[10] This term was at first applied in derision, just as Methodism was applied to the English religious reformers in the eighteenth century, but the term was soon made reputable by the earnestness and ability of those who accepted it.
[11] Francke's father had been counselor to Duke Ernest of Gotha, who had created for his little duchy the most modern-type school system of the seventeenth century. How much Francke's progressive ideas in educational matters go back to the work of Duke Ernest forms an interesting speculation.
[12] "Francke had the rare ability to see clearly what needed doing, and then to do it regardless of obstacles or consequences. The magnitude of his work in Halle is simply marvelous, and yet what he actually accomplished is insignificant in comparison with what he inspired others to do. He showed how practical Christianity could be incorporated in the work of the common schools; his plan was immediately adopted by Frederick William I and made well-nigh universal in Prussia. He showed how the Realien could be profitably employed in a Latin school, and even made a constituent part of a university preparatory course; as a result of his methods, and especially of his suggestion that schools should be founded for the exclusive purpose of fitting the youth of the citizen class for practical life, there has since grown up in Germany a class of Real- schools." (Russell, J. E., German Higher Schools, p. 64.)
[13] Paulsen, Fr., The German Universities, p. 36.
[14] As late as 1805, according to Paulsen, of the whole number of students in the universities of Prussia, there were but 144 in the combined medical faculties, as against 555 in theology, and 1036 in law.
[15] Francke relates that, as a student at Erfurt (c. 1675), he was able to study physics and botany, along with his theological studies. Oxford records show the publication of a list of plants in the "Physick Garden" there as early as 1648. The garden was endowed about that time by the Earl of Danby, and in 1764 lectures on botany were begun there. Lord Bacon, in his Advancement of Learning (1605), had written: "We see likewise that some places instituted for physic (medicinae) have annexed the commodity of gardens for simples of all sorts, and do likewise command the use of dead bodies for anatomies."
[16] Thomasius was made professor of theology, and Francke professor of Greek and Oriental languages. Both had been expelled from the University of Leipzig. Christian Wolff, who had been banished by Frederick William I, was recalled and made professor of philosophy. It was he who "made philosophy talk German."
CHAPTER XVIII
[1] Quick, R. H., Essays on Educational Reformers, 26. ed., p. 97.
[2] Locke was the first to lay the basis for modern scientific psychology to supersede the philosophic psychology of Plato and Aristotle. In his Essay on the Conduct of the Human Understanding (1690) upon which he spent many years of labor, he first applied the methods of scientific observation to the mind, analyzed experiences, and employed introspection and comparative mental study. He thus built up a psychology based on the analysis of experiences, and came to the conclusion that our knowledge is derived by reflection on experience coming through sensation. He is consequently called the founder of empirical psychology, and the forerunner of modern experimental psychology and child study. His philosophy, and his theory of education as well, thus came to be a philosophy of experience—a rejection of mere authority, and a constant appeal to reason as a guide.