ed by the principle of love to God. As this is the very cardinal principle of Christianity, pedagogics must be regarded as entering into vital relations with theo- logical ethics ; while catechetical instruction in re- ligion, which constitutes an element of popular educa- tion among Christian nations generally, brings it into external connection with practical theology also. Ped- agogics, however, is not by any means a mere branch of theological instruction, but rather an independent sci- ence, which employs those referred to simpl}' as helps, and, in general, derives its matter from the results ob- tained in every branch of knowledge.
In pedagogical method, all systems of education ad- mit of substantially the same division into a theoretical part, which treats of the principles of intellectual and moral training, and a jjractical, which discusses the ap- plication of such principles to particular objects. If the history of pedagogics be included, Stoy's division into philosophical, historical, and practical pedagogics may be adopted. The science must, at any rate, first present a history of pedagogics, then lay down its own principles of training, and, finally, show what character the education is to assume in the particular departments of life.
1. The History of Education (see Waitz, Anthro- pologie der Naturvulker [Leipsic, 1859], vol. i). — Educa- tion, in any proper sense, does not exist among savages. Their life is wholly sensual, and the training they re- ceive accordingly develops only the senses to trust- worthiness and keenness, and that merely for the pur- pose of self-preservation. With nations that have be- gun to rise above the merely natural state, it consists simply in transmitting what physical skill and intel- lectual attainments the family or tribe may possess. Among such peoples we may class the negro tribes of Africa, the tribes of South America, and, of the histori- cal peoples, such semi-barbarous nations as the Huns, Mongols, etc. Education in the higher sense is found only among civilized nations, the oldest of which, as is well known, belong to Asia. These manifest in their methods of education the same extraordinarj- diversi- ties that distinguish the Asiatic nations generally from each other. When our acquaintance with the Chinese begins, their condition is the result of a national de- velopment that has progressed through many centuries, and whose internal character is but little known. The absolutism of the state is reflected in the educational system also. Its ideal is the inculcation of reverence for parents and superior authoritj', and the rod affords the only inducement for application to study for old or j'oung. The Chinese therefore always remain in a state of childhood, despite their continual study and examinations, or, rather, even because of them; and their progress consists merely in their becoming full-grown children (comp. Ed. Biot, Essai sur Vhistoire de Vin- sf ruction publique en Chine, etc. [Paris, 1845] ; Carriere, Die Anfange d. Cultur, u. das oriental. Alterthum [Leip- sic, 18G3]). In India a different system prevails, which is connected with the system of religion, but in a man- ner quite unlike that which unites education and the wholly external idolatry of the Chinese world. Brah- minism and the caste system have a determining influ- ence. The people are educated into submission to the superior or Brahminic caste, as being the highest rev- elation of the deity — to be lost in which is the religious ideal of Brahminism. The method of instruction is mild; the symbolic language of legends, traditions, and fables affords the means by which a pious abnegation of self towards Brahma and ultimate dissolution in the deity are inculcated. Women are considered in- capable of culture, as in China (comp. Lassen, Indische Alterihumskunde [Bonn, 1847-57]; Dursch, Die dlteste praltische Pddagogik d. heidnischen Alteiihums, etc. [Tubingen, 1853]. On the educational ideas of Japan, so verj- much akin to China, until the reforms of our day by virtue of the American influence on the Japan- ese, see Johnson's Cyclop, i, 1485 sq.). In ancient Per-
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sia the life of the individual was conditioned by the omni|(otence of the state ; hence self-assertion and self- development for the service of the despot, the represent- ative of the state, rather than the annihilation of self and its dissolution in the deity, were the objects sought. Public instruction was theretbre in harmony with the pedagogical idea. Women occupied a higher place than in India and China, and received some training in their homes. The Zend-Avesta contains regulations for the training of the priesthood only (comp. Spiegel, A restu, die heil. Schriften d. Parsen [Leipsic, 1852-1859] ; also Herodotus, i, 132-140 ; Plato, De Leyrj. iii, 694 ; Alcib. i, 121 ; Xeuophon, Anah. i, 9, 3 ; Ci/rupcfdia ; Strabo, xv, 733). Among the later Persians the luxuriousness and weakness of the nation, as a whole, brought with them a corresponding degeneracy in its education.
We lack definite information with regard to the sys- tems of education among the Sliemitic nations of Hither A sia ; but the overpowering and almost fiendish influence of their cruel and licentious systems of nature-worship (Baal, Moloch, Astarte, etc.) prevented most of them from attaining to a superior social culture. Certain departments of learning were taught, however, as draw- ing, arithmetic, and astrology, among the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Syrians ; and an estimate of the cult- ure of the Phoenicians may be formed from their com- mercial character. In Egi/pt all learning and culture was in the hands of the priests, who maintained schools for the sacerdotal class, to which no others were admit- ted, with the exception of such persons from the war- rior-class as were heirs to the throne. The common people were educated merely to be expert and extreme- ly exact in the arts of which the caste to which they belonged made use in the prosecution of its particular calling. That the moral element was not overlooked, however, appears from tlie tribunal for the dead [see Egypt, § xii: Osiuis], and from the belief in a purify- ing transmigration of souls [see Metempsychosis], i. e. a belief in an unending indivi(hiallife in a sensible form. In later times, when the influence of Greece became powerl'ul in Eg3'pt, eckication was more generally dif- fused, and more method was applied to its promotion. Musical culture and a preference for exact studies then prevailed. The earnestness of former times, however, gave way to frivolity (comp. Diod. i, 80; Herod, ii, 79, 166; Plato, De Lcgg. 656 sq. ; Bunsen, Aegypteris Stelle in d. WeltyescMchte [Gotha, 1845-56]). In the Hebrew character the religious tendency was especially prominent, and the Hebrew nation was chieflj' impor- tant as being the people of God. The system of educa- tion in vogue aimed, in strict harmony with this idea, to secure the energetic assertion of a nationality whose essence consisted in the principle of faithfulness to the covenant of God. Education was, in short, a corollary of religion, and the teaching was therefore wholly re- ligious, and involved instruction in the law, the customs, and the symbolical obser\-ances of the nation, as well as the narration of its history, in illustration of these sub- jects. This training was committed to the family; but from the age of twelve years the Jew was admitted to the synagogue, in order to his further advancement, by listening to the reading of the sacred books and their explanation, and by sharing in the religious conversa- tion of the congregation. Women are mentioned as holding public positions among the Jews (Deborah), and as being more respected than was usual among Eastern nations; but the Old Testament contains no trace of special provisions made for the education of females. Of course the Hebrews were a universally educated people, or the parent could not have conducted the intellectual training of his child. Besides, we learn from the sacred Scriptures tliat they were able to read and vrite, and had (juite a knowledge of astronomy, and consequently of mathematics. Tlieological schools came into being after the Babylonian captivity (the so- called schools ofthejnophcts [q. v.], which flourished in earlier times, are outside of the (ield covered by the his-