, at fitting him to guide and direct his own life
in the light of a self-accepted and a self-directed ideal, then some
measure of control, of guidance, and of regulation is necessary in the
years when the child is passing from youth to manhood. Now, it is this
fact, this truth, which the Germans as a nation have realised. They
declare that it is neither wise nor prudent nor for the ultimate benefit
of the State to leave the vast majority of the youth without guidance,
and sometimes even without proper moral control exercised over them
during the great formative period of their lives. Nay, further, they
believe that a State which neglects its duty here is not doing what it
ought to do for the future moral good, for the future economic welfare,
and for the future happiness of its individual members. Hence, in
several of the German States, the State control over the child does not
cease when at fourteen years of age he leaves the Elementary School, but
is continued until the age of seventeen; and this is effected by the
establishment of compulsory Evening Schools. In particular, by a law
which came into force in Berlin on the 1st April 1905, every boy and
girl in that city, with certain definitely specified exceptions, must
attend at an Evening Continuation School for a minimum of not less than
four hours and a maximum of not more than six hours per week. Moreover,
this enactment has been rendered necessary not to level up the majority,
but to level up the minority. This development is a development for
which the voluntary Evening Continuation School prepared the way; and
compulsory attendance has become possible on account of the willingness
of the German youth to learn, and of his desire to make himself
proficient in his particular trade or profession. Further, the school
authorities, in this matter of compulsory attendance at an Evening
Continuation School, have with them the hearty co-operation of the great
body of employers; and the burden of seeing that the pupil attends
regularly is not put upon the parent but upon the employer. By these
means, and by other agencies of a voluntary character, every care is
taken that the Berlin youth shall have the opportunity of finding that
employment for which by nature he is best suited, and that thereafter he
shall learn thoroughly the particular trade or calling he may enter
upon.

Contrast what we do, or rather what we do not do, in this matter of
providing higher education fo