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FIRST PART.

The General Idea of Education.

Sec. 12. A full treatment of Pedagogics must distinguish--

(1) The nature of Education;

(2) The form of Education;

(3) The limits of Education.

_I.--The Nature of Education._

Sec. 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind, the
distinguishing mark of which is that it can be developed only from
within, and by its own activity. Mind is essentially free--_i.e._, it
has the capacity for freedom--but it cannot be said to possess freedom
till it has obtained it by its own voluntary effort. Till then it cannot
be truly said to be free. Education consists in enabling a human being
to take possession of, and to develop himself by, his own efforts, and
the work of the educator cannot be said to be done in any sense where
this is not accomplished. In general, we may say that the work of
education consists in leading to a full development of all the inherent
powers of the mind, and that its work is done when, in this way, the
mind has attained perfect freedom, or the state in which alone it can be
said to be truly itself.[8]

The isolated human being can never become truly man. If such human
beings (like the wild girl of the forest of Ardennes) have been found,
they have only proved to us that reciprocal action with our fellow
beings is necessary for the development of our powers. Caspar Hauser, in
his subterranean prison, will serve as an example of what man would be
without men. One might say that this fact is typified by the first cry
of the newly-born child. It is as if the first expression of its
seemingly independent life were a cry for help from others. On the side
of nature the human being is at first quite helpless.

Sec. 14. Man is, therefore, the only proper object of education. It is true
that we speak of the education of plants and of animals, but we
instinctively apply other terms when we do so, for we say "raising"
plants, and "training" animals. When we "train" or "break" an animal, it
is true