The German Gymnasium in Its Working Order

GERMAN schools may be divided into three leading classes: the Gymnasium, the Real-school, and the Bürger-school. The gymnasium ranks first, not only in regard to patronage, — it is favored by those holding high rank in life by merit, position, and birth, which does not, however, exclude a large attendance of other classes, — but also in regard to the results at which it aims. And why ? Because the gymnasia are schools where pupils are trained, not for a special walk in life, but to bring them under the influence of such general truths and such general instruction as shall not only help them most effectually in any studies and professional pursuits they may enter upon later in life, but shall remain a storehouse of ideas and acquirements which neither rust nor moth consumes, from which the recipients are able to draw comfort and delight in all vicissitudes of life, and which give the student the sure means for further intellectual development. The very word “ gymnasia ” suggests what these schools are, namely, palæstrae : not for the body, however, but for the mind, preparing and strengthening the student for intellectual life. Their aim, as is stated in the educational constitution of these schools, is not merely to help the student in acquiring such a degree of classical and scholarly education as is needed for a thorough understanding of the systematic and learned lectures at the universities, but to equip him with a mode of thinking and feeling which befits ennobled humanity. In this way the gymnasia have done their work for many decades ; and if we review their history, we cannot but pay them the tribute that, though conservative, they have been duly progressive, too; that they have adhered to the principle both of " go ahead ” and of “ hold fast.”The materialistic tendency of the age, to be sure, they have never favored, and as this materialistic tendency has gained ascendency they have severed themselves from the newly rising schools in which learning and intellectual pursuits are treated rather as the means than as the end to be attained. Not that they have left their programmes unchanged during the last century, but they have always maintained firmly that carrying utilitarian principles into their curriculum would lower their standard, and would deprive those who desire them of higher intellectual blessings, and thus would not satisfy their demands on life.” There is a vast difference, as a great writer has said, between worshiping science as a high, heavenly goddess and regarding it merely as a fine cow which provides us with butter.

The name “ gymnasia ” as applicable to schools dates back as far as the sixteenth century, and the record of some of these schools extends even to the fourteenth century, although the term became generally established for all schools of the highest grade only in the year 1812 ; some having passed until then by such names as college, lyceum, etc. This historic background has by no means been unimportant and insignificant in the development of the gymnasia at large. Whether we are conscious of it or not, the historic spirit does hold a mighty sway over us all, — age implying experience, — and I do not think at the present day the firmness of the system, which does not bear the slightest mark of experimenting, could be maintained in these schools if it were not for historic growth and historic results that speak so much in their favor ; for the large majority of German scholars who have stocked the libraries with valuable works in all branches of learning were bred in these schools.

In former centuries they were independent, but of late they have all come under the supervision of the state government, which has laid out one universal course for all of them ; inspects them through its commissioners ; insists most rigidly, without any regard to numbers, upon the maintenance of the prescribed standard; and tests the teachers before considering them competent to fill a position. The Germans have always been treated more or less like children by the government. Can we wonder that the government assumed a paternal position in the most important phase of life, education ? Moreover, it has not abused this position. To be sure, this paternal government has often proved a drawback to the people; it has tended to deprive them individually of a feeling of self-reliance and independence of action, which, in their places, deserve due admiration; but in schools this supervision and provision have had the very best influence, keeping up a high judicious standard of intellectual development independent of any popular interference, and thus securing and preserving unspeakable blessings. I do not wish to give the impression that the educational system of Germany or of any other country could by its excellence claim the right of being transferred just as it is to another country. No educational system is transferable in toto. The very difference that exists between the character and life of various nations would make such a scheme impracticable. Countries may learn from each other, but each must work out its own national education. Here, too, as in so many spheres of life, the maxim holds good that " one thing is not befitting for all,” and it applies especially in regard to discipline. Having been for sixteen years a teacher in American schools, which means as many years as I was a student in German institutions, I have arrived at the firm conviction that American boys can be managed to better advantage by what I may call the American method of discipline, which consists to a great extent of a judicious appeal to the manliness and honor of the boys, than by the German method, which is rather an absolutism on the part of the teacher. But the German boy is by nature differently constituted; his surroundings, his home life, the whole aspect of private and public life, are different; his future differs in all these respects. Next to complete mastership of the subjects to be taught and natural or acquired ability for imparting knowledge, the most essential requisite for real success on the part of the teacher is sound judgment and understanding of the very character of those he has to deal with, and of the circumstances under which they live and will have to live. There is a dissimilarity of national character and life which must be taken into account with reference to pedagogy in shaping the educational system.

The regular German gymnasium is divided into six classes, Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, Sexta; the upper three forms requiring a course of two years each, the lower three a course of one year each, so that the time a pupil is expected to spend at the gymnasium amounts to nine years in all. A boy who is to enter Sexta must have passed his ninth year, and must prove by written and oral examinations, to be held in the presence of all the faculty, that he has had such a preparation as is equivalent to three years’ regular instruction in a public school or private fitting-school of good standing. He must be able to read ordinary German and Latin type with fluency; must be acquainted with the elementary rules of the parts of speech ; must be capable of following dictation of easy German in good, plain writing without any gross mistakes in spelling; must be firm in the principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers; must be acquainted with the outlines of the history of the Old and New Testaments ; must have some elementary knowledge of geography, especially of tlic geography of the state in which he lives; and must have acquired the first elements of drawing. This seems, indeed, a large requirement for a boy at the age of nine or ten, but it is accomplished, and how ? During the earlier years the whole tendency of the instruction is to have the boy do as much work as possible in the class-room, under the guidance of the teacher. Consequently the number of recitations appears exorbitant during that period, but we must take into consideration that the hours for preparing the lessons are comparatively few. All the principles involved in the lesson have been most carefully explained and practically applied beforehand, so that it requires comparatively little time to get the lessons ready for recitation. In this way much misapplied time and useless labor are saved, there is little to be unlearned, and at an early age the boy becomes acquainted with proper habits of thinking and working. The large number of hours in the gymnasium, especially for the lower forms, must likewise be considered from this point of view, else thirty or thirty-two hours a week — that is, from seven to eleven in summer, eight to twelve in winter, during the forenoon, and two to four during the afternoon, with the exception of Wednesday and Saturday, when no afternoon sessions are held — would seem an unreasonable amount for a boy at the age from nine to fourteen. But during this period it took us, to the best of my recollection, only one hour and a half or two hours a day to prepare our lessons; and the study-hours were chosen judiciously, so that we might do good work in the least possible time. Work never followed closely upon a substantial meal, for “ Plenus venter non studet libenter ” is a maxim with which we became early acquainted, and which I should like to translate into English thus: The condition of digesting a heavy meal is not the proper condition for doing good mental work. We were, as a rule, not allowed to eat as much as we felt inclined to, nor at all times when it suited our pleasure ; and, on the whole, everything was avoided that might interfere with our work and distract our minds when we were studying. The hours of play were strictly divided from those of study, absolute quiet was required and provided for when we prepared our lessons, and from the very beginning we learned to look at work earnestly, as at something which demanded our full and undivided attention. Nine hours for sleep, seven or eight hours for work, and seven or eight hours for recreation is, after all, a division of time that will not injure the health of an average boy between nine and fourteen. The excellent methods of guidance on the part of the teachers, together with the judicious regulation of life in general, enabled us to accomplish, with such a division of time, the large requirements set before us at that age, and at the same time imbued us early with habits of punctuality, order, resignation, earnestness, and concentration, which contribute greatly to the saving of time, and thus permit a larger amount of work to be done.

All this could readily be effected by the mutual understanding which existed between teachers and parents. As a rule, the father of the boy bad been in the gymnasium himself, and valued highly what he had carried away from it. He listened to no complaints on the part of the boy ; be had the utmost confidence in the teachers whose competency had been so thoroughly tested, and he granted them the privilege of advising him as to the best plans and methods to which the life and work of the boy should conform outside of school. The student whose parents did not reside in the town where the gymnasium was located could live only in such families as were recommended by the principal, and was visited constantly in his quarters by the teachers who watched his habits. If a boy were seen too much in the street at times when he ought to study, both he and his guardians were given warning. The teacher was, indeed, everything to the boy,—he was the absolute authority ; and disagreeable as it seemed at times even to the naturally submissive German student, as a rule he looks back upon these stern masters with gratitude and respect; for not only were they able men, hut they labored day and night for the welfare of those entrusted to them, and for the purpose of securing high attainments at an early age they took a great deal of work upon their own shoulders.

The subject which is always placed first in the catalogue of any gymnasium is religion. It absorbs three hours a week in the lower forms, and two in the upper. The course includes Bible history, catechism, with memorizing of Bible verses as references and of old church hymns, Bible reading with exegesis, moral philosophy as based upon the teachings of Christianity, and church history. The teachers of religion are invariably theologians, it being the law that no religious instruction shall be given, at least in the upper and middle forms, by any one but a teacher who is a graduate in theology; and being a graduate in theology means to have passed through the gymnasium, and to have pursued the study of theology for three or four years at one of the universities. Men who have undergone such training successfully are apt to know what they are about when they come to teach ; and it has always seemed strange to me that while in all other branches we should demand skilled men as instructors, religion should be considered a subject which anybody might undertake to teach. All teaching ought to be done by persons whose minds have been sufficiently educated to treat the subject systematically, logically, and in general judiciously. If it is lacking in these respects, it hurts not only the common cause of education, but above all the pupil’s mind, that ought never to be exposed to the dangers of inaccurate instruction. The predominant feature of the work which the theologians did in these schools was that they set forth the history of the Bible scientifically, taught its doctrines of belief and morals systematically, and adapted those doctrines to the present age judiciously. I admit that I was perhaps specially favored in regard to the teachers I had in this branch of instruction, but I certainly owe them nothing but deep-felt gratitude for the many lasting blessings they bestowed upon heart and soul ; for besides treating the course scientifically, they appealed warmly to our religious feeling, and endeavored to arouse and strengthen it, being themselves thoroughly imbued with the worth of Christianity.

The next branch of study, the mothertongue, has obtained only in this century a more prominent position in the curriculum as a separate study, with three hours a week in the lower forms, two in Tertia and Secunda, and three again in Prima. The phonetic element of the German language is such as to facilitate the acquisition of correct reading and spelling. Oral spelling exercises of words are hardly practiced at all, but spelling is taught almost exclusively by writing, dictation, and reading, and the dictation exercises have the excellent effect of enabling the boy at an early age to take notes during the recitations. He soon finds out that without taking notes he cannot keep pace at all in any branch of study, since in his further course of education the teacher elaborates the work to a great extent from his own resources; creates what is called class-grammars, suited to the needs of the class; and requires the student to remember such commentations as he furnishes with the reading. It is evident what vitality the work must gain in this way.

At the age of thirteen a German boy has been carried so far as to write and speak his language correctly; and as to reading, a boy is not admitted to the third form unless he can read firmly, distinctly, and intelligently. The greatest exactness is required in this respect. The laws of punctuation are closely watched; the slightest transposition of words, be it ever so insignificant, is never allowed to pass; and here too, at an early age, the boy becomes deeply impressed with that leading principle which runs through the whole system of education. that there are no two ways about truth. Parsing is never practiced in connection with reading in the student’s vernacular, and exactness in distinguishing the parts of speech is obtained through the medium of other languages by comparison. Such a thing, for instance, as parsing a classical poem like Goethe’s Hermann und Dorothea, analogous to the practice of parsing Milton’s Paradise Lost until it really becomes a lost paradise, was unheard of in those schools. As the instruction in German advances, the “ gymnasiast " reads in the class-room the leading works of prose and poetry. Special stress is laid upon developing the faculty of expounding thoughts in all their bearings, and upon developing the faculty of individual thinking. Free composition exercises are required every month, the sphere of subjects widening with the general course of the class, be it in Latin, Greek, history, French, or German, all teachers keeping in touch with each department, which they can do the more easily as the whole course runs in fixed channels. During the last four years the composition exercises consist of more extensive essays, only one being required every quarter of a year; and special stress is laid upon a clear, logical division and arrangement of the subject, it being usually required that the student should set forth by numbers the main divisions of his essay, and confine his thoughts to the headings, without indulging in vague digressions. The course in reading is now laid out in connection with the history of literature, a good deal of attention being paid to MiddleHigh-German and the language of the Nibelungen ; also to ancient German mythology, which, as all mythology, introduces the student to the very spirit and character of the people of ancient times. The final results to be attained from the instruction in German are these : to render the student perfectly familiar with the spirit and history of German literature, to sharpen his critical judgment, to educate his taste, and above all to make him master of a correct and skillful use of his own language both in speaking and writing, and thus master of a systematic and logical way of thinking ; for there is “ no reason without language ” and " no language without reason,” as appears on the title-page of Max Muller’s recent work on The Science of Thought. The composition exercises or essays are considered by all teachers as the best criterion of the student’s general mental development, and he who does not come up to the standard in these can never expect to be promoted, especially as deficiency in this respect, from its very nature, must usually be coincident with deficiency in other branches.

I approach now those two subjects which, in the way they are taught, are preeminently the exclusive property of the gymnasium, namely, Latin and Greek. To Latin were given, in my time, nine years, with about ten or eleven hours a week ; the number is now, however, reduced to eight or nine. It is the language kατ έξoχήv, with which the student becomes so well acquainted that he finally uses it for speaking and writing by the side of his vernacular in the class-room. It is the comparative language from which he learns to understand his own more thoroughly ; for the saying that no one understands his own language until he has learned another is quite true. It seems to me a wise plan to have chosen for this purpose a language which is no longer subject to any change. Moreover, there is such a thing as denationalization, and the very first step to it is taken by acquiring a second language so as to use it equally with one’s own every day ; for no one can deny the reciprocal influence which language exercises on man who made language, and in turn is to a great extent made by language what he is. With a dead language there is no possibility of its having a practically denationalizing effect upon the character of its devotees, and the very remoteness and difference of the Roman age from the modern Christian age on the one hand diminish the danger of an exaggerated assimilation, and on the other hand increase the facilities for enlarging the horizon of thought. The time when the French literature and language were used equally with German in Germany was not a prosperous time in German history. Rome’s decline was coincident with the introduction of another language into the very life of the people. Those nations which have not one established language are not the leading nations of the world. Moreover, the necessity for having one language as the general medium of expression is most apparent in this country, where English has superseded and does constantly supersede all other languages, in spite of a large foreign population. The saying that no one can speak two languages is by no means a contradiction to the above saying that no one can understand his own language until he has learned another; but it must be taken cum grano salts.My own experience has made me take it in this sense: it is most essential that one’s daily thoughts should find expression in one fixed channel of speech; it is most essential not only for the sake of communication, but also for the sake of being in full harmony with one’s self and with one’s surroundings. When I came to this country and found the English language prevailing everywhere, my first resolution was to strain every nerve to make myself as familiar with English as with my mother-tongue,—to abandon the practical use of German, which I could never forget after having been so thoroughly rooted in it; and I found, as soon as the channel for conveying thought was unobstructed and uniform, that I was what I desired to be, in harmony with the people and myself. Now, in the gymnasium, the Latin course, it seems to me, tends to make the student as well acquainted with the language as can be done by thorough-going study, and thus acquaints him with the very spirit of the people; but as there are no longer any Romans, as the language is an ancient and dead one, unfitted for practical use, the possibility of duality of speech is excluded per se. Latin can never have the unsettling influence which the parallel use of a coexisting language, belonging to a coexisting people, is apt to exercise, especially on the juvenile mind. I have often heard it said, How nice it is for children to speak two modern languages! I do not agree with this view: first, because in all such cases I have universally found that each language loses at the expense of the other, and it is better to speak one well than to speak two “ confoundedly ; ” and then, even if two languages could be carried along with equal accuracy in every-day life, such a practice cannot but have an unsettling effect upon the mind. Let Latin be taught thoroughly, and it will be easy enough to acquire later any living language without much effort.

To begin with pronunciation, there is only one method for pronouncing Latin throughout Germany, and Latin text is read with the same fluency and expression as the mother-tongue. This is no slight advantage. He who is well read in the literatures of the leading historic peoples cannot fail, indeed, to see the universality of human thought. The truth, to be sure, exists before men express it; but as its expression would lose force if we read its statement like a vocabulary of disconnected words in our own language, so it must gain reality when we read it according to its very spirit in a foreign tongue. I will not enter here into the question of what method of Latin pronunciation can claim the best right for universal acceptance, but one appeal I desire to make, namely: let the Latin professors of colleges and academies come to an understanding as to one method, which shall be rigidly enforced and shall be one of the requirements for admission. What a firm basis uniformity of pronunciation would lend to the knowledge of Latin in this country, how much labor and time it would save both teacher and student, how much misunderstanding it would exclude ! As the simplest method seems to be the one used at Harvard, I wish it would be adopted throughout the country.

As Latin is the first language besides his own with which the student becomes acquainted, the teaching of Latin grammar is very minute. From the Latin grammar the student is expected to acquire such grammatical knowledge as is applicable to all languages. The grammatical channel to which Latin can be confined will indeed hold all other tongues. Grammar is read carefully in the class-room during the first years; its rules are thoroughly explained and recited afterwards ; the student is instructed accurately as to the bearing of the principles involved, while his pensum consists chiefly in their practical application. A great deal of translation at sight is carried on from the very beginning, under the guidance of the teacher. One written exercise is handed in every week ; besides this, one so-called extemporale, which is written in the class-room from dictation; that is, the teacher reads in German and the class writes in Latin. These exercises are corrected outside of the class, are marked according to their merit, and are discussed during the first half hour of the next recitation. Connected prose is not taken up before the third year, Cornelius Nepos being the first author that is read. Up to that time the reading consists of easy prose sentences, well chosen, and introducing the student gradually to more complicated constructions. In preparing the lessons the student is not allowed to use special dictionaries; at least we were not. Each student was required to have a large dictionary ; for instance, the one by Georges. I am glad now that this rule was enforced. A scholarly, comprehensive dictionary develops the meanings of a word step by step, shows the history of the word, and furnishes the connecting links between the various meanings. Thus it cultivates the habit of cohesive thinking, at the same time compelling the student to use and sharpen his own judgment in selecting from a variety of meanings. We were required to write down any word with which we were unfamiliar, in the form in which we found it in the lexicon, and then always the literal meaning first; and if this meaning did not seem to fit, one or two other meanings which we thought proper. These vocabularies were inspected by the teacher and committed to memory, special stress being laid on a knowledge of the literal meaning, which furnishes, indeed, in most instances the key to a variety of significations. The word had more or less become our own property already when we wrote it down and chose its rendering, and it was much easier to commit it to memory from our own handwriting than from any vocabulary found in books. We took pleasure in seeing these lists of words constantly grow smaller, and together with the excellent exercise of the extemporalia they helped us greatly in acquiring a ready command of words.

The authors read were : Nepos, six books of Caesar, Cicero’s Catilinarian, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Cicero’s De Imperio Cn. Pompeii, Pro Roseio, Pro Archia, Cato Major, Sallust’s Catilinarian Conspiracy, Livy, Vergil, Cicero’s Tuscuianæ, De Officiis, Lælius, Pro Milone, Pro Sestio, Pro Murena, Verrime IV. and V., Tacitus, Horace, Terence, Catullus. Latin verses were constantly committed to memory, especially such as might introduce us to the philosophy of Roman life and thought. Versification was practiced in the upper forms, and tended to give us command of synonymous expressions as well as knowledge of syllabic quantity. From Secunda upwards a Latin composition had to be handed in every three months on a given subject, ten pages at least being required for each essay. Written translations and extemporalia were continued. In translating a Latin author into our vernacular great stress was laid on entering into the very spirit of the passage, and rendering it as it would be expressed naturally in our own language. Comical mistakes happened quite often in this process of forcing the student to jump from ancient times and expressions to modern ones. Thus a student once rendered “ Quibus rebus cognitis Cæsar summa diligentia in Galliam profectus est ” by “ After hearing of this condition of affairs, Cæsar traveled on the top of the diligence into France.” Exercises in Latin discussion are carried on in the upper forms : the student is required to read five chapters a week, for instance, from Tacitus or Livy, and to state the contents in Latin freely, or in reply to Latin questions. The whole aim of the course is this: to secure by careful grammatical instruction not only a thorough acquaintance with the Latin language, but a firm basis of universal grammatical knowledge which may enable the student to acquire readily the mastery of any language, and to introduce him to the spirit and life of classical antiquity.

The course in Greek covers seven years at six or seven hours a week, beginning with Quarta. Greek is pronounced with the same fluency as Latin. Grammatical instruction is also very much the same as with Latin; free composition exercises are, however, excluded. Extemporalia from dictation are continued throughout the course. The authors read are Xenophon, who is taken up towards the end of the second year ; Homer, who is kept alive throughout the course, as all the Odyssey and Iliad are to be read ; Lysias; Herodotus; Plato’s Apologia, Crito, Phædo; four books of Thucydides; six orations of Demosthenes ; three plays of Sophocles, one of Euripides, and one of Æschylus. The weekly hours for reading are divided between prose and poetry, with a preponderance in favor of prose. Well-chosen passages from the respective authors are committed to memory. In Prima, students were sometimes appointed to declaim in German a whole oration of Demosthenes which had been translated and thoroughly explained. Of course the preparation for such an exercise did not consist simply in memorizing, but in a careful analysis of the whole oration. The practice of directing our attention to special passages was also a very excellent one. Such passages were constantly called for in the further course of reading, and thus we attained skill in looking up references. The aim of the instruction was to bring about a thorough-going knowledge of the grammar and the structure of the language, so that the student might be able to read at sight, with due allowance for very difficult passages, the authors appointed for Prima, — for example, Thucydides ; and, above all, to introduce him, by means of the excellent mental discipline the course implies, to the very spirit of the Grecian age, in which so many treasures of human knowledge, art, and science lie concealed, and which can never be fully appreciated and understood without a knowledge of the beautiful language of the Greeks itself.

In connection with Greek there was also in Prima a course in philosophic propædeutics. Trendelenburg’s handbook of logic was used for this purpose, which contains chiefly passages from Aristotle, and sets forth the outlines of logic. The teacher supplemented these by lectures.

French takes the fifth position in the curriculum. Instruction in this language was taken up in Quinta, when three hours a week were given to it, the next year five, and the remaining six years two, so that it formed a regular branch of instruction for eight years at an average of two or three hours a week. Thorough - going grammatical groundwork was required. Composition exercises had to be written every week, and later on we were drilled in writing French from dictation in German. Our French professor managed these composition exercises with a great deal of judgment, raising the standard from year to year ; so that on entering the second form we found ourselves quite able to write free composition exercises, and in the first form French essays. The reading we did after the elementary instruction was principally historical in the third form, in the second and first forms classical. Explanations of the subject matter were occasionally rendered in French in the upper forms, with the exception of grammatical explanations, which were invariably given in the vernacular, so as to make us firmer in German grammar by comparing it with that of another language. The principal aim of the instruction was on the whole that we should become able to read French at sight, to pronounce it with ease and with good accent, and to write it with correctness.

The sixth subject is history, which is taught for nine years. After the boy had been rooted in Bible history during his preparatory course, two hours were given in Sexta to the outlines of ancient history. The main divisions and dates were committed to memory from history tables, the lives of eminent men were read or narrated in connection with the principal events these heroes brought about, and we were called upon to repeat from memory at the following recitation these Geschichtsbilder, or historical pictures. In Quinta, besides constant reviews of ancient history, a similar course was pursued with the universal history of the Middle Ages; and in Quarta the same was done with modern history, special attention being paid throughout these two years to German history. Thus during the first three years we gained a general view of the history of the world, setting forth the leading men, events, divisions, and dates; furnishing, so to speak, the framework of history. In the following six years this framework was filled out by special history; that is, in the first year, Oriental and Greek history; in the second. Roman, to 375 A. D.; in the third and fourth years, mediæval history to 1517, with special attention to German history, and constant reviews on Greek history and observations on the constitutional government of the Greeks ; in the last two years, finally, modern history from 1517, with special reference to Germany, and constant reviews on Roman history and observations on the constitutional government of the Romans. In this historical course there was comparatively little book-learning. To be sure, we had a handbook which set forth the leading events and dates. The paragraph which was to be treated on was pointed out to us beforehand, so that we might make ourselves familiar with the main facts; then the professor delivered a lecture on this paragraph from his own notes, which he had carefully prepared, founding them on the original works of ancient and modern historians. The students listened, and took down such parts of the lecture as constituted its main features. In the next hour two or three students were called upon to repeat in connected speech the outlines of the preceding lecture. The accuracy with which facts were elaborated and discrepancies of statements were sifted could not but make a deep impression on the mind. It has often occurred to me since that the way in which Germans look at history is in close keeping with the word they have for it in their language. The word Geschichte (history) conveys at once the idea of das geschehene (that which has happened), and the careful and convincing truthfulness of the German historians no one will doubt. Whether it was drudgery at times or not, when I look back on this historical course I cannot speak too highly of it. It was the broadest and at the same time the most exact and judicious treatment of facts, men, and nations, bearing on its very face the stamp of truth. And it was not simply book-learning and book-teaching; it was life-giving and lifereceiving, because the men who taught knew life, knew the world, and thus could understand and disclose the mainsprings of human action. The aim of the instruction was, on the whole, to make the student acquainted with the leading events of universal history, and especially of Greek, Roman, and German history ; to bring about a conception of the continuity and cohesion of events, and of the connection between causes and results ; to enable him to read the leading historical works intelligently, for which purpose it is most essential that he should have a wide, exact knowledge of the times when and the places where these events occurred. Besides this, historical instruction was intended to awaken and foster patriotism, and to arouse in the hearts love for the ideal tasks of humanity as they appear from the moral lessons of history, “ which is the judgment-seat of the world.” Geography is taught separately from history only in the lower forms of the gymnasium ; in the upper forms it is reviewed in connection with history. The geographical text-books used in the lower forms connect this study likewise with history by giving a résume of each country’s history before entering upon its geographical description.

The last subjects in the course are mathematics, natural history, and physics. Mathematics absorbed three hours a week in Sexta, four throughout the rest of the course. Natural history claimed two hours for four years, and one hour for the first half of the fifth year ; physics, one hour during the second half of the fifth year, and two hours for the remaining four years. The course was about the same as any ordinary mathematical course spread over an equal amount of time. One exercise was rather unusual, and one from which we derived good discipline for mental activity and quickness, namely, mental arithmetic, to which one hour a week was given for two years. The rapidity with which we solved problems without using pencil or paper was due to the skill with which the teachers introduced us to and trained us in the easiest methods of dealing with numbers mentally.

Examinations, though occurring twice a year, did not play, to the best of my recollection, as important a part in the course as they do with us here, with the exception of the final examination, the Abiturienten-Examen, or “ examination of maturity,” The class examinations were both written and oral at Easter. The written consisted, with the upper forms, of a Latin, German, and French essay, a translation into Greek, and a mathematical paper; and with all other classes, in translations from the German into Latin, Greek, and French, a German composition, and a mathematical paper. Translating from the languages into our own vernacular, and grammatical questions, as well as examination in religion, history, natural history, and physics, were confined to oral exercises. These were carried on in the presence of invited guests, who had also the privilege of inspecting the papers, and thus of obtaining some insight into the work which had been done. About the first week of October written examinations alone took place, and they were private. Whether a student should be promoted from one class to another depended principally on the work he had done during the year. Those who, from want either of application or of ability, had not come up to the standard during the year stood little chance for advancement, and were ultimately advised to pursue another course in life. Absolute continuity of work, without any gaps, was a most essential requirement for promotion, and thus the classes were pretty thoroughly sifted, and could do better work. The graduation examination, however, was an affair of great significance. It covered one week for written papers, beginning with a Latin essay the first day, a German the second, a French the third, a Greek translation the fourth, a mathematical paper the fifth, and a Latin extemporale the sixth. The subjects for the three essays were assigned by the teacher who stayed with the class. We were allowed eight hours for each essay. A few weeks later, after the papers had been corrected by the teachers and inspected by the government, those who had passed were examined orally on some appointed day, from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon, with one hour’s intermission. This examination covered all subjects of the course, and was carried on in the presence of all the faculty and a government commissioner. After giving thoroughly satisfactory evidence of having attained the prescribed proficiency in all branches of the curriculum, the student receives a diploma, which contains a statement of his advancement in every department; also of his conduct and application. It bestows upon him the privilege of becoming matriculated at any of the German universities. As the university holds out only post-graduate courses in law, medicine, philosophy, and theology, by which the student may prepare for his profession, and as all recitations are dispensed with at these institutions, the gymnasium corresponds to our grammar, highschool, and college courses combined. Catalogues are published every year. The professors take turns in writing a paper for each year’s issue. Most interesting treatises on philological, historical, literary, theological, and mathematical subjects lend importance to these catalogues, and give at the same time evidence to government, patrons, and students that the teachers have not stood still in their respective fields of learning, but have carried on individual research and study beside their work in the class-room.

George Moritz Wahl.