conceive of a perfectly
methodical treatment of a science which at the same time shall be
generally comprehensible if it strives to attain the transparency of
real beauty. A scientific work of art may be correctly said to be
popular, as e.g. has happened to Herder's _Ideas on the Philosophy of
the History of Mankind_.

--Beauty is the element which is comprehended by all, and as we declare
our enmity to the distorted picture-books, books of amusement, and to
the mischievous character of "Compendiums," so we must also oppose the
popular publications which style themselves _Science made Easy_, &c., in
order to attract more purchasers by this alluring title. Kant in his
_Logic_ calls the extreme of explanation Pedantry and Gallantry. This
last expression would be very characteristic in our times, since one
attains the height of popularity now if he makes himself easily
intelligible to ladies--a didactic triumph which one attains only by
omitting everything that is profound or complicated, and saying only
what exists already in the consciousness of every one, by depriving the
subject dealt with of all seriousness, and sparing neither pictures,
anecdotes, jokes, nor pretty formalities of speech. Elsewhere Kant says:
"In the effort to produce in our knowledge the completeness of scholarly
thoroughness, and at the same time a popular character, without in the
effort falling into the above-mentioned errors of an affected
thoroughness or an affected popularity, we must, first of all, look out
for the scholarly completeness of our scientific knowledge, the
methodical form of thoroughness, and first ask how we can make really
popular the knowledge methodically acquired at school, i.e. how we can
make it easy and generally communicable, and yet at the same time not
supplant thoroughness by popularity. For scholarly completeness must not
be sacrificed to popularity to please the people, unless science is to
become a plaything or trifling." It is perfectly plain that all that was
said before of the psychological and the logical methods must be taken
into account in the manner of the statement.--

Sec. 131. It has been already remarked (Sec. 21), in speaking of the nature
of education, that the office of the instructor must necessarily vary
with the growing culture. But attention must here again be called to the
fact, that education, in whatever stage of culture, must conform to the
law which, as the internal logic of Being, determi