n exactness and reality in
their perception. Especially should they practise drawing, which leads
them to form exact images of objects. But drawing, as children practise
it, does not have the educational significance of cultivating in them an
appreciation of art, but rather that of educating the eye, as this must
be exercised in estimating distances, sizes, and colors. It is,
moreover, a great gain in many ways, if, through a suitable course of
lessons in drawing, the child is advanced to a knowledge of the
elementary forms of nature.

--That pictures should affect children as works of art is not to be
desired. They confine themselves at first to distinguishing the outlines
and colors, and do not yet appreciate the execution. If the children
have access to real works of art, we may safely trust in their power,
and quietly await their moral or aesthetic effect.--

Sec. 89. In order that looking at pictures shall not degenerate into mere
diversion, explanations should accompany them. Only when the thought
embodied in the illustration is pointed out, can they be useful as a
means of instruction. Simply looking at them is of as little value
towards this end as is water for baptism without the Holy Spirit. Our
age inclines at present to the superstition that man is able, by means
of simple intuition, to attain a knowledge of the essence of things, and
thereby dispense with the trouble of thinking. Illustrations are the
order of the day, and, in the place of enjoyable descriptions, we find
miserable pictures. It is in vain to try to get behind things, or to
comprehend them, except by thinking.

Sec. 90. The ear as well as the eye must be cultivated. Music must be
considered the first educational means to this end, but it should be
music inspired by ethical purity. Hearing is the most internal of all
the senses, and should on this account be treated with the greatest
delicacy. Especially should the child be taught that he is not to look
upon speech as merely a vehicle for communication and for gaining
information; it should also give pleasure, and therefore he should be
taught to speak distinctly and with a good style, and this he can do
only when he carefully considers what he is going to say.

--Among the Greeks, extraordinary care was given to musical cultivation,
especially in its ethical relation. Sufficient proof of this is found in
the admirable detailed statements on this point in the "Republic" of
Plato and in the