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will follow. Even the theoretical instruction before indicated will take upon itself the teaching of the principles of form and colours, as well as of the knowledge of materials. So far practically has the course of my own experience extended, and it has throughout approved itself by the results. If now it were possible to commence operations at once in several parts of our fatherland, in such a way that the peculiar circumstances of each locality would bo taken into consideration, then the ground would be prepared on all sides, and it would only be a question of time when the schools would themselves adopt this new object of instruction. From this, gentlemen, you will be able to see how the manual-work idea finds itself as yet in its very first stage of progress, and how much it needs the devoted efforts of all those who have set before themselves the beautiful but difficult task of making it productive of a common benefit to the German nation. Gentlemen, of what vast consequence is education ; of what great importance to the welfare or misery of mankind, to their health, their success in life, the formation of their character; of what importance to their life as a people ! Undoubtedly there is much that is inherent in man, in his bodily as well as mental constitution. But as in nature similar germs develop in various ways according as they are laid in fruitful or unfruitful ground, and after this rough storms blow down the young plants, or the warm rays of the vivifying sun shine upon them, and even after this their shoots are allowed to grow wild, or the care of the gardener here trains and there prunes them, just so it is with the youthful mind of man. It takes a different shape if it grows up amidst work and discipline and love to that which it would take if it were left to itself without guidance, without support, without control, and without affection. The influence such a bringing-up would have upon the life of the people generally was recognised at the time of our fatherland's deepest depression, more especially by Arndt and Fichte ; and I need only remind you of the celebrated saying of the latter to the German nation—it gives point to what one might say about some proposals of to-day, it gives the fullest authority to the demand we are making: " Give the rising generation a better bringing-up." Truly our fatherland has since become great and powerful, and our system of education serves as a shining model to many other nations. Who among us has not enough patriotic feeling to recognise this change of our destiny ? Who, too, does not thankfully remember those who have so long, so successfully, so faithfully, and so devotedly laboured, and are still labouring, at the cause of education ? But as the individual man, be he ever so far advanced in his cultivation, be he animated ever so deeply by a true moral earnestness —that source of all moral power—modestly, in quiet self-knowledge, recognises and knows well his many deficiencies and faults, which, in spite of his strongest will, he has yet to correct for himself; so we Germans must now" consider as to our fatherland, and also as to our system of bringing-up, in the all-important cultivation of the mind (if we would not waste the vital energies of the German nation—if our fatherland is, in its struggle with other nations for the command of trade and industries, to be at all on equal terms —if the rising generation is to grow up into perfect men), how essential is the realisation of the work idea, how necessary it is that learning, and putting into practice what you have learnt —knowledge and performance—should be developed in equal degrees. What new powers would be awakened in the next generation, what a new life would blossom in them, equally in power to do and power to know ! And so let us, too, in the consciousness of this lofty and noble object, work for its realisation, so that the happiness and well-being of our fatherland may increase. Herr Yon Schenckendorff, Gorlitz : . . . I should like now to come back to some questions of principle which have been brought under discussion. Dr. Gotze would like the instruction to be carried out without the assistance of artisans, and entirely intrusted to teachers. Now", gentlemen, if I were to state my standpoint on this question, it would be this : For the present I cannot do without the artisan. Should the cause be so far developed hereafter that the public schools would take the manual-skill instruction into their own hands, and the seminary would take care that the teacher has gone through years of training from his youth up on this subject, then I doubt not the teacher would become a technically-finished and accomplished man. I doubt this the less as we have already so many excellent examples which show us what a teacher can do after even a few months' industrious application. The director of our Gorlitz school is the best proof to me of this; but to accept it as a general rule that the teacher should in six months or less acquire an amount of experience which would enable him to do technical work in an accurate manner, I cannot believe possible. It takes years to gain this experience; the cases in which it is gained in a short time are quite exceptional, and only prove the rule. Therefore I hold it is better to do as is done at Gorlitz—place a pedagogue at the head of the whole, and let him manage it pedagogically, so that the boys shall be aroused to consider intellectually the work they accomplish with their hands; but also that this pedagogue should have at his side a thoroughly capable master-tradesman for each branch of instruction. This appears to me to be the principal • thing. If Headmaster Dr. Gotze should again have to complain of the smallness of the number of scholars, I think I should ask him if it were not possible to give the instruction gratuitously. The means, I think, would easily be found in this Leipsic, so rich, so easily roused to enthusiasm for everything that is good and beautiful and useful, so that an opportunity would be given to the poor man too to send his children to be taught. I believe that even our present friends, if they can get some rich people to join with them, would be able, with the co-operation of the commune, to bestow the benefit of this instruction upon the poorer boys. You have learned from my report that in Gorlitz the courses were quite crowded ; and there during the last school year we restricted our instruction to boys of thirteen. The great number of our scholars was due to the fact that we teach them free of cost. In respect to one other circumstance, I find myself opposed to some gentlemen. I take the public school boys in the last year of their schooling, whilst others wish to apply the instruction to boys in their first year. Yes, gentlemen, if I were to take up the cause from a purely theoretical point of view, I should entirely agree with you. I say, too, that the kindergarten teaches well now what the manual-skill instruction afterwards completes. Nothing, therefore, would be more natural than to desire that the schools should take