there should be a
gradual increase of self-activity and self-determination. When the
pupil leaves school he should be prepared to launch out and pursue his
own aims with success.

Will effort, however, to be valuable, must have its roots in those
_moral convictions_ which it is the chief aim of the school to foster
and strengthen. We have attempted to show in the preceding chapters
how the central subject matter of the school could be chosen, and the
other studies concentrated about it with a view to accomplishing this
result. In concluding our discussion of general principles of
education, and in summing up the results, basing our reasoning upon
psychology, we are always forced to the conclusion that education aims
at the _will_, and more particularly at the will as influenced and
guided by moral ideas. This is the same as saying that we have
completed the circle and come around to our starting point, that _moral
character is the chief aim of education_.

Teachers who are interested in this phase of pedagogy will do well to
study the _science of ethics_. Not that it will much aid them directly
in school work, but it will at least give them a more comprehensive and
definite notion of the field of morals and perhaps indicate more
clearly where the _materials_ of moral education are to be sought, and
the leading ideas to be emphasized.

Herbart projected a system of ethics, based on psychology, with the
intention of classifying the chief moral notions and of showing their
relation to each other. He also developed a theory of the _origin_ of
moral ideas and their best means of cultivation, and then based his
system of pedagogy upon it.

The chief classes of ethical ideas of Herbart are briefly explained as
follows:

1. _Good will_. It is manifested in the sympathy we feel for the
sorrow or joy of another person. It is illustrated by the example of
Sidney and Howard already cited.

2. _Legal right_. It serves to avoid strife by some agreement or
established rule; _e.g._, the government of the United States fixes the
law for pre-empting land and for homestead claims so that no two
persons can lay claim to the same piece of land.

3. _Justice_, as expressed by reward or punishment. When a person
purposely does an injury to another, all men unite in the judgment, "He
must be punished." Likewise, if a kind act is done to anyone, we
insist upon a return of gratitude at least.

4. _Perfection of will_. Thi