Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/90

 78 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE their authors, and do not, or cannot, advance the good of mankind ? Such barren, useless, injurious learning as proceeds from pride and egotism serves to darken understanding and to foster all evil passions and in- clinations ; and if these govern the mind of an author, his works cannot possibly be good in their influence. What profits all our learning if our characters be not correspondingly noble, all our industry without piety, all our knowing without love of our neighbour, all our wisdom without humility, all our studying, if we are not kind and charitable ? ' He looked upon education as the noblest field of labour, ' for the better educa- tion of the young is the foundation of all true reform, ecclesiastical, national, and domestic' In the dedication of his educational writings to his friend, Georg von Gemmingen, provost of the cathedral of Spires, he writes : ' The true foundation of our religion, the basis of all worthy life, the one ornament in any position, the prosperity of the State, the certain victory over intemperance and passions — all depend on a careful and intelligent training of the young.' To this training of youth the labour of his life was devoted. As Alexander Hee'ius — whose name he men- tions with reverence — was the greatest German school- man of his century, so Wimpheling was the most distin- guished educational writer, one of the most famous restorers of an enlightened system of education from a Christian standpoint. Eeuchlin looked upon him as a pillar of religion, and after his death Beatus Ehenanus said that no one in Germany had ever been such a friend and promoter of the education of the young and their pro- gress in science as Wimpheling. Following the example of Aeneas Sylvius, who, before his elevation to the papal