the Real-Gymnasium, the Minister of Education gave as his main reason for opposing the request, the fact that the professions were already overcrowded with graduates of the Gymnasium alone. Dr. Steinbart of Duisburg promptly replied that the monopoly of privileges enjoyed by graduates of the Gymnasium was the very cause of the overcrowding complained of, and that the concession of similar privileges to graduates of the Real-Gymnasium would lessen, not aggravate, the evil of overcrowded professions. Very general interest was taken in the discussion thus raised, and a prize of one thousand marks was offered for the best essay on the 'Causes of the Overcrowding of the Learned Professions, and Its Remedy.' No less than seventy-six treatises were submitted to the judges, and as the result of their deliberations the prize was equally divided between Dr. Pietzker of Nordhausen, and Dr. Treutlein of Carlsruhe. The essays of these gentlemen have been published, and present a most careful and exhaustive examination of the whole question.

"The conclusion is irresistible that the root of the evil is to be found in the organization of our scholastic system, which treats the secondary school merely as a step in preparation for the university. There are other accessory causes, both industrial and social, but this pedagogic cause is the chief one.

"The development of political and commercial conditions has had an unmistakable influence in greatly increasing the number of students preparing for a professional career. Increased political rights have involved new duties, and these in turn necessitate a higher degree of intellectual preparation on the part of the people at large. The force of competition has brought about a more efficient mental training among men of business; for those possessing it are able to succeed when those without it fail. All of these influences have worked together to send more students than ever before to the secondary schools. And here lies the difficulty. The students, as a rule, do not select the kind of secondary school best suited to their needs, but the Gymnasium, because of the marked privileges conferred by law upon its graduates. From it they are led on to the university, and then to a professional career, simply because that is the line of least resistance. As a result, every profession is overcrowded, and thousands of highly-educated young men are unable to earn a decent living.

"Again, the Gymnasium and university training is the sole

avenue of approach to the higher offices of the state, and German parents have a most absurd and exaggerated idea of the importance and dignity of these government posts. This is another illegitimate inducement to prefer the Gymnasium and the university to the training for commerce or industry. In our higher social class there is an undeniable feeling of aversion. toward an industry, as a calling for the youth of the family, because it seems to involve manual and physical labor. There is also a groundless overappreciation of the culture value of a classical education. These are potent forces in driving boys to the Gymnasium and increasing the numbers of the dangerous and rapidly-growing educated proletariat."

The Education of the Romans.

M. L. CHAUVIN, IN "L'ÉDUCATION NATIONALE."

"The Romans worshiped the same gods as the Greeks, though under other names; but they never laid as much stress as did the Greeks upon the popular religion. The true Roman religion must be sought at the family fireside. Each family honored their own ancestors, and looked upon them as protecting powers. The paterfamilias, high priest of the family worship, exercised an authority which has never been surpassed among any other people. At once priest and judge,' says Dunay, the father's authority is absolute. He alone holds converse with the gods, for he alone performs the sacra privata. As master he controls not only the labor, but the life, of his slaves. As husband, he condemns his wife to death if she violates her plighted faith. As father, he kills the child that is born misshapen and sells the others until, after the third time, he loses his rights over them. Neither age nor dignity can free them from his control. Whether consuls or senators, they may be torn from the tribune or the Senate. house, and sent forth to death.' Religion and such paternal authority as this gave to the family a place in Roman civilization such as it had not been possible, even in Sparta, to procure for the state. As the child never ceased to belong to his parents, so they alone were charged with his education. This is a characteristic never to be lost sight of.

"It is to be remarked also that Roman institutions, including those relating to education, were not created all at once,

after the fashion of the theoretical plans of Lycurgus and Solon. They had, on the contrary, been developed gradually in response to definite needs, and experience had confirmed or changed them. This explains their eminently practical character, and is the reason why they have been perpetuated to our own time in the countries that were subject to Roman influence.

"In the third place, the Romans, who had built up their nation along rude and rough lines, pursued the useful as an end in itself, rather than the beautiful and the good which had been the Greek ideal. This is true in a marked degree of their educational theory and practice.

"The child who is permitted to live is brought up at home after a fashion at once very simple and very efficacious. Boys and girls are both taught to read, to write, and to count. Then the father trains his son, not in the complicated physical exercises of the Greeks, but in the hard labor of the military drill. He teaches him the fundamental principles of law, a knowledge always held in high esteem in Rome. He takes him to the forum, to the comitia, that he may learn his duties as a citizen. The mother inculcates her daughters with the womanly virtues and teaches them the occupations proper to their sex, as well as the art of managing the house. She also instills generous and patriotic sentiments into the hearts of

her sons.

"In the earlier periods of Roman history each family was a school of morality and of civic virtue. But after the republic had accomplished its gigantic task of universal domination, and the Romans were enriched by the spoils of conquered peoples, the period of decadence began. A looseness of morals arose, and education felt the influence of it. Parents gave over the care of their children to freedmen and slaves, and the children soon became vicious and without respect for their parents and elders. The influence of Greek culture accelerated the decadence. The rhetoricians and sophists who flourished in Greece at the time of its conquest had a most baneful influence upon the studies and character of the Roman conquerors.

"The first Roman schools date from the third century before Christ. They multiplied rapidly in the succeeding centuries. They were private establishments. Some of the most celebrated of them were endowed under the emperors, and toward

the close of the imperial period state universities were organized at Rome and Constantinople. The schools were divided into several classes, corresponding very well with the usual divisions of public education. The schools of the first, or lowest, class were really popular schools. In them children of both sexes were taught to read, to write, and to count. They also received some idea of geography and of geometry, being aided by maps and geometrical solids. The children of wellto-do parents resorted to schools of the second class, to read and expound the Greek and Latin classics. In addition to this, the rhetoricians gave instruction in eloquence, so highly prized at Rome. Oratory was taught with such minute care that it was carried to a ridiculous excess. The solid and enduring qualities of eloquence were held in lower esteem than the form of statement and its artificial adornments. It was with this study that the youth of the aristocratic families concluded their education. Some few pursued, in addition, a little poetry and music, astronomy, mathematics, and natural science."

EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

DECEMBER, 1891.

I.

LOWELL AS AN EDUCATOR.

The English-speaking world has been prompt to recognize that in the passing away of James Russell Lowell a great man has entered upon his immortality. The man of action, as well as the man of letters, has received generous recognition. Lowell is recognized to have added new luster to American citizenship, not simply because he had great talents but because he used them greatly. Whenever he spoke and whenever he wrote, whether in his captivating prose or his stirring verse, the charm and the power were but the man giving expression to himself. Not his thought merely, but his personality, informs his writings to a singular degree. So one who did not know Lowell might picture him to himself from his published works. He was found in actual intercourse to be the genial gentleman, the warm friend, the ready wit, the polished scholar, the earnest patriot, the great-souled man, that one might easily infer him to have been from what he wrote. Thus what he wrote was powerful because it was genuine. The life illustrated what the voice uttered. With all his gifts he won the ear, but he reached the heart by opening his own.

James Russell Lowell was graduated from Harvard College in 1838. He was appointed Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages and Literatures and Professor of Belles-lettres at Harvard in 1855, becoming Smith Professor Emeritus in 1886. It is not the purpose of this paper to dwell upon Lowell's career as an instructor. It is rather the aim to speak of him as an educator of the people, for his