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of its sacred character, just as he previously trans-
formed physical theology into natural philosophy
without alienating it from its hallowed origm
(Geschichte des Idealismus, I, 19 at the end).
An extension of the elementary studies was brought
about by the active, though somewhat unsettled,
mental life which developed after the Persian wars
in the fifth century B. c. From the plain study of
reading and writing they advanced to the art of
speaking and its theorj- (rhetoric), with which was
combined dialectic, properly the art of alternate
discourse, or the discussion of the pro and con. This
change was brought about by the sophists, particu-
larly by Gorgias of Lcontium. They also attached
much importance to manysidedness in their theoreti-
cal and practical knowledge. Of Hippias of Elis it
is related that he boasted of having made his mantle,
his tunic, and his foot-gear (Cicero, De Oratore,
iii, 32, 127). In this way, current language gradu-
ally began to designate the whole body of educational
knowledge as cna/ctiral, i. e. ;is universal, or all-
embracing (^KVK\ia vatSfOfiara^ or fiaff-fi^utra; iyKVK\ios
■raiS(la). The expression indicated originally the cur-
rent knowledge common to all, but later assumed the
above-mentioned moaning, which has also passed into
our word enci/clopedia.
Socrates having already strongly emphasized the moral aims of education, Plato (429-347 B. c.) pro- tested against its degeneration from an effort to acquire culture into a hcaping-up of multifarious information {iroXvirpaytioavt^). In the "Republic" he proposes a course of education which appears to be the Pythagorean course perfected. It begins with musico-gj'mnastic culture, by means of which ho aims to impress upon the senses the fundamental forms of the beautiful and the good, i. e. rhythm and form (ataSriais). The intermediate course embraces the mathematical branches, viz. arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, which are calculated to put into action the powers of reflection (Siii-oia), and to enable the student to progress by degrees from sensuous to intellectual perception, as he successively masters the theory of numbers, of forms, of the kinetic laws of bodies, and of the laws of (musical) sounds. This leads to the highest grade of the educational system, its pinnacle (Spi7ic6s) so to speak, i. e. philosophy, which Plato calls dialectic, thereby elevating the word from its current meaning to signify the science of the Eternal as ground and prototype of the world of sense. Tliis progress to dialectic (JioXeitTi/tj; iropflo) is the work of our highest cognitive faculty, the intuitive intellect (wCj). In this manner Plato secures a psychological, or noetic, basis for the sequence in his studies, namely: sense-perception, reflection, and intellectual insight. During the Alexandrine period, which begins with the closing years of the fourth century before Christ, the encyclical studies assume scholastic forms. Grammar, as the science of language (technical gram- mar) and explanation of the classics (exegetical grammar), takes the lead; rhetoric tecomes an ele- mentary course in speaking and writing. By dia- lectic they understood, in accordance with the teach- ing of Aristotle, directions enabling the student to present acceptable and valid views on a given sub- ject; thus dialectic became elementary practical logic. The mathematical studies retained their Platonic order; by means of astronomical poems, the science of the stars, and by means of works on geography, the science of the globe became parts of popular education (Strabo, Geographica, I, 1, 21-23). Philosophy remained the culmination of the encyclical studies, which bore to it the relation of maids to a mistress, or of a temporary shelter to the fixed home (Oiog. Laert., II, 79; cf. the author's Didaktik als Bildungslehre, I, 9).
Among the Romans grammar and rhetoric were the
first to obtain a firm foothold; culture was by them
identified with eloquence, as the art of speaking and
the mastery of the spoken word based upon a mani-
fold knowledge of things. In his " Institutiones
Oratoria;" Quintilian, the first projenaor eloquenlia
at Rome in Vespasian's time, begins his instruction
with grammar, or, to speak precisely, with Latin and
Greek Grammar, proceeds to mathematics and
music, and concludes with rhetoric, which com-
prises not only elocution and a knowledge of litera-
ture, but also logical — in other words dialectical —
instruction. However, the encyclical system as the
system of the liberal arts, or Aries Bona, i. e. the
learning of the vir bonus, or patriot, was also repre-
sented in special handbooks. The "I.ibri IX Dis-
ciplinarum of the learned M. Terentius Varro of
Reate, an earlier contemporary of Cicero, treats of
the seven liberal arts adding to them medicine and
architectonics. How the latter science came to be
connected with the general studies is shown in the
book "De Architectum ", by M. Vitruvius PoUio, a
writer of the time of Augustus, in which excellent
remarks are made on the organic connection existing
between all studies. "The inexperienced", he says,
"may wonder at the fact that so many various
things can be retained in the memory; but as soon
as they observe that all branches of learning have a
real connection with, and a reciprocal action upon,
each other, the matter will seem very simple; for
imiversal science (^wkXios, disciplina) is composed
of the special sciences as a body is composed of mem-
bers, and those who from their earliest youth have
been instructed in the different branches of knowl-
edge (ranis eriiditionibus) recognize in all the same
fundamental features {notax) and the mutual rela-
tions of all branches, and therefore grasp everything
more easily" (Vitr., De Architecture, I, 1,12). In
these views the Platonic conception is still opera-
tive, and the Romans always retained the conviction
that in philosophy alone was to Ix; found the per-
fection of e<lucation. Cicero enumerates the follow-
ing as the elements of a liberal education: geometry,
literature, poetry, natural science, ethics, and poli-
tics. (Artes quibus liberales doctrina; atque in-
genux eontinentur; geometria, litterarum cognitio
et poetarum, atque ilia quae de naturis renim, quse
de hominum moribus, quse de rebus publicis di-
cuntur.)
Christianity taught men to regard education and culture as a work for eternity, to which all temporary objects are secondary. It softened, therefore, the antithesis between the liberal and illil)eral arts; the education of youth attains its purpose when it acta so "that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work" (II Tim., iii, 17). In conse- quence, labour, which among the classic nations had been regarded as unworthy of the freeman, who should live only for leisure, was now ennobled; but learning, the offspring of leisure, lost nothing of its dignity. The Christians retained the expression, fiad-fifiaTa iXevfffpa, stiidia liberalia, as well as the gradation of these studies, but now Christian truth was the crown of the system in the form of religious instruction for the people, and of theology for the learned. The appreciation of the several branches of knowleilge was largely influenced by the view expressed by St. Augustine in his little book, " De DoctrinA Christiand". As a former teacher of rhet- oric and as master of eloquence, he was thoroughly familiar with the Artes and had written upon some of them. Grammar retains the first place in the order of studies, but the study of words should not interfere with the search for the truth which they contain. The choicest gift of bright minds is the love of truth, not of the words expressing it. "For what avails a golden key if it cannot give access to the object which we wish to reach, and why find
