But we must always keep fresh the energy of this self-activity. How can this be done? Not by a constant spur from outside, but only by its own neverceasing, orderly progression or its inner evolution. This progressive unfolding of self-activity is secured by the power of aspiration toward an ever-progressive ideal. This ideal cannot be given by others, but it should be the creation of the pupils’ own will. There is, in everyone’s breast, an instinct toward perfection or a love of the highest good. This instinct should be cultivated and strengthened in the child. When it is strong, it necessarily drives him to create in his mind a certain state of things which does not exist in actuality, but which is the prototype of reality. Here lies the everlasting fountain source for a new higher activity. And the child learns by his immediate experience the evolution of the spiritual activity in him, the universal and necessary law, by means of which the actual state of things is eternally realized in the world. This is a higher kind of knowledge than that of mere actuality or a dead record of the past. In fact, soaring into the vast regions of ideals is better beloved by the youth than memorizing mere names and dates. Even from the standpoint of mere acquisition, the awakening of self-activity is a more important thing than the imparting of knowledge. For learning is simply a mode of activity, and by establishing the love of activity for its own sake in the mind of the child, we also establish the love of learning for learning’s sake. This, and this alone, is the lifelong spring of all knowledge. By the self-active learning which comes from pure love, one learns more, and more securely than by being taught receptively. Mechanical and passive learning destroys the very source of knowledge by killing the child’s self-activity, and, moreover, by introducing alien motives for his activity, implants the root of weakness and uncertainty of character. Fichte was a great admirer of Pestalozzi. He was captivated by the educational zeal and the pedagogic principles of the Swiss reformer, and recommended them as the true foundation upon which the new education of the German nation should be laid. Kant indorsed Basedow’s experimental efforts in the philanthropic institute; but Fichte preached the gospel of the Swiss “fanatic.” Historians are inclined to count this as the most important merit of Fichte in the history of education. For it contributed greatly to the influx of the Pestalozzian tide into Germany, especially into Prussia, and thus led to the most flourishing age of pedagogical writers, and to inscribing the motto of universal education on the national flag of the country. We might say that it is due largely to Fichte that the great Swiss educator has become an adopted son of Prussia, and what he intended for the elevation of the Helvetian poor has become the inspiration of elementary education for all the nations on the globe.