The translation of "Pedagogics as a System" was prepared and published
five years ago. The wide demand for it that has made itself known since
that time, especially in normal schools, has proved the value of such
works in the domain of education. At the same time, the difficulty the
students have always found in its use--a difficulty inseparable from any
translation of a German metaphysical treatise--has led us to the
conviction that a paraphrase into a more easily understood form is a
necessity, if the thought of Rosenkranz is to be appropriated by the
very class who are most in need of it. As was remarked in the preface to
the translation, we have in English no other work of similar size which
contains so much that is valuable to those engaged in the work of
education. It is no compendium of rules or formulas, but rather a
systematic, logical treatment of the subject, in which the attention is,
as it were, concentrated upon the whole problem of education, while that
problem is allowed to work itself out before us. To paraphrase the
text--or, rather, to translate it from the metaphysical language in
which it at present appears into a language more easy of
comprehension--without losing the real significance of the statements,
is the task which is here undertaken. Free illustrations and suggestions
have been interwoven to give point and application to the thoughts and
principles stated. This translation, or paraphrase, follows the
paragraphs of the original and of the first translation. The analysis of
the whole work, as it appeared in the original translation, is appended
at the end of the "Introduction," as a guide to the student.