and the so-called formal teachers did impart their
instruction this way in the second and third centuries. But only the
training of a scientific man is taken into account, which results in
"formal" thinking and writing, and hardly any speaking at all.
33
If the gymnasium is to train young men for science, people now say there
can be no more preliminary preparation for any particular science, so
comprehensive have all the sciences become. As a consequence teachers
have to train their students generally, that is to say for all the
sciences--for scientificality in other words; and for that classical
studies are necessary! What a wonderful jump! a most despairing
justification! Whatever is, is right,[3] even when it is clearly seen
that the "right" on which it has been based has turned to wrong.
34
It is accomplishments which are expected from us after a study of the
ancients: formerly, for example, the ability to write and speak. But
what is expected now! Thinking and deduction . but these things are not
learnt _from_ the ancients, but at best _through_ the ancients, by means
of science. Moreover, all historical deduction is very limited and
unsafe, natural science should be preferred.
35
It is the same with the simplicity of antiquity as it is with the
simplicity of style: it is the highest thing which we recognise and must
imitate; but it is also the last. Let it be remembered that the classic
prose of the Greeks is also a late result.
36
What a mockery of the study of the "humanities" lies in the fact that
they were also called "belles lettres" (bellas litteras)!
37
Wolf's[4] reasons why the Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, and other
Oriental nations were not to be set on the same plane with the Greeks
and Romans: "The former have either not raised themselves, or have
raised themselves only to a slight extent, above that type of culture
which should be called a mere civilisation and bourgeois acquirement, as
opposed to the higher and true culture of the mind." He then explains
that this culture is spiritual and literary: "In a well-organised nation
this may be begun earlier than order and peacefulness in the outward
life of the people (enlightenment)."
He then contrasts the inhabitants of easternmost Asia ("like such
individuals, who are not wanting in clean, decent, and comfortable
dwellings, clothing, and surroundings; but who never feel the necessity
for a higher enlightenment") with
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