With John Karl Becker I am of the opinion that the utility and amount for individuals of every study should be precisely determined. All that exceeds this amount should be unconditionally banished from the lower classes. With respect to mathematics, Becker,[129] in my judgment, has admirably solved this question. With respect to the upper classes the demand assumes a different form. Here also the amount of matter obligatory on all pupils ought not to exceed a certain limit. But in the great mass of knowledge that a young man must acquire to-day for his profession it is no longer just that ten years of his youth should be wasted with mere preludes. The upper classes should supply a truly useful preparation for the professions, and should not be modelled upon the wants merely of future lawyers, ministers, and philologists. Again, it would be both foolish and impossible to attempt to prepare the same person properly for all the different professions. In such case the function of the schools would be, as Lichtenberg feared, simply to select the persons best fitted for being drilled, whilst precisely the finest special talents, which do not submit to indiscriminate discipline, would be excluded from the contest. Hence, a certain amount of liberty in the choice of studies must be introduced in the upper classes, by means of which it will be free for every one who is clear about the choice of his profession to devote his chief attention either to the study of the philologico-historical or to that of the mathematico-scientific branches. Then the matter now treated could be retained, and in some branches, perhaps, judiciously extended,[130] without burdening the scholar with many branches or increasing the number of the hours of study. With more homogeneous work the student's capacity for work increases, one part of his labor supporting the other instead of obstructing it. If, however, a young man should subsequently choose a different profession, then it is _his_ business to make up what he has lost. No harm certainly will come to society from this change, nor could it be regarded as a misfortune if philologists and lawyers with mathematical educations or physical scientists with classical educations should now and then appear. * * * * *