was only a means
+to the earthly bliss of the few: the 'greatest possible expansion of
+education' so enfeebles education that it can no longer confer
+privileges or inspire respect. The most general form of culture is
+simply barbarism. But I do not wish to interrupt your discussion."
+
+The companion continued: "There are yet other reasons, besides this
+beloved economical dogma, for the expansion of education that is being
+striven after so valiantly everywhere. In some countries the fear of
+religious oppression is so general, and the dread of its results so
+marked, that people in all classes of society long for culture and
+eagerly absorb those elements of it which are supposed to scatter the
+religious instincts. Elsewhere the State, in its turn, strives here
+and there for its own preservation, after the greatest possible
+expansion of education, because it always feels strong enough to bring
+the most determined emancipation, resulting from culture, under its
+yoke, and readily approves of everything which tends to extend
+culture, provided that it be of service to its officials or soldiers,
+but in the main to itself, in its competition with other nations. In
+this case, the foundations of a State must be sufficiently broad and
+firm to constitute a fitting counterpart to the complicated arches of
+culture which it supports, just as in the first case the traces of
+some former religious tyranny must still be felt for a people to be
+driven to such desperate remedies. Thus, wherever I hear the masses
+raise the cry for an expansion of education, I am wont to ask myself
+whether it is stimulated by a greedy lust of gain and property, by
+the memory of a former religious persecution, or by the prudent
+egotism of the State itself.
+
+"On the other hand, it seemed to me that there was yet another
+tendency, not so clamorous, perhaps, but quite as forcible, which,
+hailing from various quarters, was animated by a different
+desire,--the desire to minimise and weaken education.
+
+"In all cultivated circles people are in the habit of whispering to
+one another words something after this style: that it is a general
+fact that, owing to the present frantic exploitation of the scholar in
+the service of his science, his _education_ becomes every day more
+accidental and more uncertain. For the study of science has been
+extended to such interminable lengths that he who, though not
+exceptionally gifted, yet possesses fair abilities, will need to
+devote himself exclusively to one branch and ignore all others if he
+ever wish to achieve anything in his work. Should he then elevate
+himself above the herd by means of his speciality, he still remains
+one of them in regard to all else,--that is to say, in regard to all
+the most important things in life. Thus, a specialist in science gets
+to resemble nothing so much as a factory workman who spends his whole
+life in turning one particular screw or handle on a certain instrument
+or machine, at which occupation he acquires the most consummate skill.
+In Germany, where we know how to drape such painful facts with the
+glorious garments of fancy, this narrow specialisation on the part of
+our learned men is even admired, and their ever greater deviation
+from the path of true culture is regarded as a moral phenomenon.
+'Fidelity in small things,' 'dogged faithfulness,' become expressions
+of highest eulogy, and the lack of culture outside the speciality is
+flaunted abroad as a sign of noble sufficiency.
+
+"For centuries it has been an understood thing that one alluded to
+scholars alone when one spoke of cultured men; but experience tells us
+that it would be difficult to find any necessary relation between the
+two classes to-day. For at present the exploitation of a man for the
+purpose of science is accepted everywhere without the slightest
+scruple. Who still ventures to ask, What may be the value of a science
+which consumes its minions in this vampire fashion? The division of
+labour in science is practically struggling towards the same goal
+which religions in certain parts of the world are consciously striving
+after,--that is to say, towards the decrease and even the destruction
+of learning. That, however, which, in the case of certain religions,
+is a perfectly justifiable aim, both in regard to their origin and
+their history, can only amount to self-immolation when transferred to
+the realm of science. In all matters of a general and serious nature,
+and above all, in regard to the highest philosophical problems, we
+have now already reached a point at which the scientific man, as such,
+is no longer allowed to speak. On the other hand, that adhesive and
+tenacious stratum which has now filled up the interstices between the
+sciences--Journalism--believes it has a mission to fulfil here, and
+this it does, according to its own particular lights--that is to say,
+as its name implies, after the fashion of a day-labourer.
+
+"It is precisely in journalism that the two tendencies combine and
+become one. The expansion and the diminution of education here join
+hands. The newspaper actually steps into the place of culture, and he
+who, even as a scholar, wishes to voice any claim for education, must
+avail himself of this viscous stratum of communication which cements
+the seams between all forms of life, all classes, all arts, and all
+sciences, and which is as firm and reliable as news paper is, as a
+rule. In the newspaper the peculiar educational aims of the present
+culminate, just as the journalist, the servant of the moment, has
+stepped into the place of the genius, of the leader for all time, of
+the deliverer from the tyranny of the moment. Now, tell me,
+distinguished master, what hopes could I still have in a struggle
+against the general topsy-turvification of all genuine aims for
+education; with what courage can I, a single teacher, step forward,
+when I know that the moment any seeds of real culture are sown, they
+will be mercilessly crushed by the roller of this pseudo-culture?
+Imagine how useless the most energetic work on the part of the
+individual teacher must be, who would fain lead a pupil back into the
+distant and evasive Hellenic world and to the real home of culture,
+when in less than an hour, that same pupil will have recourse to a
+newspaper, the latest novel, or one of those learned books, the very
+style of which already bears the revolting impress of modern barbaric
+culture----"
+
+"Now, silence a minute!" interjected the philosopher in a strong and
+sympathetic voice. "I understand you now, and ought never to have
+spoken so crossly to you. You are altogether right, save in your
+despair. I shall now proceed to say a few words of consolation."
+
+
+
+
+SECOND LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 6th of February 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--Those among you whom I now have the pleasure of
+addressing for the first time and whose only knowledge of my first
+lecture has been derived from reports will, I hope, not mind being
+introduced here into the middle of a dialogue which I had begun to
+recount on the last occasion, and the last points of which I must now
+recall. The philosopher's young companion was just pleading openly and
+confidentially with his distinguished tutor, and apologising for
+having so far renounced his calling as a teacher in order to spend his
+days in comfortless solitude. No suspicion of superciliousness or
+arrogance had induced him to form this resolve.
+
+"I have heard too much from your lips at various times," the
+straightforward pupil said, "and have been too long in your company,
+to surrender myself blindly to our present systems of education and
+instruction. I am too painfully conscious of the disastrous errors and
+abuses to which you were wont to call my attention; and yet I know
+that I am far from possessing the requisite strength to meet with
+success, however valiantly I might struggle to shatter the bulwarks
+of this would-be culture. I was overcome by a general feeling of
+depression: my recourse to solitude was not arrogance or
+superciliousness." Whereupon, to account for his behaviour, he
+described the general character of modern educational methods so
+vividly that the philosopher could not help interrupting him in a
+voice full of sympathy, and crying words of comfort to him.
+
+"Now, silence for a minute, my poor friend," he cried; "I can more
+easily understand you now, and should not have lost my patience with
+you. You are altogether right, save in your despair. I shall now
+proceed to say a few words of comfort to you. How long do you suppose
+the state of education in the schools of our time, which seems to
+weigh so heavily upon you, will last? I shall not conceal my views on
+this point from you: its time is over; its days are counted. The first
+who will dare to be quite straightforward in this respect will hear
+his honesty re-echoed back to him by thousands of courageous souls.
+For, at bottom, there is a tacit understanding between the more nobly
+gifted and more warmly disposed men of the present day. Every one of
+them knows what he has had to suffer from the condition of culture in
+schools; every one of them would fain protect his offspring from the
+need of enduring similar drawbacks, even though he himself was
+compelled to submit to them. If these feelings are never quite
+honestly expressed, however, it is owing to a sad want of spirit among
+modern pedagogues. These lack real initiative; there are too few
+practical men among them--that is to say, too few who happen to have
+good and new ideas, and who know that real genius and the real
+practical mind must necessarily come together in the same individuals,
+whilst the sober practical men have no ideas and therefore fall short
+in practice.
+
+"Let any one examine the pedagogic literature of the present; he who
+is not shocked at its utter poverty of spirit and its ridiculously
+awkward antics is beyond being spoiled. Here our philosophy must not
+begin with wonder but with dread; he who feels no dread at this point
+must be asked not to meddle with pedagogic questions. The reverse, of
+course, has been the rule up to the present; those who were terrified
+ran away filled with embarrassment as you did, my poor friend, while
+the sober and fearless ones spread their heavy hands over the most
+delicate technique that has ever existed in art--over the technique of
+education. This, however, will not be possible much longer; at some
+time or other the upright man will appear, who will not only have the
+good ideas I speak of, but who in order to work at their realisation,
+will dare to break with all that exists at present: he may by means of
+a wonderful example achieve what the broad hands, hitherto active,
+could not even imitate--then people will everywhere begin to draw
+comparisons; then men will at least be able to perceive a contrast and
+will be in a position to reflect upon its causes, whereas, at present,
+so many still believe, in perfect good faith, that heavy hands are a
+necessary factor in pedagogic work."
+
+"My dear master," said the younger man, "I wish you could point to
+one single example which would assist me in seeing the soundness of
+the hopes which you so heartily raise in me. We are both acquainted
+with public schools; do you think, for instance, that in respect of
+these institutions anything may be done by means of honesty and good
+and new ideas to abolish the tenacious and antiquated customs now
+extant? In this quarter, it seems to me, the battering-rams of an
+attacking party will have to meet with no solid wall, but with the
+most fatal of stolid and slippery principles. The leader of the
+assault has no visible and tangible opponent to crush, but rather a
+creature in disguise that can transform itself into a hundred
+different shapes and, in each of these, slip out of his grasp, only in
+order to reappear and to confound its enemy by cowardly surrenders and
+feigned retreats. It was precisely the public schools which drove me
+into despair and solitude, simply because I feel that if the struggle
+here leads to victory all other educational institutions must give in;
+but that, if the reformer be forced to abandon his cause here, he may
+as well give up all hope in regard to every other scholastic question.
+Therefore, dear master, enlighten me concerning the public schools;
+what can we hope for in the way of their abolition or reform?"
+
+"I also hold the question of public schools to be as important as you
+do," the philosopher replied. "All other educational institutions must
+fix their aims in accordance with those of the public school system;
+whatever errors of judgment it may suffer from, they suffer from also,
+and if it were ever purified and rejuvenated, they would be purified
+and rejuvenated too. The universities can no longer lay claim to this
+importance as centres of influence, seeing that, as they now stand,
+they are at least, in one important aspect, only a kind of annex to
+the public school system, as I shall shortly point out to you. For the
+moment, let us consider, together, what to my mind constitutes the
+very hopeful struggle of the two possibilities: _either_ that the
+motley and evasive spirit of public schools which has hitherto been
+fostered, will completely vanish, or that it will have to be
+completely purified and rejuvenated. And in order that I may not shock
+you with general propositions, let us first try to recall one of those
+public school experiences which we have all had, and from which we
+have all suffered. Under severe examination what, as a matter of fact,
+is the present _system of teaching German_ in public schools?
+
+"I shall first of all tell you what it should be. Everybody speaks and
+writes German as thoroughly badly as it is just possible to do so in
+an age of newspaper German: that is why the growing youth who happens
+to be both noble and gifted has to be taken by force and put under the
+glass shade of good taste and of severe linguistic discipline. If this
+is not possible, I would prefer in future that Latin be spoken; for I
+am ashamed of a language so bungled and vitiated.
+
+"What would be the duty of a higher educational institution, in this
+respect, if not this--namely, with authority and dignified severity to
+put youths, neglected, as far as their own language is concerned, on
+the right path, and to cry to them: 'Take your own language seriously!
+He who does not regard this matter as a sacred duty does not possess
+even the germ of a higher culture. From your attitude in this matter,
+from your treatment of your mother-tongue, we can judge how highly or
+how lowly you esteem art, and to what extent you are related to it. If
+you notice no physical loathing in yourselves when you meet with
+certain words and tricks of speech in our journalistic jargon, cease
+from striving after culture; for here in your immediate vicinity, at
+every moment of your life, while you are either speaking or writing,
+you have a touchstone for testing how difficult, how stupendous, the
+task of the cultured man is, and how very improbable it must be that
+many of you will ever attain to culture.'
+
+"In accordance with the spirit of this address, the teacher of German
+at a public school would be forced to call his pupil's attention to
+thousands of details, and with the absolute certainty of good taste,
+to forbid their using such words and expressions, for instance, as:
+'_beanspruchen_,' '_vereinnahmen_,' '_einer Sache Rechnung tragen_,'
+'_die Initiative ergreifen_,' '_selbstverständlich_,'[3] etc., _cum
+tædio in infinitum_. The same teacher would also have to take our
+classical authors and show, line for line, how carefully and with what
+precision every expression has to be chosen when a writer has the
+correct feeling in his heart and has before his eyes a perfect
+conception of all he is writing. He would necessarily urge his pupils,
+time and again, to express the same thought ever more happily; nor
+would he have to abate in rigour until the less gifted in his class
+had contracted an unholy fear of their language, and the others had
+developed great enthusiasm for it.
+
+"Here then is a task for so-called 'formal' education[4] [the
+education tending to develop the mental faculties, as opposed to
+'material' education,[5] which is intended to deal only with the
+acquisition of facts, _e.g._ history, mathematics, etc.], and one of
+the utmost value: but what do we find in the public school--that is to
+say, in the head-quarters of formal education? He who understands how
+to apply what he has heard here will also know what to think of the
+modern public school as a so-called educational institution. He will
+discover, for instance, that the public school, according to its
+fundamental principles, does not educate for the purposes of culture,
+but for the purposes of scholarship; and, further, that of late it
+seems to have adopted a course which indicates rather that it has even
+discarded scholarship in favour of journalism as the object of its
+exertions. This can be clearly seen from the way in which German is
+taught.
+
+"Instead of that purely practical method of instruction by which the
+teacher accustoms his pupils to severe self-discipline in their own
+language, we find everywhere the rudiments of a historico-scholastic
+method of teaching the mother-tongue: that is to say, people deal with
+it as if it were a dead language and as if the present and future were
+under no obligations to it whatsoever. The historical method has
+become so universal in our time, that even the living body of the
+language is sacrificed for the sake of anatomical study. But this is
+precisely where culture begins--namely, in understanding how to treat
+the quick as something vital, and it is here too that the mission of
+the cultured teacher begins: in suppressing the urgent claims of
+'historical interests' wherever it is above all necessary to _do_
+properly and not merely to _know_ properly. Our mother-tongue,
+however, is a domain in which the pupil must learn how to _do_
+properly, and to this practical end, alone, the teaching of German is
+essential in our scholastic establishments. The historical method may
+certainly be a considerably easier and more comfortable one for the
+teacher; it also seems to be compatible with a much lower grade of
+ability and, in general, with a smaller display of energy and will on
+his part. But we shall find that this observation holds good in every
+department of pedagogic life: the simpler and more comfortable method
+always masquerades in the disguise of grand pretensions and stately
+titles; the really practical side, the _doing_, which should belong to
+culture and which, at bottom, is the more difficult side, meets only
+with disfavour and contempt. That is why the honest man must make
+himself and others quite clear concerning this _quid pro quo_.
+
+"Now, apart from these learned incentives to a study of the language,
+what is there besides which the German teacher is wont to offer? How
+does he reconcile the spirit of his school with the spirit of the
+_few_ that Germany can claim who are really cultured,--_i.e._ with the
+spirit of its classical poets and artists? This is a dark and thorny
+sphere, into which one cannot even bear a light without dread; but
+even here we shall conceal nothing from ourselves; for sooner or later
+the whole of it will have to be reformed. In the public school, the
+repulsive impress of our æsthetic journalism is stamped upon the still
+unformed minds of youths. Here, too, the teacher sows the seeds of
+that crude and wilful misinterpretation of the classics, which later
+on disports itself as art-criticism, and which is nothing but
+bumptious barbarity. Here the pupils learn to speak of our unique
+_Schiller_ with the superciliousness of prigs; here they are taught to
+smile at the noblest and most German of his works--at the Marquis of
+Posa, at Max and Thekla--at these smiles German genius becomes
+incensed and a worthier posterity will blush.
+
+"The last department in which the German teacher in a public school is
+at all active, which is often regarded as his sphere of highest
+activity, and is here and there even considered the pinnacle of public
+school education, is the so-called _German composition_. Owing to the
+very fact that in this department it is almost always the most gifted
+pupils who display the greatest eagerness, it ought to have been made
+clear how dangerously stimulating, precisely here, the task of the
+teacher must be. _German composition_ makes an appeal to the
+individual, and the more strongly a pupil is conscious of his various
+qualities, the more personally will he do his _German composition_.
+This 'personal doing' is urged on with yet an additional fillip in
+some public schools by the choice of the subject, the strongest proof
+of which is, in my opinion, that even in the lower classes the
+non-pedagogic subject is set, by means of which the pupil is led to
+give a description of his life and of his development. Now, one has
+only to read the titles of the compositions set in a large number of
+public schools to be convinced that probably the large majority of
+pupils have to suffer their whole lives, through no fault of their
+own, owing to this premature demand for personal work--for the unripe
+procreation of thoughts. And how often are not all a man's subsequent
+literary performances but a sad result of this pedagogic original sin
+against the intellect!
+
+"Let us only think of what takes place at such an age in the
+production of such work. It is the first individual creation; the
+still undeveloped powers tend for the first time to crystallise; the
+staggering sensation produced by the demand for self-reliance imparts
+a seductive charm to these early performances, which is not only quite
+new, but which never returns. All the daring of nature is hauled out
+of its depths; all vanities--no longer constrained by mighty
+barriers--are allowed for the first time to assume a literary form:
+the young man, from that time forward, feels as if he had reached his
+consummation as a being not only able, but actually invited, to speak
+and to converse. The subject he selects obliges him either to express
+his judgment upon certain poetical works, to class historical persons
+together in a description of character, to discuss serious ethical
+problems quite independently, or even to turn the searchlight inwards,
+to throw its rays upon his own development and to make a critical
+report of himself: in short, a whole world of reflection is spread out
+before the astonished young man who, until then, had been almost
+unconscious, and is delivered up to him to be judged.
+
+"Now let us try to picture the teacher's usual attitude towards these
+first highly influential examples of original composition. What does
+he hold to be most reprehensible in this class of work? What does he
+call his pupil's attention to?--To all excess in form or thought--that
+is to say, to all that which, at their age, is essentially
+characteristic and individual. Their really independent traits which,
+in response to this very premature excitation, can manifest themselves
+only in awkwardness, crudeness, and grotesque features,--in short,
+their individuality is reproved and rejected by the teacher in favour
+of an unoriginal decent average. On the other hand, uniform mediocrity
+gets peevish praise; for, as a rule, it is just the class of work
+likely to bore the teacher thoroughly.
+
+"There may still be men who recognise a most absurd and most dangerous
+element of the public school curriculum in the whole farce of this
+German composition. Originality is demanded here: but the only shape
+in which it can manifest itself is rejected, and the 'formal'
+education that the system takes for granted is attained to only by a
+very limited number of men who complete it at a ripe age. Here
+everybody without exception is regarded as gifted for literature and
+considered as capable of holding opinions concerning the most
+important questions and people, whereas the one aim which proper
+education should most zealously strive to achieve would be the
+suppression of all ridiculous claims to independent judgment, and the
+inculcation upon young men of obedience to the sceptre of genius. Here
+a pompous form of diction is taught in an age when every spoken or
+written word is a piece of barbarism. Now let us consider, besides,
+the danger of arousing the self-complacency which is so easily
+awakened in youths; let us think how their vanity must be flattered
+when they see their literary reflection for the first time in the
+mirror. Who, having seen all these effects at _one_ glance, could any
+longer doubt whether all the faults of our public, literary, and
+artistic life were not stamped upon every fresh generation by the
+system we are examining: hasty and vain production, the disgraceful
+manufacture of books; complete want of style; the crude,
+characterless, or sadly swaggering method of expression; the loss of
+every æsthetic canon; the voluptuousness of anarchy and chaos--in
+short, the literary peculiarities of both our journalism and our
+scholarship.
+
+"None but the very fewest are aware that, among many thousands,
+perhaps only _one_ is justified in describing himself as literary, and
+that all others who at their own risk try to be so deserve to be met
+with Homeric laughter by all competent men as a reward for every
+sentence they have ever had printed;--for it is truly a spectacle meet
+for the gods to see a literary Hephaistos limping forward who would
+pretend to help us to something. To educate men to earnest and
+inexorable habits and views, in this respect, should be the highest
+aim of all mental training, whereas the general _laisser aller_ of the
+'fine personality' can be nothing else than the hall-mark of
+barbarism. From what I have said, however, it must be clear that, at
+least in the teaching of German, no thought is given to culture;
+something quite different is in view,--namely, the production of the
+afore-mentioned 'free personality.' And so long as German public
+schools prepare the road for outrageous and irresponsible scribbling,
+so long as they do not regard the immediate and practical discipline
+of speaking and writing as their most holy duty, so long as they treat
+the mother-tongue as if it were only a necessary evil or a dead body,
+I shall not regard these institutions as belonging to real culture.
+
+"In regard to the language, what is surely least noticeable is any
+trace of the influence of _classical examples_: that is why, on the
+strength of this consideration alone, the so-called 'classical
+education' which is supposed to be provided by our public school,
+strikes me as something exceedingly doubtful and confused. For how
+could anybody, after having cast one glance at those examples, fail to
+see the great earnestness with which the Greek and the Roman regarded
+and treated his language, from his youth onwards--how is it possible
+to mistake one's example on a point like this one?--provided, of
+course, that the classical Hellenic and Roman world really did hover
+before the educational plan of our public schools as the highest and
+most instructive of all morals--a fact I feel very much inclined to
+doubt. The claim put forward by public schools concerning the
+'classical education' they provide seems to be more an awkward evasion
+than anything else; it is used whenever there is any question raised
+as to the competency of the public schools to impart culture and to
+educate. Classical education, indeed! It sounds so dignified! It
+confounds the aggressor and staves off the assault--for who could see
+to the bottom of this bewildering formula all at once? And this has
+long been the customary strategy of the public school: from whichever
+side the war-cry may come, it writes upon its shield--not overloaded
+with honours--one of those confusing catchwords, such as: 'classical
+education,' 'formal education,' 'scientific education':--three
+glorious things which are, however, unhappily at loggerheads, not only
+with themselves but among themselves, and are such that, if they were
+compulsorily brought together, would perforce bring forth a
+culture-monster. For a 'classical education' is something so unheard
+of, difficult and rare, and exacts such complicated talent, that only
+ingenuousness or impudence could put it forward as an attainable goal
+in our public schools. The words: 'formal education' belong to that
+crude kind of unphilosophical phraseology which one should do one's
+utmost to get rid of; for there is no such thing as 'the opposite of
+formal education.' And he who regards 'scientific education' as the
+object of a public school thereby sacrifices 'classical education' and
+the so-called 'formal education,' at one stroke, as the scientific man
+and the cultured man belong to two different spheres which, though
+coming together at times in the same individual, are never reconciled.
+
+"If we compare all three of these would-be aims of the public school
+with the actual facts to be observed in the present method of teaching
+German, we see immediately what they really amount to in
+practice,--that is to say, only to subterfuges for use in the fight
+and struggle for existence and, often enough, mere means wherewith to
+bewilder an opponent. For we are unable to detect any single feature
+in this teaching of German which in any way recalls the example of
+classical antiquity and its glorious methods of training in languages.
+'Formal education,' however, which is supposed to be achieved by this
+method of teaching German, has been shown to be wholly at the pleasure
+of the 'free personality,' which is as good as saying that it is
+barbarism and anarchy. And as for the preparation in science, which is
+one of the consequences of this teaching, our Germanists will have to
+determine, in all justice, how little these learned beginnings in
+public schools have contributed to the splendour of their sciences,
+and how much the personality of individual university professors has
+done so.--Put briefly: the public school has hitherto neglected its
+most important and most urgent duty towards the very beginning of all
+real culture, which is the mother-tongue; but in so doing it has
+lacked the natural, fertile soil for all further efforts at culture.
+For only by means of stern, artistic, and careful discipline and
+habit, in a language, can the correct feeling for the greatness of our
+classical writers be strengthened. Up to the present their recognition
+by the public schools has been owing almost solely to the doubtful
+æsthetic hobbies of a few teachers or to the massive effects of
+certain of their tragedies and novels. But everybody should, himself,
+be aware of the difficulties of the language: he should have learnt
+them from experience: after long seeking and struggling he must reach
+the path our great poets trod in order to be able to realise how
+lightly and beautifully they trod it, and how stiffly and swaggeringly
+the others follow at their heels.
+
+"Only by means of such discipline can the young man acquire that
+physical loathing for the beloved and much-admired 'elegance' of style
+of our newspaper manufacturers and novelists, and for the 'ornate
+style' of our literary men; by it alone is he irrevocably elevated at
+a stroke above a whole host of absurd questions and scruples, such,
+for instance, as whether Auerbach and Gutzkow are really poets, for
+his disgust at both will be so great that he will be unable to read
+them any longer, and thus the problem will be solved for him. Let no
+one imagine that it is an easy matter to develop this feeling to the
+extent necessary in order to have this physical loathing; but let no
+one hope to reach sound æsthetic judgments along any other road than
+the thorny one of language, and by this I do not mean philological
+research, but self-discipline in one's mother-tongue.
+
+"Everybody who is in earnest in this matter will have the same sort of
+experience as the recruit in the army who is compelled to learn
+walking after having walked almost all his life as a dilettante or
+empiricist. It is a hard time: one almost fears that the tendons are
+going to snap and one ceases to hope that the artificial and
+consciously acquired movements and positions of the feet will ever be
+carried out with ease and comfort. It is painful to see how awkwardly
+and heavily one foot is set before the other, and one dreads that one
+may not only be unable to learn the new way of walking, but that one
+will forget how to walk at all. Then it suddenly become noticeable
+that a new habit and a second nature have been born of the practised
+movements, and that the assurance and strength of the old manner of
+walking returns with a little more grace: at this point one begins to
+realise how difficult walking is, and one feels in a position to laugh
+at the untrained empiricist or the elegant dilettante. Our 'elegant'
+writers, as their style shows, have never learnt 'walking' in this
+sense, and in our public schools, as our other writers show, no one
+learns walking either. Culture begins, however, with the correct
+movement of the language: and once it has properly begun, it begets
+that physical sensation in the presence of 'elegant' writers which is
+known by the name of 'loathing.'
+
+"We recognise the fatal consequences of our present public schools, in
+that they are unable to inculcate severe and genuine culture, which
+should consist above all in obedience and habituation; and that, at
+their best, they much more often achieve a result by stimulating and
+kindling scientific tendencies, is shown by the hand which is so
+frequently seen uniting scholarship and barbarous taste, science and
+journalism. In a very large majority of cases to-day we can observe
+how sadly our scholars fall short of the standard of culture which the
+efforts of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and Winckelmann established; and
+this falling short shows itself precisely in the egregious errors
+which the men we speak of are exposed to, equally among literary
+historians--whether Gervinus or Julian Schmidt--as in any other
+company; everywhere, indeed, where men and women converse. It shows
+itself most frequently and painfully, however, in pedagogic spheres,
+in the literature of public schools. It can be proved that the only
+value that these men have in a real educational establishment has not
+been mentioned, much less generally recognised for half a century:
+their value as preparatory leaders and mystogogues of classical
+culture, guided by whose hands alone can the correct road leading to
+antiquity be found.
+
+"Every so-called classical education can have but one natural
+starting-point--an artistic, earnest, and exact familiarity with the
+use of the mother-tongue: this, together with the secret of form,
+however, one can seldom attain to of one's own accord, almost
+everybody requires those great leaders and tutors and must place
+himself in their hands. There is, however, no such thing as a
+classical education that could grow without this inferred love of
+form. Here, where the power of discerning form and barbarity gradually
+awakens, there appear the pinions which bear one to the only real home
+of culture--ancient Greece. If with the solitary help of those pinions
+we sought to reach those far-distant and diamond-studded walls
+encircling the stronghold of Hellenism, we should certainly not get
+very far; once more, therefore, we need the same leaders and tutors,
+our German classical writers, that we may be borne up, too, by the
+wing-strokes of their past endeavours--to the land of yearning, to
+Greece.
+
+"Not a suspicion of this possible relationship between our classics
+and classical education seems to have pierced the antique walls of
+public schools. Philologists seem much more eagerly engaged in
+introducing Homer and Sophocles to the young souls of their pupils, in
+their own style, calling the result simply by the unchallenged
+euphemism: 'classical education.' Let every one's own experience tell
+him what he had of Homer and Sophocles at the hands of such eager
+teachers. It is in this department that the greatest number of deepest
+deceptions occur, and whence misunderstandings are inadvertently
+spread. In German public schools I have never yet found a trace of
+what might really be called 'classical education,' and there is
+nothing surprising in this when one thinks of the way in which these
+institutions have emancipated themselves from German classical writers
+and the discipline of the German language. Nobody reaches antiquity by
+means of a leap into the dark, and yet the whole method of treating
+ancient writers in schools, the plain commentating and paraphrasing of
+our philological teachers, amounts to nothing more than a leap into
+the dark.
+
+"The feeling for classical Hellenism is, as a matter of fact, such an
+exceptional outcome of the most energetic fight for culture and
+artistic talent that the public school could only have professed to
+awaken this feeling owing to a very crude misunderstanding. In what
+age? In an age which is led about blindly by the most sensational
+desires of the day, and which is not aware of the fact that, once that
+feeling for Hellenism is roused, it immediately becomes aggressive and
+must express itself by indulging in an incessant war with the
+so-called culture of the present. For the public school boy of to-day,
+the Hellenes as Hellenes are dead: yes, he gets some enjoyment out of
+Homer, but a novel by Spielhagen interests him much more: yes, he
+swallows Greek tragedy and comedy with a certain relish, but a
+thoroughly modern drama, like Freitag's 'Journalists,' moves him in
+quite another fashion. In regard to all ancient authors he is rather
+inclined to speak after the manner of the æsthete, Hermann Grimm, who,
+on one occasion, at the end of a tortuous essay on the Venus of Milo,
+asks himself: 'What does this goddess's form mean to me? Of what use
+are the thoughts she suggests to me? Orestes and OEdipus, Iphigenia
+and Antigone, what have they in common with my heart?'--No, my dear
+public school boy, the Venus of Milo does not concern you in any way,
+and concerns your teacher just as little--and that is the misfortune,
+that is the secret of the modern public school. Who will conduct you
+to the land of culture, if your leaders are blind and assume the
+position of seers notwithstanding? Which of you will ever attain to a
+true feeling for the sacred seriousness of art, if you are
+systematically spoiled, and taught to stutter independently instead of
+being taught to speak; to æstheticise on your own account, when you
+ought to be taught to approach works of art almost piously; to
+philosophise without assistance, while you ought to be compelled to
+_listen_ to great thinkers. All this with the result that you remain
+eternally at a distance from antiquity and become the servants of the
+day.
+
+"At all events, the most wholesome feature of our modern institutions
+is to be found in the earnestness with which the Latin and Greek
+languages are studied over a long course of years. In this way boys
+learn to respect a grammar, lexicons, and a language that conforms to
+fixed rules; in this department of public school work there is an
+exact knowledge of what constitutes a fault, and no one is troubled
+with any thought of justifying himself every minute by appealing (as
+in the case of modern German) to various grammatical and
+orthographical vagaries and vicious forms. If only this respect for
+language did not hang in the air so, like a theoretical burden which
+one is pleased to throw off the moment one turns to one's
+mother-tongue! More often than not, the classical master makes pretty
+short work of the mother-tongue; from the outset he treats it as a
+department of knowledge in which one is allowed that indolent ease
+with which the German treats everything that belongs to his native
+soil. The splendid practice afforded by translating from one language
+into another, which so improves and fertilises one's artistic feeling
+for one's own tongue, is, in the case of German, never conducted with
+that fitting categorical strictness and dignity which would be above
+all necessary in dealing with an undisciplined language. Of late,
+exercises of this kind have tended to decrease ever more and more:
+people are satisfied to _know_ the foreign classical tongues, they
+would scorn being able to _apply_ them.
+
+"Here one gets another glimpse of the scholarly tendency of public
+schools: a phenomenon which throws much light upon the object which
+once animated them,--that is to say, the serious desire to cultivate
+the pupil. This belonged to the time of our great poets, those few
+really cultured Germans,--the time when the magnificent Friedrich
+August Wolf directed the new stream of classical thought, introduced
+from Greece and Rome by those men, into the heart of the public
+schools. Thanks to his bold start, a new order of public schools was
+established, which thenceforward was not to be merely a nursery for
+science, but, above all, the actual consecrated home of all higher and
+nobler culture.
+
+"Of the many necessary measures which this change called into being,
+some of the most important have been transferred with lasting success
+to the modern regulations of public schools: the most important of
+all, however, did not succeed--the one demanding that the teacher,
+also, should be consecrated to the new spirit, so that the aim of the
+public school has meanwhile considerably departed from the original
+plan laid down by Wolf, which was the cultivation of the pupil. The
+old estimate of scholarship and scholarly culture, as an absolute,
+which Wolf overcame, seems after a slow and spiritless struggle rather
+to have taken the place of the culture-principle of more recent
+introduction, and now claims its former exclusive rights, though not
+with the same frankness, but disguised and with features veiled. And
+the reason why it was impossible to make public schools fall in with
+the magnificent plan of classical culture lay in the un-German, almost
+foreign or cosmopolitan nature of these efforts in the cause of
+education: in the belief that it was possible to remove the native
+soil from under a man's feet and that he should still remain standing;
+in the illusion that people can spring direct, without bridges, into
+the strange Hellenic world, by abjuring German and the German mind in
+general.
+
+"Of course one must know how to trace this Germanic spirit to its lair
+beneath its many modern dressings, or even beneath heaps of ruins; one
+must love it so that one is not ashamed of it in its stunted form, and
+one must above all be on one's guard against confounding it with what
+now disports itself proudly as 'Up-to-date German culture.' The German
+spirit is very far from being on friendly times with this up-to-date
+culture: and precisely in those spheres where the latter complains of
+a lack of culture the real German spirit has survived, though perhaps
+not always with a graceful, but more often an ungraceful, exterior. On
+the other hand, that which now grandiloquently assumes the title of
+'German culture' is a sort of cosmopolitan aggregate, which bears the
+same relation to the German spirit as Journalism does to Schiller or
+Meyerbeer to Beethoven: here the strongest influence at work is the
+fundamentally and thoroughly un-German civilisation of France, which
+is aped neither with talent nor with taste, and the imitation of which
+gives the society, the press, the art, and the literary style of
+Germany their pharisaical character. Naturally the copy nowhere
+produces the really artistic effect which the original, grown out of
+the heart of Roman civilisation, is able to produce almost to this day
+in France. Let any one who wishes to see the full force of this
+contrast compare our most noted novelists with the less noted ones of
+France or Italy: he will recognise in both the same doubtful
+tendencies and aims, as also the same still more doubtful means, but
+in France he will find them coupled with artistic earnestness, at
+least with grammatical purity, and often with beauty, while in their
+every feature he will recognise the echo of a corresponding social
+culture. In Germany, on the other hand, they will strike him as
+unoriginal, flabby, filled with dressing-gown thoughts and
+expressions, unpleasantly spread out, and therewithal possessing no
+background of social form. At the most, owing to their scholarly
+mannerisms and display of knowledge, he will be reminded of the fact
+that in Latin countries it is the artistically-trained man, and that
+in Germany it is the abortive scholar, who becomes a journalist. With
+this would-be German and thoroughly unoriginal culture, the German can
+nowhere reckon upon victory: the Frenchman and the Italian will always
+get the better of him in this respect, while, in regard to the clever
+imitation of a foreign culture, the Russian, above all, will always be
+his superior.
+
+"We are therefore all the more anxious to hold fast to that German
+spirit which revealed itself in the German Reformation, and in German
+music, and which has shown its enduring and genuine strength in the
+enormous courage and severity of German philosophy and in the loyalty
+of the German soldier, which has been tested quite recently. From it
+we expect a victory over that 'up-to-date' pseudo-culture which is now
+the fashion. What we should hope for the future is that schools may
+draw the real school of culture into this struggle, and kindle the
+flame of enthusiasm in the younger generation, more particularly in
+public schools, for that which is truly German; and in this way
+so-called classical education will resume its natural place and
+recover its one possible starting-point.
+
+"A thorough reformation and purification of the public school can only
+be the outcome of a profound and powerful reformation and purification
+of the German spirit. It is a very complex and difficult task to find
+the border-line which joins the heart of the Germanic spirit with the
+genius of Greece. Not, however, before the noblest needs of genuine
+German genius snatch at the hand of this genius of Greece as at a firm
+post in the torrent of barbarity, not before a devouring yearning for
+this genius of Greece takes possession of German genius, and not
+before that view of the Greek home, on which Schiller and Goethe,
+after enormous exertions, were able to feast their eyes, has become
+the Mecca of the best and most gifted men, will the aim of classical
+education in public schools acquire any definition; and they at least
+will not be to blame who teach ever so little science and learning in
+public schools, in order to keep a definite and at the same time ideal
+aim in their eyes, and to rescue their pupils from that glistening
+phantom which now allows itself to be called 'culture' and
+'education.' This is the sad plight of the public school of to-day:
+the narrowest views remain in a certain measure right, because no one
+seems able to reach or, at least, to indicate the spot where all these
+views culminate in error."
+
+"No one?" the philosopher's pupil inquired with a slight quaver in his
+voice; and both men were silent.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] It is not practicable to translate these German solecisms by
+similar instances of English solecisms. The reader who is interested
+in the subject will find plenty of material in a book like the Oxford
+_King's English_.
+
+[4] German: _Formelle Bildung._
+
+[5] German: _Materielle Bildung._
+
+
+
+
+THIRD LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 27th of February 1872._)
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen,--At the close of my last lecture, the
+conversation to which I was a listener, and the outlines of which, as
+I clearly recollect them, I am now trying to lay before you, was
+interrupted by a long and solemn pause. Both the philosopher and his
+companion sat silent, sunk in deep dejection: the peculiarly critical
+state of that important educational institution, the German public
+school, lay upon their souls like a heavy burden, which one single,
+well-meaning individual is not strong enough to remove, and the
+multitude, though strong, not well meaning enough.
+
+Our solitary thinkers were perturbed by two facts: by clearly
+perceiving on the one hand that what might rightly be called
+"classical education" was now only a far-off ideal, a castle in the
+air, which could not possibly be built as a reality on the foundations
+of our present educational system, and that, on the other hand, what
+was now, with customary and unopposed euphemism, pointed to as
+"classical education" could only claim the value of a pretentious
+illusion, the best effect of which was that the expression "classical
+education" still lived on and had not yet lost its pathetic sound.
+These two worthy men saw clearly, by the system of instruction in
+vogue, that the time was not yet ripe for a higher culture, a culture
+founded upon that of the ancients: the neglected state of linguistic
+instruction; the forcing of students into learned historical paths,
+instead of giving them a practical training; the connection of certain
+practices, encouraged in the public schools, with the objectionable
+spirit of our journalistic publicity--all these easily perceptible
+phenomena of the teaching of German led to the painful certainty that
+the most beneficial of those forces which have come down to us from
+classical antiquity are not yet known in our public schools: forces
+which would train students for the struggle against the barbarism of
+the present age, and which will perhaps once more transform the public
+schools into the arsenals and workshops of this struggle.
+
+On the other hand, it would seem in the meantime as if the spirit of
+antiquity, in its fundamental principles, had already been driven away
+from the portals of the public schools, and as if here also the gates
+were thrown open as widely as possible to the be-flattered and
+pampered type of our present self-styled "German culture." And if the
+solitary talkers caught a glimpse of a single ray of hope, it was that
+things would have to become still worse, that what was as yet divined
+only by the few would soon be clearly perceived by the many, and that
+then the time for honest and resolute men for the earnest
+consideration of the scope of the education of the masses would not be
+far distant.
+
+After a few minutes' silent reflection, the philosopher's companion
+turned to him and said: "You used to hold out hopes to me, but now you
+have done more: you have widened my intelligence, and with it my
+strength and courage: now indeed can I look on the field of battle
+with more hardihood, now indeed do I repent of my too hasty flight. We
+want nothing for ourselves, and it should be nothing to us how many
+individuals may fall in this battle, or whether we ourselves may be
+among the first. Just because we take this matter so seriously, we
+should not take our own poor selves so seriously: at the very moment
+we are falling some one else will grasp the banner of our faith. I
+will not even consider whether I am strong enough for such a fight,
+whether I can offer sufficient resistance; it may even be an
+honourable death to fall to the accompaniment of the mocking laughter
+of such enemies, whose seriousness has frequently seemed to us to be
+something ridiculous. When I think how my contemporaries prepared
+themselves for the highest posts in the scholastic profession, as I
+myself have done, then I know how we often laughed at the exact
+contrary, and grew serious over something quite different----"
+
+"Now, my friend," interrupted the philosopher, laughingly, "you speak
+as one who would fain dive into the water without being able to swim,
+and who fears something even more than the mere drowning; _not_ being
+drowned, but laughed at. But being laughed at should be the very last
+thing for us to dread; for we are in a sphere where there are too many
+truths to tell, too many formidable, painful, unpardonable truths, for
+us to escape hatred, and only fury here and there will give rise to
+some sort of embarrassed laughter. Just think of the innumerable crowd
+of teachers, who, in all good faith, have assimilated the system of
+education which has prevailed up to the present, that they may
+cheerfully and without over-much deliberation carry it further on.
+What do you think it will seem like to these men when they hear of
+projects from which they are excluded _beneficio naturæ_; of commands
+which their mediocre abilities are totally unable to carry out; of
+hopes which find no echo in them; of battles the war-cries of which
+they do not understand, and in the fighting of which they can take
+part only as dull and obtuse rank and file? But, without exaggeration,
+that must necessarily be the position of practically all the teachers
+in our higher educational establishments: and indeed we cannot wonder
+at this when we consider how such a teacher originates, how he
+_becomes_ a teacher of such high status. Such a large number of higher
+educational establishments are now to be found everywhere that far
+more teachers will continue to be required for them than the nature of
+even a highly-gifted people can produce; and thus an inordinate stream
+of undesirables flows into these institutions, who, however, by their
+preponderating numbers and their instinct of 'similis simile gaudet'
+gradually come to determine the nature of these institutions. There
+may be a few people, hopelessly unfamiliar with pedagogical matters,
+who believe that our present profusion of public schools and teachers,
+which is manifestly out of all proportion, can be changed into a real
+profusion, an _ubertas ingenii_, merely by a few rules and
+regulations, and without any reduction in the number of these
+institutions. But we may surely be unanimous in recognising that by
+the very nature of things only an exceedingly small number of people
+are destined for a true course of education, and that a much smaller
+number of higher educational establishments would suffice for their
+further development, but that, in view of the present large numbers of
+educational institutions, those for whom in general such institutions
+ought only to be established must feel themselves to be the least
+facilitated in their progress.
+
+"The same holds good in regard to teachers. It is precisely the best
+teachers--those who, generally speaking, judged by a high standard,
+are worthy of this honourable name--who are now perhaps the least
+fitted, in view of the present standing of our public schools, for the
+education of these unselected youths, huddled together in a confused
+heap; but who must rather, to a certain extent, keep hidden from them
+the best they could give: and, on the other hand, by far the larger
+number of these teachers feel themselves quite at home in these
+institutions, as their moderate abilities stand in a kind of
+harmonious relationship to the dullness of their pupils. It is from
+this majority that we hear the ever-resounding call for the
+establishment of new public schools and higher educational
+institutions: we are living in an age which, by ringing the changes on
+its deafening and continual cry, would certainly give one the
+impression that there was an unprecedented thirst for culture which
+eagerly sought to be quenched. But it is just at this point that one
+should learn to hear aright: it is here, without being disconcerted by
+the thundering noise of the education-mongers, that we must confront
+those who talk so tirelessly about the educational necessities of
+their time. Then we should meet with a strange disillusionment, one
+which we, my good friend, have often met with: those blatant heralds
+of educational needs, when examined at close quarters, are suddenly
+seen to be transformed into zealous, yea, fanatical opponents of true
+culture, _i.e._ all those who hold fast to the aristocratic nature of
+the mind; for, at bottom, they regard as their goal the emancipation
+of the masses from the mastery of the great few; they seek to
+overthrow the most sacred hierarchy in the kingdom of the
+intellect--the servitude of the masses, their submissive obedience,
+their instinct of loyalty to the rule of genius.
+
+"I have long accustomed myself to look with caution upon those who are
+ardent in the cause of the so-called 'education of the people' in the
+common meaning of the phrase; since for the most part they desire for
+themselves, consciously or unconsciously, absolutely unlimited
+freedom, which must inevitably degenerate into something resembling
+the saturnalia of barbaric times, and which the sacred hierarchy of
+nature will never grant them. They were born to serve and to obey; and
+every moment in which their limping or crawling or broken-winded
+thoughts are at work shows us clearly out of which clay nature moulded
+them, and what trade mark she branded thereon. The education of the
+masses cannot, therefore, be our aim; but rather the education of a
+few picked men for great and lasting works. We well know that a just
+posterity judges the collective intellectual state of a time only by
+those few great and lonely figures of the period, and gives its
+decision in accordance with the manner in which they are recognised,
+encouraged, and honoured, or, on the other hand, in which they are
+snubbed, elbowed aside, and kept down. What is called the 'education
+of the masses' cannot be accomplished except with difficulty; and even
+if a system of universal compulsory education be applied, they can
+only be reached outwardly: those individual lower levels where,
+generally speaking, the masses come into contact with culture, where
+the people nourishes its religious instinct, where it poetises its
+mythological images, where it keeps up its faith in its customs,
+privileges, native soil, and language--all these levels can scarcely
+be reached by direct means, and in any case only by violent
+demolition. And, in serious matters of this kind, to hasten forward
+the progress of the education of the people means simply the
+postponement of this violent demolition, and the maintenance of that
+wholesome unconsciousness, that sound sleep, of the people, without
+which counter-action and remedy no culture, with the exhausting strain
+and excitement of its own actions, can make any headway.
+
+"We know, however, what the aspiration is of those who would disturb
+the healthy slumber of the people, and continually call out to them:
+'Keep your eyes open! Be sensible! Be wise!' we know the aim of those
+who profess to satisfy excessive educational requirements by means of
+an extraordinary increase in the number of educational institutions
+and the conceited tribe of teachers originated thereby. These very
+people, using these very means, are fighting against the natural
+hierarchy in the realm of the intellect, and destroying the roots of
+all those noble and sublime plastic forces which have their material
+origin in the unconsciousness of the people, and which fittingly
+terminate in the procreation of genius and its due guidance and proper
+training. It is only in the simile of the mother that we can grasp the
+meaning and the responsibility of the true education of the people in
+respect to genius: its real origin is not to be found in such
+education; it has, so to speak, only a metaphysical source, a
+metaphysical home. But for the genius to make his appearance; for him
+to emerge from among the people; to portray the reflected picture, as
+it were, the dazzling brilliancy of the peculiar colours of this
+people; to depict the noble destiny of a people in the similitude of
+an individual in a work which will last for all time, thereby making
+his nation itself eternal, and redeeming it from the ever-shifting
+element of transient things: all this is possible for the genius only
+when he has been brought up and come to maturity in the tender care of
+the culture of a people; whilst, on the other hand, without this
+sheltering home, the genius will not, generally speaking, be able to
+rise to the height of his eternal flight, but will at an early moment,
+like a stranger weather-driven upon a bleak, snow-covered desert,
+slink away from the inhospitable land."
+
+"You astonish me with such a metaphysics of genius," said the
+teacher's companion, "and I have only a hazy conception of the
+accuracy of your similitude. On the other hand, I fully understand
+what you have said about the surplus of public schools and the
+corresponding surplus of higher grade teachers; and in this regard I
+myself have collected some information which assures me that the
+educational tendency of the public school _must_ right itself by this
+very surplus of teachers who have really nothing at all to do with
+education, and who are called into existence and pursue this path
+solely because there is a demand for them. Every man who, in an
+unexpected moment of enlightenment, has convinced himself of the
+singularity and inaccessibility of Hellenic antiquity, and has warded
+off this conviction after an exhausting struggle--every such man knows
+that the door leading to this enlightenment will never remain open to
+all comers; and he deems it absurd, yea disgraceful, to use the Greeks
+as he would any other tool he employs when following his profession or
+earning his living, shamelessly fumbling with coarse hands amidst the
+relics of these holy men. This brazen and vulgar feeling is, however,
+most common in the profession from which the largest numbers of
+teachers for the public schools are drawn, the philological
+profession, wherefore the reproduction and continuation of such a
+feeling in the public school will not surprise us.
+
+"Just look at the younger generation of philologists: how seldom we
+see in them that humble feeling that we, when compared with such a
+world as it was, have no right to exist at all: how coolly and
+fearlessly, as compared with us, did that young brood build its
+miserable nests in the midst of the magnificent temples! A powerful
+voice from every nook and cranny should ring in the ears of those who,
+from the day they begin their connection with the university, roam at
+will with such self-complacency and shamelessness among the
+awe-inspiring relics of that noble civilisation: 'Hence, ye
+uninitiated, who will never be initiated; fly away in silence and
+shame from these sacred chambers!' But this voice speaks in vain; for
+one must to some extent be a Greek to understand a Greek curse of
+excommunication. But these people I am speaking of are so barbaric
+that they dispose of these relics to suit themselves: all their modern
+conveniences and fancies are brought with them and concealed among
+those ancient pillars and tombstones, and it gives rise to great
+rejoicing when somebody finds, among the dust and cobwebs of
+antiquity, something that he himself had slyly hidden there not so
+very long before. One of them makes verses and takes care to consult
+Hesychius' Lexicon. Something there immediately assures him that he is
+destined to be an imitator of Æschylus, and leads him to believe,
+indeed, that he 'has something in common with' Æschylus: the miserable
+poetaster! Yet another peers with the suspicious eye of a policeman
+into every contradiction, even into the shadow of every
+contradiction, of which Homer was guilty: he fritters away his life in
+tearing Homeric rags to tatters and sewing them together again, rags
+that he himself was the first to filch from the poet's kingly robe. A
+third feels ill at ease when examining all the mysterious and
+orgiastic sides of antiquity: he makes up his mind once and for all to
+let the enlightened Apollo alone pass without dispute, and to see in
+the Athenian a gay and intelligent but nevertheless somewhat immoral
+Apollonian. What a deep breath he draws when he succeeds in raising
+yet another dark corner of antiquity to the level of his own
+intelligence!--when, for example, he discovers in Pythagoras a
+colleague who is as enthusiastic as himself in arguing about politics.
+Another racks his brains as to why OEdipus was condemned by fate to
+perform such abominable deeds--killing his father, marrying his
+mother. Where lies the blame! Where the poetic justice! Suddenly it
+occurs to him: OEdipus was a passionate fellow, lacking all Christian
+gentleness--he even fell into an unbecoming rage when Tiresias called
+him a monster and the curse of the whole country. Be humble and meek!
+was what Sophocles tried to teach, otherwise you will have to marry
+your mothers and kill your fathers! Others, again, pass their lives in
+counting the number of verses written by Greek and Roman poets, and
+are delighted with the proportions 7:13 = 14:26. Finally, one of them
+brings forward his solution of a question, such as the Homeric poems
+considered from the standpoint of prepositions, and thinks he has
+drawn the truth from the bottom of the well with +ana+ and +kata+. All
+of them, however, with the most widely separated aims in view, dig and
+burrow in Greek soil with a restlessness and a blundering awkwardness
+that must surely be painful to a true friend of antiquity: and thus it
+comes to pass that I should like to take by the hand every talented or
+talentless man who feels a certain professional inclination urging him
+on to the study of antiquity, and harangue him as follows: 'Young sir,
+do you know what perils threaten you, with your little stock of school
+learning, before you become a man in the full sense of the word? Have
+you heard that, according to Aristotle, it is by no means a tragic
+death to be slain by a statue? Does that surprise you? Know, then,
+that for centuries philologists have been trying, with ever-failing
+strength, to re-erect the fallen statue of Greek antiquity, but
+without success; for it is a colossus around which single individual
+men crawl like pygmies. The leverage of the united representatives of
+modern culture is utilised for the purpose; but it invariably happens
+that the huge column is scarcely more than lifted from the ground when
+it falls down again, crushing beneath its weight the luckless wights
+under it. That, however, may be tolerated, for every being must perish
+by some means or other; but who is there to guarantee that during all
+these attempts the statue itself will not break in pieces! The
+philologists are being crushed by the Greeks--perhaps we can put up
+with this--but antiquity itself threatens to be crushed by these
+philologists! Think that over, you easy-going young man; and turn
+back, lest you too should not be an iconoclast!'"
+
+"Indeed," said the philosopher, laughing, "there are many philologists
+who have turned back as you so much desire, and I notice a great
+contrast with my own youthful experience. Consciously or
+unconsciously, large numbers of them have concluded that it is
+hopeless and useless for them to come into direct contact with
+classical antiquity, hence they are inclined to look upon this study
+as barren, superseded, out-of-date. This herd has turned with much
+greater zest to the science of language: here in this wide expanse of
+virgin soil, where even the most mediocre gifts can be turned to
+account, and where a kind of insipidity and dullness is even looked
+upon as decided talent, with the novelty and uncertainty of methods
+and the constant danger of making fantastic mistakes--here, where dull
+regimental routine and discipline are desiderata--here the newcomer is
+no longer frightened by the majestic and warning voice that rises from
+the ruins of antiquity: here every one is welcomed with open arms,
+including even him who never arrived at any uncommon impression or
+noteworthy thought after a perusal of Sophocles and Aristophanes, with
+the result that they end in an etymological tangle, or are seduced
+into collecting the fragments of out-of-the-way dialects--and their
+time is spent in associating and dissociating, collecting and
+scattering, and running hither and thither consulting books. And such
+a usefully employed philologist would now fain be a teacher! He now
+undertakes to teach the youth of the public schools something about
+the ancient writers, although he himself has read them without any
+particular impression, much less with insight! What a dilemma!
+Antiquity has said nothing to him, consequently he has nothing to say
+about antiquity. A sudden thought strikes him: why is he a skilled
+philologist at all! Why did these authors write Latin and Greek! And
+with a light heart he immediately begins to etymologise with Homer,
+calling Lithuanian or Ecclesiastical Slavonic, or, above all, the
+sacred Sanskrit, to his assistance: as if Greek lessons were merely
+the excuse for a general introduction to the study of languages, and
+as if Homer were lacking in only one respect, namely, not being
+written in pre-Indogermanic. Whoever is acquainted with our present
+public schools well knows what a wide gulf separates their teachers
+from classicism, and how, from a feeling of this want, comparative
+philology and allied professions have increased their numbers to such
+an unheard-of degree."
+
+"What I mean is," said the other, "it would depend upon whether a
+teacher of classical culture did _not_ confuse his Greeks and Romans
+with the other peoples, the barbarians, whether he could _never_ put
+Greek and Latin _on a level with_ other languages: so far as his
+classicalism is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether the
+framework of these languages concurs with or is in any way related to
+the other languages: such a concurrence does not interest him at all;
+his real concern is with _what is not common to both_, with what shows
+him that those two peoples were not barbarians as compared with the
+others--in so far, of course, as he is a true teacher of culture and
+models himself after the majestic patterns of the classics."
+
+"I may be wrong," said the philosopher, "but I suspect that, owing to
+the way in which Latin and Greek are now taught in schools, the
+accurate grasp of these languages, the ability to speak and write them
+with ease, is lost, and that is something in which my own generation
+distinguished itself--a generation, indeed, whose few survivers have
+by this time grown old; whilst, on the other hand, the present
+teachers seem to impress their pupils with the genetic and historical
+importance of the subject to such an extent that, at best, their
+scholars ultimately turn into little Sanskritists, etymological
+spitfires, or reckless conjecturers; but not one of them can read his
+Plato or Tacitus with pleasure, as we old folk can. The public schools
+may still be seats of learning: not, however of _the_ learning which,
+as it were, is only the natural and involuntary auxiliary of a culture
+that is directed towards the noblest ends; but rather of that culture
+which might be compared to the hypertrophical swelling of an unhealthy
+body. The public schools are certainly the seats of this obesity, if,
+indeed, they have not degenerated into the abodes of that elegant
+barbarism which is boasted of as being 'German culture of the
+present!'"
+
+"But," asked the other, "what is to become of that large body of
+teachers who have not been endowed with a true gift for culture, and
+who set up as teachers merely to gain a livelihood from the
+profession, because there is a demand for them, because a superfluity
+of schools brings with it a superfluity of teachers? Where shall they
+go when antiquity peremptorily orders them to withdraw? Must they not
+be sacrificed to those powers of the present who, day after day, call
+out to them from the never-ending columns of the press 'We are
+culture! We are education! We are at the zenith! We are the apexes of
+the pyramids! We are the aims of universal history!'--when they hear
+the seductive promises, when the shameful signs of non-culture, the
+plebeian publicity of the so-called 'interests of culture' are
+extolled for their benefit in magazines and newspapers as an entirely
+new and the best possible, full-grown form of culture! Whither shall
+the poor fellows fly when they feel the presentiment that these
+promises are not true--where but to the most obtuse, sterile
+scientificality, that here the shriek of culture may no longer be
+audible to them? Pursued in this way, must they not end, like the
+ostrich, by burying their heads in the sand? Is it not a real
+happiness for them, buried as they are among dialects, etymologies,
+and conjectures, to lead a life like that of the ants, even though
+they are miles removed from true culture, if only they can close their
+ears tightly and be deaf to the voice of the 'elegant' culture of the
+time."
+
+"You are right, my friend," said the philosopher, "but whence comes the
+urgent necessity for a surplus of schools for culture, which further
+gives rise to the necessity for a surplus of teachers?--when we so
+clearly see that the demand for a surplus springs from a sphere which is
+hostile to culture, and that the consequences of this surplus only lead
+to non-culture. Indeed, we can discuss this dire necessity only in so
+far as the modern State is willing to discuss these things with us, and
+is prepared to follow up its demands by force: which phenomenon
+certainly makes the same impression upon most people as if they were
+addressed by the eternal law of things. For the rest, a 'Culture-State,'
+to use the current expression, which makes such demands, is rather a
+novelty, and has only come to a 'self-understanding' within the last
+half century, _i.e._ in a period when (to use the favourite popular
+word) so many 'self-understood' things came into being, but which are in
+themselves not 'self-understood' at all. This right to higher education
+has been taken so seriously by the most powerful of modern
+States--Prussia--that the objectionable principle it has adopted, taken
+in connection with the well-known daring and hardihood of this State, is
+seen to have a menacing and dangerous consequence for the true German
+spirit; for we see endeavours being made in this quarter to raise the
+public school, formally systematised, up to the so-called 'level of the
+time.' Here is to be found all that mechanism by means of which as many
+scholars as possible are urged on to take up courses of public school
+training: here, indeed, the State has its most powerful inducement--the
+concession of certain privileges respecting military service, with the
+natural consequence that, according to the unprejudiced evidence of
+statistical officials, by this, and by this only, can we explain the
+universal congestion of all Prussian public schools, and the urgent and
+continual need for new ones. What more can the State do for a surplus of
+educational institutions than bring all the higher and the majority of
+the lower civil service appointments, the right of entry to the
+universities, and even the most influential military posts into close
+connection with the public school: and all this in a country where both
+universal military service and the highest offices of the State
+unconsciously attract all gifted natures to them. The public school is
+here looked upon as an honourable aim, and every one who feels himself
+urged on to the sphere of government will be found on his way to it.
+This is a new and quite original occurrence: the State assumes the
+attitude of a mystogogue of culture, and, whilst it promotes its own
+ends, it obliges every one of its servants not to appear in its presence
+without the torch of universal State education in their hands, by the
+flickering light of which they may again recognise the State as the
+highest goal, as the reward of all their strivings after education.
+
+"Now this last phenomenon should indeed surprise them; it should
+remind them of that allied, slowly understood tendency of a philosophy
+which was formerly promoted for reasons of State, namely, the
+tendency of the Hegelian philosophy: yea, it would perhaps be no
+exaggeration to say that, in the subordination of all strivings after
+education to reasons of State, Prussia has appropriated, with success,
+the principle and the useful heirloom of the Hegelian philosophy,
+whose apotheosis of the State in _this_ subordination certainly
+reaches its height."
+
+"But," said the philosopher's companion, "what purposes can the State
+have in view with such a strange aim? For that it has some State
+objects in view is seen in the manner in which the conditions of
+Prussian schools are admired by, meditated upon, and occasionally
+imitated by other States. These other States obviously presuppose
+something here that, if adopted, would tend towards the maintenance
+and power of the State, like our well-known and popular conscription.
+Where everyone proudly wears his soldier's uniform at regular
+intervals, where almost every one has absorbed a uniform type of
+national culture through the public schools, enthusiastic hyperboles
+may well be uttered concerning the systems employed in former times,
+and a form of State omnipotence which was attained only in antiquity,
+and which almost every young man, by both instinct and training,
+thinks it is the crowning glory and highest aim of human beings to
+reach."
+
+"Such a comparison," said the philosopher, "would be quite
+hyperbolical, and would not hobble along on one leg only. For, indeed,
+the ancient State emphatically did not share the utilitarian point of
+view of recognising as culture only what was directly useful to the
+State itself, and was far from wishing to destroy those impulses which
+did not seem to be immediately applicable. For this very reason the
+profound Greek had for the State that strong feeling of admiration and
+thankfulness which is so distasteful to modern men; because he clearly
+recognised not only that without such State protection the germs of
+his culture could not develop, but also that all his inimitable and
+perennial culture had flourished so luxuriantly under the wise and
+careful guardianship of the protection afforded by the State. The
+State was for his culture not a supervisor, regulator, and watchman,
+but a vigorous and muscular companion and friend, ready for war, who
+accompanied his noble, admired, and, as it were, ethereal friend
+through disagreeable reality, earning his thanks therefor. This,
+however, does not happen when a modern State lays claim to such hearty
+gratitude because it renders such chivalrous service to German culture
+and art: for in this regard its past is as ignominious as its present,
+as a proof of which we have but to think of the manner in which the
+memory of our great poets and artists is celebrated in German cities,
+and how the highest objects of these German masters are supported on
+the part of the State.
+
+"There must therefore be peculiar circumstances surrounding both this
+purpose towards which the State is tending, and which always promotes
+what is here called 'education'; and surrounding likewise the culture
+thus promoted, which subordinates itself to this purpose of the State.
+With the real German spirit and the education derived therefrom, such
+as I have slowly outlined for you, this purpose of the State is at
+war, hiddenly or openly: _the_ spirit of education, which is welcomed
+and encouraged with such interest by the State, and owing to which the
+schools of this country are so much admired abroad, must accordingly
+originate in a sphere that never comes into contact with this true
+German spirit: with that spirit which speaks to us so wondrously from
+the inner heart of the German Reformation, German music, and German
+philosophy, and which, like a noble exile, is regarded with such
+indifference and scorn by the luxurious education afforded by the
+State. This spirit is a stranger: it passes by in solitary sadness,
+and far away from it the censer of pseudo-culture is swung backwards
+and forwards, which, amidst the acclamations of 'educated' teachers
+and journalists, arrogates to itself its name and privileges, and
+metes out insulting treatment to the word 'German.' Why does the State
+require that surplus of educational institutions, of teachers? Why
+this education of the masses on such an extended scale? Because the
+true German spirit is hated, because the aristocratic nature of true
+culture is feared, because the people endeavour in this way to drive
+single great individuals into self-exile, so that the claims of the
+masses to education may be, so to speak, planted down and carefully
+tended, in order that the many may in this way endeavour to escape the
+rigid and strict discipline of the few great leaders, so that the
+masses may be persuaded that they can easily find the path for
+themselves--following the guiding star of the State!
+
+"A new phenomenon! The State as the guiding star of culture! In the
+meantime one thing consoles me: this German spirit, which people are
+combating so much, and for which they have substituted a gaudily
+attired _locum tenens_, this spirit is brave: it will fight and redeem
+itself into a purer age; noble, as it is now, and victorious, as it
+one day will be, it will always preserve in its mind a certain pitiful
+toleration of the State, if the latter, hard-pressed in the hour of
+extremity, secures such a pseudo-culture as its associate. For what,
+after all, do we know about the difficult task of governing men,
+_i.e._ to keep law, order, quietness, and peace among millions of
+boundlessly egoistical, unjust, unreasonable, dishonourable, envious,
+malignant, and hence very narrow-minded and perverse human beings; and
+thus to protect the few things that the State has conquered for itself
+against covetous neighbours and jealous robbers? Such a hard-pressed
+State holds out its arms to any associate, grasps at any straw; and
+when such an associate does introduce himself with flowery eloquence,
+when he adjudges the State, as Hegel did, to be an 'absolutely
+complete ethical organism,' the be-all and end-all of every one's
+education, and goes on to indicate how he himself can best promote the
+interests of the State--who will be surprised if, without further
+parley, the State falls upon his neck and cries aloud in a barbaric
+voice of full conviction: 'Yes! Thou art education! Thou art indeed
+culture!'"
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 5th of March 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--Now that you have followed my tale up to this
+point, and that we have made ourselves joint masters of the solitary,
+remote, and at times abusive duologue of the philosopher and his
+companion, I sincerely hope that you, like strong swimmers, are ready
+to proceed on the second half of our journey, especially as I can
+promise you that a few other marionettes will appear in the
+puppet-play of my adventure, and that if up to the present you have
+only been able to do little more than endure what I have been telling
+you, the waves of my story will now bear you more quickly and easily
+towards the end. In other words we have now come to a turning, and it
+would be advisable for us to take a short glance backwards to see what
+we think we have gained from such a varied conversation.
+
+"Remain in your present position," the philosopher seemed to say to
+his companion, "for you may cherish hopes. It is more and more clearly
+evident that we have no educational institutions at all; but that we
+ought to have them. Our public schools--established, it would seem,
+for this high object--have either become the nurseries of a
+reprehensible culture which repels the true culture with profound
+hatred--_i.e._ a true, aristocratic culture, founded upon a few
+carefully chosen minds; or they foster a micrological and sterile
+learning which, while it is far removed from culture, has at least
+this merit, that it avoids that reprehensible culture as well as the
+true culture." The philosopher had particularly drawn his companion's
+attention to the strange corruption which must have entered into the
+heart of culture when the State thought itself capable of tyrannising
+over it and of attaining its ends through it; and further when the
+State, in conjunction with this culture, struggled against other
+hostile forces as well as against _the_ spirit which the philosopher
+ventured to call the "true German spirit." This spirit, linked to the
+Greeks by the noblest ties, and shown by its past history to have been
+steadfast and courageous, pure and lofty in its aims, its faculties
+qualifying it for the high task of freeing modern man from the curse
+of modernity--this spirit is condemned to live apart, banished from
+its inheritance. But when its slow, painful tones of woe resound
+through the desert of the present, then the overladen and gaily-decked
+caravan of culture is pulled up short, horror-stricken. We must not
+only astonish, but terrify--such was the philosopher's opinion: not to
+fly shamefully away, but to take the offensive, was his advice; but he
+especially counselled his companion not to ponder too anxiously over
+the individual from whom, through a higher instinct, this aversion for
+the present barbarism proceeded, "Let it perish: the Pythian god had
+no difficulty in finding a new tripod, a second Pythia, so long, at
+least, as the mystic cold vapours rose from the earth."
+
+The philosopher once more began to speak: "Be careful to remember, my
+friend," said he, "there are two things you must not confuse. A man
+must learn a great deal that he may live and take part in the struggle
+for existence; but everything that he as an individual learns and does
+with this end in view has nothing whatever to do with culture. This
+latter only takes its beginning in a sphere that lies far above the
+world of necessity, indigence, and struggle for existence. The
+question now is to what extent a man values his ego in comparison with
+other egos, how much of his strength he uses up in the endeavour to
+earn his living. Many a one, by stoically confining his needs within a
+narrow compass, will shortly and easily reach the sphere in which he
+may forget, and, as it were, shake off his ego, so that he can enjoy
+perpetual youth in a solar system of timeless and impersonal things.
+Another widens the scope and needs of his ego as much as possible, and
+builds the mausoleum of this ego in vast proportions, as if he were
+prepared to fight and conquer that terrible adversary, Time. In this
+instinct also we may see a longing for immortality: wealth and power,
+wisdom, presence of mind, eloquence, a flourishing outward aspect, a
+renowned name--all these are merely turned into the means by which an
+insatiable, personal will to live craves for new life, with which,
+again, it hankers after an eternity that is at last seen to be
+illusory.
+
+"But even in this highest form of the ego, in the enhanced needs of
+such a distended and, as it were, collective individual, true culture
+is never touched upon; and if, for example, art is sought after, only
+its disseminating and stimulating actions come into prominence, _i.e._
+those which least give rise to pure and noble art, and most of all to
+low and degraded forms of it. For in all his efforts, however great
+and exceptional they seem to the onlooker, he never succeeds in
+freeing himself from his own hankering and restless personality: that
+illuminated, ethereal sphere where one may contemplate without the
+obstruction of one's own personality continually recedes from him--and
+thus, let him learn, travel, and collect as he may, he must always
+live an exiled life at a remote distance from a higher life and from
+true culture. For true culture would scorn to contaminate itself with
+the needy and covetous individual; it well knows how to give the slip
+to the man who would fain employ it as a means of attaining to
+egoistic ends; and if any one cherishes the belief that he has firmly
+secured it as a means of livelihood, and that he can procure the
+necessities of life by its sedulous cultivation, then it suddenly
+steals away with noiseless steps and an air of derisive mockery.[6]
+
+"I will thus ask you, my friend, not to confound this culture, this
+sensitive, fastidious, ethereal goddess, with that useful
+maid-of-all-work which is also called 'culture,' but which is only
+the intellectual servant and counsellor of one's practical
+necessities, wants, and means of livelihood Every kind of training,
+however, which holds out the prospect of bread-winning as its end and
+aim, is not a training for culture as we understand the word; but
+merely a collection of precepts and directions to show how, in the
+struggle for existence, a man may preserve and protect his own person.
+It may be freely admitted that for the great majority of men such a
+course of instruction is of the highest importance; and the more
+arduous the struggle is the more intensely must the young man strain
+every nerve to utilise his strength to the best advantage.
+
+"But--let no one think for a moment that the schools which urge him on
+to this struggle and prepare him for it are in any way seriously to be
+considered as establishments of culture. They are institutions which
+teach one how to take part in the battle of life; whether they promise
+to turn out civil servants, or merchants, or officers, or wholesale
+dealers, or farmers, or physicians, or men with a technical training.
+The regulations and standards prevailing at such institutions differ
+from those in a true educational institution; and what in the latter
+is permitted, and even freely held out as often as possible, ought to
+be considered as a criminal offence in the former.
+
+"Let me give you an example. If you wish to guide a young man on the
+path of true culture, beware of interrupting his naive, confident,
+and, as it were, immediate and personal relationship with nature. The
+woods, the rocks, the winds, the vulture, the flowers, the butterfly,
+the meads, the mountain slopes, must all speak to him in their own
+language; in them he must, as it were, come to know himself again in
+countless reflections and images, in a variegated round of changing
+visions; and in this way he will unconsciously and gradually feel the
+metaphysical unity of all things in the great image of nature, and at
+the same time tranquillise his soul in the contemplation of her
+eternal endurance and necessity. But how many young men should be
+permitted to grow up in such close and almost personal proximity to
+nature! The others must learn another truth betimes: how to subdue
+nature to themselves. Here is an end of this naive metaphysics; and
+the physiology of plants and animals, geology, inorganic chemistry,
+force their devotees to view nature from an altogether different
+standpoint. What is lost by this new point of view is not only a
+poetical phantasmagoria, but the instinctive, true, and unique point
+of view, instead of which we have shrewd and clever calculations, and,
+so to speak, overreachings of nature. Thus to the truly cultured man
+is vouchsafed the inestimable benefit of being able to remain
+faithful, without a break, to the contemplative instincts of his
+childhood, and so to attain to a calmness, unity, consistency, and
+harmony which can never be even thought of by a man who is compelled
+to fight in the struggle for existence.
+
+"You must not think, however, that I wish to withhold all praise from
+our primary and secondary schools: I honour the seminaries where boys
+learn arithmetic and master modern languages, and study geography and
+the marvellous discoveries made in natural science. I am quite
+prepared to say further that those youths who pass through the better
+class of secondary schools are well entitled to make the claims put
+forward by the fully-fledged public school boy; and the time is
+certainly not far distant when such pupils will be everywhere freely
+admitted to the universities and positions under the government, which
+has hitherto been the case only with scholars from the public
+schools--of our present public schools, be it noted![7] I cannot,
+however, refrain from adding the melancholy reflection: if it be true
+that secondary and public schools are, on the whole, working so
+heartily in common towards the same ends, and differ from each other
+only in such a slight degree, that they may take equal rank before the
+tribunal of the State, then we completely lack another kind of
+educational institutions: those for the development of culture! To say
+the least, the secondary schools cannot be reproached with this; for
+they have up to the present propitiously and honourably followed up
+tendencies of a lower order, but one nevertheless highly necessary. In
+the public schools, however, there is very much less honesty and very
+much less ability too; for in them we find an instinctive feeling of
+shame, the unconscious perception of the fact that the whole
+institution has been ignominiously degraded, and that the sonorous
+words of wise and apathetic teachers are contradictory to the dreary,
+barbaric, and sterile reality. So there are no true cultural
+institutions! And in those very places where a pretence to culture is
+still kept up, we find the people more hopeless, atrophied, and
+discontented than in the secondary schools, where the so-called
+'realistic' subjects are taught! Besides this, only think how immature
+and uninformed one must be in the company of such teachers when one
+actually misunderstands the rigorously defined philosophical
+expressions 'real' and 'realism' to such a degree as to think them the
+contraries of mind and matter, and to interpret 'realism' as 'the road
+to knowledge, formation, and mastery of reality.'
+
+"I for my own part know of only two exact contraries: _institutions
+for teaching culture and institutions for teaching how to succeed in
+life_. All our present institutions belong to the second class; but I
+am speaking only of the first."
+
+About two hours went by while the philosophically-minded couple
+chatted about such startling questions. Night slowly fell in the
+meantime; and when in the twilight the philosopher's voice had sounded
+like natural music through the woods, it now rang out in the profound
+darkness of the night when he was speaking with excitement or even
+passionately; his tones hissing and thundering far down the valley,
+and reverberating among the trees and rocks. Suddenly he was silent:
+he had just repeated, almost pathetically, the words, "we have no true
+educational institutions; we have no true educational institutions!"
+when something fell down just in front of him--it might have been a
+fir-cone--and his dog barked and ran towards it. Thus interrupted, the
+philosopher raised his head, and suddenly became aware of the
+darkness, the cool air, and the lonely situation of himself and his
+companion. "Well! What are we about!" he ejaculated, "it's dark. You
+know whom we were expecting here; but he hasn't come. We have waited
+in vain; let us go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I must now, ladies and gentlemen, convey to you the impressions
+experienced by my friend and myself as we eagerly listened to this
+conversation, which we heard distinctly in our hiding-place. I have
+already told you that at that place and at that hour we had intended
+to hold a festival in commemoration of something: and this something
+had to do with nothing else than matters concerning educational
+training, of which we, in our own youthful opinions, had garnered a
+plentiful harvest during our past life. We were thus disposed to
+remember with gratitude the institution which we had at one time
+thought out for ourselves at that very spot in order, as I have
+already mentioned, that we might reciprocally encourage and watch over
+one another's educational impulses. But a sudden and unexpected light
+was thrown on all that past life as we silently gave ourselves up to
+the vehement words of the philosopher. As when a traveller, walking
+heedlessly across unknown ground, suddenly puts his foot over the edge
+of a cliff, so it now seemed to us that we had hastened to meet the
+great danger rather than run away from it. Here at this spot, so
+memorable to us, we heard the warning: "Back! Not another step! Know
+you not whither your footsteps tend, whither this deceitful path is
+luring you?"
+
+It seemed to us that we now knew, and our feeling of overflowing
+thankfulness impelled us so irresistibly towards our earnest
+counsellor and trusty Eckart, that both of us sprang up at the same
+moment and rushed towards the philosopher to embrace him. He was just
+about to move off, and had already turned sideways when we rushed up
+to him. The dog turned sharply round and barked, thinking doubtless,
+like the philosopher's companion, of an attempt at robbery rather than
+an enraptured embrace. It was plain that he had forgotten us. In a
+word, he ran away. Our embrace was a miserable failure when we did
+overtake him; for my friend gave a loud yell as the dog bit him, and
+the philosopher himself sprang away from me with such force that we
+both fell. What with the dog and the men there was a scramble that
+lasted a few minutes, until my friend began to call out loudly,
+parodying the philosopher's own words: "In the name of all culture and
+pseudo-culture, what does the silly dog want with us? Hence, you
+confounded dog; you uninitiated, never to be initiated; hasten away
+from us, silent and ashamed!" After this outburst matters were cleared
+up to some extent, at any rate so far as they could be cleared up in
+the darkness of the wood. "Oh, it's you!" ejaculated the philosopher,
+"our duellists! How you startled us! What on earth drives you to jump
+out upon us like this at such a time of the night?"
+
+"Joy, thankfulness, and reverence," said we, shaking the old man by
+the hand, whilst the dog barked as if he understood, "we can't let you
+go without telling you this. And if you are to understand everything
+you must not go away just yet; we want to ask you about so many things
+that lie heavily on our hearts. Stay yet awhile; we know every foot of
+the way and can accompany you afterwards. The gentleman you expect may
+yet turn up. Look over yonder on the Rhine: what is that we see so
+clearly floating on the surface of the water as if surrounded by the
+light of many torches? It is there that we may look for your friend, I
+would even venture to say that it is he who is coming towards you with
+all those lights."
+
+And so much did we assail the surprised old man with our entreaties,
+promises, and fantastic delusions, that we persuaded the philosopher
+to walk to and fro with us on the little plateau, "by learned lumber
+undisturbed," as my friend added.
+
+"Shame on you!" said the philosopher, "if you really want to quote
+something, why choose Faust? However, I will give in to you, quotation
+or no quotation, if only our young companions will keep still and not
+run away as suddenly as they made their appearance, for they are like
+will-o'-the-wisps; we are amazed when they are there and again when
+they are not there."
+
+My friend immediately recited--
+
+    Respect, I hope, will teach us how we may
+    Our lighter disposition keep at bay.
+    Our course is only zig-zag as a rule.
+
+The philosopher was surprised, and stood still. "You astonish me, you
+will-o'-the-wisps," he said; "this is no quagmire we are on now. Of
+what use is this ground to you? What does the proximity of a
+philosopher mean to you? For around him the air is sharp and clear,
+the ground dry and hard. You must find out a more fantastic region for
+your zig-zagging inclinations."
+
+"I think," interrupted the philosopher's companion at this point, "the
+gentlemen have already told us that they promised to meet some one
+here at this hour; but it seems to me that they listened to our comedy
+of education like a chorus, and truly 'idealistic spectators'--for
+they did not disturb us; we thought we were alone with each other."
+
+"Yes, that is true," said the philosopher, "that praise must not be
+withheld from them, but it seems to me that they deserve still higher
+praise----"
+
+Here I seized the philosopher's hand and said: "That man must be as
+obtuse as a reptile, with his stomach on the ground and his head
+buried in mud, who can listen to such a discourse as yours without
+becoming earnest and thoughtful, or even excited and indignant.
+Self-accusation and annoyance might perhaps cause a few to get angry;
+but our impression was quite different: the only thing I do not know
+is how exactly to describe it. This hour was so well-timed for us, and
+our minds were so well prepared, that we sat there like empty vessels,
+and now it seems as if we were filled to overflowing with this new
+wisdom: for I no longer know how to help myself, and if some one asked
+me what I am thinking of doing to-morrow, or what I have made up my
+mind to do with myself from now on, I should not know what to answer.
+For it is easy to see that we have up to the present been living and
+educating ourselves in the wrong way--but what can we do to cross over
+the chasm between to-day and to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," acknowledged my friend, "I have a similar feeling, and I ask
+the same question: but besides that I feel as if I were frightened
+away from German culture by entertaining such high and ideal views of
+its task; yea, as if I were unworthy to co-operate with it in carrying
+out its aims. I only see a resplendent file of the highest natures
+moving towards this goal; I can imagine over what abysses and through
+what temptations this procession travels. Who would dare to be so bold
+as to join in it?"
+
+At this point the philosopher's companion again turned to him and
+said: "Don't be angry with me when I tell you that I too have a
+somewhat similar feeling, which I have not mentioned to you before.
+When talking to you I often felt drawn out of myself, as it were, and
+inspired with your ardour and hopes till I almost forgot myself. Then
+a calmer moment arrives; a piercing wind of reality brings me back to
+earth--and then I see the wide gulf between us, over which you
+yourself, as in a dream, draw me back again. Then what you call
+'culture' merely totters meaninglessly around me or lies heavily on my
+breast: it is like a shirt of mail that weighs me down, or a sword
+that I cannot wield."
+
+Our minds, as we thus argued with the philosopher, were unanimous,
+and, mutually encouraging and stimulating one another, we slowly
+walked with him backwards and forwards along the unencumbered space
+which had earlier in the day served us as a shooting range. And then,
+in the still night, under the peaceful light of hundreds of stars, we
+all broke out into a tirade which ran somewhat as follows:--
+
+"You have told us so much about the genius," we began, "about his
+lonely and wearisome journey through the world, as if nature never
+exhibited anything but the most diametrical contraries: in one place
+the stupid, dull masses, acting by instinct, and then, on a far higher
+and more remote plane, the great contemplating few, destined for the
+production of immortal works. But now you call these the apexes of the
+intellectual pyramid: it would, however, seem that between the broad,
+heavily burdened foundation up to the highest of the free and
+unencumbered peaks there must be countless intermediate degrees, and
+that here we must apply the saying _natura non facit saltus_. Where
+then are we to look for the beginning of what you call culture; where
+is the line of demarcation to be drawn between the spheres which are
+ruled from below upwards and those which are ruled from above
+downwards? And if it be only in connection with these exalted beings
+that true culture may be spoken of, how are institutions to be founded
+for the uncertain existence of such natures, how can we devise
+educational establishments which shall be of benefit only to these
+select few? It rather seems to us that such persons know how to find
+their own way, and that their full strength is shown in their being
+able to walk without the educational crutches necessary for other
+people, and thus undisturbed to make their way through the storm and
+stress of this rough world just like a phantom."
+
+We kept on arguing in this fashion, speaking without any great ability
+and not putting our thoughts in any special form: but the
+philosopher's companion went even further, and said to him: "Just
+think of all these great geniuses of whom we are wont to be so proud,
+looking upon them as tried and true leaders and guides of this real
+German spirit, whose names we commemorate by statues and festivals,
+and whose works we hold up with feelings of pride for the admiration
+of foreign lands--how did they obtain the education you demand for
+them, to what degree do they show that they have been nourished and
+matured by basking in the sun of national education? And yet they are
+seen to be possible, they have nevertheless become men whom we must
+honour: yea, their works themselves justify the form of the
+development of these noble spirits; they justify even a certain want
+of education for which we must make allowance owing to their country
+and the age in which they lived. How could Lessing and Winckelmann
+benefit by the German culture of their time? Even less than, or at all
+events just as little as Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe, or every one of
+our great poets and artists. It may perhaps be a law of nature that
+only the later generations are destined to know by what divine gifts
+an earlier generation was favoured."
+
+At this point the old philosopher could not control his anger, and
+shouted to his companion: "Oh, you innocent lamb of knowledge! You
+gentle sucking doves, all of you! And would you give the name of
+arguments to those distorted, clumsy, narrow-minded, ungainly,
+crippled things? Yes, I have just now been listening to the fruits of
+some of this present-day culture, and my ears are still ringing with
+the sound of historical 'self-understood' things, of over-wise and
+pitiless historical reasonings! Mark this, thou unprofaned Nature:
+thou hast grown old, and for thousands of years this starry sky has
+spanned the space above thee--but thou hast never yet heard such
+conceited and, at bottom, mischievous chatter as the talk of the
+present day! So you are proud of your poets and artists, my good
+Teutons? You point to them and brag about them to foreign countries,
+do you? And because it has given you no trouble to have them amongst
+you, you have formed the pleasant theory that you need not concern
+yourselves further with them? Isn't that so, my inexperienced
+children: they come of their own free will, the stork brings them to
+you! Who would dare to mention a midwife! You deserve an earnest
+teaching, eh? You should be proud of the fact that all the noble and
+brilliant men we have mentioned were prematurely suffocated, worn out,
+and crushed through you, through your barbarism? You think without
+shame of Lessing, who, on account of your stupidity, perished in
+battle against your ludicrous gods and idols, the evils of your
+theatres, your learned men, and your theologians, without once daring
+to lift himself to the height of that immortal flight for which he
+was brought into the world. And what are your impressions when you
+think of Winckelmann, who, that he might rid his eyes of your
+grotesque fatuousness, went to beg help from the Jesuits, and whose
+disgraceful religious conversion recoils upon you and will always
+remain an ineffaceable blemish upon you? You can even name Schiller
+without blushing! Just look at his picture! The fiery, sparkling eyes,
+looking at you with disdain, those flushed, death-like cheeks: can you
+learn nothing from all that? In him you had a beautiful and divine
+plaything, and through it was destroyed. And if it had been possible
+for you to take Goethe's friendship away from this melancholy, hasty
+life, hunted to premature death, then you would have crushed him even
+sooner than you did. You have not rendered assistance to a single one
+of our great geniuses--and now upon that fact you wish to build up the
+theory that none of them shall ever be helped in future? For each of
+them, however, up to this very moment, you have always been the
+'resistance of the stupid world' that Goethe speaks of in his
+"Epilogue to the Bell"; towards each of them you acted the part of
+apathetic dullards or jealous narrow-hearts or malignant egotists. In
+spite of you they created their immortal works, against you they
+directed their attacks, and thanks to you they died so prematurely,
+their tasks only half accomplished, blunted and dulled and shattered
+in the battle. Who can tell to what these heroic men were destined to
+attain if only that true German spirit had gathered them together
+within the protecting walls of a powerful institution?--that spirit
+which, without the help of some such institution, drags out an
+isolated, debased, and degraded existence. All those great men were
+utterly ruined; and it is only an insane belief in the Hegelian
+'reasonableness of all happenings' which would absolve you of any
+responsibility in the matter. And not those men alone! Indictments are
+pouring forth against you from every intellectual province: whether I
+look at the talents of our poets, philosophers, painters, or
+sculptors--and not only in the case of gifts of the highest order--I
+everywhere see immaturity, overstrained nerves, or prematurely
+exhausted energies, abilities wasted and nipped in the bud; I
+everywhere feel that 'resistance of the stupid world,' in other words,
+_your_ guiltiness. That is what I am talking about when I speak of
+lacking educational establishments, and why I think those which at
+present claim the name in such a pitiful condition. Whoever is pleased
+to call this an 'ideal desire,' and refers to it as 'ideal' as if he
+were trying to get rid of it by praising me, deserves the answer that
+the present system is a scandal and a disgrace, and that the man who
+asks for warmth in the midst of ice and snow must indeed get angry if
+he hears this referred to as an 'ideal desire.' The matter we are now
+discussing is concerned with clear, urgent, and palpably evident
+realities: a man who knows anything of the question feels that there
+is a need which must be seen to, just like cold and hunger. But the
+man who is not affected at all by this matter most certainly has a
+standard by which to measure the extent of his own culture, and thus
+to know what I call 'culture,' and where the line should be drawn
+between that which is ruled from below upwards and that which is ruled
+from above downwards."
+
+The philosopher seemed to be speaking very heatedly. We begged him to
+walk round with us again, since he had uttered the latter part of his
+discourse standing near the tree-stump which had served us as a
+target. For a few minutes not a word more was spoken. Slowly and
+thoughtfully we walked to and fro. We did not so much feel ashamed of
+having brought forward such foolish arguments as we felt a kind of
+restitution of our personality. After the heated and, so far as we
+were concerned, very unflattering utterance of the philosopher, we
+seemed to feel ourselves nearer to him--that we even stood in a
+personal relationship to him. For so wretched is man that he never
+feels himself brought into such close contact with a stranger as when
+the latter shows some sign of weakness, some defect. That our
+philosopher had lost his temper and made use of abusive language
+helped to bridge over the gulf created between us by our timid respect
+for him: and for the sake of the reader who feels his indignation
+rising at this suggestion let it be added that this bridge often leads
+from distant hero-worship to personal love and pity. And, after the
+feeling that our personality had been restored to us, this pity
+gradually became stronger and stronger. Why were we making this old
+man walk up and down with us between the rocks and trees at that time
+of the night? And, since he had yielded to our entreaties, why could
+we not have thought of a more modest and unassuming manner of having
+ourselves instructed, why should the three of us have contradicted him
+in such clumsy terms?
+
+For now we saw how thoughtless, unprepared, and baseless were all the
+objections we had made, and how greatly the echo of _the_ present was
+heard in them, the voice of which, in the province of culture, the old
+man would fain not have heard. Our objections, however, were not
+purely intellectual ones: our reasons for protesting against the
+philosopher's statements seemed to lie elsewhere. They arose perhaps
+from the instinctive anxiety to know whether, if the philosopher's
+views were carried into effect, our own personalities would find a
+place in the higher or lower division; and this made it necessary for
+us to find some arguments against the mode of thinking which robbed us
+of our self-styled claims to culture. People, however, should not
+argue with companions who feel the weight of an argument so
+personally; or, as the moral in our case would have been: such
+companions should not argue, should not contradict at all.
+
+So we walked on beside the philosopher, ashamed, compassionate,
+dissatisfied with ourselves, and more than ever convinced that the old
+man was right and that we had done him wrong. How remote now seemed
+the youthful dream of our educational institution; how clearly we saw
+the danger which we had hitherto escaped merely by good luck, namely,
+giving ourselves up body and soul to the educational system which
+forced itself upon our notice so enticingly, from the time when we
+entered the public schools up to that moment. How then had it come
+about that we had not taken our places in the chorus of its admirers?
+Perhaps merely because we were real students, and could still draw
+back from the rough-and-tumble, the pushing and struggling, the
+restless, ever-breaking waves of publicity, to seek refuge in our own
+little educational establishment; which, however, time would have soon
+swallowed up also.
+
+Overcome by such reflections, we were about to address the philosopher
+again, when he suddenly turned towards us, and said in a softer tone--
+
+"I cannot be surprised if you young men behave rashly and
+thoughtlessly; for it is hardly likely that you have ever seriously
+considered what I have just said to you. Don't be in a hurry; carry
+this question about with you, but do at any rate consider it day and
+night. For you are now at the parting of the ways, and now you know
+where each path leads. If you take the one, your age will receive you
+with open arms, you will not find it wanting in honours and
+decorations: you will form units of an enormous rank and file; and
+there will be as many people like-minded standing behind you as in
+front of you. And when the leader gives the word it will be re-echoed
+from rank to rank. For here your first duty is this: to fight in rank
+and file; and your second: to annihilate all those who refuse to form
+part of the rank and file. On the other path you will have but few
+fellow-travellers: it is more arduous, winding and precipitous; and
+those who take the first path will mock you, for your progress is more
+wearisome, and they will try to lure you over into their own ranks.
+When the two paths happen to cross, however, you will be roughly
+handled and thrust aside, or else shunned and isolated.
+
+"Now, take these two parties, so different from each other in every
+respect, and tell me what meaning an educational establishment would
+have for them. That enormous horde, crowding onwards on the first path
+towards its goal, would take the term to mean an institution by which
+each of its members would become duly qualified to take his place in
+the rank and file, and would be purged of everything which might tend
+to make him strive after higher and more remote aims. I don't deny, of
+course, that they can find pompous words with which to describe their
+aims: for example, they speak of the 'universal development of free
+personality upon a firm social, national, and human basis,' or they
+announce as their goal: 'The founding of the peaceful sovereignty of
+the people upon reason, education, and justice.'
+
+"An educational establishment for the other and smaller company,
+however, would be something vastly different. They would employ it to
+prevent themselves from being separated from one another and
+overwhelmed by the first huge crowd, to prevent their few select
+spirits from losing sight of their splendid and noble task through
+premature weariness, or from being turned aside from the true path,
+corrupted, or subverted. These select spirits must complete their
+work: that is the _raison d'être_ of their common institution--a work,
+indeed, which, as it were, must be free from subjective traces, and
+must further rise above the transient events of future times as the
+pure reflection of the eternal and immutable essence of things. And
+all those who occupy places in that institution must co-operate in the
+endeavour to engender men of genius by this purification from
+subjectiveness and the creation of the works of genius. Not a few,
+even of those whose talents may be of the second or third order, are
+suited to such co-operation, and only when serving in such an
+educational establishment as this do they feel that they are truly
+carrying out their life's task. But now it is just these talents I
+speak of which are drawn away from the true path, and their instincts
+estranged, by the continual seductions of that modern 'culture.'
+
+"The egotistic emotions, weaknesses, and vanities of these few select
+minds are continually assailed by the temptations unceasingly murmured
+into their ears by the spirit of the age: 'Come with me! There you are
+servants, retainers, tools, eclipsed by higher natures; your own
+peculiar characteristics never have free play; you are tied down,
+chained down, like slaves; yea, like automata: here, with me, you will
+enjoy the freedom of your own personalities, as masters should, your
+talents will cast their lustre on yourselves alone, with their aid you
+may come to the very front rank; an innumerable train of followers
+will accompany you, and the applause of public opinion will yield you
+more pleasure than a nobly-bestowed commendation from the height of
+genius.' Even the very best of men now yield to these temptations: and
+it cannot be said that the deciding factor here is the degree of
+talent, or whether a man is accessible to these voices or not; but
+rather the degree and the height of a certain moral sublimity, the
+instinct towards heroism, towards sacrifice--and finally a positive,
+habitual need of culture, prepared by a proper kind of education,
+which education, as I have previously said, is first and foremost
+obedience and submission to the discipline of genius. Of this
+discipline and submission, however, the present institutions called by
+courtesy 'educational establishments' know nothing whatever, although
+I have no doubt that the public school was originally intended to be
+an institution for sowing the seeds of true culture, or at least as a
+preparation for it. I have no doubt, either, that they took the first
+bold steps in the wonderful and stirring times of the Reformation, and
+that afterwards, in the era which gave birth to Schiller and Goethe,
+there was again a growing demand for culture, like the first
+protuberance of that wing spoken of by Plato in the _Phaedrus_, which,
+at every contact with the beautiful, bears the soul aloft into the
+upper regions, the habitations of the gods."
+
+"Ah," began the philosopher's companion, "when you quote the divine
+Plato and the world of ideas, I do not think you are angry with me,
+however much my previous utterance may have merited your disapproval
+and wrath. As soon as you speak of it, I feel that Platonic wing
+rising within me; and it is only at intervals, when I act as the
+charioteer of my soul, that I have any difficulty with the resisting
+and unwilling horse that Plato has also described to us, the
+'crooked, lumbering animal, put together anyhow, with a short, thick
+neck; flat-faced, and of a dark colour, with grey eyes and blood-red
+complexion; the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf,
+hardly yielding to whip or spur.'[8] Just think how long I have lived
+at a distance from you, and how all those temptations you speak of
+have endeavoured to lure me away, not perhaps without some success,
+even though I myself may not have observed it. I now see more clearly
+than ever the necessity for an institution which will enable us to
+live and mix freely with the few men of true culture, so that we may
+have them as our leaders and guiding stars. How greatly I feel the
+danger of travelling alone! And when it occurred to me that I could
+save myself by flight from all contact with the spirit of the time, I
+found that this flight itself was a mere delusion. Continuously, with
+every breath we take, some amount of that atmosphere circulates
+through every vein and artery, and no solitude is lonesome or distant
+enough for us to be out of reach of its fogs and clouds. Whether in
+the guise of hope, doubt, profit, or virtue, the shades of that
+culture hover about us; and we have been deceived by that jugglery
+even here in the presence of a true hermit of culture. How steadfastly
+and faithfully must the few followers of that culture--which might
+almost be called sectarian--be ever on the alert! How they must
+strengthen and uphold one another! How adversely would any errors be
+criticised here, and how sympathetically excused! And thus, teacher, I
+ask you to pardon me, after you have laboured so earnestly to set me
+in the right path!"
+
+"You use a language which I do not care for, my friend," said the
+philosopher, "and one which reminds me of a diocesan conference. With
+that I have nothing to do. But your Platonic horse pleases me, and on
+its account you shall be forgiven. I am willing to exchange my own
+animal for yours. But it is getting chilly, and I don't feel inclined
+to walk about any more just now. The friend I was waiting for is
+indeed foolish enough to come up here even at midnight if he promised
+to do so. But I have waited in vain for the signal agreed upon; and I
+cannot guess what has delayed him. For as a rule he is punctual, as we
+old men are wont, to be, something that you young men nowadays look
+upon as old-fashioned. But he has left me in the lurch for once: how
+annoying it is! Come away with me! It's time to go!"
+
+At this moment something happened.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] It will be apparent from these words that Nietzsche is still under
+the influence of Schopenhauer.--TR.
+
+[7] This prophecy has come true.--TR.
+
+[8] _Phaedrus_; Jowett's translation.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 23rd of March 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--If you have lent a sympathetic ear to what I
+have told you about the heated argument of our philosopher in the
+stillness of that memorable night, you must have felt as disappointed
+as we did when he announced his peevish intention. You will remember
+that he had suddenly told us he wished to go; for, having been left in
+the lurch by his friend in the first place, and, in the second, having
+been bored rather than animated by the remarks addressed to him by his
+companion and ourselves when walking backwards and forwards on the
+hillside, he now apparently wanted to put an end to what appeared to
+him to be a useless discussion. It must have seemed to him that his
+day had been lost, and he would have liked to blot it out of his
+memory, together with the recollection of ever having made our
+acquaintance. And we were thus rather unwillingly preparing to depart
+when something else suddenly brought him to a standstill, and the foot
+he had just raised sank hesitatingly to the ground again.
+
+A coloured flame, making a crackling noise for a few seconds,
+attracted our attention from the direction of the Rhine; and
+immediately following upon this we heard a slow, harmonious call,
+quite in tune, although plainly the cry of numerous youthful voices.
+"That's his signal," exclaimed the philosopher, "so my friend is
+really coming, and I haven't waited for nothing, after all. It will be
+a midnight meeting indeed--but how am I to let him know that I am
+still here? Come! Your pistols; let us see your talent once again! Did
+you hear the severe rhythm of that melody saluting us? Mark it well,
+and answer it in the same rhythm by a series of shots."
+
+This was a task well suited to our tastes and abilities; so we loaded
+up as quickly as we could and pointed our weapons at the brilliant
+stars in the heavens, whilst the echo of that piercing cry died away
+in the distance. The reports of the first, second, and third shots
+sounded sharply in the stillness; and then the philosopher cried
+"False time!" as our rhythm was suddenly interrupted: for, like a
+lightning flash, a shooting star tore its way across the clouds after
+the third report, and almost involuntarily our fourth and fifth shots
+were sent after it in the direction it had taken.
+
+"False time!" said the philosopher again, "who told you to shoot
+stars! They can fall well enough without you! People should know what
+they want before they begin to handle weapons."
+
+And then we once more heard that loud melody from the waters of the
+Rhine, intoned by numerous and strong voices. "They understand us,"
+said the philosopher, laughing, "and who indeed could resist when
+such a dazzling phantom comes within range?" "Hush!" interrupted his
+friend, "what sort of a company can it be that returns the signal to
+us in such a way? I should say they were between twenty and forty
+strong, manly voices in that crowd--and where would such a number come
+from to greet us? They don't appear to have left the opposite bank of
+the Rhine yet; but at any rate we must have a look at them from our
+own side of the river. Come along, quickly!"
+
+We were then standing near the top of the hill, you may remember, and
+our view of the river was interrupted by a dark, thick wood. On the
+other hand, as I have told you, from the quiet little spot which we
+had left we could have a better view than from the little plateau on
+the hillside; and the Rhine, with the island of Nonnenwörth in the
+middle, was just visible to the beholder who peered over the
+tree-tops. We therefore set off hastily towards this little spot,
+taking care, however, not to go too quickly for the philosopher's
+comfort. The night was pitch dark, and we seemed to find our way by
+instinct rather than by clearly distinguishing the path, as we walked
+down with the philosopher in the middle.
+
+We had scarcely reached our side of the river when a broad and fiery,
+yet dull and uncertain light shot up, which plainly came from the
+opposite side of the Rhine. "Those are torches," I cried, "there is
+nothing surer than that my comrades from Bonn are over yonder, and
+that your friend must be with them. It is they who sang that peculiar
+song, and they have doubtless accompanied your friend here. See!
+Listen! They are putting off in little boats. The whole torchlight
+procession will have arrived here in less than half an hour."
+
+The philosopher jumped back. "What do you say?" he ejaculated, "your
+comrades from Bonn--students--can my friend have come here with
+_students_?"
+
+This question, uttered almost wrathfully, provoked us. "What's your
+objection to students?" we demanded; but there was no answer. It was
+only after a pause that the philosopher slowly began to speak, not
+addressing us directly, as it were, but rather some one in the
+distance: "So, my friend, even at midnight, even on the top of a
+lonely mountain, we shall not be alone; and you yourself are bringing
+a pack of mischief-making students along with you, although you well
+know that I am only too glad to get out of the way of _hoc genus
+omne_. I don't quite understand you, my friend: it must mean something
+when we arrange to meet after a long separation at such an
+out-of-the-way place and at such an unusual hour. Why should we want a
+crowd of witnesses--and such witnesses! What calls us together to-day
+is least of all a sentimental, soft-hearted necessity; for both of us
+learnt early in life to live alone in dignified isolation. It was not
+for our own sakes, not to show our tender feelings towards each other,
+or to perform an unrehearsed act of friendship, that we decided to
+meet here; but that here, where I once came suddenly upon you as you
+sat in majestic solitude, we might earnestly deliberate with each
+other like knights of a new order. Let them listen to us who can
+understand us; but why should you bring with you a throng of people
+who don't understand us! I don't know what you mean by such a thing,
+my friend!"
+
+We did not think it proper to interrupt the dissatisfied old grumbler;
+and as he came to a melancholy close we did not dare to tell him how
+greatly this distrustful repudiation of students vexed us.
+
+At last the philosopher's companion turned to him and said: "I am
+reminded of the fact that even you at one time, before I made your
+acquaintance, occupied posts in several universities, and that reports
+concerning your intercourse with the students and your methods of
+instruction at the time are still in circulation. From the tone of
+resignation in which you have just referred to students many would be
+inclined to think that you had some peculiar experiences which were
+not at all to your liking; but personally I rather believe that you
+saw and experienced in such places just what every one else saw and
+experienced in them, but that you judged what you saw and felt more
+justly and severely than any one else. For, during the time I have
+known you, I have learnt that the most noteworthy, instructive, and
+decisive experiences and events in one's life are those which are of
+daily occurrence; that the greatest riddle, displayed in full view of
+all, is seen by the fewest to be the greatest riddle, and that these
+problems are spread about in every direction, under the very feet of
+the passers-by, for the few real philosophers to lift up carefully,
+thenceforth to shine as diamonds of wisdom. Perhaps, in the short time
+now left us before the arrival of your friend, you will be good enough
+to tell us something of your experiences of university life, so as to
+close the circle of observations, to which we were involuntarily
+urged, respecting our educational institutions. We may also be allowed
+to remind you that you, at an earlier stage of your remarks, gave me
+the promise that you would do so. Starting with the public school, you
+claimed for it an extraordinary importance: all other institutions
+must be judged by its standard, according as its aim has been
+proposed; and, if its aim happens to be wrong, all the others have to
+suffer. Such an importance cannot now be adopted by the universities
+as a standard; for, by their present system of grouping, they would be
+nothing more than institutions where public school students might go
+through finishing courses. You promised me that you would explain this
+in greater detail later on: perhaps our student friends can bear
+witness to that, if they chanced to overhear that part of our
+conversation."
+
+"We can testify to that," I put in. The philosopher then turned to us
+and said: "Well, if you really did listen attentively, perhaps you can
+now tell me what you understand by the expression 'the present aim of
+our public schools.' Besides, you are still near enough to this sphere
+to judge my opinions by the standard of your own impressions and
+experiences."
+
+My friend instantly answered, quickly and smartly, as was his habit,
+in the following words: "Until now we had always thought that the sole
+object of the public school was to prepare students for the
+universities. This preparation, however, should tend to make us
+independent enough for the extraordinarily free position of a
+university student;[9] for it seems to me that a student, to a greater
+extent than any other individual, has more to decide and settle for
+himself. He must guide himself on a wide, utterly unknown path for
+many years, so the public school must do its best to render him
+independent."
+
+I continued the argument where my friend left off. "It even seems to
+me," I said, "that everything for which you have justly blamed the
+public school is only a necessary means employed to imbue the youthful
+student with some kind of independence, or at all events with the
+belief that there is such a thing. The teaching of German composition
+must be at the service of this independence: the individual must enjoy
+his opinions and carry out his designs early, so that he may be able
+to travel alone and without crutches. In this way he will soon be
+encouraged to produce original work, and still sooner to take up
+criticism and analysis. If Latin and Greek studies prove insufficient
+to make a student an enthusiastic admirer of antiquity, the methods
+with which such studies are pursued are at all events sufficient to
+awaken the scientific sense, the desire for a more strict causality of
+knowledge, the passion for finding out and inventing. Only think how
+many young men may be lured away for ever to the attractions of
+science by a new reading of some sort which they have snatched up with
+youthful hands at the public school! The public school boy must learn
+and collect a great deal of varied information: hence an impulse will
+gradually be created, accompanied with which he will continue to learn
+and collect independently at the university. We believe, in short,
+that the aim of the public school is to prepare and accustom the
+student always to live and learn independently afterwards, just as
+beforehand he must live and learn dependently at the public school."
+
+The philosopher laughed, not altogether good-naturedly, and said: "You
+have just given me a fine example of that independence. And it is this
+very independence that shocks me so much, and makes any place in the
+neighbourhood of present-day students so disagreeable to me. Yes, my
+good friends, you are perfect, you are mature; nature has cast you and
+broken up the moulds, and your teachers must surely gloat over you.
+What liberty, certitude, and independence of judgment; what novelty
+and freshness of insight! You sit in judgment--and the cultures of all
+ages run away. The scientific sense is kindled, and rises out of you
+like a flame--let people be careful, lest you set them alight! If I go
+further into the question and look at your professors, I again find
+the same independence in a greater and even more charming degree:
+never was there a time so full of the most sublime independent folk,
+never was slavery more detested, the slavery of education and culture
+included.
+
+"Permit me, however, to measure this independence of yours by the
+standard of this culture, and to consider your university as an
+educational institution and nothing else. If a foreigner desires to
+know something of the methods of our universities, he asks first of
+all with emphasis: 'How is the student connected with the university?'
+We answer: 'By the ear, as a hearer.' The foreigner is astonished.
+'Only by the ear?' he repeats. 'Only by the ear,' we again reply. The
+student hears. When he speaks, when he sees, when he is in the company
+of his companions when he takes up some branch of art: in short, when
+he _lives_ he is independent, _i.e._ not dependent upon the
+educational institution. The student very often writes down something
+while he hears; and it is only at these rare moments that he hangs to
+the umbilical cord of his alma mater. He himself may choose what he is
+to listen to; he is not bound to believe what is said; he may close
+his ears if he does not care to hear. This is the 'acroamatic' method
+of teaching.
+
+"The teacher, however, speaks to these listening students. Whatever
+else he may think and do is cut off from the student's perception by
+an immense gap. The professor often reads when he is speaking. As a
+rule he wishes to have as many hearers as possible; he is not content
+to have a few, and he is never satisfied with one only. One speaking
+mouth, with many ears, and half as many writing hands--there you have
+to all appearances, the external academical apparatus; the university
+engine of culture set in motion. Moreover, the proprietor of this one
+mouth is severed from and independent of the owners of the many ears;
+and this double independence is enthusiastically designated as
+'academical freedom.' And again, that this freedom may be broadened
+still more, the one may speak what he likes and the other may hear
+what he likes; except that, behind both of them, at a modest distance,
+stands the State, with all the intentness of a supervisor, to remind
+the professors and students from time to time that _it_ is the aim,
+the goal, the be-all and end-all, of this curious speaking and hearing
+procedure.
+
+"We, who must be permitted to regard this phenomenon merely as an
+educational institution, will then inform the inquiring foreigner that
+what is called 'culture' in our universities merely proceeds from the
+mouth to the ear, and that every kind of training for culture is, as I
+said before, merely 'acroamatic.' Since, however, not only the
+hearing, but also the choice of what to hear is left to the
+independent decision of the liberal-minded and unprejudiced student,
+and since, again, he can withhold all belief and authority from what
+he hears, all training for culture, in the true sense of the term,
+reverts to himself; and the independence it was thought desirable to
+aim at in the public school now presents itself with the highest
+possible pride as 'academical self-training for culture,' and struts
+about in its brilliant plumage.
+
+"Happy times, when youths are clever and cultured enough to teach
+themselves how to walk! Unsurpassable public schools, which succeed in
+implanting independence in the place of the dependence, discipline,
+subordination, and obedience implanted by former generations that
+thought it their duty to drive away all the bumptiousness of
+independence! Do you clearly see, my good friends, why I, from the
+standpoint of culture, regard the present type of university as a mere
+appendage to the public school? The culture instilled by the public
+school passes through the gates of the university as something ready
+and entire, and with its own particular claims: _it_ demands, it gives
+laws, it sits in judgment. Do not, then, let yourselves be deceived in
+regard to the cultured student; for he, in so far as he thinks he has
+absorbed the blessings of education, is merely the public school boy
+as moulded by the hands of his teacher: one who, since his academical
+isolation, and after he has left the public school, has therefore been
+deprived of all further guidance to culture, that from now on he may
+begin to live by himself and be free.
+
+"Free! Examine this freedom, ye observers of human nature! Erected
+upon the sandy, crumbling foundation of our present public school
+culture, its building slants to one side, trembling before the
+whirlwind's blast. Look at the free student, the herald of
+self-culture: guess what his instincts are; explain him from his
+needs! How does his culture appear to you when you measure it by three
+graduated scales: first, by his need for philosophy; second, by his
+instinct for art; and third, by Greek and Roman antiquity as the
+incarnate categorical imperative of all culture?
+
+"Man is so much encompassed about by the most serious and difficult
+problems that, when they are brought to his attention in the right
+way, he is impelled betimes towards a lasting kind of philosophical
+wonder, from which alone, as a fruitful soil, a deep and noble culture
+can grow forth. His own experiences lead him most frequently to the
+consideration of these problems; and it is especially in the
+tempestuous period of youth that every personal event shines with a
+double gleam, both as the exemplification of a triviality and, at the
+same time, of an eternally surprising problem, deserving of
+explanation. At this age, which, as it were, sees his experiences
+encircled with metaphysical rainbows, man is, in the highest degree,
+in need of a guiding hand, because he has suddenly and almost
+instinctively convinced himself of the ambiguity of existence, and has
+lost the firm support of the beliefs he has hitherto held.
+
+"This natural state of great need must of course be looked upon as the
+worst enemy of that beloved independence for which the cultured youth
+of the present day should be trained. All these sons of the present,
+who have raised the banner of the 'self-understood,' are therefore
+straining every nerve to crush down these feelings of youth, to
+cripple them, to mislead them, or to stop their growth altogether;
+and the favourite means employed is to paralyse that natural
+philosophic impulse by the so-called "historical culture." A still
+recent system,[10] which has won for itself a world-wide scandalous
+reputation, has discovered the formula for this self-destruction of
+philosophy; and now, wherever the historical view of things is found,
+we can see such a naive recklessness in bringing the irrational to
+'rationality' and 'reason' and making black look like white, that one
+is even inclined to parody Hegel's phrase and ask: 'Is all this
+irrationality real?' Ah, it is only the irrational that now seems to
+be 'real,' _i.e._ really doing something; and to bring this kind of
+reality forward for the elucidation of history is reckoned as true
+'historical culture.' It is into this that the philosophical impulse
+of our time has pupated itself; and the peculiar philosophers of our
+universities seem to have conspired to fortify and confirm the young
+academicians in it.
+
+"It has thus come to pass that, in place of a profound interpretation
+of the eternally recurring problems, a historical--yea, even
+philological--balancing and questioning has entered into the
+educational arena: what this or that philosopher has or has not
+thought; whether this or that essay or dialogue is to be ascribed to
+him or not; or even whether this particular reading of a classical
+text is to be preferred to that. It is to neutral preoccupations with
+philosophy like these that our students in philosophical seminaries
+are stimulated; whence I have long accustomed myself to regard such
+science as a mere ramification of philology, and to value its
+representatives in proportion as they are good or bad philologists. So
+it has come about that _philosophy itself_ is banished from the
+universities: wherewith our first question as to the value of our
+universities from the standpoint of culture is answered.
+
+"In what relationship these universities stand to _art_ cannot be
+acknowledged without shame: in none at all. Of artistic thinking,
+learning, striving, and comparison, we do not find in them a single
+trace; and no one would seriously think that the voice of the
+universities would ever be raised to help the advancement of the
+higher national schemes of art. Whether an individual teacher feels
+himself to be personally qualified for art, or whether a professorial
+chair has been established for the training of æstheticising literary
+historians, does not enter into the question at all: the fact remains
+that the university is not in a position to control the young
+academician by severe artistic discipline, and that it must let happen
+what happens, willy-nilly--and this is the cutting answer to the
+immodest pretensions of the universities to represent themselves as
+the highest educational institutions.
+
+"We find our academical 'independents' growing up without philosophy
+and without art; and how can they then have any need to 'go in for'
+the Greeks and Romans?--for we need now no longer pretend, like our
+forefathers, to have any great regard for Greece and Rome, which,
+besides, sit enthroned in almost inaccessible loneliness and majestic
+alienation. The universities of the present time consequently give no
+heed to almost extinct educational predilections like these, and found
+their philological chairs for the training of new and exclusive
+generations of philologists, who on their part give similar
+philological preparation in the public schools--a vicious circle which
+is useful neither to philologists nor to public schools, but which
+above all accuses the university for the third time of not being what
+it so pompously proclaims itself to be--a training ground for culture.
+Take away the Greeks, together with philosophy and art, and what
+ladder have you still remaining by which to ascend to culture? For, if
+you attempt to clamber up the ladder without these helps, you must
+permit me to inform you that all your learning will lie like a heavy
+burden on your shoulders rather than furnishing you with wings and
+bearing you aloft.
+
+"If you honest thinkers have honourably remained in these three stages
+of intelligence, and have perceived that, in comparison with the
+Greeks, the modern student is unsuited to and unprepared for
+philosophy, that he has no truly artistic instincts, and is merely a
+barbarian believing himself to be free, you will not on this account
+turn away from him in disgust, although you will, of course, avoid
+coming into too close proximity with him. For, as he now is, _he is
+not to blame_: as you have perceived him he is the dumb but terrible
+accuser of those who are to blame.
+
+"You should understand the secret language spoken by this guilty
+innocent, and then you, too, would learn to understand the inward
+state of that independence which is paraded outwardly with so much
+ostentation. Not one of these noble, well-qualified youths has
+remained a stranger to that restless, tiring, perplexing, and
+debilitating need of culture: during his university term, when he is
+apparently the only free man in a crowd of servants and officials, he
+atones for this huge illusion of freedom by ever-growing inner doubts
+and convictions. He feels that he can neither lead nor help himself;
+and then he plunges hopelessly into the workaday world and endeavours
+to ward off such feelings by study. The most trivial bustle fastens
+itself upon him; he sinks under his heavy burden. Then he suddenly
+pulls himself together; he still feels some of that power within him
+which would have enabled him to keep his head above water. Pride and
+noble resolutions assert themselves and grow in him. He is afraid of
+sinking at this early stage into the limits of a narrow profession;
+and now he grasps at pillars and railings alongside the stream that he
+may not be swept away by the current. In vain! for these supports give
+way, and he finds he has clutched at broken reeds. In low and
+despondent spirits he sees his plans vanish away in smoke. His
+condition is undignified, even dreadful: he keeps between the two
+extremes of work at high pressure and a state of melancholy
+enervation. Then he becomes tired, lazy, afraid of work, fearful of
+everything great; and hating himself. He looks into his own breast,
+analyses his faculties, and finds he is only peering into hollow and
+chaotic vacuity. And then he once more falls from the heights of his
+eagerly-desired self-knowledge into an ironical scepticism. He divests
+his struggles of their real importance, and feels himself ready to
+undertake any class of useful work, however degrading. He now seeks
+consolation in hasty and incessant action so as to hide himself from
+himself. And thus his helplessness and the want of a leader towards
+culture drive him from one form of life into another: but doubt,
+elevation, worry, hope, despair--everything flings him hither and
+thither as a proof that all the stars above him by which he could have
+guided his ship have set.
+
+"There you have the picture of this glorious independence of yours, of
+that academical freedom, reflected in the highest minds--those which
+are truly in need of culture, compared with whom that other crowd of
+indifferent natures does not count at all, natures that delight in
+their freedom in a purely barbaric sense. For these latter show by
+their base smugness and their narrow professional limitations that
+this is the right element for them: against which there is nothing to
+be said. Their comfort, however, does not counter-balance the
+suffering of one single young man who has an inclination for culture
+and feels the need of a guiding hand, and who at last, in a moment of
+discontent, throws down the reins and begins to despise himself. This
+is the guiltless innocent; for who has saddled him with the
+unbearable burden of standing alone? Who has urged him on to
+independence at an age when one of the most natural and peremptory
+needs of youth is, so to speak, a self-surrendering to great leaders
+and an enthusiastic following in the footsteps of the masters?
+
+"It is repulsive to consider the effects to which the violent
+suppression of such noble natures may lead. He who surveys the
+greatest supporters and friends of that pseudo-culture of the present
+time, which I so greatly detest, will only too frequently find among
+them such degenerate and shipwrecked men of culture, driven by inward
+despair to violent enmity against culture, when, in a moment of
+desperation, there was no one at hand to show them how to attain it.
+It is not the worst and most insignificant people whom we afterwards
+find acting as journalists and writers for the press in the
+metamorphosis of despair: the spirit of some well-known men of letters
+might even be described, and justly, as degenerate studentdom. How
+else, for example, can we reconcile that once well-known 'young
+Germany' with its present degenerate successors? Here we discover a
+need of culture which, so to speak, has grown mutinous, and which
+finally breaks out into the passionate cry: I am culture! There,
+before the gates of the public schools and universities, we can see
+the culture which has been driven like a fugitive away from these
+institutions. True, this culture is without the erudition of those
+establishments, but assumes nevertheless the mien of a sovereign; so
+that, for example, Gutzkow the novelist might be pointed to as the
+best example of a modern public school boy turned æsthete. Such a
+degenerate man of culture is a serious matter, and it is a horrifying
+spectacle for us to see that all our scholarly and journalistic
+publicity bears the stigma of this degeneracy upon it. How else can we
+do justice to our learned men, who pay untiring attention to, and even
+co-operate in the journalistic corruption of the people, how else than
+by the acknowledgment that their learning must fill a want of their
+own similar to that filled by novel-writing in the case of others:
+_i.e._ a flight from one's self, an ascetic extirpation of their
+cultural impulses, a desperate attempt to annihilate their own
+individuality. From our degenerate literary art, as also from that
+itch for scribbling of our learned men which has now reached such
+alarming proportions, wells forth the same sigh: Oh that we could
+forget ourselves! The attempt fails: memory, not yet suffocated by the
+mountains of printed paper under which it is buried, keeps on
+repeating from time to time: 'A degenerate man of culture! Born for
+culture and brought up to non-culture! Helpless barbarian, slave of
+the day, chained to the present moment, and thirsting for
+something--ever thirsting!'
+
+"Oh, the miserable guilty innocents! For they lack something, a need
+that every one of them must have felt: a real educational institution,
+which could give them goals, masters, methods, companions; and from
+the midst of which the invigorating and uplifting breath of the true
+German spirit would inspire them. Thus they perish in the wilderness;
+thus they degenerate into enemies of that spirit which is at bottom
+closely allied to their own; thus they pile fault upon fault higher
+than any former generation ever did, soiling the clean, desecrating
+the holy, canonising the false and spurious. It is by them that you
+can judge the educational strength of our universities, asking
+yourselves, in all seriousness, the question: What cause did you
+promote through them? The German power of invention, the noble German
+desire for knowledge, the qualifying of the German for diligence and
+self-sacrifice--splendid and beautiful things, which other nations
+envy you; yea, the finest and most magnificent things in the world, if
+only that true German spirit overspread them like a dark thundercloud,
+pregnant with the blessing of forthcoming rain. But you are afraid of
+this spirit, and it has therefore come to pass that a cloud of another
+sort has thrown a heavy and oppressive atmosphere around your
+universities, in which your noble-minded scholars breathe wearily and
+with difficulty.
+
+"A tragic, earnest, and instructive attempt was made in the present
+century to destroy the cloud I have last referred to, and also to turn
+the people's looks in the direction of the high welkin of the German
+spirit. In all the annals of our universities we cannot find any trace
+of a second attempt, and he who would impressively demonstrate what is
+now necessary for us will never find a better example. I refer to the
+old, primitive _Burschenschaft_.[11]
+
+"When the war of liberation was over, the young student brought back
+home the unlooked-for and worthiest trophy of battle--the freedom of
+his fatherland. Crowned with this laurel he thought of something still
+nobler. On returning to the university, and finding that he was
+breathing heavily, he became conscious of that oppressive and
+contaminated air which overhung the culture of the university. He
+suddenly saw, with horror-struck, wide-open eyes, the non-German
+barbarism, hiding itself in the guise of all kinds of scholasticism;
+he suddenly discovered that his own leaderless comrades were abandoned
+to a repulsive kind of youthful intoxication. And he was exasperated.
+He rose with the same aspect of proud indignation as Schiller may have
+had when reciting the _Robbers_ to his companions: and if he had
+prefaced his drama with the picture of a lion, and the motto, 'in
+tyrannos,' his follower himself was that very lion preparing to
+spring; and every 'tyrant' began to tremble. Yes, if these indignant
+youths were looked at superficially and timorously, they would seem to
+be little else than Schiller's robbers: their talk sounded so wild to
+the anxious listener that Rome and Sparta seemed mere nunneries
+compared with these new spirits. The consternation raised by these
+young men was indeed far more general than had ever been caused by
+those other 'robbers' in court circles, of which a German prince,
+according to Goethe, is said to have expressed the opinion: 'If he had
+been God, and had foreseen the appearance of the _Robbers_, he would
+not have created the world.'
+
+"Whence came the incomprehensible intensity of this alarm? For those
+young men were the bravest, purest, and most talented of the band both
+in dress and habits: they were distinguished by a magnanimous
+recklessness and a noble simplicity. A divine command bound them
+together to seek harder and more pious superiority: what could be
+feared from them? To what extent this fear was merely deceptive or
+simulated or really true is something that will probably never be
+exactly known; but a strong instinct spoke out of this fear and out of
+its disgraceful and senseless persecution. This instinct hated the
+Burschenschaft with an intense hatred for two reasons: first of all on
+account of its organisation, as being the first attempt to construct a
+true educational institution, and, secondly, on account of the spirit
+of this institution, that earnest, manly, stern, and daring German
+spirit; that spirit of the miner's son, Luther, which has come down to
+us unbroken from the time of the Reformation.
+
+"Think of the _fate_ of the Burschenschaft when I ask you, Did the
+German university then understand that spirit, as even the German
+princes in their hatred appear to have understood it? Did the alma
+mater boldly and resolutely throw her protecting arms round her noble
+sons and say: 'You must kill me first, before you touch my children?'
+I hear your answer--by it you may judge whether the German university
+is an educational institution or not.
+
+"The student knew at that time at what depth a true educational
+institution must take root, namely, in an inward renovation and
+inspiration of the purest moral faculties. And this must always be
+repeated to the student's credit. He may have learnt on the field of
+battle what he could learn least of all in the sphere of 'academical
+freedom': that great leaders are necessary, and that all culture begins
+with obedience. And in the midst of victory, with his thoughts turned to
+his liberated fatherland, he made the vow that he would remain German.
+German! Now he learnt to understand his Tacitus; now he grasped the
+signification of Kant's categorical imperative; now he was enraptured by
+Weber's "Lyre and Sword" songs.[12] The gates of philosophy, of art,
+yea, even of antiquity, opened unto him; and in one of the most
+memorable of bloody acts, the murder of Kotzebue, he revenged--with
+penetrating insight and enthusiastic short-sightedness--his one and only
+Schiller, prematurely consumed by the opposition of the stupid world:
+Schiller, who could have been his leader, master, and organiser, and
+whose loss he now bewailed with such heartfelt resentment.
+
+"For that was the doom of those promising students: they did not find
+the leaders they wanted. They gradually became uncertain,
+discontented, and at variance among themselves; unlucky indiscretions
+showed only too soon that the one indispensability of powerful minds
+was lacking in the midst of them: and, while that mysterious murder
+gave evidence of astonishing strength, it gave no less evidence of the
+grave danger arising from the want of a leader. They were
+leaderless--therefore they perished.
+
+"For I repeat it, my friends! All culture begins with the very
+opposite of that which is now so highly esteemed as 'academical
+freedom': with obedience, with subordination, with discipline, with
+subjection. And as leaders must have followers so also must the
+followers have a leader--here a certain reciprocal predisposition
+prevails in the hierarchy of spirits: yea, a kind of pre-established
+harmony. This eternal hierarchy, towards which all things naturally
+tend, is always threatened by that pseudo-culture which now sits on
+the throne of the present. It endeavours either to bring the leaders
+down to the level of its own servitude or else to cast them out
+altogether. It seduces the followers when they are seeking their
+predestined leader, and overcomes them by the fumes of its narcotics.
+When, however, in spite of all this, leader and followers have at last
+met, wounded and sore, there is an impassioned feeling of rapture,
+like the echo of an ever-sounding lyre, a feeling which I can let you
+divine only by means of a simile.
+
+"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange,
+shrivelled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German
+orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious
+goddess 'form'! What noses and ears, what clumsy, _danse macabre_
+movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never
+dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking
+upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their
+performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealising
+effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern,
+medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this
+harmonious parody on the _homo sapiens_.
+
+"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned,
+and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the
+head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless
+fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene,
+you listen--but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads
+out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see
+only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the
+rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see the
+orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humoured, and even wearisome
+crowd of players.
+
+"But set a genius--a real genius--in the midst of this crowd; and you
+instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this
+genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these
+mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed
+forth out of them all. Now look and listen--you can never listen
+enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming,
+now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every
+muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too
+will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and
+followers, and how in the hierarchy of spirits everything impels us
+towards the establishment of a like organisation. You can divine from
+my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution,
+and why I am very far from recognising one in the present type of
+university."
+
+     [From a few MS. notes written down by Nietzsche in the spring
+     and autumn of 1872, and still preserved in the Nietzsche
+     Archives at Weimar, it is evident that he at one time
+     intended to add a sixth and seventh lecture to the five just
+     given. These notes, although included in the latest edition
+     of Nietzsche's works, are utterly lacking in interest and
+     continuity, being merely headings and sub-headings of
+     sections in the proposed lectures. They do not, indeed,
+     occupy more than two printed pages, and were deemed too
+     fragmentary for translation in this edition.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] The reader may be reminded that a German university student is
+subject to very few restrictions, and that much greater liberty is
+allowed him than is permitted to English students. Nietzsche did not
+approve of this extraordinary freedom, which, in his opinion, led to
+intellectual lawlessness.--TR.
+
+[10] Hegel's.--TR.
+
+[11] A German students' association, of liberal principles, founded
+for patriotic purposes at Jena in 1813.
+
+[12] Weber set one or two of Körner's "Lyre and Sword" songs to music.
+The reader will remember that these lectures were delivered when
+Nietzsche was only in his twenty-eighth year. Like Goethe, he
+afterwards freed himself from all patriotic trammels and prejudices,
+and aimed at a general European culture. Luther, Schiller, Kant,
+Körner, and Weber did not continue to be the objects of his veneration
+for long, indeed, they were afterwards violently attacked by him, and
+the superficial student who speaks of inconsistency may be reminded of
+Nietzsche's phrase in stanza 12 of the epilogue to _Beyond Good and
+Evil_: "Nur wer sich wandelt, bleibt mit mir verwandt"; _i.e._ only
+the changing ones have anything in common with me.--TR.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                   |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Page 124: neigbourhood replaced with neighbourhood        |
+    | Page 130: universites replaced by universities            |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 28146-8.txt or 28146-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/4/28146/
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/28146-8.zip b/28146-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4f4b33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-8.zip
diff --git a/28146-h.zip b/28146-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae83cb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-h.zip
diff --git a/28146-h/28146-h.htm b/28146-h/28146-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03401f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-h/28146-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,4201 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of On the Future of our Educational Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    p {  margin-top: .5em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .5em;
+         text-indent: 1em;
+         }
+    h1   {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h2 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h3 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h4 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+         margin-top: 1em;
+         margin-bottom: 1em;
+       }
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+    a  {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */
+    div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */
+    div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */
+    ul        {list-style-type: none} /* no bullets on lists */
+    ul.nest   {margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -1.5em;} /* spacing for nested list */
+    li        {margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em;} /* spacing for list */
+
+    .cen      {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */
+    .sc       {font-variant: small-caps;} /* small caps */
+    .noin     {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */
+    .hang     {text-indent: -2em;} /* hanging indents */
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .note     {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */
+    .block    {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} /* block indent */
+    .right    {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */
+    .totoc    {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* Table of contents anchor */
+    .totoi    {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* to Table of Illustrations link */
+    .img      {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */
+    .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;}
+    .tdr      {text-align: right;} /* right align cell */
+    .tdc      {text-align: center;} /* center align cell */
+    .tdl      {text-align: left;}  /* left align cell */
+    .tdlsc    {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tdrsc    {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tdcsc    {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tr       {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+               /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+               position: absolute; right: 2%;
+               font-size: 75%;
+               color: silver;
+               background-color: inherit;
+               text-align: right;
+               text-indent: 0em;
+               font-style: normal;
+               font-weight: normal;
+               font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers */
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; font-size: 90%;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: text-top; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span        {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em;}
+    .poem span.pn     { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+                        /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                            position: absolute; right: 2%;
+                            font-size: 75%;
+                            text-align: right;
+                            text-indent: 0em;
+                            font-style: normal;
+                            font-weight: normal;
+                            color: silver; background-color: inherit;
+                            font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers in poems */
+
+/* Visually set apart the Greek text and show the transliteration when hovered */
+    .Greek    {border-bottom: 1px dotted gray; font-size: 115%;}
+    .Greek[title]:after{
+              /*Workaround for Gecko*/
+                content: "";
+               }
+    .Greek[title]:hover:after{
+              /*Shows the value of the title attribute when hovered*/
+               content: " [Greek transliteration: " attr(title) "]";
+              }
+/* Visually set apart the Greek text and show the transliteration when hovered */
+
+    </style>
+   </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: On the Future of our Educational Institutions
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Editor: Oscar Levy
+
+Translator: J. M. Kennedy
+
+Release Date: February 20, 2009 [EBook #28146]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<br />
+<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p>
+<p class="noin">A linked Table of Contents has been provided for the benefit of the reader.</p>
+<p class="noin">Hover over greek words for a transliteration, <span class="Greek" title="like so.">like so.</span></p>
+<p class="noin" style="text-align: left;">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+For a complete list, please see the <span style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h1>THE COMPLETE WORKS</h1>
+
+<h3>OF</h3>
+
+<h1>FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE</h1>
+
+<h5><i>The First Complete and Authorised English Translation</i></h5>
+
+<h5>EDITED BY</h5>
+
+<h3>Dr. OSCAR LEVY</h3>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/nietsche.jpg" width="15%" alt="Friedrich Nietsche" />
+</div>
+
+<h4>VOLUME THREE</h4>
+
+<h3>ON THE FUTURE OF OUR<br />
+EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS</h3>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2><i>FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE</i></h2>
+
+<br />
+
+<h1>ON THE FUTURE OF OUR<br />
+EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS</h1>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY</h5>
+
+<h3>J.M. KENNEDY</h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>T.N. FOULIS<br />
+13 &amp; 15 FREDERICK STREET<br />
+EDINBURGH: and LONDON<br />
+1910</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED<br />
+<br />
+<i>Printed by</i> <span class="sc">Morrison &amp; Gibb Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="cen" style="font-size: 120%;">
+<a href="#PREFACE"><b>PREFACE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#INTRODUCTION"><b>INTRODUCTION.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#FIRST_LECTURE"><b>FIRST LECTURE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#SECOND_LECTURE"><b>SECOND LECTURE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THIRD_LECTURE"><b>THIRD LECTURE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#FOURTH_LECTURE"><b>FOURTH LECTURE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#FIFTH_LECTURE"><b>FIFTH LECTURE.</b></a><br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>PREFACE.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>To be read before the lectures, although it in no way relates to
+them.</i>)</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>The reader from whom I expect something must possess three qualities:
+he must be calm and must read without haste; he must not be ever
+interposing his own personality and his own special "culture"; and he
+must not expect as the ultimate results of his study of these pages
+that he will be presented with a set of new formul&aelig;. I do not propose
+to furnish formul&aelig; or new plans of study for <i>Gymnasia</i> or other
+schools; and I am much more inclined to admire the extraordinary power
+of those who are able to cover the whole distance between the depths
+of empiricism and the heights of special culture-problems, and who
+again descend to the level of the driest rules and the most neatly
+expressed formul&aelig;. I shall be content if only I can ascend a tolerably
+lofty mountain, from the summit of which, after having recovered my
+breath, I may obtain a general survey of the ground; for I shall never
+be able, in this book, to satisfy the votaries of tabulated rules.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+Indeed, I see a time coming when serious men, working together in the
+service of a completely rejuvenated and purified culture, may again
+become the directors of a system of everyday instruction, calculated
+to promote that culture; and they will probably be compelled once more
+to draw up sets of rules: but how remote this time now seems! And what
+may not happen meanwhile! It is just possible that between now and
+then all <i>Gymnasia</i>&mdash;yea, and perhaps all universities, may be
+destroyed, or have become so utterly transformed that their very
+regulations may, in the eyes of future generations, seem to be but the
+relics of the cave-dwellers' age.</p>
+
+<p>This book is intended for calm readers,&mdash;for men who have not yet been
+drawn into the mad headlong rush of our hurry-skurrying age, and who
+do not experience any idolatrous delight in throwing themselves
+beneath its chariot-wheels. It is for men, therefore, who are not
+accustomed to estimate the value of everything according to the amount
+of time it either saves or wastes. In short, it is for the few. These,
+we believe, "still have time." Without any qualms of conscience they
+may improve the most fruitful and vigorous hours of their day in
+meditating on the future of our education; they may even believe when
+the evening has come that they have used their day in the most
+dignified and useful way, namely, in the <i>meditatio generis futuri</i>.
+No one among them has yet forgotten to think while reading a book; he
+still understands the secret of reading between the lines, and is
+indeed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>so generous in what he himself brings to his study, that he
+continues to reflect upon what he has read, perhaps long after he has
+laid the book aside. And he does this, not because he wishes to write
+a criticism about it or even another book; but simply because
+reflection is a pleasant pastime to him. Frivolous spendthrift! Thou
+art a reader after my own heart; for thou wilt be patient enough to
+accompany an author any distance, even though he himself cannot yet
+see the goal at which he is aiming,&mdash;even though he himself feels only
+that he must at all events honestly believe in a goal, in order that a
+future and possibly very remote generation may come face to face with
+that towards which we are now blindly and instinctively groping.
+Should any reader demur and suggest that all that is required is
+prompt and bold reform; should he imagine that a new "organisation"
+introduced by the State, were all that is necessary, then we fear he
+would have misunderstood not only the author but the very nature of
+the problem under consideration.</p>
+
+<p>The third and most important stipulation is, that he should in no case
+be constantly bringing himself and his own "culture" forward, after
+the style of most modern men, as the correct standard and measure of
+all things. We would have him so highly educated that he could even
+think meanly of his education or despise it altogether. Only thus
+would he be able to trust entirely to the author's guidance; for it is
+only by virtue of ignorance and his consciousness of ignorance, that
+the latter can dare to make himself heard. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>Finally, the author would
+wish his reader to be fully alive to the specific character of our
+present barbarism and of that which distinguishes us, as the
+barbarians of the nineteenth century, from other barbarians.</p>
+
+<p>Now, with this book in his hand, the writer seeks all those who may
+happen to be wandering, hither and thither, impelled by feelings
+similar to his own. Allow yourselves to be discovered&mdash;ye lonely ones
+in whose existence I believe! Ye unselfish ones, suffering in
+yourselves from the corruption of the German spirit! Ye contemplative
+ones who cannot, with hasty glances, turn your eyes swiftly from one
+surface to another! Ye lofty thinkers, of whom Aristotle said that ye
+wander through life vacillating and inactive so long as no great
+honour or glorious Cause calleth you to deeds! It is you I summon!
+Refrain this once from seeking refuge in your lairs of solitude and
+dark misgivings. Bethink you that this book was framed to be your
+herald. When ye shall go forth to battle in your full panoply, who
+among you will not rejoice in looking back upon the herald who rallied
+you?</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The title I gave to these lectures ought, like all titles, to have
+been as definite, as plain, and as significant as possible; now,
+however, I observe that owing to a certain excess of precision, in its
+present form it is too short and consequently misleading. My first
+duty therefore will be to explain the title, together with the object
+of these lectures, to you, and to apologise for being obliged to do
+this. When I promised to speak to you concerning the future of our
+educational institutions, I was not thinking especially of the
+evolution of our particular institutions in B&acirc;le. However frequently
+my general observations may seem to bear particular application to our
+own conditions here, I personally have no desire to draw these
+inferences, and do not wish to be held responsible if they should be
+drawn, for the simple reason that I consider myself still far too much
+an inexperienced stranger among you, and much too superficially
+acquainted with your methods, to pretend to pass judgment upon any
+such special order of scholastic establishments, or to predict the
+probable course their development will follow. On the other hand, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>I
+know full well under what distinguished auspices I have to deliver
+these lectures&mdash;namely, in a city which is striving to educate and
+enlighten its inhabitants on a scale so magnificently out of
+proportion to its size, that it must put all larger cities to shame.
+This being so, I presume I am justified in assuming that in a quarter
+where so much is <i>done</i> for the things of which I wish to speak,
+people must also <i>think</i> a good deal about them. My desire&mdash;yea, my
+very first condition, therefore, would be to become united in spirit
+with those who have not only thought very deeply upon educational
+problems, but have also the will to promote what they think to be
+right by all the means in their power. And, in view of the
+difficulties of my task and the limited time at my disposal, to such
+listeners, alone, in my audience, shall I be able to make myself
+understood&mdash;and even then, it will be on condition that they shall
+guess what I can do no more than suggest, that they shall supply what
+I am compelled to omit; in brief, that they shall need but to be
+reminded and not to be taught. Thus, while I disclaim all desire of
+being taken for an uninvited adviser on questions relating to the
+schools and the University of B&acirc;le, I repudiate even more emphatically
+still the r&ocirc;le of a prophet standing on the horizon of civilisation
+and pretending to predict the future of education and of scholastic
+organisation. I can no more project my vision through such vast
+periods of time than I can rely upon its accuracy when it is brought
+too close to an object under examination. With my title: <i>Our</i>
+Educational Institutions, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>wish to refer neither to the
+establishments in B&acirc;le nor to the incalculably vast number of other
+scholastic institutions which exist throughout the nations of the
+world to-day; but I wish to refer to <i>German institutions</i> of the kind
+which we rejoice in here. It is their future that will now engage our
+attention, <i>i.e.</i> the future of German elementary, secondary, and
+public schools (Gymnasien) and universities. While pursuing our
+discussion, however, we shall for once avoid all comparisons and
+valuations, and guard more especially against that flattering illusion
+that our conditions should be regarded as the standard for all others
+and as surpassing them. Let it suffice that they are our institutions,
+that they have not become a part of ourselves by mere accident, and
+were not laid upon us like a garment; but that they are living
+monuments of important steps in the progress of civilisation, in some
+respects even the furniture of a bygone age, and as such link us with
+the past of our people, and are such a sacred and venerable legacy
+that I can only undertake to speak of the future of our educational
+institutions in the sense of their being a most probable approximation
+to the ideal spirit which gave them birth. I am, moreover, convinced
+that the numerous alterations which have been introduced into these
+institutions within recent years, with the view of bringing them
+up-to-date, are for the most part but distortions and aberrations of
+the originally sublime tendencies given to them at their foundation.
+And what we dare to hope from the future, in this behalf, partakes so
+much of the nature of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>rejuvenation, a reviviscence, and a refining
+of the spirit of Germany that, as a result of this very process, our
+educational institutions may also be indirectly remoulded and born
+again, so as to appear at once old and new, whereas now they only
+profess to be "modern" or "up-to-date."</p>
+
+<p>Now it is only in the spirit of the hope above mentioned that I wish
+to speak of the future of our educational institutions: and this is
+the second point in regard to which I must tender an apology from the
+outset. The "prophet" pose is such a presumptuous one that it seems
+almost ridiculous to deny that I have the intention of adopting it.
+No one should attempt to describe the future of our education, and
+the means and methods of instruction relating thereto, in a prophetic
+spirit, unless he can prove that the picture he draws already exists
+in germ to-day, and that all that is required is the extension and
+development of this embryo if the necessary modifications are to be
+produced in schools and other educational institutions. All I ask,
+is, like a Roman haruspex, to be allowed to steal glimpses of the
+future out of the very entrails of existing conditions, which, in
+this case, means no more than to hand the laurels of victory to any
+one of the many forces tending to make itself felt in our present
+educational system, despite the fact that the force in question may
+be neither a favourite, an esteemed, nor a very extensive one. I
+confidently assert that it will be victorious, however, because it
+has the strongest and mightiest of all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>allies in nature herself; and
+in this respect it were well did we not forget that scores of the
+very first principles of our modern educational methods are
+thoroughly artificial, and that the most fatal weaknesses of the
+present day are to be ascribed to this artificiality. He who feels in
+complete harmony with the present state of affairs and who acquiesces
+in it <i>as something</i> "<i>selbstverst&auml;ndliches</i>,"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> excites our envy
+neither in regard to his faith nor in regard to that egregious word
+"<i>selbstverst&auml;ndlich</i>," so frequently heard in fashionable circles.</p>
+
+<p>He, however, who holds the opposite view and is therefore in despair,
+does not need to fight any longer: all he requires is to give himself
+up to solitude in order soon to be alone. Albeit, between those who
+take everything for granted and these anchorites, there stand the
+<i>fighters</i>&mdash;that is to say, those who still have hope, and as the
+noblest and sublimest example of this class, we recognise Schiller as
+he is described by Goethe in his "Epilogue to the Bell."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Brighter now glow'd his cheek, and still more bright<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With that unchanging, ever youthful glow:&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That courage which o'ercomes, in hard-fought fight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sooner or later ev'ry earthly foe,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That faith which soaring to the realms of light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now boldly presseth on, now bendeth low,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So that the good may work, wax, thrive amain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So that the day the noble may attain."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>I should like you to regard all I have just said as a kind of preface,
+the object of which is to illustrate the title of my lectures and to
+guard me against any possible misunderstanding and unjustified
+criticisms. And now, in order to give you a rough outline of the range
+of ideas from which I shall attempt to form a judgment concerning our
+educational institutions, before proceeding to disclose my views and
+turning from the title to the main theme, I shall lay a scheme before
+you which, like a coat of arms, will serve to warn all strangers who
+come to my door, as to the nature of the house they are about to
+enter, in case they may feel inclined, after having examined the
+device, to turn their backs on the premises that bear it. My scheme is
+as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Two seemingly antagonistic forces, equally deleterious in their
+actions and ultimately combining to produce their results, are at
+present ruling over our educational institutions, although these were
+based originally upon very different principles. These forces are: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible <i>extension of education</i> on
+the one hand, and a tendency <i>to minimise and to weaken it</i> on the
+other. The first-named would fain spread learning among the greatest
+possible number of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>people, the second would compel education to
+renounce its highest and most independent claims in order to
+subordinate itself to the service of the State. In the face of these
+two antagonistic tendencies, we could but give ourselves up to
+despair, did we not see the possibility of promoting the cause of two
+other contending factors which are fortunately as completely German as
+they are rich in promises for the future; I refer to the present
+movement towards <i>limiting and concentrating</i> education as the
+antithesis of the first of the forces above mentioned, and that other
+movement towards the <i>strengthening and the independence</i> of education
+as the antithesis of the second force. If we should seek a warrant for
+our belief in the ultimate victory of the two last-named movements, we
+could find it in the fact that both of the forces which we hold to be
+deleterious are so opposed to the eternal purpose of nature as the
+concentration of education for the few is in harmony with it, and is
+true, whereas the first two forces could succeed only in founding a
+culture false to the root.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Selbstverst&auml;ndlich = "granted or self-understood."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>The Poems of Goethe.</i> Edgar Alfred Bowring's
+Translation. (Ed. 1853.)</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+<a name="FIRST_LECTURE" id="FIRST_LECTURE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>THE FUTURE OF OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.</h2>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>FIRST LECTURE.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Delivered on the 16th of January 1872.</i>)</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Ladies and Gentlemen,&mdash;The subject I now propose to consider with you
+is such a serious and important one, and is in a sense so disquieting,
+that, like you, I would gladly turn to any one who could proffer some
+information concerning it,&mdash;were he ever so young, were his ideas ever
+so improbable&mdash;provided that he were able, by the exercise of his own
+faculties, to furnish some satisfactory and sufficient explanation. It
+is just possible that he may have had the opportunity of <i>hearing</i>
+sound views expressed in reference to the vexed question of the future
+of our educational institutions, and that he may wish to repeat them
+to you; he may even have had distinguished teachers, fully qualified
+to foretell what is to come, and, like the <i>haruspices</i> of Rome, able
+to do so after an inspection of the entrails of the Present.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, you yourselves may expect something <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>of this kind from me. I
+happened once, in strange but perfectly harmless circumstances, to
+overhear a conversation on this subject between two remarkable men,
+and the more striking points of the discussion, together with their
+manner of handling the theme, are so indelibly imprinted on my memory
+that, whenever I reflect on these matters, I invariably find myself
+falling into their grooves of thought. I cannot, however, profess to
+have the same courageous confidence which they displayed, both in
+their daring utterance of forbidden truths, and in the still more
+daring conception of the hopes with which they astonished me. It
+therefore seemed to me to be in the highest degree important that a
+record of this conversation should be made, so that others might be
+incited to form a judgment concerning the striking views and
+conclusions it contains: and, to this end, I had special grounds for
+believing that I should do well to avail myself of the opportunity
+afforded by this course of lectures.</p>
+
+<p>I am well aware of the nature of the community to whose serious
+consideration I now wish to commend that conversation&mdash;I know it to be
+a community which is striving to educate and enlighten its members on
+a scale so magnificently out of proportion to its size that it must
+put all larger cities to shame. This being so, I presume I may take it
+for granted that in a quarter where so much is <i>done</i> for the things
+of which I wish to speak, people must also <i>think</i> a good deal about
+them. In my account of the conversation already mentioned, I shall be
+able to make myself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>completely understood only to those among my
+audience who will be able to guess what I can do no more than suggest,
+who will supply what I am compelled to omit, and who, above all, need
+but to be reminded and not taught.</p>
+
+<p>Listen, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I recount my harmless
+experience and the less harmless conversation between the two
+gentlemen whom, so far, I have not named.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now imagine ourselves in the position of a young student&mdash;that
+is to say, in a position which, in our present age of bewildering
+movement and feverish excitability, has become an almost impossible
+one. It is necessary to have lived through it in order to believe that
+such careless self-lulling and comfortable indifference to the moment,
+or to time in general, are possible. In this condition I, and a friend
+about my own age, spent a year at the University of Bonn on the
+Rhine,&mdash;it was a year which, in its complete lack of plans and
+projects for the future, seems almost like a dream to me now&mdash;a dream
+framed, as it were, by two periods of growth. We two remained quiet
+and peaceful, although we were surrounded by fellows who in the main
+were very differently disposed, and from time to time we experienced
+considerable difficulty in meeting and resisting the somewhat too
+pressing advances of the young men of our own age. Now, however, that
+I can look upon the stand we had to take against these opposing
+forces, I cannot help associating them in my mind with those checks we
+are wont to receive in our dreams, as, for instance, when we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>imagine
+we are able to fly and yet feel ourselves held back by some
+incomprehensible power.</p>
+
+<p>I and my friend had many reminiscences in common, and these dated from
+the period of our boyhood upwards. One of these I must relate to you,
+since it forms a sort of prelude to the harmless experience already
+mentioned. On the occasion of a certain journey up the Rhine, which we
+had made together one summer, it happened that he and I independently
+conceived the very same plan at the same hour and on the same spot,
+and we were so struck by this unwonted coincidence that we determined
+to carry the plan out forthwith. We resolved to found a kind of small
+club which would consist of ourselves and a few friends, and the
+object of which would be to provide us with a stable and binding
+organisation directing and adding interest to our creative impulses in
+art and literature; or, to put it more plainly: each of us would be
+pledged to present an original piece of work to the club once a
+month,&mdash;either a poem, a treatise, an architectural design, or a
+musical composition, upon which each of the others, in a friendly
+spirit, would have to pass free and unrestrained criticism.</p>
+
+<p>We thus hoped, by means of mutual correction, to be able both to
+stimulate and to chasten our creative impulses and, as a matter of
+fact, the success of the scheme was such that we have both always felt
+a sort of respectful attachment for the hour and the place at which it
+first took shape in our minds.</p>
+
+<p>This attachment was very soon transformed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>into a rite; for we all
+agreed to go, whenever it was possible to do so, once a year to that
+lonely spot near Rolandseck, where on that summer's day, while sitting
+together, lost in meditation, we were suddenly inspired by the same
+thought. Frankly speaking, the rules which were drawn up on the
+formation of the club were never very strictly observed; but owing to
+the very fact that we had many sins of omission on our conscience
+during our student-year in Bonn, when we were once more on the banks
+of the Rhine, we firmly resolved not only to observe our rule, but
+also to gratify our feelings and our sense of gratitude by reverently
+visiting that spot near Rolandseck on the day appointed.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, with some difficulty that we were able to carry our
+plans into execution; for, on the very day we had selected for our
+excursion, the large and lively students' association, which always
+hindered us in our flights, did their utmost to put obstacles in our
+way and to hold us back. Our association had organised a general
+holiday excursion to Rolandseck on the very day my friend and I had
+fixed upon, the object of the outing being to assemble all its members
+for the last time at the close of the half-year and to send them home
+with pleasant recollections of their last hours together.</p>
+
+<p>The day was a glorious one; the weather was of the kind which, in our
+climate at least, only falls to our lot in late summer: heaven and
+earth merged harmoniously with one another, and, glowing wondrously in
+the sunshine, autumn <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>freshness blended with the blue expanse above.
+Arrayed in the bright fantastic garb in which, amid the gloomy
+fashions now reigning, students alone may indulge, we boarded a
+steamer which was gaily decorated in our honour, and hoisted our flag
+on its mast. From both banks of the river there came at intervals the
+sound of signal-guns, fired according to our orders, with the view of
+acquainting both our host in Rolandseck and the inhabitants in the
+neighbourhood with our approach. I shall not speak of the noisy
+journey from the landing-stage, through the excited and expectant
+little place, nor shall I refer to the esoteric jokes exchanged
+between ourselves; I also make no mention of a feast which became both
+wild and noisy, or of an extraordinary musical production in the
+execution of which, whether as soloists or as chorus, we all
+ultimately had to share, and which I, as musical adviser of our club,
+had not only had to rehearse, but was then forced to conduct. Towards
+the end of this piece, which grew ever wilder and which was sung to
+ever quicker time, I made a sign to my friend, and just as the last
+chord rang like a yell through the building, he and I vanished,
+leaving behind us a raging pandemonium.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment we were in the refreshing and breathless stillness of
+nature. The shadows were already lengthening, the sun still shone
+steadily, though it had sunk a good deal in the heavens, and from the
+green and glittering waves of the Rhine a cool breeze was wafted over
+our hot faces. Our solemn rite bound us only in so far as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>latest
+hours of the day were concerned, and we therefore determined to employ
+the last moments of clear daylight by giving ourselves up to one of
+our many hobbies.</p>
+
+<p>At that time we were passionately fond of pistol-shooting, and both of
+us in later years found the skill we had acquired as amateurs of great
+use in our military career. Our club servant happened to know the
+somewhat distant and elevated spot which we used as a range, and had
+carried our pistols there in advance. The spot lay near the upper
+border of the wood which covered the lesser heights behind Rolandseck:
+it was a small uneven plateau, close to the place we had consecrated
+in memory of its associations. On a wooded slope alongside of our
+shooting-range there was a small piece of ground which had been
+cleared of wood, and which made an ideal halting-place; from it one
+could get a view of the Rhine over the tops of the trees and the
+brushwood, so that the beautiful, undulating lines of the Seven
+Mountains and above all of the Drachenfels bounded the horizon against
+the group of trees, while in the centre of the bow formed by the
+glistening Rhine itself the island of Nonnenw&ouml;rth stood out as if
+suspended in the river's arms. This was the place which had become
+sacred to us through the dreams and plans we had had in common, and to
+which we intended to withdraw, later in the evening,&mdash;nay, to which we
+should be obliged to withdraw, if we wished to close the day in
+accordance with the law we had imposed on ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>At one end of the little uneven plateau, and not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>very far away, there
+stood the mighty trunk of an oak-tree, prominently visible against a
+background quite bare of trees and consisting merely of low undulating
+hills in the distance. Working together, we had once carved a
+pentagram in the side of this tree-trunk. Years of exposure to rain
+and storm had slightly deepened the channels we had cut, and the
+figure seemed a welcome target for our pistol-practice. It was already
+late in the afternoon when we reached our improvised range, and our
+oak-stump cast a long and attenuated shadow across the barren heath.
+All was still: thanks to the lofty trees at our feet, we were unable
+to catch a glimpse of the valley of the Rhine below. The peacefulness
+of the spot seemed only to intensify the loudness of our
+pistol-shots&mdash;and I had scarcely fired my second barrel at the
+pentagram when I felt some one lay hold of my arm and noticed that my
+friend had also some one beside him who had interrupted his loading.</p>
+
+<p>Turning sharply on my heels I found myself face to face with an
+astonished old gentleman, and felt what must have been a very powerful
+dog make a lunge at my back. My friend had been approached by a
+somewhat younger man than I had; but before we could give expression
+to our surprise the older of the two interlopers burst forth in the
+following threatening and heated strain: "No! no!" he called to us,
+"no duels must be fought here, but least of all must you young
+students fight one. Away with these pistols and compose yourselves. Be
+reconciled, shake hands! What?&mdash;and are you the salt of the earth,
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>intelligence of the future, the seed of our hopes&mdash;and are you
+not even able to emancipate yourselves from the insane code of honour
+and its violent regulations? I will not cast any aspersions on your
+hearts, but your heads certainly do you no credit. You, whose youth is
+watched over by the wisdom of Greece and Rome, and whose youthful
+spirits, at the cost of enormous pains, have been flooded with the
+light of the sages and heroes of antiquity,&mdash;can you not refrain from
+making the code of knightly honour&mdash;that is to say, the code of folly
+and brutality&mdash;the guiding principle of your conduct?&mdash;Examine it
+rationally once and for all, and reduce it to plain terms; lay its
+pitiable narrowness bare, and let it be the touchstone, not of your
+hearts but of your minds. If you do not regret it then, it will merely
+show that your head is not fitted for work in a sphere where great
+gifts of discrimination are needful in order to burst the bonds of
+prejudice, and where a well-balanced understanding is necessary for
+the purpose of distinguishing right from wrong, even when the
+difference between them lies deeply hidden and is not, as in this
+case, so ridiculously obvious. In that case, therefore, my lads, try
+to go through life in some other honourable manner; join the army or
+learn a handicraft that pays its way."</p>
+
+<p>To this rough, though admittedly just, flood of eloquence, we replied
+with some irritation, interrupting each other continually in so doing:
+"In the first place, you are mistaken concerning the main point; for
+we are not here to fight a duel at all; but rather to practise
+pistol-shooting. Secondly, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>you do not appear to know how a real duel
+is conducted;&mdash;do you suppose that we should have faced each other in
+this lonely spot, like two highwaymen, without seconds or doctors,
+etc. etc.? Thirdly, with regard to the question of duelling, we each
+have our own opinions, and do not require to be waylaid and surprised
+by the sort of instruction you may feel disposed to give us."</p>
+
+<p>This reply, which was certainly not polite, made a bad impression upon
+the old man. At first, when he heard that we were not about to fight a
+duel, he surveyed us more kindly: but when we reached the last passage
+of our speech, he seemed so vexed that he growled. When, however, we
+began to speak of our point of view, he quickly caught hold of his
+companion, turned sharply round, and cried to us in bitter tones:
+"People should not have points of view, but thoughts!" And then his
+companion added: "Be respectful when a man such as this even makes
+mistakes!"</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, my friend, who had reloaded, fired a shot at the pentagram,
+after having cried: "Look out!" This sudden report behind his back
+made the old man savage; once more he turned round and looked sourly
+at my friend, after which he said to his companion in a feeble voice:
+"What shall we do? These young men will be the death of me with their
+firing."&mdash;"You should know," said the younger man, turning to us,
+"that your noisy pastimes amount, as it happens on this occasion, to
+an attempt upon the life of philosophy. You observe this venerable
+man,&mdash;he is in a position to beg you to desist from firing here. And
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>when such a man begs&mdash;&mdash;" "Well, his request is generally granted,"
+the old man interjected, surveying us sternly.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, we did not know what to make of the whole matter;
+we could not understand what our noisy pastimes could have in common
+with philosophy; nor could we see why, out of regard for polite
+scruples, we should abandon our shooting-range, and at this moment we
+may have appeared somewhat undecided and perturbed. The companion
+noticing our momentary discomfiture, proceeded to explain the matter
+to us.</p>
+
+<p>"We are compelled," he said, "to linger in this immediate
+neighbourhood for an hour or so; we have a rendezvous here. An eminent
+friend of this eminent man is to meet us here this evening; and we had
+actually selected this peaceful spot, with its few benches in the
+midst of the wood, for the meeting. It would really be most unpleasant
+if, owing to your continual pistol-practice, we were to be subjected
+to an unending series of shocks; surely your own feelings will tell
+you that it is impossible for you to continue your firing when you
+hear that he who has selected this quiet and isolated place for a
+meeting with a friend is one of our most eminent philosophers."</p>
+
+<p>This explanation only succeeded in perturbing us the more; for we saw
+a danger threatening us which was even greater than the loss of our
+shooting-range, and we asked eagerly, "Where is this quiet spot?
+Surely not to the left here, in the wood?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>"That is the very place."</p>
+
+<p>"But this evening that place belongs to us," my friend interposed. "We
+must have it," we cried together.</p>
+
+<p>Our long-projected celebration seemed at that moment more important
+than all the philosophies of the world, and we gave such vehement and
+animated utterance to our sentiments that in view of the
+incomprehensible nature of our claims we must have cut a somewhat
+ridiculous figure. At any rate, our philosophical interlopers regarded
+us with expressions of amused inquiry, as if they expected us to
+proffer some sort of apology. But we were silent, for we wished above
+all to keep our secret.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we stood facing one another in silence, while the sunset dyed the
+tree-tops a ruddy gold. The philosopher contemplated the sun, his
+companion contemplated him, and we turned our eyes towards our nook in
+the woods which to-day we seemed in such great danger of losing. A
+feeling of sullen anger took possession of us. What is philosophy, we
+asked ourselves, if it prevents a man from being by himself or from
+enjoying the select company of a friend,&mdash;in sooth, if it prevents him
+from becoming a philosopher? For we regarded the celebration of our
+rite as a thoroughly philosophical performance. In celebrating it we
+wished to form plans and resolutions for the future, by means of quiet
+reflections we hoped to light upon an idea which would once again help
+us to form and gratify our spirit in the future, just as that former
+idea had done during our boyhood. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>The solemn act derived its very
+significance from this resolution, that nothing definite was to be
+done, we were only to be alone, and to sit still and meditate, as we
+had done five years before when we had each been inspired with the
+same thought. It was to be a silent solemnisation, all reminiscence
+and all future; the present was to be as a hyphen between the two. And
+fate, now unfriendly, had just stepped into our magic circle&mdash;and we
+knew not how to dismiss her;&mdash;the very unusual character of the
+circumstances filled us with mysterious excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst we stood thus in silence for some time, divided into two
+hostile groups, the clouds above waxed ever redder and the evening
+seemed to grow more peaceful and mild; we could almost fancy we heard
+the regular breathing of nature as she put the final touches to her
+work of art&mdash;the glorious day we had just enjoyed; when, suddenly, the
+calm evening air was rent by a confused and boisterous cry of joy
+which seemed to come from the Rhine. A number of voices could be heard
+in the distance&mdash;they were those of our fellow-students who by that
+time must have taken to the Rhine in small boats. It occurred to us
+that we should be missed and that we should also miss something:
+almost simultaneously my friend and I raised our pistols: our shots
+were echoed back to us, and with their echo there came from the valley
+the sound of a well-known cry intended as a signal of identification.
+For our passion for shooting had brought us both repute and ill-repute
+in our club. At the same <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>time we were conscious that our behaviour
+towards the silent philosophical couple had been exceptionally
+ungentlemanly; they had been quietly contemplating us for some time,
+and when we fired the shock made them draw close up to each other. We
+hurried up to them, and each in our turn cried out: "Forgive us. That
+was our last shot, and it was intended for our friends on the Rhine.
+They have understood us, do you hear? If you insist upon having that
+place among the trees, grant us at least the permission to recline
+there also. You will find a number of benches on the spot: we shall
+not disturb you; we shall sit quite still and shall not utter a word:
+but it is now past seven o'clock and we <i>must</i> go there at once.</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds more mysterious than it is," I added after a pause; "we
+have made a solemn vow to spend this coming hour on that ground, and
+there were reasons for the vow. The spot is sacred to us, owing to
+some pleasant associations, it must also inaugurate a good future for
+us. We shall therefore endeavour to leave you with no disagreeable
+recollections of our meeting&mdash;even though we have done much to perturb
+and frighten you."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher was silent; his companion, however, said: "Our
+promises and plans unfortunately compel us not only to remain, but
+also to spend the same hour on the spot you have selected. It is left
+for us to decide whether fate or perhaps a spirit has been responsible
+for this extraordinary coincidence."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, my friend," said the philosopher, "I am not half so
+displeased with these warlike <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>youngsters as I was. Did you observe
+how quiet they were a moment ago, when we were contemplating the sun?
+They neither spoke nor smoked, they stood stone still, I even believe
+they meditated."</p>
+
+<p>Turning suddenly in our direction, he said: "<i>Were</i> you meditating?
+Just tell me about it as we proceed in the direction of our common
+trysting-place." We took a few steps together and went down the slope
+into the warm balmy air of the woods where it was already much darker.
+On the way my friend openly revealed his thoughts to the philosopher,
+he confessed how much he had feared that perhaps to-day for the first
+time a philosopher was about to stand in the way of his
+philosophising.</p>
+
+<p>The sage laughed. "What? You were afraid a philosopher would prevent
+your philosophising? This might easily happen: and you have not yet
+experienced such a thing? Has your university life been free from
+experience? You surely attend lectures on philosophy?"</p>
+
+<p>This question discomfited us; for, as a matter of fact, there had been
+no element of philosophy in our education up to that time. In those
+days, moreover, we fondly imagined that everybody who held the post
+and possessed the dignity of a philosopher must perforce be one: we
+were inexperienced and badly informed. We frankly admitted that we had
+not yet belonged to any philosophical college, but that we would
+certainly make up for lost time.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what," he asked, "did you mean when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>you spoke of
+philosophising?" Said I, "We are at a loss for a definition. But to
+all intents and purposes we meant this, that we wished to make earnest
+endeavours to consider the best possible means of becoming men of
+culture." "That is a good deal and at the same time very little,"
+growled the philosopher; "just you think the matter over. Here are our
+benches, let us discuss the question exhaustively: I shall not disturb
+your meditations with regard to how you are to become men of culture.
+I wish you success and&mdash;points of view, as in your duelling questions;
+brand-new, original, and enlightened points of view. The philosopher
+does not wish to prevent your philosophising: but refrain at least
+from disconcerting him with your pistol-shots. Try to imitate the
+Pythagoreans to-day: they, as servants of a true philosophy, had to
+remain silent for five years&mdash;possibly you may also be able to remain
+silent for five times fifteen minutes, as servants of your own future
+culture, about which you seem so concerned."</p>
+
+<p>We had reached our destination: the solemnisation of our rite began.
+As on the previous occasion, five years ago, the Rhine was once more
+flowing beneath a light mist, the sky seemed bright and the woods
+exhaled the same fragrance. We took our places on the farthest corner
+of the most distant bench; sitting there we were almost concealed, and
+neither the philosopher nor his companion could see our faces. We were
+alone: when the sound of the philosopher's voice reached us, it had
+become so blended with the rustling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>leaves and with the buzzing
+murmur of the myriads of living things inhabiting the wooded height,
+that it almost seemed like the music of nature; as a sound it
+resembled nothing more than a distant monotonous plaint. We were
+indeed undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Some time elapsed in this way, and while the glow of sunset grew
+steadily paler the recollection of our youthful undertaking in the
+cause of culture waxed ever more vivid. It seemed to us as if we owed
+the greatest debt of gratitude to that little society we had founded;
+for it had done more than merely supplement our public school
+training; it had actually been the only fruitful society we had had,
+and within its frame we even placed our public school life, as a
+purely isolated factor helping us in our general efforts to attain to
+culture.</p>
+
+<p>We knew this, that, thanks to our little society, no thought of
+embracing any particular career had ever entered our minds in those
+days. The all too frequent exploitation of youth by the State, for its
+own purposes&mdash;that is to say, so that it may rear useful officials as
+quickly as possible and guarantee their unconditional obedience to it
+by means of excessively severe examinations&mdash;had remained quite
+foreign to our education. And to show how little we had been actuated
+by thoughts of utility or by the prospect of speedy advancement and
+rapid success, on that day we were struck by the comforting
+consideration that, even then, we had not yet decided what we should
+be&mdash;we had not even troubled ourselves at all on this head. Our little
+society had sown the seeds of this happy indifference in our souls and
+for it alone we were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its
+foundation with hearty gratitude. I have already pointed out, I think,
+that in the eyes of the present age, which is so intolerant of
+anything that is not useful, such purposeless enjoyment of the moment,
+such a lulling of one's self in the cradle of the present, must seem
+almost incredible and at all events blameworthy. How useless we were!
+And how proud we were of being useless! We used even to quarrel with
+each other as to which of us should have the glory of being the more
+useless. We wished to attach no importance to anything, to have strong
+views about nothing, to aim at nothing; we wanted to take no thought
+for the morrow, and desired no more than to recline comfortably like
+good-for-nothings on the threshold of the present; and we did&mdash;bless
+us!</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;That, ladies and gentlemen, was our standpoint then!&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Absorbed in these reflections, I was just about to give an answer to
+the question of the future of <i>our</i> Educational Institutions in the
+same self-sufficient way, when it gradually dawned upon me that the
+"natural music," coming from the philosopher's bench had lost its
+original character and travelled to us in much more piercing and
+distinct tones than before. Suddenly I became aware that I was
+listening, that I was eavesdropping, and was passionately interested,
+with both ears keenly alive to every sound. I nudged my friend who was
+evidently somewhat tired, and I whispered: "Don't fall asleep! There
+is something for us to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>learn over there. It applies to us, even
+though it be not meant for us."</p>
+
+<p>For instance, I heard the younger of the two men defending himself
+with great animation while the philosopher rebuked him with ever
+increasing vehemence. "You are unchanged," he cried to him,
+"unfortunately unchanged. It is quite incomprehensible to me how you
+can still be the same as you were seven years ago, when I saw you for
+the last time and left you with so much misgiving. I fear I must once
+again divest you, however reluctantly, of the skin of modern culture
+which you have donned meanwhile;&mdash;and what do I find beneath it? The
+same immutable 'intelligible' character forsooth, according to Kant;
+but unfortunately the same unchanged 'intellectual' character,
+too&mdash;which may also be a necessity, though not a comforting one. I ask
+myself to what purpose have I lived as a philosopher, if, possessed as
+you are of no mean intelligence and a genuine thirst for knowledge,
+all the years you have spent in my company have left no deeper
+impression upon you. At present you are behaving as if you had not
+even heard the cardinal principle of all culture, which I went to such
+pains to inculcate upon you during our former intimacy. Tell me,&mdash;what
+was that principle?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember," replied the scolded pupil, "you used to say no one would
+strive to attain to culture if he knew how incredibly small the number
+of really cultured people actually is, and can ever be. And even this
+number of really cultured people would not be possible if a prodigious
+multitude, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>from reasons opposed to their nature and only led on by an
+alluring delusion, did not devote themselves to education. It were
+therefore a mistake publicly to reveal the ridiculous disproportion
+between the number of really cultured people and the enormous
+magnitude of the educational apparatus. Here lies the whole secret of
+culture&mdash;namely, that an innumerable host of men struggle to achieve
+it and work hard to that end, ostensibly in their own interests,
+whereas at bottom it is only in order that it may be possible for the
+few to attain to it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the principle," said the philosopher,&mdash;"and yet you could so
+far forget yourself as to believe that you are one of the few? This
+thought has occurred to you&mdash;I can see. That, however, is the result
+of the worthless character of modern education. The rights of genius
+are being democratised in order that people may be relieved of the
+labour of acquiring culture, and their need of it. Every one wants if
+possible to recline in the shade of the tree planted by genius, and to
+escape the dreadful necessity of working for him, so that his
+procreation may be made possible. What? Are you too proud to be a
+teacher? Do you despise the thronging multitude of learners? Do you
+speak contemptuously of the teacher's calling? And, aping my mode of
+life, would you fain live in solitary seclusion, hostilely isolated
+from that multitude? Do you suppose that you can reach at one bound
+what I ultimately had to win for myself only after long and determined
+struggles, in order even to be able to live like a philosopher? And do
+you not fear that solitude <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>will wreak its vengeance upon you? Just
+try living the life of a hermit of culture. One must be blessed with
+overflowing wealth in order to live for the good of all on one's own
+resources! Extraordinary youngsters! They felt it incumbent upon them
+to imitate what is precisely most difficult and most high,&mdash;what is
+possible only to the master, when they, above all, should know how
+difficult and dangerous this is, and how many excellent gifts may be
+ruined by attempting it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will conceal nothing from you, sir," the companion replied. "I have
+heard too much from your lips at odd times and have been too long in
+your company to be able to surrender myself entirely to our present
+system of education and instruction. I am too painfully conscious of
+the disastrous errors and abuses to which you used to call my
+attention&mdash;though I very well know that I am not strong enough to hope
+for any success were I to struggle ever so valiantly against them. I
+was overcome by a feeling of general discouragement; my recourse to
+solitude was the result neither of pride nor arrogance. I would fain
+describe to you what I take to be the nature of the educational
+questions now attracting such enormous and pressing attention. It
+seemed to me that I must recognise two main directions in the forces
+at work&mdash;two seemingly antagonistic tendencies, equally deleterious in
+their action, and ultimately combining to produce their results: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible <i>expansion</i> of education on
+the one hand, and a tendency to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span><i>minimise and weaken</i> it on the
+other. The first-named would, for various reasons, spread learning
+among the greatest number of people; the second would compel education
+to renounce its highest, noblest and sublimest claims in order to
+subordinate itself to some other department of life&mdash;such as the
+service of the State.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I have already hinted at the quarter in which the cry for
+the greatest possible expansion of education is most loudly raised.
+This expansion belongs to the most beloved of the dogmas of modern
+political economy. As much knowledge and education as possible;
+therefore the greatest possible supply and demand&mdash;hence as much
+happiness as possible:&mdash;that is the formula. In this case utility is
+made the object and goal of education,&mdash;utility in the sense of
+gain&mdash;the greatest possible pecuniary gain. In the quarter now under
+consideration culture would be defined as that point of vantage which
+enables one to 'keep in the van of one's age,' from which one can see
+all the easiest and best roads to wealth, and with which one controls
+all the means of communication between men and nations. The purpose of
+education, according to this scheme, would be to rear the most
+'current' men possible,&mdash;'current' being used here in the sense in
+which it is applied to the coins of the realm. The greater the number
+of such men, the happier a nation will be; and this precisely is the
+purpose of our modern educational institutions: to help every one, as
+far as his nature will allow, to become 'current'; to develop him so
+that his particular degree of knowledge and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>science may yield him the
+greatest possible amount of happiness and pecuniary gain. Every one
+must be able to form some sort of estimate of himself; he must know
+how much he may reasonably expect from life. The 'bond between
+intelligence and property' which this point of view postulates has
+almost the force of a moral principle. In this quarter all culture is
+loathed which isolates, which sets goals beyond gold and gain, and
+which requires time: it is customary to dispose of such eccentric
+tendencies in education as systems of 'Higher Egotism,' or of 'Immoral
+Culture&mdash;Epicureanism.' According to the morality reigning here, the
+demands are quite different; what is required above all is 'rapid
+education,' so that a money-earning creature may be produced with all
+speed; there is even a desire to make this education so thorough that
+a creature may be reared that will be able to earn a <i>great deal</i> of
+money. Men are allowed only the precise amount of culture which is
+compatible with the interests of gain; but that amount, at least, is
+expected from them. In short: mankind has a necessary right to
+happiness on earth&mdash;that is why culture is necessary&mdash;but on that
+account alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"I must just say something here," said the philosopher. "In the case
+of the view you have described so clearly, there arises the great and
+awful danger that at some time or other the great masses may overleap
+the middle classes and spring headlong into this earthly bliss. That
+is what is now called 'the social question.' It might seem to these
+masses that education for the greatest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>number of men was only a means
+to the earthly bliss of the few: the 'greatest possible expansion of
+education' so enfeebles education that it can no longer confer
+privileges or inspire respect. The most general form of culture is
+simply barbarism. But I do not wish to interrupt your discussion."</p>
+
+<p>The companion continued: "There are yet other reasons, besides this
+beloved economical dogma, for the expansion of education that is being
+striven after so valiantly everywhere. In some countries the fear of
+religious oppression is so general, and the dread of its results so
+marked, that people in all classes of society long for culture and
+eagerly absorb those elements of it which are supposed to scatter the
+religious instincts. Elsewhere the State, in its turn, strives here
+and there for its own preservation, after the greatest possible
+expansion of education, because it always feels strong enough to bring
+the most determined emancipation, resulting from culture, under its
+yoke, and readily approves of everything which tends to extend
+culture, provided that it be of service to its officials or soldiers,
+but in the main to itself, in its competition with other nations. In
+this case, the foundations of a State must be sufficiently broad and
+firm to constitute a fitting counterpart to the complicated arches of
+culture which it supports, just as in the first case the traces of
+some former religious tyranny must still be felt for a people to be
+driven to such desperate remedies. Thus, wherever I hear the masses
+raise the cry for an expansion of education, I am wont to ask myself
+whether it is stimulated by a greedy lust <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>of gain and property, by
+the memory of a former religious persecution, or by the prudent
+egotism of the State itself.</p>
+
+<p>"On the other hand, it seemed to me that there was yet another
+tendency, not so clamorous, perhaps, but quite as forcible, which,
+hailing from various quarters, was animated by a different
+desire,&mdash;the desire to minimise and weaken education.</p>
+
+<p>"In all cultivated circles people are in the habit of whispering to
+one another words something after this style: that it is a general
+fact that, owing to the present frantic exploitation of the scholar in
+the service of his science, his <i>education</i> becomes every day more
+accidental and more uncertain. For the study of science has been
+extended to such interminable lengths that he who, though not
+exceptionally gifted, yet possesses fair abilities, will need to
+devote himself exclusively to one branch and ignore all others if he
+ever wish to achieve anything in his work. Should he then elevate
+himself above the herd by means of his speciality, he still remains
+one of them in regard to all else,&mdash;that is to say, in regard to all
+the most important things in life. Thus, a specialist in science gets
+to resemble nothing so much as a factory workman who spends his whole
+life in turning one particular screw or handle on a certain instrument
+or machine, at which occupation he acquires the most consummate skill.
+In Germany, where we know how to drape such painful facts with the
+glorious garments of fancy, this narrow specialisation on the part of
+our learned men is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>even admired, and their ever greater deviation
+from the path of true culture is regarded as a moral phenomenon.
+'Fidelity in small things,' 'dogged faithfulness,' become expressions
+of highest eulogy, and the lack of culture outside the speciality is
+flaunted abroad as a sign of noble sufficiency.</p>
+
+<p>"For centuries it has been an understood thing that one alluded to
+scholars alone when one spoke of cultured men; but experience tells us
+that it would be difficult to find any necessary relation between the
+two classes to-day. For at present the exploitation of a man for the
+purpose of science is accepted everywhere without the slightest
+scruple. Who still ventures to ask, What may be the value of a science
+which consumes its minions in this vampire fashion? The division of
+labour in science is practically struggling towards the same goal
+which religions in certain parts of the world are consciously striving
+after,&mdash;that is to say, towards the decrease and even the destruction
+of learning. That, however, which, in the case of certain religions,
+is a perfectly justifiable aim, both in regard to their origin and
+their history, can only amount to self-immolation when transferred to
+the realm of science. In all matters of a general and serious nature,
+and above all, in regard to the highest philosophical problems, we
+have now already reached a point at which the scientific man, as such,
+is no longer allowed to speak. On the other hand, that adhesive and
+tenacious stratum which has now filled up the interstices between the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>sciences&mdash;Journalism&mdash;believes it has a mission to fulfil here, and
+this it does, according to its own particular lights&mdash;that is to say,
+as its name implies, after the fashion of a day-labourer.</p>
+
+<p>"It is precisely in journalism that the two tendencies combine and
+become one. The expansion and the diminution of education here join
+hands. The newspaper actually steps into the place of culture, and he
+who, even as a scholar, wishes to voice any claim for education, must
+avail himself of this viscous stratum of communication which cements
+the seams between all forms of life, all classes, all arts, and all
+sciences, and which is as firm and reliable as news paper is, as a
+rule. In the newspaper the peculiar educational aims of the present
+culminate, just as the journalist, the servant of the moment, has
+stepped into the place of the genius, of the leader for all time, of
+the deliverer from the tyranny of the moment. Now, tell me,
+distinguished master, what hopes could I still have in a struggle
+against the general topsy-turvification of all genuine aims for
+education; with what courage can I, a single teacher, step forward,
+when I know that the moment any seeds of real culture are sown, they
+will be mercilessly crushed by the roller of this pseudo-culture?
+Imagine how useless the most energetic work on the part of the
+individual teacher must be, who would fain lead a pupil back into the
+distant and evasive Hellenic world and to the real home of culture,
+when in less than an hour, that same pupil will have recourse to a
+newspaper, the latest novel, or one of those learned books, the very
+style of which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>already bears the revolting impress of modern barbaric
+culture&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, silence a minute!" interjected the philosopher in a strong and
+sympathetic voice. "I understand you now, and ought never to have
+spoken so crossly to you. You are altogether right, save in your
+despair. I shall now proceed to say a few words of consolation."</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="SECOND_LECTURE" id="SECOND_LECTURE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>SECOND LECTURE.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Delivered on the 6th of February 1872.</i>)</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p><span class="sc">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;Those among you whom I now have the
+pleasure of addressing for the first time and whose only knowledge of
+my first lecture has been derived from reports will, I hope, not mind
+being introduced here into the middle of a dialogue which I had begun
+to recount on the last occasion, and the last points of which I must
+now recall. The philosopher's young companion was just pleading openly
+and confidentially with his distinguished tutor, and apologising for
+having so far renounced his calling as a teacher in order to spend his
+days in comfortless solitude. No suspicion of superciliousness or
+arrogance had induced him to form this resolve.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard too much from your lips at various times," the
+straightforward pupil said, "and have been too long in your company,
+to surrender myself blindly to our present systems of education and
+instruction. I am too painfully conscious of the disastrous errors and
+abuses to which you were wont to call my attention; and yet I know
+that I am far from possessing the requisite strength to meet with
+success, however valiantly I might struggle to shatter the bulwarks
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>of this would-be culture. I was overcome by a general feeling of
+depression: my recourse to solitude was not arrogance or
+superciliousness." Whereupon, to account for his behaviour, he
+described the general character of modern educational methods so
+vividly that the philosopher could not help interrupting him in a
+voice full of sympathy, and crying words of comfort to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, silence for a minute, my poor friend," he cried; "I can more
+easily understand you now, and should not have lost my patience with
+you. You are altogether right, save in your despair. I shall now
+proceed to say a few words of comfort to you. How long do you suppose
+the state of education in the schools of our time, which seems to
+weigh so heavily upon you, will last? I shall not conceal my views on
+this point from you: its time is over; its days are counted. The first
+who will dare to be quite straightforward in this respect will hear
+his honesty re-echoed back to him by thousands of courageous souls.
+For, at bottom, there is a tacit understanding between the more nobly
+gifted and more warmly disposed men of the present day. Every one of
+them knows what he has had to suffer from the condition of culture in
+schools; every one of them would fain protect his offspring from the
+need of enduring similar drawbacks, even though he himself was
+compelled to submit to them. If these feelings are never quite
+honestly expressed, however, it is owing to a sad want of spirit among
+modern pedagogues. These lack real initiative; there are too few
+practical men among them&mdash;that is to say, too few who happen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>to have
+good and new ideas, and who know that real genius and the real
+practical mind must necessarily come together in the same individuals,
+whilst the sober practical men have no ideas and therefore fall short
+in practice.</p>
+
+<p>"Let any one examine the pedagogic literature of the present; he who
+is not shocked at its utter poverty of spirit and its ridiculously
+awkward antics is beyond being spoiled. Here our philosophy must not
+begin with wonder but with dread; he who feels no dread at this point
+must be asked not to meddle with pedagogic questions. The reverse, of
+course, has been the rule up to the present; those who were terrified
+ran away filled with embarrassment as you did, my poor friend, while
+the sober and fearless ones spread their heavy hands over the most
+delicate technique that has ever existed in art&mdash;over the technique of
+education. This, however, will not be possible much longer; at some
+time or other the upright man will appear, who will not only have the
+good ideas I speak of, but who in order to work at their realisation,
+will dare to break with all that exists at present: he may by means of
+a wonderful example achieve what the broad hands, hitherto active,
+could not even imitate&mdash;then people will everywhere begin to draw
+comparisons; then men will at least be able to perceive a contrast and
+will be in a position to reflect upon its causes, whereas, at present,
+so many still believe, in perfect good faith, that heavy hands are a
+necessary factor in pedagogic work."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear master," said the younger man, "I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>wish you could point to
+one single example which would assist me in seeing the soundness of
+the hopes which you so heartily raise in me. We are both acquainted
+with public schools; do you think, for instance, that in respect of
+these institutions anything may be done by means of honesty and good
+and new ideas to abolish the tenacious and antiquated customs now
+extant? In this quarter, it seems to me, the battering-rams of an
+attacking party will have to meet with no solid wall, but with the
+most fatal of stolid and slippery principles. The leader of the
+assault has no visible and tangible opponent to crush, but rather a
+creature in disguise that can transform itself into a hundred
+different shapes and, in each of these, slip out of his grasp, only in
+order to reappear and to confound its enemy by cowardly surrenders and
+feigned retreats. It was precisely the public schools which drove me
+into despair and solitude, simply because I feel that if the struggle
+here leads to victory all other educational institutions must give in;
+but that, if the reformer be forced to abandon his cause here, he may
+as well give up all hope in regard to every other scholastic question.
+Therefore, dear master, enlighten me concerning the public schools;
+what can we hope for in the way of their abolition or reform?"</p>
+
+<p>"I also hold the question of public schools to be as important as you
+do," the philosopher replied. "All other educational institutions must
+fix their aims in accordance with those of the public school system;
+whatever errors of judgment it may suffer from, they suffer from also,
+and if it were ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>purified and rejuvenated, they would be purified
+and rejuvenated too. The universities can no longer lay claim to this
+importance as centres of influence, seeing that, as they now stand,
+they are at least, in one important aspect, only a kind of annex to
+the public school system, as I shall shortly point out to you. For the
+moment, let us consider, together, what to my mind constitutes the
+very hopeful struggle of the two possibilities: <i>either</i> that the
+motley and evasive spirit of public schools which has hitherto been
+fostered, will completely vanish, or that it will have to be
+completely purified and rejuvenated. And in order that I may not shock
+you with general propositions, let us first try to recall one of those
+public school experiences which we have all had, and from which we
+have all suffered. Under severe examination what, as a matter of fact,
+is the present <i>system of teaching German</i> in public schools?</p>
+
+<p>"I shall first of all tell you what it should be. Everybody speaks and
+writes German as thoroughly badly as it is just possible to do so in
+an age of newspaper German: that is why the growing youth who happens
+to be both noble and gifted has to be taken by force and put under the
+glass shade of good taste and of severe linguistic discipline. If this
+is not possible, I would prefer in future that Latin be spoken; for I
+am ashamed of a language so bungled and vitiated.</p>
+
+<p>"What would be the duty of a higher educational institution, in this
+respect, if not this&mdash;namely, with authority and dignified severity to
+put youths, neglected, as far as their own language <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>is concerned, on
+the right path, and to cry to them: 'Take your own language seriously!
+He who does not regard this matter as a sacred duty does not possess
+even the germ of a higher culture. From your attitude in this matter,
+from your treatment of your mother-tongue, we can judge how highly or
+how lowly you esteem art, and to what extent you are related to it. If
+you notice no physical loathing in yourselves when you meet with
+certain words and tricks of speech in our journalistic jargon, cease
+from striving after culture; for here in your immediate vicinity, at
+every moment of your life, while you are either speaking or writing,
+you have a touchstone for testing how difficult, how stupendous, the
+task of the cultured man is, and how very improbable it must be that
+many of you will ever attain to culture.'</p>
+
+<p>"In accordance with the spirit of this address, the teacher of German
+at a public school would be forced to call his pupil's attention to
+thousands of details, and with the absolute certainty of good taste,
+to forbid their using such words and expressions, for instance, as:
+'<i>beanspruchen</i>,' '<i>vereinnahmen</i>,' '<i>einer Sache Rechnung tragen</i>,'
+'<i>die Initiative ergreifen</i>,' '<i>selbstverst&auml;ndlich</i>,'<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> etc., <i>cum
+t&aelig;dio in infinitum</i>. The same teacher would also have to take our
+classical authors and show, line for line, how carefully and with what
+precision every expression has to be chosen when a writer has the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>correct feeling in his heart and has before his eyes a perfect
+conception of all he is writing. He would necessarily urge his pupils,
+time and again, to express the same thought ever more happily; nor
+would he have to abate in rigour until the less gifted in his class
+had contracted an unholy fear of their language, and the others had
+developed great enthusiasm for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Here then is a task for so-called 'formal' education<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> [the
+education tending to develop the mental faculties, as opposed to
+'material' education,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> which is intended to deal only with the
+acquisition of facts, <i>e.g.</i> history, mathematics, etc.], and one of
+the utmost value: but what do we find in the public school&mdash;that is to
+say, in the head-quarters of formal education? He who understands how
+to apply what he has heard here will also know what to think of the
+modern public school as a so-called educational institution. He will
+discover, for instance, that the public school, according to its
+fundamental principles, does not educate for the purposes of culture,
+but for the purposes of scholarship; and, further, that of late it
+seems to have adopted a course which indicates rather that it has even
+discarded scholarship in favour of journalism as the object of its
+exertions. This can be clearly seen from the way in which German is
+taught.</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of that purely practical method of instruction by which the
+teacher accustoms his pupils to severe self-discipline in their own
+language, we find everywhere the rudiments of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>historico-scholastic
+method of teaching the mother-tongue: that is to say, people deal with
+it as if it were a dead language and as if the present and future were
+under no obligations to it whatsoever. The historical method has
+become so universal in our time, that even the living body of the
+language is sacrificed for the sake of anatomical study. But this is
+precisely where culture begins&mdash;namely, in understanding how to treat
+the quick as something vital, and it is here too that the mission of
+the cultured teacher begins: in suppressing the urgent claims of
+'historical interests' wherever it is above all necessary to <i>do</i>
+properly and not merely to <i>know</i> properly. Our mother-tongue,
+however, is a domain in which the pupil must learn how to <i>do</i>
+properly, and to this practical end, alone, the teaching of German is
+essential in our scholastic establishments. The historical method may
+certainly be a considerably easier and more comfortable one for the
+teacher; it also seems to be compatible with a much lower grade of
+ability and, in general, with a smaller display of energy and will on
+his part. But we shall find that this observation holds good in every
+department of pedagogic life: the simpler and more comfortable method
+always masquerades in the disguise of grand pretensions and stately
+titles; the really practical side, the <i>doing</i>, which should belong to
+culture and which, at bottom, is the more difficult side, meets only
+with disfavour and contempt. That is why the honest man must make
+himself and others quite clear concerning this <i>quid pro quo</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, apart from these learned incentives to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>study of the language,
+what is there besides which the German teacher is wont to offer? How
+does he reconcile the spirit of his school with the spirit of the
+<i>few</i> that Germany can claim who are really cultured,&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> with the
+spirit of its classical poets and artists? This is a dark and thorny
+sphere, into which one cannot even bear a light without dread; but
+even here we shall conceal nothing from ourselves; for sooner or later
+the whole of it will have to be reformed. In the public school, the
+repulsive impress of our &aelig;sthetic journalism is stamped upon the still
+unformed minds of youths. Here, too, the teacher sows the seeds of
+that crude and wilful misinterpretation of the classics, which later
+on disports itself as art-criticism, and which is nothing but
+bumptious barbarity. Here the pupils learn to speak of our unique
+<i>Schiller</i> with the superciliousness of prigs; here they are taught to
+smile at the noblest and most German of his works&mdash;at the Marquis of
+Posa, at Max and Thekla&mdash;at these smiles German genius becomes
+incensed and a worthier posterity will blush.</p>
+
+<p>"The last department in which the German teacher in a public school is
+at all active, which is often regarded as his sphere of highest
+activity, and is here and there even considered the pinnacle of public
+school education, is the so-called <i>German composition</i>. Owing to the
+very fact that in this department it is almost always the most gifted
+pupils who display the greatest eagerness, it ought to have been made
+clear how dangerously stimulating, precisely here, the task of the
+teacher must be. <i>German composition</i> makes an appeal to the
+individual, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>the more strongly a pupil is conscious of his various
+qualities, the more personally will he do his <i>German composition</i>.
+This 'personal doing' is urged on with yet an additional fillip in
+some public schools by the choice of the subject, the strongest proof
+of which is, in my opinion, that even in the lower classes the
+non-pedagogic subject is set, by means of which the pupil is led to
+give a description of his life and of his development. Now, one has
+only to read the titles of the compositions set in a large number of
+public schools to be convinced that probably the large majority of
+pupils have to suffer their whole lives, through no fault of their
+own, owing to this premature demand for personal work&mdash;for the unripe
+procreation of thoughts. And how often are not all a man's subsequent
+literary performances but a sad result of this pedagogic original sin
+against the intellect!</p>
+
+<p>"Let us only think of what takes place at such an age in the
+production of such work. It is the first individual creation; the
+still undeveloped powers tend for the first time to crystallise; the
+staggering sensation produced by the demand for self-reliance imparts
+a seductive charm to these early performances, which is not only quite
+new, but which never returns. All the daring of nature is hauled out
+of its depths; all vanities&mdash;no longer constrained by mighty
+barriers&mdash;are allowed for the first time to assume a literary form:
+the young man, from that time forward, feels as if he had reached his
+consummation as a being not only able, but actually invited, to speak
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>and to converse. The subject he selects obliges him either to express
+his judgment upon certain poetical works, to class historical persons
+together in a description of character, to discuss serious ethical
+problems quite independently, or even to turn the searchlight inwards,
+to throw its rays upon his own development and to make a critical
+report of himself: in short, a whole world of reflection is spread out
+before the astonished young man who, until then, had been almost
+unconscious, and is delivered up to him to be judged.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let us try to picture the teacher's usual attitude towards these
+first highly influential examples of original composition. What does
+he hold to be most reprehensible in this class of work? What does he
+call his pupil's attention to?&mdash;To all excess in form or thought&mdash;that
+is to say, to all that which, at their age, is essentially
+characteristic and individual. Their really independent traits which,
+in response to this very premature excitation, can manifest themselves
+only in awkwardness, crudeness, and grotesque features,&mdash;in short,
+their individuality is reproved and rejected by the teacher in favour
+of an unoriginal decent average. On the other hand, uniform mediocrity
+gets peevish praise; for, as a rule, it is just the class of work
+likely to bore the teacher thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>"There may still be men who recognise a most absurd and most dangerous
+element of the public school curriculum in the whole farce of this
+German composition. Originality is demanded here: but the only shape
+in which it can manifest itself is rejected, and the 'formal'
+education that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>the system takes for granted is attained to only by a
+very limited number of men who complete it at a ripe age. Here
+everybody without exception is regarded as gifted for literature and
+considered as capable of holding opinions concerning the most
+important questions and people, whereas the one aim which proper
+education should most zealously strive to achieve would be the
+suppression of all ridiculous claims to independent judgment, and the
+inculcation upon young men of obedience to the sceptre of genius. Here
+a pompous form of diction is taught in an age when every spoken or
+written word is a piece of barbarism. Now let us consider, besides,
+the danger of arousing the self-complacency which is so easily
+awakened in youths; let us think how their vanity must be flattered
+when they see their literary reflection for the first time in the
+mirror. Who, having seen all these effects at <i>one</i> glance, could any
+longer doubt whether all the faults of our public, literary, and
+artistic life were not stamped upon every fresh generation by the
+system we are examining: hasty and vain production, the disgraceful
+manufacture of books; complete want of style; the crude,
+characterless, or sadly swaggering method of expression; the loss of
+every &aelig;sthetic canon; the voluptuousness of anarchy and chaos&mdash;in
+short, the literary peculiarities of both our journalism and our
+scholarship.</p>
+
+<p>"None but the very fewest are aware that, among many thousands,
+perhaps only <i>one</i> is justified in describing himself as literary, and
+that all others who at their own risk try to be so deserve to be met
+with Homeric laughter by all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>competent men as a reward for every
+sentence they have ever had printed;&mdash;for it is truly a spectacle meet
+for the gods to see a literary Hephaistos limping forward who would
+pretend to help us to something. To educate men to earnest and
+inexorable habits and views, in this respect, should be the highest
+aim of all mental training, whereas the general <i>laisser aller</i> of the
+'fine personality' can be nothing else than the hall-mark of
+barbarism. From what I have said, however, it must be clear that, at
+least in the teaching of German, no thought is given to culture;
+something quite different is in view,&mdash;namely, the production of the
+afore-mentioned 'free personality.' And so long as German public
+schools prepare the road for outrageous and irresponsible scribbling,
+so long as they do not regard the immediate and practical discipline
+of speaking and writing as their most holy duty, so long as they treat
+the mother-tongue as if it were only a necessary evil or a dead body,
+I shall not regard these institutions as belonging to real culture.</p>
+
+<p>"In regard to the language, what is surely least noticeable is any
+trace of the influence of <i>classical examples</i>: that is why, on the
+strength of this consideration alone, the so-called 'classical
+education' which is supposed to be provided by our public school,
+strikes me as something exceedingly doubtful and confused. For how
+could anybody, after having cast one glance at those examples, fail to
+see the great earnestness with which the Greek and the Roman regarded
+and treated his language, from his youth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>onwards&mdash;how is it possible
+to mistake one's example on a point like this one?&mdash;provided, of
+course, that the classical Hellenic and Roman world really did hover
+before the educational plan of our public schools as the highest and
+most instructive of all morals&mdash;a fact I feel very much inclined to
+doubt. The claim put forward by public schools concerning the
+'classical education' they provide seems to be more an awkward evasion
+than anything else; it is used whenever there is any question raised
+as to the competency of the public schools to impart culture and to
+educate. Classical education, indeed! It sounds so dignified! It
+confounds the aggressor and staves off the assault&mdash;for who could see
+to the bottom of this bewildering formula all at once? And this has
+long been the customary strategy of the public school: from whichever
+side the war-cry may come, it writes upon its shield&mdash;not overloaded
+with honours&mdash;one of those confusing catchwords, such as: 'classical
+education,' 'formal education,' 'scientific education':&mdash;three
+glorious things which are, however, unhappily at loggerheads, not only
+with themselves but among themselves, and are such that, if they were
+compulsorily brought together, would perforce bring forth a
+culture-monster. For a 'classical education' is something so unheard
+of, difficult and rare, and exacts such complicated talent, that only
+ingenuousness or impudence could put it forward as an attainable goal
+in our public schools. The words: 'formal education' belong to that
+crude kind of unphilosophical phraseology which one should do one's
+utmost <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>to get rid of; for there is no such thing as 'the opposite of
+formal education.' And he who regards 'scientific education' as the
+object of a public school thereby sacrifices 'classical education' and
+the so-called 'formal education,' at one stroke, as the scientific man
+and the cultured man belong to two different spheres which, though
+coming together at times in the same individual, are never reconciled.</p>
+
+<p>"If we compare all three of these would-be aims of the public school
+with the actual facts to be observed in the present method of teaching
+German, we see immediately what they really amount to in
+practice,&mdash;that is to say, only to subterfuges for use in the fight
+and struggle for existence and, often enough, mere means wherewith to
+bewilder an opponent. For we are unable to detect any single feature
+in this teaching of German which in any way recalls the example of
+classical antiquity and its glorious methods of training in languages.
+'Formal education,' however, which is supposed to be achieved by this
+method of teaching German, has been shown to be wholly at the pleasure
+of the 'free personality,' which is as good as saying that it is
+barbarism and anarchy. And as for the preparation in science, which is
+one of the consequences of this teaching, our Germanists will have to
+determine, in all justice, how little these learned beginnings in
+public schools have contributed to the splendour of their sciences,
+and how much the personality of individual university professors has
+done so.&mdash;Put briefly: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>the public school has hitherto neglected its
+most important and most urgent duty towards the very beginning of all
+real culture, which is the mother-tongue; but in so doing it has
+lacked the natural, fertile soil for all further efforts at culture.
+For only by means of stern, artistic, and careful discipline and
+habit, in a language, can the correct feeling for the greatness of our
+classical writers be strengthened. Up to the present their recognition
+by the public schools has been owing almost solely to the doubtful
+&aelig;sthetic hobbies of a few teachers or to the massive effects of
+certain of their tragedies and novels. But everybody should, himself,
+be aware of the difficulties of the language: he should have learnt
+them from experience: after long seeking and struggling he must reach
+the path our great poets trod in order to be able to realise how
+lightly and beautifully they trod it, and how stiffly and swaggeringly
+the others follow at their heels.</p>
+
+<p>"Only by means of such discipline can the young man acquire that
+physical loathing for the beloved and much-admired 'elegance' of style
+of our newspaper manufacturers and novelists, and for the 'ornate
+style' of our literary men; by it alone is he irrevocably elevated at
+a stroke above a whole host of absurd questions and scruples, such,
+for instance, as whether Auerbach and Gutzkow are really poets, for
+his disgust at both will be so great that he will be unable to read
+them any longer, and thus the problem will be solved for him. Let no
+one imagine that it is an easy matter to develop this feeling to the
+extent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>necessary in order to have this physical loathing; but let no
+one hope to reach sound &aelig;sthetic judgments along any other road than
+the thorny one of language, and by this I do not mean philological
+research, but self-discipline in one's mother-tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody who is in earnest in this matter will have the same sort of
+experience as the recruit in the army who is compelled to learn
+walking after having walked almost all his life as a dilettante or
+empiricist. It is a hard time: one almost fears that the tendons are
+going to snap and one ceases to hope that the artificial and
+consciously acquired movements and positions of the feet will ever be
+carried out with ease and comfort. It is painful to see how awkwardly
+and heavily one foot is set before the other, and one dreads that one
+may not only be unable to learn the new way of walking, but that one
+will forget how to walk at all. Then it suddenly become noticeable
+that a new habit and a second nature have been born of the practised
+movements, and that the assurance and strength of the old manner of
+walking returns with a little more grace: at this point one begins to
+realise how difficult walking is, and one feels in a position to laugh
+at the untrained empiricist or the elegant dilettante. Our 'elegant'
+writers, as their style shows, have never learnt 'walking' in this
+sense, and in our public schools, as our other writers show, no one
+learns walking either. Culture begins, however, with the correct
+movement of the language: and once it has properly begun, it begets
+that physical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>sensation in the presence of 'elegant' writers which is
+known by the name of 'loathing.'</p>
+
+<p>"We recognise the fatal consequences of our present public schools, in
+that they are unable to inculcate severe and genuine culture, which
+should consist above all in obedience and habituation; and that, at
+their best, they much more often achieve a result by stimulating and
+kindling scientific tendencies, is shown by the hand which is so
+frequently seen uniting scholarship and barbarous taste, science and
+journalism. In a very large majority of cases to-day we can observe
+how sadly our scholars fall short of the standard of culture which the
+efforts of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and Winckelmann established; and
+this falling short shows itself precisely in the egregious errors
+which the men we speak of are exposed to, equally among literary
+historians&mdash;whether Gervinus or Julian Schmidt&mdash;as in any other
+company; everywhere, indeed, where men and women converse. It shows
+itself most frequently and painfully, however, in pedagogic spheres,
+in the literature of public schools. It can be proved that the only
+value that these men have in a real educational establishment has not
+been mentioned, much less generally recognised for half a century:
+their value as preparatory leaders and mystogogues of classical
+culture, guided by whose hands alone can the correct road leading to
+antiquity be found.</p>
+
+<p>"Every so-called classical education can have but one natural
+starting-point&mdash;an artistic, earnest, and exact familiarity with the
+use of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>mother-tongue: this, together with the secret of form,
+however, one can seldom attain to of one's own accord, almost
+everybody requires those great leaders and tutors and must place
+himself in their hands. There is, however, no such thing as a
+classical education that could grow without this inferred love of
+form. Here, where the power of discerning form and barbarity gradually
+awakens, there appear the pinions which bear one to the only real home
+of culture&mdash;ancient Greece. If with the solitary help of those pinions
+we sought to reach those far-distant and diamond-studded walls
+encircling the stronghold of Hellenism, we should certainly not get
+very far; once more, therefore, we need the same leaders and tutors,
+our German classical writers, that we may be borne up, too, by the
+wing-strokes of their past endeavours&mdash;to the land of yearning, to
+Greece.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a suspicion of this possible relationship between our classics
+and classical education seems to have pierced the antique walls of
+public schools. Philologists seem much more eagerly engaged in
+introducing Homer and Sophocles to the young souls of their pupils, in
+their own style, calling the result simply by the unchallenged
+euphemism: 'classical education.' Let every one's own experience tell
+him what he had of Homer and Sophocles at the hands of such eager
+teachers. It is in this department that the greatest number of deepest
+deceptions occur, and whence misunderstandings are inadvertently
+spread. In German public schools I have never yet found a trace of
+what might really be called 'classical education,' and there is
+nothing surprising in this when one thinks of the way in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>which these
+institutions have emancipated themselves from German classical writers
+and the discipline of the German language. Nobody reaches antiquity by
+means of a leap into the dark, and yet the whole method of treating
+ancient writers in schools, the plain commentating and paraphrasing of
+our philological teachers, amounts to nothing more than a leap into
+the dark.</p>
+
+<p>"The feeling for classical Hellenism is, as a matter of fact, such an
+exceptional outcome of the most energetic fight for culture and
+artistic talent that the public school could only have professed to
+awaken this feeling owing to a very crude misunderstanding. In what
+age? In an age which is led about blindly by the most sensational
+desires of the day, and which is not aware of the fact that, once that
+feeling for Hellenism is roused, it immediately becomes aggressive and
+must express itself by indulging in an incessant war with the
+so-called culture of the present. For the public school boy of to-day,
+the Hellenes as Hellenes are dead: yes, he gets some enjoyment out of
+Homer, but a novel by Spielhagen interests him much more: yes, he
+swallows Greek tragedy and comedy with a certain relish, but a
+thoroughly modern drama, like Freitag's 'Journalists,' moves him in
+quite another fashion. In regard to all ancient authors he is rather
+inclined to speak after the manner of the &aelig;sthete, Hermann Grimm, who,
+on one occasion, at the end of a tortuous essay on the Venus of Milo,
+asks himself: 'What does this goddess's form mean to me? Of what use
+are the thoughts she suggests to me? Orestes and &OElig;dipus, Iphigenia
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>Antigone, what have they in common with my heart?'&mdash;No, my dear
+public school boy, the Venus of Milo does not concern you in any way,
+and concerns your teacher just as little&mdash;and that is the misfortune,
+that is the secret of the modern public school. Who will conduct you
+to the land of culture, if your leaders are blind and assume the
+position of seers notwithstanding? Which of you will ever attain to a
+true feeling for the sacred seriousness of art, if you are
+systematically spoiled, and taught to stutter independently instead of
+being taught to speak; to &aelig;stheticise on your own account, when you
+ought to be taught to approach works of art almost piously; to
+philosophise without assistance, while you ought to be compelled to
+<i>listen</i> to great thinkers. All this with the result that you remain
+eternally at a distance from antiquity and become the servants of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events, the most wholesome feature of our modern institutions
+is to be found in the earnestness with which the Latin and Greek
+languages are studied over a long course of years. In this way boys
+learn to respect a grammar, lexicons, and a language that conforms to
+fixed rules; in this department of public school work there is an
+exact knowledge of what constitutes a fault, and no one is troubled
+with any thought of justifying himself every minute by appealing (as
+in the case of modern German) to various grammatical and
+orthographical vagaries and vicious forms. If only this respect for
+language did not hang in the air so, like a theoretical burden which
+one is pleased to throw off the moment one turns to one's
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>mother-tongue! More often than not, the classical master makes pretty
+short work of the mother-tongue; from the outset he treats it as a
+department of knowledge in which one is allowed that indolent ease
+with which the German treats everything that belongs to his native
+soil. The splendid practice afforded by translating from one language
+into another, which so improves and fertilises one's artistic feeling
+for one's own tongue, is, in the case of German, never conducted with
+that fitting categorical strictness and dignity which would be above
+all necessary in dealing with an undisciplined language. Of late,
+exercises of this kind have tended to decrease ever more and more:
+people are satisfied to <i>know</i> the foreign classical tongues, they
+would scorn being able to <i>apply</i> them.</p>
+
+<p>"Here one gets another glimpse of the scholarly tendency of public
+schools: a phenomenon which throws much light upon the object which
+once animated them,&mdash;that is to say, the serious desire to cultivate
+the pupil. This belonged to the time of our great poets, those few
+really cultured Germans,&mdash;the time when the magnificent Friedrich
+August Wolf directed the new stream of classical thought, introduced
+from Greece and Rome by those men, into the heart of the public
+schools. Thanks to his bold start, a new order of public schools was
+established, which thenceforward was not to be merely a nursery for
+science, but, above all, the actual consecrated home of all higher and
+nobler culture.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the many necessary measures which this change called into being,
+some of the most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>important have been transferred with lasting success
+to the modern regulations of public schools: the most important of
+all, however, did not succeed&mdash;the one demanding that the teacher,
+also, should be consecrated to the new spirit, so that the aim of the
+public school has meanwhile considerably departed from the original
+plan laid down by Wolf, which was the cultivation of the pupil. The
+old estimate of scholarship and scholarly culture, as an absolute,
+which Wolf overcame, seems after a slow and spiritless struggle rather
+to have taken the place of the culture-principle of more recent
+introduction, and now claims its former exclusive rights, though not
+with the same frankness, but disguised and with features veiled. And
+the reason why it was impossible to make public schools fall in with
+the magnificent plan of classical culture lay in the un-German, almost
+foreign or cosmopolitan nature of these efforts in the cause of
+education: in the belief that it was possible to remove the native
+soil from under a man's feet and that he should still remain standing;
+in the illusion that people can spring direct, without bridges, into
+the strange Hellenic world, by abjuring German and the German mind in
+general.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course one must know how to trace this Germanic spirit to its lair
+beneath its many modern dressings, or even beneath heaps of ruins; one
+must love it so that one is not ashamed of it in its stunted form, and
+one must above all be on one's guard against confounding it with what
+now disports itself proudly as 'Up-to-date German culture.' The German
+spirit is very far from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>being on friendly times with this up-to-date
+culture: and precisely in those spheres where the latter complains of
+a lack of culture the real German spirit has survived, though perhaps
+not always with a graceful, but more often an ungraceful, exterior. On
+the other hand, that which now grandiloquently assumes the title of
+'German culture' is a sort of cosmopolitan aggregate, which bears the
+same relation to the German spirit as Journalism does to Schiller or
+Meyerbeer to Beethoven: here the strongest influence at work is the
+fundamentally and thoroughly un-German civilisation of France, which
+is aped neither with talent nor with taste, and the imitation of which
+gives the society, the press, the art, and the literary style of
+Germany their pharisaical character. Naturally the copy nowhere
+produces the really artistic effect which the original, grown out of
+the heart of Roman civilisation, is able to produce almost to this day
+in France. Let any one who wishes to see the full force of this
+contrast compare our most noted novelists with the less noted ones of
+France or Italy: he will recognise in both the same doubtful
+tendencies and aims, as also the same still more doubtful means, but
+in France he will find them coupled with artistic earnestness, at
+least with grammatical purity, and often with beauty, while in their
+every feature he will recognise the echo of a corresponding social
+culture. In Germany, on the other hand, they will strike him as
+unoriginal, flabby, filled with dressing-gown thoughts and
+expressions, unpleasantly spread out, and therewithal possessing no
+background of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>social form. At the most, owing to their scholarly
+mannerisms and display of knowledge, he will be reminded of the fact
+that in Latin countries it is the artistically-trained man, and that
+in Germany it is the abortive scholar, who becomes a journalist. With
+this would-be German and thoroughly unoriginal culture, the German can
+nowhere reckon upon victory: the Frenchman and the Italian will always
+get the better of him in this respect, while, in regard to the clever
+imitation of a foreign culture, the Russian, above all, will always be
+his superior.</p>
+
+<p>"We are therefore all the more anxious to hold fast to that German
+spirit which revealed itself in the German Reformation, and in German
+music, and which has shown its enduring and genuine strength in the
+enormous courage and severity of German philosophy and in the loyalty
+of the German soldier, which has been tested quite recently. From it
+we expect a victory over that 'up-to-date' pseudo-culture which is now
+the fashion. What we should hope for the future is that schools may
+draw the real school of culture into this struggle, and kindle the
+flame of enthusiasm in the younger generation, more particularly in
+public schools, for that which is truly German; and in this way
+so-called classical education will resume its natural place and
+recover its one possible starting-point.</p>
+
+<p>"A thorough reformation and purification of the public school can only
+be the outcome of a profound and powerful reformation and purification
+of the German spirit. It is a very complex and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>difficult task to find
+the border-line which joins the heart of the Germanic spirit with the
+genius of Greece. Not, however, before the noblest needs of genuine
+German genius snatch at the hand of this genius of Greece as at a firm
+post in the torrent of barbarity, not before a devouring yearning for
+this genius of Greece takes possession of German genius, and not
+before that view of the Greek home, on which Schiller and Goethe,
+after enormous exertions, were able to feast their eyes, has become
+the Mecca of the best and most gifted men, will the aim of classical
+education in public schools acquire any definition; and they at least
+will not be to blame who teach ever so little science and learning in
+public schools, in order to keep a definite and at the same time ideal
+aim in their eyes, and to rescue their pupils from that glistening
+phantom which now allows itself to be called 'culture' and
+'education.' This is the sad plight of the public school of to-day:
+the narrowest views remain in a certain measure right, because no one
+seems able to reach or, at least, to indicate the spot where all these
+views culminate in error."</p>
+
+<p>"No one?" the philosopher's pupil inquired with a slight quaver in his
+voice; and both men were silent.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> It is not practicable to translate these German solecisms
+by similar instances of English solecisms. The reader who is
+interested in the subject will find plenty of material in a book like
+the Oxford <i>King's English</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> German: <i>Formelle Bildung.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> German: <i>Materielle Bildung.</i></p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="THIRD_LECTURE" id="THIRD_LECTURE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>THIRD LECTURE.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Delivered on the 27th of February 1872.</i>)</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Ladies and Gentlemen,&mdash;At the close of my last lecture, the
+conversation to which I was a listener, and the outlines of which, as
+I clearly recollect them, I am now trying to lay before you, was
+interrupted by a long and solemn pause. Both the philosopher and his
+companion sat silent, sunk in deep dejection: the peculiarly critical
+state of that important educational institution, the German public
+school, lay upon their souls like a heavy burden, which one single,
+well-meaning individual is not strong enough to remove, and the
+multitude, though strong, not well meaning enough.</p>
+
+<p>Our solitary thinkers were perturbed by two facts: by clearly
+perceiving on the one hand that what might rightly be called
+"classical education" was now only a far-off ideal, a castle in the
+air, which could not possibly be built as a reality on the foundations
+of our present educational system, and that, on the other hand, what
+was now, with customary and unopposed euphemism, pointed to as
+"classical education" could only claim the value of a pretentious
+illusion, the best effect of which was that the expression "classical
+education" still lived on and had not yet lost its pathetic sound.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>These two worthy men saw clearly, by the system of instruction in
+vogue, that the time was not yet ripe for a higher culture, a culture
+founded upon that of the ancients: the neglected state of linguistic
+instruction; the forcing of students into learned historical paths,
+instead of giving them a practical training; the connection of certain
+practices, encouraged in the public schools, with the objectionable
+spirit of our journalistic publicity&mdash;all these easily perceptible
+phenomena of the teaching of German led to the painful certainty that
+the most beneficial of those forces which have come down to us from
+classical antiquity are not yet known in our public schools: forces
+which would train students for the struggle against the barbarism of
+the present age, and which will perhaps once more transform the public
+schools into the arsenals and workshops of this struggle.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, it would seem in the meantime as if the spirit of
+antiquity, in its fundamental principles, had already been driven away
+from the portals of the public schools, and as if here also the gates
+were thrown open as widely as possible to the be-flattered and
+pampered type of our present self-styled "German culture." And if the
+solitary talkers caught a glimpse of a single ray of hope, it was that
+things would have to become still worse, that what was as yet divined
+only by the few would soon be clearly perceived by the many, and that
+then the time for honest and resolute men for the earnest
+consideration of the scope of the education of the masses would not be
+far distant.</p>
+
+<p>After a few minutes' silent reflection, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>philosopher's companion
+turned to him and said: "You used to hold out hopes to me, but now you
+have done more: you have widened my intelligence, and with it my
+strength and courage: now indeed can I look on the field of battle
+with more hardihood, now indeed do I repent of my too hasty flight. We
+want nothing for ourselves, and it should be nothing to us how many
+individuals may fall in this battle, or whether we ourselves may be
+among the first. Just because we take this matter so seriously, we
+should not take our own poor selves so seriously: at the very moment
+we are falling some one else will grasp the banner of our faith. I
+will not even consider whether I am strong enough for such a fight,
+whether I can offer sufficient resistance; it may even be an
+honourable death to fall to the accompaniment of the mocking laughter
+of such enemies, whose seriousness has frequently seemed to us to be
+something ridiculous. When I think how my contemporaries prepared
+themselves for the highest posts in the scholastic profession, as I
+myself have done, then I know how we often laughed at the exact
+contrary, and grew serious over something quite different&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my friend," interrupted the philosopher, laughingly, "you speak
+as one who would fain dive into the water without being able to swim,
+and who fears something even more than the mere drowning; <i>not</i> being
+drowned, but laughed at. But being laughed at should be the very last
+thing for us to dread; for we are in a sphere where there are too many
+truths to tell, too many formidable, painful, unpardonable truths, for
+us to escape hatred, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>and only fury here and there will give rise to
+some sort of embarrassed laughter. Just think of the innumerable crowd
+of teachers, who, in all good faith, have assimilated the system of
+education which has prevailed up to the present, that they may
+cheerfully and without over-much deliberation carry it further on.
+What do you think it will seem like to these men when they hear of
+projects from which they are excluded <i>beneficio natur&aelig;</i>; of commands
+which their mediocre abilities are totally unable to carry out; of
+hopes which find no echo in them; of battles the war-cries of which
+they do not understand, and in the fighting of which they can take
+part only as dull and obtuse rank and file? But, without exaggeration,
+that must necessarily be the position of practically all the teachers
+in our higher educational establishments: and indeed we cannot wonder
+at this when we consider how such a teacher originates, how he
+<i>becomes</i> a teacher of such high status. Such a large number of higher
+educational establishments are now to be found everywhere that far
+more teachers will continue to be required for them than the nature of
+even a highly-gifted people can produce; and thus an inordinate stream
+of undesirables flows into these institutions, who, however, by their
+preponderating numbers and their instinct of 'similis simile gaudet'
+gradually come to determine the nature of these institutions. There
+may be a few people, hopelessly unfamiliar with pedagogical matters,
+who believe that our present profusion of public schools and teachers,
+which is manifestly out of all proportion, can be changed into a real
+profusion, an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span><i>ubertas ingenii</i>, merely by a few rules and
+regulations, and without any reduction in the number of these
+institutions. But we may surely be unanimous in recognising that by
+the very nature of things only an exceedingly small number of people
+are destined for a true course of education, and that a much smaller
+number of higher educational establishments would suffice for their
+further development, but that, in view of the present large numbers of
+educational institutions, those for whom in general such institutions
+ought only to be established must feel themselves to be the least
+facilitated in their progress.</p>
+
+<p>"The same holds good in regard to teachers. It is precisely the best
+teachers&mdash;those who, generally speaking, judged by a high standard,
+are worthy of this honourable name&mdash;who are now perhaps the least
+fitted, in view of the present standing of our public schools, for the
+education of these unselected youths, huddled together in a confused
+heap; but who must rather, to a certain extent, keep hidden from them
+the best they could give: and, on the other hand, by far the larger
+number of these teachers feel themselves quite at home in these
+institutions, as their moderate abilities stand in a kind of
+harmonious relationship to the dullness of their pupils. It is from
+this majority that we hear the ever-resounding call for the
+establishment of new public schools and higher educational
+institutions: we are living in an age which, by ringing the changes on
+its deafening and continual cry, would certainly give one the
+impression that there was an unprecedented thirst for culture which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>eagerly sought to be quenched. But it is just at this point that one
+should learn to hear aright: it is here, without being disconcerted by
+the thundering noise of the education-mongers, that we must confront
+those who talk so tirelessly about the educational necessities of
+their time. Then we should meet with a strange disillusionment, one
+which we, my good friend, have often met with: those blatant heralds
+of educational needs, when examined at close quarters, are suddenly
+seen to be transformed into zealous, yea, fanatical opponents of true
+culture, <i>i.e.</i> all those who hold fast to the aristocratic nature of
+the mind; for, at bottom, they regard as their goal the emancipation
+of the masses from the mastery of the great few; they seek to
+overthrow the most sacred hierarchy in the kingdom of the
+intellect&mdash;the servitude of the masses, their submissive obedience,
+their instinct of loyalty to the rule of genius.</p>
+
+<p>"I have long accustomed myself to look with caution upon those who are
+ardent in the cause of the so-called 'education of the people' in the
+common meaning of the phrase; since for the most part they desire for
+themselves, consciously or unconsciously, absolutely unlimited
+freedom, which must inevitably degenerate into something resembling
+the saturnalia of barbaric times, and which the sacred hierarchy of
+nature will never grant them. They were born to serve and to obey; and
+every moment in which their limping or crawling or broken-winded
+thoughts are at work shows us clearly out of which clay nature moulded
+them, and what trade mark she branded thereon. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>The education of the
+masses cannot, therefore, be our aim; but rather the education of a
+few picked men for great and lasting works. We well know that a just
+posterity judges the collective intellectual state of a time only by
+those few great and lonely figures of the period, and gives its
+decision in accordance with the manner in which they are recognised,
+encouraged, and honoured, or, on the other hand, in which they are
+snubbed, elbowed aside, and kept down. What is called the 'education
+of the masses' cannot be accomplished except with difficulty; and even
+if a system of universal compulsory education be applied, they can
+only be reached outwardly: those individual lower levels where,
+generally speaking, the masses come into contact with culture, where
+the people nourishes its religious instinct, where it poetises its
+mythological images, where it keeps up its faith in its customs,
+privileges, native soil, and language&mdash;all these levels can scarcely
+be reached by direct means, and in any case only by violent
+demolition. And, in serious matters of this kind, to hasten forward
+the progress of the education of the people means simply the
+postponement of this violent demolition, and the maintenance of that
+wholesome unconsciousness, that sound sleep, of the people, without
+which counter-action and remedy no culture, with the exhausting strain
+and excitement of its own actions, can make any headway.</p>
+
+<p>"We know, however, what the aspiration is of those who would disturb
+the healthy slumber of the people, and continually call out to them:
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>'Keep your eyes open! Be sensible! Be wise!' we know the aim of those
+who profess to satisfy excessive educational requirements by means of
+an extraordinary increase in the number of educational institutions
+and the conceited tribe of teachers originated thereby. These very
+people, using these very means, are fighting against the natural
+hierarchy in the realm of the intellect, and destroying the roots of
+all those noble and sublime plastic forces which have their material
+origin in the unconsciousness of the people, and which fittingly
+terminate in the procreation of genius and its due guidance and proper
+training. It is only in the simile of the mother that we can grasp the
+meaning and the responsibility of the true education of the people in
+respect to genius: its real origin is not to be found in such
+education; it has, so to speak, only a metaphysical source, a
+metaphysical home. But for the genius to make his appearance; for him
+to emerge from among the people; to portray the reflected picture, as
+it were, the dazzling brilliancy of the peculiar colours of this
+people; to depict the noble destiny of a people in the similitude of
+an individual in a work which will last for all time, thereby making
+his nation itself eternal, and redeeming it from the ever-shifting
+element of transient things: all this is possible for the genius only
+when he has been brought up and come to maturity in the tender care of
+the culture of a people; whilst, on the other hand, without this
+sheltering home, the genius will not, generally speaking, be able to
+rise to the height of his eternal flight, but will at an early moment,
+like a stranger <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>weather-driven upon a bleak, snow-covered desert,
+slink away from the inhospitable land."</p>
+
+<p>"You astonish me with such a metaphysics of genius," said the
+teacher's companion, "and I have only a hazy conception of the
+accuracy of your similitude. On the other hand, I fully understand
+what you have said about the surplus of public schools and the
+corresponding surplus of higher grade teachers; and in this regard I
+myself have collected some information which assures me that the
+educational tendency of the public school <i>must</i> right itself by this
+very surplus of teachers who have really nothing at all to do with
+education, and who are called into existence and pursue this path
+solely because there is a demand for them. Every man who, in an
+unexpected moment of enlightenment, has convinced himself of the
+singularity and inaccessibility of Hellenic antiquity, and has warded
+off this conviction after an exhausting struggle&mdash;every such man knows
+that the door leading to this enlightenment will never remain open to
+all comers; and he deems it absurd, yea disgraceful, to use the Greeks
+as he would any other tool he employs when following his profession or
+earning his living, shamelessly fumbling with coarse hands amidst the
+relics of these holy men. This brazen and vulgar feeling is, however,
+most common in the profession from which the largest numbers of
+teachers for the public schools are drawn, the philological
+profession, wherefore the reproduction and continuation of such a
+feeling in the public school will not surprise us.</p>
+
+<p>"Just look at the younger generation of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>philologists: how seldom we
+see in them that humble feeling that we, when compared with such a
+world as it was, have no right to exist at all: how coolly and
+fearlessly, as compared with us, did that young brood build its
+miserable nests in the midst of the magnificent temples! A powerful
+voice from every nook and cranny should ring in the ears of those who,
+from the day they begin their connection with the university, roam at
+will with such self-complacency and shamelessness among the
+awe-inspiring relics of that noble civilisation: 'Hence, ye
+uninitiated, who will never be initiated; fly away in silence and
+shame from these sacred chambers!' But this voice speaks in vain; for
+one must to some extent be a Greek to understand a Greek curse of
+excommunication. But these people I am speaking of are so barbaric
+that they dispose of these relics to suit themselves: all their modern
+conveniences and fancies are brought with them and concealed among
+those ancient pillars and tombstones, and it gives rise to great
+rejoicing when somebody finds, among the dust and cobwebs of
+antiquity, something that he himself had slyly hidden there not so
+very long before. One of them makes verses and takes care to consult
+Hesychius' Lexicon. Something there immediately assures him that he is
+destined to be an imitator of &AElig;schylus, and leads him to believe,
+indeed, that he 'has something in common with' &AElig;schylus: the miserable
+poetaster! Yet another peers with the suspicious eye of a policeman
+into every contradiction, even into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>the shadow of every
+contradiction, of which Homer was guilty: he fritters away his life in
+tearing Homeric rags to tatters and sewing them together again, rags
+that he himself was the first to filch from the poet's kingly robe. A
+third feels ill at ease when examining all the mysterious and
+orgiastic sides of antiquity: he makes up his mind once and for all to
+let the enlightened Apollo alone pass without dispute, and to see in
+the Athenian a gay and intelligent but nevertheless somewhat immoral
+Apollonian. What a deep breath he draws when he succeeds in raising
+yet another dark corner of antiquity to the level of his own
+intelligence!&mdash;when, for example, he discovers in Pythagoras a
+colleague who is as enthusiastic as himself in arguing about politics.
+Another racks his brains as to why &OElig;dipus was condemned by fate to
+perform such abominable deeds&mdash;killing his father, marrying his
+mother. Where lies the blame! Where the poetic justice! Suddenly it
+occurs to him: &OElig;dipus was a passionate fellow, lacking all
+Christian gentleness&mdash;he even fell into an unbecoming rage when
+Tiresias called him a monster and the curse of the whole country. Be
+humble and meek! was what Sophocles tried to teach, otherwise you will
+have to marry your mothers and kill your fathers! Others, again, pass
+their lives in counting the number of verses written by Greek and
+Roman poets, and are delighted with the proportions 7:13 = 14:26.
+Finally, one of them brings forward his solution of a question, such
+as the Homeric poems considered from the standpoint <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>of prepositions,
+and thinks he has drawn the truth from the bottom of the well with
+<span class="Greek" title="ana">&#7936;&#957;&#8049;</span> and <span class="Greek" title="kata">&#954;&#945;&#964;&#8049;</span>. All of them, however, with the most
+widely separated aims in view, dig and burrow in Greek soil with a
+restlessness and a blundering awkwardness that must surely be painful
+to a true friend of antiquity: and thus it comes to pass that I should
+like to take by the hand every talented or talentless man who feels a
+certain professional inclination urging him on to the study of
+antiquity, and harangue him as follows: 'Young sir, do you know what
+perils threaten you, with your little stock of school learning, before
+you become a man in the full sense of the word? Have you heard that,
+according to Aristotle, it is by no means a tragic death to be slain
+by a statue? Does that surprise you? Know, then, that for centuries
+philologists have been trying, with ever-failing strength, to re-erect
+the fallen statue of Greek antiquity, but without success; for it is a
+colossus around which single individual men crawl like pygmies. The
+leverage of the united representatives of modern culture is utilised
+for the purpose; but it invariably happens that the huge column is
+scarcely more than lifted from the ground when it falls down again,
+crushing beneath its weight the luckless wights under it. That,
+however, may be tolerated, for every being must perish by some means
+or other; but who is there to guarantee that during all these attempts
+the statue itself will not break in pieces! The philologists are being
+crushed by the Greeks&mdash;perhaps we can <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>put up with this&mdash;but antiquity
+itself threatens to be crushed by these philologists! Think that over,
+you easy-going young man; and turn back, lest you too should not be an
+iconoclast!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed," said the philosopher, laughing, "there are many philologists
+who have turned back as you so much desire, and I notice a great
+contrast with my own youthful experience. Consciously or
+unconsciously, large numbers of them have concluded that it is
+hopeless and useless for them to come into direct contact with
+classical antiquity, hence they are inclined to look upon this study
+as barren, superseded, out-of-date. This herd has turned with much
+greater zest to the science of language: here in this wide expanse of
+virgin soil, where even the most mediocre gifts can be turned to
+account, and where a kind of insipidity and dullness is even looked
+upon as decided talent, with the novelty and uncertainty of methods
+and the constant danger of making fantastic mistakes&mdash;here, where dull
+regimental routine and discipline are desiderata&mdash;here the newcomer is
+no longer frightened by the majestic and warning voice that rises from
+the ruins of antiquity: here every one is welcomed with open arms,
+including even him who never arrived at any uncommon impression or
+noteworthy thought after a perusal of Sophocles and Aristophanes, with
+the result that they end in an etymological tangle, or are seduced
+into collecting the fragments of out-of-the-way dialects&mdash;and their
+time is spent in associating and dissociating, collecting and
+scattering, and running hither and thither <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>consulting books. And such
+a usefully employed philologist would now fain be a teacher! He now
+undertakes to teach the youth of the public schools something about
+the ancient writers, although he himself has read them without any
+particular impression, much less with insight! What a dilemma!
+Antiquity has said nothing to him, consequently he has nothing to say
+about antiquity. A sudden thought strikes him: why is he a skilled
+philologist at all! Why did these authors write Latin and Greek! And
+with a light heart he immediately begins to etymologise with Homer,
+calling Lithuanian or Ecclesiastical Slavonic, or, above all, the
+sacred Sanskrit, to his assistance: as if Greek lessons were merely
+the excuse for a general introduction to the study of languages, and
+as if Homer were lacking in only one respect, namely, not being
+written in pre-Indogermanic. Whoever is acquainted with our present
+public schools well knows what a wide gulf separates their teachers
+from classicism, and how, from a feeling of this want, comparative
+philology and allied professions have increased their numbers to such
+an unheard-of degree."</p>
+
+<p>"What I mean is," said the other, "it would depend upon whether a
+teacher of classical culture did <i>not</i> confuse his Greeks and Romans
+with the other peoples, the barbarians, whether he could <i>never</i> put
+Greek and Latin <i>on a level with</i> other languages: so far as his
+classicalism is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether the
+framework of these languages concurs with or is in any way related to
+the other languages: such a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>concurrence does not interest him at all;
+his real concern is with <i>what is not common to both</i>, with what shows
+him that those two peoples were not barbarians as compared with the
+others&mdash;in so far, of course, as he is a true teacher of culture and
+models himself after the majestic patterns of the classics."</p>
+
+<p>"I may be wrong," said the philosopher, "but I suspect that, owing to
+the way in which Latin and Greek are now taught in schools, the
+accurate grasp of these languages, the ability to speak and write them
+with ease, is lost, and that is something in which my own generation
+distinguished itself&mdash;a generation, indeed, whose few survivers have
+by this time grown old; whilst, on the other hand, the present
+teachers seem to impress their pupils with the genetic and historical
+importance of the subject to such an extent that, at best, their
+scholars ultimately turn into little Sanskritists, etymological
+spitfires, or reckless conjecturers; but not one of them can read his
+Plato or Tacitus with pleasure, as we old folk can. The public schools
+may still be seats of learning: not, however of <i>the</i> learning which,
+as it were, is only the natural and involuntary auxiliary of a culture
+that is directed towards the noblest ends; but rather of that culture
+which might be compared to the hypertrophical swelling of an unhealthy
+body. The public schools are certainly the seats of this obesity, if,
+indeed, they have not degenerated into the abodes of that elegant
+barbarism which is boasted of as being 'German culture of the
+present!'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>"But," asked the other, "what is to become of that large body of
+teachers who have not been endowed with a true gift for culture, and
+who set up as teachers merely to gain a livelihood from the
+profession, because there is a demand for them, because a superfluity
+of schools brings with it a superfluity of teachers? Where shall they
+go when antiquity peremptorily orders them to withdraw? Must they not
+be sacrificed to those powers of the present who, day after day, call
+out to them from the never-ending columns of the press 'We are
+culture! We are education! We are at the zenith! We are the apexes of
+the pyramids! We are the aims of universal history!'&mdash;when they hear
+the seductive promises, when the shameful signs of non-culture, the
+plebeian publicity of the so-called 'interests of culture' are
+extolled for their benefit in magazines and newspapers as an entirely
+new and the best possible, full-grown form of culture! Whither shall
+the poor fellows fly when they feel the presentiment that these
+promises are not true&mdash;where but to the most obtuse, sterile
+scientificality, that here the shriek of culture may no longer be
+audible to them? Pursued in this way, must they not end, like the
+ostrich, by burying their heads in the sand? Is it not a real
+happiness for them, buried as they are among dialects, etymologies,
+and conjectures, to lead a life like that of the ants, even though
+they are miles removed from true culture, if only they can close their
+ears tightly and be deaf to the voice of the 'elegant' culture of the
+time."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>"You are right, my friend," said the philosopher, "but whence comes the
+urgent necessity for a surplus of schools for culture, which further
+gives rise to the necessity for a surplus of teachers?&mdash;when we so
+clearly see that the demand for a surplus springs from a sphere which
+is hostile to culture, and that the consequences of this surplus only
+lead to non-culture. Indeed, we can discuss this dire necessity only in
+so far as the modern State is willing to discuss these things with us,
+and is prepared to follow up its demands by force: which phenomenon
+certainly makes the same impression upon most people as if they were
+addressed by the eternal law of things. For the rest, a
+'Culture-State,' to use the current expression, which makes such
+demands, is rather a novelty, and has only come to a 'self-understanding'
+within the last half century, <i>i.e.</i> in a period when (to use the
+favourite popular word) so many 'self-understood' things came into
+being, but which are in themselves not 'self-understood' at all. This
+right to higher education has been taken
+so seriously by the most powerful of modern States&mdash;Prussia&mdash;that the
+objectionable principle it has adopted, taken in connection with the
+well-known daring and hardihood of this State, is seen to have a
+menacing and dangerous consequence for the true German spirit; for we
+see endeavours being made in this quarter to raise the public school,
+formally systematised, up to the so-called 'level of the time.' Here is
+to be found all that mechanism by means of which as many scholars as
+possible are urged on to take up courses of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>public school training:
+here, indeed, the State has its most powerful inducement&mdash;the
+concession of certain privileges respecting military service, with the
+natural consequence that, according to the unprejudiced evidence of
+statistical officials, by this, and by this only, can we explain the
+universal congestion of all Prussian public schools, and the urgent and
+continual need for new ones. What more can the State do for a surplus
+of educational institutions than bring all the higher and the majority
+of the lower civil service appointments, the right of entry to the
+universities, and even the most influential military posts into close
+connection with the public school: and all this in a country where both
+universal military service and the highest offices of the State
+unconsciously attract all gifted natures to them. The public school is
+here looked upon as an honourable aim, and every one who feels himself
+urged on to the sphere of government will be found on his way to it.
+This is a new and quite original occurrence: the State assumes the
+attitude of a mystogogue of culture, and, whilst it promotes its own
+ends, it obliges every one of its servants not to appear in its
+presence without the torch of universal State education in their hands,
+by the flickering light of which they may again recognise the State as
+the highest goal, as the reward of all their strivings after education.</p>
+
+<p>"Now this last phenomenon should indeed surprise them; it should
+remind them of that allied, slowly understood tendency of a philosophy
+which was formerly promoted for reasons of State, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>namely, the
+tendency of the Hegelian philosophy: yea, it would perhaps be no
+exaggeration to say that, in the subordination of all strivings after
+education to reasons of State, Prussia has appropriated, with success,
+the principle and the useful heirloom of the Hegelian philosophy,
+whose apotheosis of the State in <i>this</i> subordination certainly
+reaches its height."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said the philosopher's companion, "what purposes can the State
+have in view with such a strange aim? For that it has some State
+objects in view is seen in the manner in which the conditions of
+Prussian schools are admired by, meditated upon, and occasionally
+imitated by other States. These other States obviously presuppose
+something here that, if adopted, would tend towards the maintenance
+and power of the State, like our well-known and popular conscription.
+Where everyone proudly wears his soldier's uniform at regular
+intervals, where almost every one has absorbed a uniform type of
+national culture through the public schools, enthusiastic hyperboles
+may well be uttered concerning the systems employed in former times,
+and a form of State omnipotence which was attained only in antiquity,
+and which almost every young man, by both instinct and training,
+thinks it is the crowning glory and highest aim of human beings to
+reach."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a comparison," said the philosopher, "would be quite
+hyperbolical, and would not hobble along on one leg only. For, indeed,
+the ancient State emphatically did not share the utilitarian point of
+view of recognising as culture only <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>what was directly useful to the
+State itself, and was far from wishing to destroy those impulses which
+did not seem to be immediately applicable. For this very reason the
+profound Greek had for the State that strong feeling of admiration and
+thankfulness which is so distasteful to modern men; because he clearly
+recognised not only that without such State protection the germs of
+his culture could not develop, but also that all his inimitable and
+perennial culture had flourished so luxuriantly under the wise and
+careful guardianship of the protection afforded by the State. The
+State was for his culture not a supervisor, regulator, and watchman,
+but a vigorous and muscular companion and friend, ready for war, who
+accompanied his noble, admired, and, as it were, ethereal friend
+through disagreeable reality, earning his thanks therefor. This,
+however, does not happen when a modern State lays claim to such hearty
+gratitude because it renders such chivalrous service to German culture
+and art: for in this regard its past is as ignominious as its present,
+as a proof of which we have but to think of the manner in which the
+memory of our great poets and artists is celebrated in German cities,
+and how the highest objects of these German masters are supported on
+the part of the State.</p>
+
+<p>"There must therefore be peculiar circumstances surrounding both this
+purpose towards which the State is tending, and which always promotes
+what is here called 'education'; and surrounding likewise the culture
+thus promoted, which subordinates itself to this purpose of the State.
+With the real German spirit and the education derived therefrom, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>such
+as I have slowly outlined for you, this purpose of the State is at
+war, hiddenly or openly: <i>the</i> spirit of education, which is welcomed
+and encouraged with such interest by the State, and owing to which the
+schools of this country are so much admired abroad, must accordingly
+originate in a sphere that never comes into contact with this true
+German spirit: with that spirit which speaks to us so wondrously from
+the inner heart of the German Reformation, German music, and German
+philosophy, and which, like a noble exile, is regarded with such
+indifference and scorn by the luxurious education afforded by the
+State. This spirit is a stranger: it passes by in solitary sadness,
+and far away from it the censer of pseudo-culture is swung backwards
+and forwards, which, amidst the acclamations of 'educated' teachers
+and journalists, arrogates to itself its name and privileges, and
+metes out insulting treatment to the word 'German.' Why does the State
+require that surplus of educational institutions, of teachers? Why
+this education of the masses on such an extended scale? Because the
+true German spirit is hated, because the aristocratic nature of true
+culture is feared, because the people endeavour in this way to drive
+single great individuals into self-exile, so that the claims of the
+masses to education may be, so to speak, planted down and carefully
+tended, in order that the many may in this way endeavour to escape the
+rigid and strict discipline of the few great leaders, so that the
+masses may be persuaded that they can easily find the path for
+themselves&mdash;following the guiding star of the State!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>"A new phenomenon! The State as the guiding star of culture! In the
+meantime one thing consoles me: this German spirit, which people are
+combating so much, and for which they have substituted a gaudily
+attired <i>locum tenens</i>, this spirit is brave: it will fight and redeem
+itself into a purer age; noble, as it is now, and victorious, as it
+one day will be, it will always preserve in its mind a certain pitiful
+toleration of the State, if the latter, hard-pressed in the hour of
+extremity, secures such a pseudo-culture as its associate. For what,
+after all, do we know about the difficult task of governing men,
+<i>i.e.</i> to keep law, order, quietness, and peace among millions of
+boundlessly egoistical, unjust, unreasonable, dishonourable, envious,
+malignant, and hence very narrow-minded and perverse human beings; and
+thus to protect the few things that the State has conquered for itself
+against covetous neighbours and jealous robbers? Such a hard-pressed
+State holds out its arms to any associate, grasps at any straw; and
+when such an associate does introduce himself with flowery eloquence,
+when he adjudges the State, as Hegel did, to be an 'absolutely
+complete ethical organism,' the be-all and end-all of every one's
+education, and goes on to indicate how he himself can best promote the
+interests of the State&mdash;who will be surprised if, without further
+parley, the State falls upon his neck and cries aloud in a barbaric
+voice of full conviction: 'Yes! Thou art education! Thou art indeed
+culture!'"</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="FOURTH_LECTURE" id="FOURTH_LECTURE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>FOURTH LECTURE.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Delivered on the 5th of March 1872.</i>)</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p><span class="sc">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;Now that you have followed my tale up
+to this point, and that we have made ourselves joint masters of the
+solitary, remote, and at times abusive duologue of the philosopher and
+his companion, I sincerely hope that you, like strong swimmers, are
+ready to proceed on the second half of our journey, especially as I
+can promise you that a few other marionettes will appear in the
+puppet-play of my adventure, and that if up to the present you have
+only been able to do little more than endure what I have been telling
+you, the waves of my story will now bear you more quickly and easily
+towards the end. In other words we have now come to a turning, and it
+would be advisable for us to take a short glance backwards to see what
+we think we have gained from such a varied conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Remain in your present position," the philosopher seemed to say to
+his companion, "for you may cherish hopes. It is more and more clearly
+evident that we have no educational institutions at all; but that we
+ought to have them. Our public schools&mdash;established, it would seem,
+for this high object&mdash;have either become the nurseries <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>of a
+reprehensible culture which repels the true culture with profound
+hatred&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> a true, aristocratic culture, founded upon a few
+carefully chosen minds; or they foster a micrological and sterile
+learning which, while it is far removed from culture, has at least
+this merit, that it avoids that reprehensible culture as well as the
+true culture." The philosopher had particularly drawn his companion's
+attention to the strange corruption which must have entered into the
+heart of culture when the State thought itself capable of tyrannising
+over it and of attaining its ends through it; and further when the
+State, in conjunction with this culture, struggled against other
+hostile forces as well as against <i>the</i> spirit which the philosopher
+ventured to call the "true German spirit." This spirit, linked to the
+Greeks by the noblest ties, and shown by its past history to have been
+steadfast and courageous, pure and lofty in its aims, its faculties
+qualifying it for the high task of freeing modern man from the curse
+of modernity&mdash;this spirit is condemned to live apart, banished from
+its inheritance. But when its slow, painful tones of woe resound
+through the desert of the present, then the overladen and gaily-decked
+caravan of culture is pulled up short, horror-stricken. We must not
+only astonish, but terrify&mdash;such was the philosopher's opinion: not to
+fly shamefully away, but to take the offensive, was his advice; but he
+especially counselled his companion not to ponder too anxiously over
+the individual from whom, through a higher instinct, this aversion for
+the present barbarism proceeded, "Let it perish: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>the Pythian god had
+no difficulty in finding a new tripod, a second Pythia, so long, at
+least, as the mystic cold vapours rose from the earth."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher once more began to speak: "Be careful to remember, my
+friend," said he, "there are two things you must not confuse. A man
+must learn a great deal that he may live and take part in the struggle
+for existence; but everything that he as an individual learns and does
+with this end in view has nothing whatever to do with culture. This
+latter only takes its beginning in a sphere that lies far above the
+world of necessity, indigence, and struggle for existence. The
+question now is to what extent a man values his ego in comparison with
+other egos, how much of his strength he uses up in the endeavour to
+earn his living. Many a one, by stoically confining his needs within a
+narrow compass, will shortly and easily reach the sphere in which he
+may forget, and, as it were, shake off his ego, so that he can enjoy
+perpetual youth in a solar system of timeless and impersonal things.
+Another widens the scope and needs of his ego as much as possible, and
+builds the mausoleum of this ego in vast proportions, as if he were
+prepared to fight and conquer that terrible adversary, Time. In this
+instinct also we may see a longing for immortality: wealth and power,
+wisdom, presence of mind, eloquence, a flourishing outward aspect, a
+renowned name&mdash;all these are merely turned into the means by which an
+insatiable, personal will to live craves for new life, with which,
+again, it hankers after an eternity that is at last seen to be
+illusory.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>"But even in this highest form of the ego, in the enhanced needs of
+such a distended and, as it were, collective individual, true culture
+is never touched upon; and if, for example, art is sought after, only
+its disseminating and stimulating actions come into prominence, <i>i.e.</i>
+those which least give rise to pure and noble art, and most of all to
+low and degraded forms of it. For in all his efforts, however great
+and exceptional they seem to the onlooker, he never succeeds in
+freeing himself from his own hankering and restless personality: that
+illuminated, ethereal sphere where one may contemplate without the
+obstruction of one's own personality continually recedes from him&mdash;and
+thus, let him learn, travel, and collect as he may, he must always
+live an exiled life at a remote distance from a higher life and from
+true culture. For true culture would scorn to contaminate itself with
+the needy and covetous individual; it well knows how to give the slip
+to the man who would fain employ it as a means of attaining to
+egoistic ends; and if any one cherishes the belief that he has firmly
+secured it as a means of livelihood, and that he can procure the
+necessities of life by its sedulous cultivation, then it suddenly
+steals away with noiseless steps and an air of derisive mockery.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>"I will thus ask you, my friend, not to confound this culture, this
+sensitive, fastidious, ethereal goddess, with that useful
+maid-of-all-work which is also called 'culture,' but which is only
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>the intellectual servant and counsellor of one's practical
+necessities, wants, and means of livelihood Every kind of training,
+however, which holds out the prospect of bread-winning as its end and
+aim, is not a training for culture as we understand the word; but
+merely a collection of precepts and directions to show how, in the
+struggle for existence, a man may preserve and protect his own person.
+It may be freely admitted that for the great majority of men such a
+course of instruction is of the highest importance; and the more
+arduous the struggle is the more intensely must the young man strain
+every nerve to utilise his strength to the best advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;let no one think for a moment that the schools which urge him on
+to this struggle and prepare him for it are in any way seriously to be
+considered as establishments of culture. They are institutions which
+teach one how to take part in the battle of life; whether they promise
+to turn out civil servants, or merchants, or officers, or wholesale
+dealers, or farmers, or physicians, or men with a technical training.
+The regulations and standards prevailing at such institutions differ
+from those in a true educational institution; and what in the latter
+is permitted, and even freely held out as often as possible, ought to
+be considered as a criminal offence in the former.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me give you an example. If you wish to guide a young man on the
+path of true culture, beware of interrupting his naive, confident,
+and, as it were, immediate and personal relationship with nature. The
+woods, the rocks, the winds, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>vulture, the flowers, the butterfly,
+the meads, the mountain slopes, must all speak to him in their own
+language; in them he must, as it were, come to know himself again in
+countless reflections and images, in a variegated round of changing
+visions; and in this way he will unconsciously and gradually feel the
+metaphysical unity of all things in the great image of nature, and at
+the same time tranquillise his soul in the contemplation of her
+eternal endurance and necessity. But how many young men should be
+permitted to grow up in such close and almost personal proximity to
+nature! The others must learn another truth betimes: how to subdue
+nature to themselves. Here is an end of this naive metaphysics; and
+the physiology of plants and animals, geology, inorganic chemistry,
+force their devotees to view nature from an altogether different
+standpoint. What is lost by this new point of view is not only a
+poetical phantasmagoria, but the instinctive, true, and unique point
+of view, instead of which we have shrewd and clever calculations, and,
+so to speak, overreachings of nature. Thus to the truly cultured man
+is vouchsafed the inestimable benefit of being able to remain
+faithful, without a break, to the contemplative instincts of his
+childhood, and so to attain to a calmness, unity, consistency, and
+harmony which can never be even thought of by a man who is compelled
+to fight in the struggle for existence.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not think, however, that I wish to withhold all praise from
+our primary and secondary schools: I honour the seminaries where boys
+learn <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>arithmetic and master modern languages, and study geography and
+the marvellous discoveries made in natural science. I am quite
+prepared to say further that those youths who pass through the better
+class of secondary schools are well entitled to make the claims put
+forward by the fully-fledged public school boy; and the time is
+certainly not far distant when such pupils will be everywhere freely
+admitted to the universities and positions under the government, which
+has hitherto been the case only with scholars from the public
+schools&mdash;of our present public schools, be it noted!<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> I cannot,
+however, refrain from adding the melancholy reflection: if it be true
+that secondary and public schools are, on the whole, working so
+heartily in common towards the same ends, and differ from each other
+only in such a slight degree, that they may take equal rank before the
+tribunal of the State, then we completely lack another kind of
+educational institutions: those for the development of culture! To say
+the least, the secondary schools cannot be reproached with this; for
+they have up to the present propitiously and honourably followed up
+tendencies of a lower order, but one nevertheless highly necessary. In
+the public schools, however, there is very much less honesty and very
+much less ability too; for in them we find an instinctive feeling of
+shame, the unconscious perception of the fact that the whole
+institution has been ignominiously degraded, and that the sonorous
+words of wise and apathetic teachers are contradictory <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>to the dreary,
+barbaric, and sterile reality. So there are no true cultural
+institutions! And in those very places where a pretence to culture is
+still kept up, we find the people more hopeless, atrophied, and
+discontented than in the secondary schools, where the so-called
+'realistic' subjects are taught! Besides this, only think how immature
+and uninformed one must be in the company of such teachers when one
+actually misunderstands the rigorously defined philosophical
+expressions 'real' and 'realism' to such a degree as to think them the
+contraries of mind and matter, and to interpret 'realism' as 'the road
+to knowledge, formation, and mastery of reality.'</p>
+
+<p>"I for my own part know of only two exact contraries: <i>institutions
+for teaching culture and institutions for teaching how to succeed in
+life</i>. All our present institutions belong to the second class; but I
+am speaking only of the first."</p>
+
+<p>About two hours went by while the philosophically-minded couple
+chatted about such startling questions. Night slowly fell in the
+meantime; and when in the twilight the philosopher's voice had sounded
+like natural music through the woods, it now rang out in the profound
+darkness of the night when he was speaking with excitement or even
+passionately; his tones hissing and thundering far down the valley,
+and reverberating among the trees and rocks. Suddenly he was silent:
+he had just repeated, almost pathetically, the words, "we have no true
+educational institutions; we have no true educational institutions!"
+when something fell down just in front of him&mdash;it might have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>a
+fir-cone&mdash;and his dog barked and ran towards it. Thus interrupted, the
+philosopher raised his head, and suddenly became aware of the
+darkness, the cool air, and the lonely situation of himself and his
+companion. "Well! What are we about!" he ejaculated, "it's dark. You
+know whom we were expecting here; but he hasn't come. We have waited
+in vain; let us go."</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<p>I must now, ladies and gentlemen, convey to you the impressions
+experienced by my friend and myself as we eagerly listened to this
+conversation, which we heard distinctly in our hiding-place. I have
+already told you that at that place and at that hour we had intended
+to hold a festival in commemoration of something: and this something
+had to do with nothing else than matters concerning educational
+training, of which we, in our own youthful opinions, had garnered a
+plentiful harvest during our past life. We were thus disposed to
+remember with gratitude the institution which we had at one time
+thought out for ourselves at that very spot in order, as I have
+already mentioned, that we might reciprocally encourage and watch over
+one another's educational impulses. But a sudden and unexpected light
+was thrown on all that past life as we silently gave ourselves up to
+the vehement words of the philosopher. As when a traveller, walking
+heedlessly across unknown ground, suddenly puts his foot over the edge
+of a cliff, so it now seemed to us that we had hastened to meet the
+great danger rather than run away from it. Here at this spot, so
+memorable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>to us, we heard the warning: "Back! Not another step! Know
+you not whither your footsteps tend, whither this deceitful path is
+luring you?"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to us that we now knew, and our feeling of overflowing
+thankfulness impelled us so irresistibly towards our earnest
+counsellor and trusty Eckart, that both of us sprang up at the same
+moment and rushed towards the philosopher to embrace him. He was just
+about to move off, and had already turned sideways when we rushed up
+to him. The dog turned sharply round and barked, thinking doubtless,
+like the philosopher's companion, of an attempt at robbery rather than
+an enraptured embrace. It was plain that he had forgotten us. In a
+word, he ran away. Our embrace was a miserable failure when we did
+overtake him; for my friend gave a loud yell as the dog bit him, and
+the philosopher himself sprang away from me with such force that we
+both fell. What with the dog and the men there was a scramble that
+lasted a few minutes, until my friend began to call out loudly,
+parodying the philosopher's own words: "In the name of all culture and
+pseudo-culture, what does the silly dog want with us? Hence, you
+confounded dog; you uninitiated, never to be initiated; hasten away
+from us, silent and ashamed!" After this outburst matters were cleared
+up to some extent, at any rate so far as they could be cleared up in
+the darkness of the wood. "Oh, it's you!" ejaculated the philosopher,
+"our duellists! How you startled us! What on earth drives you to jump
+out upon us like this at such a time of the night?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>"Joy, thankfulness, and reverence," said we, shaking the old man by
+the hand, whilst the dog barked as if he understood, "we can't let you
+go without telling you this. And if you are to understand everything
+you must not go away just yet; we want to ask you about so many things
+that lie heavily on our hearts. Stay yet awhile; we know every foot of
+the way and can accompany you afterwards. The gentleman you expect may
+yet turn up. Look over yonder on the Rhine: what is that we see so
+clearly floating on the surface of the water as if surrounded by the
+light of many torches? It is there that we may look for your friend, I
+would even venture to say that it is he who is coming towards you with
+all those lights."</p>
+
+<p>And so much did we assail the surprised old man with our entreaties,
+promises, and fantastic delusions, that we persuaded the philosopher
+to walk to and fro with us on the little plateau, "by learned lumber
+undisturbed," as my friend added.</p>
+
+<p>"Shame on you!" said the philosopher, "if you really want to quote
+something, why choose Faust? However, I will give in to you, quotation
+or no quotation, if only our young companions will keep still and not
+run away as suddenly as they made their appearance, for they are like
+will-o'-the-wisps; we are amazed when they are there and again when
+they are not there."</p>
+
+<p>My friend immediately recited&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Respect, I hope, will teach us how we may<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our lighter disposition keep at bay.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our course is only zig-zag as a rule.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>The philosopher was surprised, and stood still. "You astonish me, you
+will-o'-the-wisps," he said; "this is no quagmire we are on now. Of
+what use is this ground to you? What does the proximity of a
+philosopher mean to you? For around him the air is sharp and clear,
+the ground dry and hard. You must find out a more fantastic region for
+your zig-zagging inclinations."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," interrupted the philosopher's companion at this point, "the
+gentlemen have already told us that they promised to meet some one
+here at this hour; but it seems to me that they listened to our comedy
+of education like a chorus, and truly 'idealistic spectators'&mdash;for
+they did not disturb us; we thought we were alone with each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is true," said the philosopher, "that praise must not be
+withheld from them, but it seems to me that they deserve still higher
+praise&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here I seized the philosopher's hand and said: "That man must be as
+obtuse as a reptile, with his stomach on the ground and his head
+buried in mud, who can listen to such a discourse as yours without
+becoming earnest and thoughtful, or even excited and indignant.
+Self-accusation and annoyance might perhaps cause a few to get angry;
+but our impression was quite different: the only thing I do not know
+is how exactly to describe it. This hour was so well-timed for us, and
+our minds were so well prepared, that we sat there like empty vessels,
+and now it seems as if we were filled to overflowing with this new
+wisdom: for I no longer know how to help myself, and if some one asked
+me what I am thinking of doing to-morrow, or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>what I have made up my
+mind to do with myself from now on, I should not know what to answer.
+For it is easy to see that we have up to the present been living and
+educating ourselves in the wrong way&mdash;but what can we do to cross over
+the chasm between to-day and to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," acknowledged my friend, "I have a similar feeling, and I ask
+the same question: but besides that I feel as if I were frightened
+away from German culture by entertaining such high and ideal views of
+its task; yea, as if I were unworthy to co-operate with it in carrying
+out its aims. I only see a resplendent file of the highest natures
+moving towards this goal; I can imagine over what abysses and through
+what temptations this procession travels. Who would dare to be so bold
+as to join in it?"</p>
+
+<p>At this point the philosopher's companion again turned to him and
+said: "Don't be angry with me when I tell you that I too have a
+somewhat similar feeling, which I have not mentioned to you before.
+When talking to you I often felt drawn out of myself, as it were, and
+inspired with your ardour and hopes till I almost forgot myself. Then
+a calmer moment arrives; a piercing wind of reality brings me back to
+earth&mdash;and then I see the wide gulf between us, over which you
+yourself, as in a dream, draw me back again. Then what you call
+'culture' merely totters meaninglessly around me or lies heavily on my
+breast: it is like a shirt of mail that weighs me down, or a sword
+that I cannot wield."</p>
+
+<p>Our minds, as we thus argued with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>philosopher, were unanimous,
+and, mutually encouraging and stimulating one another, we slowly
+walked with him backwards and forwards along the unencumbered space
+which had earlier in the day served us as a shooting range. And then,
+in the still night, under the peaceful light of hundreds of stars, we
+all broke out into a tirade which ran somewhat as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have told us so much about the genius," we began, "about his
+lonely and wearisome journey through the world, as if nature never
+exhibited anything but the most diametrical contraries: in one place
+the stupid, dull masses, acting by instinct, and then, on a far higher
+and more remote plane, the great contemplating few, destined for the
+production of immortal works. But now you call these the apexes of the
+intellectual pyramid: it would, however, seem that between the broad,
+heavily burdened foundation up to the highest of the free and
+unencumbered peaks there must be countless intermediate degrees, and
+that here we must apply the saying <i>natura non facit saltus</i>. Where
+then are we to look for the beginning of what you call culture; where
+is the line of demarcation to be drawn between the spheres which are
+ruled from below upwards and those which are ruled from above
+downwards? And if it be only in connection with these exalted beings
+that true culture may be spoken of, how are institutions to be founded
+for the uncertain existence of such natures, how can we devise
+educational establishments which shall be of benefit only to these
+select few? It rather seems to us that such persons <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>know how to find
+their own way, and that their full strength is shown in their being
+able to walk without the educational crutches necessary for other
+people, and thus undisturbed to make their way through the storm and
+stress of this rough world just like a phantom."</p>
+
+<p>We kept on arguing in this fashion, speaking without any great ability
+and not putting our thoughts in any special form: but the
+philosopher's companion went even further, and said to him: "Just
+think of all these great geniuses of whom we are wont to be so proud,
+looking upon them as tried and true leaders and guides of this real
+German spirit, whose names we commemorate by statues and festivals,
+and whose works we hold up with feelings of pride for the admiration
+of foreign lands&mdash;how did they obtain the education you demand for
+them, to what degree do they show that they have been nourished and
+matured by basking in the sun of national education? And yet they are
+seen to be possible, they have nevertheless become men whom we must
+honour: yea, their works themselves justify the form of the
+development of these noble spirits; they justify even a certain want
+of education for which we must make allowance owing to their country
+and the age in which they lived. How could Lessing and Winckelmann
+benefit by the German culture of their time? Even less than, or at all
+events just as little as Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe, or every one of
+our great poets and artists. It may perhaps be a law of nature that
+only the later generations are destined to know by what divine gifts
+an earlier generation was favoured."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>At this point the old philosopher could not control his anger, and
+shouted to his companion: "Oh, you innocent lamb of knowledge! You
+gentle sucking doves, all of you! And would you give the name of
+arguments to those distorted, clumsy, narrow-minded, ungainly,
+crippled things? Yes, I have just now been listening to the fruits of
+some of this present-day culture, and my ears are still ringing with
+the sound of historical 'self-understood' things, of over-wise and
+pitiless historical reasonings! Mark this, thou unprofaned Nature:
+thou hast grown old, and for thousands of years this starry sky has
+spanned the space above thee&mdash;but thou hast never yet heard such
+conceited and, at bottom, mischievous chatter as the talk of the
+present day! So you are proud of your poets and artists, my good
+Teutons? You point to them and brag about them to foreign countries,
+do you? And because it has given you no trouble to have them amongst
+you, you have formed the pleasant theory that you need not concern
+yourselves further with them? Isn't that so, my inexperienced
+children: they come of their own free will, the stork brings them to
+you! Who would dare to mention a midwife! You deserve an earnest
+teaching, eh? You should be proud of the fact that all the noble and
+brilliant men we have mentioned were prematurely suffocated, worn out,
+and crushed through you, through your barbarism? You think without
+shame of Lessing, who, on account of your stupidity, perished in
+battle against your ludicrous gods and idols, the evils of your
+theatres, your learned men, and your theologians, without once daring
+to lift <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>himself to the height of that immortal flight for which he
+was brought into the world. And what are your impressions when you
+think of Winckelmann, who, that he might rid his eyes of your
+grotesque fatuousness, went to beg help from the Jesuits, and whose
+disgraceful religious conversion recoils upon you and will always
+remain an ineffaceable blemish upon you? You can even name Schiller
+without blushing! Just look at his picture! The fiery, sparkling eyes,
+looking at you with disdain, those flushed, death-like cheeks: can you
+learn nothing from all that? In him you had a beautiful and divine
+plaything, and through it was destroyed. And if it had been possible
+for you to take Goethe's friendship away from this melancholy, hasty
+life, hunted to premature death, then you would have crushed him even
+sooner than you did. You have not rendered assistance to a single one
+of our great geniuses&mdash;and now upon that fact you wish to build up the
+theory that none of them shall ever be helped in future? For each of
+them, however, up to this very moment, you have always been the
+'resistance of the stupid world' that Goethe speaks of in his
+"Epilogue to the Bell"; towards each of them you acted the part of
+apathetic dullards or jealous narrow-hearts or malignant egotists. In
+spite of you they created their immortal works, against you they
+directed their attacks, and thanks to you they died so prematurely,
+their tasks only half accomplished, blunted and dulled and shattered
+in the battle. Who can tell to what these heroic men were destined to
+attain if only that true German spirit had gathered them together
+within the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>protecting walls of a powerful institution?&mdash;that spirit
+which, without the help of some such institution, drags out an
+isolated, debased, and degraded existence. All those great men were
+utterly ruined; and it is only an insane belief in the Hegelian
+'reasonableness of all happenings' which would absolve you of any
+responsibility in the matter. And not those men alone! Indictments are
+pouring forth against you from every intellectual province: whether I
+look at the talents of our poets, philosophers, painters, or
+sculptors&mdash;and not only in the case of gifts of the highest order&mdash;I
+everywhere see immaturity, overstrained nerves, or prematurely
+exhausted energies, abilities wasted and nipped in the bud; I
+everywhere feel that 'resistance of the stupid world,' in other words,
+<i>your</i> guiltiness. That is what I am talking about when I speak of
+lacking educational establishments, and why I think those which at
+present claim the name in such a pitiful condition. Whoever is pleased
+to call this an 'ideal desire,' and refers to it as 'ideal' as if he
+were trying to get rid of it by praising me, deserves the answer that
+the present system is a scandal and a disgrace, and that the man who
+asks for warmth in the midst of ice and snow must indeed get angry if
+he hears this referred to as an 'ideal desire.' The matter we are now
+discussing is concerned with clear, urgent, and palpably evident
+realities: a man who knows anything of the question feels that there
+is a need which must be seen to, just like cold and hunger. But the
+man who is not affected at all by this matter most certainly has a
+standard by which to measure the extent of his own culture, and thus
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>to know what I call 'culture,' and where the line should be drawn
+between that which is ruled from below upwards and that which is ruled
+from above downwards."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher seemed to be speaking very heatedly. We begged him to
+walk round with us again, since he had uttered the latter part of his
+discourse standing near the tree-stump which had served us as a
+target. For a few minutes not a word more was spoken. Slowly and
+thoughtfully we walked to and fro. We did not so much feel ashamed of
+having brought forward such foolish arguments as we felt a kind of
+restitution of our personality. After the heated and, so far as we
+were concerned, very unflattering utterance of the philosopher, we
+seemed to feel ourselves nearer to him&mdash;that we even stood in a
+personal relationship to him. For so wretched is man that he never
+feels himself brought into such close contact with a stranger as when
+the latter shows some sign of weakness, some defect. That our
+philosopher had lost his temper and made use of abusive language
+helped to bridge over the gulf created between us by our timid respect
+for him: and for the sake of the reader who feels his indignation
+rising at this suggestion let it be added that this bridge often leads
+from distant hero-worship to personal love and pity. And, after the
+feeling that our personality had been restored to us, this pity
+gradually became stronger and stronger. Why were we making this old
+man walk up and down with us between the rocks and trees at that time
+of the night? And, since he had yielded to our entreaties, why could
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>we not have thought of a more modest and unassuming manner of having
+ourselves instructed, why should the three of us have contradicted him
+in such clumsy terms?</p>
+
+<p>For now we saw how thoughtless, unprepared, and baseless were all the
+objections we had made, and how greatly the echo of <i>the</i> present was
+heard in them, the voice of which, in the province of culture, the old
+man would fain not have heard. Our objections, however, were not
+purely intellectual ones: our reasons for protesting against the
+philosopher's statements seemed to lie elsewhere. They arose perhaps
+from the instinctive anxiety to know whether, if the philosopher's
+views were carried into effect, our own personalities would find a
+place in the higher or lower division; and this made it necessary for
+us to find some arguments against the mode of thinking which robbed us
+of our self-styled claims to culture. People, however, should not
+argue with companions who feel the weight of an argument so
+personally; or, as the moral in our case would have been: such
+companions should not argue, should not contradict at all.</p>
+
+<p>So we walked on beside the philosopher, ashamed, compassionate,
+dissatisfied with ourselves, and more than ever convinced that the old
+man was right and that we had done him wrong. How remote now seemed
+the youthful dream of our educational institution; how clearly we saw
+the danger which we had hitherto escaped merely by good luck, namely,
+giving ourselves up body and soul to the educational system which
+forced itself upon our notice so enticingly, from the time when we
+entered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>the public schools up to that moment. How then had it come
+about that we had not taken our places in the chorus of its admirers?
+Perhaps merely because we were real students, and could still draw
+back from the rough-and-tumble, the pushing and struggling, the
+restless, ever-breaking waves of publicity, to seek refuge in our own
+little educational establishment; which, however, time would have soon
+swallowed up also.</p>
+
+<p>Overcome by such reflections, we were about to address the philosopher
+again, when he suddenly turned towards us, and said in a softer tone&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot be surprised if you young men behave rashly and
+thoughtlessly; for it is hardly likely that you have ever seriously
+considered what I have just said to you. Don't be in a hurry; carry
+this question about with you, but do at any rate consider it day and
+night. For you are now at the parting of the ways, and now you know
+where each path leads. If you take the one, your age will receive you
+with open arms, you will not find it wanting in honours and
+decorations: you will form units of an enormous rank and file; and
+there will be as many people like-minded standing behind you as in
+front of you. And when the leader gives the word it will be re-echoed
+from rank to rank. For here your first duty is this: to fight in rank
+and file; and your second: to annihilate all those who refuse to form
+part of the rank and file. On the other path you will have but few
+fellow-travellers: it is more arduous, winding and precipitous; and
+those who take the first path will mock you, for your progress is more
+wearisome, and they will try <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>to lure you over into their own ranks.
+When the two paths happen to cross, however, you will be roughly
+handled and thrust aside, or else shunned and isolated.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, take these two parties, so different from each other in every
+respect, and tell me what meaning an educational establishment would
+have for them. That enormous horde, crowding onwards on the first path
+towards its goal, would take the term to mean an institution by which
+each of its members would become duly qualified to take his place in
+the rank and file, and would be purged of everything which might tend
+to make him strive after higher and more remote aims. I don't deny, of
+course, that they can find pompous words with which to describe their
+aims: for example, they speak of the 'universal development of free
+personality upon a firm social, national, and human basis,' or they
+announce as their goal: 'The founding of the peaceful sovereignty of
+the people upon reason, education, and justice.'</p>
+
+<p>"An educational establishment for the other and smaller company,
+however, would be something vastly different. They would employ it to
+prevent themselves from being separated from one another and
+overwhelmed by the first huge crowd, to prevent their few select
+spirits from losing sight of their splendid and noble task through
+premature weariness, or from being turned aside from the true path,
+corrupted, or subverted. These select spirits must complete their
+work: that is the <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i> of their common institution&mdash;a work,
+indeed, which, as it were, must be free from subjective traces, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>must further rise above the transient events of future times as the
+pure reflection of the eternal and immutable essence of things. And
+all those who occupy places in that institution must co-operate in the
+endeavour to engender men of genius by this purification from
+subjectiveness and the creation of the works of genius. Not a few,
+even of those whose talents may be of the second or third order, are
+suited to such co-operation, and only when serving in such an
+educational establishment as this do they feel that they are truly
+carrying out their life's task. But now it is just these talents I
+speak of which are drawn away from the true path, and their instincts
+estranged, by the continual seductions of that modern 'culture.'</p>
+
+<p>"The egotistic emotions, weaknesses, and vanities of these few select
+minds are continually assailed by the temptations unceasingly murmured
+into their ears by the spirit of the age: 'Come with me! There you are
+servants, retainers, tools, eclipsed by higher natures; your own
+peculiar characteristics never have free play; you are tied down,
+chained down, like slaves; yea, like automata: here, with me, you will
+enjoy the freedom of your own personalities, as masters should, your
+talents will cast their lustre on yourselves alone, with their aid you
+may come to the very front rank; an innumerable train of followers
+will accompany you, and the applause of public opinion will yield you
+more pleasure than a nobly-bestowed commendation from the height of
+genius.' Even the very best of men now yield to these temptations: and
+it cannot be said that the deciding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>factor here is the degree of
+talent, or whether a man is accessible to these voices or not; but
+rather the degree and the height of a certain moral sublimity, the
+instinct towards heroism, towards sacrifice&mdash;and finally a positive,
+habitual need of culture, prepared by a proper kind of education,
+which education, as I have previously said, is first and foremost
+obedience and submission to the discipline of genius. Of this
+discipline and submission, however, the present institutions called by
+courtesy 'educational establishments' know nothing whatever, although
+I have no doubt that the public school was originally intended to be
+an institution for sowing the seeds of true culture, or at least as a
+preparation for it. I have no doubt, either, that they took the first
+bold steps in the wonderful and stirring times of the Reformation, and
+that afterwards, in the era which gave birth to Schiller and Goethe,
+there was again a growing demand for culture, like the first
+protuberance of that wing spoken of by Plato in the <i>Phaedrus</i>, which,
+at every contact with the beautiful, bears the soul aloft into the
+upper regions, the habitations of the gods."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," began the philosopher's companion, "when you quote the divine
+Plato and the world of ideas, I do not think you are angry with me,
+however much my previous utterance may have merited your disapproval
+and wrath. As soon as you speak of it, I feel that Platonic wing
+rising within me; and it is only at intervals, when I act as the
+charioteer of my soul, that I have any difficulty with the resisting
+and unwilling horse that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>Plato has also described to us, the
+'crooked, lumbering animal, put together anyhow, with a short, thick
+neck; flat-faced, and of a dark colour, with grey eyes and blood-red
+complexion; the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf,
+hardly yielding to whip or spur.'<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Just think how long I have lived
+at a distance from you, and how all those temptations you speak of
+have endeavoured to lure me away, not perhaps without some success,
+even though I myself may not have observed it. I now see more clearly
+than ever the necessity for an institution which will enable us to
+live and mix freely with the few men of true culture, so that we may
+have them as our leaders and guiding stars. How greatly I feel the
+danger of travelling alone! And when it occurred to me that I could
+save myself by flight from all contact with the spirit of the time, I
+found that this flight itself was a mere delusion. Continuously, with
+every breath we take, some amount of that atmosphere circulates
+through every vein and artery, and no solitude is lonesome or distant
+enough for us to be out of reach of its fogs and clouds. Whether in
+the guise of hope, doubt, profit, or virtue, the shades of that
+culture hover about us; and we have been deceived by that jugglery
+even here in the presence of a true hermit of culture. How steadfastly
+and faithfully must the few followers of that culture&mdash;which might
+almost be called sectarian&mdash;be ever on the alert! How they must
+strengthen and uphold one another! How adversely would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>any errors be
+criticised here, and how sympathetically excused! And thus, teacher, I
+ask you to pardon me, after you have laboured so earnestly to set me
+in the right path!"</p>
+
+<p>"You use a language which I do not care for, my friend," said the
+philosopher, "and one which reminds me of a diocesan conference. With
+that I have nothing to do. But your Platonic horse pleases me, and on
+its account you shall be forgiven. I am willing to exchange my own
+animal for yours. But it is getting chilly, and I don't feel inclined
+to walk about any more just now. The friend I was waiting for is
+indeed foolish enough to come up here even at midnight if he promised
+to do so. But I have waited in vain for the signal agreed upon; and I
+cannot guess what has delayed him. For as a rule he is punctual, as we
+old men are wont, to be, something that you young men nowadays look
+upon as old-fashioned. But he has left me in the lurch for once: how
+annoying it is! Come away with me! It's time to go!"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment something happened.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It will be apparent from these words that Nietzsche is
+still under the influence of Schopenhauer.&mdash;<span class="sc">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> This prophecy has come true.&mdash;<span class="sc">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Phaedrus</i>; Jowett's translation.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="FIFTH_LECTURE" id="FIFTH_LECTURE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>FIFTH LECTURE.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Delivered on the 23rd of March 1872.</i>)</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p><span class="sc">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;If you have lent a sympathetic ear to
+what I have told you about the heated argument of our philosopher in
+the stillness of that memorable night, you must have felt as
+disappointed as we did when he announced his peevish intention. You
+will remember that he had suddenly told us he wished to go; for,
+having been left in the lurch by his friend in the first place, and,
+in the second, having been bored rather than animated by the remarks
+addressed to him by his companion and ourselves when walking backwards
+and forwards on the hillside, he now apparently wanted to put an end
+to what appeared to him to be a useless discussion. It must have
+seemed to him that his day had been lost, and he would have liked to
+blot it out of his memory, together with the recollection of ever
+having made our acquaintance. And we were thus rather unwillingly
+preparing to depart when something else suddenly brought him to a
+standstill, and the foot he had just raised sank hesitatingly to the
+ground again.</p>
+
+<p>A coloured flame, making a crackling noise for a few seconds,
+attracted our attention from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>direction of the Rhine; and
+immediately following upon this we heard a slow, harmonious call,
+quite in tune, although plainly the cry of numerous youthful voices.
+"That's his signal," exclaimed the philosopher, "so my friend is
+really coming, and I haven't waited for nothing, after all. It will be
+a midnight meeting indeed&mdash;but how am I to let him know that I am
+still here? Come! Your pistols; let us see your talent once again! Did
+you hear the severe rhythm of that melody saluting us? Mark it well,
+and answer it in the same rhythm by a series of shots."</p>
+
+<p>This was a task well suited to our tastes and abilities; so we loaded
+up as quickly as we could and pointed our weapons at the brilliant
+stars in the heavens, whilst the echo of that piercing cry died away
+in the distance. The reports of the first, second, and third shots
+sounded sharply in the stillness; and then the philosopher cried
+"False time!" as our rhythm was suddenly interrupted: for, like a
+lightning flash, a shooting star tore its way across the clouds after
+the third report, and almost involuntarily our fourth and fifth shots
+were sent after it in the direction it had taken.</p>
+
+<p>"False time!" said the philosopher again, "who told you to shoot
+stars! They can fall well enough without you! People should know what
+they want before they begin to handle weapons."</p>
+
+<p>And then we once more heard that loud melody from the waters of the
+Rhine, intoned by numerous and strong voices. "They understand us,"
+said the philosopher, laughing, "and who indeed could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>resist when
+such a dazzling phantom comes within range?" "Hush!" interrupted his
+friend, "what sort of a company can it be that returns the signal to
+us in such a way? I should say they were between twenty and forty
+strong, manly voices in that crowd&mdash;and where would such a number come
+from to greet us? They don't appear to have left the opposite bank of
+the Rhine yet; but at any rate we must have a look at them from our
+own side of the river. Come along, quickly!"</p>
+
+<p>We were then standing near the top of the hill, you may remember, and
+our view of the river was interrupted by a dark, thick wood. On the
+other hand, as I have told you, from the quiet little spot which we
+had left we could have a better view than from the little plateau on
+the hillside; and the Rhine, with the island of Nonnenw&ouml;rth in the
+middle, was just visible to the beholder who peered over the
+tree-tops. We therefore set off hastily towards this little spot,
+taking care, however, not to go too quickly for the philosopher's
+comfort. The night was pitch dark, and we seemed to find our way by
+instinct rather than by clearly distinguishing the path, as we walked
+down with the philosopher in the middle.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely reached our side of the river when a broad and fiery,
+yet dull and uncertain light shot up, which plainly came from the
+opposite side of the Rhine. "Those are torches," I cried, "there is
+nothing surer than that my comrades from Bonn are over yonder, and
+that your friend must be with them. It is they who sang that peculiar
+song, and they have doubtless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>accompanied your friend here. See!
+Listen! They are putting off in little boats. The whole torchlight
+procession will have arrived here in less than half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher jumped back. "What do you say?" he ejaculated, "your
+comrades from Bonn&mdash;students&mdash;can my friend have come here with
+<i>students</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>This question, uttered almost wrathfully, provoked us. "What's your
+objection to students?" we demanded; but there was no answer. It was
+only after a pause that the philosopher slowly began to speak, not
+addressing us directly, as it were, but rather some one in the
+distance: "So, my friend, even at midnight, even on the top of a
+lonely mountain, we shall not be alone; and you yourself are bringing
+a pack of mischief-making students along with you, although you well
+know that I am only too glad to get out of the way of <i>hoc genus
+omne</i>. I don't quite understand you, my friend: it must mean something
+when we arrange to meet after a long separation at such an
+out-of-the-way place and at such an unusual hour. Why should we want a
+crowd of witnesses&mdash;and such witnesses! What calls us together to-day
+is least of all a sentimental, soft-hearted necessity; for both of us
+learnt early in life to live alone in dignified isolation. It was not
+for our own sakes, not to show our tender feelings towards each other,
+or to perform an unrehearsed act of friendship, that we decided to
+meet here; but that here, where I once came suddenly upon you as you
+sat in majestic solitude, we might earnestly deliberate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>with each
+other like knights of a new order. Let them listen to us who can
+understand us; but why should you bring with you a throng of people
+who don't understand us! I don't know what you mean by such a thing,
+my friend!"</p>
+
+<p>We did not think it proper to interrupt the dissatisfied old grumbler;
+and as he came to a melancholy close we did not dare to tell him how
+greatly this distrustful repudiation of students vexed us.</p>
+
+<p>At last the philosopher's companion turned to him and said: "I am
+reminded of the fact that even you at one time, before I made your
+acquaintance, occupied posts in several universities, and that reports
+concerning your intercourse with the students and your methods of
+instruction at the time are still in circulation. From the tone of
+resignation in which you have just referred to students many would be
+inclined to think that you had some peculiar experiences which were
+not at all to your liking; but personally I rather believe that you
+saw and experienced in such places just what every one else saw and
+experienced in them, but that you judged what you saw and felt more
+justly and severely than any one else. For, during the time I have
+known you, I have learnt that the most noteworthy, instructive, and
+decisive experiences and events in one's life are those which are of
+daily occurrence; that the greatest riddle, displayed in full view of
+all, is seen by the fewest to be the greatest riddle, and that these
+problems are spread about in every direction, under the very feet of
+the passers-by, for the few <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>real philosophers to lift up carefully,
+thenceforth to shine as diamonds of wisdom. Perhaps, in the short time
+now left us before the arrival of your friend, you will be good enough
+to tell us something of your experiences of university life, so as to
+close the circle of observations, to which we were involuntarily
+urged, respecting our educational institutions. We may also be allowed
+to remind you that you, at an earlier stage of your remarks, gave me
+the promise that you would do so. Starting with the public school, you
+claimed for it an extraordinary importance: all other institutions
+must be judged by its standard, according as its aim has been
+proposed; and, if its aim happens to be wrong, all the others have to
+suffer. Such an importance cannot now be adopted by the universities
+as a standard; for, by their present system of grouping, they would be
+nothing more than institutions where public school students might go
+through finishing courses. You promised me that you would explain this
+in greater detail later on: perhaps our student friends can bear
+witness to that, if they chanced to overhear that part of our
+conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"We can testify to that," I put in. The philosopher then turned to us
+and said: "Well, if you really did listen attentively, perhaps you can
+now tell me what you understand by the expression 'the present aim of
+our public schools.' Besides, you are still near enough to this sphere
+to judge my opinions by the standard of your own impressions and
+experiences."</p>
+
+<p>My friend instantly answered, quickly and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>smartly, as was his habit,
+in the following words: "Until now we had always thought that the sole
+object of the public school was to prepare students for the
+universities. This preparation, however, should tend to make us
+independent enough for the extraordinarily free position of a
+university student;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> for it seems to me that a student, to a greater
+extent than any other individual, has more to decide and settle for
+himself. He must guide himself on a wide, utterly unknown path for
+many years, so the public school must do its best to render him
+independent."</p>
+
+<p>I continued the argument where my friend left off. "It even seems to
+me," I said, "that everything for which you have justly blamed the
+public school is only a necessary means employed to imbue the youthful
+student with some kind of independence, or at all events with the
+belief that there is such a thing. The teaching of German composition
+must be at the service of this independence: the individual must enjoy
+his opinions and carry out his designs early, so that he may be able
+to travel alone and without crutches. In this way he will soon be
+encouraged to produce original work, and still sooner to take up
+criticism and analysis. If Latin and Greek studies prove insufficient
+to make a student an enthusiastic admirer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>of antiquity, the methods
+with which such studies are pursued are at all events sufficient to
+awaken the scientific sense, the desire for a more strict causality of
+knowledge, the passion for finding out and inventing. Only think how
+many young men may be lured away for ever to the attractions of
+science by a new reading of some sort which they have snatched up with
+youthful hands at the public school! The public school boy must learn
+and collect a great deal of varied information: hence an impulse will
+gradually be created, accompanied with which he will continue to learn
+and collect independently at the university. We believe, in short,
+that the aim of the public school is to prepare and accustom the
+student always to live and learn independently afterwards, just as
+beforehand he must live and learn dependently at the public school."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher laughed, not altogether good-naturedly, and said: "You
+have just given me a fine example of that independence. And it is this
+very independence that shocks me so much, and makes any place in the
+neighbourhood of present-day students so disagreeable to me. Yes, my
+good friends, you are perfect, you are mature; nature has cast you and
+broken up the moulds, and your teachers must surely gloat over you.
+What liberty, certitude, and independence of judgment; what novelty
+and freshness of insight! You sit in judgment&mdash;and the cultures of all
+ages run away. The scientific sense is kindled, and rises out of you
+like a flame&mdash;let people be careful, lest you set them alight! If I go
+further into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>the question and look at your professors, I again find
+the same independence in a greater and even more charming degree:
+never was there a time so full of the most sublime independent folk,
+never was slavery more detested, the slavery of education and culture
+included.</p>
+
+<p>"Permit me, however, to measure this independence of yours by the
+standard of this culture, and to consider your university as an
+educational institution and nothing else. If a foreigner desires to
+know something of the methods of our universities, he asks first of
+all with emphasis: 'How is the student connected with the university?'
+We answer: 'By the ear, as a hearer.' The foreigner is astonished.
+'Only by the ear?' he repeats. 'Only by the ear,' we again reply. The
+student hears. When he speaks, when he sees, when he is in the company
+of his companions when he takes up some branch of art: in short, when
+he <i>lives</i> he is independent, <i>i.e.</i> not dependent upon the
+educational institution. The student very often writes down something
+while he hears; and it is only at these rare moments that he hangs to
+the umbilical cord of his alma mater. He himself may choose what he is
+to listen to; he is not bound to believe what is said; he may close
+his ears if he does not care to hear. This is the 'acroamatic' method
+of teaching.</p>
+
+<p>"The teacher, however, speaks to these listening students. Whatever
+else he may think and do is cut off from the student's perception by
+an immense gap. The professor often reads when he is speaking. As a
+rule he wishes to have as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>many hearers as possible; he is not content
+to have a few, and he is never satisfied with one only. One speaking
+mouth, with many ears, and half as many writing hands&mdash;there you have
+to all appearances, the external academical apparatus; the university
+engine of culture set in motion. Moreover, the proprietor of this one
+mouth is severed from and independent of the owners of the many ears;
+and this double independence is enthusiastically designated as
+'academical freedom.' And again, that this freedom may be broadened
+still more, the one may speak what he likes and the other may hear
+what he likes; except that, behind both of them, at a modest distance,
+stands the State, with all the intentness of a supervisor, to remind
+the professors and students from time to time that <i>it</i> is the aim,
+the goal, the be-all and end-all, of this curious speaking and hearing
+procedure.</p>
+
+<p>"We, who must be permitted to regard this phenomenon merely as an
+educational institution, will then inform the inquiring foreigner that
+what is called 'culture' in our universities merely proceeds from the
+mouth to the ear, and that every kind of training for culture is, as I
+said before, merely 'acroamatic.' Since, however, not only the
+hearing, but also the choice of what to hear is left to the
+independent decision of the liberal-minded and unprejudiced student,
+and since, again, he can withhold all belief and authority from what
+he hears, all training for culture, in the true sense of the term,
+reverts to himself; and the independence it was thought desirable to
+aim at in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>public school now presents itself with the highest
+possible pride as 'academical self-training for culture,' and struts
+about in its brilliant plumage.</p>
+
+<p>"Happy times, when youths are clever and cultured enough to teach
+themselves how to walk! Unsurpassable public schools, which succeed in
+implanting independence in the place of the dependence, discipline,
+subordination, and obedience implanted by former generations that
+thought it their duty to drive away all the bumptiousness of
+independence! Do you clearly see, my good friends, why I, from the
+standpoint of culture, regard the present type of university as a mere
+appendage to the public school? The culture instilled by the public
+school passes through the gates of the university as something ready
+and entire, and with its own particular claims: <i>it</i> demands, it gives
+laws, it sits in judgment. Do not, then, let yourselves be deceived in
+regard to the cultured student; for he, in so far as he thinks he has
+absorbed the blessings of education, is merely the public school boy
+as moulded by the hands of his teacher: one who, since his academical
+isolation, and after he has left the public school, has therefore been
+deprived of all further guidance to culture, that from now on he may
+begin to live by himself and be free.</p>
+
+<p>"Free! Examine this freedom, ye observers of human nature! Erected
+upon the sandy, crumbling foundation of our present public school
+culture, its building slants to one side, trembling before the
+whirlwind's blast. Look at the free student, the herald of
+self-culture: guess what his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>instincts are; explain him from his
+needs! How does his culture appear to you when you measure it by three
+graduated scales: first, by his need for philosophy; second, by his
+instinct for art; and third, by Greek and Roman antiquity as the
+incarnate categorical imperative of all culture?</p>
+
+<p>"Man is so much encompassed about by the most serious and difficult
+problems that, when they are brought to his attention in the right
+way, he is impelled betimes towards a lasting kind of philosophical
+wonder, from which alone, as a fruitful soil, a deep and noble culture
+can grow forth. His own experiences lead him most frequently to the
+consideration of these problems; and it is especially in the
+tempestuous period of youth that every personal event shines with a
+double gleam, both as the exemplification of a triviality and, at the
+same time, of an eternally surprising problem, deserving of
+explanation. At this age, which, as it were, sees his experiences
+encircled with metaphysical rainbows, man is, in the highest degree,
+in need of a guiding hand, because he has suddenly and almost
+instinctively convinced himself of the ambiguity of existence, and has
+lost the firm support of the beliefs he has hitherto held.</p>
+
+<p>"This natural state of great need must of course be looked upon as the
+worst enemy of that beloved independence for which the cultured youth
+of the present day should be trained. All these sons of the present,
+who have raised the banner of the 'self-understood,' are therefore
+straining every nerve to crush down these feelings of youth, to
+cripple them, to mislead them, or to stop their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>growth altogether;
+and the favourite means employed is to paralyse that natural
+philosophic impulse by the so-called "historical culture." A still
+recent system,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> which has won for itself a world-wide scandalous
+reputation, has discovered the formula for this self-destruction of
+philosophy; and now, wherever the historical view of things is found,
+we can see such a naive recklessness in bringing the irrational to
+'rationality' and 'reason' and making black look like white, that one
+is even inclined to parody Hegel's phrase and ask: 'Is all this
+irrationality real?' Ah, it is only the irrational that now seems to
+be 'real,' <i>i.e.</i> really doing something; and to bring this kind of
+reality forward for the elucidation of history is reckoned as true
+'historical culture.' It is into this that the philosophical impulse
+of our time has pupated itself; and the peculiar philosophers of our
+universities seem to have conspired to fortify and confirm the young
+academicians in it.</p>
+
+<p>"It has thus come to pass that, in place of a profound interpretation
+of the eternally recurring problems, a historical&mdash;yea, even
+philological&mdash;balancing and questioning has entered into the
+educational arena: what this or that philosopher has or has not
+thought; whether this or that essay or dialogue is to be ascribed to
+him or not; or even whether this particular reading of a classical
+text is to be preferred to that. It is to neutral preoccupations with
+philosophy like these that our students in philosophical seminaries
+are stimulated; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>whence I have long accustomed myself to regard such
+science as a mere ramification of philology, and to value its
+representatives in proportion as they are good or bad philologists. So
+it has come about that <i>philosophy itself</i> is banished from the
+universities: wherewith our first question as to the value of our
+universities from the standpoint of culture is answered.</p>
+
+<p>"In what relationship these universities stand to <i>art</i> cannot be
+acknowledged without shame: in none at all. Of artistic thinking,
+learning, striving, and comparison, we do not find in them a single
+trace; and no one would seriously think that the voice of the
+universities would ever be raised to help the advancement of the
+higher national schemes of art. Whether an individual teacher feels
+himself to be personally qualified for art, or whether a professorial
+chair has been established for the training of &aelig;stheticising literary
+historians, does not enter into the question at all: the fact remains
+that the university is not in a position to control the young
+academician by severe artistic discipline, and that it must let happen
+what happens, willy-nilly&mdash;and this is the cutting answer to the
+immodest pretensions of the universities to represent themselves as
+the highest educational institutions.</p>
+
+<p>"We find our academical 'independents' growing up without philosophy
+and without art; and how can they then have any need to 'go in for'
+the Greeks and Romans?&mdash;for we need now no longer pretend, like our
+forefathers, to have any great regard for Greece and Rome, which,
+besides, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>sit enthroned in almost inaccessible loneliness and majestic
+alienation. The universities of the present time consequently give no
+heed to almost extinct educational predilections like these, and found
+their philological chairs for the training of new and exclusive
+generations of philologists, who on their part give similar
+philological preparation in the public schools&mdash;a vicious circle which
+is useful neither to philologists nor to public schools, but which
+above all accuses the university for the third time of not being what
+it so pompously proclaims itself to be&mdash;a training ground for culture.
+Take away the Greeks, together with philosophy and art, and what
+ladder have you still remaining by which to ascend to culture? For, if
+you attempt to clamber up the ladder without these helps, you must
+permit me to inform you that all your learning will lie like a heavy
+burden on your shoulders rather than furnishing you with wings and
+bearing you aloft.</p>
+
+<p>"If you honest thinkers have honourably remained in these three stages
+of intelligence, and have perceived that, in comparison with the
+Greeks, the modern student is unsuited to and unprepared for
+philosophy, that he has no truly artistic instincts, and is merely a
+barbarian believing himself to be free, you will not on this account
+turn away from him in disgust, although you will, of course, avoid
+coming into too close proximity with him. For, as he now is, <i>he is
+not to blame</i>: as you have perceived him he is the dumb but terrible
+accuser of those who are to blame.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>"You should understand the secret language spoken by this guilty
+innocent, and then you, too, would learn to understand the inward
+state of that independence which is paraded outwardly with so much
+ostentation. Not one of these noble, well-qualified youths has
+remained a stranger to that restless, tiring, perplexing, and
+debilitating need of culture: during his university term, when he is
+apparently the only free man in a crowd of servants and officials, he
+atones for this huge illusion of freedom by ever-growing inner doubts
+and convictions. He feels that he can neither lead nor help himself;
+and then he plunges hopelessly into the workaday world and endeavours
+to ward off such feelings by study. The most trivial bustle fastens
+itself upon him; he sinks under his heavy burden. Then he suddenly
+pulls himself together; he still feels some of that power within him
+which would have enabled him to keep his head above water. Pride and
+noble resolutions assert themselves and grow in him. He is afraid of
+sinking at this early stage into the limits of a narrow profession;
+and now he grasps at pillars and railings alongside the stream that he
+may not be swept away by the current. In vain! for these supports give
+way, and he finds he has clutched at broken reeds. In low and
+despondent spirits he sees his plans vanish away in smoke. His
+condition is undignified, even dreadful: he keeps between the two
+extremes of work at high pressure and a state of melancholy
+enervation. Then he becomes tired, lazy, afraid of work, fearful of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>everything great; and hating himself. He looks into his own breast,
+analyses his faculties, and finds he is only peering into hollow and
+chaotic vacuity. And then he once more falls from the heights of his
+eagerly-desired self-knowledge into an ironical scepticism. He divests
+his struggles of their real importance, and feels himself ready to
+undertake any class of useful work, however degrading. He now seeks
+consolation in hasty and incessant action so as to hide himself from
+himself. And thus his helplessness and the want of a leader towards
+culture drive him from one form of life into another: but doubt,
+elevation, worry, hope, despair&mdash;everything flings him hither and
+thither as a proof that all the stars above him by which he could have
+guided his ship have set.</p>
+
+<p>"There you have the picture of this glorious independence of yours, of
+that academical freedom, reflected in the highest minds&mdash;those which
+are truly in need of culture, compared with whom that other crowd of
+indifferent natures does not count at all, natures that delight in
+their freedom in a purely barbaric sense. For these latter show by
+their base smugness and their narrow professional limitations that
+this is the right element for them: against which there is nothing to
+be said. Their comfort, however, does not counter-balance the
+suffering of one single young man who has an inclination for culture
+and feels the need of a guiding hand, and who at last, in a moment of
+discontent, throws down the reins and begins to despise himself. This
+is the guiltless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>innocent; for who has saddled him with the
+unbearable burden of standing alone? Who has urged him on to
+independence at an age when one of the most natural and peremptory
+needs of youth is, so to speak, a self-surrendering to great leaders
+and an enthusiastic following in the footsteps of the masters?</p>
+
+<p>"It is repulsive to consider the effects to which the violent
+suppression of such noble natures may lead. He who surveys the
+greatest supporters and friends of that pseudo-culture of the present
+time, which I so greatly detest, will only too frequently find among
+them such degenerate and shipwrecked men of culture, driven by inward
+despair to violent enmity against culture, when, in a moment of
+desperation, there was no one at hand to show them how to attain it.
+It is not the worst and most insignificant people whom we afterwards
+find acting as journalists and writers for the press in the
+metamorphosis of despair: the spirit of some well-known men of letters
+might even be described, and justly, as degenerate studentdom. How
+else, for example, can we reconcile that once well-known 'young
+Germany' with its present degenerate successors? Here we discover a
+need of culture which, so to speak, has grown mutinous, and which
+finally breaks out into the passionate cry: I am culture! There,
+before the gates of the public schools and universities, we can see
+the culture which has been driven like a fugitive away from these
+institutions. True, this culture is without the erudition of those
+establishments, but assumes nevertheless the mien of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>sovereign; so
+that, for example, Gutzkow the novelist might be pointed to as the
+best example of a modern public school boy turned &aelig;sthete. Such a
+degenerate man of culture is a serious matter, and it is a horrifying
+spectacle for us to see that all our scholarly and journalistic
+publicity bears the stigma of this degeneracy upon it. How else can we
+do justice to our learned men, who pay untiring attention to, and even
+co-operate in the journalistic corruption of the people, how else than
+by the acknowledgment that their learning must fill a want of their
+own similar to that filled by novel-writing in the case of others:
+<i>i.e.</i> a flight from one's self, an ascetic extirpation of their
+cultural impulses, a desperate attempt to annihilate their own
+individuality. From our degenerate literary art, as also from that
+itch for scribbling of our learned men which has now reached such
+alarming proportions, wells forth the same sigh: Oh that we could
+forget ourselves! The attempt fails: memory, not yet suffocated by the
+mountains of printed paper under which it is buried, keeps on
+repeating from time to time: 'A degenerate man of culture! Born for
+culture and brought up to non-culture! Helpless barbarian, slave of
+the day, chained to the present moment, and thirsting for
+something&mdash;ever thirsting!'</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the miserable guilty innocents! For they lack something, a need
+that every one of them must have felt: a real educational institution,
+which could give them goals, masters, methods, companions; and from
+the midst of which the invigorating and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>uplifting breath of the true
+German spirit would inspire them. Thus they perish in the wilderness;
+thus they degenerate into enemies of that spirit which is at bottom
+closely allied to their own; thus they pile fault upon fault higher
+than any former generation ever did, soiling the clean, desecrating
+the holy, canonising the false and spurious. It is by them that you
+can judge the educational strength of our universities, asking
+yourselves, in all seriousness, the question: What cause did you
+promote through them? The German power of invention, the noble German
+desire for knowledge, the qualifying of the German for diligence and
+self-sacrifice&mdash;splendid and beautiful things, which other nations
+envy you; yea, the finest and most magnificent things in the world, if
+only that true German spirit overspread them like a dark thundercloud,
+pregnant with the blessing of forthcoming rain. But you are afraid of
+this spirit, and it has therefore come to pass that a cloud of another
+sort has thrown a heavy and oppressive atmosphere around your
+universities, in which your noble-minded scholars breathe wearily and
+with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"A tragic, earnest, and instructive attempt was made in the present
+century to destroy the cloud I have last referred to, and also to turn
+the people's looks in the direction of the high welkin of the German
+spirit. In all the annals of our universities we cannot find any trace
+of a second attempt, and he who would impressively demonstrate what is
+now necessary for us will never find a better <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>example. I refer to the
+old, primitive <i>Burschenschaft</i>.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>"When the war of liberation was over, the young student brought back
+home the unlooked-for and worthiest trophy of battle&mdash;the freedom of
+his fatherland. Crowned with this laurel he thought of something still
+nobler. On returning to the university, and finding that he was
+breathing heavily, he became conscious of that oppressive and
+contaminated air which overhung the culture of the university. He
+suddenly saw, with horror-struck, wide-open eyes, the non-German
+barbarism, hiding itself in the guise of all kinds of scholasticism;
+he suddenly discovered that his own leaderless comrades were abandoned
+to a repulsive kind of youthful intoxication. And he was exasperated.
+He rose with the same aspect of proud indignation as Schiller may have
+had when reciting the <i>Robbers</i> to his companions: and if he had
+prefaced his drama with the picture of a lion, and the motto, 'in
+tyrannos,' his follower himself was that very lion preparing to
+spring; and every 'tyrant' began to tremble. Yes, if these indignant
+youths were looked at superficially and timorously, they would seem to
+be little else than Schiller's robbers: their talk sounded so wild to
+the anxious listener that Rome and Sparta seemed mere nunneries
+compared with these new spirits. The consternation raised by these
+young men was indeed far more general than had ever been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>caused by
+those other 'robbers' in court circles, of which a German prince,
+according to Goethe, is said to have expressed the opinion: 'If he had
+been God, and had foreseen the appearance of the <i>Robbers</i>, he would
+not have created the world.'</p>
+
+<p>"Whence came the incomprehensible intensity of this alarm? For those
+young men were the bravest, purest, and most talented of the band both
+in dress and habits: they were distinguished by a magnanimous
+recklessness and a noble simplicity. A divine command bound them
+together to seek harder and more pious superiority: what could be
+feared from them? To what extent this fear was merely deceptive or
+simulated or really true is something that will probably never be
+exactly known; but a strong instinct spoke out of this fear and out of
+its disgraceful and senseless persecution. This instinct hated the
+Burschenschaft with an intense hatred for two reasons: first of all on
+account of its organisation, as being the first attempt to construct a
+true educational institution, and, secondly, on account of the spirit
+of this institution, that earnest, manly, stern, and daring German
+spirit; that spirit of the miner's son, Luther, which has come down to
+us unbroken from the time of the Reformation.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of the <i>fate</i> of the Burschenschaft when I ask you, Did the
+German university then understand that spirit, as even the German
+princes in their hatred appear to have understood it? Did the alma
+mater boldly and resolutely throw her protecting arms round her noble
+sons and say: 'You <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>must kill me first, before you touch my children?'
+I hear your answer&mdash;by it you may judge whether the German university
+is an educational institution or not.</p>
+
+<p>"The student knew at that time at what depth a true educational
+institution must take root, namely, in an inward renovation and
+inspiration of the purest moral faculties. And this must always be
+repeated to the student's credit. He may have learnt on the field of
+battle what he could learn least of all in the sphere of 'academical
+freedom': that great leaders are necessary, and that all culture begins
+with obedience. And in the midst of victory, with his thoughts turned
+to his liberated fatherland, he made the vow that he would remain
+German. German! Now he learnt to understand his Tacitus; now he grasped
+the signification of Kant's categorical imperative; now he was
+enraptured by Weber's "Lyre and Sword" songs.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The gates of
+philosophy, of art, yea, even of antiquity, opened unto him; and in one
+of the most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>memorable of bloody acts, the murder of Kotzebue, he
+revenged&mdash;with penetrating insight and enthusiastic
+short-sightedness&mdash;his one and only Schiller, prematurely consumed by
+the opposition of the stupid world: Schiller, who could have been his
+leader, master, and organiser, and whose loss he now bewailed with such
+heartfelt resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"For that was the doom of those promising students: they did not find
+the leaders they wanted. They gradually became uncertain,
+discontented, and at variance among themselves; unlucky indiscretions
+showed only too soon that the one indispensability of powerful minds
+was lacking in the midst of them: and, while that mysterious murder
+gave evidence of astonishing strength, it gave no less evidence of the
+grave danger arising from the want of a leader. They were
+leaderless&mdash;therefore they perished.</p>
+
+<p>"For I repeat it, my friends! All culture begins with the very
+opposite of that which is now so highly esteemed as 'academical
+freedom': with obedience, with subordination, with discipline, with
+subjection. And as leaders must have followers so also must the
+followers have a leader&mdash;here a certain reciprocal predisposition
+prevails in the hierarchy of spirits: yea, a kind of pre-established
+harmony. This eternal hierarchy, towards which all things naturally
+tend, is always threatened by that pseudo-culture which now sits on
+the throne of the present. It endeavours either to bring the leaders
+down to the level of its own servitude or else to cast them out
+altogether. It seduces the followers when they are seeking their
+predestined leader, and overcomes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>them by the fumes of its narcotics.
+When, however, in spite of all this, leader and followers have at last
+met, wounded and sore, there is an impassioned feeling of rapture,
+like the echo of an ever-sounding lyre, a feeling which I can let you
+divine only by means of a simile.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange,
+shrivelled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German
+orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious
+goddess 'form'! What noses and ears, what clumsy, <i>danse macabre</i>
+movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never
+dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking
+upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their
+performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealising
+effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern,
+medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this
+harmonious parody on the <i>homo sapiens</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned,
+and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the
+head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless
+fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene,
+you listen&mdash;but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads
+out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see
+only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the
+rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>the
+orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humoured, and even wearisome
+crowd of players.</p>
+
+<p>"But set a genius&mdash;a real genius&mdash;in the midst of this crowd; and you
+instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this
+genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these
+mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed
+forth out of them all. Now look and listen&mdash;you can never listen
+enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming,
+now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every
+muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too
+will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and
+followers, and how in the hierarchy of spirits everything impels us
+towards the establishment of a like organisation. You can divine from
+my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution,
+and why I am very far from recognising one in the present type of
+university."</p>
+
+<div class="block"><p class="noin">[From a few MS. notes written down by Nietzsche in the spring
+and autumn of 1872, and still preserved in the Nietzsche
+Archives at Weimar, it is evident that he at one time
+intended to add a sixth and seventh lecture to the five just
+given. These notes, although included in the latest edition
+of Nietzsche's works, are utterly lacking in interest and
+continuity, being merely headings and sub-headings of
+sections in the proposed lectures. They do not, indeed,
+occupy more than two printed pages, and were deemed too
+fragmentary for translation in this edition.]</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The reader may be reminded that a German university
+student is subject to very few restrictions, and that much greater
+liberty is allowed him than is permitted to English students.
+Nietzsche did not approve of this extraordinary freedom, which, in his
+opinion, led to intellectual lawlessness.&mdash;<span class="sc">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Hegel's.&mdash;<span class="sc">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> A German students' association, of liberal principles,
+founded for patriotic purposes at Jena in 1813.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Weber set one or two of K&ouml;rner's "Lyre and Sword" songs
+to music. The reader will remember that these lectures were delivered
+when Nietzsche was only in his twenty-eighth year. Like Goethe, he
+afterwards freed himself from all patriotic trammels and prejudices,
+and aimed at a general European culture. Luther, Schiller, Kant,
+K&ouml;rner, and Weber did not continue to be the objects of his veneration
+for long, indeed, they were afterwards violently attacked by him, and
+the superficial student who speaks of inconsistency may be reminded of
+Nietzsche's phrase in stanza 12 of the epilogue to <i>Beyond Good and
+Evil</i>: "Nur wer sich wandelt, bleibt mit mir verwandt"; <i>i.e.</i> only
+the changing ones have anything in common with me.&mdash;<span class="sc">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p>
+<br />
+Page 124: &nbsp;neigbourhood replaced with neighbourhood<br />
+Page 130: &nbsp;universites replaced by universities<br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 28146-h.htm or 28146-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/4/28146/
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/28146-h/images/nietsche.jpg b/28146-h/images/nietsche.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb95037
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146-h/images/nietsche.jpg
diff --git a/28146.txt b/28146.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37e42de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3976 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: On the Future of our Educational Institutions
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Editor: Oscar Levy
+
+Translator: J. M. Kennedy
+
+Release Date: February 20, 2009 [EBook #28146]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Greek has been transliterated and marked +like so+.       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
+    | a complete list, please see the end of this document.     |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+  THE COMPLETE WORKS
+
+  OF
+
+  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
+
+  _The First Complete and Authorised English Translation_
+
+  EDITED BY
+
+  Dr. OSCAR LEVY
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  VOLUME THREE
+
+  ON THE FUTURE OF OUR
+  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+  _FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE_
+
+  ON THE FUTURE OF OUR
+  EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
+
+
+
+  TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY
+  J.M. KENNEDY
+
+
+
+
+  T.N. FOULIS
+  13 & 15 FREDERICK STREET
+  EDINBURGH: and LONDON
+  1910
+
+
+
+
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+  _Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+(_To be read before the lectures, although it in no way relates to
+them._)
+
+
+The reader from whom I expect something must possess three qualities:
+he must be calm and must read without haste; he must not be ever
+interposing his own personality and his own special "culture"; and he
+must not expect as the ultimate results of his study of these pages
+that he will be presented with a set of new formulae. I do not propose
+to furnish formulae or new plans of study for _Gymnasia_ or other
+schools; and I am much more inclined to admire the extraordinary power
+of those who are able to cover the whole distance between the depths
+of empiricism and the heights of special culture-problems, and who
+again descend to the level of the driest rules and the most neatly
+expressed formulae. I shall be content if only I can ascend a tolerably
+lofty mountain, from the summit of which, after having recovered my
+breath, I may obtain a general survey of the ground; for I shall never
+be able, in this book, to satisfy the votaries of tabulated rules.
+Indeed, I see a time coming when serious men, working together in the
+service of a completely rejuvenated and purified culture, may again
+become the directors of a system of everyday instruction, calculated
+to promote that culture; and they will probably be compelled once more
+to draw up sets of rules: but how remote this time now seems! And what
+may not happen meanwhile! It is just possible that between now and
+then all _Gymnasia_--yea, and perhaps all universities, may be
+destroyed, or have become so utterly transformed that their very
+regulations may, in the eyes of future generations, seem to be but the
+relics of the cave-dwellers' age.
+
+This book is intended for calm readers,--for men who have not yet been
+drawn into the mad headlong rush of our hurry-skurrying age, and who
+do not experience any idolatrous delight in throwing themselves
+beneath its chariot-wheels. It is for men, therefore, who are not
+accustomed to estimate the value of everything according to the amount
+of time it either saves or wastes. In short, it is for the few. These,
+we believe, "still have time." Without any qualms of conscience they
+may improve the most fruitful and vigorous hours of their day in
+meditating on the future of our education; they may even believe when
+the evening has come that they have used their day in the most
+dignified and useful way, namely, in the _meditatio generis futuri_.
+No one among them has yet forgotten to think while reading a book; he
+still understands the secret of reading between the lines, and is
+indeed so generous in what he himself brings to his study, that he
+continues to reflect upon what he has read, perhaps long after he has
+laid the book aside. And he does this, not because he wishes to write
+a criticism about it or even another book; but simply because
+reflection is a pleasant pastime to him. Frivolous spendthrift! Thou
+art a reader after my own heart; for thou wilt be patient enough to
+accompany an author any distance, even though he himself cannot yet
+see the goal at which he is aiming,--even though he himself feels only
+that he must at all events honestly believe in a goal, in order that a
+future and possibly very remote generation may come face to face with
+that towards which we are now blindly and instinctively groping.
+Should any reader demur and suggest that all that is required is
+prompt and bold reform; should he imagine that a new "organisation"
+introduced by the State, were all that is necessary, then we fear he
+would have misunderstood not only the author but the very nature of
+the problem under consideration.
+
+The third and most important stipulation is, that he should in no case
+be constantly bringing himself and his own "culture" forward, after
+the style of most modern men, as the correct standard and measure of
+all things. We would have him so highly educated that he could even
+think meanly of his education or despise it altogether. Only thus
+would he be able to trust entirely to the author's guidance; for it is
+only by virtue of ignorance and his consciousness of ignorance, that
+the latter can dare to make himself heard. Finally, the author would
+wish his reader to be fully alive to the specific character of our
+present barbarism and of that which distinguishes us, as the
+barbarians of the nineteenth century, from other barbarians.
+
+Now, with this book in his hand, the writer seeks all those who may
+happen to be wandering, hither and thither, impelled by feelings
+similar to his own. Allow yourselves to be discovered--ye lonely ones
+in whose existence I believe! Ye unselfish ones, suffering in
+yourselves from the corruption of the German spirit! Ye contemplative
+ones who cannot, with hasty glances, turn your eyes swiftly from one
+surface to another! Ye lofty thinkers, of whom Aristotle said that ye
+wander through life vacillating and inactive so long as no great
+honour or glorious Cause calleth you to deeds! It is you I summon!
+Refrain this once from seeking refuge in your lairs of solitude and
+dark misgivings. Bethink you that this book was framed to be your
+herald. When ye shall go forth to battle in your full panoply, who
+among you will not rejoice in looking back upon the herald who rallied
+you?
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The title I gave to these lectures ought, like all titles, to have
+been as definite, as plain, and as significant as possible; now,
+however, I observe that owing to a certain excess of precision, in its
+present form it is too short and consequently misleading. My first
+duty therefore will be to explain the title, together with the object
+of these lectures, to you, and to apologise for being obliged to do
+this. When I promised to speak to you concerning the future of our
+educational institutions, I was not thinking especially of the
+evolution of our particular institutions in Bale. However frequently
+my general observations may seem to bear particular application to our
+own conditions here, I personally have no desire to draw these
+inferences, and do not wish to be held responsible if they should be
+drawn, for the simple reason that I consider myself still far too much
+an inexperienced stranger among you, and much too superficially
+acquainted with your methods, to pretend to pass judgment upon any
+such special order of scholastic establishments, or to predict the
+probable course their development will follow. On the other hand, I
+know full well under what distinguished auspices I have to deliver
+these lectures--namely, in a city which is striving to educate and
+enlighten its inhabitants on a scale so magnificently out of
+proportion to its size, that it must put all larger cities to shame.
+This being so, I presume I am justified in assuming that in a quarter
+where so much is _done_ for the things of which I wish to speak,
+people must also _think_ a good deal about them. My desire--yea, my
+very first condition, therefore, would be to become united in spirit
+with those who have not only thought very deeply upon educational
+problems, but have also the will to promote what they think to be
+right by all the means in their power. And, in view of the
+difficulties of my task and the limited time at my disposal, to such
+listeners, alone, in my audience, shall I be able to make myself
+understood--and even then, it will be on condition that they shall
+guess what I can do no more than suggest, that they shall supply what
+I am compelled to omit; in brief, that they shall need but to be
+reminded and not to be taught. Thus, while I disclaim all desire of
+being taken for an uninvited adviser on questions relating to the
+schools and the University of Bale, I repudiate even more emphatically
+still the role of a prophet standing on the horizon of civilisation
+and pretending to predict the future of education and of scholastic
+organisation. I can no more project my vision through such vast
+periods of time than I can rely upon its accuracy when it is brought
+too close to an object under examination. With my title: _Our_
+Educational Institutions, I wish to refer neither to the
+establishments in Bale nor to the incalculably vast number of other
+scholastic institutions which exist throughout the nations of the
+world to-day; but I wish to refer to _German institutions_ of the kind
+which we rejoice in here. It is their future that will now engage our
+attention, _i.e._ the future of German elementary, secondary, and
+public schools (Gymnasien) and universities. While pursuing our
+discussion, however, we shall for once avoid all comparisons and
+valuations, and guard more especially against that flattering illusion
+that our conditions should be regarded as the standard for all others
+and as surpassing them. Let it suffice that they are our institutions,
+that they have not become a part of ourselves by mere accident, and
+were not laid upon us like a garment; but that they are living
+monuments of important steps in the progress of civilisation, in some
+respects even the furniture of a bygone age, and as such link us with
+the past of our people, and are such a sacred and venerable legacy
+that I can only undertake to speak of the future of our educational
+institutions in the sense of their being a most probable approximation
+to the ideal spirit which gave them birth. I am, moreover, convinced
+that the numerous alterations which have been introduced into these
+institutions within recent years, with the view of bringing them
+up-to-date, are for the most part but distortions and aberrations of
+the originally sublime tendencies given to them at their foundation.
+And what we dare to hope from the future, in this behalf, partakes so
+much of the nature of a rejuvenation, a reviviscence, and a refining
+of the spirit of Germany that, as a result of this very process, our
+educational institutions may also be indirectly remoulded and born
+again, so as to appear at once old and new, whereas now they only
+profess to be "modern" or "up-to-date."
+
+Now it is only in the spirit of the hope above mentioned that I wish
+to speak of the future of our educational institutions: and this is
+the second point in regard to which I must tender an apology from the
+outset. The "prophet" pose is such a presumptuous one that it seems
+almost ridiculous to deny that I have the intention of adopting it.
+No one should attempt to describe the future of our education, and
+the means and methods of instruction relating thereto, in a prophetic
+spirit, unless he can prove that the picture he draws already exists
+in germ to-day, and that all that is required is the extension and
+development of this embryo if the necessary modifications are to be
+produced in schools and other educational institutions. All I ask,
+is, like a Roman haruspex, to be allowed to steal glimpses of the
+future out of the very entrails of existing conditions, which, in
+this case, means no more than to hand the laurels of victory to any
+one of the many forces tending to make itself felt in our present
+educational system, despite the fact that the force in question may
+be neither a favourite, an esteemed, nor a very extensive one. I
+confidently assert that it will be victorious, however, because it
+has the strongest and mightiest of all allies in nature herself; and
+in this respect it were well did we not forget that scores of the
+very first principles of our modern educational methods are
+thoroughly artificial, and that the most fatal weaknesses of the
+present day are to be ascribed to this artificiality. He who feels in
+complete harmony with the present state of affairs and who acquiesces
+in it _as something_ "_selbstverstaendliches_,"[1] excites our envy
+neither in regard to his faith nor in regard to that egregious word
+"_selbstverstaendlich_," so frequently heard in fashionable circles.
+
+He, however, who holds the opposite view and is therefore in despair,
+does not need to fight any longer: all he requires is to give himself
+up to solitude in order soon to be alone. Albeit, between those who
+take everything for granted and these anchorites, there stand the
+_fighters_--that is to say, those who still have hope, and as the
+noblest and sublimest example of this class, we recognise Schiller as
+he is described by Goethe in his "Epilogue to the Bell."
+
+    "Brighter now glow'd his cheek, and still more bright
+    With that unchanging, ever youthful glow:--
+    That courage which o'ercomes, in hard-fought fight,
+    Sooner or later ev'ry earthly foe,--
+    That faith which soaring to the realms of light,
+    Now boldly presseth on, now bendeth low,
+    So that the good may work, wax, thrive amain,
+    So that the day the noble may attain."[2]
+
+I should like you to regard all I have just said as a kind of preface,
+the object of which is to illustrate the title of my lectures and to
+guard me against any possible misunderstanding and unjustified
+criticisms. And now, in order to give you a rough outline of the range
+of ideas from which I shall attempt to form a judgment concerning our
+educational institutions, before proceeding to disclose my views and
+turning from the title to the main theme, I shall lay a scheme before
+you which, like a coat of arms, will serve to warn all strangers who
+come to my door, as to the nature of the house they are about to
+enter, in case they may feel inclined, after having examined the
+device, to turn their backs on the premises that bear it. My scheme is
+as follows:--
+
+Two seemingly antagonistic forces, equally deleterious in their
+actions and ultimately combining to produce their results, are at
+present ruling over our educational institutions, although these were
+based originally upon very different principles. These forces are: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible _extension of education_ on
+the one hand, and a tendency _to minimise and to weaken it_ on the
+other. The first-named would fain spread learning among the greatest
+possible number of people, the second would compel education to
+renounce its highest and most independent claims in order to
+subordinate itself to the service of the State. In the face of these
+two antagonistic tendencies, we could but give ourselves up to
+despair, did we not see the possibility of promoting the cause of two
+other contending factors which are fortunately as completely German as
+they are rich in promises for the future; I refer to the present
+movement towards _limiting and concentrating_ education as the
+antithesis of the first of the forces above mentioned, and that other
+movement towards the _strengthening and the independence_ of education
+as the antithesis of the second force. If we should seek a warrant for
+our belief in the ultimate victory of the two last-named movements, we
+could find it in the fact that both of the forces which we hold to be
+deleterious are so opposed to the eternal purpose of nature as the
+concentration of education for the few is in harmony with it, and is
+true, whereas the first two forces could succeed only in founding a
+culture false to the root.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Selbstverstaendlich = "granted or self-understood."
+
+[2] _The Poems of Goethe._ Edgar Alfred Bowring's Translation. (Ed.
+1853.)
+
+
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 16th of January 1872._)
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen,--The subject I now propose to consider with you
+is such a serious and important one, and is in a sense so disquieting,
+that, like you, I would gladly turn to any one who could proffer some
+information concerning it,--were he ever so young, were his ideas ever
+so improbable--provided that he were able, by the exercise of his own
+faculties, to furnish some satisfactory and sufficient explanation. It
+is just possible that he may have had the opportunity of _hearing_
+sound views expressed in reference to the vexed question of the future
+of our educational institutions, and that he may wish to repeat them
+to you; he may even have had distinguished teachers, fully qualified
+to foretell what is to come, and, like the _haruspices_ of Rome, able
+to do so after an inspection of the entrails of the Present.
+
+Indeed, you yourselves may expect something of this kind from me. I
+happened once, in strange but perfectly harmless circumstances, to
+overhear a conversation on this subject between two remarkable men,
+and the more striking points of the discussion, together with their
+manner of handling the theme, are so indelibly imprinted on my memory
+that, whenever I reflect on these matters, I invariably find myself
+falling into their grooves of thought. I cannot, however, profess to
+have the same courageous confidence which they displayed, both in
+their daring utterance of forbidden truths, and in the still more
+daring conception of the hopes with which they astonished me. It
+therefore seemed to me to be in the highest degree important that a
+record of this conversation should be made, so that others might be
+incited to form a judgment concerning the striking views and
+conclusions it contains: and, to this end, I had special grounds for
+believing that I should do well to avail myself of the opportunity
+afforded by this course of lectures.
+
+I am well aware of the nature of the community to whose serious
+consideration I now wish to commend that conversation--I know it to be
+a community which is striving to educate and enlighten its members on
+a scale so magnificently out of proportion to its size that it must
+put all larger cities to shame. This being so, I presume I may take it
+for granted that in a quarter where so much is _done_ for the things
+of which I wish to speak, people must also _think_ a good deal about
+them. In my account of the conversation already mentioned, I shall be
+able to make myself completely understood only to those among my
+audience who will be able to guess what I can do no more than suggest,
+who will supply what I am compelled to omit, and who, above all, need
+but to be reminded and not taught.
+
+Listen, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I recount my harmless
+experience and the less harmless conversation between the two
+gentlemen whom, so far, I have not named.
+
+Let us now imagine ourselves in the position of a young student--that
+is to say, in a position which, in our present age of bewildering
+movement and feverish excitability, has become an almost impossible
+one. It is necessary to have lived through it in order to believe that
+such careless self-lulling and comfortable indifference to the moment,
+or to time in general, are possible. In this condition I, and a friend
+about my own age, spent a year at the University of Bonn on the
+Rhine,--it was a year which, in its complete lack of plans and
+projects for the future, seems almost like a dream to me now--a dream
+framed, as it were, by two periods of growth. We two remained quiet
+and peaceful, although we were surrounded by fellows who in the main
+were very differently disposed, and from time to time we experienced
+considerable difficulty in meeting and resisting the somewhat too
+pressing advances of the young men of our own age. Now, however, that
+I can look upon the stand we had to take against these opposing
+forces, I cannot help associating them in my mind with those checks we
+are wont to receive in our dreams, as, for instance, when we imagine
+we are able to fly and yet feel ourselves held back by some
+incomprehensible power.
+
+I and my friend had many reminiscences in common, and these dated from
+the period of our boyhood upwards. One of these I must relate to you,
+since it forms a sort of prelude to the harmless experience already
+mentioned. On the occasion of a certain journey up the Rhine, which we
+had made together one summer, it happened that he and I independently
+conceived the very same plan at the same hour and on the same spot,
+and we were so struck by this unwonted coincidence that we determined
+to carry the plan out forthwith. We resolved to found a kind of small
+club which would consist of ourselves and a few friends, and the
+object of which would be to provide us with a stable and binding
+organisation directing and adding interest to our creative impulses in
+art and literature; or, to put it more plainly: each of us would be
+pledged to present an original piece of work to the club once a
+month,--either a poem, a treatise, an architectural design, or a
+musical composition, upon which each of the others, in a friendly
+spirit, would have to pass free and unrestrained criticism.
+
+We thus hoped, by means of mutual correction, to be able both to
+stimulate and to chasten our creative impulses and, as a matter of
+fact, the success of the scheme was such that we have both always felt
+a sort of respectful attachment for the hour and the place at which it
+first took shape in our minds.
+
+This attachment was very soon transformed into a rite; for we all
+agreed to go, whenever it was possible to do so, once a year to that
+lonely spot near Rolandseck, where on that summer's day, while sitting
+together, lost in meditation, we were suddenly inspired by the same
+thought. Frankly speaking, the rules which were drawn up on the
+formation of the club were never very strictly observed; but owing to
+the very fact that we had many sins of omission on our conscience
+during our student-year in Bonn, when we were once more on the banks
+of the Rhine, we firmly resolved not only to observe our rule, but
+also to gratify our feelings and our sense of gratitude by reverently
+visiting that spot near Rolandseck on the day appointed.
+
+It was, however, with some difficulty that we were able to carry our
+plans into execution; for, on the very day we had selected for our
+excursion, the large and lively students' association, which always
+hindered us in our flights, did their utmost to put obstacles in our
+way and to hold us back. Our association had organised a general
+holiday excursion to Rolandseck on the very day my friend and I had
+fixed upon, the object of the outing being to assemble all its members
+for the last time at the close of the half-year and to send them home
+with pleasant recollections of their last hours together.
+
+The day was a glorious one; the weather was of the kind which, in our
+climate at least, only falls to our lot in late summer: heaven and
+earth merged harmoniously with one another, and, glowing wondrously in
+the sunshine, autumn freshness blended with the blue expanse above.
+Arrayed in the bright fantastic garb in which, amid the gloomy
+fashions now reigning, students alone may indulge, we boarded a
+steamer which was gaily decorated in our honour, and hoisted our flag
+on its mast. From both banks of the river there came at intervals the
+sound of signal-guns, fired according to our orders, with the view of
+acquainting both our host in Rolandseck and the inhabitants in the
+neighbourhood with our approach. I shall not speak of the noisy
+journey from the landing-stage, through the excited and expectant
+little place, nor shall I refer to the esoteric jokes exchanged
+between ourselves; I also make no mention of a feast which became both
+wild and noisy, or of an extraordinary musical production in the
+execution of which, whether as soloists or as chorus, we all
+ultimately had to share, and which I, as musical adviser of our club,
+had not only had to rehearse, but was then forced to conduct. Towards
+the end of this piece, which grew ever wilder and which was sung to
+ever quicker time, I made a sign to my friend, and just as the last
+chord rang like a yell through the building, he and I vanished,
+leaving behind us a raging pandemonium.
+
+In a moment we were in the refreshing and breathless stillness of
+nature. The shadows were already lengthening, the sun still shone
+steadily, though it had sunk a good deal in the heavens, and from the
+green and glittering waves of the Rhine a cool breeze was wafted over
+our hot faces. Our solemn rite bound us only in so far as the latest
+hours of the day were concerned, and we therefore determined to employ
+the last moments of clear daylight by giving ourselves up to one of
+our many hobbies.
+
+At that time we were passionately fond of pistol-shooting, and both of
+us in later years found the skill we had acquired as amateurs of great
+use in our military career. Our club servant happened to know the
+somewhat distant and elevated spot which we used as a range, and had
+carried our pistols there in advance. The spot lay near the upper
+border of the wood which covered the lesser heights behind Rolandseck:
+it was a small uneven plateau, close to the place we had consecrated
+in memory of its associations. On a wooded slope alongside of our
+shooting-range there was a small piece of ground which had been
+cleared of wood, and which made an ideal halting-place; from it one
+could get a view of the Rhine over the tops of the trees and the
+brushwood, so that the beautiful, undulating lines of the Seven
+Mountains and above all of the Drachenfels bounded the horizon against
+the group of trees, while in the centre of the bow formed by the
+glistening Rhine itself the island of Nonnenwoerth stood out as if
+suspended in the river's arms. This was the place which had become
+sacred to us through the dreams and plans we had had in common, and to
+which we intended to withdraw, later in the evening,--nay, to which we
+should be obliged to withdraw, if we wished to close the day in
+accordance with the law we had imposed on ourselves.
+
+At one end of the little uneven plateau, and not very far away, there
+stood the mighty trunk of an oak-tree, prominently visible against a
+background quite bare of trees and consisting merely of low undulating
+hills in the distance. Working together, we had once carved a
+pentagram in the side of this tree-trunk. Years of exposure to rain
+and storm had slightly deepened the channels we had cut, and the
+figure seemed a welcome target for our pistol-practice. It was already
+late in the afternoon when we reached our improvised range, and our
+oak-stump cast a long and attenuated shadow across the barren heath.
+All was still: thanks to the lofty trees at our feet, we were unable
+to catch a glimpse of the valley of the Rhine below. The peacefulness
+of the spot seemed only to intensify the loudness of our
+pistol-shots--and I had scarcely fired my second barrel at the
+pentagram when I felt some one lay hold of my arm and noticed that my
+friend had also some one beside him who had interrupted his loading.
+
+Turning sharply on my heels I found myself face to face with an
+astonished old gentleman, and felt what must have been a very powerful
+dog make a lunge at my back. My friend had been approached by a
+somewhat younger man than I had; but before we could give expression
+to our surprise the older of the two interlopers burst forth in the
+following threatening and heated strain: "No! no!" he called to us,
+"no duels must be fought here, but least of all must you young
+students fight one. Away with these pistols and compose yourselves. Be
+reconciled, shake hands! What?--and are you the salt of the earth,
+the intelligence of the future, the seed of our hopes--and are you
+not even able to emancipate yourselves from the insane code of honour
+and its violent regulations? I will not cast any aspersions on your
+hearts, but your heads certainly do you no credit. You, whose youth is
+watched over by the wisdom of Greece and Rome, and whose youthful
+spirits, at the cost of enormous pains, have been flooded with the
+light of the sages and heroes of antiquity,--can you not refrain from
+making the code of knightly honour--that is to say, the code of folly
+and brutality--the guiding principle of your conduct?--Examine it
+rationally once and for all, and reduce it to plain terms; lay its
+pitiable narrowness bare, and let it be the touchstone, not of your
+hearts but of your minds. If you do not regret it then, it will merely
+show that your head is not fitted for work in a sphere where great
+gifts of discrimination are needful in order to burst the bonds of
+prejudice, and where a well-balanced understanding is necessary for
+the purpose of distinguishing right from wrong, even when the
+difference between them lies deeply hidden and is not, as in this
+case, so ridiculously obvious. In that case, therefore, my lads, try
+to go through life in some other honourable manner; join the army or
+learn a handicraft that pays its way."
+
+To this rough, though admittedly just, flood of eloquence, we replied
+with some irritation, interrupting each other continually in so doing:
+"In the first place, you are mistaken concerning the main point; for
+we are not here to fight a duel at all; but rather to practise
+pistol-shooting. Secondly, you do not appear to know how a real duel
+is conducted;--do you suppose that we should have faced each other in
+this lonely spot, like two highwaymen, without seconds or doctors,
+etc. etc.? Thirdly, with regard to the question of duelling, we each
+have our own opinions, and do not require to be waylaid and surprised
+by the sort of instruction you may feel disposed to give us."
+
+This reply, which was certainly not polite, made a bad impression upon
+the old man. At first, when he heard that we were not about to fight a
+duel, he surveyed us more kindly: but when we reached the last passage
+of our speech, he seemed so vexed that he growled. When, however, we
+began to speak of our point of view, he quickly caught hold of his
+companion, turned sharply round, and cried to us in bitter tones:
+"People should not have points of view, but thoughts!" And then his
+companion added: "Be respectful when a man such as this even makes
+mistakes!"
+
+Meanwhile, my friend, who had reloaded, fired a shot at the pentagram,
+after having cried: "Look out!" This sudden report behind his back
+made the old man savage; once more he turned round and looked sourly
+at my friend, after which he said to his companion in a feeble voice:
+"What shall we do? These young men will be the death of me with their
+firing."--"You should know," said the younger man, turning to us,
+"that your noisy pastimes amount, as it happens on this occasion, to
+an attempt upon the life of philosophy. You observe this venerable
+man,--he is in a position to beg you to desist from firing here. And
+when such a man begs----" "Well, his request is generally granted,"
+the old man interjected, surveying us sternly.
+
+As a matter of fact, we did not know what to make of the whole matter;
+we could not understand what our noisy pastimes could have in common
+with philosophy; nor could we see why, out of regard for polite
+scruples, we should abandon our shooting-range, and at this moment we
+may have appeared somewhat undecided and perturbed. The companion
+noticing our momentary discomfiture, proceeded to explain the matter
+to us.
+
+"We are compelled," he said, "to linger in this immediate
+neighbourhood for an hour or so; we have a rendezvous here. An eminent
+friend of this eminent man is to meet us here this evening; and we had
+actually selected this peaceful spot, with its few benches in the
+midst of the wood, for the meeting. It would really be most unpleasant
+if, owing to your continual pistol-practice, we were to be subjected
+to an unending series of shocks; surely your own feelings will tell
+you that it is impossible for you to continue your firing when you
+hear that he who has selected this quiet and isolated place for a
+meeting with a friend is one of our most eminent philosophers."
+
+This explanation only succeeded in perturbing us the more; for we saw
+a danger threatening us which was even greater than the loss of our
+shooting-range, and we asked eagerly, "Where is this quiet spot?
+Surely not to the left here, in the wood?"
+
+"That is the very place."
+
+"But this evening that place belongs to us," my friend interposed. "We
+must have it," we cried together.
+
+Our long-projected celebration seemed at that moment more important
+than all the philosophies of the world, and we gave such vehement and
+animated utterance to our sentiments that in view of the
+incomprehensible nature of our claims we must have cut a somewhat
+ridiculous figure. At any rate, our philosophical interlopers regarded
+us with expressions of amused inquiry, as if they expected us to
+proffer some sort of apology. But we were silent, for we wished above
+all to keep our secret.
+
+Thus we stood facing one another in silence, while the sunset dyed the
+tree-tops a ruddy gold. The philosopher contemplated the sun, his
+companion contemplated him, and we turned our eyes towards our nook in
+the woods which to-day we seemed in such great danger of losing. A
+feeling of sullen anger took possession of us. What is philosophy, we
+asked ourselves, if it prevents a man from being by himself or from
+enjoying the select company of a friend,--in sooth, if it prevents him
+from becoming a philosopher? For we regarded the celebration of our
+rite as a thoroughly philosophical performance. In celebrating it we
+wished to form plans and resolutions for the future, by means of quiet
+reflections we hoped to light upon an idea which would once again help
+us to form and gratify our spirit in the future, just as that former
+idea had done during our boyhood. The solemn act derived its very
+significance from this resolution, that nothing definite was to be
+done, we were only to be alone, and to sit still and meditate, as we
+had done five years before when we had each been inspired with the
+same thought. It was to be a silent solemnisation, all reminiscence
+and all future; the present was to be as a hyphen between the two. And
+fate, now unfriendly, had just stepped into our magic circle--and we
+knew not how to dismiss her;--the very unusual character of the
+circumstances filled us with mysterious excitement.
+
+Whilst we stood thus in silence for some time, divided into two
+hostile groups, the clouds above waxed ever redder and the evening
+seemed to grow more peaceful and mild; we could almost fancy we heard
+the regular breathing of nature as she put the final touches to her
+work of art--the glorious day we had just enjoyed; when, suddenly, the
+calm evening air was rent by a confused and boisterous cry of joy
+which seemed to come from the Rhine. A number of voices could be heard
+in the distance--they were those of our fellow-students who by that
+time must have taken to the Rhine in small boats. It occurred to us
+that we should be missed and that we should also miss something:
+almost simultaneously my friend and I raised our pistols: our shots
+were echoed back to us, and with their echo there came from the valley
+the sound of a well-known cry intended as a signal of identification.
+For our passion for shooting had brought us both repute and ill-repute
+in our club. At the same time we were conscious that our behaviour
+towards the silent philosophical couple had been exceptionally
+ungentlemanly; they had been quietly contemplating us for some time,
+and when we fired the shock made them draw close up to each other. We
+hurried up to them, and each in our turn cried out: "Forgive us. That
+was our last shot, and it was intended for our friends on the Rhine.
+They have understood us, do you hear? If you insist upon having that
+place among the trees, grant us at least the permission to recline
+there also. You will find a number of benches on the spot: we shall
+not disturb you; we shall sit quite still and shall not utter a word:
+but it is now past seven o'clock and we _must_ go there at once.
+
+"That sounds more mysterious than it is," I added after a pause; "we
+have made a solemn vow to spend this coming hour on that ground, and
+there were reasons for the vow. The spot is sacred to us, owing to
+some pleasant associations, it must also inaugurate a good future for
+us. We shall therefore endeavour to leave you with no disagreeable
+recollections of our meeting--even though we have done much to perturb
+and frighten you."
+
+The philosopher was silent; his companion, however, said: "Our
+promises and plans unfortunately compel us not only to remain, but
+also to spend the same hour on the spot you have selected. It is left
+for us to decide whether fate or perhaps a spirit has been responsible
+for this extraordinary coincidence."
+
+"Besides, my friend," said the philosopher, "I am not half so
+displeased with these warlike youngsters as I was. Did you observe
+how quiet they were a moment ago, when we were contemplating the sun?
+They neither spoke nor smoked, they stood stone still, I even believe
+they meditated."
+
+Turning suddenly in our direction, he said: "_Were_ you meditating?
+Just tell me about it as we proceed in the direction of our common
+trysting-place." We took a few steps together and went down the slope
+into the warm balmy air of the woods where it was already much darker.
+On the way my friend openly revealed his thoughts to the philosopher,
+he confessed how much he had feared that perhaps to-day for the first
+time a philosopher was about to stand in the way of his
+philosophising.
+
+The sage laughed. "What? You were afraid a philosopher would prevent
+your philosophising? This might easily happen: and you have not yet
+experienced such a thing? Has your university life been free from
+experience? You surely attend lectures on philosophy?"
+
+This question discomfited us; for, as a matter of fact, there had been
+no element of philosophy in our education up to that time. In those
+days, moreover, we fondly imagined that everybody who held the post
+and possessed the dignity of a philosopher must perforce be one: we
+were inexperienced and badly informed. We frankly admitted that we had
+not yet belonged to any philosophical college, but that we would
+certainly make up for lost time.
+
+"Then what," he asked, "did you mean when you spoke of
+philosophising?" Said I, "We are at a loss for a definition. But to
+all intents and purposes we meant this, that we wished to make earnest
+endeavours to consider the best possible means of becoming men of
+culture." "That is a good deal and at the same time very little,"
+growled the philosopher; "just you think the matter over. Here are our
+benches, let us discuss the question exhaustively: I shall not disturb
+your meditations with regard to how you are to become men of culture.
+I wish you success and--points of view, as in your duelling questions;
+brand-new, original, and enlightened points of view. The philosopher
+does not wish to prevent your philosophising: but refrain at least
+from disconcerting him with your pistol-shots. Try to imitate the
+Pythagoreans to-day: they, as servants of a true philosophy, had to
+remain silent for five years--possibly you may also be able to remain
+silent for five times fifteen minutes, as servants of your own future
+culture, about which you seem so concerned."
+
+We had reached our destination: the solemnisation of our rite began.
+As on the previous occasion, five years ago, the Rhine was once more
+flowing beneath a light mist, the sky seemed bright and the woods
+exhaled the same fragrance. We took our places on the farthest corner
+of the most distant bench; sitting there we were almost concealed, and
+neither the philosopher nor his companion could see our faces. We were
+alone: when the sound of the philosopher's voice reached us, it had
+become so blended with the rustling leaves and with the buzzing
+murmur of the myriads of living things inhabiting the wooded height,
+that it almost seemed like the music of nature; as a sound it
+resembled nothing more than a distant monotonous plaint. We were
+indeed undisturbed.
+
+Some time elapsed in this way, and while the glow of sunset grew
+steadily paler the recollection of our youthful undertaking in the
+cause of culture waxed ever more vivid. It seemed to us as if we owed
+the greatest debt of gratitude to that little society we had founded;
+for it had done more than merely supplement our public school
+training; it had actually been the only fruitful society we had had,
+and within its frame we even placed our public school life, as a
+purely isolated factor helping us in our general efforts to attain to
+culture.
+
+We knew this, that, thanks to our little society, no thought of
+embracing any particular career had ever entered our minds in those
+days. The all too frequent exploitation of youth by the State, for its
+own purposes--that is to say, so that it may rear useful officials as
+quickly as possible and guarantee their unconditional obedience to it
+by means of excessively severe examinations--had remained quite
+foreign to our education. And to show how little we had been actuated
+by thoughts of utility or by the prospect of speedy advancement and
+rapid success, on that day we were struck by the comforting
+consideration that, even then, we had not yet decided what we should
+be--we had not even troubled ourselves at all on this head. Our little
+society had sown the seeds of this happy indifference in our souls and
+for it alone we were prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its
+foundation with hearty gratitude. I have already pointed out, I think,
+that in the eyes of the present age, which is so intolerant of
+anything that is not useful, such purposeless enjoyment of the moment,
+such a lulling of one's self in the cradle of the present, must seem
+almost incredible and at all events blameworthy. How useless we were!
+And how proud we were of being useless! We used even to quarrel with
+each other as to which of us should have the glory of being the more
+useless. We wished to attach no importance to anything, to have strong
+views about nothing, to aim at nothing; we wanted to take no thought
+for the morrow, and desired no more than to recline comfortably like
+good-for-nothings on the threshold of the present; and we did--bless
+us!
+
+--That, ladies and gentlemen, was our standpoint then!--
+
+Absorbed in these reflections, I was just about to give an answer to
+the question of the future of _our_ Educational Institutions in the
+same self-sufficient way, when it gradually dawned upon me that the
+"natural music," coming from the philosopher's bench had lost its
+original character and travelled to us in much more piercing and
+distinct tones than before. Suddenly I became aware that I was
+listening, that I was eavesdropping, and was passionately interested,
+with both ears keenly alive to every sound. I nudged my friend who was
+evidently somewhat tired, and I whispered: "Don't fall asleep! There
+is something for us to learn over there. It applies to us, even
+though it be not meant for us."
+
+For instance, I heard the younger of the two men defending himself
+with great animation while the philosopher rebuked him with ever
+increasing vehemence. "You are unchanged," he cried to him,
+"unfortunately unchanged. It is quite incomprehensible to me how you
+can still be the same as you were seven years ago, when I saw you for
+the last time and left you with so much misgiving. I fear I must once
+again divest you, however reluctantly, of the skin of modern culture
+which you have donned meanwhile;--and what do I find beneath it? The
+same immutable 'intelligible' character forsooth, according to Kant;
+but unfortunately the same unchanged 'intellectual' character,
+too--which may also be a necessity, though not a comforting one. I ask
+myself to what purpose have I lived as a philosopher, if, possessed as
+you are of no mean intelligence and a genuine thirst for knowledge,
+all the years you have spent in my company have left no deeper
+impression upon you. At present you are behaving as if you had not
+even heard the cardinal principle of all culture, which I went to such
+pains to inculcate upon you during our former intimacy. Tell me,--what
+was that principle?"
+
+"I remember," replied the scolded pupil, "you used to say no one would
+strive to attain to culture if he knew how incredibly small the number
+of really cultured people actually is, and can ever be. And even this
+number of really cultured people would not be possible if a prodigious
+multitude, from reasons opposed to their nature and only led on by an
+alluring delusion, did not devote themselves to education. It were
+therefore a mistake publicly to reveal the ridiculous disproportion
+between the number of really cultured people and the enormous
+magnitude of the educational apparatus. Here lies the whole secret of
+culture--namely, that an innumerable host of men struggle to achieve
+it and work hard to that end, ostensibly in their own interests,
+whereas at bottom it is only in order that it may be possible for the
+few to attain to it."
+
+"That is the principle," said the philosopher,--"and yet you could so
+far forget yourself as to believe that you are one of the few? This
+thought has occurred to you--I can see. That, however, is the result
+of the worthless character of modern education. The rights of genius
+are being democratised in order that people may be relieved of the
+labour of acquiring culture, and their need of it. Every one wants if
+possible to recline in the shade of the tree planted by genius, and to
+escape the dreadful necessity of working for him, so that his
+procreation may be made possible. What? Are you too proud to be a
+teacher? Do you despise the thronging multitude of learners? Do you
+speak contemptuously of the teacher's calling? And, aping my mode of
+life, would you fain live in solitary seclusion, hostilely isolated
+from that multitude? Do you suppose that you can reach at one bound
+what I ultimately had to win for myself only after long and determined
+struggles, in order even to be able to live like a philosopher? And do
+you not fear that solitude will wreak its vengeance upon you? Just
+try living the life of a hermit of culture. One must be blessed with
+overflowing wealth in order to live for the good of all on one's own
+resources! Extraordinary youngsters! They felt it incumbent upon them
+to imitate what is precisely most difficult and most high,--what is
+possible only to the master, when they, above all, should know how
+difficult and dangerous this is, and how many excellent gifts may be
+ruined by attempting it!"
+
+"I will conceal nothing from you, sir," the companion replied. "I have
+heard too much from your lips at odd times and have been too long in
+your company to be able to surrender myself entirely to our present
+system of education and instruction. I am too painfully conscious of
+the disastrous errors and abuses to which you used to call my
+attention--though I very well know that I am not strong enough to hope
+for any success were I to struggle ever so valiantly against them. I
+was overcome by a feeling of general discouragement; my recourse to
+solitude was the result neither of pride nor arrogance. I would fain
+describe to you what I take to be the nature of the educational
+questions now attracting such enormous and pressing attention. It
+seemed to me that I must recognise two main directions in the forces
+at work--two seemingly antagonistic tendencies, equally deleterious in
+their action, and ultimately combining to produce their results: a
+striving to achieve the greatest possible _expansion_ of education on
+the one hand, and a tendency to _minimise and weaken_ it on the
+other. The first-named would, for various reasons, spread learning
+among the greatest number of people; the second would compel education
+to renounce its highest, noblest and sublimest claims in order to
+subordinate itself to some other department of life--such as the
+service of the State.
+
+"I believe I have already hinted at the quarter in which the cry for
+the greatest possible expansion of education is most loudly raised.
+This expansion belongs to the most beloved of the dogmas of modern
+political economy. As much knowledge and education as possible;
+therefore the greatest possible supply and demand--hence as much
+happiness as possible:--that is the formula. In this case utility is
+made the object and goal of education,--utility in the sense of
+gain--the greatest possible pecuniary gain. In the quarter now under
+consideration culture would be defined as that point of vantage which
+enables one to 'keep in the van of one's age,' from which one can see
+all the easiest and best roads to wealth, and with which one controls
+all the means of communication between men and nations. The purpose of
+education, according to this scheme, would be to rear the most
+'current' men possible,--'current' being used here in the sense in
+which it is applied to the coins of the realm. The greater the number
+of such men, the happier a nation will be; and this precisely is the
+purpose of our modern educational institutions: to help every one, as
+far as his nature will allow, to become 'current'; to develop him so
+that his particular degree of knowledge and science may yield him the
+greatest possible amount of happiness and pecuniary gain. Every one
+must be able to form some sort of estimate of himself; he must know
+how much he may reasonably expect from life. The 'bond between
+intelligence and property' which this point of view postulates has
+almost the force of a moral principle. In this quarter all culture is
+loathed which isolates, which sets goals beyond gold and gain, and
+which requires time: it is customary to dispose of such eccentric
+tendencies in education as systems of 'Higher Egotism,' or of 'Immoral
+Culture--Epicureanism.' According to the morality reigning here, the
+demands are quite different; what is required above all is 'rapid
+education,' so that a money-earning creature may be produced with all
+speed; there is even a desire to make this education so thorough that
+a creature may be reared that will be able to earn a _great deal_ of
+money. Men are allowed only the precise amount of culture which is
+compatible with the interests of gain; but that amount, at least, is
+expected from them. In short: mankind has a necessary right to
+happiness on earth--that is why culture is necessary--but on that
+account alone!"
+
+"I must just say something here," said the philosopher. "In the case
+of the view you have described so clearly, there arises the great and
+awful danger that at some time or other the great masses may overleap
+the middle classes and spring headlong into this earthly bliss. That
+is what is now called 'the social question.' It might seem to these
+masses that education for the greatest number of men was only a means
+to the earthly bliss of the few: the 'greatest possible expansion of
+education' so enfeebles education that it can no longer confer
+privileges or inspire respect. The most general form of culture is
+simply barbarism. But I do not wish to interrupt your discussion."
+
+The companion continued: "There are yet other reasons, besides this
+beloved economical dogma, for the expansion of education that is being
+striven after so valiantly everywhere. In some countries the fear of
+religious oppression is so general, and the dread of its results so
+marked, that people in all classes of society long for culture and
+eagerly absorb those elements of it which are supposed to scatter the
+religious instincts. Elsewhere the State, in its turn, strives here
+and there for its own preservation, after the greatest possible
+expansion of education, because it always feels strong enough to bring
+the most determined emancipation, resulting from culture, under its
+yoke, and readily approves of everything which tends to extend
+culture, provided that it be of service to its officials or soldiers,
+but in the main to itself, in its competition with other nations. In
+this case, the foundations of a State must be sufficiently broad and
+firm to constitute a fitting counterpart to the complicated arches of
+culture which it supports, just as in the first case the traces of
+some former religious tyranny must still be felt for a people to be
+driven to such desperate remedies. Thus, wherever I hear the masses
+raise the cry for an expansion of education, I am wont to ask myself
+whether it is stimulated by a greedy lust of gain and property, by
+the memory of a former religious persecution, or by the prudent
+egotism of the State itself.
+
+"On the other hand, it seemed to me that there was yet another
+tendency, not so clamorous, perhaps, but quite as forcible, which,
+hailing from various quarters, was animated by a different
+desire,--the desire to minimise and weaken education.
+
+"In all cultivated circles people are in the habit of whispering to
+one another words something after this style: that it is a general
+fact that, owing to the present frantic exploitation of the scholar in
+the service of his science, his _education_ becomes every day more
+accidental and more uncertain. For the study of science has been
+extended to such interminable lengths that he who, though not
+exceptionally gifted, yet possesses fair abilities, will need to
+devote himself exclusively to one branch and ignore all others if he
+ever wish to achieve anything in his work. Should he then elevate
+himself above the herd by means of his speciality, he still remains
+one of them in regard to all else,--that is to say, in regard to all
+the most important things in life. Thus, a specialist in science gets
+to resemble nothing so much as a factory workman who spends his whole
+life in turning one particular screw or handle on a certain instrument
+or machine, at which occupation he acquires the most consummate skill.
+In Germany, where we know how to drape such painful facts with the
+glorious garments of fancy, this narrow specialisation on the part of
+our learned men is even admired, and their ever greater deviation
+from the path of true culture is regarded as a moral phenomenon.
+'Fidelity in small things,' 'dogged faithfulness,' become expressions
+of highest eulogy, and the lack of culture outside the speciality is
+flaunted abroad as a sign of noble sufficiency.
+
+"For centuries it has been an understood thing that one alluded to
+scholars alone when one spoke of cultured men; but experience tells us
+that it would be difficult to find any necessary relation between the
+two classes to-day. For at present the exploitation of a man for the
+purpose of science is accepted everywhere without the slightest
+scruple. Who still ventures to ask, What may be the value of a science
+which consumes its minions in this vampire fashion? The division of
+labour in science is practically struggling towards the same goal
+which religions in certain parts of the world are consciously striving
+after,--that is to say, towards the decrease and even the destruction
+of learning. That, however, which, in the case of certain religions,
+is a perfectly justifiable aim, both in regard to their origin and
+their history, can only amount to self-immolation when transferred to
+the realm of science. In all matters of a general and serious nature,
+and above all, in regard to the highest philosophical problems, we
+have now already reached a point at which the scientific man, as such,
+is no longer allowed to speak. On the other hand, that adhesive and
+tenacious stratum which has now filled up the interstices between the
+sciences--Journalism--believes it has a mission to fulfil here, and
+this it does, according to its own particular lights--that is to say,
+as its name implies, after the fashion of a day-labourer.
+
+"It is precisely in journalism that the two tendencies combine and
+become one. The expansion and the diminution of education here join
+hands. The newspaper actually steps into the place of culture, and he
+who, even as a scholar, wishes to voice any claim for education, must
+avail himself of this viscous stratum of communication which cements
+the seams between all forms of life, all classes, all arts, and all
+sciences, and which is as firm and reliable as news paper is, as a
+rule. In the newspaper the peculiar educational aims of the present
+culminate, just as the journalist, the servant of the moment, has
+stepped into the place of the genius, of the leader for all time, of
+the deliverer from the tyranny of the moment. Now, tell me,
+distinguished master, what hopes could I still have in a struggle
+against the general topsy-turvification of all genuine aims for
+education; with what courage can I, a single teacher, step forward,
+when I know that the moment any seeds of real culture are sown, they
+will be mercilessly crushed by the roller of this pseudo-culture?
+Imagine how useless the most energetic work on the part of the
+individual teacher must be, who would fain lead a pupil back into the
+distant and evasive Hellenic world and to the real home of culture,
+when in less than an hour, that same pupil will have recourse to a
+newspaper, the latest novel, or one of those learned books, the very
+style of which already bears the revolting impress of modern barbaric
+culture----"
+
+"Now, silence a minute!" interjected the philosopher in a strong and
+sympathetic voice. "I understand you now, and ought never to have
+spoken so crossly to you. You are altogether right, save in your
+despair. I shall now proceed to say a few words of consolation."
+
+
+
+
+SECOND LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 6th of February 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--Those among you whom I now have the pleasure of
+addressing for the first time and whose only knowledge of my first
+lecture has been derived from reports will, I hope, not mind being
+introduced here into the middle of a dialogue which I had begun to
+recount on the last occasion, and the last points of which I must now
+recall. The philosopher's young companion was just pleading openly and
+confidentially with his distinguished tutor, and apologising for
+having so far renounced his calling as a teacher in order to spend his
+days in comfortless solitude. No suspicion of superciliousness or
+arrogance had induced him to form this resolve.
+
+"I have heard too much from your lips at various times," the
+straightforward pupil said, "and have been too long in your company,
+to surrender myself blindly to our present systems of education and
+instruction. I am too painfully conscious of the disastrous errors and
+abuses to which you were wont to call my attention; and yet I know
+that I am far from possessing the requisite strength to meet with
+success, however valiantly I might struggle to shatter the bulwarks
+of this would-be culture. I was overcome by a general feeling of
+depression: my recourse to solitude was not arrogance or
+superciliousness." Whereupon, to account for his behaviour, he
+described the general character of modern educational methods so
+vividly that the philosopher could not help interrupting him in a
+voice full of sympathy, and crying words of comfort to him.
+
+"Now, silence for a minute, my poor friend," he cried; "I can more
+easily understand you now, and should not have lost my patience with
+you. You are altogether right, save in your despair. I shall now
+proceed to say a few words of comfort to you. How long do you suppose
+the state of education in the schools of our time, which seems to
+weigh so heavily upon you, will last? I shall not conceal my views on
+this point from you: its time is over; its days are counted. The first
+who will dare to be quite straightforward in this respect will hear
+his honesty re-echoed back to him by thousands of courageous souls.
+For, at bottom, there is a tacit understanding between the more nobly
+gifted and more warmly disposed men of the present day. Every one of
+them knows what he has had to suffer from the condition of culture in
+schools; every one of them would fain protect his offspring from the
+need of enduring similar drawbacks, even though he himself was
+compelled to submit to them. If these feelings are never quite
+honestly expressed, however, it is owing to a sad want of spirit among
+modern pedagogues. These lack real initiative; there are too few
+practical men among them--that is to say, too few who happen to have
+good and new ideas, and who know that real genius and the real
+practical mind must necessarily come together in the same individuals,
+whilst the sober practical men have no ideas and therefore fall short
+in practice.
+
+"Let any one examine the pedagogic literature of the present; he who
+is not shocked at its utter poverty of spirit and its ridiculously
+awkward antics is beyond being spoiled. Here our philosophy must not
+begin with wonder but with dread; he who feels no dread at this point
+must be asked not to meddle with pedagogic questions. The reverse, of
+course, has been the rule up to the present; those who were terrified
+ran away filled with embarrassment as you did, my poor friend, while
+the sober and fearless ones spread their heavy hands over the most
+delicate technique that has ever existed in art--over the technique of
+education. This, however, will not be possible much longer; at some
+time or other the upright man will appear, who will not only have the
+good ideas I speak of, but who in order to work at their realisation,
+will dare to break with all that exists at present: he may by means of
+a wonderful example achieve what the broad hands, hitherto active,
+could not even imitate--then people will everywhere begin to draw
+comparisons; then men will at least be able to perceive a contrast and
+will be in a position to reflect upon its causes, whereas, at present,
+so many still believe, in perfect good faith, that heavy hands are a
+necessary factor in pedagogic work."
+
+"My dear master," said the younger man, "I wish you could point to
+one single example which would assist me in seeing the soundness of
+the hopes which you so heartily raise in me. We are both acquainted
+with public schools; do you think, for instance, that in respect of
+these institutions anything may be done by means of honesty and good
+and new ideas to abolish the tenacious and antiquated customs now
+extant? In this quarter, it seems to me, the battering-rams of an
+attacking party will have to meet with no solid wall, but with the
+most fatal of stolid and slippery principles. The leader of the
+assault has no visible and tangible opponent to crush, but rather a
+creature in disguise that can transform itself into a hundred
+different shapes and, in each of these, slip out of his grasp, only in
+order to reappear and to confound its enemy by cowardly surrenders and
+feigned retreats. It was precisely the public schools which drove me
+into despair and solitude, simply because I feel that if the struggle
+here leads to victory all other educational institutions must give in;
+but that, if the reformer be forced to abandon his cause here, he may
+as well give up all hope in regard to every other scholastic question.
+Therefore, dear master, enlighten me concerning the public schools;
+what can we hope for in the way of their abolition or reform?"
+
+"I also hold the question of public schools to be as important as you
+do," the philosopher replied. "All other educational institutions must
+fix their aims in accordance with those of the public school system;
+whatever errors of judgment it may suffer from, they suffer from also,
+and if it were ever purified and rejuvenated, they would be purified
+and rejuvenated too. The universities can no longer lay claim to this
+importance as centres of influence, seeing that, as they now stand,
+they are at least, in one important aspect, only a kind of annex to
+the public school system, as I shall shortly point out to you. For the
+moment, let us consider, together, what to my mind constitutes the
+very hopeful struggle of the two possibilities: _either_ that the
+motley and evasive spirit of public schools which has hitherto been
+fostered, will completely vanish, or that it will have to be
+completely purified and rejuvenated. And in order that I may not shock
+you with general propositions, let us first try to recall one of those
+public school experiences which we have all had, and from which we
+have all suffered. Under severe examination what, as a matter of fact,
+is the present _system of teaching German_ in public schools?
+
+"I shall first of all tell you what it should be. Everybody speaks and
+writes German as thoroughly badly as it is just possible to do so in
+an age of newspaper German: that is why the growing youth who happens
+to be both noble and gifted has to be taken by force and put under the
+glass shade of good taste and of severe linguistic discipline. If this
+is not possible, I would prefer in future that Latin be spoken; for I
+am ashamed of a language so bungled and vitiated.
+
+"What would be the duty of a higher educational institution, in this
+respect, if not this--namely, with authority and dignified severity to
+put youths, neglected, as far as their own language is concerned, on
+the right path, and to cry to them: 'Take your own language seriously!
+He who does not regard this matter as a sacred duty does not possess
+even the germ of a higher culture. From your attitude in this matter,
+from your treatment of your mother-tongue, we can judge how highly or
+how lowly you esteem art, and to what extent you are related to it. If
+you notice no physical loathing in yourselves when you meet with
+certain words and tricks of speech in our journalistic jargon, cease
+from striving after culture; for here in your immediate vicinity, at
+every moment of your life, while you are either speaking or writing,
+you have a touchstone for testing how difficult, how stupendous, the
+task of the cultured man is, and how very improbable it must be that
+many of you will ever attain to culture.'
+
+"In accordance with the spirit of this address, the teacher of German
+at a public school would be forced to call his pupil's attention to
+thousands of details, and with the absolute certainty of good taste,
+to forbid their using such words and expressions, for instance, as:
+'_beanspruchen_,' '_vereinnahmen_,' '_einer Sache Rechnung tragen_,'
+'_die Initiative ergreifen_,' '_selbstverstaendlich_,'[3] etc., _cum
+taedio in infinitum_. The same teacher would also have to take our
+classical authors and show, line for line, how carefully and with what
+precision every expression has to be chosen when a writer has the
+correct feeling in his heart and has before his eyes a perfect
+conception of all he is writing. He would necessarily urge his pupils,
+time and again, to express the same thought ever more happily; nor
+would he have to abate in rigour until the less gifted in his class
+had contracted an unholy fear of their language, and the others had
+developed great enthusiasm for it.
+
+"Here then is a task for so-called 'formal' education[4] [the
+education tending to develop the mental faculties, as opposed to
+'material' education,[5] which is intended to deal only with the
+acquisition of facts, _e.g._ history, mathematics, etc.], and one of
+the utmost value: but what do we find in the public school--that is to
+say, in the head-quarters of formal education? He who understands how
+to apply what he has heard here will also know what to think of the
+modern public school as a so-called educational institution. He will
+discover, for instance, that the public school, according to its
+fundamental principles, does not educate for the purposes of culture,
+but for the purposes of scholarship; and, further, that of late it
+seems to have adopted a course which indicates rather that it has even
+discarded scholarship in favour of journalism as the object of its
+exertions. This can be clearly seen from the way in which German is
+taught.
+
+"Instead of that purely practical method of instruction by which the
+teacher accustoms his pupils to severe self-discipline in their own
+language, we find everywhere the rudiments of a historico-scholastic
+method of teaching the mother-tongue: that is to say, people deal with
+it as if it were a dead language and as if the present and future were
+under no obligations to it whatsoever. The historical method has
+become so universal in our time, that even the living body of the
+language is sacrificed for the sake of anatomical study. But this is
+precisely where culture begins--namely, in understanding how to treat
+the quick as something vital, and it is here too that the mission of
+the cultured teacher begins: in suppressing the urgent claims of
+'historical interests' wherever it is above all necessary to _do_
+properly and not merely to _know_ properly. Our mother-tongue,
+however, is a domain in which the pupil must learn how to _do_
+properly, and to this practical end, alone, the teaching of German is
+essential in our scholastic establishments. The historical method may
+certainly be a considerably easier and more comfortable one for the
+teacher; it also seems to be compatible with a much lower grade of
+ability and, in general, with a smaller display of energy and will on
+his part. But we shall find that this observation holds good in every
+department of pedagogic life: the simpler and more comfortable method
+always masquerades in the disguise of grand pretensions and stately
+titles; the really practical side, the _doing_, which should belong to
+culture and which, at bottom, is the more difficult side, meets only
+with disfavour and contempt. That is why the honest man must make
+himself and others quite clear concerning this _quid pro quo_.
+
+"Now, apart from these learned incentives to a study of the language,
+what is there besides which the German teacher is wont to offer? How
+does he reconcile the spirit of his school with the spirit of the
+_few_ that Germany can claim who are really cultured,--_i.e._ with the
+spirit of its classical poets and artists? This is a dark and thorny
+sphere, into which one cannot even bear a light without dread; but
+even here we shall conceal nothing from ourselves; for sooner or later
+the whole of it will have to be reformed. In the public school, the
+repulsive impress of our aesthetic journalism is stamped upon the still
+unformed minds of youths. Here, too, the teacher sows the seeds of
+that crude and wilful misinterpretation of the classics, which later
+on disports itself as art-criticism, and which is nothing but
+bumptious barbarity. Here the pupils learn to speak of our unique
+_Schiller_ with the superciliousness of prigs; here they are taught to
+smile at the noblest and most German of his works--at the Marquis of
+Posa, at Max and Thekla--at these smiles German genius becomes
+incensed and a worthier posterity will blush.
+
+"The last department in which the German teacher in a public school is
+at all active, which is often regarded as his sphere of highest
+activity, and is here and there even considered the pinnacle of public
+school education, is the so-called _German composition_. Owing to the
+very fact that in this department it is almost always the most gifted
+pupils who display the greatest eagerness, it ought to have been made
+clear how dangerously stimulating, precisely here, the task of the
+teacher must be. _German composition_ makes an appeal to the
+individual, and the more strongly a pupil is conscious of his various
+qualities, the more personally will he do his _German composition_.
+This 'personal doing' is urged on with yet an additional fillip in
+some public schools by the choice of the subject, the strongest proof
+of which is, in my opinion, that even in the lower classes the
+non-pedagogic subject is set, by means of which the pupil is led to
+give a description of his life and of his development. Now, one has
+only to read the titles of the compositions set in a large number of
+public schools to be convinced that probably the large majority of
+pupils have to suffer their whole lives, through no fault of their
+own, owing to this premature demand for personal work--for the unripe
+procreation of thoughts. And how often are not all a man's subsequent
+literary performances but a sad result of this pedagogic original sin
+against the intellect!
+
+"Let us only think of what takes place at such an age in the
+production of such work. It is the first individual creation; the
+still undeveloped powers tend for the first time to crystallise; the
+staggering sensation produced by the demand for self-reliance imparts
+a seductive charm to these early performances, which is not only quite
+new, but which never returns. All the daring of nature is hauled out
+of its depths; all vanities--no longer constrained by mighty
+barriers--are allowed for the first time to assume a literary form:
+the young man, from that time forward, feels as if he had reached his
+consummation as a being not only able, but actually invited, to speak
+and to converse. The subject he selects obliges him either to express
+his judgment upon certain poetical works, to class historical persons
+together in a description of character, to discuss serious ethical
+problems quite independently, or even to turn the searchlight inwards,
+to throw its rays upon his own development and to make a critical
+report of himself: in short, a whole world of reflection is spread out
+before the astonished young man who, until then, had been almost
+unconscious, and is delivered up to him to be judged.
+
+"Now let us try to picture the teacher's usual attitude towards these
+first highly influential examples of original composition. What does
+he hold to be most reprehensible in this class of work? What does he
+call his pupil's attention to?--To all excess in form or thought--that
+is to say, to all that which, at their age, is essentially
+characteristic and individual. Their really independent traits which,
+in response to this very premature excitation, can manifest themselves
+only in awkwardness, crudeness, and grotesque features,--in short,
+their individuality is reproved and rejected by the teacher in favour
+of an unoriginal decent average. On the other hand, uniform mediocrity
+gets peevish praise; for, as a rule, it is just the class of work
+likely to bore the teacher thoroughly.
+
+"There may still be men who recognise a most absurd and most dangerous
+element of the public school curriculum in the whole farce of this
+German composition. Originality is demanded here: but the only shape
+in which it can manifest itself is rejected, and the 'formal'
+education that the system takes for granted is attained to only by a
+very limited number of men who complete it at a ripe age. Here
+everybody without exception is regarded as gifted for literature and
+considered as capable of holding opinions concerning the most
+important questions and people, whereas the one aim which proper
+education should most zealously strive to achieve would be the
+suppression of all ridiculous claims to independent judgment, and the
+inculcation upon young men of obedience to the sceptre of genius. Here
+a pompous form of diction is taught in an age when every spoken or
+written word is a piece of barbarism. Now let us consider, besides,
+the danger of arousing the self-complacency which is so easily
+awakened in youths; let us think how their vanity must be flattered
+when they see their literary reflection for the first time in the
+mirror. Who, having seen all these effects at _one_ glance, could any
+longer doubt whether all the faults of our public, literary, and
+artistic life were not stamped upon every fresh generation by the
+system we are examining: hasty and vain production, the disgraceful
+manufacture of books; complete want of style; the crude,
+characterless, or sadly swaggering method of expression; the loss of
+every aesthetic canon; the voluptuousness of anarchy and chaos--in
+short, the literary peculiarities of both our journalism and our
+scholarship.
+
+"None but the very fewest are aware that, among many thousands,
+perhaps only _one_ is justified in describing himself as literary, and
+that all others who at their own risk try to be so deserve to be met
+with Homeric laughter by all competent men as a reward for every
+sentence they have ever had printed;--for it is truly a spectacle meet
+for the gods to see a literary Hephaistos limping forward who would
+pretend to help us to something. To educate men to earnest and
+inexorable habits and views, in this respect, should be the highest
+aim of all mental training, whereas the general _laisser aller_ of the
+'fine personality' can be nothing else than the hall-mark of
+barbarism. From what I have said, however, it must be clear that, at
+least in the teaching of German, no thought is given to culture;
+something quite different is in view,--namely, the production of the
+afore-mentioned 'free personality.' And so long as German public
+schools prepare the road for outrageous and irresponsible scribbling,
+so long as they do not regard the immediate and practical discipline
+of speaking and writing as their most holy duty, so long as they treat
+the mother-tongue as if it were only a necessary evil or a dead body,
+I shall not regard these institutions as belonging to real culture.
+
+"In regard to the language, what is surely least noticeable is any
+trace of the influence of _classical examples_: that is why, on the
+strength of this consideration alone, the so-called 'classical
+education' which is supposed to be provided by our public school,
+strikes me as something exceedingly doubtful and confused. For how
+could anybody, after having cast one glance at those examples, fail to
+see the great earnestness with which the Greek and the Roman regarded
+and treated his language, from his youth onwards--how is it possible
+to mistake one's example on a point like this one?--provided, of
+course, that the classical Hellenic and Roman world really did hover
+before the educational plan of our public schools as the highest and
+most instructive of all morals--a fact I feel very much inclined to
+doubt. The claim put forward by public schools concerning the
+'classical education' they provide seems to be more an awkward evasion
+than anything else; it is used whenever there is any question raised
+as to the competency of the public schools to impart culture and to
+educate. Classical education, indeed! It sounds so dignified! It
+confounds the aggressor and staves off the assault--for who could see
+to the bottom of this bewildering formula all at once? And this has
+long been the customary strategy of the public school: from whichever
+side the war-cry may come, it writes upon its shield--not overloaded
+with honours--one of those confusing catchwords, such as: 'classical
+education,' 'formal education,' 'scientific education':--three
+glorious things which are, however, unhappily at loggerheads, not only
+with themselves but among themselves, and are such that, if they were
+compulsorily brought together, would perforce bring forth a
+culture-monster. For a 'classical education' is something so unheard
+of, difficult and rare, and exacts such complicated talent, that only
+ingenuousness or impudence could put it forward as an attainable goal
+in our public schools. The words: 'formal education' belong to that
+crude kind of unphilosophical phraseology which one should do one's
+utmost to get rid of; for there is no such thing as 'the opposite of
+formal education.' And he who regards 'scientific education' as the
+object of a public school thereby sacrifices 'classical education' and
+the so-called 'formal education,' at one stroke, as the scientific man
+and the cultured man belong to two different spheres which, though
+coming together at times in the same individual, are never reconciled.
+
+"If we compare all three of these would-be aims of the public school
+with the actual facts to be observed in the present method of teaching
+German, we see immediately what they really amount to in
+practice,--that is to say, only to subterfuges for use in the fight
+and struggle for existence and, often enough, mere means wherewith to
+bewilder an opponent. For we are unable to detect any single feature
+in this teaching of German which in any way recalls the example of
+classical antiquity and its glorious methods of training in languages.
+'Formal education,' however, which is supposed to be achieved by this
+method of teaching German, has been shown to be wholly at the pleasure
+of the 'free personality,' which is as good as saying that it is
+barbarism and anarchy. And as for the preparation in science, which is
+one of the consequences of this teaching, our Germanists will have to
+determine, in all justice, how little these learned beginnings in
+public schools have contributed to the splendour of their sciences,
+and how much the personality of individual university professors has
+done so.--Put briefly: the public school has hitherto neglected its
+most important and most urgent duty towards the very beginning of all
+real culture, which is the mother-tongue; but in so doing it has
+lacked the natural, fertile soil for all further efforts at culture.
+For only by means of stern, artistic, and careful discipline and
+habit, in a language, can the correct feeling for the greatness of our
+classical writers be strengthened. Up to the present their recognition
+by the public schools has been owing almost solely to the doubtful
+aesthetic hobbies of a few teachers or to the massive effects of
+certain of their tragedies and novels. But everybody should, himself,
+be aware of the difficulties of the language: he should have learnt
+them from experience: after long seeking and struggling he must reach
+the path our great poets trod in order to be able to realise how
+lightly and beautifully they trod it, and how stiffly and swaggeringly
+the others follow at their heels.
+
+"Only by means of such discipline can the young man acquire that
+physical loathing for the beloved and much-admired 'elegance' of style
+of our newspaper manufacturers and novelists, and for the 'ornate
+style' of our literary men; by it alone is he irrevocably elevated at
+a stroke above a whole host of absurd questions and scruples, such,
+for instance, as whether Auerbach and Gutzkow are really poets, for
+his disgust at both will be so great that he will be unable to read
+them any longer, and thus the problem will be solved for him. Let no
+one imagine that it is an easy matter to develop this feeling to the
+extent necessary in order to have this physical loathing; but let no
+one hope to reach sound aesthetic judgments along any other road than
+the thorny one of language, and by this I do not mean philological
+research, but self-discipline in one's mother-tongue.
+
+"Everybody who is in earnest in this matter will have the same sort of
+experience as the recruit in the army who is compelled to learn
+walking after having walked almost all his life as a dilettante or
+empiricist. It is a hard time: one almost fears that the tendons are
+going to snap and one ceases to hope that the artificial and
+consciously acquired movements and positions of the feet will ever be
+carried out with ease and comfort. It is painful to see how awkwardly
+and heavily one foot is set before the other, and one dreads that one
+may not only be unable to learn the new way of walking, but that one
+will forget how to walk at all. Then it suddenly become noticeable
+that a new habit and a second nature have been born of the practised
+movements, and that the assurance and strength of the old manner of
+walking returns with a little more grace: at this point one begins to
+realise how difficult walking is, and one feels in a position to laugh
+at the untrained empiricist or the elegant dilettante. Our 'elegant'
+writers, as their style shows, have never learnt 'walking' in this
+sense, and in our public schools, as our other writers show, no one
+learns walking either. Culture begins, however, with the correct
+movement of the language: and once it has properly begun, it begets
+that physical sensation in the presence of 'elegant' writers which is
+known by the name of 'loathing.'
+
+"We recognise the fatal consequences of our present public schools, in
+that they are unable to inculcate severe and genuine culture, which
+should consist above all in obedience and habituation; and that, at
+their best, they much more often achieve a result by stimulating and
+kindling scientific tendencies, is shown by the hand which is so
+frequently seen uniting scholarship and barbarous taste, science and
+journalism. In a very large majority of cases to-day we can observe
+how sadly our scholars fall short of the standard of culture which the
+efforts of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and Winckelmann established; and
+this falling short shows itself precisely in the egregious errors
+which the men we speak of are exposed to, equally among literary
+historians--whether Gervinus or Julian Schmidt--as in any other
+company; everywhere, indeed, where men and women converse. It shows
+itself most frequently and painfully, however, in pedagogic spheres,
+in the literature of public schools. It can be proved that the only
+value that these men have in a real educational establishment has not
+been mentioned, much less generally recognised for half a century:
+their value as preparatory leaders and mystogogues of classical
+culture, guided by whose hands alone can the correct road leading to
+antiquity be found.
+
+"Every so-called classical education can have but one natural
+starting-point--an artistic, earnest, and exact familiarity with the
+use of the mother-tongue: this, together with the secret of form,
+however, one can seldom attain to of one's own accord, almost
+everybody requires those great leaders and tutors and must place
+himself in their hands. There is, however, no such thing as a
+classical education that could grow without this inferred love of
+form. Here, where the power of discerning form and barbarity gradually
+awakens, there appear the pinions which bear one to the only real home
+of culture--ancient Greece. If with the solitary help of those pinions
+we sought to reach those far-distant and diamond-studded walls
+encircling the stronghold of Hellenism, we should certainly not get
+very far; once more, therefore, we need the same leaders and tutors,
+our German classical writers, that we may be borne up, too, by the
+wing-strokes of their past endeavours--to the land of yearning, to
+Greece.
+
+"Not a suspicion of this possible relationship between our classics
+and classical education seems to have pierced the antique walls of
+public schools. Philologists seem much more eagerly engaged in
+introducing Homer and Sophocles to the young souls of their pupils, in
+their own style, calling the result simply by the unchallenged
+euphemism: 'classical education.' Let every one's own experience tell
+him what he had of Homer and Sophocles at the hands of such eager
+teachers. It is in this department that the greatest number of deepest
+deceptions occur, and whence misunderstandings are inadvertently
+spread. In German public schools I have never yet found a trace of
+what might really be called 'classical education,' and there is
+nothing surprising in this when one thinks of the way in which these
+institutions have emancipated themselves from German classical writers
+and the discipline of the German language. Nobody reaches antiquity by
+means of a leap into the dark, and yet the whole method of treating
+ancient writers in schools, the plain commentating and paraphrasing of
+our philological teachers, amounts to nothing more than a leap into
+the dark.
+
+"The feeling for classical Hellenism is, as a matter of fact, such an
+exceptional outcome of the most energetic fight for culture and
+artistic talent that the public school could only have professed to
+awaken this feeling owing to a very crude misunderstanding. In what
+age? In an age which is led about blindly by the most sensational
+desires of the day, and which is not aware of the fact that, once that
+feeling for Hellenism is roused, it immediately becomes aggressive and
+must express itself by indulging in an incessant war with the
+so-called culture of the present. For the public school boy of to-day,
+the Hellenes as Hellenes are dead: yes, he gets some enjoyment out of
+Homer, but a novel by Spielhagen interests him much more: yes, he
+swallows Greek tragedy and comedy with a certain relish, but a
+thoroughly modern drama, like Freitag's 'Journalists,' moves him in
+quite another fashion. In regard to all ancient authors he is rather
+inclined to speak after the manner of the aesthete, Hermann Grimm, who,
+on one occasion, at the end of a tortuous essay on the Venus of Milo,
+asks himself: 'What does this goddess's form mean to me? Of what use
+are the thoughts she suggests to me? Orestes and OEdipus, Iphigenia
+and Antigone, what have they in common with my heart?'--No, my dear
+public school boy, the Venus of Milo does not concern you in any way,
+and concerns your teacher just as little--and that is the misfortune,
+that is the secret of the modern public school. Who will conduct you
+to the land of culture, if your leaders are blind and assume the
+position of seers notwithstanding? Which of you will ever attain to a
+true feeling for the sacred seriousness of art, if you are
+systematically spoiled, and taught to stutter independently instead of
+being taught to speak; to aestheticise on your own account, when you
+ought to be taught to approach works of art almost piously; to
+philosophise without assistance, while you ought to be compelled to
+_listen_ to great thinkers. All this with the result that you remain
+eternally at a distance from antiquity and become the servants of the
+day.
+
+"At all events, the most wholesome feature of our modern institutions
+is to be found in the earnestness with which the Latin and Greek
+languages are studied over a long course of years. In this way boys
+learn to respect a grammar, lexicons, and a language that conforms to
+fixed rules; in this department of public school work there is an
+exact knowledge of what constitutes a fault, and no one is troubled
+with any thought of justifying himself every minute by appealing (as
+in the case of modern German) to various grammatical and
+orthographical vagaries and vicious forms. If only this respect for
+language did not hang in the air so, like a theoretical burden which
+one is pleased to throw off the moment one turns to one's
+mother-tongue! More often than not, the classical master makes pretty
+short work of the mother-tongue; from the outset he treats it as a
+department of knowledge in which one is allowed that indolent ease
+with which the German treats everything that belongs to his native
+soil. The splendid practice afforded by translating from one language
+into another, which so improves and fertilises one's artistic feeling
+for one's own tongue, is, in the case of German, never conducted with
+that fitting categorical strictness and dignity which would be above
+all necessary in dealing with an undisciplined language. Of late,
+exercises of this kind have tended to decrease ever more and more:
+people are satisfied to _know_ the foreign classical tongues, they
+would scorn being able to _apply_ them.
+
+"Here one gets another glimpse of the scholarly tendency of public
+schools: a phenomenon which throws much light upon the object which
+once animated them,--that is to say, the serious desire to cultivate
+the pupil. This belonged to the time of our great poets, those few
+really cultured Germans,--the time when the magnificent Friedrich
+August Wolf directed the new stream of classical thought, introduced
+from Greece and Rome by those men, into the heart of the public
+schools. Thanks to his bold start, a new order of public schools was
+established, which thenceforward was not to be merely a nursery for
+science, but, above all, the actual consecrated home of all higher and
+nobler culture.
+
+"Of the many necessary measures which this change called into being,
+some of the most important have been transferred with lasting success
+to the modern regulations of public schools: the most important of
+all, however, did not succeed--the one demanding that the teacher,
+also, should be consecrated to the new spirit, so that the aim of the
+public school has meanwhile considerably departed from the original
+plan laid down by Wolf, which was the cultivation of the pupil. The
+old estimate of scholarship and scholarly culture, as an absolute,
+which Wolf overcame, seems after a slow and spiritless struggle rather
+to have taken the place of the culture-principle of more recent
+introduction, and now claims its former exclusive rights, though not
+with the same frankness, but disguised and with features veiled. And
+the reason why it was impossible to make public schools fall in with
+the magnificent plan of classical culture lay in the un-German, almost
+foreign or cosmopolitan nature of these efforts in the cause of
+education: in the belief that it was possible to remove the native
+soil from under a man's feet and that he should still remain standing;
+in the illusion that people can spring direct, without bridges, into
+the strange Hellenic world, by abjuring German and the German mind in
+general.
+
+"Of course one must know how to trace this Germanic spirit to its lair
+beneath its many modern dressings, or even beneath heaps of ruins; one
+must love it so that one is not ashamed of it in its stunted form, and
+one must above all be on one's guard against confounding it with what
+now disports itself proudly as 'Up-to-date German culture.' The German
+spirit is very far from being on friendly times with this up-to-date
+culture: and precisely in those spheres where the latter complains of
+a lack of culture the real German spirit has survived, though perhaps
+not always with a graceful, but more often an ungraceful, exterior. On
+the other hand, that which now grandiloquently assumes the title of
+'German culture' is a sort of cosmopolitan aggregate, which bears the
+same relation to the German spirit as Journalism does to Schiller or
+Meyerbeer to Beethoven: here the strongest influence at work is the
+fundamentally and thoroughly un-German civilisation of France, which
+is aped neither with talent nor with taste, and the imitation of which
+gives the society, the press, the art, and the literary style of
+Germany their pharisaical character. Naturally the copy nowhere
+produces the really artistic effect which the original, grown out of
+the heart of Roman civilisation, is able to produce almost to this day
+in France. Let any one who wishes to see the full force of this
+contrast compare our most noted novelists with the less noted ones of
+France or Italy: he will recognise in both the same doubtful
+tendencies and aims, as also the same still more doubtful means, but
+in France he will find them coupled with artistic earnestness, at
+least with grammatical purity, and often with beauty, while in their
+every feature he will recognise the echo of a corresponding social
+culture. In Germany, on the other hand, they will strike him as
+unoriginal, flabby, filled with dressing-gown thoughts and
+expressions, unpleasantly spread out, and therewithal possessing no
+background of social form. At the most, owing to their scholarly
+mannerisms and display of knowledge, he will be reminded of the fact
+that in Latin countries it is the artistically-trained man, and that
+in Germany it is the abortive scholar, who becomes a journalist. With
+this would-be German and thoroughly unoriginal culture, the German can
+nowhere reckon upon victory: the Frenchman and the Italian will always
+get the better of him in this respect, while, in regard to the clever
+imitation of a foreign culture, the Russian, above all, will always be
+his superior.
+
+"We are therefore all the more anxious to hold fast to that German
+spirit which revealed itself in the German Reformation, and in German
+music, and which has shown its enduring and genuine strength in the
+enormous courage and severity of German philosophy and in the loyalty
+of the German soldier, which has been tested quite recently. From it
+we expect a victory over that 'up-to-date' pseudo-culture which is now
+the fashion. What we should hope for the future is that schools may
+draw the real school of culture into this struggle, and kindle the
+flame of enthusiasm in the younger generation, more particularly in
+public schools, for that which is truly German; and in this way
+so-called classical education will resume its natural place and
+recover its one possible starting-point.
+
+"A thorough reformation and purification of the public school can only
+be the outcome of a profound and powerful reformation and purification
+of the German spirit. It is a very complex and difficult task to find
+the border-line which joins the heart of the Germanic spirit with the
+genius of Greece. Not, however, before the noblest needs of genuine
+German genius snatch at the hand of this genius of Greece as at a firm
+post in the torrent of barbarity, not before a devouring yearning for
+this genius of Greece takes possession of German genius, and not
+before that view of the Greek home, on which Schiller and Goethe,
+after enormous exertions, were able to feast their eyes, has become
+the Mecca of the best and most gifted men, will the aim of classical
+education in public schools acquire any definition; and they at least
+will not be to blame who teach ever so little science and learning in
+public schools, in order to keep a definite and at the same time ideal
+aim in their eyes, and to rescue their pupils from that glistening
+phantom which now allows itself to be called 'culture' and
+'education.' This is the sad plight of the public school of to-day:
+the narrowest views remain in a certain measure right, because no one
+seems able to reach or, at least, to indicate the spot where all these
+views culminate in error."
+
+"No one?" the philosopher's pupil inquired with a slight quaver in his
+voice; and both men were silent.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] It is not practicable to translate these German solecisms by
+similar instances of English solecisms. The reader who is interested
+in the subject will find plenty of material in a book like the Oxford
+_King's English_.
+
+[4] German: _Formelle Bildung._
+
+[5] German: _Materielle Bildung._
+
+
+
+
+THIRD LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 27th of February 1872._)
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen,--At the close of my last lecture, the
+conversation to which I was a listener, and the outlines of which, as
+I clearly recollect them, I am now trying to lay before you, was
+interrupted by a long and solemn pause. Both the philosopher and his
+companion sat silent, sunk in deep dejection: the peculiarly critical
+state of that important educational institution, the German public
+school, lay upon their souls like a heavy burden, which one single,
+well-meaning individual is not strong enough to remove, and the
+multitude, though strong, not well meaning enough.
+
+Our solitary thinkers were perturbed by two facts: by clearly
+perceiving on the one hand that what might rightly be called
+"classical education" was now only a far-off ideal, a castle in the
+air, which could not possibly be built as a reality on the foundations
+of our present educational system, and that, on the other hand, what
+was now, with customary and unopposed euphemism, pointed to as
+"classical education" could only claim the value of a pretentious
+illusion, the best effect of which was that the expression "classical
+education" still lived on and had not yet lost its pathetic sound.
+These two worthy men saw clearly, by the system of instruction in
+vogue, that the time was not yet ripe for a higher culture, a culture
+founded upon that of the ancients: the neglected state of linguistic
+instruction; the forcing of students into learned historical paths,
+instead of giving them a practical training; the connection of certain
+practices, encouraged in the public schools, with the objectionable
+spirit of our journalistic publicity--all these easily perceptible
+phenomena of the teaching of German led to the painful certainty that
+the most beneficial of those forces which have come down to us from
+classical antiquity are not yet known in our public schools: forces
+which would train students for the struggle against the barbarism of
+the present age, and which will perhaps once more transform the public
+schools into the arsenals and workshops of this struggle.
+
+On the other hand, it would seem in the meantime as if the spirit of
+antiquity, in its fundamental principles, had already been driven away
+from the portals of the public schools, and as if here also the gates
+were thrown open as widely as possible to the be-flattered and
+pampered type of our present self-styled "German culture." And if the
+solitary talkers caught a glimpse of a single ray of hope, it was that
+things would have to become still worse, that what was as yet divined
+only by the few would soon be clearly perceived by the many, and that
+then the time for honest and resolute men for the earnest
+consideration of the scope of the education of the masses would not be
+far distant.
+
+After a few minutes' silent reflection, the philosopher's companion
+turned to him and said: "You used to hold out hopes to me, but now you
+have done more: you have widened my intelligence, and with it my
+strength and courage: now indeed can I look on the field of battle
+with more hardihood, now indeed do I repent of my too hasty flight. We
+want nothing for ourselves, and it should be nothing to us how many
+individuals may fall in this battle, or whether we ourselves may be
+among the first. Just because we take this matter so seriously, we
+should not take our own poor selves so seriously: at the very moment
+we are falling some one else will grasp the banner of our faith. I
+will not even consider whether I am strong enough for such a fight,
+whether I can offer sufficient resistance; it may even be an
+honourable death to fall to the accompaniment of the mocking laughter
+of such enemies, whose seriousness has frequently seemed to us to be
+something ridiculous. When I think how my contemporaries prepared
+themselves for the highest posts in the scholastic profession, as I
+myself have done, then I know how we often laughed at the exact
+contrary, and grew serious over something quite different----"
+
+"Now, my friend," interrupted the philosopher, laughingly, "you speak
+as one who would fain dive into the water without being able to swim,
+and who fears something even more than the mere drowning; _not_ being
+drowned, but laughed at. But being laughed at should be the very last
+thing for us to dread; for we are in a sphere where there are too many
+truths to tell, too many formidable, painful, unpardonable truths, for
+us to escape hatred, and only fury here and there will give rise to
+some sort of embarrassed laughter. Just think of the innumerable crowd
+of teachers, who, in all good faith, have assimilated the system of
+education which has prevailed up to the present, that they may
+cheerfully and without over-much deliberation carry it further on.
+What do you think it will seem like to these men when they hear of
+projects from which they are excluded _beneficio naturae_; of commands
+which their mediocre abilities are totally unable to carry out; of
+hopes which find no echo in them; of battles the war-cries of which
+they do not understand, and in the fighting of which they can take
+part only as dull and obtuse rank and file? But, without exaggeration,
+that must necessarily be the position of practically all the teachers
+in our higher educational establishments: and indeed we cannot wonder
+at this when we consider how such a teacher originates, how he
+_becomes_ a teacher of such high status. Such a large number of higher
+educational establishments are now to be found everywhere that far
+more teachers will continue to be required for them than the nature of
+even a highly-gifted people can produce; and thus an inordinate stream
+of undesirables flows into these institutions, who, however, by their
+preponderating numbers and their instinct of 'similis simile gaudet'
+gradually come to determine the nature of these institutions. There
+may be a few people, hopelessly unfamiliar with pedagogical matters,
+who believe that our present profusion of public schools and teachers,
+which is manifestly out of all proportion, can be changed into a real
+profusion, an _ubertas ingenii_, merely by a few rules and
+regulations, and without any reduction in the number of these
+institutions. But we may surely be unanimous in recognising that by
+the very nature of things only an exceedingly small number of people
+are destined for a true course of education, and that a much smaller
+number of higher educational establishments would suffice for their
+further development, but that, in view of the present large numbers of
+educational institutions, those for whom in general such institutions
+ought only to be established must feel themselves to be the least
+facilitated in their progress.
+
+"The same holds good in regard to teachers. It is precisely the best
+teachers--those who, generally speaking, judged by a high standard,
+are worthy of this honourable name--who are now perhaps the least
+fitted, in view of the present standing of our public schools, for the
+education of these unselected youths, huddled together in a confused
+heap; but who must rather, to a certain extent, keep hidden from them
+the best they could give: and, on the other hand, by far the larger
+number of these teachers feel themselves quite at home in these
+institutions, as their moderate abilities stand in a kind of
+harmonious relationship to the dullness of their pupils. It is from
+this majority that we hear the ever-resounding call for the
+establishment of new public schools and higher educational
+institutions: we are living in an age which, by ringing the changes on
+its deafening and continual cry, would certainly give one the
+impression that there was an unprecedented thirst for culture which
+eagerly sought to be quenched. But it is just at this point that one
+should learn to hear aright: it is here, without being disconcerted by
+the thundering noise of the education-mongers, that we must confront
+those who talk so tirelessly about the educational necessities of
+their time. Then we should meet with a strange disillusionment, one
+which we, my good friend, have often met with: those blatant heralds
+of educational needs, when examined at close quarters, are suddenly
+seen to be transformed into zealous, yea, fanatical opponents of true
+culture, _i.e._ all those who hold fast to the aristocratic nature of
+the mind; for, at bottom, they regard as their goal the emancipation
+of the masses from the mastery of the great few; they seek to
+overthrow the most sacred hierarchy in the kingdom of the
+intellect--the servitude of the masses, their submissive obedience,
+their instinct of loyalty to the rule of genius.
+
+"I have long accustomed myself to look with caution upon those who are
+ardent in the cause of the so-called 'education of the people' in the
+common meaning of the phrase; since for the most part they desire for
+themselves, consciously or unconsciously, absolutely unlimited
+freedom, which must inevitably degenerate into something resembling
+the saturnalia of barbaric times, and which the sacred hierarchy of
+nature will never grant them. They were born to serve and to obey; and
+every moment in which their limping or crawling or broken-winded
+thoughts are at work shows us clearly out of which clay nature moulded
+them, and what trade mark she branded thereon. The education of the
+masses cannot, therefore, be our aim; but rather the education of a
+few picked men for great and lasting works. We well know that a just
+posterity judges the collective intellectual state of a time only by
+those few great and lonely figures of the period, and gives its
+decision in accordance with the manner in which they are recognised,
+encouraged, and honoured, or, on the other hand, in which they are
+snubbed, elbowed aside, and kept down. What is called the 'education
+of the masses' cannot be accomplished except with difficulty; and even
+if a system of universal compulsory education be applied, they can
+only be reached outwardly: those individual lower levels where,
+generally speaking, the masses come into contact with culture, where
+the people nourishes its religious instinct, where it poetises its
+mythological images, where it keeps up its faith in its customs,
+privileges, native soil, and language--all these levels can scarcely
+be reached by direct means, and in any case only by violent
+demolition. And, in serious matters of this kind, to hasten forward
+the progress of the education of the people means simply the
+postponement of this violent demolition, and the maintenance of that
+wholesome unconsciousness, that sound sleep, of the people, without
+which counter-action and remedy no culture, with the exhausting strain
+and excitement of its own actions, can make any headway.
+
+"We know, however, what the aspiration is of those who would disturb
+the healthy slumber of the people, and continually call out to them:
+'Keep your eyes open! Be sensible! Be wise!' we know the aim of those
+who profess to satisfy excessive educational requirements by means of
+an extraordinary increase in the number of educational institutions
+and the conceited tribe of teachers originated thereby. These very
+people, using these very means, are fighting against the natural
+hierarchy in the realm of the intellect, and destroying the roots of
+all those noble and sublime plastic forces which have their material
+origin in the unconsciousness of the people, and which fittingly
+terminate in the procreation of genius and its due guidance and proper
+training. It is only in the simile of the mother that we can grasp the
+meaning and the responsibility of the true education of the people in
+respect to genius: its real origin is not to be found in such
+education; it has, so to speak, only a metaphysical source, a
+metaphysical home. But for the genius to make his appearance; for him
+to emerge from among the people; to portray the reflected picture, as
+it were, the dazzling brilliancy of the peculiar colours of this
+people; to depict the noble destiny of a people in the similitude of
+an individual in a work which will last for all time, thereby making
+his nation itself eternal, and redeeming it from the ever-shifting
+element of transient things: all this is possible for the genius only
+when he has been brought up and come to maturity in the tender care of
+the culture of a people; whilst, on the other hand, without this
+sheltering home, the genius will not, generally speaking, be able to
+rise to the height of his eternal flight, but will at an early moment,
+like a stranger weather-driven upon a bleak, snow-covered desert,
+slink away from the inhospitable land."
+
+"You astonish me with such a metaphysics of genius," said the
+teacher's companion, "and I have only a hazy conception of the
+accuracy of your similitude. On the other hand, I fully understand
+what you have said about the surplus of public schools and the
+corresponding surplus of higher grade teachers; and in this regard I
+myself have collected some information which assures me that the
+educational tendency of the public school _must_ right itself by this
+very surplus of teachers who have really nothing at all to do with
+education, and who are called into existence and pursue this path
+solely because there is a demand for them. Every man who, in an
+unexpected moment of enlightenment, has convinced himself of the
+singularity and inaccessibility of Hellenic antiquity, and has warded
+off this conviction after an exhausting struggle--every such man knows
+that the door leading to this enlightenment will never remain open to
+all comers; and he deems it absurd, yea disgraceful, to use the Greeks
+as he would any other tool he employs when following his profession or
+earning his living, shamelessly fumbling with coarse hands amidst the
+relics of these holy men. This brazen and vulgar feeling is, however,
+most common in the profession from which the largest numbers of
+teachers for the public schools are drawn, the philological
+profession, wherefore the reproduction and continuation of such a
+feeling in the public school will not surprise us.
+
+"Just look at the younger generation of philologists: how seldom we
+see in them that humble feeling that we, when compared with such a
+world as it was, have no right to exist at all: how coolly and
+fearlessly, as compared with us, did that young brood build its
+miserable nests in the midst of the magnificent temples! A powerful
+voice from every nook and cranny should ring in the ears of those who,
+from the day they begin their connection with the university, roam at
+will with such self-complacency and shamelessness among the
+awe-inspiring relics of that noble civilisation: 'Hence, ye
+uninitiated, who will never be initiated; fly away in silence and
+shame from these sacred chambers!' But this voice speaks in vain; for
+one must to some extent be a Greek to understand a Greek curse of
+excommunication. But these people I am speaking of are so barbaric
+that they dispose of these relics to suit themselves: all their modern
+conveniences and fancies are brought with them and concealed among
+those ancient pillars and tombstones, and it gives rise to great
+rejoicing when somebody finds, among the dust and cobwebs of
+antiquity, something that he himself had slyly hidden there not so
+very long before. One of them makes verses and takes care to consult
+Hesychius' Lexicon. Something there immediately assures him that he is
+destined to be an imitator of AEschylus, and leads him to believe,
+indeed, that he 'has something in common with' AEschylus: the miserable
+poetaster! Yet another peers with the suspicious eye of a policeman
+into every contradiction, even into the shadow of every
+contradiction, of which Homer was guilty: he fritters away his life in
+tearing Homeric rags to tatters and sewing them together again, rags
+that he himself was the first to filch from the poet's kingly robe. A
+third feels ill at ease when examining all the mysterious and
+orgiastic sides of antiquity: he makes up his mind once and for all to
+let the enlightened Apollo alone pass without dispute, and to see in
+the Athenian a gay and intelligent but nevertheless somewhat immoral
+Apollonian. What a deep breath he draws when he succeeds in raising
+yet another dark corner of antiquity to the level of his own
+intelligence!--when, for example, he discovers in Pythagoras a
+colleague who is as enthusiastic as himself in arguing about politics.
+Another racks his brains as to why OEdipus was condemned by fate to
+perform such abominable deeds--killing his father, marrying his
+mother. Where lies the blame! Where the poetic justice! Suddenly it
+occurs to him: OEdipus was a passionate fellow, lacking all Christian
+gentleness--he even fell into an unbecoming rage when Tiresias called
+him a monster and the curse of the whole country. Be humble and meek!
+was what Sophocles tried to teach, otherwise you will have to marry
+your mothers and kill your fathers! Others, again, pass their lives in
+counting the number of verses written by Greek and Roman poets, and
+are delighted with the proportions 7:13 = 14:26. Finally, one of them
+brings forward his solution of a question, such as the Homeric poems
+considered from the standpoint of prepositions, and thinks he has
+drawn the truth from the bottom of the well with +ana+ and +kata+. All
+of them, however, with the most widely separated aims in view, dig and
+burrow in Greek soil with a restlessness and a blundering awkwardness
+that must surely be painful to a true friend of antiquity: and thus it
+comes to pass that I should like to take by the hand every talented or
+talentless man who feels a certain professional inclination urging him
+on to the study of antiquity, and harangue him as follows: 'Young sir,
+do you know what perils threaten you, with your little stock of school
+learning, before you become a man in the full sense of the word? Have
+you heard that, according to Aristotle, it is by no means a tragic
+death to be slain by a statue? Does that surprise you? Know, then,
+that for centuries philologists have been trying, with ever-failing
+strength, to re-erect the fallen statue of Greek antiquity, but
+without success; for it is a colossus around which single individual
+men crawl like pygmies. The leverage of the united representatives of
+modern culture is utilised for the purpose; but it invariably happens
+that the huge column is scarcely more than lifted from the ground when
+it falls down again, crushing beneath its weight the luckless wights
+under it. That, however, may be tolerated, for every being must perish
+by some means or other; but who is there to guarantee that during all
+these attempts the statue itself will not break in pieces! The
+philologists are being crushed by the Greeks--perhaps we can put up
+with this--but antiquity itself threatens to be crushed by these
+philologists! Think that over, you easy-going young man; and turn
+back, lest you too should not be an iconoclast!'"
+
+"Indeed," said the philosopher, laughing, "there are many philologists
+who have turned back as you so much desire, and I notice a great
+contrast with my own youthful experience. Consciously or
+unconsciously, large numbers of them have concluded that it is
+hopeless and useless for them to come into direct contact with
+classical antiquity, hence they are inclined to look upon this study
+as barren, superseded, out-of-date. This herd has turned with much
+greater zest to the science of language: here in this wide expanse of
+virgin soil, where even the most mediocre gifts can be turned to
+account, and where a kind of insipidity and dullness is even looked
+upon as decided talent, with the novelty and uncertainty of methods
+and the constant danger of making fantastic mistakes--here, where dull
+regimental routine and discipline are desiderata--here the newcomer is
+no longer frightened by the majestic and warning voice that rises from
+the ruins of antiquity: here every one is welcomed with open arms,
+including even him who never arrived at any uncommon impression or
+noteworthy thought after a perusal of Sophocles and Aristophanes, with
+the result that they end in an etymological tangle, or are seduced
+into collecting the fragments of out-of-the-way dialects--and their
+time is spent in associating and dissociating, collecting and
+scattering, and running hither and thither consulting books. And such
+a usefully employed philologist would now fain be a teacher! He now
+undertakes to teach the youth of the public schools something about
+the ancient writers, although he himself has read them without any
+particular impression, much less with insight! What a dilemma!
+Antiquity has said nothing to him, consequently he has nothing to say
+about antiquity. A sudden thought strikes him: why is he a skilled
+philologist at all! Why did these authors write Latin and Greek! And
+with a light heart he immediately begins to etymologise with Homer,
+calling Lithuanian or Ecclesiastical Slavonic, or, above all, the
+sacred Sanskrit, to his assistance: as if Greek lessons were merely
+the excuse for a general introduction to the study of languages, and
+as if Homer were lacking in only one respect, namely, not being
+written in pre-Indogermanic. Whoever is acquainted with our present
+public schools well knows what a wide gulf separates their teachers
+from classicism, and how, from a feeling of this want, comparative
+philology and allied professions have increased their numbers to such
+an unheard-of degree."
+
+"What I mean is," said the other, "it would depend upon whether a
+teacher of classical culture did _not_ confuse his Greeks and Romans
+with the other peoples, the barbarians, whether he could _never_ put
+Greek and Latin _on a level with_ other languages: so far as his
+classicalism is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether the
+framework of these languages concurs with or is in any way related to
+the other languages: such a concurrence does not interest him at all;
+his real concern is with _what is not common to both_, with what shows
+him that those two peoples were not barbarians as compared with the
+others--in so far, of course, as he is a true teacher of culture and
+models himself after the majestic patterns of the classics."
+
+"I may be wrong," said the philosopher, "but I suspect that, owing to
+the way in which Latin and Greek are now taught in schools, the
+accurate grasp of these languages, the ability to speak and write them
+with ease, is lost, and that is something in which my own generation
+distinguished itself--a generation, indeed, whose few survivers have
+by this time grown old; whilst, on the other hand, the present
+teachers seem to impress their pupils with the genetic and historical
+importance of the subject to such an extent that, at best, their
+scholars ultimately turn into little Sanskritists, etymological
+spitfires, or reckless conjecturers; but not one of them can read his
+Plato or Tacitus with pleasure, as we old folk can. The public schools
+may still be seats of learning: not, however of _the_ learning which,
+as it were, is only the natural and involuntary auxiliary of a culture
+that is directed towards the noblest ends; but rather of that culture
+which might be compared to the hypertrophical swelling of an unhealthy
+body. The public schools are certainly the seats of this obesity, if,
+indeed, they have not degenerated into the abodes of that elegant
+barbarism which is boasted of as being 'German culture of the
+present!'"
+
+"But," asked the other, "what is to become of that large body of
+teachers who have not been endowed with a true gift for culture, and
+who set up as teachers merely to gain a livelihood from the
+profession, because there is a demand for them, because a superfluity
+of schools brings with it a superfluity of teachers? Where shall they
+go when antiquity peremptorily orders them to withdraw? Must they not
+be sacrificed to those powers of the present who, day after day, call
+out to them from the never-ending columns of the press 'We are
+culture! We are education! We are at the zenith! We are the apexes of
+the pyramids! We are the aims of universal history!'--when they hear
+the seductive promises, when the shameful signs of non-culture, the
+plebeian publicity of the so-called 'interests of culture' are
+extolled for their benefit in magazines and newspapers as an entirely
+new and the best possible, full-grown form of culture! Whither shall
+the poor fellows fly when they feel the presentiment that these
+promises are not true--where but to the most obtuse, sterile
+scientificality, that here the shriek of culture may no longer be
+audible to them? Pursued in this way, must they not end, like the
+ostrich, by burying their heads in the sand? Is it not a real
+happiness for them, buried as they are among dialects, etymologies,
+and conjectures, to lead a life like that of the ants, even though
+they are miles removed from true culture, if only they can close their
+ears tightly and be deaf to the voice of the 'elegant' culture of the
+time."
+
+"You are right, my friend," said the philosopher, "but whence comes the
+urgent necessity for a surplus of schools for culture, which further
+gives rise to the necessity for a surplus of teachers?--when we so
+clearly see that the demand for a surplus springs from a sphere which is
+hostile to culture, and that the consequences of this surplus only lead
+to non-culture. Indeed, we can discuss this dire necessity only in so
+far as the modern State is willing to discuss these things with us, and
+is prepared to follow up its demands by force: which phenomenon
+certainly makes the same impression upon most people as if they were
+addressed by the eternal law of things. For the rest, a 'Culture-State,'
+to use the current expression, which makes such demands, is rather a
+novelty, and has only come to a 'self-understanding' within the last
+half century, _i.e._ in a period when (to use the favourite popular
+word) so many 'self-understood' things came into being, but which are in
+themselves not 'self-understood' at all. This right to higher education
+has been taken so seriously by the most powerful of modern
+States--Prussia--that the objectionable principle it has adopted, taken
+in connection with the well-known daring and hardihood of this State, is
+seen to have a menacing and dangerous consequence for the true German
+spirit; for we see endeavours being made in this quarter to raise the
+public school, formally systematised, up to the so-called 'level of the
+time.' Here is to be found all that mechanism by means of which as many
+scholars as possible are urged on to take up courses of public school
+training: here, indeed, the State has its most powerful inducement--the
+concession of certain privileges respecting military service, with the
+natural consequence that, according to the unprejudiced evidence of
+statistical officials, by this, and by this only, can we explain the
+universal congestion of all Prussian public schools, and the urgent and
+continual need for new ones. What more can the State do for a surplus of
+educational institutions than bring all the higher and the majority of
+the lower civil service appointments, the right of entry to the
+universities, and even the most influential military posts into close
+connection with the public school: and all this in a country where both
+universal military service and the highest offices of the State
+unconsciously attract all gifted natures to them. The public school is
+here looked upon as an honourable aim, and every one who feels himself
+urged on to the sphere of government will be found on his way to it.
+This is a new and quite original occurrence: the State assumes the
+attitude of a mystogogue of culture, and, whilst it promotes its own
+ends, it obliges every one of its servants not to appear in its presence
+without the torch of universal State education in their hands, by the
+flickering light of which they may again recognise the State as the
+highest goal, as the reward of all their strivings after education.
+
+"Now this last phenomenon should indeed surprise them; it should
+remind them of that allied, slowly understood tendency of a philosophy
+which was formerly promoted for reasons of State, namely, the
+tendency of the Hegelian philosophy: yea, it would perhaps be no
+exaggeration to say that, in the subordination of all strivings after
+education to reasons of State, Prussia has appropriated, with success,
+the principle and the useful heirloom of the Hegelian philosophy,
+whose apotheosis of the State in _this_ subordination certainly
+reaches its height."
+
+"But," said the philosopher's companion, "what purposes can the State
+have in view with such a strange aim? For that it has some State
+objects in view is seen in the manner in which the conditions of
+Prussian schools are admired by, meditated upon, and occasionally
+imitated by other States. These other States obviously presuppose
+something here that, if adopted, would tend towards the maintenance
+and power of the State, like our well-known and popular conscription.
+Where everyone proudly wears his soldier's uniform at regular
+intervals, where almost every one has absorbed a uniform type of
+national culture through the public schools, enthusiastic hyperboles
+may well be uttered concerning the systems employed in former times,
+and a form of State omnipotence which was attained only in antiquity,
+and which almost every young man, by both instinct and training,
+thinks it is the crowning glory and highest aim of human beings to
+reach."
+
+"Such a comparison," said the philosopher, "would be quite
+hyperbolical, and would not hobble along on one leg only. For, indeed,
+the ancient State emphatically did not share the utilitarian point of
+view of recognising as culture only what was directly useful to the
+State itself, and was far from wishing to destroy those impulses which
+did not seem to be immediately applicable. For this very reason the
+profound Greek had for the State that strong feeling of admiration and
+thankfulness which is so distasteful to modern men; because he clearly
+recognised not only that without such State protection the germs of
+his culture could not develop, but also that all his inimitable and
+perennial culture had flourished so luxuriantly under the wise and
+careful guardianship of the protection afforded by the State. The
+State was for his culture not a supervisor, regulator, and watchman,
+but a vigorous and muscular companion and friend, ready for war, who
+accompanied his noble, admired, and, as it were, ethereal friend
+through disagreeable reality, earning his thanks therefor. This,
+however, does not happen when a modern State lays claim to such hearty
+gratitude because it renders such chivalrous service to German culture
+and art: for in this regard its past is as ignominious as its present,
+as a proof of which we have but to think of the manner in which the
+memory of our great poets and artists is celebrated in German cities,
+and how the highest objects of these German masters are supported on
+the part of the State.
+
+"There must therefore be peculiar circumstances surrounding both this
+purpose towards which the State is tending, and which always promotes
+what is here called 'education'; and surrounding likewise the culture
+thus promoted, which subordinates itself to this purpose of the State.
+With the real German spirit and the education derived therefrom, such
+as I have slowly outlined for you, this purpose of the State is at
+war, hiddenly or openly: _the_ spirit of education, which is welcomed
+and encouraged with such interest by the State, and owing to which the
+schools of this country are so much admired abroad, must accordingly
+originate in a sphere that never comes into contact with this true
+German spirit: with that spirit which speaks to us so wondrously from
+the inner heart of the German Reformation, German music, and German
+philosophy, and which, like a noble exile, is regarded with such
+indifference and scorn by the luxurious education afforded by the
+State. This spirit is a stranger: it passes by in solitary sadness,
+and far away from it the censer of pseudo-culture is swung backwards
+and forwards, which, amidst the acclamations of 'educated' teachers
+and journalists, arrogates to itself its name and privileges, and
+metes out insulting treatment to the word 'German.' Why does the State
+require that surplus of educational institutions, of teachers? Why
+this education of the masses on such an extended scale? Because the
+true German spirit is hated, because the aristocratic nature of true
+culture is feared, because the people endeavour in this way to drive
+single great individuals into self-exile, so that the claims of the
+masses to education may be, so to speak, planted down and carefully
+tended, in order that the many may in this way endeavour to escape the
+rigid and strict discipline of the few great leaders, so that the
+masses may be persuaded that they can easily find the path for
+themselves--following the guiding star of the State!
+
+"A new phenomenon! The State as the guiding star of culture! In the
+meantime one thing consoles me: this German spirit, which people are
+combating so much, and for which they have substituted a gaudily
+attired _locum tenens_, this spirit is brave: it will fight and redeem
+itself into a purer age; noble, as it is now, and victorious, as it
+one day will be, it will always preserve in its mind a certain pitiful
+toleration of the State, if the latter, hard-pressed in the hour of
+extremity, secures such a pseudo-culture as its associate. For what,
+after all, do we know about the difficult task of governing men,
+_i.e._ to keep law, order, quietness, and peace among millions of
+boundlessly egoistical, unjust, unreasonable, dishonourable, envious,
+malignant, and hence very narrow-minded and perverse human beings; and
+thus to protect the few things that the State has conquered for itself
+against covetous neighbours and jealous robbers? Such a hard-pressed
+State holds out its arms to any associate, grasps at any straw; and
+when such an associate does introduce himself with flowery eloquence,
+when he adjudges the State, as Hegel did, to be an 'absolutely
+complete ethical organism,' the be-all and end-all of every one's
+education, and goes on to indicate how he himself can best promote the
+interests of the State--who will be surprised if, without further
+parley, the State falls upon his neck and cries aloud in a barbaric
+voice of full conviction: 'Yes! Thou art education! Thou art indeed
+culture!'"
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 5th of March 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--Now that you have followed my tale up to this
+point, and that we have made ourselves joint masters of the solitary,
+remote, and at times abusive duologue of the philosopher and his
+companion, I sincerely hope that you, like strong swimmers, are ready
+to proceed on the second half of our journey, especially as I can
+promise you that a few other marionettes will appear in the
+puppet-play of my adventure, and that if up to the present you have
+only been able to do little more than endure what I have been telling
+you, the waves of my story will now bear you more quickly and easily
+towards the end. In other words we have now come to a turning, and it
+would be advisable for us to take a short glance backwards to see what
+we think we have gained from such a varied conversation.
+
+"Remain in your present position," the philosopher seemed to say to
+his companion, "for you may cherish hopes. It is more and more clearly
+evident that we have no educational institutions at all; but that we
+ought to have them. Our public schools--established, it would seem,
+for this high object--have either become the nurseries of a
+reprehensible culture which repels the true culture with profound
+hatred--_i.e._ a true, aristocratic culture, founded upon a few
+carefully chosen minds; or they foster a micrological and sterile
+learning which, while it is far removed from culture, has at least
+this merit, that it avoids that reprehensible culture as well as the
+true culture." The philosopher had particularly drawn his companion's
+attention to the strange corruption which must have entered into the
+heart of culture when the State thought itself capable of tyrannising
+over it and of attaining its ends through it; and further when the
+State, in conjunction with this culture, struggled against other
+hostile forces as well as against _the_ spirit which the philosopher
+ventured to call the "true German spirit." This spirit, linked to the
+Greeks by the noblest ties, and shown by its past history to have been
+steadfast and courageous, pure and lofty in its aims, its faculties
+qualifying it for the high task of freeing modern man from the curse
+of modernity--this spirit is condemned to live apart, banished from
+its inheritance. But when its slow, painful tones of woe resound
+through the desert of the present, then the overladen and gaily-decked
+caravan of culture is pulled up short, horror-stricken. We must not
+only astonish, but terrify--such was the philosopher's opinion: not to
+fly shamefully away, but to take the offensive, was his advice; but he
+especially counselled his companion not to ponder too anxiously over
+the individual from whom, through a higher instinct, this aversion for
+the present barbarism proceeded, "Let it perish: the Pythian god had
+no difficulty in finding a new tripod, a second Pythia, so long, at
+least, as the mystic cold vapours rose from the earth."
+
+The philosopher once more began to speak: "Be careful to remember, my
+friend," said he, "there are two things you must not confuse. A man
+must learn a great deal that he may live and take part in the struggle
+for existence; but everything that he as an individual learns and does
+with this end in view has nothing whatever to do with culture. This
+latter only takes its beginning in a sphere that lies far above the
+world of necessity, indigence, and struggle for existence. The
+question now is to what extent a man values his ego in comparison with
+other egos, how much of his strength he uses up in the endeavour to
+earn his living. Many a one, by stoically confining his needs within a
+narrow compass, will shortly and easily reach the sphere in which he
+may forget, and, as it were, shake off his ego, so that he can enjoy
+perpetual youth in a solar system of timeless and impersonal things.
+Another widens the scope and needs of his ego as much as possible, and
+builds the mausoleum of this ego in vast proportions, as if he were
+prepared to fight and conquer that terrible adversary, Time. In this
+instinct also we may see a longing for immortality: wealth and power,
+wisdom, presence of mind, eloquence, a flourishing outward aspect, a
+renowned name--all these are merely turned into the means by which an
+insatiable, personal will to live craves for new life, with which,
+again, it hankers after an eternity that is at last seen to be
+illusory.
+
+"But even in this highest form of the ego, in the enhanced needs of
+such a distended and, as it were, collective individual, true culture
+is never touched upon; and if, for example, art is sought after, only
+its disseminating and stimulating actions come into prominence, _i.e._
+those which least give rise to pure and noble art, and most of all to
+low and degraded forms of it. For in all his efforts, however great
+and exceptional they seem to the onlooker, he never succeeds in
+freeing himself from his own hankering and restless personality: that
+illuminated, ethereal sphere where one may contemplate without the
+obstruction of one's own personality continually recedes from him--and
+thus, let him learn, travel, and collect as he may, he must always
+live an exiled life at a remote distance from a higher life and from
+true culture. For true culture would scorn to contaminate itself with
+the needy and covetous individual; it well knows how to give the slip
+to the man who would fain employ it as a means of attaining to
+egoistic ends; and if any one cherishes the belief that he has firmly
+secured it as a means of livelihood, and that he can procure the
+necessities of life by its sedulous cultivation, then it suddenly
+steals away with noiseless steps and an air of derisive mockery.[6]
+
+"I will thus ask you, my friend, not to confound this culture, this
+sensitive, fastidious, ethereal goddess, with that useful
+maid-of-all-work which is also called 'culture,' but which is only
+the intellectual servant and counsellor of one's practical
+necessities, wants, and means of livelihood Every kind of training,
+however, which holds out the prospect of bread-winning as its end and
+aim, is not a training for culture as we understand the word; but
+merely a collection of precepts and directions to show how, in the
+struggle for existence, a man may preserve and protect his own person.
+It may be freely admitted that for the great majority of men such a
+course of instruction is of the highest importance; and the more
+arduous the struggle is the more intensely must the young man strain
+every nerve to utilise his strength to the best advantage.
+
+"But--let no one think for a moment that the schools which urge him on
+to this struggle and prepare him for it are in any way seriously to be
+considered as establishments of culture. They are institutions which
+teach one how to take part in the battle of life; whether they promise
+to turn out civil servants, or merchants, or officers, or wholesale
+dealers, or farmers, or physicians, or men with a technical training.
+The regulations and standards prevailing at such institutions differ
+from those in a true educational institution; and what in the latter
+is permitted, and even freely held out as often as possible, ought to
+be considered as a criminal offence in the former.
+
+"Let me give you an example. If you wish to guide a young man on the
+path of true culture, beware of interrupting his naive, confident,
+and, as it were, immediate and personal relationship with nature. The
+woods, the rocks, the winds, the vulture, the flowers, the butterfly,
+the meads, the mountain slopes, must all speak to him in their own
+language; in them he must, as it were, come to know himself again in
+countless reflections and images, in a variegated round of changing
+visions; and in this way he will unconsciously and gradually feel the
+metaphysical unity of all things in the great image of nature, and at
+the same time tranquillise his soul in the contemplation of her
+eternal endurance and necessity. But how many young men should be
+permitted to grow up in such close and almost personal proximity to
+nature! The others must learn another truth betimes: how to subdue
+nature to themselves. Here is an end of this naive metaphysics; and
+the physiology of plants and animals, geology, inorganic chemistry,
+force their devotees to view nature from an altogether different
+standpoint. What is lost by this new point of view is not only a
+poetical phantasmagoria, but the instinctive, true, and unique point
+of view, instead of which we have shrewd and clever calculations, and,
+so to speak, overreachings of nature. Thus to the truly cultured man
+is vouchsafed the inestimable benefit of being able to remain
+faithful, without a break, to the contemplative instincts of his
+childhood, and so to attain to a calmness, unity, consistency, and
+harmony which can never be even thought of by a man who is compelled
+to fight in the struggle for existence.
+
+"You must not think, however, that I wish to withhold all praise from
+our primary and secondary schools: I honour the seminaries where boys
+learn arithmetic and master modern languages, and study geography and
+the marvellous discoveries made in natural science. I am quite
+prepared to say further that those youths who pass through the better
+class of secondary schools are well entitled to make the claims put
+forward by the fully-fledged public school boy; and the time is
+certainly not far distant when such pupils will be everywhere freely
+admitted to the universities and positions under the government, which
+has hitherto been the case only with scholars from the public
+schools--of our present public schools, be it noted![7] I cannot,
+however, refrain from adding the melancholy reflection: if it be true
+that secondary and public schools are, on the whole, working so
+heartily in common towards the same ends, and differ from each other
+only in such a slight degree, that they may take equal rank before the
+tribunal of the State, then we completely lack another kind of
+educational institutions: those for the development of culture! To say
+the least, the secondary schools cannot be reproached with this; for
+they have up to the present propitiously and honourably followed up
+tendencies of a lower order, but one nevertheless highly necessary. In
+the public schools, however, there is very much less honesty and very
+much less ability too; for in them we find an instinctive feeling of
+shame, the unconscious perception of the fact that the whole
+institution has been ignominiously degraded, and that the sonorous
+words of wise and apathetic teachers are contradictory to the dreary,
+barbaric, and sterile reality. So there are no true cultural
+institutions! And in those very places where a pretence to culture is
+still kept up, we find the people more hopeless, atrophied, and
+discontented than in the secondary schools, where the so-called
+'realistic' subjects are taught! Besides this, only think how immature
+and uninformed one must be in the company of such teachers when one
+actually misunderstands the rigorously defined philosophical
+expressions 'real' and 'realism' to such a degree as to think them the
+contraries of mind and matter, and to interpret 'realism' as 'the road
+to knowledge, formation, and mastery of reality.'
+
+"I for my own part know of only two exact contraries: _institutions
+for teaching culture and institutions for teaching how to succeed in
+life_. All our present institutions belong to the second class; but I
+am speaking only of the first."
+
+About two hours went by while the philosophically-minded couple
+chatted about such startling questions. Night slowly fell in the
+meantime; and when in the twilight the philosopher's voice had sounded
+like natural music through the woods, it now rang out in the profound
+darkness of the night when he was speaking with excitement or even
+passionately; his tones hissing and thundering far down the valley,
+and reverberating among the trees and rocks. Suddenly he was silent:
+he had just repeated, almost pathetically, the words, "we have no true
+educational institutions; we have no true educational institutions!"
+when something fell down just in front of him--it might have been a
+fir-cone--and his dog barked and ran towards it. Thus interrupted, the
+philosopher raised his head, and suddenly became aware of the
+darkness, the cool air, and the lonely situation of himself and his
+companion. "Well! What are we about!" he ejaculated, "it's dark. You
+know whom we were expecting here; but he hasn't come. We have waited
+in vain; let us go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I must now, ladies and gentlemen, convey to you the impressions
+experienced by my friend and myself as we eagerly listened to this
+conversation, which we heard distinctly in our hiding-place. I have
+already told you that at that place and at that hour we had intended
+to hold a festival in commemoration of something: and this something
+had to do with nothing else than matters concerning educational
+training, of which we, in our own youthful opinions, had garnered a
+plentiful harvest during our past life. We were thus disposed to
+remember with gratitude the institution which we had at one time
+thought out for ourselves at that very spot in order, as I have
+already mentioned, that we might reciprocally encourage and watch over
+one another's educational impulses. But a sudden and unexpected light
+was thrown on all that past life as we silently gave ourselves up to
+the vehement words of the philosopher. As when a traveller, walking
+heedlessly across unknown ground, suddenly puts his foot over the edge
+of a cliff, so it now seemed to us that we had hastened to meet the
+great danger rather than run away from it. Here at this spot, so
+memorable to us, we heard the warning: "Back! Not another step! Know
+you not whither your footsteps tend, whither this deceitful path is
+luring you?"
+
+It seemed to us that we now knew, and our feeling of overflowing
+thankfulness impelled us so irresistibly towards our earnest
+counsellor and trusty Eckart, that both of us sprang up at the same
+moment and rushed towards the philosopher to embrace him. He was just
+about to move off, and had already turned sideways when we rushed up
+to him. The dog turned sharply round and barked, thinking doubtless,
+like the philosopher's companion, of an attempt at robbery rather than
+an enraptured embrace. It was plain that he had forgotten us. In a
+word, he ran away. Our embrace was a miserable failure when we did
+overtake him; for my friend gave a loud yell as the dog bit him, and
+the philosopher himself sprang away from me with such force that we
+both fell. What with the dog and the men there was a scramble that
+lasted a few minutes, until my friend began to call out loudly,
+parodying the philosopher's own words: "In the name of all culture and
+pseudo-culture, what does the silly dog want with us? Hence, you
+confounded dog; you uninitiated, never to be initiated; hasten away
+from us, silent and ashamed!" After this outburst matters were cleared
+up to some extent, at any rate so far as they could be cleared up in
+the darkness of the wood. "Oh, it's you!" ejaculated the philosopher,
+"our duellists! How you startled us! What on earth drives you to jump
+out upon us like this at such a time of the night?"
+
+"Joy, thankfulness, and reverence," said we, shaking the old man by
+the hand, whilst the dog barked as if he understood, "we can't let you
+go without telling you this. And if you are to understand everything
+you must not go away just yet; we want to ask you about so many things
+that lie heavily on our hearts. Stay yet awhile; we know every foot of
+the way and can accompany you afterwards. The gentleman you expect may
+yet turn up. Look over yonder on the Rhine: what is that we see so
+clearly floating on the surface of the water as if surrounded by the
+light of many torches? It is there that we may look for your friend, I
+would even venture to say that it is he who is coming towards you with
+all those lights."
+
+And so much did we assail the surprised old man with our entreaties,
+promises, and fantastic delusions, that we persuaded the philosopher
+to walk to and fro with us on the little plateau, "by learned lumber
+undisturbed," as my friend added.
+
+"Shame on you!" said the philosopher, "if you really want to quote
+something, why choose Faust? However, I will give in to you, quotation
+or no quotation, if only our young companions will keep still and not
+run away as suddenly as they made their appearance, for they are like
+will-o'-the-wisps; we are amazed when they are there and again when
+they are not there."
+
+My friend immediately recited--
+
+    Respect, I hope, will teach us how we may
+    Our lighter disposition keep at bay.
+    Our course is only zig-zag as a rule.
+
+The philosopher was surprised, and stood still. "You astonish me, you
+will-o'-the-wisps," he said; "this is no quagmire we are on now. Of
+what use is this ground to you? What does the proximity of a
+philosopher mean to you? For around him the air is sharp and clear,
+the ground dry and hard. You must find out a more fantastic region for
+your zig-zagging inclinations."
+
+"I think," interrupted the philosopher's companion at this point, "the
+gentlemen have already told us that they promised to meet some one
+here at this hour; but it seems to me that they listened to our comedy
+of education like a chorus, and truly 'idealistic spectators'--for
+they did not disturb us; we thought we were alone with each other."
+
+"Yes, that is true," said the philosopher, "that praise must not be
+withheld from them, but it seems to me that they deserve still higher
+praise----"
+
+Here I seized the philosopher's hand and said: "That man must be as
+obtuse as a reptile, with his stomach on the ground and his head
+buried in mud, who can listen to such a discourse as yours without
+becoming earnest and thoughtful, or even excited and indignant.
+Self-accusation and annoyance might perhaps cause a few to get angry;
+but our impression was quite different: the only thing I do not know
+is how exactly to describe it. This hour was so well-timed for us, and
+our minds were so well prepared, that we sat there like empty vessels,
+and now it seems as if we were filled to overflowing with this new
+wisdom: for I no longer know how to help myself, and if some one asked
+me what I am thinking of doing to-morrow, or what I have made up my
+mind to do with myself from now on, I should not know what to answer.
+For it is easy to see that we have up to the present been living and
+educating ourselves in the wrong way--but what can we do to cross over
+the chasm between to-day and to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," acknowledged my friend, "I have a similar feeling, and I ask
+the same question: but besides that I feel as if I were frightened
+away from German culture by entertaining such high and ideal views of
+its task; yea, as if I were unworthy to co-operate with it in carrying
+out its aims. I only see a resplendent file of the highest natures
+moving towards this goal; I can imagine over what abysses and through
+what temptations this procession travels. Who would dare to be so bold
+as to join in it?"
+
+At this point the philosopher's companion again turned to him and
+said: "Don't be angry with me when I tell you that I too have a
+somewhat similar feeling, which I have not mentioned to you before.
+When talking to you I often felt drawn out of myself, as it were, and
+inspired with your ardour and hopes till I almost forgot myself. Then
+a calmer moment arrives; a piercing wind of reality brings me back to
+earth--and then I see the wide gulf between us, over which you
+yourself, as in a dream, draw me back again. Then what you call
+'culture' merely totters meaninglessly around me or lies heavily on my
+breast: it is like a shirt of mail that weighs me down, or a sword
+that I cannot wield."
+
+Our minds, as we thus argued with the philosopher, were unanimous,
+and, mutually encouraging and stimulating one another, we slowly
+walked with him backwards and forwards along the unencumbered space
+which had earlier in the day served us as a shooting range. And then,
+in the still night, under the peaceful light of hundreds of stars, we
+all broke out into a tirade which ran somewhat as follows:--
+
+"You have told us so much about the genius," we began, "about his
+lonely and wearisome journey through the world, as if nature never
+exhibited anything but the most diametrical contraries: in one place
+the stupid, dull masses, acting by instinct, and then, on a far higher
+and more remote plane, the great contemplating few, destined for the
+production of immortal works. But now you call these the apexes of the
+intellectual pyramid: it would, however, seem that between the broad,
+heavily burdened foundation up to the highest of the free and
+unencumbered peaks there must be countless intermediate degrees, and
+that here we must apply the saying _natura non facit saltus_. Where
+then are we to look for the beginning of what you call culture; where
+is the line of demarcation to be drawn between the spheres which are
+ruled from below upwards and those which are ruled from above
+downwards? And if it be only in connection with these exalted beings
+that true culture may be spoken of, how are institutions to be founded
+for the uncertain existence of such natures, how can we devise
+educational establishments which shall be of benefit only to these
+select few? It rather seems to us that such persons know how to find
+their own way, and that their full strength is shown in their being
+able to walk without the educational crutches necessary for other
+people, and thus undisturbed to make their way through the storm and
+stress of this rough world just like a phantom."
+
+We kept on arguing in this fashion, speaking without any great ability
+and not putting our thoughts in any special form: but the
+philosopher's companion went even further, and said to him: "Just
+think of all these great geniuses of whom we are wont to be so proud,
+looking upon them as tried and true leaders and guides of this real
+German spirit, whose names we commemorate by statues and festivals,
+and whose works we hold up with feelings of pride for the admiration
+of foreign lands--how did they obtain the education you demand for
+them, to what degree do they show that they have been nourished and
+matured by basking in the sun of national education? And yet they are
+seen to be possible, they have nevertheless become men whom we must
+honour: yea, their works themselves justify the form of the
+development of these noble spirits; they justify even a certain want
+of education for which we must make allowance owing to their country
+and the age in which they lived. How could Lessing and Winckelmann
+benefit by the German culture of their time? Even less than, or at all
+events just as little as Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe, or every one of
+our great poets and artists. It may perhaps be a law of nature that
+only the later generations are destined to know by what divine gifts
+an earlier generation was favoured."
+
+At this point the old philosopher could not control his anger, and
+shouted to his companion: "Oh, you innocent lamb of knowledge! You
+gentle sucking doves, all of you! And would you give the name of
+arguments to those distorted, clumsy, narrow-minded, ungainly,
+crippled things? Yes, I have just now been listening to the fruits of
+some of this present-day culture, and my ears are still ringing with
+the sound of historical 'self-understood' things, of over-wise and
+pitiless historical reasonings! Mark this, thou unprofaned Nature:
+thou hast grown old, and for thousands of years this starry sky has
+spanned the space above thee--but thou hast never yet heard such
+conceited and, at bottom, mischievous chatter as the talk of the
+present day! So you are proud of your poets and artists, my good
+Teutons? You point to them and brag about them to foreign countries,
+do you? And because it has given you no trouble to have them amongst
+you, you have formed the pleasant theory that you need not concern
+yourselves further with them? Isn't that so, my inexperienced
+children: they come of their own free will, the stork brings them to
+you! Who would dare to mention a midwife! You deserve an earnest
+teaching, eh? You should be proud of the fact that all the noble and
+brilliant men we have mentioned were prematurely suffocated, worn out,
+and crushed through you, through your barbarism? You think without
+shame of Lessing, who, on account of your stupidity, perished in
+battle against your ludicrous gods and idols, the evils of your
+theatres, your learned men, and your theologians, without once daring
+to lift himself to the height of that immortal flight for which he
+was brought into the world. And what are your impressions when you
+think of Winckelmann, who, that he might rid his eyes of your
+grotesque fatuousness, went to beg help from the Jesuits, and whose
+disgraceful religious conversion recoils upon you and will always
+remain an ineffaceable blemish upon you? You can even name Schiller
+without blushing! Just look at his picture! The fiery, sparkling eyes,
+looking at you with disdain, those flushed, death-like cheeks: can you
+learn nothing from all that? In him you had a beautiful and divine
+plaything, and through it was destroyed. And if it had been possible
+for you to take Goethe's friendship away from this melancholy, hasty
+life, hunted to premature death, then you would have crushed him even
+sooner than you did. You have not rendered assistance to a single one
+of our great geniuses--and now upon that fact you wish to build up the
+theory that none of them shall ever be helped in future? For each of
+them, however, up to this very moment, you have always been the
+'resistance of the stupid world' that Goethe speaks of in his
+"Epilogue to the Bell"; towards each of them you acted the part of
+apathetic dullards or jealous narrow-hearts or malignant egotists. In
+spite of you they created their immortal works, against you they
+directed their attacks, and thanks to you they died so prematurely,
+their tasks only half accomplished, blunted and dulled and shattered
+in the battle. Who can tell to what these heroic men were destined to
+attain if only that true German spirit had gathered them together
+within the protecting walls of a powerful institution?--that spirit
+which, without the help of some such institution, drags out an
+isolated, debased, and degraded existence. All those great men were
+utterly ruined; and it is only an insane belief in the Hegelian
+'reasonableness of all happenings' which would absolve you of any
+responsibility in the matter. And not those men alone! Indictments are
+pouring forth against you from every intellectual province: whether I
+look at the talents of our poets, philosophers, painters, or
+sculptors--and not only in the case of gifts of the highest order--I
+everywhere see immaturity, overstrained nerves, or prematurely
+exhausted energies, abilities wasted and nipped in the bud; I
+everywhere feel that 'resistance of the stupid world,' in other words,
+_your_ guiltiness. That is what I am talking about when I speak of
+lacking educational establishments, and why I think those which at
+present claim the name in such a pitiful condition. Whoever is pleased
+to call this an 'ideal desire,' and refers to it as 'ideal' as if he
+were trying to get rid of it by praising me, deserves the answer that
+the present system is a scandal and a disgrace, and that the man who
+asks for warmth in the midst of ice and snow must indeed get angry if
+he hears this referred to as an 'ideal desire.' The matter we are now
+discussing is concerned with clear, urgent, and palpably evident
+realities: a man who knows anything of the question feels that there
+is a need which must be seen to, just like cold and hunger. But the
+man who is not affected at all by this matter most certainly has a
+standard by which to measure the extent of his own culture, and thus
+to know what I call 'culture,' and where the line should be drawn
+between that which is ruled from below upwards and that which is ruled
+from above downwards."
+
+The philosopher seemed to be speaking very heatedly. We begged him to
+walk round with us again, since he had uttered the latter part of his
+discourse standing near the tree-stump which had served us as a
+target. For a few minutes not a word more was spoken. Slowly and
+thoughtfully we walked to and fro. We did not so much feel ashamed of
+having brought forward such foolish arguments as we felt a kind of
+restitution of our personality. After the heated and, so far as we
+were concerned, very unflattering utterance of the philosopher, we
+seemed to feel ourselves nearer to him--that we even stood in a
+personal relationship to him. For so wretched is man that he never
+feels himself brought into such close contact with a stranger as when
+the latter shows some sign of weakness, some defect. That our
+philosopher had lost his temper and made use of abusive language
+helped to bridge over the gulf created between us by our timid respect
+for him: and for the sake of the reader who feels his indignation
+rising at this suggestion let it be added that this bridge often leads
+from distant hero-worship to personal love and pity. And, after the
+feeling that our personality had been restored to us, this pity
+gradually became stronger and stronger. Why were we making this old
+man walk up and down with us between the rocks and trees at that time
+of the night? And, since he had yielded to our entreaties, why could
+we not have thought of a more modest and unassuming manner of having
+ourselves instructed, why should the three of us have contradicted him
+in such clumsy terms?
+
+For now we saw how thoughtless, unprepared, and baseless were all the
+objections we had made, and how greatly the echo of _the_ present was
+heard in them, the voice of which, in the province of culture, the old
+man would fain not have heard. Our objections, however, were not
+purely intellectual ones: our reasons for protesting against the
+philosopher's statements seemed to lie elsewhere. They arose perhaps
+from the instinctive anxiety to know whether, if the philosopher's
+views were carried into effect, our own personalities would find a
+place in the higher or lower division; and this made it necessary for
+us to find some arguments against the mode of thinking which robbed us
+of our self-styled claims to culture. People, however, should not
+argue with companions who feel the weight of an argument so
+personally; or, as the moral in our case would have been: such
+companions should not argue, should not contradict at all.
+
+So we walked on beside the philosopher, ashamed, compassionate,
+dissatisfied with ourselves, and more than ever convinced that the old
+man was right and that we had done him wrong. How remote now seemed
+the youthful dream of our educational institution; how clearly we saw
+the danger which we had hitherto escaped merely by good luck, namely,
+giving ourselves up body and soul to the educational system which
+forced itself upon our notice so enticingly, from the time when we
+entered the public schools up to that moment. How then had it come
+about that we had not taken our places in the chorus of its admirers?
+Perhaps merely because we were real students, and could still draw
+back from the rough-and-tumble, the pushing and struggling, the
+restless, ever-breaking waves of publicity, to seek refuge in our own
+little educational establishment; which, however, time would have soon
+swallowed up also.
+
+Overcome by such reflections, we were about to address the philosopher
+again, when he suddenly turned towards us, and said in a softer tone--
+
+"I cannot be surprised if you young men behave rashly and
+thoughtlessly; for it is hardly likely that you have ever seriously
+considered what I have just said to you. Don't be in a hurry; carry
+this question about with you, but do at any rate consider it day and
+night. For you are now at the parting of the ways, and now you know
+where each path leads. If you take the one, your age will receive you
+with open arms, you will not find it wanting in honours and
+decorations: you will form units of an enormous rank and file; and
+there will be as many people like-minded standing behind you as in
+front of you. And when the leader gives the word it will be re-echoed
+from rank to rank. For here your first duty is this: to fight in rank
+and file; and your second: to annihilate all those who refuse to form
+part of the rank and file. On the other path you will have but few
+fellow-travellers: it is more arduous, winding and precipitous; and
+those who take the first path will mock you, for your progress is more
+wearisome, and they will try to lure you over into their own ranks.
+When the two paths happen to cross, however, you will be roughly
+handled and thrust aside, or else shunned and isolated.
+
+"Now, take these two parties, so different from each other in every
+respect, and tell me what meaning an educational establishment would
+have for them. That enormous horde, crowding onwards on the first path
+towards its goal, would take the term to mean an institution by which
+each of its members would become duly qualified to take his place in
+the rank and file, and would be purged of everything which might tend
+to make him strive after higher and more remote aims. I don't deny, of
+course, that they can find pompous words with which to describe their
+aims: for example, they speak of the 'universal development of free
+personality upon a firm social, national, and human basis,' or they
+announce as their goal: 'The founding of the peaceful sovereignty of
+the people upon reason, education, and justice.'
+
+"An educational establishment for the other and smaller company,
+however, would be something vastly different. They would employ it to
+prevent themselves from being separated from one another and
+overwhelmed by the first huge crowd, to prevent their few select
+spirits from losing sight of their splendid and noble task through
+premature weariness, or from being turned aside from the true path,
+corrupted, or subverted. These select spirits must complete their
+work: that is the _raison d'etre_ of their common institution--a work,
+indeed, which, as it were, must be free from subjective traces, and
+must further rise above the transient events of future times as the
+pure reflection of the eternal and immutable essence of things. And
+all those who occupy places in that institution must co-operate in the
+endeavour to engender men of genius by this purification from
+subjectiveness and the creation of the works of genius. Not a few,
+even of those whose talents may be of the second or third order, are
+suited to such co-operation, and only when serving in such an
+educational establishment as this do they feel that they are truly
+carrying out their life's task. But now it is just these talents I
+speak of which are drawn away from the true path, and their instincts
+estranged, by the continual seductions of that modern 'culture.'
+
+"The egotistic emotions, weaknesses, and vanities of these few select
+minds are continually assailed by the temptations unceasingly murmured
+into their ears by the spirit of the age: 'Come with me! There you are
+servants, retainers, tools, eclipsed by higher natures; your own
+peculiar characteristics never have free play; you are tied down,
+chained down, like slaves; yea, like automata: here, with me, you will
+enjoy the freedom of your own personalities, as masters should, your
+talents will cast their lustre on yourselves alone, with their aid you
+may come to the very front rank; an innumerable train of followers
+will accompany you, and the applause of public opinion will yield you
+more pleasure than a nobly-bestowed commendation from the height of
+genius.' Even the very best of men now yield to these temptations: and
+it cannot be said that the deciding factor here is the degree of
+talent, or whether a man is accessible to these voices or not; but
+rather the degree and the height of a certain moral sublimity, the
+instinct towards heroism, towards sacrifice--and finally a positive,
+habitual need of culture, prepared by a proper kind of education,
+which education, as I have previously said, is first and foremost
+obedience and submission to the discipline of genius. Of this
+discipline and submission, however, the present institutions called by
+courtesy 'educational establishments' know nothing whatever, although
+I have no doubt that the public school was originally intended to be
+an institution for sowing the seeds of true culture, or at least as a
+preparation for it. I have no doubt, either, that they took the first
+bold steps in the wonderful and stirring times of the Reformation, and
+that afterwards, in the era which gave birth to Schiller and Goethe,
+there was again a growing demand for culture, like the first
+protuberance of that wing spoken of by Plato in the _Phaedrus_, which,
+at every contact with the beautiful, bears the soul aloft into the
+upper regions, the habitations of the gods."
+
+"Ah," began the philosopher's companion, "when you quote the divine
+Plato and the world of ideas, I do not think you are angry with me,
+however much my previous utterance may have merited your disapproval
+and wrath. As soon as you speak of it, I feel that Platonic wing
+rising within me; and it is only at intervals, when I act as the
+charioteer of my soul, that I have any difficulty with the resisting
+and unwilling horse that Plato has also described to us, the
+'crooked, lumbering animal, put together anyhow, with a short, thick
+neck; flat-faced, and of a dark colour, with grey eyes and blood-red
+complexion; the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf,
+hardly yielding to whip or spur.'[8] Just think how long I have lived
+at a distance from you, and how all those temptations you speak of
+have endeavoured to lure me away, not perhaps without some success,
+even though I myself may not have observed it. I now see more clearly
+than ever the necessity for an institution which will enable us to
+live and mix freely with the few men of true culture, so that we may
+have them as our leaders and guiding stars. How greatly I feel the
+danger of travelling alone! And when it occurred to me that I could
+save myself by flight from all contact with the spirit of the time, I
+found that this flight itself was a mere delusion. Continuously, with
+every breath we take, some amount of that atmosphere circulates
+through every vein and artery, and no solitude is lonesome or distant
+enough for us to be out of reach of its fogs and clouds. Whether in
+the guise of hope, doubt, profit, or virtue, the shades of that
+culture hover about us; and we have been deceived by that jugglery
+even here in the presence of a true hermit of culture. How steadfastly
+and faithfully must the few followers of that culture--which might
+almost be called sectarian--be ever on the alert! How they must
+strengthen and uphold one another! How adversely would any errors be
+criticised here, and how sympathetically excused! And thus, teacher, I
+ask you to pardon me, after you have laboured so earnestly to set me
+in the right path!"
+
+"You use a language which I do not care for, my friend," said the
+philosopher, "and one which reminds me of a diocesan conference. With
+that I have nothing to do. But your Platonic horse pleases me, and on
+its account you shall be forgiven. I am willing to exchange my own
+animal for yours. But it is getting chilly, and I don't feel inclined
+to walk about any more just now. The friend I was waiting for is
+indeed foolish enough to come up here even at midnight if he promised
+to do so. But I have waited in vain for the signal agreed upon; and I
+cannot guess what has delayed him. For as a rule he is punctual, as we
+old men are wont, to be, something that you young men nowadays look
+upon as old-fashioned. But he has left me in the lurch for once: how
+annoying it is! Come away with me! It's time to go!"
+
+At this moment something happened.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] It will be apparent from these words that Nietzsche is still under
+the influence of Schopenhauer.--TR.
+
+[7] This prophecy has come true.--TR.
+
+[8] _Phaedrus_; Jowett's translation.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH LECTURE.
+
+(_Delivered on the 23rd of March 1872._)
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--If you have lent a sympathetic ear to what I
+have told you about the heated argument of our philosopher in the
+stillness of that memorable night, you must have felt as disappointed
+as we did when he announced his peevish intention. You will remember
+that he had suddenly told us he wished to go; for, having been left in
+the lurch by his friend in the first place, and, in the second, having
+been bored rather than animated by the remarks addressed to him by his
+companion and ourselves when walking backwards and forwards on the
+hillside, he now apparently wanted to put an end to what appeared to
+him to be a useless discussion. It must have seemed to him that his
+day had been lost, and he would have liked to blot it out of his
+memory, together with the recollection of ever having made our
+acquaintance. And we were thus rather unwillingly preparing to depart
+when something else suddenly brought him to a standstill, and the foot
+he had just raised sank hesitatingly to the ground again.
+
+A coloured flame, making a crackling noise for a few seconds,
+attracted our attention from the direction of the Rhine; and
+immediately following upon this we heard a slow, harmonious call,
+quite in tune, although plainly the cry of numerous youthful voices.
+"That's his signal," exclaimed the philosopher, "so my friend is
+really coming, and I haven't waited for nothing, after all. It will be
+a midnight meeting indeed--but how am I to let him know that I am
+still here? Come! Your pistols; let us see your talent once again! Did
+you hear the severe rhythm of that melody saluting us? Mark it well,
+and answer it in the same rhythm by a series of shots."
+
+This was a task well suited to our tastes and abilities; so we loaded
+up as quickly as we could and pointed our weapons at the brilliant
+stars in the heavens, whilst the echo of that piercing cry died away
+in the distance. The reports of the first, second, and third shots
+sounded sharply in the stillness; and then the philosopher cried
+"False time!" as our rhythm was suddenly interrupted: for, like a
+lightning flash, a shooting star tore its way across the clouds after
+the third report, and almost involuntarily our fourth and fifth shots
+were sent after it in the direction it had taken.
+
+"False time!" said the philosopher again, "who told you to shoot
+stars! They can fall well enough without you! People should know what
+they want before they begin to handle weapons."
+
+And then we once more heard that loud melody from the waters of the
+Rhine, intoned by numerous and strong voices. "They understand us,"
+said the philosopher, laughing, "and who indeed could resist when
+such a dazzling phantom comes within range?" "Hush!" interrupted his
+friend, "what sort of a company can it be that returns the signal to
+us in such a way? I should say they were between twenty and forty
+strong, manly voices in that crowd--and where would such a number come
+from to greet us? They don't appear to have left the opposite bank of
+the Rhine yet; but at any rate we must have a look at them from our
+own side of the river. Come along, quickly!"
+
+We were then standing near the top of the hill, you may remember, and
+our view of the river was interrupted by a dark, thick wood. On the
+other hand, as I have told you, from the quiet little spot which we
+had left we could have a better view than from the little plateau on
+the hillside; and the Rhine, with the island of Nonnenwoerth in the
+middle, was just visible to the beholder who peered over the
+tree-tops. We therefore set off hastily towards this little spot,
+taking care, however, not to go too quickly for the philosopher's
+comfort. The night was pitch dark, and we seemed to find our way by
+instinct rather than by clearly distinguishing the path, as we walked
+down with the philosopher in the middle.
+
+We had scarcely reached our side of the river when a broad and fiery,
+yet dull and uncertain light shot up, which plainly came from the
+opposite side of the Rhine. "Those are torches," I cried, "there is
+nothing surer than that my comrades from Bonn are over yonder, and
+that your friend must be with them. It is they who sang that peculiar
+song, and they have doubtless accompanied your friend here. See!
+Listen! They are putting off in little boats. The whole torchlight
+procession will have arrived here in less than half an hour."
+
+The philosopher jumped back. "What do you say?" he ejaculated, "your
+comrades from Bonn--students--can my friend have come here with
+_students_?"
+
+This question, uttered almost wrathfully, provoked us. "What's your
+objection to students?" we demanded; but there was no answer. It was
+only after a pause that the philosopher slowly began to speak, not
+addressing us directly, as it were, but rather some one in the
+distance: "So, my friend, even at midnight, even on the top of a
+lonely mountain, we shall not be alone; and you yourself are bringing
+a pack of mischief-making students along with you, although you well
+know that I am only too glad to get out of the way of _hoc genus
+omne_. I don't quite understand you, my friend: it must mean something
+when we arrange to meet after a long separation at such an
+out-of-the-way place and at such an unusual hour. Why should we want a
+crowd of witnesses--and such witnesses! What calls us together to-day
+is least of all a sentimental, soft-hearted necessity; for both of us
+learnt early in life to live alone in dignified isolation. It was not
+for our own sakes, not to show our tender feelings towards each other,
+or to perform an unrehearsed act of friendship, that we decided to
+meet here; but that here, where I once came suddenly upon you as you
+sat in majestic solitude, we might earnestly deliberate with each
+other like knights of a new order. Let them listen to us who can
+understand us; but why should you bring with you a throng of people
+who don't understand us! I don't know what you mean by such a thing,
+my friend!"
+
+We did not think it proper to interrupt the dissatisfied old grumbler;
+and as he came to a melancholy close we did not dare to tell him how
+greatly this distrustful repudiation of students vexed us.
+
+At last the philosopher's companion turned to him and said: "I am
+reminded of the fact that even you at one time, before I made your
+acquaintance, occupied posts in several universities, and that reports
+concerning your intercourse with the students and your methods of
+instruction at the time are still in circulation. From the tone of
+resignation in which you have just referred to students many would be
+inclined to think that you had some peculiar experiences which were
+not at all to your liking; but personally I rather believe that you
+saw and experienced in such places just what every one else saw and
+experienced in them, but that you judged what you saw and felt more
+justly and severely than any one else. For, during the time I have
+known you, I have learnt that the most noteworthy, instructive, and
+decisive experiences and events in one's life are those which are of
+daily occurrence; that the greatest riddle, displayed in full view of
+all, is seen by the fewest to be the greatest riddle, and that these
+problems are spread about in every direction, under the very feet of
+the passers-by, for the few real philosophers to lift up carefully,
+thenceforth to shine as diamonds of wisdom. Perhaps, in the short time
+now left us before the arrival of your friend, you will be good enough
+to tell us something of your experiences of university life, so as to
+close the circle of observations, to which we were involuntarily
+urged, respecting our educational institutions. We may also be allowed
+to remind you that you, at an earlier stage of your remarks, gave me
+the promise that you would do so. Starting with the public school, you
+claimed for it an extraordinary importance: all other institutions
+must be judged by its standard, according as its aim has been
+proposed; and, if its aim happens to be wrong, all the others have to
+suffer. Such an importance cannot now be adopted by the universities
+as a standard; for, by their present system of grouping, they would be
+nothing more than institutions where public school students might go
+through finishing courses. You promised me that you would explain this
+in greater detail later on: perhaps our student friends can bear
+witness to that, if they chanced to overhear that part of our
+conversation."
+
+"We can testify to that," I put in. The philosopher then turned to us
+and said: "Well, if you really did listen attentively, perhaps you can
+now tell me what you understand by the expression 'the present aim of
+our public schools.' Besides, you are still near enough to this sphere
+to judge my opinions by the standard of your own impressions and
+experiences."
+
+My friend instantly answered, quickly and smartly, as was his habit,
+in the following words: "Until now we had always thought that the sole
+object of the public school was to prepare students for the
+universities. This preparation, however, should tend to make us
+independent enough for the extraordinarily free position of a
+university student;[9] for it seems to me that a student, to a greater
+extent than any other individual, has more to decide and settle for
+himself. He must guide himself on a wide, utterly unknown path for
+many years, so the public school must do its best to render him
+independent."
+
+I continued the argument where my friend left off. "It even seems to
+me," I said, "that everything for which you have justly blamed the
+public school is only a necessary means employed to imbue the youthful
+student with some kind of independence, or at all events with the
+belief that there is such a thing. The teaching of German composition
+must be at the service of this independence: the individual must enjoy
+his opinions and carry out his designs early, so that he may be able
+to travel alone and without crutches. In this way he will soon be
+encouraged to produce original work, and still sooner to take up
+criticism and analysis. If Latin and Greek studies prove insufficient
+to make a student an enthusiastic admirer of antiquity, the methods
+with which such studies are pursued are at all events sufficient to
+awaken the scientific sense, the desire for a more strict causality of
+knowledge, the passion for finding out and inventing. Only think how
+many young men may be lured away for ever to the attractions of
+science by a new reading of some sort which they have snatched up with
+youthful hands at the public school! The public school boy must learn
+and collect a great deal of varied information: hence an impulse will
+gradually be created, accompanied with which he will continue to learn
+and collect independently at the university. We believe, in short,
+that the aim of the public school is to prepare and accustom the
+student always to live and learn independently afterwards, just as
+beforehand he must live and learn dependently at the public school."
+
+The philosopher laughed, not altogether good-naturedly, and said: "You
+have just given me a fine example of that independence. And it is this
+very independence that shocks me so much, and makes any place in the
+neighbourhood of present-day students so disagreeable to me. Yes, my
+good friends, you are perfect, you are mature; nature has cast you and
+broken up the moulds, and your teachers must surely gloat over you.
+What liberty, certitude, and independence of judgment; what novelty
+and freshness of insight! You sit in judgment--and the cultures of all
+ages run away. The scientific sense is kindled, and rises out of you
+like a flame--let people be careful, lest you set them alight! If I go
+further into the question and look at your professors, I again find
+the same independence in a greater and even more charming degree:
+never was there a time so full of the most sublime independent folk,
+never was slavery more detested, the slavery of education and culture
+included.
+
+"Permit me, however, to measure this independence of yours by the
+standard of this culture, and to consider your university as an
+educational institution and nothing else. If a foreigner desires to
+know something of the methods of our universities, he asks first of
+all with emphasis: 'How is the student connected with the university?'
+We answer: 'By the ear, as a hearer.' The foreigner is astonished.
+'Only by the ear?' he repeats. 'Only by the ear,' we again reply. The
+student hears. When he speaks, when he sees, when he is in the company
+of his companions when he takes up some branch of art: in short, when
+he _lives_ he is independent, _i.e._ not dependent upon the
+educational institution. The student very often writes down something
+while he hears; and it is only at these rare moments that he hangs to
+the umbilical cord of his alma mater. He himself may choose what he is
+to listen to; he is not bound to believe what is said; he may close
+his ears if he does not care to hear. This is the 'acroamatic' method
+of teaching.
+
+"The teacher, however, speaks to these listening students. Whatever
+else he may think and do is cut off from the student's perception by
+an immense gap. The professor often reads when he is speaking. As a
+rule he wishes to have as many hearers as possible; he is not content
+to have a few, and he is never satisfied with one only. One speaking
+mouth, with many ears, and half as many writing hands--there you have
+to all appearances, the external academical apparatus; the university
+engine of culture set in motion. Moreover, the proprietor of this one
+mouth is severed from and independent of the owners of the many ears;
+and this double independence is enthusiastically designated as
+'academical freedom.' And again, that this freedom may be broadened
+still more, the one may speak what he likes and the other may hear
+what he likes; except that, behind both of them, at a modest distance,
+stands the State, with all the intentness of a supervisor, to remind
+the professors and students from time to time that _it_ is the aim,
+the goal, the be-all and end-all, of this curious speaking and hearing
+procedure.
+
+"We, who must be permitted to regard this phenomenon merely as an
+educational institution, will then inform the inquiring foreigner that
+what is called 'culture' in our universities merely proceeds from the
+mouth to the ear, and that every kind of training for culture is, as I
+said before, merely 'acroamatic.' Since, however, not only the
+hearing, but also the choice of what to hear is left to the
+independent decision of the liberal-minded and unprejudiced student,
+and since, again, he can withhold all belief and authority from what
+he hears, all training for culture, in the true sense of the term,
+reverts to himself; and the independence it was thought desirable to
+aim at in the public school now presents itself with the highest
+possible pride as 'academical self-training for culture,' and struts
+about in its brilliant plumage.
+
+"Happy times, when youths are clever and cultured enough to teach
+themselves how to walk! Unsurpassable public schools, which succeed in
+implanting independence in the place of the dependence, discipline,
+subordination, and obedience implanted by former generations that
+thought it their duty to drive away all the bumptiousness of
+independence! Do you clearly see, my good friends, why I, from the
+standpoint of culture, regard the present type of university as a mere
+appendage to the public school? The culture instilled by the public
+school passes through the gates of the university as something ready
+and entire, and with its own particular claims: _it_ demands, it gives
+laws, it sits in judgment. Do not, then, let yourselves be deceived in
+regard to the cultured student; for he, in so far as he thinks he has
+absorbed the blessings of education, is merely the public school boy
+as moulded by the hands of his teacher: one who, since his academical
+isolation, and after he has left the public school, has therefore been
+deprived of all further guidance to culture, that from now on he may
+begin to live by himself and be free.
+
+"Free! Examine this freedom, ye observers of human nature! Erected
+upon the sandy, crumbling foundation of our present public school
+culture, its building slants to one side, trembling before the
+whirlwind's blast. Look at the free student, the herald of
+self-culture: guess what his instincts are; explain him from his
+needs! How does his culture appear to you when you measure it by three
+graduated scales: first, by his need for philosophy; second, by his
+instinct for art; and third, by Greek and Roman antiquity as the
+incarnate categorical imperative of all culture?
+
+"Man is so much encompassed about by the most serious and difficult
+problems that, when they are brought to his attention in the right
+way, he is impelled betimes towards a lasting kind of philosophical
+wonder, from which alone, as a fruitful soil, a deep and noble culture
+can grow forth. His own experiences lead him most frequently to the
+consideration of these problems; and it is especially in the
+tempestuous period of youth that every personal event shines with a
+double gleam, both as the exemplification of a triviality and, at the
+same time, of an eternally surprising problem, deserving of
+explanation. At this age, which, as it were, sees his experiences
+encircled with metaphysical rainbows, man is, in the highest degree,
+in need of a guiding hand, because he has suddenly and almost
+instinctively convinced himself of the ambiguity of existence, and has
+lost the firm support of the beliefs he has hitherto held.
+
+"This natural state of great need must of course be looked upon as the
+worst enemy of that beloved independence for which the cultured youth
+of the present day should be trained. All these sons of the present,
+who have raised the banner of the 'self-understood,' are therefore
+straining every nerve to crush down these feelings of youth, to
+cripple them, to mislead them, or to stop their growth altogether;
+and the favourite means employed is to paralyse that natural
+philosophic impulse by the so-called "historical culture." A still
+recent system,[10] which has won for itself a world-wide scandalous
+reputation, has discovered the formula for this self-destruction of
+philosophy; and now, wherever the historical view of things is found,
+we can see such a naive recklessness in bringing the irrational to
+'rationality' and 'reason' and making black look like white, that one
+is even inclined to parody Hegel's phrase and ask: 'Is all this
+irrationality real?' Ah, it is only the irrational that now seems to
+be 'real,' _i.e._ really doing something; and to bring this kind of
+reality forward for the elucidation of history is reckoned as true
+'historical culture.' It is into this that the philosophical impulse
+of our time has pupated itself; and the peculiar philosophers of our
+universities seem to have conspired to fortify and confirm the young
+academicians in it.
+
+"It has thus come to pass that, in place of a profound interpretation
+of the eternally recurring problems, a historical--yea, even
+philological--balancing and questioning has entered into the
+educational arena: what this or that philosopher has or has not
+thought; whether this or that essay or dialogue is to be ascribed to
+him or not; or even whether this particular reading of a classical
+text is to be preferred to that. It is to neutral preoccupations with
+philosophy like these that our students in philosophical seminaries
+are stimulated; whence I have long accustomed myself to regard such
+science as a mere ramification of philology, and to value its
+representatives in proportion as they are good or bad philologists. So
+it has come about that _philosophy itself_ is banished from the
+universities: wherewith our first question as to the value of our
+universities from the standpoint of culture is answered.
+
+"In what relationship these universities stand to _art_ cannot be
+acknowledged without shame: in none at all. Of artistic thinking,
+learning, striving, and comparison, we do not find in them a single
+trace; and no one would seriously think that the voice of the
+universities would ever be raised to help the advancement of the
+higher national schemes of art. Whether an individual teacher feels
+himself to be personally qualified for art, or whether a professorial
+chair has been established for the training of aestheticising literary
+historians, does not enter into the question at all: the fact remains
+that the university is not in a position to control the young
+academician by severe artistic discipline, and that it must let happen
+what happens, willy-nilly--and this is the cutting answer to the
+immodest pretensions of the universities to represent themselves as
+the highest educational institutions.
+
+"We find our academical 'independents' growing up without philosophy
+and without art; and how can they then have any need to 'go in for'
+the Greeks and Romans?--for we need now no longer pretend, like our
+forefathers, to have any great regard for Greece and Rome, which,
+besides, sit enthroned in almost inaccessible loneliness and majestic
+alienation. The universities of the present time consequently give no
+heed to almost extinct educational predilections like these, and found
+their philological chairs for the training of new and exclusive
+generations of philologists, who on their part give similar
+philological preparation in the public schools--a vicious circle which
+is useful neither to philologists nor to public schools, but which
+above all accuses the university for the third time of not being what
+it so pompously proclaims itself to be--a training ground for culture.
+Take away the Greeks, together with philosophy and art, and what
+ladder have you still remaining by which to ascend to culture? For, if
+you attempt to clamber up the ladder without these helps, you must
+permit me to inform you that all your learning will lie like a heavy
+burden on your shoulders rather than furnishing you with wings and
+bearing you aloft.
+
+"If you honest thinkers have honourably remained in these three stages
+of intelligence, and have perceived that, in comparison with the
+Greeks, the modern student is unsuited to and unprepared for
+philosophy, that he has no truly artistic instincts, and is merely a
+barbarian believing himself to be free, you will not on this account
+turn away from him in disgust, although you will, of course, avoid
+coming into too close proximity with him. For, as he now is, _he is
+not to blame_: as you have perceived him he is the dumb but terrible
+accuser of those who are to blame.
+
+"You should understand the secret language spoken by this guilty
+innocent, and then you, too, would learn to understand the inward
+state of that independence which is paraded outwardly with so much
+ostentation. Not one of these noble, well-qualified youths has
+remained a stranger to that restless, tiring, perplexing, and
+debilitating need of culture: during his university term, when he is
+apparently the only free man in a crowd of servants and officials, he
+atones for this huge illusion of freedom by ever-growing inner doubts
+and convictions. He feels that he can neither lead nor help himself;
+and then he plunges hopelessly into the workaday world and endeavours
+to ward off such feelings by study. The most trivial bustle fastens
+itself upon him; he sinks under his heavy burden. Then he suddenly
+pulls himself together; he still feels some of that power within him
+which would have enabled him to keep his head above water. Pride and
+noble resolutions assert themselves and grow in him. He is afraid of
+sinking at this early stage into the limits of a narrow profession;
+and now he grasps at pillars and railings alongside the stream that he
+may not be swept away by the current. In vain! for these supports give
+way, and he finds he has clutched at broken reeds. In low and
+despondent spirits he sees his plans vanish away in smoke. His
+condition is undignified, even dreadful: he keeps between the two
+extremes of work at high pressure and a state of melancholy
+enervation. Then he becomes tired, lazy, afraid of work, fearful of
+everything great; and hating himself. He looks into his own breast,
+analyses his faculties, and finds he is only peering into hollow and
+chaotic vacuity. And then he once more falls from the heights of his
+eagerly-desired self-knowledge into an ironical scepticism. He divests
+his struggles of their real importance, and feels himself ready to
+undertake any class of useful work, however degrading. He now seeks
+consolation in hasty and incessant action so as to hide himself from
+himself. And thus his helplessness and the want of a leader towards
+culture drive him from one form of life into another: but doubt,
+elevation, worry, hope, despair--everything flings him hither and
+thither as a proof that all the stars above him by which he could have
+guided his ship have set.
+
+"There you have the picture of this glorious independence of yours, of
+that academical freedom, reflected in the highest minds--those which
+are truly in need of culture, compared with whom that other crowd of
+indifferent natures does not count at all, natures that delight in
+their freedom in a purely barbaric sense. For these latter show by
+their base smugness and their narrow professional limitations that
+this is the right element for them: against which there is nothing to
+be said. Their comfort, however, does not counter-balance the
+suffering of one single young man who has an inclination for culture
+and feels the need of a guiding hand, and who at last, in a moment of
+discontent, throws down the reins and begins to despise himself. This
+is the guiltless innocent; for who has saddled him with the
+unbearable burden of standing alone? Who has urged him on to
+independence at an age when one of the most natural and peremptory
+needs of youth is, so to speak, a self-surrendering to great leaders
+and an enthusiastic following in the footsteps of the masters?
+
+"It is repulsive to consider the effects to which the violent
+suppression of such noble natures may lead. He who surveys the
+greatest supporters and friends of that pseudo-culture of the present
+time, which I so greatly detest, will only too frequently find among
+them such degenerate and shipwrecked men of culture, driven by inward
+despair to violent enmity against culture, when, in a moment of
+desperation, there was no one at hand to show them how to attain it.
+It is not the worst and most insignificant people whom we afterwards
+find acting as journalists and writers for the press in the
+metamorphosis of despair: the spirit of some well-known men of letters
+might even be described, and justly, as degenerate studentdom. How
+else, for example, can we reconcile that once well-known 'young
+Germany' with its present degenerate successors? Here we discover a
+need of culture which, so to speak, has grown mutinous, and which
+finally breaks out into the passionate cry: I am culture! There,
+before the gates of the public schools and universities, we can see
+the culture which has been driven like a fugitive away from these
+institutions. True, this culture is without the erudition of those
+establishments, but assumes nevertheless the mien of a sovereign; so
+that, for example, Gutzkow the novelist might be pointed to as the
+best example of a modern public school boy turned aesthete. Such a
+degenerate man of culture is a serious matter, and it is a horrifying
+spectacle for us to see that all our scholarly and journalistic
+publicity bears the stigma of this degeneracy upon it. How else can we
+do justice to our learned men, who pay untiring attention to, and even
+co-operate in the journalistic corruption of the people, how else than
+by the acknowledgment that their learning must fill a want of their
+own similar to that filled by novel-writing in the case of others:
+_i.e._ a flight from one's self, an ascetic extirpation of their
+cultural impulses, a desperate attempt to annihilate their own
+individuality. From our degenerate literary art, as also from that
+itch for scribbling of our learned men which has now reached such
+alarming proportions, wells forth the same sigh: Oh that we could
+forget ourselves! The attempt fails: memory, not yet suffocated by the
+mountains of printed paper under which it is buried, keeps on
+repeating from time to time: 'A degenerate man of culture! Born for
+culture and brought up to non-culture! Helpless barbarian, slave of
+the day, chained to the present moment, and thirsting for
+something--ever thirsting!'
+
+"Oh, the miserable guilty innocents! For they lack something, a need
+that every one of them must have felt: a real educational institution,
+which could give them goals, masters, methods, companions; and from
+the midst of which the invigorating and uplifting breath of the true
+German spirit would inspire them. Thus they perish in the wilderness;
+thus they degenerate into enemies of that spirit which is at bottom
+closely allied to their own; thus they pile fault upon fault higher
+than any former generation ever did, soiling the clean, desecrating
+the holy, canonising the false and spurious. It is by them that you
+can judge the educational strength of our universities, asking
+yourselves, in all seriousness, the question: What cause did you
+promote through them? The German power of invention, the noble German
+desire for knowledge, the qualifying of the German for diligence and
+self-sacrifice--splendid and beautiful things, which other nations
+envy you; yea, the finest and most magnificent things in the world, if
+only that true German spirit overspread them like a dark thundercloud,
+pregnant with the blessing of forthcoming rain. But you are afraid of
+this spirit, and it has therefore come to pass that a cloud of another
+sort has thrown a heavy and oppressive atmosphere around your
+universities, in which your noble-minded scholars breathe wearily and
+with difficulty.
+
+"A tragic, earnest, and instructive attempt was made in the present
+century to destroy the cloud I have last referred to, and also to turn
+the people's looks in the direction of the high welkin of the German
+spirit. In all the annals of our universities we cannot find any trace
+of a second attempt, and he who would impressively demonstrate what is
+now necessary for us will never find a better example. I refer to the
+old, primitive _Burschenschaft_.[11]
+
+"When the war of liberation was over, the young student brought back
+home the unlooked-for and worthiest trophy of battle--the freedom of
+his fatherland. Crowned with this laurel he thought of something still
+nobler. On returning to the university, and finding that he was
+breathing heavily, he became conscious of that oppressive and
+contaminated air which overhung the culture of the university. He
+suddenly saw, with horror-struck, wide-open eyes, the non-German
+barbarism, hiding itself in the guise of all kinds of scholasticism;
+he suddenly discovered that his own leaderless comrades were abandoned
+to a repulsive kind of youthful intoxication. And he was exasperated.
+He rose with the same aspect of proud indignation as Schiller may have
+had when reciting the _Robbers_ to his companions: and if he had
+prefaced his drama with the picture of a lion, and the motto, 'in
+tyrannos,' his follower himself was that very lion preparing to
+spring; and every 'tyrant' began to tremble. Yes, if these indignant
+youths were looked at superficially and timorously, they would seem to
+be little else than Schiller's robbers: their talk sounded so wild to
+the anxious listener that Rome and Sparta seemed mere nunneries
+compared with these new spirits. The consternation raised by these
+young men was indeed far more general than had ever been caused by
+those other 'robbers' in court circles, of which a German prince,
+according to Goethe, is said to have expressed the opinion: 'If he had
+been God, and had foreseen the appearance of the _Robbers_, he would
+not have created the world.'
+
+"Whence came the incomprehensible intensity of this alarm? For those
+young men were the bravest, purest, and most talented of the band both
+in dress and habits: they were distinguished by a magnanimous
+recklessness and a noble simplicity. A divine command bound them
+together to seek harder and more pious superiority: what could be
+feared from them? To what extent this fear was merely deceptive or
+simulated or really true is something that will probably never be
+exactly known; but a strong instinct spoke out of this fear and out of
+its disgraceful and senseless persecution. This instinct hated the
+Burschenschaft with an intense hatred for two reasons: first of all on
+account of its organisation, as being the first attempt to construct a
+true educational institution, and, secondly, on account of the spirit
+of this institution, that earnest, manly, stern, and daring German
+spirit; that spirit of the miner's son, Luther, which has come down to
+us unbroken from the time of the Reformation.
+
+"Think of the _fate_ of the Burschenschaft when I ask you, Did the
+German university then understand that spirit, as even the German
+princes in their hatred appear to have understood it? Did the alma
+mater boldly and resolutely throw her protecting arms round her noble
+sons and say: 'You must kill me first, before you touch my children?'
+I hear your answer--by it you may judge whether the German university
+is an educational institution or not.
+
+"The student knew at that time at what depth a true educational
+institution must take root, namely, in an inward renovation and
+inspiration of the purest moral faculties. And this must always be
+repeated to the student's credit. He may have learnt on the field of
+battle what he could learn least of all in the sphere of 'academical
+freedom': that great leaders are necessary, and that all culture begins
+with obedience. And in the midst of victory, with his thoughts turned to
+his liberated fatherland, he made the vow that he would remain German.
+German! Now he learnt to understand his Tacitus; now he grasped the
+signification of Kant's categorical imperative; now he was enraptured by
+Weber's "Lyre and Sword" songs.[12] The gates of philosophy, of art,
+yea, even of antiquity, opened unto him; and in one of the most
+memorable of bloody acts, the murder of Kotzebue, he revenged--with
+penetrating insight and enthusiastic short-sightedness--his one and only
+Schiller, prematurely consumed by the opposition of the stupid world:
+Schiller, who could have been his leader, master, and organiser, and
+whose loss he now bewailed with such heartfelt resentment.
+
+"For that was the doom of those promising students: they did not find
+the leaders they wanted. They gradually became uncertain,
+discontented, and at variance among themselves; unlucky indiscretions
+showed only too soon that the one indispensability of powerful minds
+was lacking in the midst of them: and, while that mysterious murder
+gave evidence of astonishing strength, it gave no less evidence of the
+grave danger arising from the want of a leader. They were
+leaderless--therefore they perished.
+
+"For I repeat it, my friends! All culture begins with the very
+opposite of that which is now so highly esteemed as 'academical
+freedom': with obedience, with subordination, with discipline, with
+subjection. And as leaders must have followers so also must the
+followers have a leader--here a certain reciprocal predisposition
+prevails in the hierarchy of spirits: yea, a kind of pre-established
+harmony. This eternal hierarchy, towards which all things naturally
+tend, is always threatened by that pseudo-culture which now sits on
+the throne of the present. It endeavours either to bring the leaders
+down to the level of its own servitude or else to cast them out
+altogether. It seduces the followers when they are seeking their
+predestined leader, and overcomes them by the fumes of its narcotics.
+When, however, in spite of all this, leader and followers have at last
+met, wounded and sore, there is an impassioned feeling of rapture,
+like the echo of an ever-sounding lyre, a feeling which I can let you
+divine only by means of a simile.
+
+"Have you ever, at a musical rehearsal, looked at the strange,
+shrivelled-up, good-natured species of men who usually form the German
+orchestra? What changes and fluctuations we see in that capricious
+goddess 'form'! What noses and ears, what clumsy, _danse macabre_
+movements! Just imagine for a moment that you were deaf, and had never
+dreamed of the existence of sound or music, and that you were looking
+upon the orchestra as a company of actors, and trying to enjoy their
+performance as a drama and nothing more. Undisturbed by the idealising
+effect of the sound, you could never see enough of the stern,
+medieval, wood-cutting movement of this comical spectacle, this
+harmonious parody on the _homo sapiens_.
+
+"Now, on the other hand, assume that your musical sense has returned,
+and that your ears are opened. Look at the honest conductor at the
+head of the orchestra performing his duties in a dull, spiritless
+fashion: you no longer think of the comical aspect of the whole scene,
+you listen--but it seems to you that the spirit of tediousness spreads
+out from the honest conductor over all his companions. Now you see
+only torpidity and flabbiness, you hear only the trivial, the
+rhythmically inaccurate, and the melodiously trite. You see the
+orchestra only as an indifferent, ill-humoured, and even wearisome
+crowd of players.
+
+"But set a genius--a real genius--in the midst of this crowd; and you
+instantly perceive something almost incredible. It is as if this
+genius, in his lightning transmigration, had entered into these
+mechanical, lifeless bodies, and as if only one demoniacal eye gleamed
+forth out of them all. Now look and listen--you can never listen
+enough! When you again observe the orchestra, now loftily storming,
+now fervently wailing, when you notice the quick tightening of every
+muscle and the rhythmical necessity of every gesture, then you too
+will feel what a pre-established harmony there is between leader and
+followers, and how in the hierarchy of spirits everything impels us
+towards the establishment of a like organisation. You can divine from
+my simile what I would understand by a true educational institution,
+and why I am very far from recognising one in the present type of
+university."
+
+     [From a few MS. notes written down by Nietzsche in the spring
+     and autumn of 1872, and still preserved in the Nietzsche
+     Archives at Weimar, it is evident that he at one time
+     intended to add a sixth and seventh lecture to the five just
+     given. These notes, although included in the latest edition
+     of Nietzsche's works, are utterly lacking in interest and
+     continuity, being merely headings and sub-headings of
+     sections in the proposed lectures. They do not, indeed,
+     occupy more than two printed pages, and were deemed too
+     fragmentary for translation in this edition.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] The reader may be reminded that a German university student is
+subject to very few restrictions, and that much greater liberty is
+allowed him than is permitted to English students. Nietzsche did not
+approve of this extraordinary freedom, which, in his opinion, led to
+intellectual lawlessness.--TR.
+
+[10] Hegel's.--TR.
+
+[11] A German students' association, of liberal principles, founded
+for patriotic purposes at Jena in 1813.
+
+[12] Weber set one or two of Koerner's "Lyre and Sword" songs to music.
+The reader will remember that these lectures were delivered when
+Nietzsche was only in his twenty-eighth year. Like Goethe, he
+afterwards freed himself from all patriotic trammels and prejudices,
+and aimed at a general European culture. Luther, Schiller, Kant,
+Koerner, and Weber did not continue to be the objects of his veneration
+for long, indeed, they were afterwards violently attacked by him, and
+the superficial student who speaks of inconsistency may be reminded of
+Nietzsche's phrase in stanza 12 of the epilogue to _Beyond Good and
+Evil_: "Nur wer sich wandelt, bleibt mit mir verwandt"; _i.e._ only
+the changing ones have anything in common with me.--TR.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                   |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Page 124: neigbourhood replaced with neighbourhood        |
+    | Page 130: universites replaced by universities            |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Future of our Educational
+Institutions, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 28146.txt or 28146.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/4/28146/
+
+Produced by Thanks to Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/28146.zip b/28146.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2420f3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/28146.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a7ffa8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #28146 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28146)