X
AMERICAN PREFACE.
instruction. Nothing has been done at liazard; but tbe wlioie of
tliis remarkable educational reform is based upon tbe soundest
educational pliilosophy, and so must yielcl good results for genera-
tions to come. The art-industrial features are very conspicuous,
as will be seen upon reading the report which follows.
It may justly be said that the ehief object of the Universal
Exhibition, lield at Vienna in 1873, was to stimulate the Austri-
ans, educationally, by showing them what is done elsewhere for
industrial education, and the result as illustrated by industrial
products. At this exhibition the educational display was the
bärgest and best ever seen, and so was of special Service to edu-
cators. Already the good influence of the exhibition on the
public taste has begun to manifest itself, as the Austrian minister
at Washington most emphatically testifies in a recent address. 1
1 At tlie meeting of school superintendents, recently hehl in Washington, ‘
the Austrian Minister, Baron von Scliarz-Senborn, was present, and spoke of
the educational advantages and influences of expositions: —
“You rememher, gentlenien, there was an old European general by the
naine of Monteeueuli, who said, that if you are preparing for war, and wish
to become Victors, you must have three necessary things: first, inoney; sec-
ondly, inore inoney; thirdly, milch more inoney. Now, I tliink every teacher
is a general; that is, he is a combatant of ignorance and of superficiality.
Now, I tliink that the want of knowledge is the root of all evils that'exist in
the World, and that tliey ean ouly be successfully conibated by three things.
These three things are, first, education; secondly, more education; thirdly,
milch more education. I tliink, too, that the education of a people must
begin in the family circle, and that then every man, every woman, every
village, municipality, and Corporation, and every State government, and the
general government itself, must aid and coutribute to the accomplishment
of this vitally important ohject. . . .
“ A great German savant, Prof. Virchow, made a very interesting and a
very aceurate remark, which could apply here. He said that ‘ nothing which
coines through your eyes into your liead ever goes out.’ And so say I. The
impressidns which we ohtain by the sense of sight affect the brain, and change
our vievvs, in the most favorable inanner. That was the meaning ; and the
man who has seen many things, who has travelled a great deal, will have Ins
intellectual faculties greatly iinproved. We observed in Austria, as well as
in other parts of Europe, another striking effect of tliese exhibitions. Tliey
improve, in a remarkable way, the public taste. The taste in former times in
Austria was also a bad one. The people had not seen examples of tasteful
and beautiful productions: tliey had, therefore, no artistic judgment. Tliey
had no niuseums and schools for applying fine arts to industry, for improving
and correcting tlieir taste, and for tlius giving them the right ideas of the
beautiful. The consequence was, that in tlieir buildings, furniture, and other