Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/199

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TENTH ADDRESS
FURTHER DEFINITION OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL EDUCATION


143. The training of the pupil to make clear to himself first his sensations and then his perceptions, which must be accompanied by a systematic art of training his body, is the first part of the new German national education. In regard to the education of perception, we have a suitable method from Pestalozzi. A method for the education of the power of sensation is still lacking, but he and his collaborators, who have been summoned chiefly to solve this problem, will be able to furnish this easily. A method for the systematic development of physical strength is still lacking. What is required for the solution of this problem has been indicated, and it is to be hoped that, if the nation should show any eagerness for this solution, it will be found. All this part of education is but a means and a preliminary exercise for the second essential part, the civic and religious education. The general remarks that it is necessary at present to make about this have already been mentioned in our second and third addresses, and we have nothing to add to them. It is the business of that philosophy which proposes a German national education to furnish definite instructions for the art of this education—always, of course, taking into consideration and consultation Pestalozzi’s own