in 1897 about the nature of educational methods that next to deadness and dullness, formalism and routine, our education is threatened with no greater evil than sentimentalism.
and
this sentimentalism is the necessary result of the attempt to divorce feeling from action

Whoa. Aha. Is he saying something akin to Budhism, something to do with distinguishing between having basic human emotions and their cognitive component which thrust them into something more, something bigger?

Sentimentalism–”the excessive expression of feelings of tenderness, sadness or nostalgia in behavior, speech or writing”