Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/230

 to inform themselves about the complete scheme that is offered them, and be just as willing to do now on a large scale and thoroughly what they have hitherto done on a small scale and imperfectly. It may be that some of them did what they did partly because they saw that it was more profitable for them to have educated, rather than uneducated, dependents. In those cases where the State, by abolishing the relationship of serf and lord, has now removed the latter motive, may it bear in mind the more earnestly that it is its essential duty at the same time not to do away with the one blessing which, where the lords were well-disposed, was attached to that relationship! May the State in this case not fail to do that which, apart from this, is its duty, when it has released therefrom those who did it voluntarily in its stead! Then, in regard to the cities, we look to voluntary associations formed for that purpose by well-disposed citizens. So far as I have been able to see, no burden of misery has ever yet extinguished in German hearts the impulse to do good. Yet, owing to a number of faults in our institutions, which could all be included under the one head of neglected education, these good works seldom remove misery, but seem, indeed, often to increase it. May we at last direct that excellent impulse chiefly towards the good work which puts an end to all misery and to all need of further good works—the good work of education. Yet we need, and count upon, a blessing and sacrifice of another kind, which consists, not in giving, but in doing and acting. May budding scholars, whose position allows it, dedicate the time between their departure from the university and their appointment to a public post to the business of receiving instruction in these institutions concerning this method of teaching, and of teaching in them! Apart from the