y later
start in life. It was also attacked on the ground that it led to
"overwork." This attack was partially met by the scheme of 1837.
Schulze's period of prominence in Berlin closely corresponded to that of
Herbart at Koenigsberg (1809-1833) and Goettingen (1833-1841), who
insisted that for boys of eight to twelve there was no better text-book
than the Greek _Odyssey_, and this principle was brought into practice
at Hanover by his distinguished pupil, Ahrens.

The Prussian policy of the next period, beginning with the accession of
Friedrich Wilhelm IV. in 1840, was to lay a new stress on religious
teaching, and to obviate the risk of overwork resulting from the
simultaneous study of all subjects by the encouragement of
specialization in a few. Ludwig Wiese's scheme of 1856 insisted on the
retention of Latin verse as well as Latin prose, and showed less favour
to natural science, but it awakened little enthusiasm, while the attempt
to revive the old humanistic Gymnasium led to a demand for schools of a
more modern type, which issued in the recognition of the _Realgymnasium_
(1859).

In the age of Bismarck, school policy in Prussia had for its aim an
increasing recognition of modern requirements. In 1875 Wiese was
succeeded by Bonitz, the eminent Aristotelian scholar, who in 1849 had
introduced mathematics and natural science into the schools of Austria,
and had substituted the wide reading of classical authors for the
prevalent practice of speaking and writing Latin. By his scheme of 1882
natural science recovered its former position in Prussia, and the hours
assigned in each week to Latin were diminished from 86 to 77. But
neither of the two great parties in the educational world was satisfied;
and great expectations were aroused when the question of reform was
taken up by the German emperor, William II., in 1890. The result of the
conference of December 1890 was a compromise between the conservatism of
a majority of its members and the forward policy of the emperor. The
scheme of 1892 reduced the number of hours assigned to Latin from 77 to
62, and laid special stress on the _German_ essay; but the modern
training given by the _Realgymnasium_ was still unrecognized as an
avenue to a university education. A conference held in June 1900, in
which the speakers included Mommsen and von Wilamowitz, Harnack and
Diels, was followed by the "Kiel Decree" of the 26th of November. In
that decree the emperor urged the equal