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634 MODERN TIMES.
Differences of opinion are produced among the members
of a College of Teachers by the variety of their intellectual
gifts, by peculiarities of character, and by the scientific
work they may have done : the result of their discussions
is thereby beneficially influenced.
Differences in the stipends of the professors are equally
natural and just, and are influenced by the services they have
rendered to science, the results of their teaching, and the
time they have to devote to it. On the other hand it is
impossible to approve of the extreme diversity in the
income of professors which is produced by the system of
lecture-fees; for the number of the audience depends
chiefly upon whether the subject of the lecture is or is not
one which is of use for examinations, and is but seldom
affected by the merit of the lecturer. If he has to deal with
a science but little popular, he will find himself surrounded
by only a small circle of pupils, even although he possesses
splendid gifts of eloquence, a powerful personality, and a
world-wide fame. The students are bound in the first
instance to apply themselves to those subjects which offer
a secure foundation for their future life-work. To reproach
them, on this account, with a shallow materialism, would
be foolish : for they are, in this, only performing a duty
they owe to themselves and to their families. But it is
quite as senseless to reward or punish the lecturer for cir­
cumstances over which he has no influence, by assigning to
him more or less of the money received as lecture fees.
This diversity of payment can hardly be justified by any
difference in the effort expended, as C. HASSE has pointed
out ;* for this is much the same whether the audience con­
sists of two or two hundred.
The custom of assigning the lecture-fees to the professors
is also objectionable from an ethical point of view. The
ideal aspect of a teacher's calling is degraded if the com-
* C. HASSE: Die Mangel deutscher Universitatseinrichtungen und ihie Besserung,
Jena 1887, S. 28 et seq.