Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/201

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stimulated without love for the known object being stimulated at the same time, for otherwise knowledge remains dead; similarly, love must never be stimulated without becoming clear to knowledge, for otherwise love remains blind. This is one of the chief principles of our proposed education, with which Pestalozzi also must agree, since it is in accordance with his whole system of thought. Now, the stimulation and development of this love is connected with the systematic course of instruction by means of sensation and perception, and arises without our design or assistance. The child has a natural inclination for clearness and order. This is continually satisfied in that course of instruction, and so fills the child with joy and pleasure. But, while in this state of satisfaction, he is stimulated again by the new obscurities that now appear, and so he is satisfied anew. Thus life is passed in love of and pleasure in learning. It is this love by means of which each individual is connected with the world of thought; it is the bond of the sensuous and spiritual worlds. This love renders possible the easy development of the faculty of knowledge and the successful cultivation of the fields of science; a result that is certain and premeditated in this education, but which was formerly attained by chance in the case of a few specially favoured persons.

146. But there is yet another love, that which binds man to man and combines all individuals into one rational community with the same disposition. The first kind of love fashions knowledge; this other kind fashions the life of action and stimulates people to show forth in themselves and in others that which has become part of their knowledge. Since for our special purpose it would be of little use simply to improve the scholar’s education, and since the national education intended by us aims first of