Johann Gottlieb Fichte

“ We have represented this education as the highest and, at present, the only urgent concern of German love of fatherland, and wish to make it first and foremost the means of bringing into the world the improvement and regeneration of the whole human race. But that love of fatherland ought above all to inspire the German State, wherever Germans are governed, and take the lead, and be the motive power in all its decisions. ”

“ If an exception were ever made, it was to the advantage of the institutions for higher education, which shed splendour far and wide, and procured fame for their patrons. But the education of that class which is the real foundation of the human race, by which the higher culture is ever restored, and on which that culture must continually react—the education of the people remained neglected and, from the Reformation down to the present day, has been in a state of increasing decay. ”

“ Let us not repeat the second, that of hoping for a better future from anything but ourselves. Indeed, the present can afford no consolation for the duty to live to any one of us who requires for life something more than food; the hope of a better future is the only atmosphere in which we can still breathe. But only the dreamer can base this hope on anything but what he himself can plant in the present for the development of a future. ”

“ In so far as these statesmen are among those who either consider any education an unnecessary luxury, with which people should be supplied as scantily as possible, or see in our proposals only a daring new experiment with humanity, which may or may not succeed, they are to be praised for their conscientiousness. Those who are filled with admiration for the existing state of public education and with delight at the perfection which it has reached under their direction cannot really be expected now to agree with something which they do not already know. ”

“ For where is there a State to-day which doubts whether it has the right to compel its subjects to military service, and for that purpose to take away children from parents, whether one parent or both be willing or unwilling? Yet this compulsion to adopt permanently a certain mode of life against one’s will is far more serious, and has frequently the most harmful results to the moral condition, health, and life of those who are so compelled. ”

“ Formerly, especially in those German States where the piety of ancestors had greatly increased and richly endowed the public educational institutions, many parents let their families have instruction, because along with it, as in no other occupation, they found maintenance at the same time. Let us, therefore, since it is necessary, reverse this order, and give bread to those to whom no one else gives it, in order that, along with the bread, they may receive mental culture also. Let us not fear that the misery and wildness of their former condition will hinder our purpose! ”

“ On the other hand, the State which introduced universally the national education proposed by us, from the moment that a new generation of youths had passed through it, would need no special army at all, but would have in them an army such as no age has yet seen. Each individual is exercised thoroughly in every possible use of his physical powers, and understands them at once, being accustomed to bear every effort and hardship ”

“ By means of our education the State will get working-classes accustomed from their youth up to thinking about their business, and already able and inclined to help themselves. Now if, in addition, the State can help them in a suitable way, they will understand in a moment, and accept its instruction very gratefully. All branches of the State’s economy will in a short time attain, without much difficulty, a prosperity which no age has yet seen ”

“ The children of the unintelligent parents of these classes, an insignificant minority, may continue to grow up as before. They will survive among the better generation that is to be created, and serve merely as a curious memorial of the past, and to encourage the new age to a vivid knowledge of its greater good fortune.
171. Now, this education is to be national education of the Germans simply; and the great majority of those who speak the German language, and not just the citizens of this or that particular German State only, are to exist as a new race of men. ”

“ On the other hand, the compulsion of which we speak restores complete personal freedom when education is finished, and can have none but the most salutary results. It is true that even military service was formerly voluntary; but, when it was discovered that this was not sufficient for the purpose intended, we did not scruple to back it up by compulsion, because the matter was sufficiently important for us, and necessity demanded compulsion. If only in regard to education, too, our eyes were opened to our need and the matter became as important to us, that hesitation would vanish of itself ”

“ May the State in this case not fail to do that which, apart from this, is its duty, when it has released therefrom those who did it voluntarily in its stead! Then, in regard to the cities, we look to voluntary associations formed for that purpose by well-disposed citizens. So far as I have been able to see, no burden of misery has ever yet extinguished in German hearts the impulse to do good. Yet, owing to a number of faults in our institutions, which could all be included under the one head of neglected education, these good works seldom remove misery, but seem, indeed, often to increase it. ”

“ The sole public education, that of the people, however, was simply education for salvation in heaven; the essential feature was a little Christianity and reading, with writing if it could be managed—all for the sake of Christianity. All other development of man was left to the blind and casual influence of the society in which they grew up, and to actual life. Even the institutions for scholarly education were intended mainly for the training of ecclesiastics. Theology was the important faculty; the others were merely supplementary to it, and usually received only its leavings. ”

“ In modern Europe education actually originated, not with the State, but with that power from which States, too, for the most part obtained their power—from the heavenly spiritual kingdom of the Church. The Church considered itself not so much a part of the earthly community as a colony from heaven quite foreign to the earthly community and sent out to enrol citizens for that foreign State, wherever it could take root. Its education aimed at nothing else but that men should not be damned in the other world but saved. ”

“ On the other hand, the State must see that education for life on earth is very greatly needed; from such a thorough education, training for heaven follows as an easy supplement. The more enlightened the State thought it was before, the more firmly it seems to have believed that it could attain its true aim merely by means of coercive institutions, and without any religion and morality in its citizens, who might do as they liked in regard to such matters. ”

“ If the State does not undertake the proffered task, so much the greater glory for the private persons who do. Far be it from us to anticipate the future with surmises, or strike the note of doubt and distrust. We have stated clearly what we wish for first. We may, however, be permitted to say that, if the State and the princes should in fact leave the matter to private persons, this would be in accordance with the usual course of German development and culture, which has been already mentioned and proved by examples, and which would continue so to the end. ”

“ Indeed, it is for that universality alone that we need the State, since for individual beginnings and isolated attempts the resources of well-disposed private persons would suffice. Of course, it is not to be expected that all parents will be willing to be separated from their children, and to hand them over to this new education, a notion of which it will be difficult to convey to them. ”

“ If only we snatch them away from it suddenly and completely, bring them into an entirely new world, and leave nothing to remind them of the past, they will themselves forget and be like newly-created beings. ”

“ If among the numerous and highly complicated reasons for our present fate one wanted to single out that for which our governments alone are peculiarly to blame, it would be found that, although they above all others are bound to look the future in the face and master it, they have never tried, in spite of the urgency of the great events of their time, to do more than get out of the difficulty of the immediate moment as well as they could. ”

“ In regard to the future, however, they have reckoned, not on their present age, but on some piece of good luck which should sever the fixed chain of cause and effect. But such hopes are deceptive. A motive power which is once allowed to enter the flow of time continues and completes its course; once the first careless act has been committed, belated reflection cannot arrest it. Our fate has for the moment removed from us the possibility of making the first mistake, that of providing merely for the present ”

“ So long as those who stood at the head of the Government remained in the dark concerning its true aim and were filled with that anxiety of conscience about the salvation of themselves and others, one could rely with certainty on their zeal for this kind of public education and on their earnest efforts in its behalf. ”

“ Any other is foreign trimming, put on simply for show and not even worn with right good conscience. It will now be revealed where the boasted culture exists only in a few people of the middle class, who show it in their writings (and such people are to be found in every German State) , and where, on the other hand, it has reached also the higher classes who advise the State. Then it will be shown, too, how one has to judge the zeal displayed here and there for the erection and welfare of institutions for higher education ”

“ The first German State to carry out this proposal will, I said, have the greatest glory. Yet it will not long stand alone, but will doubtless soon find imitators and rivals. The important thing is to make a start. Even if there were no other motive, a sense of honour, or jealousy, or the desire to have what another possesses and, if possible, to have it in a better form, will spur on the rest to follow the example one after the other. ”

“ The State has no right to use compulsion for that purpose. If they want to wait until all men have the good will, since universal goodwill will never be produced without education, they are thereby secured against all improvement, and may expect that there will be no change until the end of time. ”

“ Finally, the more that was spent on poor-houses, the more they required; indeed, under the prevailing circumstances, they seemed to be institutions for making people poor. In a State which makes the new education universal, the former will be greatly reduced, the latter will vanish entirely. Early discipline is a guarantee against the need in later years of reformation and penal discipline, which are very doubtful measures, while in a nation so trained there are no poor at all. ”

“ But let us not be deterred by this from making a start! It is the very nature of the thing that it can never perish, but, once set in motion, it lives on of itself and spreads, ever gaining fresh ground. ”

“ From past experience we must reckon that everyone who still believes he is able to support his children at home will set himself against public education, and especially against a public education that separates so strictly and lasts so long. ”

“ Even in recent times, and until the present day, the education of the richer classes has been looked upon as the private concern of the parents, who might arrange it to their own satisfaction; and their children were usually put to school simply because some day it would be useful to them. ”

“ Moreover, compulsory military service, too, will thereby be ended, because those who are thus educated are all equally willing to bear arms for their fatherland. Even if, in order not to have too much of an outcry at the beginning, it is desirable to limit this compulsion to public education in the same way as compulsion to military service has hitherto been limited, and to exclude from the former the classes that are exempt from the latter, no serious harm will result. The intelligent parents among those exempted will voluntarily hand over their children to this education. ”

“ All the knowledge which they carry away with them from the usual university teaching, and which is often so dead, will become clear and living in the atmosphere of general observation into which they come here. They will learn to reproduce and use their knowledge with skill. Since all the features of mankind appear pure and clear in the child, they will acquire a store of true knowledge of mankind that alone deserves the name ”

“ If it could be expected that every German State would at once, and from this very hour, make serious preparations to carry out that scheme, the better generation that we need would be in existence in twenty-five years, and anyone who might expect to live so long could hope to see it with his own eyes. ”

“ We have in mind here, first of all, great landowners, who could establish on their estates such educational institutions for the children of their dependents. It is to Germany’s credit, and a very honourable mark of distinction from the other nations of modern Europe, that among the class mentioned there have always been some here and there, who made it their serious business to care for the instruction and education of the children on their estates, and were gladly willing to do for them to the best of their knowledge. ”

“ In no other way than by deciding not to live for ourselves, and by proving this in action; by being willing to make ourselves the seed of a more worthy posterity and, for its sake alone, to maintain ourselves until we have set it up. ”