methods of training upon psychology. He showed a due regard for the respective ages and individualities of his pupils, and undertook to develop in them the elements of morality and a 'many-sided interest.' While in Switzerland, Herbart met Pestalozzi and was greatly attracted by the underlying principles of that reformer. He paid a visit to the institute at Burgdorf in 1799, and during the next two years, while at Bremen completing his interrupted university course, he attempted to render more scientific the thought of the Swiss educator. It was at this time that Herbart wrote a critical, but kindly, essay On Pestalozzi's Latest Writing, 'How Gertrude Teaches Her Children,'1 and made his interpretation of Pestalozzi's Idea of an ABC of Observation. In the former work, Herbart gives an account of the aim and methods of Pestalozzi and shows the development of his own ideas from Pestalozzianism. The latter treatise describes the value, cultivation, and use of observation, and attempts to found the method of Pestalozzi upon a definite mathematical theory. His Moral Revelation of the World and His Following this period, from 1802 to 1809, Herbart lec 3 tured on pedagogy at the University of Göttingen. 1 Ueber Pestalozzi's neueste Schrift: Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrte. 2 Pestalozzi's Idee eines A B C der Anschauung. His position was at first that of a Privatdocent. See p. 68, footnote 2. further in terpreted Pestalozzi, While here, among other pedagogical works, he formulated his final position On the Point of View in Judging and wrote his the Pestalozzian Method of Instruction,1 and published his ideas on the Moral Revelation of the World as and his work the Chief Function of Education.2 By this time he own Moral Revelation of the World on General Pedagogy. seems to have largely crystallized his own system. Pestalozzi had by his later works made evident the faults in his methods, and Herbart no longer strives to conceal their vagueness and want of system. In both of the Göttingen treatises he further insists upon 'educative instruction,' or real ethical training. Sense perception, he holds with Pestalozzi, does supply the first elements of knowledge, but the material of the school course should be arranged with reference to the general purpose of instruction, which is moral self-realization. 2 His position was made even clearer in his standard work on General Pedagogy,3 which he produced shortly afterward. 1 Ueber den Standpunkt der Beurtheilung der Pestalozzischen Unterrichtsmethode. 2 Ueber die ästhetische Darstellung der Welt als Hauptgeschäft der Erziehung. With Herbart, ethics is the main branch of 'æsthetics,' and deals with such relations among volitions as please or displease. This work was originally intended as an appendix to the second edition of his Pestalozzi's Idea of an A B C of Sense Observation, but it proved to be a forerunner of his General Pedagogy. It contains in outline all the positions systematically developed in the more elaborate treatise. 3 Allgemeine Pädagogik. His Seminary and Practice School at Königsberg successor at he established his famous pedagogical seminary and practice school, and wrote chiefly on psychol ogy. In 1809 Herbart was called to the chair of philosophy As Kant's at Königsberg as practically the successor of the illus- Königsberg, trious Immanuel Kant,1 and there did his great work for educational theory and practice. He soon established his now historic pedagogical seminary and the practice school connected with it. This constituted the first attempt at experimentation and a scientific study of education on the basis now generally employed in universities. The students, who taught in the practice school under the supervision and criticism of the professor, were intending to become school principals and inspectors, and, through the widespread work and influence of these young Herbartians, the educational system of Prussia and of every other state in Germany was greatly advanced. In his numerous publications at Königsberg, Herbart devoted himself chiefly to developing a series of works on his system of psychology, but he also wrote a number of essays and letters upon education. The conservatism and opposition to free inquiry in Prussia, however, eventually became too restrictive for a man of Herbart's progressive temperament. 1 Kant died in 1804, and was succeeded by Wilhelm Traugott Krug, who resigned in 1809 to accept the chair at Leipzig. Late in life, ne returned The Matured System in His Outlines After serving nearly a quarter of a century in Königs o Göttingen, berg, he accepted a call to a professorship at Göttingen, and pub shed his Outlines of Lectures and is Outlines f General Pedagogy. and the last eight years of his life were spent in expandPedagogical ing his pedagogical positions and lecturing with great approval at his old station. Here, in 1835, he published his Outlines of Pedagogical Lectures,1 in which six years later he embodied his Outlines of General Pedagogy.2 This treatise gives an exposition of his educational system when fully matured, together with its relation to psychology. The work proved to be his swan's song, for, shortly after the new edition appeared, Herbart died at the height of his reputation.3 ome knowl Age of Herart's psyhology is Herbart's 'Ideas' and 'Apperception Masses' To understand the educational principles of Herbart, it is necessary to know something of his psychology and of the metaphysics lying back of it. With the erstand his possible exception of Kant's educational theories, Herbart's was the first real system of education that was ecessary, in rder to un ducational rinciples. 1 Umriss pädagogischer Vorlesungen. 2 Umriss der allgemeinen Pädagogik. * His complete works were not published until 1850, when Hartenstein collected them. The most satisfactory collection at present is that found in the seventh edition of Bartholomäi, revised by von Sallwürk (Langensalza, 1903). based upon a psychology worked out by the founder. His psychological positions have now been almost entirely abandoned or reconstructed, but the idea of founding education upon psychology has been productive of a marked advance in educational theory. This system of psychology was an outgrowth of his own introspection. With Herbart, the simplest elements of consciousness are 'ideas,' which result from the varying states into which the soul is thrown in endeavoring to maintain itself against external stimuli. Once produced, the ideas become existences with their own dynamic force, and constantly strive to preserve themselves.1 They struggle to attain as nearly as possible to the summit of consciousness, and each idea tends to draw into consciousness or heighten those allied to it, and to depress or force out those which are unlike. Hence in the constant interaction between ideas present 1 This psychology is part of a pluralistic metaphysics somewhat resembling the doctrine of 'ideas' in Plato or Kant's 'Dinge an sich,' and even more the 'monadology' of Leibnitz. Herbart assumes an unseen universe, composed of 'units' called 'reals,' which are unchangeable and constitute the 'noumena' of which our experiences are the 'phenomena.' His 'reals,' however, are mere existences, and, unlike the 'monads,' do not possess activity of any sort, save that of 'self-preservation' against annihilation. The soul is simply a species of superior 'real.' Its sole function in psychology seems to be that of producing the ideas or mind atoms in reaction to the outside world, for once the ideas are born they go on by their own laws, and the parent 'soul' plays no further part in their life. |