y, music, and civic virtues. The education of Athens conformed
to the class basis of society. Sparta as an exception trained all
citizens for the service of state, making them subordinate to its
welfare. The state took charge of children at the age of seven, put
them in barracks, and subjected them to the most severe discipline.
But there was no free education, no free development of the ordinary
mind. It was in the nature of civic slavery for the preservation of
the state in conflict with other states.

During the Middle Ages Charlemagne established the only public schools
for civic training, the first being established at Paris, although he
planned to extend them throughout the empire. The collapse of his
great empire made the schools merely a tradition. But they were a
faint sign of the needs of a strong empire and an enlightened
community. The educational institutions of the Middle Ages were
monasteries, and cathedral schools for the purpose of training men for
the service of the church and for the propagating of religious
doctrine. They were all institutional in nature and far from the idea
of public instruction for the enlightenment of the people.

_The Mediaeval University Permitted Some Freedom of Choice_.--There was
exhibited in some of them especially a desire to discover the truth
through traditional knowledge. They were {476} composed of groups of
students and masters who met for free discussion, which led to the
verification of established traditions. But this was a step forward,
and scholars arose who departed from dogma into new fields of learning.
While the universities of the Middle Ages were a step in advance, full
freedom of the mind had not yet manifested itself, nor had the idea of
universal education appeared. Opportunity came to a comparatively
small number; moreover, nearly all scientific and educational
improvement came from impulses outside of the centres of tradition.

_The English and German Universities_.--The English universities,
particularly Oxford and Cambridge, gave a broader culture in
mathematics, philosophy, and literature, which was conducive to
liberality in thought, but even they represented the education of a
selected class. The German universities, especially in the nineteenth
century, emphasized the practical or applied side of education. By
establishing laboratories, they were prepared to apply all truths
discovered, and by experimentation carry forward learning