Paul Barth of Leipsic, written a year ago, are also well worth being summarized here.[1] "One of the truest sayings of Goethe is: 'Let no one imagine that the first impressions of youth can be effaced.' There are striking examples recorded in history how perverse reading in early years caused the greatest harm. Of course there will be wise people, even educators, who say: 'It is true, there are some offensive passages in this work, but their effect is counteracted by other instruction. Don't let us be pedantic. Don't let us make so much noise about such trifles.' These gentlemen must be answered that in education there are no trifles; that nothing is so little that it may be overlooked. For every trifle has an influence on many, very many souls of children, and in every one of these souls it can work its effect for a long time, perhaps for a whole life. Others, advocates of a 'sound realism,' as they style themselves, will say: 'Evil is after all a component part of this world, and so it is beneficial to free the young of the illusion that there is no evil in the world.' To this we reply: Belief in the moral order in this world is an energizing factor in the life of the young, and the man who robs the child of this belief, weakens its moral energy, consequently does an immoral act. Others again, granting all this, will say: 'Although there is some danger in such reading, still it gives an insight into the life and the history of the nations.' Such historians we answer: The history of
- ↑ Neue Jahrbücher, 1901, vol. VIII, pp. 57-59. – See also Schiller, Handbuch der praktischen Pädagogik, 1894, p. 172, where it is said that some satires of Horace and some passages in Homer should be left out in the school editions. The same author's opinion about the use of unabridged Bibles in schools will be quoted in the next chapter.
