othered; _those classes no longer have any ideal_. As a
consequence of the absence of ideals and of noble endeavor, an unbounded
passion for physical indulgence and hankering after excesses spread
their physical and moral gangrene in all directions. How else can the
youth be that is brought up in such an atmosphere? Purely material
indulgence, without stint and without bounds, is the only aim that it
sees or knows of. Why exert themselves, if the wealth of their parents
makes all effort seem superfluous? The maximum of education with a large
majority of the sons of our bourgeoisie consists in passing the
examinations for the one year's service in the army. Is this goal
reached, then they imagine to have climbed Pelion and Ossa, and regard
themselves at least as demi-gods. Have they a reserve officer's
certificate in their pocket, then their pride and arrogance knows no
limit. The influence exercised by this generation--a generation it has
become by its numbers--weak in the character and knowledge of its
members, but strong in their designs and the spirit of graft,
characterizes the present period as the "Age of Reserve Officers." Its
peculiarities are: Characterlessness and ignorance, but a strong will;
servility upward, arrogance and brutality downward.

The daughters of our bourgeoisie are trained as show-dolls, fools of
fashion and drawingroom-ladies, on the chase after one enjoyment after
another, until, finally, surfeited with _ennui_, they fall a prey to all
imaginable real and supposed diseases. Grown old, they become devotees
and beads-women, who turn up their eyes at the corruption of the world
and preach asceticism. As regards the lower classes, the effort is on
foot to lower still more the level of their education. The proletariat
might become too knowing, it might get tired of its vassalage, and might
rebel against its earthly gods. The more stupid the mass, all the easier
is it to control and rule.

And thus modern society stands before the question of instruction and
education as bewildered as it stands before all other social questions.
What does it? It calls for the rod; preaches "religion," that is,
submission and contentment to those who are now but too submissive;
teaches abstinence where, due to poverty, abstinence has become
compulsory in the utmost necessaries of life. Those who in the rudeness
of their nature rear up brutally are taken to "reformatories," that
usually are controlled by pietistic