tter which he
is considering, and not too much by the personal influence of the
teacher through whom he receives it.[5]

Sec. 6. The utmost care is necessary lest experiments which have proved
successful in certain cases should be generalized into rules, and a
formal, dead creed, so to speak, should be adopted. All professional
experiences are valuable as material on which to base new conclusions
and to make new plans, but only for that use. Unless the day's work is,
every day, a new creation, a fatal error has been made.

Sec. 7. Pedagogics as a science must consider Education--

(1) In its general idea;

(2) In its different phases;

(3) In the special systems arising from this general idea,
acting under special circumstances at special times.[6]

Sec. 8. With regard to the First Part, we remark that by Education, in its
general idea, we do not mean any mere history of Pedagogics, nor can any
history of Pedagogics be substituted for a systematic exposition of the
underlying idea.

Sec. 9. The second division considers Education under three heads--as
physical, intellectual, and moral--and forms, generally, the principal
part of all pedagogical treatises.

In this part lies the greatest difficulty as to exact limitation. The
ideas on these divisions are often undefined and apt to be confounded,
and the detail of which they are capable is almost unlimited, for we
might, under this head, speak of all kinds of special schools, such as
those for war, art, mining, etc.

Sec. 10. In the Third Part we consider the different realizations of the
one general idea of Pedagogics as it has developed itself under
different circumstances and in different ages of the world.

The general idea is forced into different phases by the varying
physical, intellectual, and moral conditions of men. The result is the
different systems, as shown in the analysis. The general idea is one.
The view of the end to be obtained determines in each case the
actualization of this idea. Hence the different systems of Education are
each determined by the stand-point from which the general ideal is
viewed. Proceeding in this manner, it might be possible to construct a
history of Pedagogics, _a priori_, without reference to actual history,
since all the possible systems might be inferred from the possible
definite number of points of view.

Each lower stand-point will lead to a higher, but it will not be lost in
it. Thus, where Education,