ARTICLE VIII.-THE GERMAN GYMNASIUM.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the place. which the Gymnasium occupies among German educational institutions. Its methods and its discipline render possible the preeminent scholarship developed afterward at the universities. Here, the forms and rules and the copious vocabularies-necessary foundations of linguistic acquisitions are indelibly impressed upon the youthful memory. Here the chief facts of history are taught with such system and in such interdependence as never in subsequent life to be forgotten. At the Gymnasium is acquired that graceful accomplishment of the classical scholar, the ability to compose with elegance and ease in the Latin language. Here the study of the literatures of the two most important languages of the ancient world opens to the student's intelligent appreciation the life of the ancients. Provision is made at the Gymnasium for the study of the grammar of the mother tongue, according to its historical development, and the pupil is taught, while he reads the Epic poems of the German Heroic (Middle) Age, that the language whose successive developments he studies is no derived or mixed speech, that it has its own. original character, and is the sister of the Latin and of the Greek.

It would be an interesting investigation to trace the steps of the progress by which the cloister Latin school of the middle ages has developed into this training school with numerous departments which bears the name Gymnasium. It would be interesting, too, to search out, in the manuals of the history of Paedagogy, those theories of the mutual relation of different studies, and of the order in which they may most properly succeed each other, which, having finally been accepted by public opinion as correct, have determined the present plan of studies. But it is no part of our plan, at the present time, to enter upon either of these inquiries, and we are content with observing that the Gymnasium owes its present external form, in no small degree, to Baron von Stein and to the distinguished scholars and philosophers under whose advice and 10

VOL. XXXV.

with whose coöperation, amid and after the struggles with France at the beginning of this century, the universities of Berlin and Bonn were founded, and the entire system of education was thoroughly considered, and, to a considerable extent, remodeled. Since then, the conception of the work which the Gymnasium should do has been perfectly clear, and the differences which have existed between the Gymnasiums in different parts of Germany, have been due, rather to inequality in the intellectual advance in the different sections, than to any difference in theory as to how such establishments should be conducted. The last twenty-five years have witnessed an attempt, to a good degree successful, to bring the Gymnasiums of South Germany, and especially of Austria, up to the standard of similar institutions in North Germany; and there is reason to believe that the time is not far distant when the Abiturient, or graduating examination upon all the studies of the course, from entrance into the Gymnasium to departure from it, which is the passport of admission into any German university, will testify to uniformity of scholarship.

How unequalled an apparatus of training establishments is this: two hundred and fifty preparatory schools, whose regular teachers have all received as the certificate of original research, the Doctor's degree, presenting yearly to the score, or score and a half, of the universities, their quota of young life, equipped with the training which is the indispensable preparation for the independent investigation to which the years at the University are devoted! Certainly no other country in the world can show anything approximating to the Gymnasiums of Germany, either as regards the number of establishments of a uniformly high grade, or as regards the amount and the quality of the work which is performed in them.

It seems especially natural, that teachers in America should make themselves familiar with the plan and with the methods of study in the Gymnasium, because in its aims and its extent, the course of study nearly corresponds to the combined courses of study in our best preparatory schools and our colleges. Take, for instance, the course of instruction in the Boston Latin School, add to it the course of instruction at Amherst College, and compare the result with the completed course at the

Gymnasium: the verdict would probably be, in respect to acquisitions in the ancient and modern languages and history, in favor of the German school; as regards proficiency in mathematics and natural science, in favor of the combined courses of the American school and college; as respects knowledge of the history and literature of the mother tongue, in favor of the Gymnasium.

The scope of the plan of studies of the Gymnasium is so extensive, and the number of subjects embraced in a scheme which covers nine years so great, that, if the writer may judge from his own experience, visits to the Gymnasium, even when made under the most favoring circumstances, are liable to confuse by the multitude of facts and of new methods which they bring to notice, and can not be expected to prove in a high degree profitable unless they are preceded by some accurate knowledge of the plan of study. It is natural to refer, for the information desired, to the annual programme, which the director of each Gymnasium publishes every spring, and which, in addition to a learned dissertation by some member of the faculty, and a summary of the events of the school year, contains, in more or less detail, the plan of studies for the ensuing year as approved by the Department of Public Instruction. Through the kindness of a friend,* the Programme of the Gymnasium of Schwerin, Province of Mecklenburg, has recently come into the writer's hands. With this programme, the excellent director, Dr. Büchner, issued the invitation to attend the annual examination of all the classes, to be holden March 30 and 31, 1871. A new building had, at this time, just reached completion, and its occupation by the school seems to have been regarded as marking a new departure, and to have been the occasion of the unusual fulness of detail with which the subjects of study are given, and the methods of instruction described. This outline of study the writer has determined to translate, and to append thereto, in the order indicated by the programme itself, such remarks as his own visits to some of the more famous Berlin Gymnasiums, in the winter of 1872, have suggested.

* Dr. Autenrieth, Director of the Gymnasium in Zweibrücken, Bavarian Palatinate.

The Gymnasium Fredericianum, of Schwerin, is a normal Gymnasium in six classes: Sexta, Quinta, Quarta, Tertia, Secunda, and Prima. Pupils spend in Sexta, Quinta, and Quarta each, one year; in Tertia, Secunda, and Prima each, two years. The Gymnasium course covers accordingly nine years; the intention being that pupils shall enter the institution at the completion of the ninth, and leave it at the completion of the eighteenth year of their age.

[A. Science.]

I.-RELIGION.

(a.) Lower section, including Sexta, Quinta, Quarta, and Tertia, age 10-15.

(b.) Upper section, including Secunda and Prima, age 15-19.

Sexta, 3 hours weekly, age 10-11.

The more important Scripture narratives of the Old Testament as far as the Kings, according to some compend of Biblical History; the text of the Bible not being employed, at this stage of progress, as a means of instruction. Immediately before the chief festival days of the Christian year, the passage of the New Testament which describes the institution of such festival is made the subject of instruction. At the Festival of the Reformation, Nov. 10, the dates of the more important events of that era are learned.

Catechism: the first article of the provincial catechism explained and learned, review of Luther's smaller catechism (already learned at the common school), and recitation of the same.* Church hymns, and catechism proof-texts in moderate numbers, are first read, then explained word by word, and finally memorized; 8-10 hymns, 4-5 in each Semester, are thus learned, in connexion with, and with reference to, the festival days.

*Luther's catechism (shorter and longer), is divided into five articles, viz: 1. The Ten Commandments. 2. The Apostle's Creed. 3. The Lord's Prayer. 4. The Sacrament of Baptism. 5. Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The work, in size and scope, may be compared with the (shorter and longer) catechism of the Westminster Assembly, and the various statements are fortified, as in that work, with numerous Scripture proofs. There exist special editions, sanctioned by the departments of public instruction, for use in each German State.

Quinta, 3 hours weekly, age 11-12.

New Testament Biblical history, after a lesson book ("The ' Life of Christ until His Ascension.") The contents and the names of the books of the Bible in their order, the last got by heart. Facts connected with the Reformation more thoroughly learned.

Catechism: review of Art. L. and of the accompanying prooftexts; Art. II. then explained and, with its proof-texts, memorized.

Church hymns: review of hymns already learned, and six new ones, three in each Semester, learned in addition.

Quarta, 3 hours weekly, age 12-13.

Bible readings from the more important portions of the Old and New Testaments; from the former, those passages which recount the story of the children of Israel; from the latter, the chief events recorded in Matthew, Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. Enlargement of pupil's Bible knowledge.

Catechism review of Arts. I and II, also of proof-texts and hymns already learned; Art. III, explained and with its prooftexts memorized. Six new hymns, three in each Semester, learned, and Arts. IV and V of the catechism (without Luther's exposition of the same) committed to memory. As opportunity may offer, the more important facts of the Geography of Palestine are taught from a wall-map.

Tertia, 2 hours weekly, age 13–15.

(a.) Lower Tertia, course 1 year.

Connected history of the Life of Christ, according to one of the synoptic, Gospels, accompanied with references to such Messianic or prophetic passages in the Old Testament as bear upon the Gospel in hand.

Reading of single Psalms: review of History of the Reformation, with particular reference to its causes and its results.

Catechism: review of the five articles, and of the accompanying proof-texts: review of church hymns, with facts as to their authorship, and date of their composition; four new hymns are learned, and with them the number of hymns to be compulsorily memorized is completed.