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For the. use of the Department of Education

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS' LIBRARY

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For the use of the Department of Education

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS' LIBRARY

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CUBBERLEY LIBRARY

STANFORD \§agj/ UNIVERSITY
LIBRARIES

THE

HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

GABRIEL COMPAYRE\

Drputy, Doctob or Letters , and Professor in the Normal SornooL

or Fontrnay-aux-Roses.

TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
NOTES. AND AN INDEX,

W. H. PAYNE, A.M.,

Chancellor or the Uniyersitt or Nashyillr, and President of «r

State Normal College; late Prorsbor or the Science and thr

Art or Teachino in the University of MioMiOAft.

BOSTON:
D. C. HEATH & COMPANY.

1898.

H-< ■ • «

CT£.MC;T

y La .i, -~: * V y V^

J. a. Cvbuinu & Co.. Printers, Boston.

TABLE OF CONTEXTS.

PAO«

Translator's Preface v-vii

Introduction — ht-xxii

Chapter I. — Education in Antiquity 1-16

Chapter II. — Education among the Greeks 17-42

Chapter III. — Education at Rome 43-60

Chapter IV. — The Early Christians and the Middle Age. . . 61-32

Chapter V. — The Renaissance and the Theories of Educa-
tion in the Sixteenth Century. — Erasmus,
Rabelais, and Montaigne 83-111

Chapter VI. — Protestantism and Primary Instruction. —

Luther and Comenius. 112-137

Chapter VIL — The Teaching Congregations. — Jesuits and

Jansenists 138-163

Chapter VIII. — Eenelon 164-186

Chapter IX. — The Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century.

— Descartes, Malebranche, and Locke. . . .187-211^1^

Chapter X. — The Education of Women in the Seventeenth

Century. — Jacqueline Pascal and Ma- .

dame de Maintenon 212-231

Chapter XI. — Rollin 232-252

Chapter XII. — Catholicism and Primary Instruction. — La

Salle and the Brethren of the Christian
Schools 253-278

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chapter XIII. — Rousseau and the Emile 278-310

Chapter XIV. — The Philosophers of the Eighteenth Cen-
tury.— Condillac, Diderot, Helve tius,

and Kant 311-339

i
Chapter XV. — The Origin of Lay and National Education.

— La Chalotais and Holland 340-361

Chapter XVI. — The Revolution. — Mirabeau, Talleyrand,

and Condorcet 302-389

Chapter XVlI. — The Convention. — Lepelletier Saint-Far-

geau, Lakanal, and Daunou 390-412

Chapter XVtlL — Pestalozzi 413-445

Chapter XlX. — The Successors of Pestalozzi. — Frcebel

and the Pere Girard 440-477

Chapter XX. — Women as Educators 478-607

Chapter XXI. — The Theory and Practice of Education in ,

the Nineteenth Century 508-634

Chapter XXII. — The Science of Education. — Herbert Spen-
cer, Alexander Bain, Channing, and
Horace Mann 636-570

Appendix 571-675

Index 677-598

TRANSLATORS PREFACE.

rriHE two considerations that have chiefly influenced me in
~*~ making this translation are the following : —

1. Of the three phases of educational study, the prac-
tical, the theoretical, and the historical, the last, as proved
by the number of works written on the subject, has received
bat very little attention from English and American teach-
ers ; and yet, if we allow that a teacher should first of all
be a man of culture, and that an invaluable factor in his
professional education is a knowledge of what has hitherto
been done within his field of activity, there are the best of
reasons why the claims of this study should be urged upon
the teaching profession. For giving breadth of view,
Judicial candor, and steadiness of purpose, nothing more
helpful can be commended to the teacher than a critical
survey of the manifold experiments and experiences in
educational practice. The acutest thinkers of all the ages
have worked at the solution of the educational problem, and
the educating art has been practised under every variety of
conditions, civil, social, religious, philosophic, and ethnic.
Is it not time for us to review these experiments, as the
very best condition for advancing surely and steadily?

2. The almost complete neglect of this study among us
has been due, in great measure, to the fact that there have

vi translator's preface.

been no books on the subject at all adapted to the ends to
be attained. A dry, scrappy, and incomplete narration of
facts can end only in bewilderment and in blunting the taste
for this species of inquiry. The desirable thing has been
a book that is comprehensive without being tedious, whose
treatment is articulate and clear, and that is pervaded by a
critical insight at once catholic and accurate. Some years
ago I read with the keenest admiration, the Histoire Critique
des Doctrines de V Education en France depute le Seizieme
Steele, by Gabriel Compayr6 (Paris, 1879) ; and it seemed
to me a model, in matter and method, for a general history
of education. Within a recent period Monsieur Compayr6
has transformed this Histoire Critique into such a general
history of education, under the title Histoire de la Ptdagogie.
In this book all the characteristics of the earlier work have
been preserved, and it represents to my own mind very
nearly the ideal of the treatise that is needed by the teach-
ing profession of this country.

The reader will observe the distinction made by Monsieur
Compayr6 between Pedagogy and Education. Though our
nomenclature does not sanction this distinction, and though
I prefer to give to the term Pedagogy a different connota-
tion, I have felt bound on moral grounds to preserve Mon-
sieur Compayr6's use of these terms wherever the context
would sanction it.

It seems mere squeamishness to object to the use of the
word Pedagogy on account of historical associations. The
fact that this term is in reputable use in German, French.

translator's preface.

and Italian educational literature, is a sufficient guaranty
that we may use it without danger. With us, the term
Pedagogics seems to be employed as a synonym for Peda-
gogy. It would seem to me better to follow continental
usage, and restrict the term Pedagogy to the art or practice
of education, and Pedagogics to the correlative science.

I feel under special obligations to Monsieur Com pay r^,
and to his publisher, Monsieur Paul Del ap lane, for their
courteous permission to publish this translation. I am also
greatly indebted to my friend, Mr. C. E. Lowrey, Ph.D., for
material aid in important details of my work.

W. H. PAYNE.
University op Michigan,

Jan. 4. 1886.

The issue of a second edition has permitted a careful
revision of the translation and the correction of several
verbal errors. In subsequent editions, no effort will be
spared by the translator and his publishers to make this
volume worthy of the favor with which it has been received
by the educational public.

W. H. P.

Auo. 1. 1886.

IOTKODUCTION.

What a Complete History op Education would be. —
In writing an elementary history of pedagogy, I do not
pretend to write a history of education. Pedagogy and
education, like logic and science, or like rhetoric and
eloquence, are different though analogous things.

What would a complete history of education not
include? It would embrace, in its vast developments,
the entire record of the intellectual and moral culture
of mankind at all periods and in all countries. It would
be a risumi of the life of humanity in its diverse man-
ifestations, literary and scientific, religious and political.
It would determine the causes, so numerous and so diverse,
which act upon the characters of men, and which, modi-
fying a common endowment, produce beings as different
as are a contemporary of Pericles and a modern Euro-
pean, a Frenchman of the middle ages and a Frenchman
subsequent to the Revolution.

In fact, there is not only an education, properly so called,
that which is given in schools and which proceeds from
the direct action of teachers, but there is a natural educa-
tion, which we receive without our knowledge or will,

X INTRODUCTION.

through the influence of the social environment in which
we live. There are what a philosopher of the day has
ingeniously called the occult coadjutors of education, —
climate, race, manners, social condition, political institu-
tions, religious beliefs. If a man of the nineteentli cen-
tury is very unlike a man of the seventeenth centurj*, it
is not merely because the first was educated in a Lyc6c
of the University and the other in a college of the
Jesuits ; it is also because in the atmosphere in which
they have been enveloped they have contracted differ-
ent habits of mind and heart; it is because the}' have
grown up under different laws, under a different social
and political regime; because they have been nurtured
by a different philosophy and a different religion. Upon
that delicate and variable composition known as the human
soul, how many forces which we do not suspect have left
their imprint! How many unobserved and latent causes
are involved in our virtues and in our faults ! The con-
scious and determined influence of the teacher is not,
perhaps, the most potent. In conjunction with him are
at work, obscurely but effectively, innumerable agents,
besides personal effort and what is produced b}' the original
energy of the individual.

We see what a history of education would be : a sort
of philosophy of history, to which nothing would be for-
eign, and which would scrutinize in its most varied and
most trifling causes, as well as in its most profound sources,
the moral life of humanity.

INTRODUCTION. XI

What an Elementary History of Pedagogy should
be. — Wholly different is the limited and modest purpose
of history of pedagogy, which proposes merely to set
forth the doctrines and the methods of educators properly
so called. In this more limited sense, education is reduced
to the premeditated action which the will of one man
exercises over other men in order to instruct them and
train them. It is the reflective auxiliary of the natural
development of the human soul. To what can be done
by nature and by the blind and fatal influences which
sport with human destiny, education adds the concurrence
of art, that is, of the reason, attentive and self-possessed,
which voluntarily and consciously applies to the training
of the soul principles whose truth has been recognized,
and methods whose efficiency has been tested by expe-
rience.

Even thus limited, the history of pedagogy still presents
to our inquiry a vast field to be explored. There is scarcely
a subject that has provoked to the same degree as educa-
tion the best efforts of human thinking. Note the cata-
logue of educational works published in French, which
Buisson has recently prepared.1 Though incomplete, this
list contains not less than two thousand titles ; and prob-
ably educational activity has been more fruitful, and has
been given a still greater extension in Germany than in
France. This activity is due to the fact, first of all, that

1 See the Dictionnaire de Pedagogic, by F. Buisson, Article Bibliogra-
phic. »

Xii INTRODUCTION.

educational questions, brought into fresh notice with each
generation, exercise over the minds of men an irresistible
and perennial attraction ; and also to the fact that parent-
hood inspires a taste for such inquiries, and, a thing that
is not always fortunate, leads to the assumption of some
competence in such matters ; and finally to the very nature
of educational problems, which are not to be solved by
abstract and independent reasoning, after the fashion of
mathematical problems, but which, vitally related to the
nature and the destiny of man, change and vary with the
fluctuations of the psychological and the moral doctrines
of which they are but the consequences. To different
systems of psychology correspond different systems of
education. An idealist, like Malebranche, will not reason
upon education after the manner of a sensationalist like
Locke. In the same way there is in every system of morals
the germ of a characteristic and original system of educa-
tion. A mystic, like Gerson, will not assign to education
the same end as a practical and positive writer like Herbert
Spencer. Hence a very great diversity in systems, or at
least an infinite variety in the shades of educational opinion.
Still farther, educational activity may manifest itself in
different ways, either in doctrines and theories or in
methods and practical applications. The historian of ped-
agogy has not merely to make known the general concep-
tions which the philosophers of education have in turn
submitted to the approbation of men. If he wishes to
make his work complete, he must give a detailed account

INTRODUCTION. X1U

of what has been accomplished, and make an actual study
of the educational establishments which have been founded
at different periods by those who have organized instruction.
Pedagogy is a complex affair, and there are many ways
of writing its history. One of these which has been too
little considered, and which would surely be neither the
least interesting nor the least fruitful, would consist in
studying, not the great writers on education and their
doctrines, not the great teachers and their methods, but
pupils themselves. If it were possible to relate in minute
detail, supposing that history would furnish us the neces-
sary information on this point, the manner in which a great
or a good man has been educated ; if an analysis could be
made of the different influences which have been involved
in the formation of talent or in the development of virtue
in the case of remarkable individuals; if it were possible,
in a word, to reproduce through exact and personal biogra-
phies the toil, the slow elaboration whence have issued at
different periods solidity of character, rectitude of purpose,
and minds endowed with judicial fairness ; the result would
be a useful and eminently practical work, something analo-
gous to what a history of logic would be, in which there
should be set forth not the abstract rules and the formal
laws for the search after truth, but the successful experi-
ments and the brilliant discoveries which have little by
little constituted the patrimony of science. This perhaps
would be the best of logics because it is real and in action ;
and also the best of treatises on pedagogy, since there

XlV INTRODUCTION.

might be learned from it, not general truths, which are
often of difficult application and of uncertain utility, but
practical means and living methods whose happy and effi-
cient applications would be seen in actual use.

We have just traced the imaginary plan of a history of
pedagogy rather than the exact outline of the series of
lessons which this book contains. However, we have
approached this ideal as nearly as we have been able, by
attempting to group about the principal philosophical and
moral ideas the systems of education which they have
inspired ; by endeavoring to retain whatever is essential ;
by adding to the first rapid sketches studied and elaborate
portraits ; by ever mingling with the expositions of doc-
trines and the analysis of important works the study of
practical methods and the examination of actual institu-
tions; and, finally, by penetrating the thought of the
great educators, to learn from them how they became such,
and by following them, as they have united practice with
theory, in the particular systems of education which they
have directed with success.1

Division op the History op Pedagogy. — The abun-
dance and the variety of pedagogical questions, the great
number of thinkers who have written upon education, in
a word, the complexit}* of the subject, might inspire the

1 The book now offered to the public was taught before it was written.
It is the result of the lectures given for three years past, either at the
higher normal school of Fontenay-aux-Roses, or in the normal courses for
men at Sevres and at Saint Cloud.

INTRODUCTION. XV

historian of pedagogy with the idea of dividing his work,
and of distributing his studies into several series. For
example, it would be possible to write the history of educa-
tion in general by itself, and then the history of instruction,
which is but an element of education. As education itself
comprises three parts, physical education, intellectual edu-
cation, and moral education, there would be an opportu-
nity for three series of distinct studies on these different
subjects. But these divisions would present grave incon-
veniences. In general, the opinions of an educator are
not susceptible of division ; there is a connection between
his manner of regarding the matter of instruction and the
solution he gives to educational questions proper. One
mode of thinking pervades his theories or his practice in
the matter of moral discipline, and his ideas on intellectual
education. It is, then, necessary to consider each of the
different systems of education as a whole.

Perhaps a better order of division would be that which,
without regard to chronological order, should distinguish
all pedagogical doctrines and applications into a certain
number of schools, and connect all educators with certain
general tendencies: as the ascetic tendency, that of the
fathers of the church, for example, and of the middle
ages ; the utilitarian tendency of Locke, and of a great
number of moderns; the pessimism of Port Royal, the
optimism of F6nelon ; the literary school of the humanists
of the Renaissance, and the scientific school of Diderot
and of Condorcet. Such a mode of procedure would have

XVi INTRODUCTION.

its interest, because in the manifestations of educational
thought so apparently different it would sharply distin-
guish certain uniform principles which reappear at all
periods of history ; but this would be rather a philosoplry
of the history of education than a simple history of
pedagogy.

The best we can do, then, is to follow the chronological
order and to study in turn the educators of antiquity,
those of the middle ages, of the Renaissance, and of
modern times. We shall interrogate in succession those
who have become eminent as teachers and educators, and
ask of each how he has solved for himself the various
portions of the problems of education. Besides being
more simple and more natural, this order has the ad van-
tage of showing us the progress of education as it has
gradually risen from instinct to reflection, from nature to
art, and after long periods of groping and many halts,
ascending from humble beginnings to a complete and defi-
nite organization. This plan also exhibits to us the beau-
tiful spectacle of a humanity in a state of ceaseless growth.
At first, instruction comprised but few subjects, at the
same time that only a select few participated in it. Then
there was a simultaneous though gradual extension of the
domain of knowledge which must be acquired, of the
moral qualities demanded by the struggle for existence,
and of the number of men who are called to be instructed
and educated, — the ideal being, as Comenius has said,
that all may learn and that everything may be taught.

INTRODUCTION. Xvii

Utility of the History of Pedagogy. — The history of
pedagogy is henceforth to form a part of the course of
study for the primary normal schools of France. It has
been included in the prescribed list of subjects for the third
year, under this title : History of Pedagogy y — Principal
educators and their doctrines; Analysis of the most important
works.1

Is argument necessary to justify the place which has
been assigned to this study ? In the first place, the history
of pedagogy possesses great interest from the fact that
it is closely connected with the general history of thought
and also with the philosophic explication of human actions.
Certainly, pedagogical doctrines are neither fortuitous
opinions nor events without significance. On the one hand,
they have their causes and their principles in moral, reli-
gious, and political beliefs, of which they are the faithful
image ; on the other, they are instrumental in the train-
ing of mind and in the formation of manners. Back of
the Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits, back of the Emile
of Rousseau, there distinctly appears a complete religion,
a complete philosophy. In the classical studies organ-
ized by the humanists of the Renaissance we see the
dawn of that literary brilliancy which distinguished the
century of Louis XIV., and so in the scientific studies
preached a hundred years ago by Diderot and b}- Condorcet
there was a preparation for the positive spirit of our time.
The education of the people is at once the consequence

* Resolution of Aug. 3, 1881.

ixviii INTRODUCTION.

'of all that it believes and the source of all that it is
destined to be.

But there are other reasons which recommend the study
of educators and the reading of their works. The his-
tory of pedagogy is a necessary introduction to pedagogy
itself. It should be studied, not for purposes of erudi-
tion or for mere curiosity, but with a practical purpose
for the sake of finding in it the permanent truths which
are the essentials of a definite theory of education.
The desirable thing just now is not perhaps so much
to find new ideas, as properly to comprehend those which
are already current; to choose from among them, and,
a choice once haying been made, to make a resolute effort
to apply them to use. When we consider with impar-
tiality all that has been conceived or practised previous
to the nineteenth century, or when we see clearly what
our predecessors have left us to do in the way of con-
sequences to deduce, of incomplete or obscure ideas to
generalize or to illustrate, and especially of opposing
tendencies to reconcile, we may well inquire what they
have really left us to discover.

It is profitable to study even the chimeras and the
educational errors of our predecessors. In fact, these
are so many marked experiments which contribute to the
progress of our methods by warning us of the rocks
which we should shun. A thorough analysis of the
paradoxes of Rousseau, and of the absurd consequences
to which the abuse of the principle of nature leads us.

INTRODUCTION. xix

is no less instructive than meditation on the wisest
precepts of Montaigne or of Port Royal.

In truth, for him who has an exact knowledge of the
educators of past centuries, the work of constructing a
system of education is more than half done. It remains
only to co-ordinate the scattered truths which have been
collected from their works by assimilating them through
personal reflection, and by making them fruitful through
psychological analysis and moral faith.

Let it be observed that as studied by the men who
first conceived and practised them, pedagogical methods
present themselves to our examination with a sharpness
of outline that is surprising. Innovators lend to what-
ever they invent a personal emphasis, something life-like
and occasionally extravagant; but it is exactly this which
permits us the better to comprehend their thought, and
the more completely to discover its truth or its falsity.

However, it is not alone the intellectual advantage
which recommends the history of pedagogy ; it is also
the moral stimulus which will be derived from the study.
For the sake of encouraging to noble efforts the men
and women who are our teachers, is it of no moment
to present to them the names of Comenius, Rollin, and
Pestalozzi as men who have attained such high excellence
in their profession? Will not the teacher who each da}'
resumes his heavy burden be revived and sustained?
Will he not enter his class-room, where so many diffi-
culties and toils await him, a better and a stronger man

XX INTRODUCTION.

if his imagination teems with articulate memories of those
who, in the past, have opened for him the way, and
shown him by their example how to walk in it? Bj
the marvellous agency of electricity we are now able tc
transport material and mechanical power, and to cause
its transfer across space without regard to distance. But
by reading and by meditation we are able to do some-
thing analogous to this in the moral world ; we are able
to borrow from the ancients, across the centuries, some-
thing of the moral cnerg}' that inspired them, and to
make live again in our own hearts some of their virtues
of devotion and faith. Doubtless a brief history of
pedagogy could not, from this point of view, serve as
a substitute for the actual reading of the authors in
question ; but it is a preparation for this work and
inspires a taste for it.

We are warranted in saying, then, that the utility of
the history of pedagogy blends with the utility of ped-
agogy itself. To-day it is no longer necessary for us to
offer an}* proof on this point. Pedagogy, long neglected
even in our country, has regained its standing ; nay
more, it has become the fashion. "France is becoming
addicted to pedagogy" was a remark recently made by
one of the men who, of our day, will have contributed
most to excite and also to direct the taste for peda-
gogical studies.1 The words pedagogue, pedagogy, have

1 See the Article of M. Pecaut in the Revue Pedagoyiqiie, No. 2, 1882.

INTRODUCTION. XXI

encountered dangers in the history of our language.
Littr6 tells us that the word pedagogue " is most often
used in a bad sense." On the other hand, we shall
see, if we consult his dictionary, that several years ago
the sense of the word pedagogy was not yet fixed,
since it is there defined as " the moral education of
children." To-day, not only in language, but in facts and
in institutions, the fate of pedagogy is settled. Of course
we must neither underrate it nor attribute to it a sovereign
and omnipotent efficiency that it does not have. We
might freely say of pedagogy what Sainte-Beuve said
of logic: The best is that which does not argue in its
own favor ; which is not enamoured of itself, but which
modestly recognizes the limits of its power. The best
is that which we make for ourselves, not that which we
learn from books.

Even with this reserve, the teaching of pedagogy is
destined to render important services to the cause of
education, and education, let us be assured, is in the
way of acquiring a fresh importance day by day. This
is due to the fact, first, that under a liberal govern-
ment, and in a republican society, it is more and
more necessary that the citizens shall be instructed and
enlightened. Liberty is a dangerous thing unless it has
instruction for a counterpoise. Moreover, we must rec-
ollect that in our day, among those occult coadjutors of
which we have spoken, and which at all times add their
action to that of education proper, some have lost their

xxu

INTRODUCTION.

influence, while others, so far from co-operating in this
movement, oppose it and compromise it. On the one
hand, religion has seen her influence curtailed. She is
no longer, as she once was, the tutelary power under
whose shadow the rising generations peacefully matured.
It is necessary that education, through the progress of
the reason and through the reflective development of
morality, should compensate for the waning influence of
religion.

On the other hand, social conditions, the very progress
of civil and political liberty, the growing independence
accorded the child in the family, the multiplication of
books, good and bad, all these collateral agents of educa-
tion are not always compliant and useful aids. They
would prove the accomplices of a moral decadence did
not our teachers make an effort as much more vigorous
to affect the will and the heart, as well as the mind,
in order to establish character, and thus assure the re-
cuperation of our country.

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GABRIEL

COMPAYRE.l

Gabriel Compayrb was born Jan. 2, 1843, at Albi, a
citj of Southern France, containing about fifteen thousand
inhabitants, and the capital of the province of Tarn. His
early education was received from his father, a man of
sterling character, and the author of a book entitled, His~
toxical Studies Concerning the Albigenses.

He passed from his father's care to the college of Castres,
then to the lycte of Toulouse, and finally to the lycte Louis-
le-Ghrand at Paris. His fellow-pupils recall with pleasure,
his triumphs at these institutions of learning. His brilliant
intellectual powers, his vivid imagination* his well-stored
memory, and his unwearied industry, marked him as des-
tined to render signal services to his race.

He entered the Ecole NormcUe Supe*rieure in 1862. His
tastes led him to philosophical studies ; indeed, he had
already manifested a strong tendency to moral and intel-
lectual science. Yet his intensely practical nature could
not long remain satisfied with metaphysical subtleties where
he found no sure foot-hold. He became a warm advocate
of experimental methods, and of the Baconian philosophy.
He set himself to a study of man as he appears in society

* Furnished by Mr. Geo. E. Gay, Principal of the Maiden High School, •

Xxiv LIFE OF GABRIEL COMPAYR&

and in the family ; to the analysis of his emotions and his
acts, and to the deduction, from these analyses, of those
rules which ought to preside over his conduct and his intel-
lectual and moral development.

He graduated from the normal school in 1865, and was
immediately appointed professor of philosophy at the lyc4e
of Pau. A lecture upon Rousseau, which he delivered here,
brought upon him the severe condemnation of the ultra-
montane party, and involved him in a controversy which
has continued to the present time.

In 1868, having been made a fellow of the University, he
was sent to the lycte of Poitiers. At this place he mani-
fested his sympathy for the common people by a course of
lectures to workmen on moral subjects. About this time
he received honorable mention from the Academy for an
eloquent eulogy upon Rousseau, in which he carefully por-
trayed the influence 'of Rousseau upon the government of
his country and Upon methods of school instruction, giving
him full credit for the reform in both.

From this time forward Compayre*,s life has been filled
with labors and with honors. In addition to his pro-
fessional duties and philosophical writings, he has made
careful study of the social and political questions of his
countrv.

Promoted from one post of honor to another, on the
14th of July, 1880, he was appointed Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor.

In 1874 he presented his theme for bis doctor's degree
upon the Philosophy of David Hume, a work of the highest

LIFE OF GABRIEL COMPAYR& XXV

philosophical thought and language, which received a prize
from the Academy.

Between 1874 and 1880 his lectures were largely devoted
to the subjects most closely connected with modern thought.
A Study of Dawrinism, The Psychology of a Child, Educa*
tional Principles, are subjects that indicate the sweep of
his investigations. The brilliancy of his style, the liber-
ality of his opinions, and the extent of his learning have
exposed him to bitter attacks from those who envy his
powers and disbelieve his doctrines ; yet his popularity has
continually increased, and the young professor has become
a great power in the party of the republic, to whose cause
he early devoted himself.

The works which he published during this period were
numerous. He translated with great care, adding valua-
ble matter of his own : Bain's Inductive and Deductive
Logic, Huxley's Hume* His Life and Philosophy, and
Locke's Thoughts on Education. His most considerable
work is his History of the Doctrine of Education in France
since the Sixteenth Century, a work of two volumes, pub-
lished in 1879, which reached its fourth edition in France
in 1883, has been translated entire into German, and
from which numerous extracts have been made for the
educational journals of England and America. If we add
to these labors his work upon the Revue Philosophique,
and the Dictionnaire de Pe*dagogie, we shall understand
why he was called to Paris in 1881, by the Minister of
Public Instruction, to aid in founding the Ecole Normale
SupeWieure des InstUutrices, de Fonlenay-aux-Roses. He

XXvi LIFE OF GABRIEL COMPAYRfi.

successfully arranged the course of instruction for this
school. In the same year he assisted in the organization
of a new school at Sevres, which prepares young teachers
for the course of instruction in the normal schools.

In 1880 he published his Manual of Civil and Moral
Instruction, in two courses, or parts. This book has had
a remarkable career. In less than three years more than
three hundred thousand copies of the first part, and over
five hundred thousand of the second part, were sold.

In 1882, in conjunction with a friend, M. A. Delplan,
an author of merit, he published his Civil and Moral Lec-
tures. In 1883 he published a Course of Civil Instruction
for normal schools.

Compayre" entered political life in 1881, having been
elected deputy from the arrondissement of Lavaur in Tarn.
He occupies a distinguished position among the men of
to-day ; his character, his talents, his popularity, and his
devotion to the cause of civil and intellectual freedom,
give him the assurance of a place no less important among
the men of the future.

In his personal appearance Compayre* combines the
scholar and the man of the world. His dark hair, parted
in the middle, is combed back from a forehead very high
and very broad. His eye 'is bright and piercing, and his
face, clean shaven except upon the upper lip, bears the
impress of both his ingenuousness and his indomitably
perseverance.

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

THE

HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

CHAPTER I.

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS; EDUCATION AMONG THE HINDOOS;
POLITICAL CASTE AND RELIGIOUS PANTHEISM J EFFECTS ON EDUCA-
TION J BUDDHISTIC REFORM; CONVERSATION OF BUDDHA AND
PURNA ; EDUCATIONAL USAGES J EDUCATION AMONG THE ISRAEL-
ITES ; PRIMITIVE PERIOD ,' RELIGIOUS AND NATIONAL EDUCATION J
PROGRESS OF POPULAR INSTRUCTION; ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS:
RESPECT FOR TEACHERS; METHODS AND DISCIPLINE; EXCLUSIVE
AND JEALOUS SPIRIT J EDUCATION AMONG THE CHINESE J FORMAL-
ISM ; LAOT8ZE AND KHUNG-TSZE (CONFUCIUS) ,' EDUCATION AMONG
OTHER PEOPLE OF THE EAST J THE EGYPTIANS AND THE PERSIANS J
ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

1 . Preliminary Considerations. — A German historian of
philosophy begins his work by asking this question : " Was
Adam a philosopher?" In the same way certain historians
of pedagogy begin by learned researches upon the education
of savages. We shall not carry our investigations so far
back. Doubtless from the day when a human family began
its existence, from the day when a father and a mother began
to love their children, education had an existence. But there
is very little practical interest in studying these obscure be-
ginnings of pedagogy. It is a matter of erudition and curi-

2 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

osity.1 Besides the difficulty of gathering up the faint traces
of primitive education, there would be but little profit in
painfully following the slow gropings of primeval man. In
truth, the history of pedagogy dates but from the period
relatively recent, when human thought, in the matter of edu-
cation, substituted reflection for instinct, art for blind nature.
So we shall hasten to begin the study of pedagogy among
the classical peoples, the Greeks and the Romans, after hav-
ing thrown a rapid glance over some Eastern nations consid-
ered either in their birthplace and remote origin, or in their
more recent development.

2. The Pedagogy op the Hindoos. — It would not be
worth our while to enter into details respecting a civilization
so different from our own as that of the Hindoos. But we
should not forget that we are in part the descendants of thai,
people, and that we belong to the same ethnic group, and
that the European languages are derived from theirs.

3. Political Caste and Religious Pantheism. — The
spirit of caste, from the social point of view, and pantheism,
from the religious point of view, are the characteristics of
Hindoo society. The Indian castes constituted hereditary

1 A knowledge of the mental and moral condition of savages serves the
in valuable purpose of showing what education has accomplished for the
human race. There would he much less grumbling at the tax-gatherer if
men could clearly conceive the condition of societies where no taxes are
levied. To know what education has actually done we need to know the
condition of societies unaffected by systematic education. Such a book as
Lubbock' 8 Origin of Civilization is a helpful introduction to the history of
education. Whoever reads such a book carefully will be confronted with
this problem: How is it that intellectual inertness, amounting almost to
stupidity, is frequently the concomitant of an acute and persistent sense-
training? Besides, savage tribes are historical illustrations of what has
been produced on a large scale by " following Nature/' (P.)

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 3

classes where social rank and special vocation were deter-
mined, not by free choice, but by the accident of birth. The
consequence of this was an endless routine, with no care
either for the individuality, or the personal talents, or the
inclination of children, and without the possibility of rising
by personal effort above one's rank in life.1 On the other
hand, religious ideas came to restrict, within the limits where
it was already imprisoned, the activity of the young Hindoo.
God is everywhere present ; he manifests himself in all the
phenomena of heaven and earth, in the sun and in the stars,
in the Himalayas and in the Ganges ; he penetrates and ani-
mates everything ; the things of sense are but the changing
and ephemeral vestments of the unchangeable being. "With
this pantheistic conception of the world and of life, the
thought and the will of the Hindoo perished in the mystic
contemplation of the soul. To become master of one's in-
clinations ; to abandon every terrestrial thought ; after this
life to lose one's identity, and to be annihilated by absorp-
tion in the divine nature ; to prepare one's self by macera-
tions and expiations for complete submersion in the original
principle of all being, — this is the highest wisdom, the true
happiness of the Hindoo, the ideal of all serious education."2

1 There is an argument for caste in the modern fiction of a " beautiful
economy of Nature/' which plants human beings in society as it does trees
in the earth, and thus makes education consist in the action of environment
upon man and in the reaction of man upon his environment. To support
existence, man needs certain endowments; but the force of circumstances
creates these very endowments. One man is predestined to be a Red
Indian, another a Bushman, and still another an accountant; and in each
case the function of education is to adapt the man to the place where
Nature has fixed him. This modern justification of caste is adroitly
worked out by Mr. Spencer in the first chapter of his Education. (P.)

2 Dittes, HUtoire de V education et de I'instruction, translated by Redolfi,
1880, p. 38.

4 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

4. Effects on Education. — It is easy to predict what
education would become under the weight of these double
chains, social and religious. While the ideal in our modern
societies is more and more to enfranchise the individual, and
to create for him personal freedom and self-consciousness,
the effort of the Hindoo Brahmins consisted above all in
crushing out all spontaneity, in abolishing individual predi-
lections, by preaching the doctrine of absolute s^lf-renuncia-
tion, of voluntary abasement, and of contempt for life.
Man was thus born doubly a slave, — by his social condition,
which predestinated him to the routine apprenticeship ol his
ancestral caste, and by his mysterious dependence on the
divine being who absorbed in himself all real activity, and
left to human beings only the deceptive and frail appearance
of it.

5. Buddhist Reform. — The Buddhist reform, which so
profoundly affected Brahmanism at about the sixth century
B.C., did not sensibly modify, from the educational point of
view, the ideas of the Hindoos. Buddha also taught that
the cause of evil resides in the passions of men, and that in
order to attain moral peace, there is no other means to be
employed than that of self-abnegation and of the renounce-
ment of everything selfish and personal.

6. Conversation of Buddha and Purna. — One of the
traditions which permit us the better to appreciate the origi-
nal character, at once affecting and ingenuous, of Indian
thought, is the conversation of Buddha with his disciple
Purna about a journey the latter was going to undertake to
the barbarians for the purpose of teaching them the new
religion : —

" They are men," said Buddha, " who are fiery in temper,
passionate, cruel, furious, insolent. If they openly address

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITTf. 6

you in words which are malicious and coarse, and become
angry with you, what will }*ou think?"

44 If they address me to my face in coarse and insolent
terms, this is what I shall think : they are certainly good
men who openly address me in malicious terms, but they will
neither strike me with their hands nor stone me."

44 But should they strike you with their hands and stone
you, what will you think?"

44 1 shall think that they are good men, gentle men, who
strike me with their hands and stone me, but do not beat me
with a club nor with a sword."

44 But if they beat you with a club and with a sword?"

44 They are good men, gentle men, who beat me with a
club and with a sword, but they do not completely kill me."

44 But if they were really to kill you? "

44 They are good men, gentle men, who deliver me with so
iittle pain from this body encumbered with defilements."

44 Very good, Puma ! You may live in the country of
those barbarians. Go, Puma ! Being liberated, liberate ;
being consoled, console ; having reached Nirvana thus made
perfect, cause others to go there." *

Whatever there is to admire in such a strange system of
morals should not blind us to the vices which resulted from
its practical consequences : such as the abuse of passive
resignation, the complete absence of the idea of right and of
justice, and no active virtues.

7. Effects on Education. — Little is known of the
actual state of educational practice among the Hindoos. It
may be said, however, that the Brahmins, the priests, had
the exclusive charge of education. Woman, in absolute
subjection to man, had no share whatever in instruction.

1 Burnouf, Introduction a Vhittoire du Bouddhisme, p. 252.

O THE HIBTOBT OF PEDAGOGY.

As to boys, it seems that in India there were always
schools for their benefit; schools which were held in the
open country under the shade of trees, or. in case of had
weather, under sheds. Mutual instruction has been prac-
tised in India from the remotest antiquity ; it is from here,
in fact, that Andrew Bell, at the close of the eighteenth
century, borrowed the idea of this mode of instruction.
Exercises in writing were performed first upon the sand with
a stick, then upon palm leaves with an iron style, and
finally upon the dry leaves of the plane-tree with ink. In
discipline there was a resort to corporal punishment ; besides
the rod the teacher emploj*ed other original means of correc-
tion ; for example, he threw cold water on the offender.
The teacher, moreover, was treated with a religious respect ;
the child must respect him as he would Buddha himself.

The higher studies were reserved for the priestly class,
who, long before the Christian era, successfully cultivated
rhetoric and logic, astronomy and the mathematics.

8. Education among the Israelites. — "If ever a peo-
ple 1ms demonstrated the power of education, it is the people
of Israel." ! In fact, what a singular spectacle is offered us
by that people, which, dispossessed of its own country for
eighteen hundred years, has been dispersed among the
nations without losing its identity, and has maintained its
existence without a country, without a government, and
without a ruler, preserving with perennial energy its habits,
its manners, and its faith ! Without losing sight of the part
of that extraordinary vitality of the Jewish people, which is
due to the natural endowments of the race, its tenacity of
temperament, and its wonderful activity of intelligence, it is
Just to attribute another part of it to the sound education,

i Dittos, p. 49.

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 7

at once religious and national, which the ancient Hebrews
have transmitted by tradition to their descendants.

9. Education, Religious and National, during the
Primitive Period. — The chief characteristic of the educa-
tion of the Hebrews in the earliest period of their history is
that it was essentially domestic. During the whole Biblical
period there is no trace of public schools, at least for young
children. Family life is the origin of that primitive society
where the notion of the state is almost unknown, and where
God is the real king.

The child was to become the faithful servant of Jehovah.
To this end it was not needful that he should be learned.
It was only necessary that he should learn through language
and the instructive example of his parents the moral precepts
and the religious beliefs of the nation. It has been very
justly said1 that " among all nations the direction impressed
on education depends on the idea which they form of the
perfect man. Among the Romans it is the brave soldier,
inured to fatigue, and readily yielding to discipline ; among
the Athenians it is the man who unites in himself the happy
harmony of moral and physical perfection ; among the
Hebrews the perfect man is the pious, virtuous man, who is
capable of attaining the ideal traced by God himself in these
terms : 4 Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am
holy!""

The discipline was harsh, as is proved by many passages
in the Bible : " He that spareth his rod, hateth his son," say
the Proverbs; %lbut he that loveth him chasteneth him
betimes."8 " Withhold not correction from the child, for if

1 L* Education et Vinstruction chez let ancient Juifs, by J. Simon, Paris,
1879, p. 16.

* Levit. xix. 2. « Prov. xiii. 24.

8 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt
beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."1
And still more significant : k k Chasten thy son while there is
hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." 2

Only boys, it seems, learned to read and write. As tc
girls, they were taught to spin, to weave, to prepare food foi
the table, to superintend the work of the household, and
also to sing and to dance.

In a word, intellectual culture was but an incident in the
primitive education of the Hebrews ; the great thing, in their
eyes, was moral and religious instruction, and education in
love of country. Fathers taught their children the nation's
history, and the great events that had marked the destiny
of the people of God. That series of events celebrated
by the great feasts which were often renewed, and in which
the children participated, served at once to fill their hearts
with gratitude to God and with love for their country.

10. Progress op- Popular Instruction. — It is not easy
to conceive to what extent the zeal for instruction was devel-
oped among the ancient Jews in the years that followed the
advent of Christianity. From being domestic, as it had been
up to that time, Jewish education became public. Besides,
it was no longer sufficient to indoctrinate children with good
principles and wholesome moral habits ; they must also be
instructed. From the first centuries of the Christian era,
the Israelites approached our modern ideal, with respect to
making education obligatory and universal. Like every
brave nation that has been vanquished, whose energy has
survived defeat, like the Prussians after Jena, or the
French after 1870, the Jews sought to defend themselves
against the effects of conquest by a great intellectual effort,

i Prov. xxiii. 13, 14. a Prov. xix. 18.

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 9

and to regain their lost ground by the development of popu-
lar instruction.

11. Organization op Schools. — In the year 64, the
high priest, Joshua Ben Gamala, imposed on each town,
under pain of excommunication, the obligation to support a
school. If the town is cut in two by a river, and there is
no means of transit by a safe bridge, a school must be estab-
lished on each side. Even to-day we are far from having
realized, as regards the number of schools and of teachers,
this rule stated in the Talmud: If the number of children
does not exceed twent}?-five, the school shall be conducted
by a single teacher ; for more than twenty -five, the town
shall employ an assistant; if the number exceeds forty,
there shall be two masters.

12. Respect for Teachers. — In that ancient time, what
an exalted and noble conception men had of teachers,
" those true guardians of the city " ! Even then, how exact-
ing were the requirements made of them ! But, on the other
hand, how they were esteemed and respected ! The Rabbins
required that the schoolmaster should be married ; they
mistrusted teachers who were not at the same time heads of
families. Is it possible to enforce the advantages of matu-
rity and experience more delicately than in this beautiful
language? " He who learns of a young master is like a man
who eats green grapes, and drinks wine fresh from the
press ; but he who has a master of mature years is like a
man who eats ripe and delicious grapes, and drinks old
wine." Mildness, patience, and unselfishness were recom-
mended as the ruling virtues of the teacher. " If your
teacher and your father," says the Talmud, " have need of
your assistance, help your teacher before helping your
father, for the latter has given you only the life of this

10 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

world, while the former has secured for you the life of the
world to come." *

13. Method and Discipline. — The child entered school
at the age of six. " If a child below the age of six is
brought to your school," says the Talmud, " you need not
receive him " ; and to indicate that after that age it is proper
to regain the lost time, the Talmud adds, " After the age of
six, receive the child, and load htm like an ox." On the
contrary, other authorities of the same period, more judicious
and far-seeing, recommend moderation in tasks, and say
that it is necessary to treat " the young according to their
strength, and the grown-up according to theirs."

There was taught in the Jewish schools, along with reading
and writing^2 a little of natural history, and a great deal of
geometry and astronomy. Naturall}', the Bible was the first
book put in the hands of children. The master interspersed
moral lessons with the teaching of reading. He made a
special effort to secure a correct pronunciation, and multi-
plied his explanations in order to make sure of being under-
stood, repeating his comments even to the four-hundredth
time if it were necessary. It seems that the methods were
suggestive and attractive, and the discipline relatively mild.
There were but few marks of the proverbial severity of the
ancient times. " Children," says the Talmud, " should be
punished with one hand, and caressed with two." The
Christian spirit, the spirit of him who had said u suffer the

1 On similar grounds, Alexander declared that be owed more to Aristotle
his teacher, than to Philip his father. (P.)

2 What were the methods followed in teaching reading and writing?
We are told by Renan in his Vie de Jisus that " Jesus doubtless learned to
read and write according to the method of the East, which consists in
patting into the hands of the child a book which he repeats in concert with
his comrades till he knows it by heart."

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 11

little children to come unto me," had affected the Jews them-
selves. However, corporal punishment was tolerated to a
certain extent, but, strange to saj-, only for children above
the age of eleven. In case of disobedience, a pupil above
that age might be deprived of food, and even struck with a
strap of shoe-leather.

14. Exclusive and Jealous Spirit. — Some reservation
must accompany the encomiums justly due Jewish education.
With respect to the rest of the human race, the Jewish spirit
was mean, narrow, and malevolent. The Israelites of this
day have retained something of these jealous and exclusive
tendencies. At the beginning of the Christian era, the fierce
and haughty patriotism of the Jews led them to proscribe
whatever was of Gentile origin, whatever had not the
sanction of the national tradition. Nothing of Greek or
Roman culture penetrated this closed world.1 The Jewish
doctors covered with the same contempt him who raises
hogs and him who teaches his son Greek science.

15. Education among the Chinese. — We have at-
tempted to throw into relief the educational practices of
two Eastern nations to which the civilization of the
West is most intimately related. A few words will suf-
fice for the other primitive societies whose history is too
little known, and whose civilization is too remote from
our own, to make their plans of education anything more
than an object of curiosity.

1 This statement needs qualifying. "In nearly all the families of high
rank," says the Dictionnaire de Ptdagoyie (1*~ Partie, Article Juifs), the
daughters spoke Greek. The Rabbins did not look with any favor upon
the study of profane philosophy ; but notwithstanding their protests, there
were many devoted readers of Plato and Aristotle. It is said that among
the pupils of the celebrated Gamaliel there were five hundred who studied
the philosophy and the literature of Greece." (P.)

12 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

China has been civilized from time immemorial, and at
every period of her long history she has preserved her
national characteristics. For more than three thousand
jears an absolute uniformity has characterized this immo-
bile people. Everything is regulated by tradition. Edu-
cation is mechanical and formal. The preoccupation of
teachers is to cause their pupils to acquire a mechanical
ability, a regular and sure routine. They care more for
appearances, for a decorous manner of conduct, than for
a searching and profound morality. Life is but a cere-
monial, minutely determined and punctually followed.
There is no liberty, no glow of spontaneity. Their art
is characterized by conventional refinement and by a
prettiness that seems mean ; there is nothing of the grand
and imposing. By their formalism, the Chinese educa-
tors are the Jesuits of the East.

16. Lao-tsze and Khung-tsze. — Towards the sixth cen-
tury B.C. two reformers appeared in China, Lao-tsze and
Khung-tsze. The first represents the spirit of emancipa-
tion, of progress, of the pursuit of the ideal, of protest
against routine. He failed. The second, on the contrary,
who became celebrated uuder the name of Confucius, and
to whom tradition ascribes more than three thousand
personal disciples, secured the triumph of his ideas of
practical, utilitarian morality, founded upon the authority
of the State and that of the family, as well as upon the
interest of the individual.

A quotation from Lao-tsze will prove that human
thought, in the sixth century B.C., had reached a high
mark in China: —

" Certain bad rulers would have us believe that the
heart and the spirit of man should be left empty, but

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 13

that instead his stomach should be filled ; that his bones
should be strengthened rather than the power of his will;
tliat we should always desire to have the people remain
in a state of ignorance, for then their demands would
be few. It is difficult, they say, to govern a people that
are too wise.

" These doctrines are directly opposed to what is due
to humanity. Those in authority should come to the aid
of the people by means of oral and written instruction ;
so far from oppressing them and treating them as slaves,
they should do them good in every possible way."

In other words, it is by enlightening the people, and
by an honest devotion to their interests, that one be-
comes worthy to govern them.

If the Chinese have not fully profited by these wise and
exalted counsels, it appears that at least they have at-
tempted to make instruction general. Hue, a Chinese
missionary, boldly declares that China is the country of
all countries where primary instruction is most widely dif-
fused. To the same effect, a German writer affirms that
in China there is not a village so miserable, nor a ham-
let so unpretending, as not to be provided with a school
of some kind.1 In a country of tradition, like China,
we can infer what once existed from what exists to-day.
But that instruction which is so widely diffused is wholly
superficial and tends merely to an exterior culture. As
Dittes says, the educational method of the Chinese con-
sists, not in developing, but in communicating.2

1 For a series of interesting documents on the actual state of education
in China, consult the article Chine, in Buisson's Dictionnaire de Pid-
agoffie.

* Dittes, op. cit., p. 32.

14 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

17. Education among the Other Nations of tub
East. — Of all the oriental nations, Eg3*pt is the one in
which intellectual culture seems to have reached the high-
est point, but only among men of a privileged class.
Here, as in India, the priestly class monopolized the
learning of the day ; it jealously guarded the depository
of mj'sterious knowledge which it communicated only to
the kings. The common people, divided into working
classes, which were destined from father to son to the
same social status, learned scarcely more than was nec-
essary in order to practise their hereditary trades and
to be initiated into the religious beliefs.

In the more military but less theocratic nation, the
Persian, efforts were made in favor of a general edu-
cation. The religious dualism which distinguished Ormuzd,
the principle of good, from Ahriraan, the principle of
evil, and which promised the victory to the former, made
it the duty of each man to contribute to this final vic-
tory by devoting himself to a life of virtue. Hence arose
noble efforts to attain physical and moral perfection. The
education of the Persians in temperance and frugality has
excited the admiration of certain Greek writers, especially
Xenophon, and there will be found in his Cyropcedia a thrill-
ing picture of the brave and noble manners of the ancient
Persians.1

1 On a recent occasion Archdeacon Farrar referred to Persian edu-
cation as follows : " We boast of our educational ideal. Is it nearly
as high in some essentials as that even of some ancient and heathen
nations long centuries before Christ came? The ancient Persians were
worshippers of fire and of the sun ; most of their children would have
been probably unable to pass the most elementary examination in
physiology, but assuredly the Persian ideal might be worthy of our
study. At the age of fourteen — the age when we turn our children
adrift from school, and do nothing more for them — the Persians gave

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 15

On the whole, the history of pedagogy among the people of
the East offers us but few examples to follow. That which,
in different degrees, characterizes primitive education is that
it is the privilege of certain classes ; that woman is most gen-
erally excluded from its benefits ; that in respect of the com-
mon people it is scarcely more than the question of an
apprenticeship to a trade, or of the art of war, or of a
preparation for the future life ; that no appeal is made to
the free energy of individuals, but that the great masses of
the people in antiquity have generally lived under the har-
assing oppression of religious conceptions, of fixed tradi-
tions, and of political despotism.

[18. Analytical Summary. — Speaking generally, the edu-
cation of the primitive nations of the East had the following
characteristics : —

1. It was administered by the hieratic class. This was
due to the fact that the priests were the only men of learn-
ing, and consequently the only men who could teach.

2. The knowledge communicated was in the main relig-
ious, ethical, and prudential, and the final purpose of instruc-
tion was good conduct.

3. As the matter of instruction was knowledge bearing
the sanction of authority, the learner was debarred from free
inquiry, and the general tendency was towards immobility.

4. As the knowledge of the day was embodied in lan-
guage, the process of learning consisted in the interpretation
of speech, and so involved a large and constant use of the

their young nobles the four best masters whom they could find to
teach their boys wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage — wisdom
including worship, justice including the duty of unswerving truthful-
ness through life, temperance including mastery over sensual tempta-
tions, courage including a free mind opposed to all things coupled
with guilt." (P.)

14 TJ1E HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

17. Education among the Other Nations of the
East. — Of all the oriental nations, Egypt is the one in
which intellectual culture seems to have reached the high-
est point, but only among men of a privileged class.
Here, as in India, the priestly class monopolized the
learning of the day ; it jealously guarded the depository
of mysterious knowledge which it communicated only to
the kings. The common people, divided into working
classes, which were destined from father to son to the
same social status, learned scarcely more than was nec-
essary in order to practise their hereditary trades and
to be initiated into the religious beliefs.

In the more military but less theocratic nation, the
Persian, efforts were made in favor of a general edu-
cation. The religious dualism which distinguished Ormuzd,
the principle of good, from Ahriman, the principle of
evil, and which promised the victory to the former, made
it the duty of each man to contribute to this final vic-
tory by devoting himself to a life of virtue. Hence arose
noble efforts to attain physical and moral perfection. The
education of the Persians in temperance and frugality has
excited the admiration of certain Greek writers, especially
Xenophon, and there will be found in his Cyi'opcedia a thrill-
ing picture of the brave and noble manners of the ancient
Persians.1

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 15

[18. Analytical Summary. — Speaking generally, the edu-
cation of the primitive nations of the East had the following
characteristics : —

1 . It was administered by the hieratic class. This was
due to the fact that the priests were the only men of learn-
ing, and consequently the only men who could teach.

2. The knowledge communicated was in the main relig-
ious, ethical, and prudential, and the final purpose of instruc-
tion was good conduct.

3. As the matter of instruction was knowledge bearing
the sanction of authority, the learner was debarred from free
inquiry, and the general tendency was towards immobility.

4. As the knowledge of the day was embodied in lan-
guage, the process of learning consisted in the interpretation
of speech, and so involved a large and constant use of the

14 TAE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

17. Education among the Other Nations of the
East. — Of all the oriental nations, Egypt is the one in
which intellectual culture seems to have reached the high-
est point, hut only among men of a privileged class.
Here, as in India, the priestly class monopolized the
learning of the day; it jealously guarded the depository
of mj*sterious knowledge which it communicated only to
the kings. The common people, divided into working
classes, which were destined from father to son to the
same social status, learned scarcely more than was nec-
essary in order to practise their hereditary trades and
to be initiated into the religious beliefs.

In the more military but less theocratic nation, the
Persian, efforts were made in favor of a general edu-
cation. The religious dualism which distinguished Ormuzd,
the principle of good, from Ahriman, the principle of
evil, and which promised the victory to the former, made
it the duty of each man to contribute to this final vic-
tory by devoting himself to a life of virtue. Hence arose
noble efforts to attain physical and moral perfection. The
education of the Persians in temperance and frugality has
excited the admiration of certain Greek writers, especially
Xenophon, and there will be found in his Cyropcedia a thrill-
ing picture of the brave and noble manners of the ancient
Persians.1

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 15

[18. Analytical Summary. — Speaking generally, the edu-
cation of the primitive nations of the East had the following
characteristics : —

1 . It was administered by the hieratic class. This was
due to the fact that the priests were the only men of learn-
ing, and consequently the only men who could teach.

2. The knowledge communicated was in the main relig-
ious, ethical, and prudential, and the final purpose of instruc-
tion was good conduct.

3. As the matter of instruction was knowledge bearing
the sanction of authority, the learner was debarred from free
inquiry, and the general tendency was towards immobility.

' 4. As the knowledge of the day was embodied in lan-
guage, the process of learning consisted in the interpretation
of speech, and so involved a large and constant use of the

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

memory ; and this literal memorizing of the principles and
rules of conduct promoted stability of character.

5. As the purpose of instruction was guidance, there was
no appearance of the conception that one main purpose of
education is discipline or culture.

6. The conception of education as a means of national
regeneration had a distinct appearance among the Jews ; and
among this people we find one form of compulsion, — the
obligation placed on towns to support schools.

7. In Persia, the State appears for the first time as a dis-
tinct agency in promoting education.

8. In China, from time immemorial, scholarship has been
made the condition for obtaining places in the civil service,
and in consequence education has been made subordinate to
examinations.

9. Save to a limited extent among the Jews, woman was
debarred from the privileges of education.

10. In the main, education was administered so as to
perpetuate class distinctions. There was no appearance of
the conception that education is a universal right and a
universal good.]

CHAPTER IT.

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS.

greek pedagogy; athenian and spartan education; the schools
of athens ; schools of grammar j schools of gymnastics j the
palestra ; schools of mcsic ', the schools of rhetoric and of
philosophy; socrates and the socratic method; socratic
irony ; maieutics, or the art of giving birth to ideas \
examples of irony and of maieutics borrowed from the
memorabilia of xenophon j plato and the republic j the edu-
cation of warriors and magistrates j music and gymnastics j
religion and art in education j the beautiful and the good j
high intellectual education ; the laws j definition of educa-
tion ; detailed precepts ) xenophon j the economics and the

EDUCATION OF WOMAN; THE CYROPjEDIA J PROTESTS OF XENOPHON

against toe degenerate manners of the greeks j aristotle j
general character of his plan of education ; public edu
tion j progressive development of human nature j physical
education; intellectual and moral educatjon ; defects in
the pedagogy of aristotle, and in greek pedagogy in ge
eral; analytical summary.

19. Greek Pedagogy. — Upon that privileged soil of
Greece, in that brilliant Athens abounding in artists, poets,
historians, and philosophers, in that rude Sparta celebrated
for its discipline and manly virtues, education was rather the
spontaneous fruit of nature, the natural product of diverse
manners, characters, and races, than the premeditated result
of a reflective movement of the human will. Greece, how-
ever, had its pedagogy, because it had its legislators and its
philosophers, the first directing education in its practical
details, the second making theoretical inquiries into the
essential principles underlying the development of the human

18 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

soul. In respect of education, as of everything -else, the
higher spiritual life of modern nations has been developed
under the influence of Grecian antiquity.1

20. Athenian and Spartan Education. — In the specta-
cle presented to us by ancient Greece, the first fact that
strikes us by its contrast with the immobility and unity of
the primitive societies of the East, is a freer unfolding of the
human faculties, and consequently a diversity in tendencies
and manners. Doubtless, in the Greek republics, the indi-
vidual is always subordinate to the State. Even in Athens,
little regard is paid to the essential dignity of the human
person. But the Athenian State differs profoundly from the
Spartan, and consequently the individual life is differently
understood and differently directed in these two great cities.
At Athens, while not neglecting the body, the chief preoccu-

' pation is the training of the mind ; intellectual culture is
pushed to an extreme, even to over-refinement; there is
such a taste for fine speaking that it develops an abuse of
language and reasoning which merits the disreputable name

« of sophistry. At Sparta, mind is sacrificed to body ; physi-
cal strength and military skill are the qualities most desired ;
the sole care is the training of athletes and soldiers. Sobriety
and courage are the results of this one-sided education, but
so are ignorance and brutality. Montaigne has thrown into
relief, not without some partiality for Sparta, these two con-
trasted plans of education.

".Men went to the other cities of Greece," he says, " to
find rhetoricians, painters, and musicians, but to Lacedae-
mon for legislators, magistrates, and captains ; at Athens
fine speaking was taught ; but here, brave acting ; there, one

1 Upon this subject consult the excellent study of Alexander Martin, en-
titled Lcs Doctrines P4dagogiqu.es des Greet, Paris, 1881.

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 19

learned to unravel a sophistical argument and to abate the
imposture of insidiously twisted words ; here, to extricate
one's self from the enticements of pleasure and to overcome
the menaces of fortune and death by a manly courage. The
Athenians busied themselves with words, but the Spartans
with things ; with the former, there was a continual activity of
the tongue ; with the latter, a continual activity of the soul.'' l
The last remark is not just. The daily exercises of the
young Spartans, — jumping, running, wrestling, playing with
lances and at quoits, — could not be regarded as intellectual
occupations. On the other hand, in learning to talk,' the
young Athenians learned also to feel and to think.

21. The Schools of Athens. — The Athenian legislator,
Solon, had placed physical and intellectual training upon the
same footing. Children, he said, ought, above everything
else, to learn " to swim and to read." It seems that the
education of the body was the chief preoccupation of the
Athenian republic. While the organization of schools for
grammar and music was left to private enterprise, the State
took a part in the direction of the gymnasia. The director
of the gymnasium, or the gymnasiarch, was elected each
year by the assembly of the people. Nevertheless, Athenian
education became more and more a course in literary train-
ing, especially towards the sixth century b.c.

The Athenian child remained in the charge of a nurse and
an attendant up to his sixth or seventh year. At the age ot
seven, a pedagogue, that is, a " conductor of children,"
usually a slave, was charged with the oversight of the child.
Conducted by his pedagogue, the pupil attended by turns the
school for grammar, the palestra,* or school for gymnastics,

1 Montaigne, Essais, I. 1. chap. xxrv.

8 The palestra was the school of gymnastics for children; the gym'
nasium was set apart for adults and grown men.

20 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

and the school for music. The grammarian, who sometimes
gave his lessons in the open air, in the streets and on the
public squares, taught reading, writing, and mythology.
Homer was the boy's reading-book. Instruction in gymnas-
tics was given in connection with instruction in grammar.
It was begun in the palestra and continued in the gymnasium.
Instruction in music succeeded the training in grammar and
gymnastics. The music-master, or citharist, first taught his
pupils to sing, and then to play upon the stringed instru-
ments, the lyre and the cithara. We know what value the
Athenians attributed to music. Plato and Aristotle agree in
thinking that the rhythm and harmony of music inspire the
soul with the love of order, with harmoniousness, regularity,
and a soothing of the passions. We must recollect, more-
over, that music held a large place in the actual life of the
Greeks. The laws were promulgated in song. It was neces-
sary to sing in order to fulfil one's religious duties. It was
held that the education of Themistocles had been neglected
because he had not learned music. "We must regard the
Greeks," says Montesquieu, uas a race of athletes and
fighters. Now those exercises, so proper to make men hardy
and fierce, had need of being tempered by others which could
soften the manners. Music, which affected the soul through
the organs of the body, was exactly adapted to this purpose." l

In the elementary schools of Athens, at least at the first,
the current discipline was severe. Aristophanes, bewailing
the degeneracy of his time, recalls in these terms the good
order that reigned in the olden school : - —

" I will relate what was the ancient education in the happy
time when I taught (it is Justice who speaks) and when
modesty was the rule. Then the boys came out of each

1 Montesquieu, Esprit des lois, I. iv. chap. vhi.

2 Aristophanes, Clouds,

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 21

street with bare heads and feet, and, regardless of rain and
snow, went together in the most perfect order towards the
school for music. There they were seated quietly and
modestly. They were not permitted to cross their legs, and
they learned some good songs. The master sang the song
for them slowly and with gravity. If some one took a notion
to sing with soft and studied inflections, he was severely
flogged."

22. The Sohools of Rhetoric and Philosophy. —
Grammar, gymnastics, and music proper, represented the
elementary instruction of the young Athenian. But this
instruction was reserved for citizens in easy circumstances.
The poor, according to the intentions of Solon, were to
learn only reading, swimming, and a trade. The privilege
of instruction became still more exclusive in the case of the
schools of rhetoric and philosophy frequented by those of
adult years.

It would be beside our purpose to speak in this place of
the courses in literature, or to make known the methods of
those teachers of rhetoric who taught eloquence to all who
presented themselves for instruction, either in the public
squares or in the gymnasia. The sophists, those itinerant
philosophers who went from city to city offering courses at
high rates of tuition, and teaching the art of speaking on
every subject, and of making a plea for error and injustice
just as skilfully as for justice and truth, at the same time
made illustrious and disgraceful the teaching of eloquence.1
The philosophers were more worthy of their task. Socrates,

1 The reputation of the sophists has heen considerably raised by Mr.
Grote {History of Greece, vol. VIII.). For an entertaining account of a
sophist of a later age, see Pliny's Letters, Melmoth's translation, Book II.,
Letter m. See also Blackie's Four Phases of Morals, and Ferrier's Greek
Philosophy. (P.)

22 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Plato, and Aristotle were illustrious professors of ethics.
Socrates had do regular school, but he grouped about him
distinguished young meu aud initiated them into learning
and virtue. The Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aris-
totle were great schools of philosophy, real private univer-
sities, each directed by a single man. The teaching given
in these schools has traversed the ages, and has been pre-
served in imperishable books. Moreover, those illustrious
spirits of Greece have transmitted to us either methods or
general ideas which the history of pedagogy should reverently
collect, as the first serious efforts of human reflection on the
art of education.

23. Socrates : the Socratic Method. — Socrates spent
his life in teaching, and in teaching according to an original
method, which has preserved his name. He had the genius
of interrogation. To question all whom he met, either at the
gymnasium or in the streets ; to question the sophists in order
to convince them of their errors and to confound their
arrogance, and presumptuous young men in order to teach
them the truth of which they were ignorant ; to question
great and small, statesmen and masons, now Pericles and
now a shopkeeper; to question always aud everywhere in
order to compel every one to form clear ideas ; such was the
constant occupation and passion of his life. When he
allowed himself to dream of the future life, he said smilingly
that he hoped to continue in the Elysian Fields the habits of
the Athenian Agora, and still to interrogate the shades of
the mighty dead. With Socrates, conversation became an
art, and the dialogue a method. He scarcely ever employed
the didactic form, or that of direct teaching. He addressed
himself to his interlocutor, urged him to set forth his ideas,
harassed him with questions often somewhat subtile, skil-
fully led him to recognize the truth which he himself had in

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 23

mind, or the rather permitted him to go off on a false route
in order finallj* to discover to him his error and to sport with
his confusion ; and all this with an art of wonderful analysis,
with a subtilty of reasoning pushed almost to an extreme,
and also with a great simplicity of language, and with
examples borrowed from common life, such as we are accus-
tomed to call intuitive examples.

24. The Socratic Irony. — To form an intelligible ac-
<*>unt of the Socratic method, it is necessary to distinguish
its two essential phases. Socrates followed a double method
and sought a double end.

In the first case, he wished to make war against error and
to refute false opinions. Then he resorted to what has been
called the Socratic irony.1 He raised a question as one
who simply desired to be instructed. If there was the
statement of an error in the reply of the respondent, Socra-
tes made no objection to it, but pretended to espouse the
ideas and sentiments of his interlocutor. Then, by questions
which were adroit and sometimes insidious, he forced him to
develop his opinions, and to display, so to speak, the whole
extent of his foil}*, and the next instant slyly brought him
face to face with the consequences, which were so absurd and
contradictory that he ended in losing confidence, in becoming
involved in his conclusions, and finally in making confession
of his errors.

25. Maieutics, or the Art of giving Birth to Ideas. —
Analogous processes constituted the other part of the So-
cratic method, that which he himself called maieutics, or the
art of giving birth to ideas.

1 The primitive meaning of the Greek word tlpwvda, irony, is interroga-
tion. Socrates gave a jeering, ironical turn to his questions, and in conse-
quence this word lost its primary meaning, and took the one which we
give it at this time.

24 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

Socrates was convinced that the human mind in its normal
condition discovers certain truths through its own energies,
provided one knows how to lead it and stimulate it ; and so
he here appealed to the spontaneity of his auditor, to his
innate powers, and thus gently led him on his way by easy
transitions to the opinion which he wished to make him
admit. However, he applied this method only to the search
for truths which could either be suggested by the intuitions
of reason and common sense, or determined by a natural
induction, that is, psychological, ethical, and religious truths.1

26. Examples of Irony and Maieutics. — We can best
give an exact idea of the Socratic method by means of ex-
amples. These examples are to be found in the writings of
the disciples of Socrates, as in the Dialogues of Plato, such
as the Gorgias, the Euthydemus, etc., and still better in the
Memorabilia of Xenophon, where the thought of the master
and his manner of teaching are more faithfully reproduced
than in the bold and original compositions of Plato. While
recognizing the insufficiency of these extracts, we shall here
make two quotations, in which is displayed either his incisive,
critical spirit, or his suggestive and fruitful method: " The
thirty tyrants had put many of the most distinguished citi-
zens to death, and had encouraged others to acts of injustice.
'It would surprise me,' said Socrates one day, 'if the keeper
of a flock, who had killed one part of it and had made the

1 The Socratic method for the discovery of truth can be employed only
in those cases where the pupil has the crude materials of the new knowl-
edge actually in store. Psychology, logic, ethics, mathematics, and per-
haps grammar and rhetoric, fall within the sphere of the Socratic method;
but to apply this method of instruction to geography, history, geology, and,
in general, to subjects where the material is inaccessible, is palpably absurd.
The Socratic dialogue, in its negative phase, is aimed at presumption, arro-
gance, and pretentious ignorance; but it is sometimes misused to badger
and bewilder an honest and docile pupil. (P.)

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 25

other part poor, would not confess that he was a bad herds-
man ; but it would surprise me still more if a man standing
at the head of his fellow-citizens should destroy a part of
them and corrupt the rest, and were not to blush at his con-
duct and confess himself a bad magistrate.' This remark
haying come to the ears of the Thirty, Critias and Charicles
sent for Socrates, showed him the law, and forbade him to
hold conversation with the young.

"Socrates inquired of them if he might be permitted to ask
questions touching what might seem obscure to him in this
prohibition. Upon their granting this permission : 4 1 am
prepared,' he said, 4 to obey the laws, but that I may not
violate them through ignorance, I would have you clearly in-
form me whether you interdict the art of speaking because it
belongs to the number of things which are good, or because
it belongs to the number of things which are bad. In the
first case, one ought henceforth to abstain from speaking
what is good ; in the second, it is clear that the effort should
be to speak what is right.'

"Thereupon Charicles became angry, and said: 'Since
you do not understand us, we will give you something easier
to comprehend : we forbid you absolutely to hold conversa-
tion with the young.' 'In order that it may be clearly seen,'
said Socrates, 4 whether I depart from what is enjoined, tell
me at what age a youth becomes a man.' 4 At the time
when he is eligible to the senate, for he has not acquired
prudence till then ; so do not speak to young men who are
below the age of thirty.'

44 ' But if I wish to buy something of a merchant who is
below the age of thirty, may I ask him at what price he sells
it?'

44 4 Certainly you may ask such a question; but you are
accustomed to raise inquiries about multitudes of things

riAto

26 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

which are perfectly well known to you ; it is this which is
forbidden/

" ' So I most not reply to a young man who asks me where
Charicles lives, or where Critias is.' ' You may reply to such
questions,' said Charicles. ' But recollect, Socrates/ added
Critias, ' you must let alone the shoemakers, and smiths, and
other artisans, for I think they must already be very much
worn out by being so often in your mouth.'

" ' I must, therefore,' said Socrates, 'forego the illustra-
tions I draw from these occupations relative to justice, piety,
and all the virtues.' " *

In the final passage of this cutting dialogue, observe the
elevation of tone and the gravity of thought. So Socrates
had marvellous skill in allying enthusiasm with irony.

Here is an extract in which Socrates applies the maieutic
art to the establishment of a moral truth, the belief in God :

UI will mention a conversation he once had in my pres-
ence with Aristodemus, surnamed the Little, concerning the
gods. He know that Aristodemus neither sacrificed to the
gods, nor consulted the oracles, but ridiculed those who took
part in these religious observances. 'Tell me, Aristodemus/
said he, 'are there men whose talents you admire?' 'There
are/ he replied. ' Then tell us their names/ said Socrates.
' In epic poetry I especially admire Homer ; in dithyrambic,
Melanippides ; in tragedy, Sophocles ; in statuary, Poly-
cletus ; in painting, Zeuxis.' ' But what artists do you think
most worth)7 of admiration, those who form images destitute
of sense and movement, or those who produce animated
beings, endowed with the faculty of thinking and acting?'
1 Those who form animated beings, for these are the work of
intelligence and not of chance.' ' And which do you regard

1 Memorabilia, I. n

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 27

as the creation of intelligence, and which the product of
chance, those works whose purpose cannot be recognized,
or those whose utility is manifest?' 'It is reasonable to
attribute to an intelligence the works which have some useful
purpose.' " *

Socrates then points out to Aristodemus how admirably
the different organs of the human body are adapted to the
functions of life and to the use of man. And so proceeding
from example to example, from induction to induction,
always keeping the mind of his auditor alert by the questions
he raises, and the answers that he suggests, forcing him to
do his share of the work, and giving him an equal share in
the train of reasoning, he finally brings him to the goal
which is to make him recognize the existence of God.

27. The Republic op Plato. — " Would you form,"
said J. J. Rousseau, " an idea of public education? read
the Republic of Plato. It is the finest treatise on education
ever written." For truth's sake we must discount the en-
thusiasm of Rousseau. The Republic doubtless contains
some elements of a wise and practical scheme of education ;
but, on the whole, it is but an ideal creation, a compound of
paradoxes and chimeras. In Plato's ideal commonwealth, the
individual and 'the family itself are sacrificed to the State.
Woman becomes so much like man as to be subjected to
the same gymnastic exercises ; she too must be a soldier as
he is. Children know neither father nor mother. From the
day of their birth the}' are given in charge of common nurses,
veritable public functionaries. In that common fold, " care
shall be taken that no mother recognize her offspring." We
may guess that in making this pompous eulogy of the Repub"
frc, the paradoxical author of the £mile hoped to prepare

1 Memorabilia, I. iv.

28 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the reader for giving a complaisant welcome to his own
dreams.

28. The Education of Warriors and Magistrates. — .
Plato, by some unexplained recollection of the social con*
stitution of the Hindoos, established three castes in his idea]
State, — laborers and artisans, warriors, and magistrates.
There was no education for laborers and artisans ; it was
sufficient for men of this caste to learn a trade. In politics,
Plato is an aristocrat; he feels a disdain for the people,
" that robust and indocile animal." It should be observed,
however, that the barriers which he set up between these
three social orders are not insuperable. If a child of the
inferior class gives evidence of exceptional qualities, he must
be admitted to the superior class; and so if the son of a
warrior or of a magistrate is notably incompetent and un-
worthy of his rank, he must suffer forfeiture, and become
artisan or laborer.

As to the education which he designs for the warriors and
the magistrates, Plato is minutely careful in regulating it.
The education of the warriors comprises two parts, — music
and gymnastics. The education of the magistrates consists
of a training in philosophy of a high grade ; they are ini-
tiated into all the sciences and into metaphysics. Plato's
statesmen must be, not priests, as in the East, but scholars
and philosophers.

29. Music and Gymnastics. — Although Plato attaches a
high value to gymnastics, he gives precedence to music.
Before forming the body, Plato, the idealist, would form
the soul, because it is the soul, according to him, which, bv
its own virtue, gives to the body all the perfection of which
it is capable. Even in physical exercises, the purpose should
be to give increased vigor to the soul : " In the training of

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 29

the body, our young men shall aim, above everything else,
at augmenting moral power/' Note this striking picture of
the man who trains only his body : " Let a man apply him-
self to gymnastics, and become trained, and eat much, and
wholly neglect music and philosophy, and at first his body
will become strengthened ; but if he does nothing else, and
holds no converse with the Muses, though his soul have some
natural inclination to learn, yet if it remains uncultivated
by acquiring knowledge, by inquiry, by discourse, in a word,
by some department of music, that is, by intellectual educa-
tion, it will insensibly become weak, deaf, and blind. Like
a wild beast, such a man will live in ignorance and rudeness,
with neither grace nor politeness." However, Plato is far
from despising health and physical strength. On the con-
trary, it is a reproach to him that he has imposed on the
citizens of his Republic the obligation of being physically
sound, and of having excluded from it all those whose in-
firmities and feeble constitution condemn them to " drag
out a dying life." The right to live, in Plato's city, as in
the most of ancient societies, belonged only to men of robust
health. The weak, the ailing, the wretched, all who arc of
infirm constitution, — Plato does not go so far as ordering
such to be killed, but, what amounts almost to the same
thing, — " they shall be exposed," that is, left to die. The
good of the State demands that every man be sacrificed
whose health renders him unfit for civil duties. This cruel
and implacable doctrine shocks us in the case of him whom
Montaigne calls the divine Plato, and shocks us even more
when we discover it among contemporary philosophers, whom
the inspirations of Christian charity or the feeling of human
fraternity should have preserved from such rank heartless-
ness. Is it not Herbert Spencer who blames modern so-
cieties for nourishing the diseased and assisting the infirm?

30 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

30. Religion and Art in Education. — Plato had
formed a high ideal of the function of art in education, but
this did not prevent him from being severe against certain
forms of art, particularly comedy and tragedy, and poetry
in general. He would have the poets expelled from the city
and conducted to the frontier, though paying them homage
with perfumes which will continue to be shed upon their
heads, and with flowers with which they will ever be crowned.
He admits no other poetry than that which reproduces the
manners and discourse of a good man, and celebrates the
brave deeds of the gods, or chants their glory. As a severe
moralist and worshipper of the divine goodness, he condemns
the poets of his time, either because they attribute to the
divinity the vices and passions of men, or because they invest
the imagination with base fears as they speak of Cocytus
and the Styx, and portray a frightful hell and gods always
mad with desire to persecute the human race. Elsewhere,
in the Laws, Plato explains his conception of religion. He
says that the religious books placed in the hands of children
should be selected with as much care as the milk of a nurse.
God is an infinite goodness who watches over men, and he
should be honored, not by sacrifices and vain ceremonies,
but by lives of justice and virtue.

For making men moral, Plato counts more upon art than
upon religious feeling. To love letters, to hold converse
with the Muses, to cultivate music and dancing, such, in the
opinion of the noble spirits of Athens, is the natural route
towards moral perfection. In their view, moral education
is above all an education in art. The soul rises to the good
through the beautiful. "Beautiful and good" (koAo* koI
&ya06s) are two words constantly associated in the speech of
the Greeks. Even to-dav we have much to learn from
reflections like these: "We ought," says Plato, "to seek

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 31

oat artiste who by the power of genius can trace out the
nature of the fair and the graceful, that our young men,
dwelling, as it were, in a healthful region, may drink in good
from every quarter, whence any emanation from noble works
may strike upon their eye or their ear, like a gale wafting
health from salubrious lands, and win them imperceptibly
from their earliest years into resemblance, love, and harmony
with the true beauty of reason.

tfc Is it not, then, on these accounts that we attach such
supreme importance to a musical education, because rhythm
and harmony sink most deeply into the recesses of the soul,
bringing gracefulness in their train, and making a man
gracef ul if he be rightly nurtured ; but if not, the reverse ?
and also because he that has been duly nurtured therein will
have the keenest eye for defects, whether in the failures of
art, or in the misgrowths of nature ; and feeling a most just
disdain for them, will commend beautiful objects, and gladly
receive them into his soul, and feed upon them, and grow to be
noble and good ; whereas he will rightly censure and hate all
repulsive objects, even in his childhood, before he is able to
be reasoned with ; and when reason comes, he will welcome
her most cordially who can recognize her by the instinct
of relationship, and because he has been thus nurtured ? " 1

31. High Intellectual Education. — In the Republic
of Plato the intellectual education of the warrior class
remains exclusively literary and Aesthetic. In addition to
this, the education of the ruling class is to be scientific and
philosophic. The future magistrate, after having received
the ordinary instruction up to the age of twenty, is to be
initiated into the abstract sciences, mathematics, geometry,

1 Republic, 401, 402. I have quoted from the version of Vaughan and
Daviee. (P.)

82 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

and astronomy. To this scientific education, which is to
continue for ten years, there will succeed for five years the
study of dialectics,1 or philosophy, whicli develops the highest
faculty of man, the reason, and teaches him to discover,
through and beyond the fleeting appearances of the world of
sense, the eternal verities and the essence of things. But
Plato prolongs the education of his magistrates still further.
After having given them the nurture of reason and intellectual
insight, he sends them back to the cavern 2 at the age of
thirty-five, that is, calls them back to public life, and makes
them pass through all kinds of civil and military employ-
ments, until finally, at the age of fifty, in possession of all
the endowments assured by consummate experience super-
added to profound knowledge, they are fitted to be charged
with the burdens of office. In the Republic of Plato states-
men are not improvised. And yet in this elaborate sj-stem
of instruction Plato omits two subjects of great importance.
On the one hand, he entirely omits the physical and natural
sciences, because, in his mystic idealism, things of sense are
delusive and unreal images, and so did not appear to him
worthy of arresting the attention of the mind ; and on the
other, though coming after Herodotus, and though a con-

* Dialectic, as used in the Republic, is neither philosophy nor logic.
I doubt whether it can be considered a subject of instruction at all. It
is rather a method or an exercise, the purpose of which is to subject
received opinions, formulated knowledge, current beliefs, etc., to a sifting
or analysis for the purpose of distinguishing the real from the apparent,
the true from the false. The Socratic dialogues are examples of the dialectic
method. Dialectic might be defined as the method of thought proper or the
discursive reason in act. (P.)

2 See the allegory of the cavern, Republic, Book vn. In Plato's
scheme of education, knowing is to precede doing, thus following Socra-
tes (Memorabilia, IV. chap, n.) and Bias (TvuBt ko\ t6t* wpdrrt), and
anticipating Bacon (''studies perfect nature, and are perfected by ex-
perience"). (P.) *

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 33

temporary of Thucydides, he makes do mention of history,
doubtless through a contempt for tradition and the past.

32. The Laws. — In the Laws, the work of his old age,
Plato disavows in part the chimeras of the Republic, and
qualifies the radicalism of that earlier work. The philoso-
pher descends to the earth and really condescends to the
Actual state of humanity. He renounces the distinction of
social castes, and his very practical and very minute precepts
are applied without distinction to children of all classes.1

First note this excellent definition of the end of education :
" A good education is that which gives to the body and to
the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they
are capable." As to methods, it seems that Plato hesitates
between the doctrine of effort and the doctrine of attractive
toil. In fact, he says on the one hand that education is a
very skilful discipline which, by way of amusement,2 leads the
mind of the child to love that which is to make it finished.
On the other hand, he protests against the weakness of those
parents who seek to spare their children every trouble and
every pain. " I am persuaded," he says, u that the inclina-
tion to humor the likings of children is the surest of all ways
to spoil them. We should not make too much haste in our
search after what is pleasurable, especially as we shall never
be wholly exempt from what is painful."

Let us add this definition of a good education: "I call
education the virtue which is shown by children when the
feelings of joy or of sorrow, of love or of hate, which arise
in their souls, are made conformable to order."

1 See especially Book vn. of the Laws,

2 Compare also this quotation: "A free mind ought to learn nothing as
a slave. The lesson that is made to enter the mind by force, will not
remain there. Then use no violence towards children ; the rather, canst
them to learn while playing."

84 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

With the statement of these principles, Plato enters into
details. For children up to the age of six, he recommends
the use of swaddling-clothes. The habit of rocking, the
natural plays which children find out for themselves, the
separation of the sexes ; swimming, the bow, and the javelin,
for boys ; wrestling for giving bodily vigor, and dancing, for
graceful movement; reading and writing reserved till the
tenth year and learned for three years.

It would require too much time to follow the philosopher
to the end. In the rules he proposes, he makes a near
approach to the practices followed by the Athenians of his
day. The Republic was a work of pure imagination. The
Laws are scarcely more than a commentary on the actual
state of practice. But here we still find what was nearest
the soul of Plato, the constant search for a higher morality.

33. Xenophon. — As an educator, Xenophon obeyed two
different influences. His master, Socrates, was his good
genius. That graceful and charming book, the Economics,
was written under the benign and tempered inspiration of the
great Athenian sage. But Xenophon also had his evil genius,
— the immoderate enthusiasm which he felt for Sparta,
her institutions and her laws. The first book of the Cyropce-
dia, which relates the rules of Persian education, is an unfor-
tunate imitation of the laws of Lycurgus.

\ 34. The Economics, and the Education of Woman.

All should read the Economics, that charming sketch of the
education of woman. We may say of this little work what
Renan has said of the writings of Plutarch on the same sub-
ject : " Where shall we find a more charming ideal of family
life? What good nature! What sweetness of manners!
What chaste and lovable simplicity ! " Before her marriage,
the Athenian maiden has learned only to spin wool, to be

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 35

discreet, and to ask no questions, — virtues purely negative.
Xenophon assigns to her husband the duty of training her
mind and of teaching her the positive duties of family life, —
order, economy, kindness to slaves, and tender care of
children. As a matter of fact, the Athenian woman was
still held in a position of inferiority. Shut up in her own
apartments, it was an exception that she learned to read and
write ; it was very rare that she was instructed in the arts
and sciences. The idea of human dignity and of the value
of the human person had not yet appeared. Man had value
only in proportion to the services which he could render the
State, or commonwealth, and woman formed no part of the
commonwealth. Xenophon has the merit of rising above
the prejudices of his time, and of approaching the ideal of
the modern family, in calling woman to participate more inti-
mately in the affairs of the house and in the occupations of
the husband.1

35. The Cyrop^edia. — The Cyropcedia is not worthy of
the same commendation. Under the pretext of describing
the organization of the Persian State, Xenophon here traces,
after his manner, the plan of an education absolutely uniform
and exclusively military. There is no domestic education,
no individual liberty, no interest in letters and arts. When
the period of infancy is over, the young Persian is made
subject to military duty, and must not leave the encamp-
ment, even at night. The state is but a camp, and human
existence a perpetual military parade. Montaigne praises
Xenophon for having said that the Persians taught their
children virtue " as other nations do letters." But it ia
difficult to form an estimate of the methods which were fol-
lowed in these schools of justice and temperance, and we

1 See particularly Chaps, vu. and vni.

80 THE HISTOBY OP PEDAGOGY.

may be allowed to suspect the efficiency of the means pro-
posed by Xenophon ; for example, that which consisted in
transforming the petty quarrels of the scholars into regular
trials which were followed by sentences, acquittals, or convic-
tions. The author of the Cyrqpcedia is on surer ground
when, recollecting his own studies, he recommends the study
of history to those who would become just. He teaches
temperance by practice rather than by precept ; his pupils
have only bread for their food, only cresses for seasoning,
and only water for their drink.

Whatever may be the faults and the fancies of the Cyro-
pcedia, we must recollect, as a partial excuse for them, that
the purpose of the writer in tracing this picture of a simple,
frugal, and courageous life, was to induce a reaction against
jhe excesses of the fashionable and formal life of the
Athenians. As Rousseau, in the middle of the eighteenth,
century, protested against the license and the artificial
manners of his time by advising an imaginary return to
nature, so Xenophon, a contemporary of the sophists, held
forth the sturdy virtues of the Persians in opposition to the
degenerate manners of the Greeks and the refinements of an
advanced civilization.

36. Aristotle: General Character of his Plan op
Education. — By his vast attainments, by his encyclopaedic
knowledge, by the experimental nature of his researches, and
by the positive and practical tendencies of his genius,
Aristotle was enabled to excel Plato in clearness of insight
into pedagogical questions. He had another advantage over
Plato in having known and enjoyed the delights of family
life, and in having loved and trained his own children, of
whom he said, "parents love their children as a part of
themselves." Let us add, finally, that he was a practical
teacher, since he was the preceptor of Alexander from 343

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. St

to 340 B.C. Such opportunities, superadded to the force of
the most mighty geuius the world has ever seen, give promise
of a competent and clear-sighted educator. Unfortunately,
we have lost the treatise, On Education (^rcpi iratoVa?) , which
on the authority of Diogenes Laertius, Aristotle is said to
have composed ; and to form some conception of his ideas
on education, we have at our disposal only some imperfect
sketches, some portions, and those in an imperfect state,
of his treatises on ethics and politics.1

Whoever labors to give stability to the family, and to
tighten its bond of union, labors also for the promotion of
education. Even in this respect, education is under great
obligations to Aristotle.* In him the communism of Plato
finds an able critic. That feeling of affection which we of
to-day would call charity or fraternity, he declared to be the
guaranty and the foundation of social life. Now, communism
weakens this feeling by diluting it, just as a little honey
dropped into a large quantity of water thereby loses all its
sweetness. ' 4 There are two things which materially con-
tribute to the rise of interest and attachment in the hearts of
men, — property and the feeling of affection." It was thus
in the name of good sense, and in opposition to the dis-
tempered fancies of Plato, that Aristotle vindicated the
rights of the family and the individual.

37. Public Education. — But Aristotle does not go so far
as his premises would seem to lead him, and relinquish to
parents the care of educating their children. In accordance
with the general tendencies of antiquity, he declares himself
the partisan of an education that is public and common.
He commends the Spartans for having ordained that " edu-
cation should be the same for all." " As there is one end

1 See especially the Politics, Books xv., v.

■J- _ *- •>

38 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

in view in every city," he says, " it is evident that education
ought to be one and the same in all, and that this should be
a common care, and not of each individual. ... It is the
duty of the legislator to regulate this interest for all the
citizens." There must, therefore, be the intervention of
the State, not from the day of birth, as Plato would have it,
for the nursing of infants, but only at the age of seven, for
instructing and training them in the habits of virtue.

What, then, should be the training of the child, and upon
what subjects would Aristotle direct his studies ?

38. The Progressive Development op Human Nature.
— An essential and incontrovertible distinction is taken by
the Greek philosopher as his starting-point. There are, he
says, three moments, throe stages, in human development:
first, there is the physical life of the body ; then, instinct and
sensibility, or the irrational part of the soul ; and finally, the
intelligence, or the reason. From this, Aristotle concludes
that the course of discipline and study should be graduated
according to these three degrees of life. "The first care
should necessarily be given to the body rather than to the
mind ; and then to that part of the spiritual nature which is
the seat of the desires." But he adds this important obser-
vation, which is a refutation of Rousseau in advance : " In the
care which we give to the sensibilities, we must not leave out
of account the intelligence ; and in our care of the body, we
must not forget the soul."

39. Physical Education, -f- The son of a physician of the
Macedonian court, and well versed in the natural sciences,
Aristotle is very happy in his treatment of physical educa-
tion. It begins before the child is born, even before it has
been conceived. Consequently ho enjoins a legal regulation
of marriages, interdicts unions that are too early or too late,

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 39

indicates the climatic conditions most favorable for marriage,
and gives mothers wise counsels on matters of hygiene, rec-
ommending them to nurse their own children, and prescrib-
ing cold baths. Such, in outline, is a plan which a modern
hygieuist would not disavow.

40. Intellectual and Moral Education. — It was the
opinion of Aristotle that intellectual education should not
begin before the age of five. But, in accordance with the
principle stated above, this period of waiting should not be
the occasion of loss to the intelligence of the child ; even his
play should be a preparation for the work to which he will
apply himself at a later period. On the other hand, Aristotle
strongly insists on the necessity of shielding the child from
all pernicious influences, such as those which come from
association with slaves, or from immoral plays.

In accord with all his contemporaries, Aristotle includes
grammar, gymnastics, and music, among the elements of
instruction. To these he adds drawing. But he is chiefly
preoccupied with music, by reason of the moral influence
which he attributes to it. lie shared the prepossession
which caused the Greeks to say, that to relax or to reform
the manners of a people, it suffices to add a string to the
lyre or to take one from it.1

Aristotle was strongly preoccupied with moral education.
Like Plato, he insists on the greatest care in forming the
moral habits of early life. In his different writings on ethics
he has discussed different human virtues in a spirit at once
wise, practical, and liberal. No one lias better sung the

1 It seems impossible to comprehend the almost sovereign power which
the Greeks ascribed to music, unless we conceive that the Greek was en-
dowed with peculiar and extreme sensitiveness. Perhaps there is special
significance in the story of Orpheus and his lyre. (P.)

40 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

praises of justice, of which he says, " Neither the evening
nor the morniug star inspires as much respect as justice."

It would do Aristotle injustice to seek for a complete
expression of his thoughts on education in the incomplete
and curtailed statements of theory which are found in his
Politics. In connection with these, we should recall the ad-
mirable instruction which he himself gave in the Lyceum, and
which embraced almost all the sciences in its vast programme.
He excluded from it only the sciences and the arts which
have a mechanical and utilitarian character. Enslaved on
this point to the prejudices of antiquit}*, he regarded as
servile and unworthv of a free man whatever has a direct
bearing on the practical and material utilities of life. He
recommended to his hearers only studies of the intellectual
type, those whose sole purpose is to elevate the mind and to
fill it with noble thoughts.1

41. Faults in the Pedagogy of Aristotle, and in
Greek Pedagogy in General. — It must be said in con-
clusion, that whatever admiration we may feel for the peda-
gogy °f Aristotle, it was wrong, like that of all the Greek
writers, in being but an aristocratic system of education.
The education of which Plato and Aristotle dreamed was
restricted to a small minority, and was even made possible
only because the majority was excluded from it. The
slaves, charged with the duty of providing for the suste-
nance of their superiors, and of creating for them the leisure
claimed by Aristotle, had no more participation in education
than in liberty or in property. In the century of Pericles,

1 1 think it may be doubted whether the disfavor shown by Plato and
Aristotle to practical studies was merely a mean prejudice. Preoccupied
as they were with the disciplinary value of studies, they may have seen
that the culture aim and the utilitarian aim are in some sort antagonistic
(P.)

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 41

at the most glorious period of the Athenian republic, let us
not forget that there were at Athens nearly four hundred
thousand slaves to do the bidding of twenty thousand free
citizens. To indulge in an easy admiration for Greek peda-
gogy, we must detach it from its setting, and consider it in
itself, apart from the narrow plan on which the Greek states
were constructed, and apart from that social regime which
assured the education of some, only by perpetuating the
oppression of the many.

[42. Analytical Summary. — 1. A leading conception in
Greek education is that of symmetry, or harmony ; the ideal
man, in Plato's phrase, must be "harmoniously constituted" ;
all opposing tendencies must be reconciled ; and while the
physical, the intellectual, and the moral must each be made
the subject of systematic training, there must be no dispro-
portionate development in either direction.

2. The preoccupation of the Greek teacher was discipline
or culture, rather than the communication of useful knowl-
edge; and the final aim was a life of contemplation, rather
than a life of action; ethical rather than practical; "good
conduct " rather than masterv over what is material.

3. Physical training received great emphasis, not as an
end in itself, but as a means towards mental and spiritual
health ; and knowledge was valued chiefly as the means for
attaining moral excellence.

4. The staple of instruction was wisdom, i.e., ethical and
prudential knowledge, which was the basis of right action ;
and teaching, especially according to the Socratic conception
of it, consisted in causing the pupil's mind to react on the
materials supplied by his own mind. Socrates, says Lewes,
" believed that in each man la}' the germs of wisdom. He }
believed that no science could be taught; only drawn out" '

»•■

42 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

5. The great teaching intrument was dialectic, i\«., dis-
cussion, resolution, or analysis. Its use assumed that the
subject-matter of instruction was already in the pupil's pos-
session, and that the highest office of the teacher was to
liberate the thought which had been formed by the active
energies of the pupil's own mind. This is the maieutic art
of Socrates.

6 . The mode of mental activity which was chiefly brought
into requisition was the reason ; in a secondary degree the
imagination and the emotions ; and in a still lower degree,
the memory.

7. The large place assigned to music by Plato and Aris-
totle shows that the culture of the emotions was an impor-
tant element in Greek education. .^Esthetic training was
not only an end in itself, but was regarded as the basis of
moral and religious culture.

8. In the writings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, we
see the first attempt to formulate a body of educational
doctrine ; we have the germs of a science of education based
on psychology, ethics, and politics.

9. In the Republic, we see the theory of compulsion in
both its phases : the State must provide an education suita-
ble for State needs ; and the young must accept this educa-
tion because the State has ordained it. For the first time in
the history of thought, the State appears distinctly and
avowedly as an educator.

t 10. Practically, education was administered on the basis
of caste ; though in the construction of his ideal State, Plato
made it possible for talent, industry, and worth, to find their
proper level.]

CHAPTER in.

EDUCATION AT ROME.

two periods in roman education j education of the primitive
romans; physical and military education; rome at school in
greece; why the romans had no great educators; varroj
cicero ; quintilian; the institutes of oratory; general
plan of education; the child's first education; reading and
writing ; public education ; the duties of teachers ; grammar
and rhetoric; the simultaneous study of the sciences;
schools for philosophy; seneca; plutarch; the lives of
illustrious men ; the treatise on the training of children ;
a charming picture of family life; the education of women j
the function of poetry in education j the teaching of
morals; marcus aurelius and personal education; conclu-
sion j analytical summary.

43. Two Periods in Roman Education. — In Greece, as
we have seen, there were two essentially different systems of
education in use : at Sparta, a one-sided education, wholly
military, with no regard for intellectual culture ; at Athens,
a complete education, which brought into happy harmony
the training of the body and the development of the mind,
and by means of which, as Thucydides observed, "men
philosophized without becoming effeminate."

Rome, in the long course of her history, followed these
two systems in succession. Under the Republic, down to
the conquest of Greece, preference was given to education
after the Spartan type ; while under the emperors, Athenian
education was dominant, with a very marked tendency to
give the first place to an education in literature and oratory.

■wr-

44 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

44. The Education of the Early Romans. — The first
schools were not opened at Rome till towards the end of the
third century b.c. Till then, the Romans had no teachers
save their parents and nature. Education was almost exclu-
sively physical and moral, or rather, military and religious.
On the one hand, there were the gymnastic exercises on the
Campus Martius, and on the other, the recitation of the
Salian hymns, a sort of catechism containing the names of
the gods and goddesses. Besides this, there was the study
of the Twelve Tables, that is, of the Roman Law. Men the
most robust, the most courageous, the best disciplined, and
the most patriotic that ever lived, were the fruit of this
natural education. Rome was the great school of the civic and
militarv virtues. The Romans did not imitate the Athenians
in a disinterested pursuit of a perfect physical and intellectual
development. Rome worked . for practical ends ; she was
guided only by considerations of utility ; she had no regard
for ideals ; her purpose was simply the education of soldiers
and citizens who should be obedient and devoted. She did
not know man in the abstract ; she knew only the Roman
citizen.

These high qualities of the early Romans were marred by
a sort of brutal insensibility and a contempt for the graces
of intellect and heart ; and leaving out of account the cir-
cumstances of environment and race, their practical virtues
may be ascribed to three or four principal causes. First
among these was a firm family discipline. The authority
of the father was absolute, and answering to this excessive
power, there was blind obedience. Another cause was the
position of the mother in the family. At Rome, woman was
held in higher esteem than at Athens. She became almost
the equal of man. She was the guardian of the family circle
and the teacher of her children. The very name matron

EDUCATION AT ROME. 45

inspires respect. Goriolanus, who took up arms against his
country, could not withstand the tears of his mother Veturia.
The noble Cornelia was the teacher of her sous, the Gracchi,
whom she was accustomed to call " her fairest jewels."
Besides, the influence of religion was made to supplement
the active efforts of the family. The Roman lived sur-
rounded by deities. When a child was weaned, tradition
would have it that one goddess taught him to eat, and another
to drink. Later on, four goddesses guided his first steps aud
held his two hands. All these superstitions imposed regu-
larity and exactness on the most ordinary acts of daily
life. Men breathed, as it were, a divine atmosphere.
Finally, the young Roman learned to read in the laws of the
Twelve Tables, that is, in the civil code of his country. He
was thus accustomed from infancy to consider the law as
something natural, inviolable, and sacred.

45. Rome at School in Greece. — The primitive state of
manners did not last. Under Greek influence, Roman sim-
plicity suffered a change, and, as Horace says, Greece, in
being conquered, conquered in turn her rude victor. The
taste for letters and arts was introduced at Rome towards
the close of the third century B.C., and transformed the
austere and rude education of the primitive era. The
Romans, in their turn, acquired a liking for fine phrases and
subtile dialectics. Schools were opened, and the rhetoricians
and philosophers took up the business of education. Parents
no longer charged themselves with the instruction of their
children. Following the fashion at Athens, they entrusted
them to slaves, without troubling themselves about the faults
or even the vices of these common pedagogues.

" For if any of their servants," says Plutarch, " be better
than the rest, they dispose some of them to follow husbandry,
tome to navigation, some to merchandise, some to be stew-

46 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ards in their houses, and some, lastly, to put out their money
to use for them. But if they find any slave that is a drunk-
ard or a glutton, and unfit for any other business, to him
they assign the government of their children ; whereas, a
good pedagogue ought to be such a one in his disposition as
Phoenix, tutor to Achilles, was."1

46. Why Rome had no Great Educators. — -In the age
of Augustus, when Latin literature was in all its glory, we
are astonished not to find', as in the century of Pericles, some
great thinker like Plato or Aristotle, who presents general
views on education, and makes himself famous by a remark-
able work on pedagogy. This is due to the fact that the
Romans never formed a taste for disinterested science and
speculative inquiry. They readied distinction only in the
practical sciences ; in the law, for example, in which they
excelled. Now pedagogy, while in one sense a practical
science, nevertheless reposes upon philosophical principles,
upon a knowledge of human nature, and upon a theoretical
conception of human destiny, — questions which had no liv-
ing interest for the Roman mind, and which even Cicero has
noticed only in passing, in the course of his translation of
Plato, made with his usual magnificence of literary style.

It is to be noted, moreover, that the Romans seem never
to have considered education as a national undertaking, as an
affair of the State. The Law of the Twelve Tables is silent
upon the education of children. Up to the time of Quiutil-
ian there were at Rome no public schools, no professional
teachers. In the age of Augustus each teacher had his own
method. '* Our ancestors," says Cicero, tk did not wish that
children should be educated by fixed rules, determined by
the laws, publicly promulgated and made uniform for all."2

1 Plutarch, Morals, vol. I. p. 9. a Cicero, Dc Bepublica, iv. 115.

EDUCATION AT ROME. 47

And he does not seem to disapprove of this neglect, even
while noting the fact that Polybius saw in this an important
defect in Roman institutions.

47. Cicero. — In all Cicero's works we find scarcely a
line relative to education. And yet the great orator ex-
claims : " What better, what greater service can we of to-day
render the Republic than to instruct and train the young ? " l
But he was content with writing fine discourses on philoso-
phy for his country, abounding more in eloquence than in
originality.

48. Varro. — A less celebrated writer, Varro, seems to
have had some pedagogic instinct. He wrote real educa-
tional works on grammar, rhetoric, history, and geometry.
Most of these have been lost ; but if we may trust his contem-
poraries, they were instrumental in the education of several
generations.

49. Quintilian (35-95 a.d.). — After the age of Augus-
tus, education became more and more an affair of oratory.
The chief effort in the way of education was a preparation
for a career in the Forum. But from these vulgar rhetori-
cians, occupied with the exterior artifices of style, these
" traffickers in words," as Saint Augustine called them, we
must distinguish a rhetorician of a higher order, who does
not separate rhetoric from a general culture of the intelligence.
This is Quintilian, the author of the Institutes of Oratory.

ADpointed at the age of twenty-six to a chair of eloquence,
the first that was established bv the Roman state, and called
at a later period by the Emperor Domitian lo direct the
education of his grand-nephews, Quintilian was practically
acquainted with both public and private instruction.

1 Cicero, De Divinatione, ii. 2.

48 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

50. The Institutes of Oratory. — This work, under the
form of a treatise on rhetoric, is in parts a real treatise on
education. The author, in fact, begins the training of the
future orator from the cradle ; he gives counsel to its nurse,
and " not blushing to descend to petty details," he follows
step by step the education of his pupil. Let us add, that in
the noble ideal which he conceives, eloquence never being
considered apart from wisdom, Quintilian was led by his
very subject to treat of moral education.

51. His General Plan of Education. - The first book
entire is devoted to education in general, and its teachings
might be applied indifferently to all children, whether des-
tined or not to the practice of oratory.

" Has a son been born to you? From the first conceive
the highest hopes of him.,, Thus Quintilian begins. He
thinks that we cannot have too high an opinion of human
nature, nor propose for it too high a purpose. Minds that
rebel against all instruction are unnatural. Most often it is
the training which is at fault; it is not nature that is to
blame.

52. The Early Education of the Child. — The child's
nurses should be virtuous and prudent. Quintilian does not
demand that they shall be learned, as the stoic Chrysippus
would have them ; but he requires that their language shall
be irreproachable. The first impressions of the child are very
durable: "New vases preserve the taste of the first liquor
that is put into them ; and wool, once colored, never regains
its primitive whiteness."

By an illusion analogous to that of the literary men of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who would have the little
French boy first learn Latin, Quintilian teaches his pupil
Greek before making him study his native tongue.

EDUCATION AT KOME. 49

Studies, moreover, should begin betimes: u Turn to ac-
count the child's first 3'ears, especially as the elements of
learning demand only memory, and the memory of children
is very tenacious."

We seem to be listening to a modern teacher when Quin-
tilian recommends the avoidance of whatever might ruffle the
spirits of the child. " Let study be to him a play ; ask him
questions ; commend him when he does well ; and sometimes
let him enjoy the consciousness of his little gains in wisdom."

53. Reading and Writing. — The passage relative to
reading deserves to be quoted in full. It is wrong, says
Quintilian, to teach children the names of the letters, and
their respective places in the alphabet, before they know their
shapes. He recommends the use of letters in ivory, which
children take pleasure in handling, seeing, and naming. •

As to writing, Quintilian recommends, for the purpose of
strengthening the child's hand, and of preventing it from
making false movements, that he should practise on wooden
tablets on which the letters have been traced bv cutting.1
Later on, the copies shall contain, " not senseless maxims,
but moral truths." The Roman teacher did not counsel
haste in any case. " We can scarcely believe," he says,
44 how progress in reading is retarded by attempting to go
too fast."

54. Public Education. — Quintilian has made an unsur-
passed plea for public education and its advantages, which

1 In principle, this is the same as the system of writing commended by
Locke : " Get a plate graved with the Characters of such a Hand as you like
best ... let several sheets of good Writing-paper be printed off with red
Ink, which he has nothing to do but go over with a good Pen fiHM with
black Ink, which will quickly bring his Hand to the Formation of those
Characters, being first shewed where to begin, and how to form every
Letter." {On Education, § ICO.) (P.)

"T»WWP

50 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Rollin has reproduced almost entire.1 From this we shall
quote only the following passage, which proves how far the
contemporaries of Quintilian had already departed from the
manly habits of the early ages : and the truth which is hereiq
expressed will always be applicable to parents who are in-
clined to be over-indulgent : %,AVould that we ourselves did
not corrupt the morals of our children ! We enervate their
verv in fane v with luxuries. That delicacv of education,
which we call fondness, weakens all the powers, both of
body and miud. . . . We form the palate of our children be-
fore we form their pronunciation. They grow up in sedan
chairs : if thev touch the ground, thev hang bv the hands of
attendants supporting them on each side. We are delighted
if they utter anything immodest. Expressions which would
not Ik? tolerated even from etfeminate Youths, we hear from
them with a smile and a kiss. Need we be astonished at this
behavior? We ourselves have taught them." s

55. Duties of Teachers. — There was at Rome, in the
first century of the Christian era, a high conception of the
duties of a teacher : " His first care should be to ascertain
with all j>os8ible thoroughness the mind and the character of
the child." Judicious reflections on the memory, on the
faculty of imitation, and on the dangers of precocious mental
development, are proofs of the fine psychological discernment
of Quiutilian. His insight is uo less accurate when he
sketches the rules for moral discipline. " Fear," he says,
" restrains some and unmans others. . . . For my part, I
prefer a pupil who is sensitive to praise, whom glory animates,
and from whom defeat draws tears."

1 "Quintilian has treated this question with great breadth and elo-
quence." (TraiU dcs Etudes, Liv. IV. Art. 2.)

2 Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, Watson's Translation, Book L
chap. n. 6, 7.

EDUCATION AT ROME. 51

Quintilian expresses himself decidedly against the use of
the rod, k4 although custom authorizes it," he says, "and
Chrysippus does not disapprove of it."

f>6. Grammar and Rhetoric. — Like his contemporaries,
Quintilian distinguishes studies into two grades, — Grammar
and Rhetoric. " As soon as the child is able to read and
write, he must be placed in the hands of the grammarian."
Grammar was divided into two parts, — the art of speaking
correctly and the explication of the poets. Exercises in
composition, development lessons called Chria\ and narra-
tives, accompanied the theoretical study of the rules of
grammar.1 It is to be observed that Quintilian gives a high
place to etymological studies, and that he attaches great im-
portance to reading aloud. " That the child may read well,
let him have a good understanding of what he reads. . . .
When he reads the poets, let him shun affected modulations.
It is with reference to this manner of reading that Caesar,
still a young man, made this excellent observation : 4 If you
are singing, you sing poorly ; if you are reading, why do you
sing r

$7. The Simultaneous Study of the Sciences. — Quin-
tilian is very far from confining his pupil within the narrow
circle of grammatical study. Persuaded that the child is
capable of learning several things at the same time, he would
have him taught geometry, music, and philosophy simulta-
neously : —

44 Must he learn grammar alone, and then geometry, and
in the meanwhile forget what he first learned? As well ad-
vise a farmer not to cultivate, at the same time, his fields, his
vines, his olive trees, and his orchards, and not to give his

1 Institutes, Book I> chap. dc.

52 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

thought simultaneously to his meadows, his cattle, his gar-
dens, and his bees." l

Of course Quintilian considers the different studies which
he sets before his pupil only as the instruments for an educa-
tion in oratory. Philosophy, which comprises dialectics or
logic, physics or the science of nature, and lastly morals,
furnish the orator with ideas, tind teach him the art of dis-
tributing them into a consecutive line of argument. And so
geometry, a near relative of dialectics, disciplines the mind,
and teaches it to distinguish the true from the false. Lastly,
music is an excellent preparation for eloquence ; it cultivates
the sense of harmony and a taste for number and measure.

58. The Schools of Philosophy. — By the side of the
schools of rhetoric, in which the art of speech was cultivated,
imperial Rome saw flourish in great numbers schools of
philosophy, whose purpose was the formation of morals. It
was through no lack of moral sermonizing that there was a
degeneration in the virtues of the Romans. All the schools of
(Jrecee, especially the Stoics and the Epicureans, and also
tlie Hchools of Pythagoras, of Socrates, of Plato, and of
Aristotle, had their representatives, at Rome; but their ob-
scure names have scarcely survived.

Ci'.K Kknkca. — Among these philosophers and these mor-
alists of the first century of the Christian era, Seneca has the
diHliiKdion of standing in the front rank. It is true that he
wan not the founder of a school, but by his numerous
writings he succeeded in maintaining among his contempo-
mrieH at. least some vestiges of the ancient virtues. His
iHlvm to IsuriliuHs letters abounding in real intellectual
and moral insight, also contain some pedagogical precepts.

1 Inntitutvt, Book I. chap. xn.

EDUCATION AT ROME. 53

Seneca attempts to direct school instruction to practical ends,
in following out the thought of this famous precept : " We
should learn, not for the sake of the school, but for the pur-
poses of life" (Non scholce, sed vitce discimus). Moreover,
he criticises confused and ill-directed reading that does not
enrich the understanding, and concludes by recommending
the profound study of a single book (timeo hominem unius
libri) . In another letter he remarks that the best means for
giving clearness to one's own ideas is to communicate them
to others ; the best way of being taught is to teach (docendo
discimus) . Let us quote this other maxim so often repeated :
" The end is attained sooner by example than by precept"
(longum iter per prcecepta, breve per exempla).

60. Plutarch (50-138 a.d.) . —In the last period of Roman
civilization two names deserve to arrest the attention of the
educator, — Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius. Although he
was born in Boeotia, and wrote in Greek, Plutarch belongs
to the Roman world. He lived at Rome at several different
times, and there opened a school in the reign of Domitian,
where he lectured on philosophy, literature, and history.
Numerous works have transmitted to us the substance of that
instruction which had such an extraordinary success.

61. The Lives op Illustrious Men. — Translated in the
fifteenth century by Amyot, the Parallel Lives of Plutarch
were for our fathers a true code of morals founded on his-
tory. How many of our great men, or how many of our
men of worth, have drawn from this book, at least in part,
the material which has nurtured their virtues ! L'Hopital
and d'Aubigne1 enriched their lives from this source. Henry
IV. said of this book : " It has been to me as my conscience,
and has whispered in my ear many virtuous suggestions and

54 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

excellent maxims for my own conduct and for the manage-
ment of my affairs." !

62. The Essay on the Training of Children. — The
celebrated essay entitled OJ the Training of Children? is the
first treatise, especially devoted to education, that antiquity
has bequeathed to us. Its authenticity has been called in
question by German critics ; but this is of little moment, since
these critics are the first to recognize the fact that the author
of this essay, whoever he might have been, was intimately
acquainted with Plutarch, and has given us a sufficiently
exact summary of the ideas which are more fully developed
in others of his works.3

We shall not give an analysis of this work, which, how-
ever, abounds in interesting reflections on the primary period
of education. We shall simply note the fundamental thought
of the essay, its salient and original characteristic, which is
its warm appreciation of the family. In society, as Plutarch
conceives it, the State no louger exercises absolute sover-
eignty. Upon the ruins of the antique commonwealth
Plutarch builds the family. It is to the family that he
addresses himself in order to assure the education of
children.4 On this point he is not in accord with Quintilian.

1 Equally great has been Plutarch's influence on English thought and
life. Sir Thomas North's translation of Amyot's version appeared in 1579,
and furnished Shakespeare with the materials for his Coriolanus, Julius
Catsar, and Antony and Cleopatra. Milton, Wordsworth, and Browning
are also debtors to the Parallel Lives. (P.)

2 " Comment il faut nourrir les enfants," in the translation by Amyot.
" Of the Training of Children, " in Goodwin's edition of the Morals (Vol. I.).

3 The references that follow are to Plutarch's Morals. The first trans-
lation into English was by Philemon Holland, in 1603. The American
eVlition in five volumes (Boston, 1S71) is worthy of all commendation.
The references I make are to this edition. (P.)

4 Of course Plutarch, like all the writers of antiquity, writes only in be-

EDUCATION AT ROME. 55

What he recommends is an education that is domestic and
individual. He scarcely admits the need of public schools
save for the higher instruction. At a certain age a young
man, already trained by the watchful care of a preceptor
under the supervision of his parents, shall go abroad to hear
the lectures of the moralists and the philosophers, and to read
the poets.

63. The Education of Women. — One of the conse-
quences of the exalted function which Plutarch ascribes to
the family is that by this single act he raises the material and
moral condition of woman. In his essay entitled Conjugal
Precepts, which recalls the Economics of Xenophon, he
restores to the wife her place in the household. He asso-
ciates her with the husband in the material support of the
family, as well as in the education of the children. The
mother is to nurse her offspring. " Providence," he naively
says, " hath also wisely ordered that women should have two
breasts, that so, if any of them should happen to bear twins,
they might have two several springs of nourishment ready for
them."1 The mother shall also take part in the instruction
of her children, and so she must herself be educated. Plu-

half of free-born children in good circumstances. " He abandons," as he
himself admits, "the education of the poor and the lowly."

Plutarch seems to aim at what appears to him to be practicable. That
he was liberal in his opinions must be evident, I think, from this extract :
"It is my desire that all children whatsoever may partake of the benefits
of education alike ; but if yet any persons, by reason of the narrowness of
their estates, cannot make use of my precepts, let them not blame mo that
give them, but Fortune, which disableth them from making the advantage
by them they otherwise might. Though even poor men must use their
utmost endeavor to give their children the best education ; or, if they can
not, they must bestow upon them the best that their abilities will reach."
{Morals, vol. I. pp. 19, 20.) (P.)

1 Of ike Training of Children, § 6.

56 THE HISTORY OF l»EDAGOGY.

tarcb proposes for her the highest studies, such as mathe-
matics and philosophy. But he counts much more upon her
natural qualities, than upon the science that she may
acquire. u With women," he says, " tenderness of heart is
enhanced by a pleasing countenance, by sweetness of speech,
by an affectionate grace, and by a high degree of sensitive-
ness."

G4. The Function of Poetry in Education. — In the
essay entitled How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems^
Plutarch has given his opinion as to the extent to which
poetry should be made an element in education. More just
than Plato, he does not condemn the reading of the poets.
He simply demands that this reading should be done with
discretion, by choosing those who, in their compositions,
mingle moral inspiration with poetic inspiration. "Lycur-
gus," he says, " did not act like a man of sound reason in
the course which he took to reform his people that were
much inclined to drunkenness, by traveling up and down to
destroy all the vines in the couutry ; whereas he should have
ordered that every vine should have a well of water near it,
that (as Plato saith) the drunken deity might be reduced to
temperance by a sober one."1

G5. The Teaching of Morals. — Plutarch is above all
else a moralist. If he adds nothing in the way of theory to
the lofty doctrines of the Greek philosophers from whom he
catches his inspiration, at least he enters more profoundly
iuto the study of practical methods which insure the efficacy
of fine precepts* and exalted doctrines. "That contempla-
tion which is dissociated from practice," he says, " is of no
utility." He would have young men come from lectures on

1 Morals, vol. 11. p. 44.

EDUCATION AT ROME. 57

morals, not only better instructed, but more virtuous. ,Of
what consequence are beautiful maxims unless they are
embodied in action? The young man, then, shall early
accustom himself to self-government, to reflection upon his
own conduct, and to taking counsel of his own reason.
Moreover, Plutarch gives him a director of conscience, a
philosopher, whom he will go to consult in his doubts, and
to whom he will entrust the keeping of his soul. But that
which is of most consequence in his eyes is personal effort,
reflection always on the alert, and that inward effort which
causes our soul to assimilate the moral lessons which we have
received, and which causes them to enter into the very struc-
ture and fibre of our personality.

" As it would be with a man who, going to his neighbor's
to borrow fire, and finding there a great and bright fire,
should sit down to warm himself and forget to go home ; so
is it with the one who comes to another to learn, if he does
not think himself obliged to kindle his own fire within, and
influence his own mind, but continues sitting by his master
as if he were enchanted, delighted by hearing." 1

So are those who are not striving to have a personal
morality, but who, incapable of self -direction, are always in
need of the tutorship of another.

The great preoccupation of Plutarch — and by this trait he
has a legitimate place among the great educators of the
world— was to awaken, to excite, the interior forces of the
conscience, and to stimulate the intelligence to a high state
of activitv. When he wrote this famous maxim, " The soul
is not a vase to be filled, but is rather a hearth which is to be

1 Moral*, I. p. 463. This language directly follows the quotation given
in the note (1) at the close of this paragraph. (P.)

58 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ma<Je to glow,'*1 he was not thinking alone of moral educa-
tion, but also of a false intellectual education which, instead
of training the mind, is content with accumulating in the
memory a mass of indigested materials.2

66. Marcus Aurelics. — The wisest of the Roman em-
perors, the author of the book entitled To Myself, better
known as Meditations, Marcus Aurelius deserves mention
in the history of pedagogy. He is perhaps the most perfect
representative of Stoic morality, which is itself the highest
expression of ancient morality. He is the most finished type
of what can be effected in the wav of soul-culture by the in-
flue nee of home-training and the personal effort of the con-
science. His teacher of rhetoric was the celebrated Fronto,
of whose character we may judge from this one characteristic :
" I toiled hard yesterday," he wrote to his pupil ; u I composed
a few figures of sjwech, with which I am pleased." On the
other hand, Marcus Aurelius found examples for imitation in
his own family. " My uncle," he says reverently, " taught
me patience. . . . From my father I inherited modesty. . . .
To my mother I owe my feelings of piety." Notwithstanding
the modest}* that led him to attribute to others the whole of
his moral worth, it is especially to himself, to a persistent
efTort of his own will, and to a ceaseless examination of his
own conscience, that he is indebted for becoming the most
virtuous of men, and the wisest and purest, next to Socrates,
of the moralists of antiquity. His Meditations show us in

* The exact reading is as follows : ' ' For the mind requires not like an
earthen vessel to be filled up ; convenient fuel and aliment only will influ-
ence it with a desire of knowledge and ardent love of truth." (Morals, I.
p. 4*>3.) This makes the author's meaning more apparent. (P.)

2 This does not mean that Plutarch sets a low value on memory, for he
gays : " Above all things, we must exercise the memory of children, for it
is the treasury of knowledge."

EDUCATION AT ROME. 59

action that self-education which in our time has suggested
such beautiful reflections to Channing.

67. Conclusion. — Finally, it must be admitted that
Roman literature is poor in material for educational study.
Some passages, scattered here and there in the classical
authors, nevertheless prove that they were not absolutely*
strangers to pedagogical questions.

Thus Horace professed independence of mind ; he declares
that he is not obliged to swear by the " words of any mas-
ter." ! On the other hand, Juvenal defined the ideal purpose
of life and of education when he said that the desirable thing
above all others is u a sound mind in a sound body." 2
Finally, Pliuy the Younger, in three words, multum, non
m\dta, " much, not many things," fixes one essential point in
educational method, and recommends the thorough stud}' of
one single subject in preference to a superficial study which
extends over too many subjects.

While by their taste, their accuracy of thought, and the
perfection of their style, the Latin writers are worthy of
being placed by the side of the Greeks as proficients in edu-
cation of the literary type, they at the same time deserve to
be regarded as reputable guides in moral education. At
Rome, as at Athens, that which formed the basis of instruc-
tion was the search after virtue. That which preoccupied
Cicero as well as Plato, Seneca as well as Aristotle, was not
so much the extension of knowledge and the development of
instruction as the progress of manners and the moral per-
fection of man.

[68. Analytical Summary. — 1. In contrast with Greek
education, the chief characteristic of which was intellectual

1 "Nullius addictus jurare in verba mayistri."

f " Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano." (Sat. x. 356.)

lEm

THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

discipline or culture, Roman education may be called prac-
tical. Greece and Rome have thus furnished the world with
two distinct types of education, and their modern representa-
tives are seen in our classical and scientific courses respec-
tively.

2. The disinclination of the Roman mind to speculative
inquiry, was a bar to the production of any contributions to
the theory of education.

3. In the Institutes of Quintilian we see the first attempt to
expound the art of teaching ; and in the Morals of Plutarch
we have the first formal treatise on the education of children.

4. In the later period of Roman education, we see a higher
appreciation of woman, and a nobler conception of the
family life.

5. In common with all the systems of education thus far
studied, Roman education is essentially literary, ethical, and
prudential, as distinguished from an education in science.
The conception of the money value of knowledge had not yet
appeared.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE.

THE NEW SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY J THE POVERTY OF THE EARLY
CHRISTIAN CENTURIES IN RESPECT OF EDUCATION; THE FATHERS
OF THE CHURCH; SAINT JEROME AND TI1E EDUCATION OF GIRLS;
PHYSICAL ASCETICISM J INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL ASCETICISM J PER-
MANENT TRUTHS ; INTELLECTUAL FEEBLENESS OF THE MIDDLE AGE J
CAUSES OF THE IGNORANCE OF THE MIDDLE AGE ; THE THREE RENA-
SCENCES ; CHARLEMAGNE ; ALCUIN J THE SUCCESSORS OF CHARLE-
MAGNE ; scholasticism; abelard; the seven liberal arts;
methods and discipline ; the universities j gerson j vittorino
da feltrb; other teachers at the close of the middle age;
recapitulation j analytical summary.

69. The New Spirit of Christianity. — By its dogmas,
by the conception of the equality of all human creatures, by
its spirit of charity, Christianity introduced new elements
into the conscience, anfi seemed called to give a powerful
impetus to the moral/ education of men. The doctrine of
Christ was at first fFrciction of free will and of personal
dignity against the despotism of the State. " A full half of
man henceforth escape^He action of lie State. Christian-
ity taught that man noroiger belonged^D society except in
part ; that he was under allegiance to it ujl his body and his
material interests ; that beinpSut>ject to a tyrant, he must
submit ; that as a citizen of a republic, he ought to give his
life for it ; but that in respect of his soulj^he was free, and
owed allegiance only to God." 1 HencefortiMt was not sim-
ply a question of training citizens for the serviceV)f the State ;

1 Fustel de Coulanges, La Citt antique, p. 476.

62 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

but the conception of a disinterested development of the
human person made its appearance in the world. On the
other hand, in proclaiming that all men had the same destiny,
and that they were nil equal in the sight of God, Christianity
raised the poor and the disinherited from their condition of
miser}', and promised them all the same instruction. To the
idea of liberty was added that of equality ; and equal jus-
tice for all, and participation in the same rights, were con-
tained in germ in the doctrine of Christianity.

70. POVEKTY OF THE FlRST CHRISTIAN CENTURIES IN RE-
SPECT of Education. — Nevertheless, the germs contained
in the doctrines of the new religion did not bear fruit at
once. It is easy to analyze the causes which led to the pov-
erty of educational thought during the first centuries of the
Christian era.

In the first place, the Christian instruction was addressed
to barbarous peoples who could not at ouce rise to a high
intellectual and moral culture. According to the celebrated
comparison of Jouffroy, the invasion of the barbarians into
the midst of ancient society was like an armful of green
wood thrown upon a blazing fire ; at first there could issue
from it only a mass of smoke.

Moreover, we must take into account the fact that the
early Christians, in order to estAsh their faith, had to
struggle against difficulties which^Ke ever being renewed.
The first centuries were a period of struggle, of conquest,
and of organization, which left; but little opportunity for the
disinterested study of education. In their contests with the
ancient world, the early Christians came to include in a com-
mon hatred classical literature and pagan religion. Could
thoy receive with sympathy the literary and scientific inheri-
tance of a society whose morals they repudiated, and whose
beliefs they were bent on destroying ?

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 63

On the other hand, the social condition of the men who
first attached themselves to the new religion turned them
aside from the studies which are a preparation for real life.]
Obliged to conceal themselves, to betake themselves to the
desert, true Pariahs of the pagan world, they lived a life of
contemplation ; they were naturally led to conceive an as-
cetic anp monastic existence as the ideal of education*.

Moreover, byits^ mystical tendencies. Christianity at the
first could not be a good school for a practical and humane
'system of education^ The Christian was detached from the
commonwealth oT^fflah, only to enter into the commonwealth
of God. He must break with a corrupt and perverse world.
By privations, and by the renunciation of every pleasure, he
must react against the immorality of Graeco-Roman society.
Man must aspire to imitate God ; and God is absolute holi-
ness, the very negation of all the conditions of earthly life, —
supreme perfection. The very disproportion between such an
ideal and human weakness as an actual fact must have be-
trayed the early' Christians into leading a mystical life which
was but a preparation for death. And the consequence of
these doctrines was to make of the Church the exclusive
mistress of education and instruction. Individual initiative,
if called into play, on the one hand, by the fundamental doc-
trines of Christianity, was stifled, on the other, under the
domination of the Church.

71. The Fathers of the Church. — Of the celebrated
doctors who, by their erudition and eloquence, if not by
their taste, made illustrious the beginning of Christianity,
some were jealous mystics and sectaries, in whose eyes phil-
osophical curiosity was a sin, and the love of letters a heresy ;
and others were Christians of a conciliatory temperament,
who, in a certain measure, allied religious faith and literary
culture.

4 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

Tertullian rejected all pagan education. '.He saw in classi-
cal culture only a robbery from God ; a road to the false and
arrogant wisdom of the ancient philosopfieVs. Even Saint
Augustine, who in his youth could not read the fourth book
of the JEneid without shedding tears, and who had been devo-
tedly fond of ancient poetry and eloquence, renounced, after
his conversion, his literary tastes as well as the inad passions
of his early manhood. It was by his influence that the
Council of Carthage forbade the bishops to read the pagan
authors.

This was not the course of Saint Basil, who demands, on
the contrarj-, that the young Christian shall be conversant
with the orators, poets, and historians of antiquity ; who
thinks that the poems of Homer inspire a love for virtue ;
and who desires, finally, that full use should be made of the
treasures of ancient wisdom in the training of the young.1
Nor was this the thought of Saint Jerome, who said he
would be none the less a Ciceronian in becoming a Christian.

72. Saint Jerome and the Education of Girls. — The
letters of Saint Jerome on the education of girls form the
most valuable educational document of the first centuries of
Christianity.2 They have excited high admiration. Eras-
mus knew them by heart, and Saint Theresa read selections
from them every day. It is impossible, to-day, while admir-
ing certain parts of them, not to condemn the general spirit
which pervades them, — a narrow spirit, distrustful of the
world, which pushes the religious sentiment even to mysti-
cism, and disdain for human affairs to asceticism.

1 See the Homily of Saint Basil On the Utility which the young can de-
rive from the reading of profane authors.

2 Letter to LtsiCk on the education of her daughter Paula (403). Lett^
to Gaudentius on the education of the little Pacatvla. The letUsiXaQy*
dentius is far inferior to the other hy reason of the perpetual ^W^du^
into which the author permits himself to be drawn. %

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 65

73. -Physical Asceticism. — It is no longer the question
of giving power to the body, and thus of making of it the
robust instrument of a cultured spirit, as the Greeks would
have it. The body is an enemy that must be subdued by
fasting, by abstinence, and by mortifications of the flesh.

" Do not allow Paula to eat in public, that is, do not let
her take part in family entertainments, for fear that she
may desire the meats that may be served there. Let her
learn not to use wine, for it is the source of all impurity.
Let her food be vegetables, and only rarely of fish ; and
let her eat so as always to be hungry."

Contempt for the body is carried so far that cleanliness is
almost interdicted.

" For myself, I entirely forbid a }*oung girl to bathe."

It is true that, alarmed at the consequences of such aus-
terity, Saint Jerome, bj* way of exception, permits children
the use of the bath, of wine, and of meat, but only " when
necessity requires it, and lest the feet may fail them before
having walked."

74. Intellectual and Moral Asceticism. — For the

mind, as well as for the body, we may say of Saint Jerome

what Nicole wrote to a nun of his time : u You feed vour

pupils on bread and water." The Bible is the only book

recommended, and this is little ; but it is the Bible entire,

which is too much. The Song of Songs, with its sensual

imagery, would be strange reading for a young girl. The

arts, like letters, find no favor with the mysticism of Saint

Jerome.

« ' Never let Paula listen to musical instruments ; let her

eyeti be ignorant of the uses served by the flute and the

harp- "

J±8 for the flute, which the Greek philosophers also did
t Jilze , let it be so ; but what shall we say of this condem-

86 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

nation of the harp, the instrument of David and the angels,
and of religious music itself ! How far we are, in common
with Saint Jerome, from that complete life, from that harmo-
nious development of all the faculties, which modern educa-
tors, Herbert Spencer, for example, present to us with
reason as the ideal of education ! Saint Jerome goes so far
as to proscribe walking : —

4k Do not let Paula be found in the wavs of the world
(emphatic paraphrase for streets), in the gatherings and in
the company of her kindred ; let her be found only in
retirement."

The ideal of Saint Jerome is a monastic and cloistered life,
even in the world. But that which is graver still, that which
is the fatal law of mysticism, is that Saint Jerome, after
having proscribed letters, arts, and necessary and legitimate
pleasures, even brings his condemnation to bear on the most
honorable sentiments of the heart. The heart is human
also, and everything human is evil and full of danger :

" Do not allow Paula to feel more affection for one of her
companions than for others ; do not allow her to speak with
such a one in an undertone." And as he held in suspicion
even the affections of the family, the Doctor of the Church
concludes thus : —

" Let her be educated in a cloister, where she will not
know the world, whore she will live as an angel, having a
body but not knowing it, and where, in a word, you will be
spared the care of watching over her. . . . If you will send us
Paula, I will charge myself with being her master and nurse ;
I will give her my tenderest care ; my old age will not pre-
vent me from untying her tongue, and I shall be more re-
nowned than the philosopher Aristotle, since I shall instruct,
not a mortal and perishable king, but an immortal spouse of
the Heavenly King."

THE EABLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 67

75. Permanent Truths. — The pious exaggerations of
Saint Jerome only throw into sharper relief the justice and
the excellence of some of his practical suggestions, — upon
the teaching of reading, for example, or upon the necessity
of emulation : —

44 Put into the hands of Paula letters in wood or in ivory,
and teach her the names of them. She will thus learn while
playing. But it will not suffice to have her merely memorize
the names of the letters, and call them in succession as they
stand in the alphabet. You should often mix them, putting
the last first, and the first in the middle.

" Induce her to construct words by offering her a prize,
or by giving her, as a reward, what ordinarily pleases chil-
dren of her age. . . . Let her have companions, so that the
commendation she may receive may excite in her the feeling
of emulation. Do not chide her for the difficulty she may
have in learning. On the contrary, encourage her by com-
mendation, and proceed in such a way that she shall be
equally sensible to the pleasure of having done well, and to
the pain of not having been successful. . . . Especially take
care that she do not conceive a dislike for study that might
follow her into a more advanced age."1

76. Intellectual Feebleness of the Middle Age. —
If the early doctors of the Church occasionally expressed
some sympathy for profane letters, it is because, in their
youth, before having received baptism, they had themselves
attended the pagan schools. But these schools once closed,
Christianity did not open others, and, after the fourth cen-
tury, a profound night enveloped humanity. The labor of
the Greeks and the Romans was as though it never had

1 For writing, Saint Jerome, like Quintilian, recommends that children
first practise on tablets of wood on which letters have been engraved.

68 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

been. The past no longer existed. Humanity began anew.
In the fifth century, Apollinaris Sidonius declares that
" the young no louger study, that teachers no longer have
pupils, and that learning languishes and dies." Later, Lupu*
of Ferrieres, the favorite of Louis the Pious and Charles the
Bald, writes that the study of letters had almost ceased. In
the early part of the eleventh century, the Bishop of Laon,
Adalberic, asserts that " there is more than one bishop who
cannot count the letters of the alphabet on his lingers." In
12(J1, of all the monks in the convent of Saint Gall, there
was not one who could read and write. It was so difficult
to find notaries public, that acts had to be passed verbally.
The barons took pride in their ignorance. Even after the
efforts of the twelfth century, instruction remained a luxury
for the common people ; it was the privilege of the ecclesias-
tics, and even they did not carry it very far. The Benedic-
tines confess that the mathematics were studied only for the
purpose of calculating the date of Easter.

77. Causes of the Ignorance of the Middle Age. —
What were the permanent causes of that situation which
lasted for ten centuries? The Catholic Church has some-
times been held responsible for this. Doubtless the Chris-
tian doctors did not always profess a very warm sympathy
for intellectual culture. Saint Augustine had said : " It is
the ignorant who gain possession of heaven (indocti caelum
rapiuni)" Saint Gregory the Great, a pope of the sixth
century, declared that he would blush to have the holy word
conform to the rules of grammar. Too many Christians, in
a word, confounded ignorance with holiness. Doubtless,
towards the seventh century, the darkness still hung thick
over the Christian Church. Barbarians invaded the Episco-
pate, and carried with them their rude manners. Doubtless,

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 69

also, daring the feudal period the priest often became
soldier, and remained ignorant. It would, however, be un-
just to bring a constructive charge against the Church of the
Middle Age, and to represent it as systematically hostile to
instruction. Directly to the contrary, it is the clergj- who,
in the midst of the general barbarism, preserved some ves-
tiges of the ancient culture. The only schools of that period
are the episcopal and claustral schools, the first annexed to
the bishops' palaces, the second to the monasteries. The
religious orders voluntarily associated manual labor with
mental labor. As far back as 530, Saint Benedict founded
the convent of Monte Cassino, and drew up statutes which
made reading and intellectual labor a part of the daily life
of the monks.

In 1179, the third Lateran Council promulgated the follow-
ing decree : —

" The Church of God, being obliged like a good and ten-
der mother to provide for the bodily and spiritual wants of
the poor, desirous to procure for poor children the oppor-
tunity for learning to read, and for making advancement in
study, orders that each cathedral shall have a teacher charged
with the gratuitous instruction of the clergy of that church,
and also of the indigent scholars, and that he be assigned a
benefice, which, sufficient for his subsistence, may thus open
the door of the school to the studious youth. A tutor l shall
be installed in the other churches and in the monasteries
where formerly there were funds set apart for this purpose."

It is not, then, to the Church that we must ascribe the

1 Itcoldtre. The history of this word, as given by Littre, is instructive.
"There was no cathedral church (sixteenth century) in which a sum was
not appropriated for the salary of one who taught the ordinary subjects,
and another for one who had leisure for teaching Theology. The first was
called cscolastre (tcoldtre), the second theologal" Pasquier. (P.)

.70 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

general intellectual torpor of the Middle Age. Other causes
explain that long slumber of the human mind. The first is
the social condition of the people. Security and leisure, the
indispensable conditions for study, were completely lacking
to people always at war, overwhelmed in succession by the
barbarians, the Normans, the English, and by the endless
struggles of feudal times. The gentlemen of the time
aspired only to ride, to hunt, and to figure in tournaments
and feats of arms. Physical education was above all else
befitting men whose favorite vocation, both by habit and
necessity, was war. On the other hand, the enslaved peo-
ple did not suspect the utility of instruction. In order to
comprehend the need of study, that great liberator, one
must already have tasted liberty. In a society where the
need of instruction had not yet been felt, who could have
taken the initiative in the work of instructing the people?

Let us add that the Middle Age presented still other con-
ditions unfavorable for the propagation of instruction, in
particular, the lack of national languages, those necessary
vehicles of education. The vernacular languages are the in-
struments of intellectual emancipation. Among a people
where a dead language is supreme, a language of the learned,
accessible only to the select few, the lower classes necessarily
remain buried in ignorance. Moreover, Latin books them-
selves were rare. Lupus of Ferrieres was obliged to write
to Rome, and to address himself to the Pope in person, in
order to procure for his use a work of Cicero's. Without
books, without schools, without any of the indispensable
implements of intellectual labor, what could be done for the
mental life ? It took refuge in certain monasteries ; erudi-
tion flourished only in narrow circles, with a privileged few,
and the rest of the nation remained buried in an obscure
night.

y/L

HE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 71

78. The Three Renascences. — It has been truly said
that there were three Renascences : the first, which owed its -
beginning to Charlemagne, and whose brilliancy did not last ;
the second, that of the twelfth century, the issue of which
was Scholasticism ; and the third, the great Renaissance of
the sixteenth century, which still lasts, and which the French
Revolution has completed.

79. Charlemagne. — Charlemagne undoubtedly formed the
purpose of diffusing instruction about him. He ardentty
sought it for himself, drilled himself in writing, and learned
Latin and Greek, rhetoric and astronomy. He would have
communicated to all who were about him the same ardor for
study. " Ah ! that I had twelve clerics," he exclaimed, " as
perfectly instructed as were Jerome and Augustine ! " It
was naturally upon the clergy that he counted, to make of
them the instruments of his plans ; but, as one of his
capitularies of 788 shows, there was need that the clergy
themselves should be reminded of the need of instruction :
" We have thought it useful that, in the bishops' residences,
and in the monasteries, care be taken not only to live accord-
ing to the rules of our holy religion, but, in addition, to teach
the knowledge of letters to those who are capable of learning
them by the aid of our Lord. Although it avails more to
practise the law than to know it, it must be known before it
can be practised. Several monasteries having sent us
manuscripts, we have observed that, in the most of them,
the sentiments were good, but the language bad. We
exhort you, then, not onty not to neglect the study of letters,
but to devote yourselves to them with all your power."

On the other hand, the nobles did not make an}- great
effort to justify their social rank by the degree of their
knowledge. One day, as Charlemagne entered a school.

72 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

displeased with the indolence and the ignorance of the young
barons who attended it, he addressed them in these severe
terms: " Do you count upon your birth, and do you feel a
pride in it ? Take notice that you shall have neither govern-
ment nor bishoprics, if you are not better instructed than
others."

80. Alcuin (735-804). — Charlemagne was seconded in
his efforts by Alcuin of England, of whom it might be said,
that he was the first minister of public instruction in France.
It is he who founded the Palatine school, a sort of imperial
and itinerant academy which followed the court on its
travels. It was a model school, where Alcuin had for his
pupils the four sons and two daughters of Charlemagne, and
Charlemagne himself, always eager to be instructed.

Alcuin's method was not without originality, but it is a
great mistake to say that it resembles the method of Socrates.
Alcuin doubtless proceeds by interrogation ; but here it is
the pupil who interrogates, and the teacher who responds.

u What is speech? asks Pepin, the eldest son of Charle-
magne. It is the interpreter of the soul, replies Alcuin.
What is life? It is an enjoyment for some, but for the
wretched it is a sorrow, a waiting for death. What is
sleep? The image of death. What is writing? It is the
guardian of history. What is the body? The tenement
of the soul. What is day? A summons to labor."1

All this is either commonplace or artificial. The senten-
tious replies of Alcuin may be fine maxims, fit for embellish-
ing the memory ; but in this procedure of the mere scholar,
affected by the over-refinements of his time, there is nothing
which can call into activity the intelligence of the pupil.

1 For other examples, see the Life of Alcuiny by Lorenz ; and for Middle
Age education in general, consult Christian Schools and Scholars, by
Augusta Theodosia Drane. (P.)

THE BABLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 73

Nevertheless the name of Alcuin marks an era in the
history of education. His was the first attempt to form ai.
alliance between classical literature and Christian inspiration,
— to create a " Christian Athens," according to the emphatic
phrase of Alcuin himself.

81. The Successors of Charlemagne. — It had been tb*
ambition of Charlemagne to reign over a civilized society,
rather than over a barbarous people. Convinced that the
only basis of political unit}' is a unity of ideas and of morals,
he thought to find the basis of that moral unity in religion,
and religion itself he purposed to establish upon a more
widely diffused system of instruction. But these ideas were
too advanced for the time, and their execution too difficult
for the circumstances then existing. A new decadence fol-
lowed the era of Charlemagne. The clergy did not respond
to the hopes which the great emperor had placed on them.
As far back as 817, the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle decided
that henceforth no more day-pupils should be received into
the conventual schools, for the reason that too large a num-
ber of pupils would make impossible the maintenance of the
monastic discipline. No one of Charlemagne's successors
seems to have taken up the thought of the great emperor ;
no one of them was preoccupied witli the problems of educa-
tion. It is upon despotic authority, and not upon the intel-
lectual progress of their subjects, that those unintelligent
rulers wished to found their power. Under Louis the Pious
and Charles the Bald there were constructed more castles
than schools.

The kings of France were far from imitating the Anglo-
Saxon king, Alfred the Great (849-901), to whom tradition
ascribes these two sayings : u The English ought always to
be free, as free as their own thoughts " ; ' l Free-born sons
should know how to read and write."

74 THE HXSTOET OF PEDAGOGY-

*2. hs.w/ULmr i*m. — It was not till the twelfth century
that tiie huoutn juiud wnb awakened- That was the age of
fv:W*sUcifciiK the essential character of which was the study
of reasoning, aud the practice of dialectics, or syllogistic
reafcociing. The fcyllog:i*in. which reaches necessary con-
<:hibitjtit> from \zwzu premises, was the natural instrument of
an age of faith, when men wished simply to demonstrate
iiiiinutahle dogmas, without ever making an innovation on
established beliefs. It has often been observed that the art
of reasoning U the science of a people still in the early stage
of its progress ; we might almost say of a barbarous people.
A siibtile dialectic is in perfect keeping with manners still
rude, and with a limited state of knowledge. It is only an
intellectual machine. It was not then a question of
original thinking. All that was necessary was simply to
reason u|K>n conceptions already acquired, and the sacred
dc|>oa!tory of these* was kept in charge by Theology. Con-
sequently, there was no independent science. Philosophy,
according to the language of the times, was but the humble
servant of Theology. The dialectics of the doctors of the
Middle Age was but a subtile commentary on the sacred
books and on the doctrines of Aristotle.1 It seems, says
Locke, to see the inertness of the Middle Age, that God was
pleased to make of man a two-footed animal, while leaving
to Aristotle the task of making him a thinking being. From
his point of view, an able educator of the seventeenth cen-
tury, the Abbe" Fleury, pronounces this severe judgment on
the scholastic method : —

1 Tim following quotation illustrates this servile dependence on authority:
" At the time when the discovery of spots on the sun first began to circu-
late, u student railed the attention of his old professor to the rumor, and
received the following reply: ' There can bo no spots on the sun, for I have
read Aristotle twice from beginning to end, and he says the sun is incor-
ruptlhle. Clean your lenses, and if the spots are not in the telescope, they
uiUMt be in your eyes ! • •• Naville, La Logiquc dc VHypothtse. (P.)

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 75

" This way of philosophizing on words and thoughts, with-
out examining the things themselves, was certainly an easy
way of getting along without a knowledge of facts, which
can be acquired only by reading " (Fleury should have added
and by observation) ; " and it was an easy way of dazzling
the ignorant laics by peculiar terms and vain subtilties."

But Scholasticism had its hour of glory, its erudite doc-
tors, its eloquent professors, chief among whom was Abelard.
/ 83. Abelard (1079-1142). — A genuine professor of
higher instruction, Abelard, by the prestige of his eloquence,
gathered around him at Paris thousands of students. Hu-
man speech, the living words of the teacher, had then an
authority, an importance, which it has lost in part since
books, everywhere distributed, have, to a certain extent,
superseded oral instruction. At a time when printing did
not exist, when manuscript copies were rare, a teacher who
combined knowledge with the gift of speech was a phenome-
non of incomparable interest, and students flocked from all
parts of Europe to take advantage of his lectures. Abelard
is the most brilliant representative of the scholastic pedagogy,
with an original and personal tendency towards the emanci-
pation of the mind. ' "It is ridiculous, " he said, fc4 to preach
to others what we^TJan neither make them understand, nor
understand ourselves." With more boldness than Saint
Anselm, he applied dialectics to theology, and attempted to
reason out the grounds of his faith. T

84. The Seven Liberal Arts. — The seven liberal arts
constituted what may be called the secondary instruction of
the Middle Age, such as was given in the cl austral or con-
ventual schools, and later, in the universities. The liberal
arts were distributed into two courses of stud}', known as the
trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium comprised gram-
mar (Latin grammar, of course), dialectics, or logic, and

76 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

rhetoric ; and the quadrivium^ music, arithmetic, geometry,
and astronomy. It is important to note the fact that this
programme contains only abstract and formal studies, — no
real and concrete studies. The sciences which teach us to
know man and the world, such as history, ethics, the physical
and natural sciences, were omitted and unknown, save per-
haps in a few convents of the Benedictines. Nothing which
can truly educate man, and develop his faculties as a whole,
enlists the attention of the Middle Age. From a course of
study thus limited there might come skillful reasoners and
men formidable in argument, but never fully developed men.1

85. Methods and Discipline. — The methods employed
in the ecclesiastical schools of the Middle Age were in accord
with the spirit of the times, when men were not concerned
about liberty and intellectual freedom ; and when they thought
more about the teaching of dogmas than about the training
of the intelligence. The teachers recited or read their
lectures, and the pupils learned by heart. The discipline
was harsh. Corrupt human nature was distrusted. In 1363,
pupils were forbidden the use of benches and chairs, on the
pretext that such high seats were an encouragement to pride.
For securing obedience, corporal chastisements were used
and abused. The rod is in fashion in the fifteenth as it was
in the fourteenth century.

44 There is no other difference," says an historian, " except
that the rods in the fifteenth century are twice as long as
those in the fourteenth.,,2 Let us note, however, the pro-
test of Saint Anselm, a protest that pointed out the evil
rather than cured it. "Day and night," said an abbot to

1 This is no exception to the rule that the education of an age is the ex-
ponent of its real or supposed needs. (P.)

* Monteil, Hittoire de* Fran^ais des divert 4taU.

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 7 I

Saint Anselm, %i we do not cease to chastise the children
confided to our care, and they grow worse and worse."
Anselm replied, " Indeed ! You do not cease to chastise
them ! And when they are grown up, what will they become ?
Idiotic and stupid. A Gne education that, which makes
brutes of men ! . . . If you were to plant a tree in your
garden, and were to enclose it on all sides so that it could
not extend its branches, what would you find when, at the end
of several years, you set it free from its bands? A tree
whose branches would be bent and crooked ; and would it
not be your fault, in having so unreasonably confined it? "

86. The Universities. — Save elaustral and cathedral
schools, to which must be added some parish schools, the
earliest example of our village schools, the sole educational
establishment of the Middle Age was what is called the Cwi-
versity. Towards the thirteenth and fourteenth century we
see multiplying in the great cities of Europe those centres of
study, those collections of students which recall from afar
the schools of Plato and Aristotle. Of such establishments
were the university which opened at Paris for the teaching
of theology and philosophy (1200) ; the universities of
Naples (1224), of Prague (1345), of Vienna (1365), of
Heidelberg (138G), etc.1 Without being completely affran-
chised from sacerdotal control, these universities were a first
expansion of free science. As far back as the ninth century,
the Arabs had given an example to the rest of Europe by
founding at Salamanca, at Cordova, and in other cities of
Spain, schools where all the sciences were cultivated.

87. Gerson (1363-1429). —With the gentle Gerson, the
supposed author of the Imitation, it seems that the dreary dia-

* Cambridge (1109), Oxford (1140).

.-.--.-— - _^ . J

78 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

lectics disappear to let the heart speak and make way for
feeling. The Chancellor of the University of Paris is distin-
guished from the men of his time by his love for the people.
He wrote in the common tongue little elementary treatises
for the use and within the comprehension of the plain people.
His Latin work, entitled De parentis ad Christum trahendis
(''Little children whom we must lead to Christ "), gives
evidence of a large spirit of sweetness and goodness. It
abounds in subtile and delicate observations. For exam-
ple, Gerson demands of teachers patience and tenderness :
44 Little children," he says, " are more easily managed by
caresses than by fear." For these frail creatures he dreads
the contagion of example. tfc No living being is more in
danger than the child of allowing himself to be corrupted by
another child." In his eyes, the little child is a delicate
plant that must be carefully protected against every evil in-
fluence, and, in particular, against pernicious literature, such
as the Roman de la Rose. Gerson condemns corporal punish-
ment, and requires that teachers shall have for their pupils
the affection of a father : —

44 Above all else, let the teacher make an effort to be a
father to his pupils. Let him never be angry with them.
Let him always be simple in his instruction, and relate to his
pupils that which is wholesome and agreeable." Tender-
hearted and exalted spirit, Gerson is a precursor of Fenelon.1

88. Vittorino da Feltre (1379-1446). — It is a pleas-
ure to place beside Gerson one of his Italian contemporaries,
the celebrated Vittorino da Feltre, a professor in the Uni-
versity of Padua. It was as preceptor to the sons of the

1 In the Tntitt dv la visitc »?«\« <ffW(V«. in 1400, he directed the bishops to
inquire whether each parish had a school, and, in case ther^ were none, tc*
establish one.

THE EABLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 7

Prince of Gonzagas, and as founder of an educational estab-
lishment at Venice, that Vittorino found occasion to show
his aptitude for educational work. With him, education
again became what it was in Greece, — the harmonious devel-
opment of mind and body. Gymnastic exercises, such as
swimming, riding, fencing, restored to honor; attention to
the exterior qualities of fine bearing; an interesting and
agreeable method of instruction ; a constant effort to discover
the character and aptitudes of children ; a conscientious
preparation for each lesson ; assiduous watchfulness over the
work of pupils ; such are the principal features of the peda-
gogy of Vittorino da Feltre, a system of teaching evidently
in advance of his time, and one which deserves a longer
study.

89. Other Teachers at the Close of the Middle Age.
— Were we writing a work of erudition, there would be
other thinkers to point out in the last years of the Middle
Age, in that uncertain and, so to speak, twilight period
which serves as a transition from the night of the Middle
Age to the full day of the Renaissance. Among others, let
us notice the Chevalier de la Tour-Landry and iEneas Sylvius
Piccolomini.

The Chevalier de la Tour-Landry, in the work which he
wrote for the education of his daughters (1 372) , scarcely rises
above the spirit of his time. Woman, as he thinks, is made
to pray and to go to church. The model which he sets be-
fore his daughters is a countess, who u each day wished to
hear three masses." He recommends fasting three times a
ireek in order " the better to subdue the flesh," and to pre-
Fent it " from diverting itself too much." There is neither
responsibility nor proper dignity for the wife, who owes
bedietxce to her husband, her lord, and " should do his will,

80 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

whether wrong or right; if wrong, she is absolved from
blame, as the blame falls on her lord."

iEneas Sylvius, the future Pope Pius II., in his tract on
The Education of Children (1451), is already a man of the
Renaissance, since he recommends with enthusiasm the read-
ing and study of most of the classical authors. However,
he traces a programme of studies relatively liberal. By the
side of the humanities he places the sciences of geometry
and arithmetic, kl which are necessary," he says, " for train-
ing the mind and assuring rapidity of conceptions " ; and
also history and geography. He had himself composed his-
torical narratives accompanied by maps. The distrusts of
an overstrained devotion were no longer felt by a teacher
who wrote, fc% There is nothing in the world more precious
or more beautiful than an enlightened intelligence."

90. Recapitulation. — It is thus that the Middle Age in
drawing to a close came nearer and nearer, in the way of
continuous progress, to the decisive emancipation which the
Renaissance and the Reformation were soon to perpetuate.
But the Middle Age. in itself, whatever effort may be put
forth at this day to rehabilitate it, and to discover in it
the golden age of modern societies, remains an ill-starred
epoch. A few virtues, negative for the most part, virtues
of obedience and consecration, cannot atone for the real
faults of those rude and barbarous centuries. A higher
educatiou reserved to ecclesiastics and men of noble rank ;
an instruction which consisted in verbal legerdemain, which
developed only the mechanism of reasoning, and made of
the intelligence a prisoner of the formal syllogism : agreea-
bly to the barbarism of primitive times, a fantastic pedantry
which lost itself in superficial discussions and in verbal
distinctions : popular education almost null, and restricted to*

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 81

the teaching of the catechism in Latin ; finally, a Church,
absolute and sovereign, which determined for all, great and
small, the limits of thought, of belief, and of action ; such
was, from our own point of view, the condition of the Mid-
dle Age. It was time for the coming of the Renaissance to
affranchise the human mind, to excite and to reveal to itself
the unconscious need of instruction, and by the fruitful
alliance of the Christian spirit and profane letters, to prepare
for the coming of modern education.

[91. Analytical Summary. — [l. The fundamental char-
acteristic of Middle Age education was the

inatjon^of,

religious conceptions. The training was forthejjfa to figm^
rather than for this life ; it was almost exclusively religious
and moral ; was based on authority ; and included the whole

humaa-cace.
2. This alliai

exclnsjyj^aim_ to educatloi
seriousness and earnestness.

^f church and school, wJule giving an

[so gave it a spirjt^f intense

le survivals of this histori-

cal alliance are church and parish schools, and a disposition .
of the modern Church to dispute the right of the State to I
educate.

3. The supreme importance attached to the Scriptures
made education literary ; made instruction dogmatic and
arbitrary ; exalted words over things ; inculcated a taste for
abstract and formal reasoning ; made learning a process of
memorizing ; and stifled the spirit of free inquiry.

*• The inclusion of the whole world in one Christian
^0n"noD wealth, led to the intellectual enfranchisement of
*oman and to the rise of primarj* education proper.

* T/ie general tendency was towards harshness in disci-
",ne» coarseness in habits and manners, and a contempt for

the

^eaities of life.

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

6. Scholasticism erred by exaggeration; but its general
effect was to develop the power of deductive reasoning, to
teach the use of language as the instrument of thought, and
to make apparent the need of nice discriminations in the use
of words.

7. The great intellectual lesson taught is the extreme
difficulty of attaining compass, symmetry, and moderation.]

CHAPTER V.

THE RENAISSANCE AND THE THEORIES OF EDUCATION

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

general characteristics of the education of the sixteenth
century; causes of the renaissance in education; the
theory and the practice of education in the sixteenth
century ; erasmus (1467-1536) j education of erasmus j the
jeromites; pedagogical works of erasmus; juvenile
etiquette j early education ; the instruction of women j
rabelais (1483-1553) j criticism of the old education ; gar*
gantua and eudemon j the new education j physical edu-
cation j intellectual education ; the phy8ical and natural
• sciences; object lessons; attractive methods; religious
education ; moral education j montaigne (1533-1502) and
rabelais; the personal education of montaigne; edu-
cation should be general; the purpose of instruction;
education of the judgment; educational methods; 8tudie8
recommended; montaigne's errors; incompleteness of his
views on the education of women j analytical 8ummary.

92. General Characteristics op the Educatiox op
the Sixteenth Century. — Modern education begins with
the Renaissance. The educational methods that we then
begin to discern will doubtless not be developed and
perfected till a later period ; the new doctrines will pass
into practice only gradually, and with the general progress
of the times. But from the sixteenth century education
is in possession of its essential principles. The educa-
tion of the Middle Age, over-rigid and repressive, which
condemned the body to a regime too severe, and the
mind to a discipline too narrow, is to be succeeded,

84 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

at least in theory, by an education broader and more
liberal; which will give due attention to hygiene and
physical exercises ; which will enfranchise the intelligence,
hitherto the prisoner of the syllogism ; which will call into
play the moral forces, instead of repressing them ; which
will substitute real studies for the verbal subtilties of dia-
lectics ; which will give the preference to things over words ;
which, finally, instead of developing but a single faculty, the
reason, and instead of reducing man to a sort of dialectic
automaton, will seek to develop the whole man, mind and
body, taste and knowledge, heart and will.

93. Causes of the Renaissance in Education. — The
men of the sixteenth century having renewed with classical
antiquity an intercourse that had been too long interrupted,
it was natural that they should propose to the young the
study of the Greeks and the Romans. What is called
secondary instruction really dates from the sixteenth cen-
tury. The crude works of the Middle Age are succeeded by
the elegant compositions of Athens and Rome, henceforth
made accessible to all through the art of printing ; and, with
the reading of the ancient authors, there reappear through the
fruitful effect of imitation, their qualities of correctness in
thought, of literary taste, and of elegance in form. In
France, as in Italy, the national tongues, moulded, and,
as it were, consecrated by writers of genius, become the
instruments of an intellectual propaganda. Artistic taste,
revived by the rich products of a race of incomparable artists,
gives an extension to the horizon of life, and creates a new
class of emotions. Finally, the Protestant Reform develops
individual thought and free inquiry, and at the same time,
by its success, it imposes still greater efforts on the Catholic
Church.

THE EENAISSANCE. 85

This is not saying that everything is faultless in the edu-
cational efforts of the sixteenth century. First, as is natural
for innovators, the thought of the teachers of this period is
marked by enthusiasm rather than by precision. They are
more zealous in pointing out the end to be attained, than
exact in determining the means to be employed. Besides,
some of them are content to emancipate the mind, .but forget
to give it proper direction. Finally, others make a wrong
use of the ancients ; they are too much preoccupied with the
form and the purity of language ; they fall into Ciceromania,
and it is not their fault if a new superstition, that of rhetoric,
does not succeed the old superstition, that of the syllogism.

94. The Theory and the Practice of Education in
the Sixteenth Century. — In the history of education in the
sixteenth century, we must, moreover, carefully distinguish
the theory from the practice. The theory of education is
already boldly put forward, and is in advance of its age ;
while the practice is still dragging itself painfully along on
the beaten road, notwithstanding some successful attempts
at improvement.

The theory we must look for in the works of Erasmus,
Rabelais, and Montaigne, of whom it may be said, that before
pretending to surpass them, even at this day, we should
rather attempt to overtake them, and to equal them in the
most of their pedagogical precepts.

The practice is, first, the development of the study of the
humanities, particularly in the early colleges of the Jesuits,
and, before the Jesuits, in certain Protestant colleges, partic-
ularly in the college at Strasburg, so briiiiantl}' administered
by the celebrated Sturm (1507-1589). Then it is the revival
of higher instruction, denoted particularly by the foundation
of the College of France (1530), and by the brilliant lee-

86 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tures of Ramus. Finally, it is the progress, we might
almost saj- the birth, of primary instruction, through the
efforts of the Protestant reformers, and especially of Luther.
Nevertheless, the educational thought of the sixteenth
century is in advance of educational practice ; theories
greatly anticipate applications, and constitute almost all that
is deserving of special note.

95. Erasmus (1467-1536). — By his numerous writings,
translations, grammars, dictionaries, and original works,
Erasmus diffused about him his own passionate fondness for
classical literature, and communicated this taste to his con-
temporaries. Without having a direct influence on education,
since he scarcely taught himself, he encouraged the study of
the ancients by his example, and by his active propagan-
dism. The scholar who said, " When I have money, I will
first buy Greek books and then clothes," deserves to be
placed in the first rank among the creators of secondary
instruction.

96. The Education of Erasmus : the Jeromites. —
Erasmus was educated bv the monks, as Voltaire was by the
Jesuits, a circumstance that has cost these liberal thinkers
none of their independent disposition, and none of their
satirical spirit. At the age of twelve, Erasmus entered the
college of De venter, in Holland. This college was con-
ducted by the Jeromites, or Brethren of the Common Life.
Founded in 1340 by Gerard Groot, the association of the
Jeromites undertook, among other occupations, the instruc-
tion of children. Very mystical, and very ascetic at first,
the disciples of Gerard Groot restricted themselves to teach-
ing the Bible, to reading, and writing. They proscribed, as
useless to piety, letters and the sciences. But in the
fifteenth century, under the influence of John of Wessel and

THE RENAISSANCE. 87

Rudolph Agricola, the Jeromites became transformed ; they
were the precursors of the Renaissance, and the promoters
of the alliance between profane letters and Christianity.
•4 We may read Ovid once," said John of Weasel, " but we
ought to read Virgil, Horace, and Terence, with more atten-
tion." Horace and Terence were precisely the favorite
authors of Erasmus, who learned them by heart at Deven-
ter. Agricola, of whom Erasmus speaks only with enthu-
siasm, was also the zealous propagator of the great works
of antiquity, and, at the same time, the severe critic of the
state of educational practice of the time when the school
was too much like a prison.

" If there is anything which has a contradictory name,"
he said, " it is the school. The Greeks called it a-xokyj, which
means leisure, recreation; and the Latins, Indus, that is,
play. But there is nothing farther removed from recreation
and play. Aristophanes called it QpovTurrrjpiov, that is,
place of care, of torment, and this is surely the designation
which best befits it."

Erasmus then had for his first teachers enlightened men,
who, notwithstanding their monastic condition, both knew
and loved antiquity. But, as a matter of fact, Erasmus
was his own teacher. By personal effort he put himself at
the school of the ancients. He was all his life a student.
Now he was a foundation scholar at the college of Montaigu,
in Paris, and now preceptor to gentlemen of wealth. He
was always in pursuit of learning, going over the whole of
Europe, that he might find in each cultivated city new oppor-
tunities for self -instruction.

97. Pedagogical Works of Erasmus. — Most of the
works written by Erasmus relate to instruction. Some of
them are fairly to be classed as text-books, elementary
treatises on practical education, as. U*v example, his books

88 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

On the Manner of toriting Letters, Upon Rules of Etiquette
for the Young, etc. We may also notice his Adages, a vast
repertory of proverbs and maxims borrowed from antiquity ;
his Colloquies, a collection of dialogues for the use of the
young, though the author here treats of many things which
a pupil should never hear spoken of. Another category
should include works of a more theoretical character, in
which Erasmus sets forth his ideas on education. In the
essay On the Order of Study (de Ratione Studii) , he seeks out
the rules for instruction in literature, for the study of gram-
mar, for the cultivation of the memory, and for the explica-
tion of the Greek and Latin authors. Another treatise,
entitled Of the First Liberal Education of Children (De pueris
stathn ac liberaliter instituendis) , is still more important, and
covers the whole field of education. Erasmus here studies
the character of the child, the question of knowing whethei
the first years of child-life can be turned to good account,
and the measures that are to be taken with early life. He
also recommends methods that are attractive, and heartily
condemns the barbarous discipline which reigned in the
schools of his time.

98. Juvenile Etiquette. — Erasmus is one of the first
educators who comprehended the importance of politeness.
In an age still uncouth, where the manners of even the cul-
tivated classes tolerated usages that the most ignorant rustic
of to-day would scorn, it was good to call the attention to
outward appearances and the duties of politeness. Eras-
mus knew perfectly well that politeness has a moral side,
that it is not a matter of pure convention, but that it pro-
ceeds from the inner disposition of a well-ordered soul. So
he assigns it an important place in education :

u The duty of instructing the young," he says, u includes
several elements, the firut and also the chief of which is,

THE RENAISSANCE. 89

that the tender mind of the child should be instructed in
piety ; the second, that he love and learn the liberal arts ;
the third, that he be taught tact in the conduct of social
life ; and the fourth, that from his earliest age he accustom
himself to good behavior, based on moral principles.' '

We need not be astonished, however, to find that the
civility of Erasmus is still imperfect, now too free, now too
exacting, and always ingenuous. "It is a religious duty,"
he says, " to salute him who sneezes." " Morally speaking,
it is not a proper thing to throw the head back while drink-
ing, after the manner of storks, in order to drain the last
drop from the glass." " If one let bread fall on the ground,
he should kiss it after having picked it up." On the other
hand, Erasmus seems to allow that the nose may be wiped
with the fingers, but he forbids the use of the cap or the
sleeve for this purpose. He requires that the face shall be
bathed with pure water in the morning; "but," he adds,
" to repeat this afterwards is nonsense."

99. Early Education. — Like Quintilian, by whom he is
often inspired, Erasmus does not scorn to enter the primary
school, and to shape the first exercises for intellectual cul-
ture. Upon many points, the thought of the sixteenth cen-
tury scholar is but an echo of the Institutes of Oratory, or
of the educational essays of Plutarch. Some of his maxims
deserve to be reproduced : "We learn with great willingness
from those whom we love ; " " Parents themselves cannot
properly bring up their children if they make themselves
only to be feared ; " ' ' There are children who would be
killed sooner than made better by blows : by mildness and
kind admonitions, one may make of them whatever he
will;" "Children will learn to speak their native tongue
without any weariness, by usage and practice;" "Drill in
reading and writing is a little bit tiresome, and the teacher

SO THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

will ingeniously palliate the tedium by the artifice of an
attractive method;" "The ancients moulded toothsome
dainties into the forms of the letters, and thus, as it were,
made children swallow the alphabet;" " In the matter of
grammatical rules, instruction should at the first be limited
to the most simple ; " u As the body in infant years is nour-
ished by little portions distributed at intervals, so should
the mind of the child be nurtured by items of knowledge
adapted to its weakness, and distributed little by little."

From out these quotations there appears a method of
instruction that is kindly, lovable, and full of tenderness for
the young. Erasmus claims for them the nourishing care
and caresses of the mother, the familiarity and goodness of
the father, cleanliness, and even elegance in the school, and
finally, the mildness and indulgence of the teacher.

100. The Instruction of Women. — The scholars of
the Renaissance did not exclude women from all participa-
tion in the literary treasures that a recovered antiquity had
disclosed to themselves. Erasmus admits them to an equal
share.

In the Colloquy of the AbM and tlie Educated Woman,
Magdala claims for herself the right to learn Latin, " so that
she may hold converse each day with so many authors who
are so eloquent, so instructive, so wise, and such good coun-
sellors." In the book called Christian Marriage, Erasmus
banters young ladies who learn only to make a bow, to hold
the hands crossed, to bite their lips when they laugh, to eat
and drink as little as possible at table, after having taken
ample portions in private. More ambitious for the wife,
Erasmus recommends her to pursue the studies which will
assist her in educating her own children, and in taking part
in the intellectual life of her husband.

THE RENAISSANCE. 91

Vives, a contemporary of Erasmus (1492-1540), a Span-
ish teacher, expressed analogous ideas in his books on the
education of women, in which he recommends young women
to read Plato and Seneca.

To sum up, the pedagogy of Erasmus is not without value ;
hut with him, education ran the risk of remaining exclusive]}7
Greek and Latin. A humanist above everything else, he j
granted but very small place to the sciences, and to history, ,'
which it sufficed to skim over, as he said ; and, what reveals •
his inmost nature, he recommended the study of the physical/
sciences for this reason in particular, that the writer will fina
in the knowledge of nature an abundant source of metaphors,
images, and comparisons.

101. Rabelais (1483-1553). —Wholly different is the
spirit of Rabelais, who, under a fanciful and original form,
has sketched a complete system of education. Some pages
of marked gravity in the midst of the epic vagabondage of
his burlesque work, give him the right to appear in the first
rank among those who have reformed the art of training and
developing the human soul.1

The pedagogy of Rabelais is the first appearance of what
may be called realism in instruction, in distinction from the
scholastic foi%mcdism. The author of Gargantua turns the
mind of the young man towards objects truly worthy of oc-
cupying his attention. He catches a glimpse of the future
reserved to scientific education, and to the studv of nature.
He invites the mind, not to the labored subtilties and com-
plicated tricks which scholasticism had brought into fashion,
but to manly efforts, and to a wide unfolding of human
nature.

1 See especially the following chapters: Book I. chaps, xrv., xv., xxi.,
xxii., xxiv.; Book II. chaps, v., vi., vn., vni.

-..-_> ■ ._ .£■■

92 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

102. Criticism of the Old Education : Gargantua and
Eudemon. — In the manners of the sixteenth century, the
keen satire of Rabelais found many opportunities for dis-
porting itself ; and his book may be regarded as a collection
of pamphlets. But there is nothing that he has pursued
with more sarcasms than the education of his day.

At the outset, Gargantua is educated according to the
scholastic methods. He works for twenty years with all his
might, and learns so perfectly the books that he studies that
he can recite them by heart, backwards and forwards, " and
yet his father discovered that all this profited him nothing ;
and what is worse, that it made him a madcap, a ninny,
dream v, and infatuated."'

To that unintelligent and artificial training which sur-
charges the memory, which holds the pupil for long years
over insipid books, which robs the mind of all independent
activity, which dulls rather than sharpens the intelligence, —
to all this Rabelais opposes a natural education, which appeals
to experience and to facts, which trains the young man, not
onlv for the discussions of the schools, but for real life, and
for intercourse with the world, and which, finally, enriches
the intelligence and adorns the memory without stifling the
native graces and the free activities of the spirit.

Eudemon, who, tn Rabelais' romance, represents the pupil
trained by the new methods, knows how to think with accu-
racy and speak with facility ; his bearing is without bold-
ness, but with confidence. When introduced to Gargantua,
he turns towards him, "cap in hand, with open countenance,
ruddy lips, steady eyes, and with modesty becoming a
youth " ; he salutes him elegantly and graciously. To all
the pleasant things which Eudemon says to him, Gargantua
finds nothing to say in reply : " His countenance appeared
as though he had taken to crying immoderately ; he hid his

THE RENAISSANCE. 93

face in his cap, and not a single word could be drawn front
him."

In these two pupils, so different in manner, Rabelais hav
personified two contrasted methods of education : that which,
by mechanical exercises of memory, enfeebles and dulls
the intelligence ; and that which, with larger grants cJ
liberty, develops keen intelligences, and frank and open
characters.

103. The New Education. — Let us now notice with
some detail how Rabelais conceives this new education.1
After having thrown into sharp relief the faults con-
tracted by Gargantua in the school of his first teachers, he
entrusts him to a preceptor, Ponocrates, who is charged with
correcting his faults, and with re-moulding him ; he is to
employ his own principles in the government of his pupil.

Ponocrates proceeds slowly at first; he considers that
" nature does not endure sudden changes without great
violence." He studies and observes his pupil ; he wishes to
judge of his natural disposition. Then he sets himself to
work ; he undertakes a general recasting of the character and
spirit of Gargantua, while directing, at the same time, his
physical, intellectual, and moral education.

104. TPhysical Education. — Hygiene and gymnastics,
cleanliness which protects the body, and exercise which
strengthens it, — these two essential parts of physical edu-

1 The contrast between the general system of education that culmin-
ated with the Reformation, and the system that had its rise at the same
period, is so marked that there is an historical propriety in calling the first
the old education, and the second, or later, the new education. Recollect-
ing the tendency of the human mind to pass from one extreme to an
opposite extreme, we may suspect that the final state of educational
thought and practice will represent a mean between these two contrasted
systems: it is inconceivable that the old was wholly wrong, or that the
new is wholly right. (P.)

92 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

To that unintelligent and artificial training which sur-
charges the memory, which holds the pupil for long years
over insipid books, which robs the mind of all independent
activity, which dulls rather than sharpens the intelligence, —
to all this Rabelais opposes a natural education, which appeals
to experience and to facts, which trains the young man, not
only for the discussions of the schools, but for real life, and
for intercourse with the world, and which, finally, enriches
the intelligence and adorns the memory without stifling the
native graces and the free activities of the spirit.

Eudemon, who, in Rabelais' romance, represents the pupil
trained by the new methods, knows how to think with accu-
racy and speak with facility ; his bearing is without bold-
ness, but with confidence. When introduced to Gargantua,
he turns towards him, "cap in hand, with open countenance,
ruddy lips, stead}' eyes, and with modesty becoming a
youth " ; he salutes him elegantly and graciously. To all
the pleasant things which Eudemon says to him, Gargantua
finds nothing to say in reply: " His countenance appeared
as though he had taken to crying immoderately ; he hid his

THE RENAISSANCE. 93

face in his cap, and not a single word could be drawn front
him."

In these two pupils, so different in manner, Rabelais hav
personified two contrasted methods of education : that which)
by mechanical exercises of memory, enfeebles and dulls
the intelligence ; and that which, with larger grants cl
liberty, develops keen intelligences, and frank and open
characters.

Ponocrates proceeds slowly at first; he considers that
** nature does not endure sudden changes without great
violence." He studies and observes his pupil ; he wishes to
judge of his natural disposition. Then he sets himself to
work ; he undertakes a general recasting of the character and
spirit of Gargantua, while directing, at the same time, his
physical, intellectual, and moral education.

104* Physical Education. — Hygiene and gymnastics,
cleanliness which protects the body, and exercise which
strengthens it, — these two essential parts of physical edu-

94 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

cation receive equal attention from Rabelais. Erasmus
thought it was nonsense (" ne rime A rien ") to wash more
than once a day. Gargantua, on the contrarj', after eating,
bathes his hands and his eyes in fresh water. Rabelais does
not forget that he has been a physician ; he omits no detail
relative to the care of the body, even the most repugnant.
He is far from believing, with the mystics of the Middle
Age, that it is permissible to lodge knowledge in a sordid
bod}', and that a foul or neglected exterior is not unbefitting
virtuous souls. The first preceptors of Gargantua said that
it sufficed to comb one's hair " with the four fingers and the
thumb ; and that whoever combed, washed, and cleansed
himself otherwise, was losing his time in this world." With
Ponocrates, Gargantua reforms his habits, and tries to re-
semble Eudemon, " whose hair was so neatly combed, who
was so well dressed, of such fine appearance, and was so
modest in his bearing, that he much more resembled a little
angel than a man."

Rabelais attaches equal importance to gymnastics, to walk-
ing, and to active life in the open air. He does not allow
Gargantua to grow pale over his books, and to protract his
study into the night. After the morning's lessons, he takes
him out to play. Tennis and ball follow the application to
books : " He exercises his body just as vigorously as he had
before exercised his mind." And so, after the studv of the
afternoon till the supper hour, Gargantua devotes his time
to physical exercises. Riding, wrestling, swimming, every
species of physical recreation, gymnastics under all its forms,
— there is nothing which Gargantua does not do to give agility
to his limbs and to strengthen his muscles. Here, as in
other places, Rabelais stretches a point, and purposely resorts
to exaggeration in order to make his thought better compre-
hended. It would require days of several times twenty-four

THE RENAISSANCE. 95

hoars, in order that a real man could find the time to do all
that the author of Gargantua requires of his giant. In con-
trast with the long asceticism of the Middle Age, he proposes
a real revelry of gymnastics for the colossal body of his hero.
We will not forget that here,, as in all the other parts of
Rabelais' work, fiction is ever mingled with fact. Rabelais
wrote for giants, and it is natural that he should demand
gigantesque efforts of them. In order to comprehend the
exact thought of the author, it is necessary to reduce his
fantastic exaggerations to human proportions.

105. Intellectual Education. — For the mind, as for
the body, Rabelais requires prodigies of activity. Gargantua
rises at four in the morning, and the greater part of the long
day is filled with study. For the indolent contemplations of
the Middle Age, Rabelais substitutes an incessant effort and
an intense activity of the mind. Gargantua first studies the
ancient languages, and the first place is given to Greek,
which Rabelais rescues from the long discredit into which it
had fallen in the Middle Age, as is proved by the vulgar
adage, " Grcecum est, non legitur."

" Now, all disciplines are restored, and the languages rein-
stated, — Greek (without which it is a shame for a person
to call himself learned), Hebrew, Chaldean, Latin. There
are very elegant and correct editions in use, which have been
invented in my age by divine inspiration, as, on the other
hand, artillery was invented by diabolic suggestion. The
whole world is full of wise men, of learned teachers, and of
very large libraries, and it is my opinion that neither in the
time of Plato nor in that of Cicero, nor in that of Papinian,
were there such opportunities for study as we see to-day."

Like all his contemporaries, Rabelais is an enthusiast in
classical learning ; but he is distinguished from them by a

96 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

very decided taste for the sciences, and in particular for the
natural sciences.

106. The Physical and Natural Sciences. — The Mid-
dle Age had completely neglected the study of nature. The
art of observing was ignored 03* those subtile dialecticians,
who would know nothing of the physical world except through
the theories of Aristotle or the dogmas of the sacred books ;
who attached no value to the study of the material universe,
the transient and despised abode of immortal souls ; and
who, moreover, flattered themselves that they could discover
at the end of their syllogisms all that was necessary to know
about it. Rabelais is certainly the first, in point of time, of
that grand school of educators who place the sciences in the
first rank among the studies worthy of human thought.

The scholar of the Middle Age knew nothing of the
world. Gargantua requires of his sou that he shall know it
under all its aspects :

" As to the knowledge of the facts of nature," he writes
to Pantagruel, " I would have you devote yourself to them
with great care, so that there shall be neither sea, river, nor
fountain, whose fish you do not know. All the birds of the
air, all the trees, shrubs, and fruits of the forests, all the
grasses of the earth, all the metals concealed in the depths
of the abysses, the precious stones of the entire East and
South, — none of these should be unknown to you. By fre-
quent dissections, acquire a knowledge of the other world,
which is man. In a word, I point out a new world of
knowledge."

Nothing is omitted, it is observed, from what constitutes
the science of the universe or the knowledge of man.

It is further to be noticed, that Rabelais wishes his pupil
not only to know, but to love and experience nature. He

THE RENAISSANCE. 97

recommends his pupils to go and read the Georgics of Virgil
in ' the midst of meadows and woods. The precursor of
Rousseau on this point as upon some others, he thinks there
is a gain in spiritual health by refreshing the imagination and
giving repose to the spirit, through the contemplation of the
beauties of nature.

Ponocrates, in order to afford Gargantua distraction from
his extreme attention to study, recommended once each
month some very clear and serene day, on which they set out
at an early hour from the city, and went to Chantilly, or
Boulogne, or Montrouge, or Pont Charenton, or Valines, or
Saint Cloud. And there the}* passed the whole day in play-
ing, singing, dancing, frolicking in some fine meadow,
hunting for sparrows, collecting pebbles, fishing for frogs
and crabs.1

107. Object Lessons. — In the scheme of studies planned
by Rabelais, the mind of the pupil is always on the alert,
even at table. There, instruction takes place while talking.
The conversation bears upon the food, upon the objects
which attract the attention of Gargantua, upon the nature
and properties of water, wine, bread, and salt. Every sen-
sible object becomes material for questions and explanations.
Gargantua often takes walks across fields, and he studies
botany in the open country, u passing through meadows or
other grassy places, observing trees and plants, comparing
them with ancient books where they are described, . . . and
taking handfuls of them llome.,, There are but few didactic
lessons; intuitive instruction, given in the presence of the
objects themselves, such is the method of Rabelais. It is
in the same spirit that he sends his pupil to visit the stores
of the silversmiths, the founderies, the alchemists' labora-

* Book I. chap. xxrv.

98 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tories, and shops of all kinds, — real scientific excursions,
such as are in vogue to-day. Rabelais would form a com-
plete man, skilled in art and industry, and also capable, like
the Emile of Rousseau, of devoting himself to manual labor.
When the weather is rainy, and walking impracticable, Gar-
gantua employs his time in splitting and sawing wood, and
in threshing grain in the barn.

108. Attractive Methods. — By a reaction against the
irksome routine of the Middle Age, Rabelais would have
his pupil study while playing, and even learn mathematics
" through recreation and amusement." It is in handling
playing-cards that Gargantua is taught thousands of " new
inventions which relate to the science of numbers." The
same course is followed in geometry and astronomy. The
accomplishments are not neglected, especially fencing. Gar-
gantua is an enormous man, who is to be developed in all
directions. The fine arts, music, painting, and sculpture, are
not strangers to him. The hero of Rabelais represents, not
so much an individual man, as a collective being who per-
sonifies the whole of society, with all the variety of its new
aspirations, and with all the intensity of its multiplied needs.
While the Middle Age, through a narrow spirit, left in inac-
tion certain natural tendencies, Rabelais calls them all into
life, without choice, it is true, and without discrimination,
with the whole ardor of an emancipated imagination.

109. Religious Education. — In respect of religion as of
everything else, Rabelais is the adversary of an education
wholly exterior and of pure form. He ridicules his Gargan-
tua, who, before his intellectual conversion, when he was
still at the school of " his preceptors, the sophists," goes to
church, after a heart}' dinner, to hear twenty-six or thirty
masses. What he substitutes for this exterior devotion, for

THE RENAISSANCE. 99

this abuse of superficial practices, is a real feeling of piety,
and the direct reading of the sacred texts: "It is while
Gargantua was being dressed that there was read to him a
page of Divine Scripture."1 Still more, it is the intimate and
personal adoration " of the great psalmodist of the universe,"
excited by the study of the works of God. Gargantua and
his master, Ponocrates, have scarcely risen when they observe
the state of the heavens, and admire the celestial vault. In
the evening they devote themselves to the same contempla-
tion. After his meals, as before going to sleep, Gargantua
offers prayers to God, to adore Him, to confirm his faith, to
glorify Him for His boundless goodness, to thank Him for
all the time past, and to recommend himself to Him for the
time to come. The religious feeling of Rabelais proceeds at
the same time, both from the sentiment which provoked the
Protestant Reformation, of which he came near being an
adherent, and from tendencies still more modern, — those, for
example, which animate the deistic philosophy of Rousseau.

110. Moral Education. — Those who know Rabelais onty
by reputation, or through some of his innumerable drolleries,
will perhaps be astonished that the jovial author can be
counted a teacher of morals. It is impossible, however, to
misunderstand the sincere and lofty inspiration of such pas-
sages as Ihis : /

" Because, according to the wise Solomon, wisdom does
not enter into a malevolent soul, and knowledge without con-
science is but the ruin of the soul ; it becomes you to serve, to
love, and to fear God, and to place on Him all your thoughts,

1 Rabelais recommends the study of Hebrew, so that the sacred books
may be known in their original form. In some place he says : " I love much
more to hear the Gospel than to hear the life of Saint Margaret or some
other cant."

100 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

all your hopes. ... Be suspicious of the errors of the world.
Apply not your heart to vanity, for this life is transitory ;
but the word of God endures forever. Be useful to all your
neighbors, and love them as yourself. Revere your teachers,
flee the company of men whom you would not resemble ; and
the grace which God has given you receive not in vain. And
when you think you have all the knowledge that can be ac-
quired by this means, return to me, so that I may see you,
and give you my benediction before I die." *

111. Montaigne (1533-1592) and Rabelais. — Between
Erasmus, the learned humanist, exclusively devoted to belles-
lettres, and Rabelais, the bold innovator, who extends as far
as possible the limits of the intelligence, and who causes the
entire encyclopaedia of human knowledge to enter the brain
of his pupil at the risk of splitting it open, Montaigne
occupies an intermediate place, with his circumspect and
conservative tendencies, with his discreet and moderate ped-
agogy, the enemy of all excesses. It seemed that Rabelais
would develop all the faculties equally, and place all
studies, letters, and sciences upon the same footing. Mon-
taigne demands a choice. Between the different faculties he
attempts particularly to train the judgment ; among the dif-
ferent knowledges, he recommends by preference those which
form sound and sensible minds. Rabelais overdrives mind
and body. He dreams of an extravagant course of instruc-
tion where every science shall be studied exhaustively.1

1 Book II. chap. vm.

2 This pansophic scheme of Rabelais has been revived in later times by
Bentham, in his Chrestomathia, and still later by Spencer, in his Educa-
tion. It seems to have been forgotten that the division of labor affects
education in much the same way as it affects all other departments of
human activity: that there is no more need of having as a personal posses-
sion all the knowledge we need for guidance, than for owning all the
agencies we need for locomotion or communication. (P.)

THE RENAISSANCE. 101

Montaigne simply demands that " one taste the upper
crust of the sciences " ; that one skim over them without
going into them deeply, " in French fashion." In his view,
a well-made head is worth more than a head well filled. It
is not so much to accumulate, to amass, knowledge, as to
assimilate as much of it as a prudent intelligence can digest
without fatigue. In a word, while Rabelais sits down, so to
speak, at the banquet of knowledge with an avidity which
recalls the gluttony of the Fantagruelian repasts, Montaigne
is a delicate connoisseur, who would only satisfy with dis-
cretion a regulated appetite.

112. The Personal Education op Montaigne. — One
often becomes teacher through recollection of his personal
education. This is what happened to Montaigne. His ped-
agogy is at once an imitation of the methods which a father
full of solicitude had himself applied to him, and a protest
against the defects and the vices of the college of Guienne,
which he entered at the age of six j-ears. The home
education of Montaigne affords the interesting spectacle of
a child who develops freely. My spirit, he himself sa3*s, was
trained with all gentleness and freedom, without severity or
constraint. His father, skilful in his tender care, had him
awakened each morning at the sound of musical instruments,
so as to spare him those brusque alarms that are bad pre-
parations for toil. In a word, he applied to him that tem-
pered discipline, at once indulgent and firm, equally removed
from complacency and harshness, which Montaigne has
chrUtened with the name of severe mildness. Another char-
acteristic of Montaigne's education is, that he learned Latin
as one learns his native tongue. His father had surrounded
him with domestics and teachers who conversed with him
only in Latin. The result of this was, that at the age of six
he was so proficient in the language of Cicero, that the best

100 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

111. Montaigne (1533-1592) and Rabelais. — Between
Erasmus, the learned humanist, exclusively devoted to belles-
lettres, and Rabelais, the bold innovator, who extends as far
as possible the limits of the intelligence^ and who causes the
entire encyclopaedia of human knowledge to enter the brain
of his pupil at the risk of splitting it open, Montaigne
occupies an intermediate place, with his circumspect and
conservative tendencies, with his discreet and moderate ped-
agogy, the enemy of all excesses. It seemed that Rabelais
would develop all the faculties equally, and place all
studies, letters, and sciences upon the same footing. Mon-
taigne demands a choice. Between the different faculties he
attempts particularly to train the judgment ; among the dif-
ferent knowledges, he recommends by preference those which
form sound and sensible minds. Rabelais overdrives mind
and body. He dreams of an extravagant course of instruc-
tion where every science shall be studied exhaustively.2

1 Book II. chap. vm.

2 This pansophic scheme of Rabelais has been revived in later times by
Bentham, in his Chrp.stomathia, and still later by Spencer, in his Educa-
tion. It seems to have been forgotten that the division of labor affects
education in much the same way as it affects all other departments of
human activity: that there is no more need of having as a personal posses-
sion all the knowledge we need for guidance, than for owning all the
agencies we need for locomotion or communication. (P.)

THE RENAISSANCE. 101

112. The Personal Education op Montaigne. — One
often becomes teacher through recollection of his personal
education. This is what happened to Montaigne. His ped-
agogy is at once an imitation of the methods which a father
full of solicitude had himself applied to him, and a protest
against the defects and the vices of the college of Guienne,
which he entered at the age of six years. The home
education of Montaigne affords the interesting spectacle of
a child who develops freely. My spirit, he himself says, was
trained with all gentleness and freedom, without severity or
constraint. His father, skilful in his tender care, had him
awakened each morning at the sound of musical instruments,
so as to spare him those brusque alarms that are bad pre-
parations for toil. In a word, he applied to him that tem-
pered discipline, at once indulgent and firm, equally removed
from complacency and harshness, which Montaigne has
christened with the name of severe mildness. Another char-
acteristic of Montaigne's education is, that he learned Latin
as one learns his native tongue. His father had surrounded
him with domestics and teachers who conversed with him
only in Latin. The result of this was, that at the age of six
he was so proficient in the language of Cicero, that the best

102 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

Latinists of the time feared to address him (craignissent &
Vaccoster) . On the other baud, he knew no more of French
than he did of Arabic.1 It is evident that Montaigne's father
had taken a false route, but at least Montaigne derived a just
conception from this experience, namely, that the methods
ordinarily pursued in the study of the dead languages are too
slow and too mechanical ; that an abuse is made of rules,
and that sufficient attention is not given to practice : " No
doubt but Greek and Latin are very great ornaments, and
of very great use, but we buy them too dear."2

At the college of Guienne, where he passed seven years,
Montaigne learned to detest corporal chastisements and the
hard discipline of the scholars of his da}' : " . . . Instead of
tempting and alluring children to letters by apt and gentle
ways, our pedants do in truth present nothing before them
but rods and ferules, horror and cruelty. Away with this
violence ! away with this compulsion ! than which, I certainly
believe, nothing more dulls and degenerates a well-descended
nature. . . . The strict government of most of our colleges
has evermore displeased me. . . . 'Tis the true house of
correction of imprisoned youth. . . . Do but come in when
they are about their lesson, and you shall hear nothing but
the outcries of boys under execution, with the thundering
noise of their Pedagogues, drunk with fury, to make up the
consort. A pretty way this ! to tempt these tender and
timorous souls to love their book, with a furious counte-
nance, and a rod in hand. A cursed and pernicious way of

1 " I was above six years of age before I understood either French or
Periyordian any more than Arabic, and without art, book, grammar, or
precept, whipping, or the experience of a tear, had by that time learned to
speak as pure Latin as my master himself." Essays, Book I. chap. xxv.
In this chapter I have several times quoted from Cotton's translation.
(London: 1711.) (P.)

2 Book L chap. xxv.

THE RENAISSANCE. 103

proceeding. . . . How much more decent would it be to see
their classes strewed with green leaves and fine flowers, than
with bloody stumps of birch and willows? Were it left to
my ordering, I should paint the school with the pictures of
Joy and Gladness, Flora and the Graces . . . that where
their profit is, they might have their pleasure too." 1

113. Importance of a General rather than a Special
Education. — If Montaigne, in different chapters of his
essays,2 has given passing attention to pedagogical questions,
it is not only through a recollection of his own years of ap-
prenticeship, but also because of his judgment as a philos-
opher, that " the greatest and most important task of human
understanding is in those matters which concern the nurture
and instruction of children. "

For him, education is the art of forming men, and not
specialists. This he explains in his original manner under
the form of an anecdote :

" Going to Orleans one day, I met in that plain this side
Clery, two pedants who were going towards Bordeaux,
about fifty paces distant from one another. Still further
back of them, I saw a troop of horse, and at their head a
gentleman who was the late Count de la Ilochefoucault. One
of my company inquired of the foremost of these dominies,
who that gentleman was who was following him. He had
not observed the train that was following after, and thought
that the question related to his companion ; and so he
replied pleasantly, 4 He is not a gentleman, but a grammarian,
and I am a logician.' Now, as we are here concerned in the
training, not of a grammarian, or of a logician, but of a

1 Book I. chap. xxv.

2 See particularly Chap. xxrv. of Book I., Of Pedantry ; Chap. xxv.
Book I., Of the Education of Children ; Chap. vni. Book II., Of the Affec-
tion of Fathers to their Children.

ISEsl

104 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

complete gentleman, we will let those who will abuse their
leisure ; but we have business of another nature."1

It is true that Montaigne says gentleman, aud not simply
man ; but in reality his thought is the same as that of Rous-
seau and of all those who require a general education of the
human soul.

114. The Purpose op Instruction. — From what has now
been said, it is easy to comprehend that, in the opinion of
Montaigne, letters and other studies are but the means or
instrument, and not the aim and end of instruction. The
author of the Essays does not yield to the literary craze,
which, in the sixteenth century, took certain scholars captive,
and made the ideal of education to consist of a knowledge of
the ancient languages. It is of little consequence to him
that a pupil has learned to write in Latin ; what he does
require, is that he become better and more prudent, and have
a sounder judgment. " If his soul be not put into better
rhythm, if the judgment be not better settled, I would rather
have him spend his time at tennis.9' 2

115. Education of the Judgment. — Montaigne has
expressed his dominant thought on education in a hundred
different ways. He is preoccupied with the training of the
judgment, and on this point we might quote whole pages :

"... According to the fashion in which we are instructed,
it is not singular that neither scholars nor masters become
more able, although they become more wise. In fact, our
parents devote their care and expense to furnishing our heads
with knowledge ; but to judgment and virtue no additions
are made. Say of a passer-by to people, 4 O what a learned
man ! ' and of another, ' O what a good man goes there ! '
and the}' will not fail to turn their eyes and attention towards

* Book I. chap. xxv. * Book I. chap, xxrv,

THE RENAISSANCE. 105

the former. There should be a third to cry, ' O the block-
heads ! ' Men are quick to inquire, 4 Does he know Greek
or Latin? Does he write in verse or in prose?' But
whether he has become better or more prudent, which is the
principal thing, this receives not the least notice ; whereas
we ought to inquire who is the better learned, rather than
who is the more learned ? "

"We labor only at filling the memory, and leave the under-
standing and the conscience void. Just as birds sometimes
go in quest of grain, and bring it in their bills without tasting
it themselves, to make of it mouthfuls for their young ; so
our pedants go rummaging in books for knowledge, only to
hold it at their tongues' end, and then distribute it to their
pupils." *

116. Studies Recommended. — The practical and utili-
tarian mind of Montaigne dictates to him his programme of
studies. With him it is not a question of plunging into the
depths of the sciences ; disinterested studies are not his
affair. If Rabelais proposed to develop the speculative
faculties, Montaigne, on the contrary, is preoccupied with
the practical faculties, and he makes ever}*thing subordinate
to morals. For example, he would have history learned, not
for the sake of knowing the facts, but of appreciating them.
It is not so necessary to imprint in the memory of the child
" the date of the fall of Carthage as the character of Hanni-
bal and Scipio, nor so much where Marcellus died as why it
was unworthy of his dut}* that he died there."2

And so in philosophy, it is not the general knowledge of
man and nature that Montaigne esteems and recommends ;
but only those parts that have a direct bearing on morals and
active life.

* Book I. chap. xxiv. * Book I. chap. xxv.

106 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

» fc It is a pity that matters should be at such a pass as they
are in our time, that philosophy, even with people of under-
standing, should be looked upon as a vain and fanciful name,
a thing of no use and no value, either for opinion or for
action. I think that it is the love of quibbling that has
caused things to take this turn. . . . Philosophy is that
which teaches us to live." l

117. Educational Methods. — An education purely
bookish is not to Montaigne's taste. He counts less upon
books th«n upon experience and mingling with men ; upon
the observation of things, and upon the natural suggestions
of the mind :

"For learning to judge well and speak well, whatever
presents itself to our eyes serves as a sufficient book. The
knavery of a page, the blunder of a servant, a table witti-
cism, — all such things are so many new things to think
about. And for this purpose conversation with men is
wonderfully helpful, and so is a visit to foreign lands . . .
to bring back the customs of those nations, and their man-
ners, and to whet and sharpen our wits by rubbing them upon
those of others."

"... The lesson will be given, sometimes by conversation,
sometimes by book. . . . Let the child examine every
man's talent, a peasant, a mason, a passer-by. Put into his
head an honest curiosity in everything. Let him observe
whatever is curious in his surroundings, — a fine house, a
delicate fountain, an eminent man, the scene of an ancient
battle, the routes of Cresar, or of Charlemagne. . . ." 1

Things should precede words. On this point Montaigne
anticipates Comenius, Rousseau, and all modern educators.

1 Book I. chap. xxv.

THE RENAI88ANCE. 107

" Let our pupil be provided with things ; words will
follow only too fast." l

" The world is given to babbling ; I hardly ever saw a man
who did not rather prate too much, than speak too little.
Yet the half of our life goes in that way ; we are kept four or
five years in learning words. . . ." *

" This is not saying that it is not a fine and good thing to
speak well ; but not so good as it is made out to be. I am
vexed that our life is so much occupied with all this."

118. How we should read. — Montaigne has keenly criti-
cised the abuse of books: " I would not have this boy of
ours imprisoned, and made a slave to his book. ... I would
not have his spirit cow'd and subdu'd by applying him to the
rack, and tormenting him, as some do, fourteen or fifteen
hours a day, and so make a pack-horse of him. Neither
should I think it good, when, by a solitary and melancholic
complexion, he is discovered to be much addicted to his
book, to nourish that humor in him, for that renders them
unfit for civil conversation, and diverts them from better
employments."8

But while he advises against excess in reading, he has
admirably defined the manner in which we ought to read.
Above all, he says, let us assimilate and appropriate what
we read. Let the work of the reader resemble that of bees,
that, on this side and on that, tap the flowers for their sweet

1 Has not this extravagant preference for things, as distinguished from
words, become a new superstition in educational theory ? Considering the
misuse made of words by Scholasticism, it was time for Montaigne to summon
the attention outwards to sensible realities; but it is more than doubtful
whether there is any valid ground for the absolute rule of modern pedagogy,
" first the idea, then the term.'' In actual experience, there is no invariable
sequence. The really important thing is, that terms be made significant. (P.)

3 Book I. chap. zxv.

'Book I. chap. xxv.

108 THE HI8TORY OF PEDAGOGY.

juices, and make them into honey, which is no longer thyme
nor marjoram. In other terms, we should read with reflec-
tion, and with a critical spirit, while mastering the thoughts
of the author by our personal judgment, without ever be-
coming slaves to them.

119. Montaigne's Errors. — Montaigne's greatest fault, it
must be confessed, is that he is somewhat heartless. Some-
what of an egoist and Epicurean, he celebrates only the
easy virtues that are attained " by shady routes through
green meadows and fragrant flowers." Has he himself ever
performed painful duties that demand effort? To love child-
ren, he waits till they are amiable ; while they are small, he
disdains them, and keeps them at a distance from him :

" I cannot entertain that passion of dandling and caressing
an infant, scarcely born, having as yet neither motion of
soul nor shape of body distinguishable, by which they can
render themselves amiable ; and have not suffered them to
be nursed near me. . . ." l "- Never take, and, still less,
never give, to the women of your household the care of the
feeding of your children ! "

Montaigne joined precept to example. He somewhere says
unfeelingly : " My children all died while at nurse." * He
goes so far as to say that a man of letters ought to prefer

1 Book II. chap. vni.

2 1 am not sure that this remark does not do Montaigne injustice, especi-
ally when we consider the connection in which the original remark is made:
"I am of opinion that what is not to be done by reason, prudence, and
address, is never to be effected by force. I myself was brought up after
that manner; and they tell me that, in all my first age, I never felt the rod
but twice, and then very easily. I have practised the same method with my
children, who all of them dy'd at nurse; but Leonora, my only daughter, is
arrived to the age of six years and upwards without other correction for
her childish faults than words only, and those very gentle/' Book H.
chap. vm. (P.)

THE RENAISSANCE. 109

his writings to his children : " The births of oar intelligence
are the children the most truly our own." *

120. Incompleteness of his Views on the Education
of Women. — Another mental defect in Montaigne is, that,
hv reason of his moderation and conservatism, he remains a
little narrow. High conceptions of human destiny are not
to be expected of him ; his manner of conceiving of it is
mean and commonplace. This lack of intellectual breadth
is especially manifest in his reflections on the education of
women. Montaigne is of that number, who, through false
gallantry, would keep woman in a state of ignorance on the
pretext that instruction would mar her natural charms.
In their case, he would prohibit even the study of rhetoric,
because, he says, that would " conceal her charms under
borrowed charm8.,, Women should be content with the
advantages which their sex assures to them. With the
knowledge which they naturally have, " they command
with the switch, and rule both the regents and the schools."
However, he afterwards thinks better of it ; but in his con-
cessions there is more of contempt than in his prohibitions :
u If, however, it displeases them to make us any concessions
whatever, and they are determined, through curiosity, to
know something of books, poetry is an amusement befitting
their needs ; for it is a wanton, crafty art, disguised, all for
pleasure, all for show, just as they are." *

The following passage may also be quoted : —
" When I see them tampering with rhetoric, law, logic,
and the like, so improper and unnecessary for their busi-
ness, I begin to suspect that the men who inspire them with
such things do it that they may govern them upon that
account.,,8

* Book m. chap. xm. s Book IIL chap. m.

• Book m. chap. m.

110 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

It is impossible to express a greater contempt for women.
Montaigne goes so far as to deny her positive qualities of
heart. He chances to say, with reference to Mile, dc
Gournay, his adopted daughter: "The perfection of the
most saintly affection has been attained when it does not
exhibit the least trace of sex."
f To conclude : notwithstanding some grave defects, the
\ pedagogy of Montaigne is a pedagogy of good sense, and
•' certain parts of it will always deserve to be admired. The
Jansenists, and Locke, and Rousseau, in different degrees,
draw their inspiration from Montaigne. In his own age, it
is true, his ideas were accepted by scarcely any one save his
disciple Charron, who, in his book of Wisdom,1 has done
scarcely more than to arrange in order the thoughts that are
scattered through the Essays. But if he had no influence
upon his own age, Montaigne has at least remained, after
three centuries, a sure guide in the matter of intellectual
education.

[121. Analytical Summary. — 1. The dominant charac-
teristic of education during the Renaissance period is the
reaction which it exhibits against certain errors in Middle
Age education.

2. A second characteristic is a disposition to conciliate or
harmonize principles and methods whose fault is exagger-
ation.

3. Against instruction based almost wholly on authority,
there is a reaction in favor of free inquiry.

4. Opposed to an education of the professional or technical
type, there is proposed an education of the general or liberal
type.

1 See particularly Chap. xrv. of Book III.

THE RENAISSANCE.

Ill

5. From being almost exclusively ethical and religious,
education tends to become secular.

6. Didactic, formal instruction out of books, dealing in
second-hand knowledge, is succeeded by informal, intuitive
instruction from natural objects, dealing in knowledge at first
hand.

7. The conception that education is a process of manu-
facture begins to give place to the conception that it is a
process of growth.

8. Teaching whose purpose was information is succeeded
by teaching whose purpose is formation, discipline, or
training.

9. A discipline that was harsh and cruel is succeeded by
a discipline comparatively mild and humane ; and manners
that were rude and coarse, are followed by a finer code of
civility.]

CHAPTER VI.

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. —

LUTHER AND COMENIUS.

origin of primary instruction; spirit of the protestant re-
form ; calvin, melancthon, zwingli j luther (148s-15m) ;.
appeal addressed to the magistrates and legislators
of germany ; double utility of instruction j nec ess itt of
a system of public instruction; criticism of the schools
of the period; organization of new schools; programme
of studies; progress in methods; the states general of
orleans (1660) ; ratich (1571-1635) ; comenius (1502-1671) ; his
character; baconian inspiration; life of comenius; his
principal works ; division of instruction into four grades;
elementary initiation into all the studies; the people's
school ; site of the school ; intuitions of sense ; simplifica-
tion of grammatical studies; pedagogical principles of
comenius; analytical summary.

122. Origin of Primary Instruction. — With La Salle
and the foundation of the Institute of the Brethren of the
Christian Schools, the historian of education recognizes the
Catholic origin of primary instruction ; in the decrees and
laws of the French Revolution, its lay and philosophical
origin; but it is to the Protestant Reformers, — to Luther
in the sixteenth century, and to Comenius in the seventeenth
— that must be ascribed the honor of having fir^ jQ^g&njged
schools for the people. In its origin, the primary school is
the child of Protestantism, and its cradle was the Reforma-
tion.

PROTESTANTISM AND PBIMAEY^INSTRUCTION. 113

123. Spirit of the Protestant Reform. — The develop-
ment of primary instruction was the logical consequence of
the fundamental principles of the Protestant Reform. As
Michel Br6al has said : " In making man responsible for his
own faith, and in placing the source of that faith in the Holy
Scriptures, the Reform contracted the obligation to put each
one in a condition to save himself by the reading and the
understanding of the Bible. . . . The necessity of explain-
ing the Catechism, and making comments on it, was for
teachers an obligation to learn how to expound a thought,
and to decompose it into its elements. The study of the
mother tongue and of singing, was associated with the reading
of the Bible (translated into German by Luther) and with
religious services." The Reform, then, contained, in germ,v
a complete revolution in education ; it enlisted the interests (

of religion in the service of instruction, and associated I rt
knowledge with faith. This is the reason that, for three /
centuries, the Protestant nations have led humanity in theJ
matter of primary instruction. ^

124. Calvin (1509-1564), Melancthon (1497-1560),
Zwingli (1484-1532). — However, all the Protestant Re-
formers were far from exhibiting the same zeal in behalf of
primary instruction. Calvin, absorbed in religious struggles ,
and polemics, was not occupied with the organization of I
schools till towards the close of his life, and even the college [
that he founded at Geneva, in 1559, was scarcely more than/
a school for the study of Latin. Melancthon, who has been/
called "the preceptor of Germany," worked more for high ^
schools than for schools for the people. He was above~all
else a professor of Belles-Lettres ; and it was with chagrin
that he saw his courses in the University of Wittenberg de-
serted by students when he lectured on the Olynthiacs of

114 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

Demosthenes. Before Calvin and Melancthon, the Swiss
reformer Zwingli had shown his great interest in primary
teaching, in his little book " upon the manner of instructing
and bringing up boys in a Christian way" (1524). In this
he recommended natural history, arithmetic, and also exer-
cises in fencing, in order to furnish the country with timely
defenders.

125. Lutoer (1483-1546). The German reformer Luther
A is, of all his co-religionists, the one who has served the cause
cof elementary instruction with the most ardor. He not only

addressed a pressing appeal to the ruling classes in behalf of
founding schools for the people, but, by his influence, meth-
ods of instruction were improved, and the educational spirit
was renewed in accordance with the principles of Protestant-
ism. u Spontaneity," it has been said, not without some
exaggeration, " free thought, and free inquiry, are the basis
of Protestantism ; where it has reigned, there have disap-
peared the method of repeating and of learning by heart
without reflection, mechanism, subjection to authority, the
paralysis of the intelligence oppressed by dogmatic instruc-
tion, and science put in tutelage by the beliefs of the
Church." l

126. Appeal addressed to tiie Magistrates and Legis-
lators of Germany. — In 1524, Luther, in a special docu-
ment addressed to the public authorities of Germany, forcibly
expressed himself against the neglect into which the interests
of instruction had fallen. This appeal has this characteristic,
that the great reformer, while assuming that the Church is
the mother of the school, seems especially to count on the
secular arm, upon the power of the people, to serve his pur-

1 Dittes, op. cit. p. 127.

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 115

poses in the cause of universal instruction. " Each city,"
he said, "is subjected to great expense every year for the
construction of roads, for fortifying its ramparts, and for
buying arms and equipping soldiers. Why should it not
spend an equal sum for the support of one or two school-
masters? The prosperity of a city does not depend solely
on its natural riches, on the solidity of its walls, on the ele-
gance of its mansions, and on the abundance of arms in its
arsenals ; but the safety and strength of a city reside above
all in a good education, which furnishes it with instructed,
reasonable, honorable, and well-trained citizens." 1

127. Double Utility of Instruction. — A remarkable
fact about Luther is, that as a preacher of instruction, he does
not speak merely from the religious point of view. After
having recommended schools as institutions auxiliary to the
Church, he makes a resolute argument from the human point
of view. " Were there neither soul, heaven, nor hell," he
says, "it would still be necessary to have schools for the sake i
of affairs here below, as the history of the Greeks and the
Romans plainly teaches,. The world has need of educated
men and women, to the end that the men may govern the
country properly, and that the women may properly bring up
their children, care for their domestics, and direct the affairs
of their households."

128. Necessity of Public Instruction. — The. objection
will perhaps be made, says Luther, that for the education of

1 Lather's argument for compulsion should not be omitted: "It is my
opinion that the authorities are bound to force their subjects to send their
children to school. ... If they can oblige their able-bodied subjects to
carry the lance and the arquebuse, to mount the ramparts, and to do com-
plete military service, for a much better reason may they, and ought they,
to force their subjects to send their children to school, for here it is the
question of a much more terrible war with the devil." (P.)

116 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

children the home is sufficient, and that the school is useless.
" To this I reply : We clearly see how the boys and girls are
educated who remain at home." He then shows that they
are ignorant and " stupid," incapable of taking part in conver-
sation, of giving good advice, and without any experience of
life ; while, if they had been educated in the schools, by
teachers who could give instruction in the languages, in the
arts, and in history, they might in a little time gather up
within themselves, as in a mirror, the experience of what-
ever has happened since the beginning of the world; and
from this experience, he adds, they would derive the wisdom
they need for self -direction and for giving wise counsel to
others.

129. Criticism op the Schools op the Period. — But
since there must be public schools, can we not be content
with those which already exist ? Luther replies by proving
that parents neglect to send their children to them, and by
denouncing the uselessness of the results obtained by those
who attend them. " We find people," he says, " who serve
God in strange ways. They fast and wear coarse clothing,
but they pass blindly by the true divine service of the home,
— they do not know how to bring up their children. . . .
Believe me, it is much more necessary to give attention to
your children and to provide for their education than to pur-
chase indigencies, to visit foreign churches, or to make sol-
emn vows. . . . All people, especially the Jews, oblige their
children to go to school more than Christians do. This is
why the state of Christianity is so low, for all its force and
power are in the rising generation ; and if these are neg-
lected, there will be Christian churches like a garden that has
been neglected in the spring-time. . . . Every day children
are born and are growing up, and, unfortunately, no one
cares for the poor young people, no one thinks to train them ;

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 117

they are allowed to go as they will. Was it not lamentable
to see a lad study in twenty years and more only just enough
bad Latin to enable him to become a priest, and to go to
mass? And he who attained to this was counted a very
happy being! Right happy the mother who bore such a
child ! And he has remained all his life a poor unlettered
man. Everywhere we have seen such teachers and masters,
who knew nothing themselves and could teach nothing that
was good and useful ; they did not even know how to learn
and to teach. Has anything else been learned up to this
time in the high schools and in the convents except to
become asses and blockheads? ..."

130. Organization op the New Schools. — So Luther
resolves on the organization of new schools. The cost of j
their maintenance he makes a charge on the public treasury ,
he demonstrates to parents the moral obligation to have their
children instructed in them ; to the duty of conscience he
adds ciyilobligation ; and, finally, he gives his thought to
the means of recruiting the teaching service. '* Since the
greatest evil in every place is the lack of teachers, we must
not wait till they come forward of themselves ; we must take
the trouble to educate them and prepare them." To this end
Luther keeps the best of the pupils, boys and girls, for a
longer time in school; gives them special instructors, and
opens libraries for their use. In his thought he never dis-
tinguishes women teachers from men teachers ; he wants
schools for girls as well as for boys. Only, not to burden
parents and divert children from their daily labor, he re-
quires but little time for school duties. " You ask : Is it
possible to get along without our children, and bring them up
like gentlemen? Is it not necessary that they work at
home ? I reply : I by no means approve of those schools
where a child was accustomed to pass twenty or thirty yean

118 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

in studying Donatus or Alexander1 without learning any-
thing. Another world has dawned, in which things go
differently. My opinion is that we must send the boys to
school one or two hours a day, and have them learn a trade
at home for the rest of the time. It is desirable that these
two occupations march side by side. As it now is, children
certainly spend twice as much time in playing ball, running
the streets, and playing truant. And so the girls can
equally well devote nearly the same time to school, without
neglecting their home duties ; they lose more time than this
in over-sleeping and in dancing more than is meet."

131. Programme op Studies. — Luther gives the first
place to the teaching of religion : " Is it not reasonable that
every Christian should know the Gospel at the age of nine
or ten ? "

Then come the languages, not, as might be hoped, the
mother tongue, but the learned language Latin,,. Greek, and
Hebrew. Luther had not yet been sufficiently rid of the old
spirit to comprehend that the language of the people ought
to be the basis of universal instruction. He left to Comenius
LS the glory of making the final separation of the primary
school from the Latin school. But yet, Luther gave excel-
lent advice for the study of languages, which must be
learned, he said, less in the abstract rules of grammar than
in their concrete reality.

Luther recommends the mathematics, and also the study
of nature ; but he has a partiality for history and historians,

1 Names for treatises on grammar and philosophy respectively. Donatus
was a celebrated grammarian and rhetorician who taught at Rome in the
middle of the fourth century a.d.; and Alexander, a celebrated Greek com-
mentator on the writings of Aristotle, who taught the Peripatetic philoso-
phy at Athens in the end of the second and the beginning of the third cen-
turies a.d. (P.)

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 119

who are, he says, "the best people and the best teachers,"
on the condition that they do not tamper with the truth, and
that " they do not make obscure the work of God."

Of the liberal arts of the Middle Age, Luther does not
make much account. He rightly says of dialectics, that it is
no equivalent for real knowledge, and that it is simply " an
instrument by which we render to ourselves an account of
what we know."

Physical exercises are not forgotten in Luther's peda-
gogical regulations. But he attaches an especial importance
to singing. "Unless a schoolmaster know how to sing, I
think him of no account." " Music," he says again, " is a
half discipline which makes men more indulgent and more
mild."

132. Progress in Methods. — At the same time that he
extends the programme of studies, Luther introduces a new
spirit into methods. He wishes more liberty. and more joy
in the school.

" Solomon," he says, " is a truly royal schoolmaster. He
does not, like the monks, forbid the young to go into the
world and be happy. Even as Anselm said : ' A young man
turned aside from the world is like a young tree made to
grow in a vase.' The monks have imprisoned young men
like birds in their cage. It is dangerous to isolate the young.
It is necessary, on the contrary, to allow young people to
hear, see, and learn all sorts of things, while all the time
observing the restraints and the rules of honor. Enjoyment
and recreation are as necessary for children as food and
drink. The schools till now were veritable prisons and hells,
and the schoolmaster a tyrant. ... A child intimidated by
bad treatment is irresolute in all he does. He who has trem-
bled before his parents will tremble all his life at the sound
of a leaf which rustles in the wind."

120 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

These quotations will suffice to make appreciated the large
and liberal spirit of Luther, and the range of his thought as
an educator. No one has more extolled the office of the
teacher, of which he said, when comparing it to preaching,
it is the work of all others the noblest, the most useful, and
the best; " and yet," he added, " I do not know which of
these two professions is the better."

Do not let ourselves imagine, however, that Luther at once
exercised a decisive influence on the current education of his
day. A few schools were founded, called writing schools ;
but the Thirty Years' War, and other events, interrupted the
movement of which Luther has the honor of having been the
originator.

133. The States General of Orleans (1560). — While
in Germany, under the impulse of Luther, primary schools
began to be established, France remained in the background.
Let us note, however, the desires expressed by the States
General of Orleans, in 1560 : —

" May it please the king," it was said in the memorial of
the nobility, " to levy a contribution upon the church reve-
nues for the reasonable support of teachers and men of
learning in every city and village, for the instruction of
the needy youth of the country ; and let all parents be
required, under penalty of a fine, to send their children
to school, and let them be constrained to observe this law by
the lords and the ordinary magistrates."

It was demanded, in addition, that public lectures be
given on the Sacred Scriptures in intelligible language, that is,
in the mother tongue. But these demands, so earnest and
democratic, of the Protestant nobility of sixteenth century
France, were not regarded. With the fall of Protestantism,
the cause of primary instruction in France was doomed to a
long eclipse. The nobles of the seventeenth and eighteenth

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 121

centuries did not think of petitioning again for the education
of the people, and Diderot couid truthfully say of them:
fct The nobility complain of the farm laborers who know how
to read. Perhaps the chief grievance of the nobility reduces
itself to this : that a peasant who knows how to read is more
difficult to oppress than another."

134. Ratich (1571-1635).— In the first half of the
seventeenth century, Ratich, a German, and Comenius, a
Slave, were, with very different degrees of merit, the heirs
of the educational thought of Luther.

With something of the charlatan and the demagogue,
Ratich devoted his life to propagating a novel art of teaching,
which he called didactics, and to which he attributed marvels.
He pretended, by his method of languages, to teach Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin, in six months. But nevertheless, out of
many strange performances and lofty promises, there issue
some thoughts of practical value. The first merit of Ratich
was to give the mother tongue, the German language, the
precedence over theancient languages. An English educa-
tional writer, Mr. R. H. Quick, in his JSssays on Educational
Reformers (1874), has thus summed up the essential princi-
ples of the pedagogy of Ratich : 1 . Everything should be
taught in its own time and order, and according to the natural
method, in passing from the more easy to the more difficult.
2. Only one thing should be learned at a time. " We do not
cook at the same time in one pot, soup, meat, fish, milk, and
vegetables." 3. The same thing should be repeated several
times. 4. By means of these frequent repetitions, the pupil
will have nothing to learn by heart. 5. All school-books
should be written on the same plan. 6. The thing as a whole
should be made known before the thing in its details, and
the sequence should be from the general to the special. !
7. In every case we should proceed by induction and experi- /

122 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

writ, Ratten especially means by this that we most make
an end of mere aathoritv. and of the testimony of the
ari/rierit*, and must appeal to individual reason. 8. Finally,
everything should lie learned without coercion. Coercion and
the rod are contrary to nature, and disgust the young with
study, The human understanding learns with pleasure all
that it ought to retain. It does not seem that Ratich knew
how to draw from these principles, which, by the way, are
not trill; save under certain corrections, all the happ}* results
that are contained in them. He left to Comenius the glory
of applying the new spirit to actual practice.

\'\!>. Comknius (1.VJ2-1671). — For a long time unknown
un<l unappreciated, Comenius has finally received from our
contemporaries the admiration that is due him. Michelet
HpcakH of him with enthusiasm as " that rare genius, that
gentle, fertile, universal scholar";1 and he calls him the
first evangelist of modern pedagogy, Pestalozzi being the
Hccntid. It iH easy to justify this appreciation. Thechar-
aeter of Comenius equals his intelligence. Through a thou-
MimtlolmlaeleH he devoted his long life to the work of popular
hint met ion. With n generous ardor he consecrated himself
to infancy. He wrote twenty works and taught in twenty
clllcK. Moreover, he was the first to form a definite concep-
tion of what, the elementary studies should be. He deter-
mined, nearly three hundred years ago, with an exactness
that leaves nothing to be desired, the division of the dif-
ferent grades of instruction. He exactly defined some of
the essential laws of the art of teaching. He applied to
pedagogy, with remarkable insight, the principles of modern
logic. Finally, as Michelet has said, he was the Galileo, we
would rather sav, the llacon. of modern education.

1 Michoiot, X\>9jih, p, 175 ct seq.

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 123

136. Baconian Inspiration. — The special aims of peda- •
gogy are essentially related to the general aims of science. C
All progress in science has its corresponding effects on edu- /
cation. When an innovator has modified the laws for the/
discovery of truth, other innovators appear, who modify, in)
their turn, the rules for instruction. To a new logic almost/
necessarily corresponds a new pedagogy.

Now Bacon, at the opening of the seventeenth century,
had opened unknown routes to scientific investigation. For
the abstract processes of thought, for the barren comparison
of propositions and words, in which the whole art of the
syllogism consisted, the author of the Novum Organum had
substituted the concrete study of reality, the living and
fruitful observation of nature. The mechanism of deduc-
tive reasoning was replaced by the slow and patient inter-
pretation of facts. It no longer answered to analyze with
docile spirit principles that were assumed, right or wrong, as
absolute truths ; nor to become expert in handling the syllo-
gism, which, like a mill running dry, often produced but
little flour. It was now necessary to open the eyes to the
contemplation of the universe, and by sense intuition, by
observation, by experiment, and by induction, to penetrate
its secrets, and determine its laws. It was necessary to
ascend, step by step, from the knowledge of the simplest
things to the discovery of the most general laws ; and,
finallv, to demand of nature herself to reveal all that the
human intelligence, in its solitary meditations, is powerless
to discover.

Looking at this subject more closely, this revolution in
science, so important from the point of view of speculative
inquiry, and destined to change the aspect of the sciences,
also contained in itself a revolution in education. For this
purpose, all that was needed was to apply to the develop-

124 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ment of the intelligence and to the communication of knowl-
edge the rules proposed by Bacon for the investigation of
truth. The laws of scientific induction might become the
laws for the education of the soul. No more setting out
with abstract principles, imposed by authority* ; but facts
Intuitively apprehended, gathered by observation and veri-
fied byexpeximlHvFrThir^ ;
a cautious progression from the simplest and most elemen-
tary ideas to the most difficult and most complex truths;
the knowledge of things instead of an analysis of words, —
such was to be the character of the new system of instruc-
tion. In other terms, it was possible to make the child fol-
low, in order to lead him to know and to comprehend the
capitalized truths that constitute the basis of elementary
instruction, the same method that Bacon recommended to
scholars for the discovery of unknown truths.1
,' It is this conversion, or, as we might say, this translation,
i of the maxims of the Baconian logic into pedagogical rules,
that Coingnius attempted, and this is why he has been called
" the father of the intuitive method." He was nourished,
intellectually, by the reading of Bacon, whom he resembles,
not only in his ideas, but also in his figurative and often
allegorical language. Even the title of one of his books,
Didactica Magna, recalls the title of Bacon's Instauratio
Magna.

1 This is, perhaps, the earliest appearance of the conception that learn-
ing should be a process of discovery or of re-discovery. Condillac (1715-
1780) has elaborated this idea in the introduction to his Grammairc, and
Spencer (Education, p. 122) makes it a fundamental law of teaching. If
this assumed principle were to be rigorously applied, as, fortunately, it
cannot be, progress in human knowledge would be impossible. Mr. Bain's
comment on this doctrine (Education as a Science, p. 94) is as follows:
" This bold fiction is sometimes put forward as one of the regular arts of
the teacher ; but I should prefer to consider it as an extraordinary device,
admissible only on special occasions." (P.)

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 125

137. The Life of Comenius. — To know Comenius and
the part he played in the seventeenth century, to appreciate
this grand educational character, it would be necessary to
begin by relating his life ; his misfortunes ; his journeys to
England, where Parliament invoked his aid; to Sweden,
where the Chancellor Oxenstiern employed him to write
manuals of instruction ; especially his relentless industry, his
courage through exile, and the long persecutions he suffered
as a member of the sect of dissenters, the Moravian Breth-
ren ; and the schools he founded at Fulneck, in Bohemia, at
Lissa and at Patak, in Poland. But it would require too
much of our space to follow in its incidents and catastro-
phes that troubled life, which, in its sudden trials, as in the
firmness that supported them, recalls the life of Pestalozzi.1

138. His Principal Works. — Comenius wrote a large
number of books in Latin, in German, and in Czech; but
of these only a few are worthy to engage the attention of
the educator. In his other works he allows himself to go off
on philosophic excursions, and to indulge in mystic reveries,
led by his ardor to find what he called pansophia^ wisdom or
universal knowledge. In this wilderness of publications
destined to oblivion, we shall notice only three works, which

1 It may not be generally known that Comenius was once solicited to
become the President of Harvard College. The following is a quotation
from Vol. II., p. 14, of Cotton Mather's Mar/nalia : " That brave old man,
Johannes Amos Com me ni us, the fame of whose worth hath been trumpetted
as far as more than three languages (whereof every one is indebted unto
his Janua) could carry it, was indeed agreed withal, by our Mr. Winthrop
in bis travels through the low countries, to come over into New England,
and illuminate this Colledge and country, in the quality of a President,
which was now become vacant. But the solicitations of the Swedish Am-
bassador diverting him another way, that incomparable Moravian became
not an American." This was on the resignation of President Dunster, in
165*. (P.)

126 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

contain the general principles of the pedagogy of Comenius,
and the applications which he has made of his method : —

1. The Didactica Magna, the Great Didactics (written in
Czech at about 1630, and rewritten in Latin at about
1640). In this work Comenius sets forth his principles,
his general theories on education, and also his peculiar
views on the practical organization of schools. It is to be
regretted that a French translation has not yet popularized
this important book, that would be worthy a place beside the
Thoughts of Locke and the Emile of Rousseau.1

2. The Janua linguarum reserata, the Gate of Tongues
Unlocked (1631). In the thought of the author, this was
a new method of learning the languages. Comenius, led
astray on this point by his religious prejudices, wished to
banish the Latin authors from the schools, " for the pur-
pose," he said, u of reforming studies in the true spirit of
ChristiaIlity.,, Consequently, in order to replace the clas-
sical authors, which he repudiated for this further reason,
that the reading of them is too difficult, and to make a child
study them "is to wish to push out into the vast ocean a
tiny bark that should be allowed only to sport on a little
lake," he had formed the idea of composing a collection of
phrases distributed into a hundred chapters. These phrases,
to the number of a thousand, at first very simple, and of a
single member, then longer and more complicated, were
formed of two thousand words, chosen from among the most
common and the most useful. Moreover, the hundred chapters
of the Janua taught the child, in succession and in a methodi-
cal order, all the things in the universe, — the elements, the
metals, the stars, the animals, the organs of the body, the arts

1 The moat complete account ever written of Comenius and his writings
is, "John Amos Comenius," by S. S. Laurie (Boston: 1885). It is an in-
valuable contribution to the philosophy and the history of education. (P.)

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PROTESTANTISM AND PBIMAKY INSTRUCTION. 127

and trades, etc., etc. In other terms, the Janua linguarum
is a nomenclature of ideas and words designed to fix the atten-
tion of the child upon everything he ought to know of the
world. Divested of the Latin text that accompanies it, the
Janua is a first reading-book, very defective doubtless, but
it gives proof cf a determined effort to adapt to the intelli-
gence of the child the knowledge that he ought to acquire.

3. The Orbis sensualium pictus, the Illustrated World of
Sensible Objects, the most popular of the author's works
(1058). It is the Janua linguarum accompanied with pic-
tures, in lieu of real objects, representing to the child the
things that he hears spoken of, as fast as he learns their
names. The Orbis pictus, the first practical application of
the intuitive method, had an extraordinary success, and has
served as a model for the innumerable illustrated books
which for three centuries have invaded the schools.

139. The Four Grades op Instruction. — We must not
require a man of the seventeenth century to abjure Latin
studies. Comenius prizes them highly ; but at least he is
wise enough to put them in their place, and does not con-
found them, as Luther did, with elementary studies.

Nothing could be more exact, more clearly cut, than the
scholastic organization proposed by Comenius. We shall
find in it what the experience of three centuries has finally
sanctioned and established, the distribution of schools into
these grades, — infant schools, primary schools, secondary
schools, and higher schools.

The first grade of instruction is the maternal school, the
school by the mother's knee, materni gremii, as Comenius
calls it. The mother is the first teacher. Up to the age of
six the child is taught by her; he is initiated by her into
those branches of knowledge that he will pursue in the pri-
mary school.

128 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY,

The second grade is the elementary public scliool. All the
children, girls and boys, enter here at six, and leave at
twelve. The characteristic of this school is that the instruc-
tion there given is in the mother tongue, and this is why
Comenius calls it the "common" school, vemacula, a term
given by the Romans to the language of the people.

The third grade is represented by the Latin school or gym-
nasium. Thither are sent the children from twelve to
eighteen years of age for whom has been reserved a more
complete instruction, such as we would now call secondary
instruction.

Finally, to the fourth grade correspond the academies, that
is, institutions of higher instruction, opened to young men
from eighteen to twenty-four years of age.

The child, if he is able, will traverse these four grades in
succession; but, in the thought of Comenius, the studies
should be so arranged in the elementary schools, that in
leaving them, the pupil shall have a general education which
makes it unnecessary for him to go farther, if his condition
in life does not destine him to pursue the courses of the Latin
School.

44 We pursue," says Comenius, <4 a general education, the
teaching to all men of all the subjects of human concern.
. . . The purpose of the people's school shall be that all
children of both sexes, from the tenth to the twelfth or the,
thirteenth year, may be instructed in that knowledge which
is useful during the whole of life."

This was an admirable definition of the purpose of the
primary school. A thing not less remarkable is that Come-
nius establishes an elementary school in each village : —
'< ! 44 There should be a maternal school in each family ; an
elementary school in each district; a gymnasium in each
city ; an academy in each kingdom, or even in each consid-
erable province."

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 129

140. Elementary Initiation into All the Studies. —
One of the most novel and most original ideas of the great
Slavic educator is the wish that, from the earliest years of
his life, the child may acquire some elementary notions of all
the sciences that he is to study at a later period. From the
cradle, the gaze of the infant, guided by the mother, should
be directed to all the objects that surround him, so that his
growing powers of reflection will be brought into play in
working on these sense intuitions. "Thus, from the mo-
ment he begins to speak, the child comes to know himself, and,
by his daily experience, certain general and abstract expres-
sions ; he comes to comprehend the meaning of the words
something, nothing, thus, otherwise, where, similar, different;
and what are generalizations and the categories expressed by
these words but the rudiments of metaphysics ? In the do-
main of physics, the infant can learn to know water, earth,
air, fire, rain, snow, etc., as well as the names and uses of the
parts of his body, or at least of the external members and
organs. He will take his first lesson in optics in learning to
distinguish light, darkness, and the different colors; and in
astronomy, in noticing the sun, the moon, and the stars, and
in observing that these heavenly bodies rise and set ever}*
day. In geography, according to the place where he lives,
he will be shown a mountain, a valley, a plain, a river, a
village, a hamlet, a city, etc. In chronology, he will be
taught what an hour is, a day, a week, a year, summer, win-
ter, yesterday, the day before yesterday, to-morrow, the day
after to-morrow, etc. History, such as his age will allow him
to conceive, will consist in recalling what has recently passed,
in taking account of it, and in noting the part that this one or
that has taken in such or such an affair. Arithmetic, geom-
etry, statistics, mechanics, will not remain strangers to him.
He will acquire the elements of these sciences in distinguishing

130 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the difference between little and much, in learning to count up
to ten, in observing that three is more than two ; that one
added to three makes four; in learning the sense of the
words great and small, long and short, wide and narrow ^
heavy and ligfU; in drawing lines, curves, circles, etc. ; in
seeing goods measured with a yard-stick ; in weighing an
object in a balance ; in trying to make something or to take it
to pieces, as all children love to do.

4k In this impulse to construct and destroy, there is but the
effort of the little intelligence to succeed in making or build-
ing something for himself; so that, instead of opposing the
child in this, he should be encouraged and guided."

" The grammar of the first period will consist in learning
to pronounce the mother tongue correctly. The child may
receive elementary notions even of politics, in observing
that certain persons assemble at the city hall, and that they
are called councillors ; and that among these persons there
is one called mayor, etc. " 1

141. The People's School. — Divided into six classes,
the people's school should prepare the child either for active
life or for the higher courses. Comenius sends here not
only the sons of peasants and workmen, but the sons of the
middle class or of the nobility, who will afterwards enter
the Latin school. In other terms , the studv of Latin is
postponed till the age of twelve ; and up to that period all
children must receive a thorough primary education, which
will comprise, with the mother tongue, arithmetic, geometry,
Binging, the salient facts of history, the elements of the nat-
ural sciences, and religion. The latest reforms in secondary
instruction, which, only within a very late period, have post-

1 Buisson's Dictionnaire de Ptdagogie, Article Comenius.

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 181

poned the study of Latin till the sixth year,1 and which till
then keep the pupil upon the subjects of primary instruction,
— what are they but the distant echo of the thought of Come-
nius ? Let it be noted, too, that the plan of Comenius gave
to its primary school a complete encyclopaedic course of
instruction, which was sufficient for its own ends, but which,
while remaining elementary, was a whole, and not a begin-
ning.2

Surely, the programme of studies devised by Comenius
did not fail in point of insufficiency ; we may be allowed, on
the contrary, to pronounce it too extended, too crowded,
conformed rather to the generous dreams of an innovator than
to a prudent appreciation of what is practically possible ;
and we need not be astonished that, to lighten in part the
heavy burden that is imposed on the teacher, Comenius had
the notion of dividing the school into sections which assist-
ants, chosen from among the best pupils, should instruct
under the supervision of the master.

142. Site of the School. — One is not a complete
educator save on the condition of providing for the exterior
and material organization of the school, as well as for its
moral administration. In this respect, Comenius is still
deserving of our encomiums. He requires a yard for recre-

1 In the French Lycees and Colleges the grades are named as follows, be-
ginning with the lowest: "ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third,
second, rhetoric, philosophy, preparatory mathematics, elementary mathe-
matics, special mathematics." Latin was formerly begun in an earlier
grade.

2 The public school of the European type may be represented by a series
of (3) pyramids, the second higher than the first, and the third higher than
the second, each independent and complete in itself; while the public school
of the American type is represented by a single pyramid in three sections.
While in an English, French, or German town, public education is admin-
istered in three separate establishments, in an American town there is a
single graded school that fulfills the same functions. (P.)

132 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ation, and demands that the school-house have a gay and
cheerful aspect. The question had been discussed before
him by Vives (1492-1540).

44 There should be chosen," says the Spanish educator,
4 4 a healthful situation, so that the pupils may not one day
have to take their flight, dispersed by the fear of an epi-
demic. Firm health is necessary to those who would heartily
and profitably apply themselves to the study of the sciences.
And the place selected should be isolated from the crowd,
and especially at a distance from occupations that are
noisy, such as those of smiths, stone-masons, machinists,
wheelwrights, and weavers. However, I would not have the
situation too cheerful and attractive, lest it might suggest to
the scholars the taking of too frequent walks."

But these considerations that do honor to Vives and to
Comenius, were scarcely in harmony with the resources then
at the disposal of the friends of instruction. There was
scarcely occasion seriously to consider how school-houses
should be constructed and situated, at a period when the
most often there were no school-houses existing. 44 In win-
ter," says Platter, 44we slept in the school-room, and in
summer in the open air." *

143. Sense Intuitions. — If Comenius has traced with a
master hand the general organization of the primary school,
he has no less merit in the matter of methods.

When they recommend the observation of sensible things
as the first intellectual exercise, modern educators do but
repeat what Comenius said three centuries ago.

44 In the place of dead books, why should we not open the
living book of nature ? . . . To instruct the young is not to
beat into them by repetition a mass of words, phrases, sen-

1 Platter, a Swiss teacher of the sixteenth century (1499-1582).

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 133

fences, and opinions gathered ont of authors ; but it is to
open their understanding through things. . . .

44 The foundation of all knowledge consists in correctly rep-
resenting sensible objects to our senses, so that they can be
comprehended with facility. I hold that this is the basis of all
our other activities, since we could neither act nor speak wisely
unless we adequately comprehended what we were to do and
say. Now it is certain that there is nothing in the under-
standing that was not first in the senses, and, consequently,
it is to lay the foundation of all wisdom, of all eloquence,
and of all good and prudent conduct, carefully to train the
senses to note with accuracy the differences between natural
objects ; and as this point, important as it is, is ordinarily
neglected in the schools of to-day, and as objects are pro-
posed to scholars that they do not understand because they
have not been properly represented to their senses or to their
imagination, it is for this reason, on the one hand, that the
toil of teaching, and on the other, that the pain of learning,
have become so burdensome and so unfruitful. . . .

44 We must offer to the young, not the shadows of things, '
but the things themselves, which impress the senses and
the imagination. Instruction should commence with a real
observation of things, and not with a verbal description of /
them."

We see that Comenius accepts the doctrine of Bacon,
even to his absolute sensationalism. In his pre-occupation
with the importance of instruction through the senses, he
goes so far as to ignore that other source of knowledge and
intuitions, the inner consciousness.

144. Simplification op Grammatical Study. — The first
result of the experimental method applied to instruction, is
to simplify grammar and to relieve it from the abuse of ab-

184 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

stract rules. " Children," says Comenius, u need examples
and things which they can see, and not abstract rules. ' '

And in the Preface of the Janua lingvarum, he dwells
upon the faults of the old method employed for the study
of languages.

u It is a thing self-evident, that the true and proper way of
teaching languages has not been recognized in the schools
up to the present time. The most of those who devoted
themselves to the study of letters grew old in the study of
words, and upwards of ten years was spent in the study of
Latin alone ; indeed, they even spent their whole life in the
study, with a very slow and very trifling profit, which did not
pay for the trouble devoted to it."1 It is by use and by read-
ing that Comenius would abolish the abuse of rules. Rules
ought to intervene onty to aid use and give it surety. The
pupil will thus learn language, either in speaking, or in read-
ing a book like the Orbis Pictus, in which he will find at the
same time all the words of which the language itself is com-
posed, and examples of all the constructions of its syntax,

145. Necessity of Drill and Practice. — Another
essential point in the new method, is the importance at-
tributed by Comenius to practical exercises : "Artisans," he
said, " understand this matter perfectly well. Not one of
them will give an apprentice a theoretical course on his trade.
He is allowed to notice what is done b}* his master, and then
the tool is put in his hands : it is in smiting that one becomes
a smith." *

1 For this quotation, as for all those which we borrow from the preface
of the Janua Ufiyuarum, a French edition of which (in three languages:
Latin, German, and French) appeared in 1643, we copy from the authentic
text.

3 There is a misleading fallacy in all such illustrations. What analogy is
there between the learning of history or geology and the learning of a trade

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 135

It is do longer the thing to repeat mechanically a lesson
learned by heart. There must be a gradual habituation to
action, to productive work, to personal effort.

146. General Bearing op the Work op Comentus. —
How many other new and judicious ideas we shall have to
gather from Comenius ! The methods which we would be
tempted to consider as wholly recent, his imagination had
already suggested to him. For example, preceding the Orbis
Pictus, we find an alphabet, where to each letter corresponds
the cry of an animal, or else a sound familiar to the child.
Is not this already the very essence of the phononimic pro-
cesses l brought into fashion in these last years ? But what
is of more consequence with Comenius than a few happy dis-
coveries in practical pedagogy, is the general inspiration of
his work. He gives to education a psychological basis in
demanding that the faculties shall be developed in their natu-
ral order : first, the senses, the memory, the imagination, and
lastly the judgment and the reason. lie is mindful of physi-
cal exercises, of technical and practical instruction, without
forgetting that in the primary schools, which he calls the
" studios of humanity," there must be trained, not only strong
and skilful artisans, but virtuous and religious men, imbued
with the principles of order and justice. If he has stepped
from theology to pedagogy, and if he permits himself some-
times to be borne along by his artless bursts of mysticism, at
least he does not forget the necessities of the real condition,

like carpentry ? Should a physician and a blacksmith be educated on the
same plan? In every case knowledge should precede practice; and the
liberal arts are best learned by first learning their correlative sciences. (P.)
1 " A process of instruction which consists in placing beside the elements
of human speech thirty-three onomatopoetic gestures, which recall to the
sight the same ideas that the sounds and the articulations of the voice recall
to the ear.' ' — Gbosselln. (P.)

186 THE BTSTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

and of the present life of men. " The child," he says, " shall
learn only what is to he useful to him in this life or in the
other." Finally, he does not allow himself to be absorbed in
the minute details of school management. He has higher
views, — he is working for the regeneration of humanity.
Like Leibnitz, he would freely say: "Give me for a few
years the direction of education, and I agree to transform the
world ! "

[147. Analytical Summary. — 1. Decisive changes in
human opinion, political, religious, or scientific, involve cor-
responding changes in the purposes and methods of educa-
tion.

2. The Reformation was a breaking with authority in mat-
ters of religion, as the Baconian philosophy was a breaking
with authority in matters of science ; and their joint effect ou
education was to subject matters of opinion, belief, and
knowledge to the individual reason, experience, and observa-
tion.

3. In holding each human being responsible for his own
S salvation, the Reformation made it necessary for every one

to read, and the logical consequence of this was to make
instruction universal ; and as schools were multiplied, the
number of teachers must be increased, and their grade of
competence raised.

4. The conception that ignorance is an evil /and a constant
menace to spiritual and temporal safety, led to the idea of
compulsory school-attendance.

5. In the recoil from the intuitions of the intellect sanc-
tioned by Socrates, to the intuitions of the senses sanctioned
by Bacon, education passed from an extreme dependence on
reflection and reason, to an extreme dependence on sense and
observation ; so that inference has been thrown into dis-

PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 137

credit, and the verdict of the senses has been made the test
of knowledge.

6. In adapting the conception of universal education to
the social conditions of his time, Comenius was led to a gra-
dation of schools that underlies all modern systems of public
instruction. j

H iT ilfcuHi i"

CHAPTER VII.

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. — JESUITS AND

JANSENISTS.

the teaching congregations j jesuits and jansenists; founda-
tion of the society of jesus (1540) ; different judgments
on the educational merits of the jesuits; authorities to
consult; primary instruction neglected; classical studies;
latin and the humanities; neglect of history, of philoso-
phy, and of the sciences in general; discipline j emula-
TION encouraged; official disciplinarian; general spirit

OF THE PEDAGOGY OF THE JESUITS; THE ORATORIANS; THE
LITTLE SCHOOLS; STUDY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE; NEW 8Y8TEM
OF 8PELLING; THE MA8TER8 AND THE BOOKS OF PORT ROYAL;
DISCIPLINE IN PERSONAL REFLECTION J GENERAL SPIRIT OF THE
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION AT PORT ROYAL; NICOLE; MORAL
PESSIMISM ; EFFECTS ON DISCIPLINE J FAULTS IN THE DISCIPLINE
OF PORT ROYAL; GENERAL JUDGMENT ON PORT ROYAL; ANA-
LYTICAL SUMMARY.

148. Tiie Teaciiing Congregations.1 — Up to the French
Revolution, up to the day when the conception of a public
and national education was embodied in the legislative acts

1 Religious congregations, as known in France, are associations of per-
sons who, consecrating themselves to the service of God, make a vow to
live in common under the same rule. Many of these congregations devote
themselves to the work of teaching, and these are of two classes, the
authorized and the unauthorized. For example, the " Brethren of the
Christian Schools," founded by La Salle, is unauthorized, and the •• Society
of Jesus'' an unauthorized, congregation. From statistics published in
1878. it appears that there were then in France, 24 congregations of men
authorized to teach, and controlling 3090 establishments; and 528 similar
congregations of women, controlling 1(>,478 establishments. At the same
time there were 85 unauthorized congregations of men, and 260 unauthorized
congregations of women, devoted to teaching. (P.)

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 139

of our assembled rulers, education remained almost exclu-
sively an affair of the Church. The universities themselves
were dependent in part on religious authority. But especially
the great congregations assumed a monopoly of the work of
teaching, the direction and control of which the State had
not jet claimed for her right.

Primary instruction, it is true, scarcely entered at first into
the settled plans of the religious orders. The only exception
to this statement that can properly be made, is the congrega-
tion of the Christian Doctrine, which a humble priest, Caesar
de Bus, founded at Avignon in 1592, the avowed purpose of
which was the religious education of the children of the com-
pany.1 But, on the other hand, secondary instruction pro-
voked the greatest educational event of the sixteenth century,
the founding of the company of Jesus, and this movement
was continued and extended in the seventeenth century, J
either in the colleges of the Jesuits, ever growing in number, \
or in other rival congregations.

149. Jesuits and Jansenists. — Among the religious
orders that have consecrated their efforts to the work of
teaching, the first place must be assigned to the Jesuits and
the Jansenists. Different in their statutes, their organiza-
tion, and their destinies, these two congregations are still
more different in their spirit. They represent, in fact, two
opposite, and, as it were, contrary phases of human nature
and of the Christian spirit. For the Jesuits, education is '
reduced to a superficial culture of the brilliant faculties of
the intelligence ; while the Jansenists, on the contrary, aspire
to develop the solid faculties, the judgment, and the reason. ^

1 The congregation of the Doctrinaries founded at a later period estab-
lishments of secondary instruction. Maine de Biran, Laromiguiere, and
Lakanal were pupils of the Doctrinaries.

140 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

In the colleges of the Jesuits, rhetoric is held in honor;
while in the Little Schools of Port Royal, it is rather logic
and the exercise of thought. The shrewd disciples of Loyola
adapt themselves to the times, and are full of compassion for
human weakness ; the solitaries of Port Royal are exacting
of others and of themselves. In their suppleness and cheer-
ful optimism, the Jesuits are almost the Epicureans of Chris-
tianity ; with their austere and somewhat sombre doctrine,
the Jansenists would rather be the Stoics. The Jesuits and
the Jansenists, those great rivals of the seventeenth century,
are still face to face as enemies at the present moment.
While the inspiration of the Jesuits tries to maintain the old
worn-out exercises, like Latin verse, and the abuse of the
memory, the spirit of the Jansenists animates and inspires
the reformers, who, in the Teaching of the classics, break
with tradition and routine, to substitute for exercises aimed
at elegance, and for a superficial instruction, studies of a
greater solidity and an education that is more complete.

The merit of institutions ought not always to be measured
by their apparent success. The colleges of the Jesuits, dur-
ing three centuries, have had a countless number of pupils ;
.the Little Schools of Port Royal did not live twenty years,
and during their short existence they enrolled at most only
some hundreds of pupils. And yet the methods of the
Jansenists have survived the ruin of their colleges and the
dispersion of the teachers who had applied them. Although
the Jesuits have not ceased to rule in appearance, it is the
Jansenists who triumph in reality, and who to-day control ^
the secondary instruction of France.

150. Foundation of the Society of Jesus. — In organiz-
ing the Society of Jesus, Ignatius Loyola, that compound of
the mystic and the man of the world, purposed to establish,

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 141

not an order devoted to monastic contemplation, but a real
fighting corps, a Catholic army, whose double purpose was to
conquer new provinces to the faith through missions, and to
preserve the old through the control of education. Solemnly
consecrated by the Pope Paul III., in 1540, the congregation
had a rapid growth. As early as the middle of the sixteenth
century, it had several colleges in France, particularly those
of Billom, Mauriac, Rodez, Tournon, and Pamiers. In 1561
it secured a footing in Paris, notwithstanding the resistance
of the Parliament, of the university, and of the bishops them-
selves. A hundred years later it counted nearly fourteen
thousand pupils in the province of Paris alone. The college
of Clermont, in 1651, enrolled more than two thousand young
men. The middle and higher classes assured to the colleges
of the society an ever-increasing' membership. At the end
of the seventeenth century, the Jesuits could inscribe on the
roll of honor of their classes a hundred illustrious names,
among others, those of Conde* and Luxembourg, Fle'chier and
Bossuet, Lamoignon and Siguier, Descartes, Corneille, and
Moli&re. In 1710 they controlled six hundred and twelve
colleges and a large number of universities. They were the /
real masters of education , and thev maintained this educational -
supremacy till the end of the eighteenth century.

151. Different Judgments on the Educational Merits
of the Jesuits. — Voltaire said of these teachers: "The
Fathers taught me nothing but Latin and nonsense." But
from the seventeenth century, opinions are divided, and the
encomiums of Bacon and Descartes must be offset bv the
severe judgment of Leibnitz. " In the matter of educa-
tion," says this great philosopher, " the Jesuits have remained
below mediocrity." l Directly to the contrary, Bacon had

1 Leibnitii Opera, Geneve, 1768, Tome VI. p. 65.

142 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

written : " As to whatever relates to the instruction of the
young, we must consult the schools of the Jesuits, for there
can be nothing that is better done." *

152. Authorities to Consult. — The Jesuits have never
written anything on the principles and objects of education.
We must not demand of them an exposition of general
views, or a confession of their educational faith. But to
make amends, they have drawn up with precision, with
almost infinite attention to details, the rules and regulations
of their course of studj. Already, in 1559, the Constitu-
tions, probably written by Loyola himself, devoted a whole
book to the organization of the colleges of the society.2 But
in particular, the Ratio Studiorum, published in 1599, con-
tains a complete scholastic- programme, which has remained
for three centuries the invariable educational code of the
congregation. Without doubt, the Jesuits, always ready to
make apparent concessions to the spirit of the times, with-
out sacrificing anything of their own spirit, and without
renouncing their inflexible purpose, have introduced modifi-
cations into their original rules ; but the spirit of their edu-
cational practice has remained the same, and, in 1854,
Beckx, the actual general of the order, could still declare
that the Ratio is the immutable rule of Jesuit education.

153. Primary Instruction Neglected. — A permanent
and characteristic feature of the educational policy of the
Jesuits is, that, during the whole course of their history,
they have deliberately neglected and disdained primary in-
struction. The earth is covered with their Latin colleges ;
and wherever they have been able, they have put their hands

1 Bacon de Aur/mentis Scientiarum, Lib. VI. chap. iv.
3 See the fourth book of the Constitutions.

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 143

on the institutions for university education ; but in no in-
stance have they founded a primary school. Even in their
establishments for secondary instruction, they entrust the
lower classes to teachers who do not belong to their order,
and reserve to themselves the direction of the higher classes.
Must we believe, as they have declared in order to explain
this negligence, that the only reason for their reserve and
their indifference is to be sought for in the insufficiency of
their teaching force? No; the truth is that the Jesuits
neither desire nor love the instruction of the people. To
desire and to love this, there must be faith in conscience and
reason ; there must be a belief in human equality. Now
the Jesuits distrust the human intelligence, and administer
only the aristocratic education of the ruling classes, whom
they hope to retain under their own control. They wish to
train amiable gentlemen, accomplished men of the world ;
the}' have no conception of training men. Intellectual cul-
ture, in their view, is but a convenience, imposed on certain
classes of the nation by their rank. It is not a good in
itself ; it may even become an evil. In certain hands it is
a dangerous weapon. The ignorance of a people is the best
safeguard of its faith, and faith is the supreme end. So we
shall not be astonished to read this in the Constitutions : —

" None of those who are employed in domestic service on /
account of the society, ought to learn to read and write, or,
if they already know these arts, to learn more of them.
They shall not be instructed without the consent of the
General, for it suffices for them to serve with all simplicity
and humility our Master, Jesus Christ."

154. Classical Studies : Latin and the Humanities. —
It is only in secondary instruction that the Jesuits have
taken position with marked success. The basis of their
teaching is the study of Latin and Greek. Their purpose is

144 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

to monopolize classical studies in order to make them serve
for the propagation of the Catholic faith. To write in Latin
is the ideal which they propose to their pupils. The first
consequence of this is the proscription of the mother tongue.
The Ratio forbids the use of French even in conversation ;
it permits it only on holidays. Hence, also, the importance
accorded to Latin and Greek composition, to the explication
of authors, and to the study of grammar, rhetoric, and
poetry. It is to be noted, besides, that the Jesuits put
scarcely more into the hands of their pupils than select
extracts, expurgated editions. They wish, in some sort, to
efface from the ancient books whatever marks the epoch and
characterizes the time. They detach fine passages of elo-
quence and beautiful extracts of poetry ; but they are afraid,
it seems, of the authors themselves ; they fear lest the pupil
find in them the old human spirit, — the spirit of nature.
Moreover, in the explication of authors, they pay more
attention to words than to things. They direct the pupil's
attention, not to the thoughts, but to the elegancies of lan-
guage, to the elocutionary effect ; in a word, to the form,
which, at least, has no religious character, and can in no-
wise give umbrage to Catholic orthodoxy. They fear to
awaken reflection and individual judgment. As Macaulay
has said, they seem to have found the point up to which
intellectual culture can be pushed without reaching intellec-
tual emancipation.

155. Disdain op History, op Philosophy, and op the
Sciences in General. — Preoccupied before all else with
purely formal studies, and exclusively devoted to the exer-
cises which give a training in the use of elegant language,
the Jesuits leave real and concrete studies in entire neglect.
History is almost wholly banished from their programme.
It is only with reference to the Greek and Latin texts that

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 145

the teacher should make allusion to the matters of histoiy
which are necessary for the understanding of the passage
under examination. No account is made of modern history,
nor of the history of France. " History," says a Jesuit
Father, "is the destruction of him who studies it." This
systematic omission of historical studies suffices to put in its
true light the artificial and superficial pedagogy of the
Jesuits, admirably denned by Beckx, who expresses himself
thus : —

44 The gymnasia will remain what they are by nature, a
gymnastic for the intellect, which consists far less in the
assimilation of real matter, in the acquisition of different
knowledges, than in a culture of pure form."

The sciences and philosophy are involved in the same dis-
dain as history. Scientific studies are entirely proscribed in
the lower classes, and the student enters his year in philoso-
phy,1 having studied only the ancient languages. Philosophy
itself is reduced to a barren study of words, to subtile dis-
cussions, and to commentaries on Aristotle. Memory and
syllogistic reasoning are the only faculties called into play ;
no facts, no real inductions, no care for the observation of
nature. In all things the Jesuits are the enemies of prog-
ress. Intolerant of everything new, they would arrest the
progress of the human mind and make it immovable.

156. Discipline. — Extravagant statements have been
made relative to the reforms in discipline introduced by the
Jesuits into their educational establishments. The fact is,
that they have caused to prevail in their colleges more of
order and of system than there was in the establishments of
the University. On the other hand, they have attempted to
please their pupils, to gild for them, so to speak, the bars of

i See note to § 111.

146 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the prison which confined them. Theatrical representations,
excursions on holidays, practice in swimming, riding, and
fencing, — nothing was neglected that could render their
residence at school endurable.

But, on the other hand, the Jesuits have incurred the
grave fault of detaching the child from the family. They
wish to have absolute control of him. The ideal of the per-
fect scholar is to forget his parents. Here is what was said
by a pupil of the Jesuits, who afterwards became a member
of the Order, J. B. de Schultaus : —

44 His mother paid him a visit at the College of Trent.
He refused to take her hand, and would not even raise his
eyes to hers. The mother, astonished and grieved, asked
her son the cause of such a cold greeting. 4 1 refuse to
notice you,' said the pupil, 4 not because you are my mother,
but because you are a woman/ And the biographer adds :
4 This was not excessive precaution ; woman preserves
to-day the faults she had at the time of our first father ; it
is always she who drives man from Paradise.' When the
mother of Schultaus died, he did not show the least emotion,
having long ago adopted the Holy Virgin for his true
mother."

157. Emulation Encouraged. — The Jesuits have always
considered emulation as one of the essential elements of dis-
cipline. 44 It is necessary, " says the Ratio, 44 to encourage
an honorable emulation ; it is a great stimulus to study.
Superior on this point, perhaps on this alone, to the Jansen-
ists, who through mistrust of human nature feared to excite
pride by encouraging emulation, the Jesuits have always
counted upon the self-love of the pupil. The Ratio mul-
tiplies rewards, — solemn distributions of prizes, crosses,
ribbons, decorations, titles borrowed from the Roman
Republic, such as decurions and praetors; all means, even

THE TEACHING CONGBKGATIONS. 147

the most puerile, were invented to nourish in pupils an ardor
for work, and to incite them to surpass one another. Let
us add that the pupil was rewarded, not only for his own
good conduct, but for the bad conduct of his comrades if he
informed against them. The decurion or the praetor was
charged with the police care of the class, and, in the absence
of the official disciplinarian, he himself chastised his com-
rades ; in the hands of his teacher, he became a spy and an
informer. Thus a pupil, liable to punishment for having
spoken French contrary to orders, will be relieved from his
punishment if he can prove by witnesses that one of his
comrades has committed the same fault on the same day.

158. Official Disciplinarian. — The rod is an element,
so to speak, of the ancient pedagogical regime. It holds a
privileged place both in the colleges and in private educa-
tion. Louis XIV. officially transmits to the Duke of Mon-
tausier the right to correct his son. Henry IV. wrote to the
governor of Louis XIII. : " I complain because you did not
inform me that you had whipped my son ; for I desire and
order you to whip him every time that he shall be guilty of
obstinacy or of anything else that is bad ; for I well know
that there is nothing in the world that can do him more good
than that. This I know from the lessons of experience, for
when I was of his age, I was soundly flogged." l

The Jesuits, notwithstanding their disposition to make
discipline milder, were careful not to renounce a punishment
that was in use even at court. Only, while the Brethren of
the Christian Schools, according to the regulations of La
Salle, chastised the guilty pupil themselves, the Jesuits did
not think it becoming the dignity of the master to apply the
correction himself. They reserved to a laic the duty of

1 Letter to Madame Montglat, Nov. 14, 1607.

148 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

handling the rods. An official disciplinarian, a domestic, a
porter, was charged in all the colleges with the functions of
chief executioner. And while the Ratio Studionim recom-
mends moderation, certain witnesses prove that the special
disciplinarian did not always carry a discreet hand. Here,
for example, is an account given by Saint Simon : —

" The eldest son of the Marquis of Boufflers was fourteen
years old. He was handsome, well formed, was wonder-
fully successful, and full of promise. He was a resident
pupil of the Jesuits with the two sons of d'Argenson. I do
not know what indiscretion he and they were guilty of. The
Fathers wished to show that they neither feared nor stood in
awe of any one, and they flogged the boy, because, in fact,
they had nothing to fear of the Marquis of Boufflers ; but
they were careful not to treat the two others in this way,
though equally culpable, because every day thej' had to
count with d'Argenson, who was lieutenant* of police. The
boy Boufflers was thrown into such mental agony that he
fell sick on the same day, and within four days was dead.
. . . There was a universal and furious outcry against the
Jesuits, but nothing ever came of it." *

159. General Spirit of the Pedagogy of the Jesuits. —
The general principles of the doctrine of the Jesuits are
completely opposed to our modern ideas. Blind obedience,^
the suppression of all liberty and of all spontaneity, such i^
the basis of their moral education. ;

"To renounce one's own wishes is more meritorious than
to raise the dead ; " " We must be so attached to the Roman
Church as to hold for black an object which she tells us is
black, even when it is really white;" "Our confidence in
God should be strong enough to force us, in the lack of a

i Saint Simon, Mtmoiree, Tome IX. 83.

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 149

boat, to cross the ocean on a single plank ; " "If God should
appoint for our master an animal deprived of reason, you
should not hesitate to render it obedience, as to a master
and a guide, for this sole reason, that God has ordered it
thus ; " " One must allow himself to be governed by divine
Providence acting through the agency of the superiors of
the Order, just as if he were a dead body that could be put
into any position whatever, and treated according to one's
good pleasure ; or as if one were a baton in the hands of an
old man who uses it as he pleases."

As to intellectual education, as they understand it, it is
wholly artificial and superficial. To find for the mind occu-
pations that absorb it, that soothe it like a dream, without
wholly awakening it; to call attention to words, and to
niceties of expression, so as to reduce by so much the oppor-
tunity for thinking ; to provoke a certain degree of intel-
lectual activity, prudently arrested at the place where the
reflective reason succeeds an embellished memory ; in a word,
to excite the spirit just enough to arouse it from its inertia
and its ignorance, but not enough to endow it with a real
self-activity by a manly display of all its faculties, — such is
the method of the Jesuits. u As to instruction," says
Bersot, u this is what we find with them : history reduced to
facts and tables, without the lesson derived from them
bearing on the knowledge of the world ; even the facts sup-
pressed or altered when they say too much ; philosophy
reduqed to what is called empirical doctrine, and what
de Maistre called the philosophy of the nothing, without
danger of one's acquiring a liking for it ; physical science
reduced to recreations, without the spirit of research and
liberty ; literature reduced to the complaisant explication of
the ancient authors, and ending in innocent witticisms. . . .
With respect to letters, there are two loves which have noth*

150 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ing in common save their name ; one of them makes men,
the other, great boys. It is the last that we find with the
Jesuits ; they amuse the soul."

160. The Oratorians. — Between the Jesuits, their adver-
saries, and the Jansenists, their friends, the Oratorians oc-
cupy an intermediate place. They break already with the
over-mechanical education, and with the wholly superficial
instruction which Ignatius Loyola had inaugurated. Through
some happy innovations they approach the more elevated and
more profound education of Tort Royal. Founded in 1 6 1 4 , by
Be*rulle, the Order of the Oratory soon counted quite a large
number of colleges of secondary instruction, and, in particu-
lar, iu 1038, the famous college of Juilly. While with the
Jesuits it is rare to meet the names of celebrated professors,
several renowned teachers have made illustrious the Oratory
of the seventeenth century. We note the Pere Lamy, author
of Entretiens snr les Sciences (1683) ; the Pere Thomassin,
whom the Oratorians call the u incomparable theologian,"
and who published, from 1681 to 1690, a series of Methods
for studying the languages, philosophy, and letters ; Masca-
ron and Massillon, who taught rhetoric at the Oratory ; the
Pere Lecointe and the Pere Lelong, who taught history there.
All these men unite, in general, some love of liberty to ardor'
of religious sentiment ; they wish to introduce more air and
more light into the cloister and the school ; they have a taste s,
for the facts of history and the truths of science ; finally, they
attempt to found an education at once liberal and Christian,
religious without abuse of devotion, elegant without refine- i
ment, solid without excess of erudition, worthy, finally, to
be counted as one of the first practical tcntatives of modern )
pedagogy. i

The limits of this study forbid our entering into details.
Let us merely note a few essential points. That which dis-

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 151

tinguishes the Orator ians, is, first, a sincere and disinterested
love of truth.

" We love the truth," says the Pere Lamy ; " the days do
not suffice to consult her as long as we would wish ; or, rather,
we never grow weary of the pleasure we find in studying her.
There has always been that love for letters in this House :
those who have governed it have tried to nourish it. When
there is found among us some penetrating and liberally en-
dowed spirit who has a rare genius for the sciences, he is
discharged from all other duties." !

Nowhere have ancient letters been more loved than at
the Oratory.

" In his leisure hours the Pere Thorn assin read only the
authors of the humanities ; " and yet French was not there
sacrificed to Latin. The use of the Latin language was not
obligatory till after the fourth year, and even then not for the
lessons in history, which, till the end of the courses, had to
be given in French. History, so long neglected even in the
colleges of the University, particularly the history of France,
was taught to the pupils of the Oratory. Geography was
not separated from it ; and the class-rooms were furnished
with large mural maps. On the other hand, the sciences had
a place in the course of study. A Jesuit father would not
have expressed himself as the Pere Lamy has done : —

" It is a pleasure to enter the laboratory of a chemist. In
the places where I have happened to be, I did not miss an
opportunity to attend the anatomical lectures that were given,
and to witness the dissection of the principal parts of the
human body. ... I know of nothing of greater use than
algebra and arithmetic."

Finally, philosophy itself, — the Cartesian philosophy, so
mercilessly decried by the Jesuits, — was in vogue at the Ora-

1 Entrctiens sur les Sciences, p, 197.

HMU

*-*!

152 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

tor}*. " If Cartesiauism is a pest," wrote the regents of the
College of Angers, fck there are more than two hundred of us
who are infected with it." ... fc' They have forbidden the
Fathers of the Oratory to teach the philosophy of Descartes,
and, consequently, the blood to circulate," wrote Madame de
Se>igne\ in 1673.

Let us also furnish proof of the progress and amelioration
of the discipline at the Oratory : —

" There are many other ways besides the rod," says the
Pfcre Lamy ; " and, to lead pupils back to their duty, a ca-
ress, a threat, the hope of a reward, or the fear of a humili-
ation, has greater efficiency than whips."

The ferule, it is true, and whips also, were not forbidden,
but made part of the legitima poenarum genera. But it doe?
not appear that use was often made of them ; either through
a spirit of mildness, or through prudence, and through the
fear of exasperating the child.

u There is needed,'' says the Pdre Lamy again, ua sort of
politics to govern this little community, — to lead them
through their inclinations ; to foresee the effect of rewards
and punishments, and to employ them according to their
proper use. There are times of stubbornness when a child
would sooner be killed than yield."

" What made it easier at the Oratory to maintain the au-
thority of the master without resorting to violent punishments,
is that the same professor accompanied the pupils through the
whole series of their classes. The Pfcre Thomassin, for
example, was, in turn, professor of grammar, rhetoric, phil-
osophy, mathematics, history, Italian, and Spanish, — a touch-
ing example, it must be allowed, of an absolute devotion to
scholastic labor. But this universality, somewhat superficial,
served neither the real interests of the masters nor those of
their pupils. The great pedagogical law is the division of
labor.

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 153

161. Foundation of the Little Schools. — From the
very organization of their society, the Jansenists gave evi-
dences of an ardent solicitude for the education of youth.
Their founder, Saint Cyran, said : " Education is, in a sense,
the one thing necessary. ... I wish you might read in my heart
the affection I feel for children. . . . You could not deserve
more of God than in working for the proper bringing up of
children." It was in this disinterested feeling of charity for
the good of the young, in this display of sincere tenderness
for children, that the Jansenists, in 1643, founded the Little
Schools at Port Royal in the Fields, in the vicinity, and then
in Paris.1 They received into those schools only a small
number of pupils, preoccupied as they were, not with domi-
nating the world and extending their influence, but with do-
ing modestly and obscurely the good they could. Persecution
did not long grant them the leisure to continue the work they
had undertaken. By 1660 the enemies of Port Royal had
triumphed ; the Jesuits obtained an order from the king clos-
ing the schools and dispersing the teachers. Pursued, impris-
oned, expatriated, the solitaries of Port Royal had but the
opportunity to gather up in memorable documents the results
of their educational experience all too short.2

162. The Teachers and the Books of Port Royal. —
Singular destiny, — that of those teachers whom a relentless

1 For the Little Schools of Port Royal, see a recent account by Carre*
(Revue Ptdagogique, 1883, Nos. 2 and 8).

* No more pathetic piece of history has ever been written than that
which relates the vindictive and relentless persecution of the peaceful
and pious solitaries of Port Royal: " The house was razed to the ground,
and even the very foundations ploughed up. The gardens and walks were
demolished; and the dead were even torn from their graves, that not a ves-
tige might be left to mark the spot where this celebrated institution had
stood." — Lancelot's Tour to La Grande Chartreuse, p. 243. See also Nar-
rative of the Demolition of Port Royal (London, 1816). (P.)

154 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

fate permitted to exercise their functions for only five
years, yet who, through their works, have remained perhaps
the best authorized exponents of French education ! The
first of these is Nicole, the moralist and logician, one of the
authors of the Port Royal Logic, who taught philosophy
and the humanities in the Little Schools, and who published
in 1670, under the title, The Education of a Prince, a series of
reflections on education, applicable, as he himself says, to
children of all classes. Another is Lancelot, the grammarian,
the author of the Methods for learning the Latin, Greek,
Italian, and Spanish languages. Then there is Arnauld, the
great Arnauld, the ardent theologian, who worked on the
Jjogic, and the General Grammar, and who finally composed
the Regulation of Studies in the Humanities. In connection
with these celebrated names, we must mention other Janse-
nists not so well known, such as De Sacy and Guyot, both
of whom were the authors of a large number of translations ;
Coustel, who published the Eules for the Education of Chil-
dren (1687) ; Varet, the author of Christian Education
(1668). Let us add to this list, still incomplete, the Regi-
men for Children, by Jacqueline Pascal (1657), and we shall
have some idea of the educational activity of Port Royal.

163. The Study of the French Language. — As a
general rule, we may have a good opinion of the teachers who
recommend the study of the mflihextongue. In this respect,
the solitaries of Port Royal are in advance of their time.
"We first teach to read in Latin, " said the Abbe* Fleury,
" because, compared with French, we pronounce it more as
it is written." l A curious reason, which did not satisfy
Fleury himself ; for he acknowledged the propriety of putting,
as soon as possible, into the hands of children, the French

1 Du choix et <ie la mtthode dcs etudes.

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 155

books that they can understand. This was what was done
at Port Royal. With their love of exactness and clearness,
with their disposition, wholly Cartesian, to make children
study only the things they can comprehend, the Jansenists
saw at once the great absurdity of choosing Latin works as
the first reading-books. "To learn Latin before learning
the mother tongue," said Comenius, wittily, u is like wishing
to mount a horse before knowing how to walk." Aud again,
as Saiute-Beuve says, "It is to compel unfortunate children
to deal with the unintelligible in order to proceed towards the
unknown." For these unintelligible texts, the Jansenists sub-
stituted, not, it is true, original French works, but at least
good translations of Latin authors. For the first time in
France, the French language was made the subject of serious
study. Before being made to write in Latin, pupils were
drilled in writing in French. They were set to compose little
narratives, little letters, the subjects of which were borrowed
from their recollections, by being asked to relate on the spot
what they had retained of what they had read.

164. New System of Spelling. — In their constant pre-
occupation to make study easier, the Jansenists reformed the
current method of learning to read. u What makes reading
more difficult," says Arnauld in Chapter VI. of the General
Grammar ', *' is that while each letter has its own proper name,
it is given a different name when it is found associated with
other letters. For example, if the pupil is made to read the
syllable /ry, he is made to say ef* ar, ?/, which invariably con-
fuses him. It is best, therefore, to teach children to know the
letters only bj* the names of their real pronunciation, to name
them only by their natural sounds." Port Royal proposes,
then, " to have children pronounce only the vowels and the
diphthongs, and not the consonants, which they need not

154 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

fate permitted to exercise their functions for only five
years, yet who, through their works, have remained perhaps
the best authorized exponents of French education ! The
first of these is Nicole, the moralist and logician, one of the
authors of the Port Royal Logic, who taught philosophy
and the humanities in the Little Schools, and who published
in 1670, under the title, The Education of a Prince, a series of
reflections on education, applicable, as he himself says, to
children of all classes. Another is Lancelot, the grammarian,
the author of the Methods for learning the Latin, Greek,
Italian, and Spanish languages. Then there is Arnauld, the
great Arnauld, the ardent theologian, who worked on the
Logic, and the General Grammar, and who finally composed
the Regulation of Studies in the Humanities. In connection
with these celebrated names, we must mention other Janse-
nists not so well known, such as De Sacy and Guyot, both
of whom were the authors of a large number of translations ;
Coustel, who published the Rules for the Education of Chil-
dren (1687) ; Varet, the author of Christian Education
(1668). Let us add to this list, still incomplete, the Regi-
men for Children, by Jacqueline Pascal (1657), and we shall
have some idea of the educational activity of Port Royal.

163. The Study of the French Language. — As a
general rule, we may have a good opinion of the teachers who
recommend the study of the mother, tongue. In this respect,
the solitaries of Port Royal are in advance of their time.
u We first teach to read in Latin," said the Abbe" Fleury,
"because, compared with French, we pronounce it more as
it is written." l A curious reason, which did not satisfy
Fleury himself ; for he acknowledged the propriety of putting,
as soon as possible, into the hands of children, the French

1 Du choix et de la mtthode des 4tude$,

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 155

books that they can understand. This was what was done
at Port Royal. With their love of exactness and clearness,
with their disposition, wholly Cartesian, to make children
study only the things they can comprehend, the Jansenists
saw at once the great absurdity of choosing Latin works as
the first reading-books. " To learn Latin before learning
the mother tongue," said Comenius, wittily, " is like wishing
to mount a horse before knowing how to walk." Aud again,
as Sainte-Beuve says, "It is to compel unfortunate childreu
to deal with the unintelligible in order to proceed towards the
unknown." For these unintelligible texts, the Jansenists sub-
stituted, not, it is true, original French works, but at least
good translations of Latin authors. For the first time in
France, the French language was made the subject of serious
study. Before being made to write in Latin, pupils were
drilled in writing in French. They were set to compose little
narratives, little letters, the subjects of which were borrowed
from their recollections, by being asked to relate on the spot
what they had retained of what they had read.

164. New System of Spelling. — In their constant pre-
occupation to make study easier, the Jansenists reformed the
current method of learning to read. u What makes reading
more difficult," says Arnauld in Chapter VI. of the General
Grammar, "is that while each letter has its own proper name,
it is given a different name when it is found associated with
other letters. For example, if the pupil is made to read the
syllable fry, he is made to say e/, ar, ?/, which invariably con-
fuses him. It is best, therefore, to teach children to know the
letters only bj' the names of their real pronunciation, to name
them only by their natural sounds." Port Royal proposes,
tli en, " to have children pronounce only the vowels and the
diphthongs, and not the consonants, which they need not

156 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

pronounce, except in the different combinations which they
form with the same vowels or diphthongs, in syllables and
words.

This method has become celebrated under the name of the
Port Royal Method ; and it appears, from a letter of Jacque-
line Pascal, that the original notion was due to Pascal him-
self.1

165. Discipline in Personal Reflection. — That which
profoundly distinguishes the method of the J an sen is ts from
the method of the Jesuits, is that at Port Royal the purpose
is less to make good Latinists than to train sound intelli-
gences. The effort is to call into activity the judgment and
personal reflection. As soon as the child is capable of it, he
is made to Jthink and comprehend. In the lessons of the
class-room, not a word is allowed to pass till the child has
understood its meaning. Only those tasks are proposed to
the child which are adapted to his childish intelligence, His
attention is occupied only with the things that are within the
compass of his powers.

The grammars of Port Royal are written in French, " be-
cause it is ridiculous," says Nicole, u to teach the principles
of a language in the very language that is to be learned, and
that for the present is unknown." Lancelot, in his Methods,
abbreviates and simplifies grammatical studies : —

"I have found out, at last, how useful this maxim of
Ramus is, — Few jwecepts and much practice : and, also, that
as soon as children begin to know these rules somewhat, it is
well to make them observe them in practice."

It is by the reading of authors that the grammar of Port
Royal completes the theoretical study of the rules that are
rigidly reduced to their minimum. The professor, with ref-

1 See Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 262.

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 157

erence to such or such a passage of an author, will make ap-
propriate oral remarks. In this way the example, not the
dry and uninteresting one of the grammar, but the living
example, expressive, and, drawn from a writer that is being
read with interest, will precede or accompany the rule, and
the particular case will explain the general law. This is an
excellent method, because it accords with the real movement
of the mind, and adapts the sequence of studies to the prog-
ress of the intelligence, and also because, according to the
advice of Descartes, the child in this way proceeds from the
known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex.

166. General Spirit of the Intellectual Education
at Port Royal. — Without (\oubt, we need not expect to
find among the solitaries of Port Royal a disinterested devo-
tion to science. In their view, instruction is but a means of
forming the judgment. u The sciences should be employed,"
says Nicole, "only as an instrument for perfecting the
reason." Historical, literary, and scientific knowledge has
no intrinsic value. The thing required is simply to employ
those subjects for educating just, equitable, and judicious
men. Nicole declares that it would be better absolutely to
ignore the sciences than to become absorbed in the useless
portions of them. Speaking of astronomical researches, and
of the works of those mathematicians who believe that ' i it is
the finest thing in the world to know whether there is a bridge
and an arch suspended around the planet Saturn," he con-
cludes that it is preferable to be ignorant of those things
than to be ignorant that they are vain.

But, on the other hand, the Jansenists have struck from
their programme of studies everything that is merely sterile
verbiage, exercises of memory or of artificial imagination.
Little attention is given to Latin verse at Port Royal. Ver-

158 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

sion takes precedence of the theme,1 and the oral theme
often replaces the written. The pupil is to be taught, " not
to be blinded by a vain flash of words void of sense, not to
rest satisfied with mere words or obscure principles, and
never to be satisfied till he has gained a clear insight into
things."

1C7. Pedagogical Principles of Nicole. — In his trea-
tise on the Education of a Prince , Nicole has summarized,
under the form of aphorisms, some of the essential princi-
ples of his system of education.

Let us first notice this maxim, a true pedagogical axiom :
" The purpose of instruction is to carry forward intelligences
to the farthest point they are capable of attaining." This
is saying that every child, whether of the nobility or of the
people, has the right to be instructed according to hi » apti-
tude and ability.

Another axiom : We must proportion difficulties to the
growing development of the child's intelligence. " The
greatest minds have but a limited range of intelligence. In
all of them there are regions of twilight and shadow ; but
the intelligence of the child is almost wholly pervaded by
shadows ; he catches glimpses of but few rays of light. So
everything depends on managing these rays, on increasing
them, and on exposing to them whatever we wish to have the
child comprehend."

A corollary to the preceding axiom is, that the first
appeal must be made to the senses. u The intelligence of
children always being very dependent on the senses, we
must, as far as possible, address our instruction to the
senses, and cause it to reach the mind,' not only through

1 Vernon: translation from Latin or Greek into French. Theme
translation of French into Latin or Greek. (P.)

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 159

hearing, but also through seeing." Consequently, geogra-
phy is a study well adapted to early years, provided we
employ books in which the largest cities are pictured. If
children study the history of a country, we must not neglect
to show them the situation of places on the map. Nicole also
recommends that they be shown pictures that represent the
machines, the arms, and the dress of the ancients, and also
the portraits of kings and illustrious men.

168. Moral Pessimism. — Man is wicked, human nature
is corrupt : such is the cry of despair that comes to our ears
from all the writings of the Jansenists.

"The devil," says Saint Cyran, "already possesses the
soul of even the unborn child." . . .

And again : " We must always pray for souls, and always*
be on the watch, standing guard as in a city menaced by an
enemy. On the outside the devil makes his rounds." . . .

44 As soon as children begin to have reason," says another
Jansenist, " we observe in them only blindness and weak-
ness. Their minds are closed to spiritual things, and they
cannot comprehend them. But, on the contrary, their eyes
are open to evil ; their senses are susceptible to all sorts of
corruption, and they have a natural inertia that inclines
them to it."

44 You ought," writes Varet, 44 to consider your children
as wholly inclined to evil, and carried forward towards it.
All their inclinations are corrupt, and, not being governed
by reason, they will permit them to find pleasure and diver-
sion only in the things that carry them towards vice."

169. Effects on Discipline. —The doctrine of the origi-
nal perversity of man may produce contrary results, and
direct the practical conduct of those who accept it in two
opposite directions. They are either inspired with severity

:jvt ^^a^_-^

160 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

toward beings deeply tainted and vicious, or they are excited
to pity and to tenderness for those fallen creatures who suffer
from an incurable evil. The solitaries of Port Royal obeyed
the second tendency. They were as affectionate and good
to the children confided to their care as, in theory, they were
harsh and rigorous towards human nature. In the presence
of their pupils they felt touched with an infinite tenderness
for those poor sick souls, whom they would willingly cure of
their ills, and raise from their fall, at the cost of any and
every sacrifice.

The conception of the native wickedness of man had still
another result at Port Royal. It increased the zeal of the
teachers. It prompted them to multiply their assiduity and
vigilance in order to keep guard over 3Toung souls, and there
destroy, whenever possible, the seeds of evil that sin had
sown in them. When one is charged with the difficult mission
of moral education, it is, perhaps, dangerous to have too
much confidence in human nature, and to form too favorable
an opinion of its qualities and dispositions ; for then one is
tempted to accord to the child too large a liberty, and to
practise the maxim, " Let it take its own course, let it
pass " (Laissez faire, laissez passer) . It is better to err on
the other side, in excess of mistrust; for, in this case,
knowing the dangers that menace the child, we watch over
him with more attention, abandon him less to the inspiration
of his caprices, and expect more of education ; we demand
of effort and labor what we judge nature incapable of pro-
ducing 03* herself.

Vigilance, patience, mildness, — these are the instruments
of discipline in the schools of Port Royal. There were
scarcely any punishments in the Little Schools. " To speak
little, to tolerate much, to pray still more," — these are the
three things that Saint Cyran recommended. The threat to

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 161

send children home to their parents sufficed to maintain
order in a flock somewhat small. In fact, all whose exam-
ple would have proved bad were sent away ; an excellent
system of elimination when it is practicable. The pious
solitaries endured without complaint, faults in which they
saw the necessary consequences of the original fall. Pene-
trated, however, as they were, with the value of human
souls, their tenderness for children was mingled with a cer-
tain respect; for they saw in them the creatures of God,
beings called from eternity to a sublime destiny or to a ter-
rible punishment.

170. Faults in the Discipline op Port Royal. — The
Jansenists did not shun the logical though dangerous con-
sequences that were involved, in germ, in their pessimistic
theories of human nature. They fell into an excess of pru-
dence or of rigidity. They pushed gravity and dignity to
a formalism that was somewhat repulsive. At Port Royal
pupils were forbidden to thee and thou one another. The
solitaries did not like familiarities, faithful in this respect to
the Imitation of Jesus Christ* in which it is somewhere said
that it does not become a Christian to be on familiar terms
with any one whatever. The young were thus brought up
in habits of mutual respect, which may have had their good
side, but which had the grave fault of being a little ridicu-
lous in children, since they forced them to live among them-
selves as little gentlemen, while at the same time they oppose
the development of those intimate friendships, of those last-
ing attachments of which all those who have lived at college
know the sweetness and the charm.

The spirit of asceticism is the general character of all the
Jansenists^ Varet declares that balls 'are- pTaces of" Infamy.
Pascal denies himself every agreeable thought, and what he
called an agreeable thought was to reflect on geometry.

162 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Lancelot refuses to take to the theatre the princes of Conti,
of whom he was the preceptor.

But perhaps a graver fault at Port Royal was, that through
fear of awakening self-love, the spirit of emulation was pur-
posely suppressed. It is God alone, it was said, who is to
be praised for the qualities and talents manifested by men.
" If God has placed something of good in the soul of a child,
we must praise Him for it and keep silent.' ' By this delib-
erate silence men put themselves on guard against pride ;
but if pride is to be feared, is indolence the less so? ^And
when we purposely avoid stimulating self-love through the
hope of reward, or through a word of praise given in due
season, we run a great risk of not overcoming the indo-
lence that is natural to the child, and of not obtaining from
him any serious effort. Pascal, the greatest of the friends
of Port Royal, said : " The children of Port Royal, who do
not feel that stimulus of envy and glory, fall into a state of
indifference."

171. General Judgment on Port Royal. — After all
has been said, we must admire the teachers of Port Royal,
who were doubtless deceived on some points, but who were
animated by a powerful feeling of their duty to educate, and
by a perfect charity. Ardor and sincerity of religious faith ;
a great respect for the human person ; the practice of piety
held in honor, but kept subordinate to the reality of the
inner feeling ; devotion advised, but not imposed ; a marked
mistrust of nature, corrected by displays of tenderness and
tempered by affection ; above all, the profound, unwearied
devotion of Christian souls who give themselves wholly and
without reserve to other souls to raise them up and save
them, — this is what was done by the discipline of Port
Royal. But it is rather in the methods of teaching, and in
the administration of classical studies, that we must look for

THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 168

the incontestable superiority of the J an sen is ts. The teachers
of the Little Schools were admirable humanists, not of form,
as the Jesuits were, but of judgment. They represent, it '
seems to us, in all its beauty and in all its force, that intel-
lectual education, already divined by Montaigne, which
prepares for life men of sound judgment and of upright
conscience. They founded the teaching of the humanities.
"Fort Iloyal,,, says an historian of ' pedagogy, Bumier,-
44 simplifies study without, however, relieving it of its whole-
some difficulties ; it strives to make it interesting, while it
does not convert it into child's play ; it purposes to confide •
to the memory only what has first been apprehended by the
intelligence. ... It has given to the world ideas that it has
not again let go, and fruitful principles from which we have
but to draw their logical consequences."

[172. Analytical Summary. 1. In the history of the
three great teaching congregations we have an illustration
of the supposed power of education over the destinies of
men.

2.' To resist the encroachments of Protestantism that fol-
lowed the diffusion of instruction among the people, Loyola
organized his teaching corps of Catholic zealots ; and this
mode of competition for purposes of moral, sectarian, and
political control has covered the earth, in all Christian
countries, with institutions of learning.

3. The tendency towards extremes, and the difficulty of
attaining symmetry and completeness, are seen in the pref-
erence of the Jesuits for form, elegance, and mere discipline,
in their excessive use of emulation ; and in the jMJSsimism of
the Jansenists, their distrust of human nature, and their fear
of human pride.]

■ II ^

I — ■ ^*

CHAPTER VHI.

FENELON.

EDUCATION IK THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY J FENELON (1651-1715); HOW
FENELON BECAME A TEACHER; ANALYSIS OF THE TREATISE ON
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS; CRITICISM OF MONASTIC EDUCATION;
REFUTATION OF THE PREJUDICES RELATIVE TO WOMEN J GOOD
OPINION OF HUMAN NATURE; IN8TINCTIVE CURIOSITY; LESSONS ON
OBJECTS ; FEEBLENESS OF THE CHILD ; INDIRECT INSTRUCTION J ALL
ACTIVITY MUST BE PLEASURABLE; FABLES AND HISTORICAL NAR-
RATIVES ; MORAL AND RELIGIOU8 EDUCATION ; 8TUDIE8 PROPER FOR
WOMEN; EDUCATION OF THE DUKE DB BOURGOGNB (1689-1096);

happy results; the fables; the dialogues OF the dead;

VARIETY OF DISCIPLINARY AGENTS; DIVERSIFIED INSTRUCTION;
THE TELEMACHU8; FENELON AND BOSSUET ; SPHERE AND LIMITS
OF EDUCATION; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

173. Education in the Seventeenth Century. — Outside
of the teaching congregations, the seventeenth century
counts a certain number of independent educators, isolated
thinkers, who have transmitted to us in durable records the
results of their reflection or of their experience. The most
of these belong to the clergy, — they are royal preceptors.
In a monarchical government there is no grander affair than
the education of princes. Some others are philosophers,
whom the general study of human nature has led to reflect
on the principles of education. Without pretending to
include everything within the narrow compass of this ele-
mentary history, we would make known either the funda-
mental doctrines or the essential methods which have been
concerned in the education of the seventeenth century, and

FENELON. 165

which, at the same time, have made a preparation for the
educational reforms of the succeeding centuries.

174. Fenelon (1651-1715). — Fenelon holds an important
place in French literature ; but it seems that of all the varied
aspects of his genius, the part he played as an educator is
the most important and the most considerable. Fenelon
wrote the first classical work of French pedagogy, and it may )
be said, considering the great number of authors who have
been inspired by his thoughts, that he is the head of a school
of educators.

175. How Fenelon became a Teacher. — It is well
known that the valuable treatise, On the Education of Girls,
was written in 1680, at the request of the Duke and the
Duchess of Beauvilliers. These noble friends of Fenelon,
besides several boys, had eight girls to educate. It was to
assist, by his advice, in the education of this little family
school, that Fe*nelon wrote his book which was not designed
at first for the public, and which did not appear till 1687.
The young Abb6 who, in 1680, was but thirty years old, had
already had experience in educational matters in the man-
agement of the Convent of theNewJJatholics (1678). This
was an institution whose purpose was to retain young Protes-
tant converts in the Catholic faith, or even to call them there
by mild force. It would have been better, we confess, for
the glory of Fenelon, if he had gained his experience else-
where than in that mission of fanaticism, where he was the
auxiliary of the secular arm, the accomplice of dragoons,
and where was prepared the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. We would have preferred that the Education of
GHrU had not been planned in a house where were violently
confined girls torn from their mothers, and wives stolen from
their husbands. But if the first source of F6nelon's eduea-

Mw^fcBwn -i- -I ---■ :

166 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tional inspiration was not as pure as one could wish, at least
in the book there is nothing that betrays the spirit of intoler-
ance and violence with which the author was associated.
On the contrary, The Education of Girls is a work of gentle-
ness and goodness, of a complaisant and amiable grace, which
is pervaded by a spirit of progress.

Fe"nelon soon had occasion to apply the principles that he
had set forth in his treatise. August 16, 1689, he was
chosen preceptor of the Duke of Bourgogne,1 with the Duke
of Beauvilliers for governor, and the Abbe* Fleury for sub-
preceptor. From 1689 to 1695, he directed with marvellous
success the education of a prince, " a born terror," as Saint
Simon expressed it, but who, under the penetrating influence
of hi3 master, became an accomplished man, almost a saint.
It was for his royal pupil that he composed, one after
another, a large number of educational works, such as the
Collection of Fables, the Dialogues of the Dead, the treatise
on TJie Existence of God, and especially the Telemachus, one
of the most popular works in French literature.

In furnishing occasion for the exercise of his educational
activity, events served F6nelon according to his wish. We
may say that his nature predestinated him to the work of
education. With his tender soul, preserving its paternal
instincts even in his celibate condition, with his admirable
grace of spirit, with his .various erudition and profound
knowledge of antiquity, with his competence in the studies
of grammar and history, attested by different passages in
his Letter to the Academy; finally, with his temperate dispo-
sition and his inclinations towards liberalism in a century of
absolute monarchy, he was made to become one of the guides,
one of the masters, of French education.

i Son of Louis XIV., born Aug. 6, 1682; died Feb. 18, 1712.

fUnelon. 167

176. Analysis of the Treatise on the Education of
Girls. — This charming masterpiece of F^nelon's should be
read entire. A rapid analysis would not suffice, as it is
difficult to reduce to a few essential points the flowing
thought of our author. With a facility in expression inclin-
ing to laxness, and with a copiousness of thought somewhat
lacking in exactness, F6nelon easily repeats himself; he
returns to thoughts which have already been elaborated, and
does not restrict his easy flowing thought to a rigorous and
methodical plan. We may, however, distinguish three prin-
cipal parts in the thirteen chapters composing the work.
Chapters I. and II. are critical, and in these the ordinary
faults in the education of women are brought into sharp out-
line ; then in chapters III. to V11I. we have general
observations, and the statement of the principles and
methods that should be followed and applied in the education
of boys as in the education of girls ; and finally, from chap-
ter IX. to the end of the book, are all the special reflections
which relate exclusively to the merits and demerits, the
duties and the studies, of women.

177. Criticism on Monastic Education. — In the open-
ing of the treatise, as in another little essay ] that is usually
included in this volume, F6nelon expresses a preference for
a liberal and humane education, where the light of the world
penetrates, and which is not confined to the shadow of a
monastery : —

" I conclude that it is better for your daughter to be with
you than in the best convent that you could select. ... If
a convent is not well governed, she will see vanity honored,
which is the most subtile of all the poisons that can affect a

1 See the Advice of Ftfnelon, Archbishop Cambray, to a lady of quality
on the education of her daughter.

168 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

young girl. She will there hear the world spoken of as a
sort of enchanted place, and nothing makes a more perni-
cious impression than that deceptive picture of the world,
which is seen at a distance with admiration, and which
exaggerates all its pleasures without showing its disappoint-
ments and its sorrows. ... So I would fear a worldly con-
vent even more than the world itself. If, on the contrary,
a convent conforms to the fervor and regularity of its
constitution, a girl of rank will grow up there in a pro-
found ignorance of the world. . . . She leaves the convent
like one who had been confined in the shadows of a deep
cavern, and who suddenly returns to the full light of day.
Nothing is more dazzling than this sudden transition, than
this glare to which one has never been accustomed."

178. Refutation of the Prejudices relative to the
Education of Women. — It is, then, for mothers that F6ne-
lon writes his book, still more than for the convents that he
does not love. Woman is destined to play a grand part in
domestic life. " Can men hope for any sweetness in life, il
their most select companionship, which is that of marriagev
is turned into bitterness ? " Then let us cease to neglect the
education of women, and renounce the prejudices by which
we pretend to justify this* neglect. A learned woman, it is
said, is vain and affected ! But it is not proposed that
women shall engage in useless studies which would make
ridiculous pedants of them ; it is simply a question of teach-
ing them what befits their position in the household. Woman,
it is said again, ordinarily has a weaker intellect than man !
But this is the best of reasons why it is necessary to
strengthen her intelligence. Finally, woman should be
brought up in ignorance of the world ! But, replies F6nelon,
the world is not a phantom ; " it is the aggregate of all the

fUnelon. 169

families " ; and women have duties to fulfill in it which are
scarcely less important than those of men. u Virtue is not
less for women than for men."

179. Good Opinion of Human Nature. — There are two
categories of Christians : the first dwell particularly on the
original fall ; and the others attach themselves by preference
to the doctrine of redemption. For the first, the child is
deeply tainted with sin; his only inclinations are those
towards evil ; he is a child of wrath, who must be severely
punished. For the others, the child, redeemed by grace,
"has not yet a fixed tendency towards any object"; his
instincts have no need of being thwarted ; all they need is
direction. F£nelon follows this last mode of thinking, which
is the correct one. He does not fear self-love, and does not
interdict deserved praise. He counts upon the spontaneity
of nature. He regrets the education of the ancients, who
left more liberty to children. Finally, in his judgments on
human nature, he is influenced by a cheerful and amiable
optimism, and sometimes by an excess of complacency and
approbation.

180. Feebleness of the Child. — But if Fe"nelon believes
in the innocence of the child, he is not the less convinced of
its feebleness. Hence the measures he recommends to those
who have in charge the bringing up of children: " The
most important thing in the first years of infancy is the
management of the child's health. Through the selection of
food and the regime of a simple life, the body should be
supplied with pure blood. . . . Another thing of great im-
portance is to allow the organs to strengthen by holding
instruction in abeyance. . . ." The intellectual weakness of
the child comes for the most part from his inability to fix his
attention. " The mind of the child is like a lighted taper in

«gl- ■ ■ TTr -rr-fc- rr

170 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

a place exposed to the wind, whose flame is ever unsteady."
Hence the urgent necessity of not pressing children beyond
measure, of training them little by little as occasion permits,
" of serving and assisting Nature, without urging her."

181. Instructive Curiosity; Object Lessons. — If the
inattention of the child is a .great obstacle to his progress,
his natural curiosity, by way of compensation, is a potent
auxiliary. F6nelon knows the aid that can be derived from
this source, and we shall quote entire the remarkable passage
in which he indicates the means of calling it into exercise
through familiar lessons which are already real lessons on
objects : —

" Curiosity in children is a natural tendency which comes
as the precursor of instruction. Do not fail to take advan-
tage of it. For example, in the country they see a mill, and
they wish to know what it is. They should be shown the
manner of preparing the food that is needed for human use.
They notice harvesters, and what they are doing should be
explained to them ; also, how the wheat is sown, and how it
multiplies in the earth. In the city, they see shops where
different arts are practised, and where different wares are
sold. You should never be annoyed by their questions;
these are so many opportunities offered you by nature for
facilitating the work of instruction. Show that you take
pleasure in replying to such questions, and by this means
you will insensibly teach them how all the things are made
that serve human needs, and that give rise to commercial
pursuits."

182. Indirect Instruction. — Even when the child has
grown up, and is more capable of receiving direct instruc-
tion, Fe'nelon does not depart from his system of mild man-
agement and precaution. There are to be no didactic lessons,

FlfiNELON. 171

but as far as possible the instruction shall be indirect. This
is the great educational method of F6nelon, and we shall
soon see how he applied it to the education of the Duke of
Bourgogne. "The less formal our lessons are, the better."
However, there is need of discretion and prudence in the
choice of the first ideas, and the first pictures that are to be
impressed on the child's mind.

" Into a reservoir so little and so precious onty exquisite
things should be poured." The absence of pedantry is one
of the characteristics of F6nelon. " In rhetoric," he says,
" I will give no rules at all ; it is sufficient to give good
models." As to grammar, " I will give it no attention, or,
at least, but very little." Instruction must be insinuated,
not imposed. We must resort to unexpected lessons, — to
such as do not appear to be lessons. F6nelon here antici-
pates Rousseau, and suggests the system of pre-arranged
scenes and instructive artifices, similar to those invented for
imile. *

183. All Activity must be Pleasurable. — One of the
best qualities of F6nelon as a teacher is that of wishing that
study should be agreeable ; but this qualit}- becomes a fault
with him, because he makes an abuse of attractive instruc-
tion. We can but applaud him when he criticises the harsh
and crabbed pedagogy of the Middle Age, and depicts to us
those tiresome and gloomy class-rooms, where teachers are
ever talking to children of words and things of which they
understand nothing. " No liberty," he says, " no enjoy-
ment, but always lessons, silence, uncomfortable postures,
correction, and threats." And so there is nothing more just
than this thought: " In the current education, all the pleas-

1 For an example of this " artifice " carried to the extreme of absurdity,
see Hiss Worthington's translation of the Umile, p. 133. (P.)

--zL\=.- tt-i

172 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ure is pat on one side, and all that is disagreeable on the
other; the disagreeable is all put into study, and all the
pleasure is found in the diversions." F6nelon would change
all this. For study, as for moral discipline, " pleasure must
do all."

First, as to study, seek the means of making agreeable to
children whatever you require of them. "We must always
place before them a definite and agreeable aim to sustain
them in their work." " Conceal their studies under the
appearance of liberty and pleasure." Let their range of
vision extend itself a little, and their intelligence acquire
more breadth." u Mingle instruction with play." " I have
seen," he says again, " certain children who have learned to
read while playing."

For giving direction to the will, as for giving activity to
the intelligence, never subject children to cold and absolute
authority. Do not weary them by an indiscreet exactness.
Let wisdom appear to them only at intervals, and then with
a laughing face. Lead them by reason whenever it is pos-
sible for you to do it. Never assume, save in case of ex-
treme necessity, an austere, imperious air that makes them
tremble.

" You would close their heart and destroy their confidence,
without which there is no profit to hope for from education.
Make yourself loved by them. Let them feel at ease in
your presence, so that they do not fear to have you see their
faults."

Such, intellectually and morally, is the amiable discipline
dreamed of by F6nelon. It is evident that the imagination
of our author conducts him a little too far and leads him
astray. F6nelon sees everything on the bright side. In
education, such as this too complacent teacher dreams of it,
there is no difficulty, nothing laborious, no thorns. "All

rfNBLON. 173

•

metals there are gold ; all flowers there are roses." The
child is almost exempted from making effort : he shall not
be made to repeat the lesson he has heard, " for fear of an-
noying him." It is necessary that he learn everything while
playing. If he has faults, he must not be told of them, save
with precaution, " for fear of hurting his feelings." F6nelon
is decidedly too good-natured, too much given to cajolery.
In his effort to shun whatever is repulsive, he comes to ex-
clude whatever is laborious. He falls into an artless pleasantry
when he demands that the books of his pupil shall be
" beautifully bound, with gilt edges, and fine pictures."

184. Fables and History. — F6nelon's very decided
taste for agreeable studies, determines him to place in the
foremost rank of the child's intellectual occupations, fables
and history, because narratives please the infant imagination
above everything else. It is with sacred history especially
that he would have the attention occupied, always selecting
from it "that which presents the most pleasing and the
most magnificent pictures." He properly demands, more-
over, that the teacher " animate his narrative with lively and
familiar tones, and so make all his characters speak." By
this means we shall hold the attention of children without
forcing it; "for, once more," he says, " we must be very
careful not to impose on them a law to hear and to remember
these narratives."

185. Moral and Religious Education. — Contrary to
Rousseau's notions, F£nelon requires that- children should
early have their attention turned to moral and religious
truths. He would have this instruction given in the con-
crete, by means of examples drawn from experience. We
need not fear to speak to them of God as a venerable old
man, with white beard, etc. Whatever of the superstitious

174 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

there may be in these conceptions adapted to the infant
imagination will be corrected afterwards by the reason.
It is to be noted, moreover, that a religion of extremes is
not what F6nelon desires. He fears all exaggerations, even
that of piety. What he demands is a tempered devotion, a
reasonable Christianity. He is suspicious of false miracles.
"Accustom girls," he says, "not to accept thoughtlessly
certain unauthorized narrations, and not to practise certain
forms of devotion introduced bv an indiscreet zeal." But
possibly, without intending it, Flnelon himself is preparing
the way for the superstition he combats, when, for the pur-
pose of indoctrinating the child with the first principles of
religion, he presents to him the notion of God under sensi-
ble forms, and speaks to him of a paradise where all is of
gold and precious stones.

186. Studies Pkoper for Women. — So far, we have noted
in F6nelon's work only general precepts applicable to boys
and girls alike. But in the last part of his work, F6nelon
treats especially of women's own work, of the qualities pecu-
liarly their own, of their duties, and of the kind of instruction
thev need in order to fulfill them.

No one knew better than Fdnelon the faults that come to
woman through ignorance, — unrest, unemployed time, in-
ability to apply herself to solid and serious duties, frivolity,
indolence, lawless imagination, indiscreet curiosity concern-
ing trifles, levity, and talkativeness, sentimentalism, and,
what is remarkable with a friend of Madame Guvon, a mania
for theology: ''Women are too much inclined to speak
decisively on religious questions."

What does F6nelon propose as a corrective of these
mischievous tendencies? It niust.be confessed that the plan
of instruction which he proposes is still insufficient, and that
it scarcely accords with the ideal as we conceive it to-day.

FliNELON. 17l)

" Keep young girls," he says, " within the common
bounds, and teach them that there should be for their sex a
modesty with respect to knowledge almost as delicate as that
inspired by the horror of vice."

Is not this the same as declaring that knowledge is not
intended for women, and that it is repugnant to their deli-
cate nature?

When F^nelon tells us that a young girl ought to learn to
read and write correctly (and observe that account is taken
only of the daughters of the nobility and of the wealthy
middle classes) ; when he adds, let her also leant grammar,
we can infer from these puerile prescriptions, that F6nelon
does not exact any great things from women in the way of
knowledge. And yet, such as it is, this programme sur-
passed, in the time of F6nelon, the received custom, and
constituted a substantial progress. It was to state an excel-
lent principle, whose consequences should have been more
fullv analyzed, to demand that women should learn all that is
necessary for them to know, in order to bring up their
children. F6nelon should also be commended for having
recommended to young women the reading of profane
authors. He who bad been nourished on such literature, who
was, so to speak, but a Greek turned Christian, who knew
Homer so perfectly as to write the TelemacJius^ could not,
without "belying himself, advise against the studies from
which he had derived so much pleasure and profit. He also
recognized the utility of history, ancient and modern. He
grants a place to poetry and eloquence, provided an elimina-
tion be made of whatever would be dangerous to purity of
morals. What we comprehend less easily is that he con-
demns, as severely as he does, music, which, he says, " fur-
nishes diversions that are poisonous."

But these faults, this mistrust of too high an intellectual

^fr.1

176 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

culture, ought not to prevent us from admiring the Education
of Girls. Let us be grateful to F^nelon for having resisted,
in part, the prejudices of a period when young women were
condemned by their sex to an almost absolute ignorance ; for
having declared that he would follow a course contrary " to
that of alarm and of a superficial culture of the intelligence " ;
and finally, for having written a book, all the generous in-
spirations of which Madame de Maintenon herself has not
caught ; and of which we may say, finally, that almost every-
thing that it contains is excellent, and that it is defective
only in what it does not contain.

187. Madame de Lambert (1647-1733). — F6nelon, as
an educator of women, was the founder of a school. From
Rollin to Madame de Genlis, how many teachers have been
inspired by him! But in the front rank of his pupils we
must place Madame de Lambert. In her Counsels to her Son
(1701) , and especially in her Counsels to her DauglUer (1728),
she has taken up the tradition of Fe*nelon with greater
breadth and freedom of spirit. " As discreet as he with
respect to works of the imagination, of which she fears that
the reading may inflame the mind ; " more severe, even, than
he towards Racine, whose name she seems to hesitate to
pronounce ; disposed to exclude her daughter from " plays,
representations that move the passions, music, poetry, — all
belonging to the retinue of pleasure, — in other respects,
Madame de Lambert takes precedence and surpasses her
master " (Gr£ard). She reproaches Moliere for having
abandoned women to idleness, pastime, and pleasure. She
loves history, especially the history of France, " which no
one is permitted not to know." Finally, without entering
into the details of her protests, she makes a powerful plea for
the cause of woman's education ; she already belongs to the
eighteenth century.

F^NELON. 177

188. Education of the Duke of Bourgogke. — Singu-
larly enough, Fe*nelon did not make an application of his
ideas on education till after he had set them forth in a
theoretical treatise. The education of the Duke of Bour-
gogne permitted him to make a practical test of the rules
established in the Education of Girls. Nothing is of more
interest to the historian of pedagogy than the study of that
princely education into which F6nelon put all his mind and
heart, and which, by its results, at once brilliant and insuffi-
cient, exhibits the merits and the faults of his plan of
education.

189. Happy Results. — The Duke of Bourgogne with his
active intelligence, and also with his impetuous, indocile
character, and his fits of passion, was just the pupil for the
teacher who relied on indirect instruction. It would have
been unwise to indoctrinate with heavy didactic lessons a
spirit so impetuous. Through tact and industry, F6nelon
succeeded in captivating the attention of the prince, and in
skillfully insinuating into his mind knowledges that he would
probabty have rejected, had they been presented to it in a
scientific and pedantic form. " I have never seen a child,"
says Fe"nelon, " who so readily understood the finest things
of poetry and eloquence." Doubtless the happy nature of the
prince contributed a large part towards these results ; but
the art of Fe'nelon had also its share in the final account.

190. Moral Lessons; The Fables. — How shall morals
be taught to a violent and passionate child? Flnelon did
not think of preaching fine sermons to him ; but presented
to him, under the form of Fables, the moral precepts that he
wished to inculcate. The Fables of F^nelon certainly have
not, as a whole, a large literary value ; but, to form a just
appreciation of them, we must recollect that their merit is

-«*■

178 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

especially to be seen in the circumstances attending their
composition. Composed from day to day, they were adapted
to the circumstances of the life of the young prince ; they
were filled with allusions to his faults and his virtues, and
they conveyed to him, at the favorable moment, under the veil
of a pleasing fiction, the commendation or the censure that he
deserved. "One might," says the Cardinal de Bausset,
u follow the chronological order in which these pieces were
composed, by comparing them with the progress which age
and instruction must have made in the education of the
prince." The apologues, even with their very general morals,
will always have their value and place in the education of
children. What shall be said of the fables in which the
moral, wholly individual, was addressed exclusively to the
pupil for whom they were written, either on account of some
perversity that he let come to the surface, or of a rising virtue
that had been manifested in his conduct? It is thus that the
fable called The Capricious presented to the young duke the.
picture of his fits of passion, and taught him to correct him-
self ; that of the Bee and the Fly reminded him that the
most brilliant qualities serve no good purpose without mod-
eration. One day, in a fit of anger, the prince so far forgot
himself as to say to F6nelon, who was reproving him : " No,
no, Sir! I know who I am, and who you are!" The next
day, doubtless in response to this explosion of princely self-
conceit, Fe'nelon had him read the fable entitled Bacchus
and the Faun: " As Bacchus could not abide a malicious
jeerer always ready to make sport of his expressions that
were not correct and elegant, he said to him in a fiery and
important tone: u How dare you jeer the son of Jupiter?"
The Faun replied without emotion: u Alas ! how does the
son of Jupiter dare to commit any fault?"

Certain fables, of a more elevated tone than the others,

' F^NELON. 179

are not designed simply to correct the faults of children ;
they prepare the prince for the exercise of government.
Thus, the fable of the Bees disclosed to him the beauties of
an industrious State, and one where order reigns ; the Nile
and the Ganges taught him love for the people, u compassion
for humanity, harassed and suffering." Finally, from each
of these fables there issued a serious lesson uflider the pleas-
ing exterior of a witticism ; and more than^once, in reading
them, the prince doubtless felt an emotion of pleasure or of
shame, as he recognized himself in a commendation or in a
reproof addressed to the imaginary personages of the Fables.

191. Historical Lessons ; The Dialogues of the Dead. —
It is not alone in moral education, but in intellectual educa-
tion as well, that F6nelon resorts to artifice. The ingenious
preceptor has employed fiction in all its forms the better to
compass and dominate the spirit of his pupil. There are the
fables for moral instruction, the dialogues for the study of
history, and finally, the epopee in the Telemachus, for the
political education of the heir to the throne of France.

The Dialogues of the Dead put on the stage men of all
countries and conditions, Charles the Fifth and a monk of
Saint Just, Aristotle and Descartes, Leonardo da Vinci and
Ponssin, Caesar and Alexander. History proper, literature,
philosophy, the arts, were the subjects of conversations com-
posed, as in the Fables, at different intervals, according to
the progress and the needs of the Duke of Bourgogne.
These were attractive pictures that came from time to time
to be introduced into the scheme for the didactic study of
universal history. They should be taken only for what they
were intended to be, — the pleasing complement to a regular
and consecutive course of instruction. Fe*nelon knew better
than any one else that history is interesting in itself, and

180 THE HISTOBY OP PEDAGOGY.

that to make the study of it interesting, it is sufficient to pre-
sent it to the childish imagination with clearness, with vivac-
ity, and with feeling.

192. Variety op Disciplinary Agents. — The education
of the Duke of Bourgogne is the practical application of
Finelon's principles as to the necessity of employing an
insinuating gentleness rather than an authority which dryly
commands. There are to be no sermons, no lectures, but
indirect means of moral instruction. The Duke of Bourgogne
was irascible. Instead of reading to him Seneca's treatise
On Anger, this is Fenelon's device : One morning he has
a cabinet-maker come to his apartments, whom he has in-
structed for the purpose. The prince enters, stops, and
looks at the tools. " Go about your business, Sir," cries
the workman, who assumes a most threatening air, " for I
am not responsible for what I may do ; when I am in a pas-
sion, I break the arms and legs of those whom I meet." We
guess the conclusion of the story, and how, by this experi-
mental method, F^nelon contrives to teach the prince to
guard against anger and its effects.

When indirect means did not answer, Fe'nelon employed
others. It is thus that he made frequent appeals to the self-
love of his pupil ; he reminded him of what he owed to his
name and to the hopes of France. He had him record his
word of honor that he would behave well: "I promise the
Abbe1 F£nelon, on the word of a prince, that I will obey
him, and that, in case I break my word, I will submit to any
kind of punishment and dishonor. Given at Versailles, this
29th day of November, 1689. Signed: Louis." At other
times Fe'nelon appealed to his feelings, and conquered him
by his tenderness and goodness. It is in such moments of
tender confidence that the prince said to him, "I leave the

FfcNELON. 181

Duke of Bourgogne outside the door, and with you I am but
the little Louis." Finally, at other times, F6nelon resorted
to the harshest punishments ; he sequestered him, took away
his books, and interdicted all conversation.

193. Diversified Instruction. — By turns serious and
tender, mild and severe, in his moral discipline, F6nelon was
not less versatile in his methods of instruction. His domi-
nant preoccupation was to diversify studies — the term is
his own. If a given subject of study was distasteful to his
pupil, Fe'nelon passed to another. Although the success of
his tutorship seems to be a justification of his course, there
is ground for thinking that, as a general rule, F^nelon's
precept is debatable, and that his example should not be fol-
lowed by making an over-use of amusement and agreeable
variety. F6nelon has too often made studies puerile through
his attempts to make them agreeable.

194. Results of the Education of the Duke of Bour-
gogne. — It seems like a paradox to say that F6nelon was
too successful in his educational apostleship ; and yet this is
the truth. Under his hand — "the ablest hand that ever
was," says Saint Simon — the prince became in all respects
the image of his master. He was a bigot to the extent of
being unwilling to attend a royal ball because that worldly
entertainment coincided with the religious celebration of the
Epiphany ; he was rather a monk than a king ; he was desti-
tute of all spirit of initiative and liberty, irresolute, absorbed
in his pious erudition and mystic prayers ; finally, he was
another Telemachus, who could not do without his Mentor.
F£nelon had monopolized and absorbed the will of his pupil.
He had forgotten that the purpose of education is to form,
not a pale copy, an image of the master, but a man inde-
pendent and free, capable of sufficing for himself.

182 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

195. The Telemachus. — The Telemachus, composed
from 1694 to 1698, was designed for the Duke of Bour-
gogne ; but he was not to read it, and did not read it, in
fact, till after his marriage. Through this epopee in prose,
this romance borrowed from Homer, F6nelon purposed to
continue the moral education of his pupil. But the book
abounds in sermons. " I could have wished," said Boileau,
" that the Abbe" had made his Mentor a little less a preacher,
and that the moral of the book could have been distributed
a little more imperceptibly, and with more art." At least,
they are beautiful and excellent sermons, aimed against lux-
ury, the spirit of conquest, the consequences of absolute
power, and against ambition and war. Louis XIV. had
probably read the Telemachus, and had comprehended the
allusions concealed in the description of the Republic of
Salentum, when he said of F^nelon that he was " the most
chimerical spirit in his kingdom." Besides the moral lesson
intended for princes, the Telemachus also contains bold
reflections on political questions. For example, note the
conception of a system of public instruction, very new for
the time : " Children belong less to their parents than to the
Republic, and ought to be educated by the State. There
should be established public schools in which are taught the
fear of God, love of country, and respect for the laws."

196. Bossuet and Fenelon. — Bossuet, as preceptor of
the Dauphin,1 was far from having the same success as
F6nelon. Nothing was overlooked, however, in the educa-
tion of the son of Louis XIV. ; and the Letter to Pope
Innocent XL (1679), in which Bossuet presents his scheme
of study, gives proof of high fitness for educational work.

* Eldest son of Louis XIV., born Nov. 1, 1G61; died April 14, 1711.

F^NELON. 188

He recommends assiduous labor, no leaves of absence,
and play mingled with study. "A child must play and
enjoy himself," he says. Emulation excited by the presence
of other children, who came to compete with the prince ; a
thorough reading of the Latin authors, explained, not in
fragmeuts, as with the Jesuits, but in complete texts ; a cer-
tain breadth of spirit, since the study of the comic poets —
of Terence in particular — was expressly recommended ; a
familiarity with the Greeks and the Romans, "especially
with the divine Homer " ; the grammar learned in French ;
history, " the mistress of human life," studied with ardor,
and presented, first, in its particular facts, in the lessons
which the Dauphin drew up, and then in its general laws,
the spirit of which has been transmitted to us in the Dis-
course on Universal Ilistoi-y; geography learned " while
playing and making imaginary journeys " ; philosophy ; and
finally the sciences, brilliantly presented, — with such a pro-
gramme, and under such a master, it seems that the Dauphin
ought to have been a student of the highest rank ; but he
remained a mediocre pupil, " absorbed," to use Saint
Simon's expression, " in his own fat and gloom."

It must certainly be acknowledged that, notwithstanding
his excellent intentions, Bossuet was in part responsible for
the fact that these results were insufficient, or, rather, nil.
He did not know how u to condescend," as Montaigne says,
" to the boyish ways of his pupil." In dealing with him he
proceeded on too high a plane. "The austere genius of
Bossuet," says Henry Martin, u did not know how to be-
come small with the small." Bossuet lacked in flexibility
and tact, precisely the qualities that characterized F6nelon.
Bossuet, in education, as in everything else, is grandeur,
noble and sublime bearing ; F^nolon, as preceptor, is ad-
dress, insinuating grace. That which dominates in the one

184 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

is authority, a majesty almost icy; that which constitutes
the charm of the other is versatility, a persuasive gentleness,
a penetrating tenderness.

To be just, however, it must be added that the faults were
not all on Bossuet's side. In that education, stamped with
failure, the pupil was the great culprit, with his ungrateful
and rebellious nature. " My lord has much spirit," said a
courtier, " but he has it concealed.99 For one not a courtier,
does it not amount to the same thing to have one's spirit
concealed and to have none at all ?

197. Sphere and Limits op Education. — It seems that,
on one page of the Education of Girls, F£nelon has traced
in advance, and by a sort of divination, the parallels of the
two educations of the Dauphin and of the Duke of Bour-
gogne respectively. How can we fail to recognize the
anticipated portrait of F£nelon's future pupil in this passage,
written in 1680?

"It must be acknowledged, that of all the difficulties in
education, none is comparable to that of bringing up chil-
dren who are lacking in sensibility. The naturally quick
and sensitive are capable of terrible mistakes, — passion and
presumption do so betray them ! But they have also great
resources, and when far gone often come to themselves. In-
struction is a germ concealed within them, which starts, and
sometimes bears fruit, when experience comes to the aid of
knowledge, and the passions lose their power. At least,
we know how to make them attentive, and to awaken their
curiosity. We have the means of interesting them, and of
stimulating them through their sense of honor ; but, on the
other hand, we can gain no hold on indolent natures."

On the other hand, all that follows applies perfectly to the
Dauphin, the indocile pupil of Bossuet : —

fUnelon. 185

"... All the thoughts of these are distractions ; they are
never where they ought to be ; they cannot be touched to
the quick even by corrections ; they hear everything and feel
nothing. This indolence makes the pupil negligent, and
disgusts him with whatever he does. Under these conditions,
the best planned education runs the risk of failure. . . .
Many people, who think superficially, conclude from this
poor success that nature does all for the production of men
of merit, and that education has no part in the result ; but
the only conclusion to be drawn from the case is, that there
are natures like ungrateful soils, upon which culture has but
little effect."1

Nothing better can be said, and F6nelon has admirably
summed up the lesson that should be drawn from these two
princely illustrations of the seventeenth century. If the
sorry results of Bossuet's efforts should inspire the educator
with some modesty, and prove to him that the best grain
does not grow in an in grate soil, is not the brilliant educa-
tion of the Duke of Bourgogne, which developed almost all
the virtues in a soul adiere nature seemed to have planted
the seeds of all the vices, of a nature to increase the con-
fidence of teachers, and show them what can be done by the
art of a shrewd and able teacher ?

[198. Analytical Summary. — 1. Education as a plastic
art has never been exhibited in a more favorable light than
in this history of Fe'nelon's teaching; and perhaps the
resistance that sometimes sets at defiance the teacher's art
could not be better illustrated than in the case of Bossuet's
royal pupil.

2. These two historical illustrations also exhibit the play
of the two factors that enter into education, — nature and

1 Education of Girls, Chap. v.

186

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

art. Flnelon's teaching illustrates the potency of human
art in controlling, modifying, almost re-creating a work of
nature. The Duke of Bourgogne was almost re-made to
order.

3. Here is also an illustrious example of the attempt to
make education a pastime, to divest it of all constraint, to
make learning run parallel with the pupil's inclinations. In
the natural recoil from a dry and formal teaching that had
to be enforced against the pupil's will, it is sometimes for-
gotten that a large part of life's duties lie outside of our
inclinations.

4. The policy of leading pupils at such a distance that
they seem to themselves to be following their own initiative,
is one of the highest of the teacher's arts.

5. The inculcation of moral lessons through fables, after
F£nelon's plan, is a practice that modern teaching might
profitably adopt.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
DESCARTES, MALEBRANCHE, LOCKE.

descartes, malebranche, locke; descartes (1596-1650); the dis-
course of method; criticism of the current education j
great principles of modern pedagogy j objective and sub-
jective pedagogy; malebrancne (1638-1715); sense instruction
condemned; influence of environment; locke (1632-1704); the
thoughts concerning education j physical education ; the
hardening process; hygienic paradoxes; moral education
more important than instruction; sense of honor the
principle of moral discipline j condemnation of corporal
punishment; intellectual education; utilitarian studies;
programme of studies; attractive studies; should a trade
be learned? working schools; locke and rousseau; ana-
lytical summary.

199. Descartes, Malebranche, and Locke. — Descartes,
a spiritualist ; Malebranche, an idealist ; Locke, a sensation-
alist, — such are the philosophers of the seventeenth century
who are related to the history of pedagogy. And yet the
first two have only a remote connection with it, through their
exposition of some of its general principles. Locke is the
only one who has resolutely approached educational ques-
tions in a special treatise that has become a classic in Eng-
lish pedagogy.

200. Descartes (1596-1650). — Descartes, the father of
modern philosophy, does not generally figure in the lists
drawn up by the historians of education ; and yet, in our

188 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

opinion, there is no thinker who has exercised a more deci-
sive influence on the destinies of education. The author of
the Discourse of Method has, properly speaking, no system
of pedagogy, having never directly treated of educational
affairs ; but through his philosophical principles he has
changed the direction of human thought, and has intro-
duced into the study of known truths, as well as into the
search for new truths, a method and a taste for clearness
and precision, which have profited instruction in all of its
departments.

" We now find," says Rollin, " in the discourses from the
pulpit and the bar, and in the dissertations on science, an
order, an exactness, a propriety, and a solidity, which were
formerly not so common. Many believe, and not without
reason, that we owe this manner of thinking and writing to
the extraordinary progress which has been made within a
a century in the study of philosophy." l

201. The Discourse op Method (1637). — Every system
of philosophy contains in germ a special system of educa-
tion. From the mere fact that philosophers define, each in
his own way, the nature and the destiny of man, they come
to different conclusions as to the aims and methods of educa-
tion. Only a few of them have taken pains to deduce from
their principles the consequences that are involved in them ;
but all of them, whether thev will or no, are educators.

Such is the case of Descartes. In writing, in the first
part of his Discourse of Method, his Considerations Touching
the Sciences, Descartes has written a chapter on practical
pedagogy, and through the general rules of his logic, he
has, in effect, founded a new theory of education.

1 Rollin, Trait* de* ttudes, Tome IV. p. 335.

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 189

202. Criticism op the Current Education. — Descartes
has given a long account of the education which he had re-
ceived among the Jesuits, at the college of La Fleche, and
this account furnished him occasion, either to criticize the
methods in use, or to indicate his personal views and his
educational preferences.

" From my infancy letters have been my intellectual
nourishment. . . . But as soon as I had completed the
course of study required for the doctor's degree, I found
myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it
seemed to me that I had received no other profit from my
efforts at learning than the discovery of my growing igno-
rance."

In other terms, Descartes ascertained that his studies,
though pursued with ardor for eight years in one of the
most celebrated schools of Europe, had not permitted him
to acquire " a clear and sure knowledge of all that is useful
for living." This was to condemn the barren teaching and
the formal instruction of the Jesuits. Passing in review the
different parts of the instruction, Descartes first remarks
that it was wrong to make an abuse of the reading of j
ancient books ; for, to hold converse with the men of other!
centuries "is about the same as travelling; and when we
spend too much time in tra veiling, we become strangers in|
our own country." Then he complains that he was not
made to know " the true use of mathematics," since he had
been shown their application only to the mechanic arts. He
nearly condemns rhetoric and poetics, since eloquence and
poetry are "intellectual gifts rather than the fruits of study."
The ancient languages — and in this he gravely deceives
himself — seem to him useful only for the understanding of
authors. He does not admit that the study of Latin or
Greek can contribute to intellectual development.

• 1 "■-■■KS

190 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

From these reflections there seems to issue the notion of
an instruction more solid, more positive, more directly use-
ful for the purposes of life, than that which had been
brought into fashion by the Jesuits. However, Descartes
does not eliminate the ordinary studies, as eloquence,
"which has incomparable power and beauty"; poetry,
* ' which has an enchanting tenderness and melody " ; the
reading of the classics, which is "a studied conversation
with the most estimable men of past centuries " ; history,
" which forms the judgment" ; fables, whose "charm arouses
the spirit." But he would give to all these exercises a more
practical turn, a more utilitarian character, a more positive
application.

203. Great Principles of Modern Pedagogy. — With-
out intending it, without any other thought than that of
modifying the false direction of the mind in the search for
scientific truth, Descartes has stated some of the great prin-
ciples of modern pedagogy.

The first is the equal aptitude of minds to know and com-
prehend. " Good sense," says Descartes, " is the thing of
all else in this world that is most equally distributed.1 . . .
The latent ability to judge well, to distinguish the true from
the false, is naturally equal among all men." What is this
but saying that all men are entitled to instruction ? In a cer-
tain sense, what are the innumerable primary schools scattered
over the surface of the civilized globe, but the application
and the living commentary of Descartes' ideas on the equal
distribution of good sense and reason among men ?

1 I am in doubt whether M. Compayre* intends to sanction this doctrine
or not. This is an anticipation of one of Jacotot's paradoxes: " All human
beings are equally capable of learning." The verdict of actual teachers
Is undoubtedly to the effect that there are manifold differences in the
ability of pupils to know, comprehend, and judge. (P.)

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 191

But, adds Descartes, " it is not enough to have a sound
mind ; the principal thing is to make a good use of it." In
other words, nature is not sufficient in herself ; she needs to
be guided and directed. Method is the essential thing ; it
has a sovereign importance. Success will depend less on
natural qualities, such as imagination, memory, quickness
of thought, than upon the rules of intellectual direction
imposed on the mind. Education has a far greater part
than nature in the formation and development of accurate
and upright intelligences.

Another Cartesian principle is the substitution of free
inquiry and reflective conviction for blind beliefs founded
upon authority. Descartes promulgated this famous rule of
his method : "The first precept is, never to receive anything
for true that I do not know, upon evidence, to be such ; . . .
and to comprise no more within my judgments than what is
presented so clearly and distinctly to my mind that I have
no occasion to call it in question." In this declaration he
has not only reformed science and revolutionized philoso-
phy, but has banished from the school the old routine, the
mechanical processes and exercises of pure memory, and
has made a demand for rational methods that excite the
intelligence, awaken clear and distinct ideas, and provoke
judgment and reflection. Of course, it is not proposed to
make a little Descartes out of every child, despoiling him
of received beliefs in order to construct personal opinions
de novo ; but the rule of evidence, applied with moderation
and discretion, is none the less an excellent pedagogical
precept, which will never be disallowed by those who wish
to make of the child something more than a mere machine.

204. Objective and Subjective Pedagogy. — We have
now reached a place where we may call into notice two dif-
ferent tendencies, equally legitimate, which we shall find,

ri5»r» -r

192 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

with exaggerations that compromise their utility, in the
practice of modern teachers. There are those who wish
above all to develop the intelligence ; and there are others
who are preoccupied with furnishing the mind with a stock
of positive knowledge. The first conceive instruction as
taking place, as it were, through what is within, through the
development of the internal qualities of precision and meas-
ure ; the others are preoccupied only with the instruction
that takes place through what is without, through an ex-
tended erudition, through an accumulation of knowledges.
In a word, if I may be allowed the expression, some affect
a subjective pedagogy, and others an objective pedagogy.
Bacon is of the latter number. That which preoccupies the
great English logician above everything else is the exten-
sion of observations and experiments. "To reason without
knowing anything of that which we reason upon," he says,
" is as if we were to weigh or measure the wind." Des-
cartes, however, who has never neglected the study of facts,
esteems them less as material to be accumulated in the mind,
than as instruments for training the mind itself. He would
have repudiated those teachers of our day who seem to
think the whole thing is done when there has been made to
pass before the mental vision of the child an interminable
series of object-lessons, without the thought of developing
that intelligence itself.

205. Malebranche (1638-1715). — We must not expect
great pedagogical wisdom from a mystical dreamer and reso-
lute idealist, who has imagined the vision of all things in
God. Besides, Malebranche has given only a passing atten-
tion to things relating to education. The member of a
teaching congregation, the Oratory, he has not taught; and
the whole effort of his inind was spent in the search for
metaphysical truth. Nevertheless, it is interesting to stop

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY. 193

for a moment this visionary who traverses the earth with
eyes fixed on the heavens, and inquire of him what he
thinks of the very practical question, education.

206. Sense Instruction condemned. — Malebranche will
reply to us, with the prejudices of a metaphysician of the
idealist type, that the first thing to do is to nourish the child
on abstract truths. In his view, souls have no age, so to
speak, and the infant is already capable of ideal contempla-
tion. Then let sense instruction be abandoned, " for this
is the reason why children leave metaphysical thoughts, to
apply themselves to sensations." Is it objected that the
child does not seem very well adapted to meditation on
abstract truths? It is not so much the fault of nature,
Malebranche will reply, as of the bad habits he has con-
tracted. There is a means of remedying this ordinary inca-
pacity of the child.

" If we kept children from fear, from desires, and from
hope, if we did not make them suffer pain, if we removed
them as far as possible from their little pleasures, then we
might teach them, from the moment they knew how to speak,
the most difficult and the most abstract things, or at least the
concrete mathematics, mechanics."

Does Malebranche hope, then, to suppress, in the life of
the child, pleasure and pain, and triumph over the tendencies
which ordinary education has developed ?

" As an ambitious man who had just lost his fortune and
his credit would not be in a condition to resolve questions in
metaphysics or equations in algebra, so children, on whose
brains apples and sugar-plums make as profound impressions
as are made on those of men of forty years by offices and
titles, are not in a condition to hear the abstract truths that
are taught them."

Consequently, we must declare war against the senses, and

194 THE HiSTOKY OF PEDAGOGY.

exclude, for example, all sorts of sensible rewards. Only,
by a singular contradiction, Malebrancbe upholds material
punishments in the education of children. The only thing
of sense he retains is the rod.1

207. Influence of Material Environment. — Another
contradiction more worthy of note is, that, notwithstanding his
idealism, Malebranche believes in the influence of physical
conditions on the development of the soul. He does not go
so far as to say with the materialists of our time, that " man
is what he eats " ; but he accords a certain amount of influ-
ence to nourishment. He speaks cheerfully of wine and of
" those wild spirits who do not willingly submit to the orders
of the will." He never applied himself to work without hav-
ing partaken of coffee. The soul, in his view, is not a force
absolutely independent and isolated, which develops through
an internal activity: u we are bound," he says, 4fcto every-
thing, and stand in relations to all that surrounds us."

208. Locke (1632-1704). — Locke is above all else a
psychologist, an accomplished master in the art of analyzing
the"orSTn of ideas and the elements of the mental life. He
is the head of that school of empirical psycholog}* that rallies
around its standard, Condillac in France, Herbart in Ger-
many, and in Great Britain Hume and other Scotchmen, and

1 Is not the antagonism pointed out by Malebranche more serious than
M. Compayre' seems to think? If the current of mental activity sets
strongly towards the feelings, emotions, or senses, it is thereby diverted
from the purely intellectual processes, such as reflection and judgment
The mind of the savage is an example of what comes from " following the
order of nature " in an extreme training of the senses. On the nature and
extent of this antagonism, the following authorities may be consulted:
Hamilton. Metaphysics, p. JJ3<> ; Mansel, Metaphysics, pp.68, 70, 77 ; Bain,
The Senses and the Intellect, pp. 31*2-394: ; Bain, Education as a Science,
pp. 17, 29, 37 ; Spencer, Principles of Psychology, pp.9&-99. (P.)

PHILOSOPHERS OF TfiE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 195

the most of modern philosophers. But from psychology to
pedagogy the transition is easy, and Locke had to make no
great effort to become an authority in education after having
been an accomplished philosopher.

209. Some Thoughts on Education (1693). — The book
which he published towards the close of his life, under the
modest title Some Thoughts concerning Education, was the
summing up of a long experience. A studious pupil at
Westminster, he conceived from his early years, as Descartes
did at La Fleche, a keen sense of repugnance for a purely
formal classical instruction, and for language studies in gen-
eral, in which, nevertheless, he attained distinction. A
model student at the University of Oxford, he there became
an accomplished humanist, notwithstanding the practical and
positive tendency of his mind that was already drawn to-
wards the natural sciences and researches in physics and in
medicine. Made Bachelor of Arts in 1656, and Master of Arts
in 1658, he passed directly from the student's bench. to the
professor's chair. He was successively lecturer and tutor in
Greek, but this did not prevent him later from eliminating
Hellenism almost completely from his scheme of liberal educa-
tion. Then he became lecturer on rhetoric, and finally on
moral philosophy. When, in 1666, he discontinued his schol-
astic life to mingle in political and diplomatic affairs, he at
least carried from his studious residence at Oxford, the germs
of the most of his ideas on education. He sought occasion to
make an application of them in the education of private indi-
viduals, of whom he was the inspirer and counsellor, if not the
official director. In the families of friends and hosts that he
frequented, for example, in that of Lord Shaftesbury, he made
a close study of children ; and it is in studying them, and in
following with a sagacious eye the successive steps of their
improvement in disposition and mind, that he succeeded in

MftirtMHpMtaJAii

196 THE HI8TOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

acquiring that educational experience which has left a trace
on each page of the Thoughts concerning Education. This
book, in fact, is the issue of one of Locke's experiences as an
assistant in the education of the children of his friends.
Towards the year 1684-5, he addressed to his friend Clarke
a series of letters which, retouched and slightly modified,
have become a classical work, simple and familiar in style, a
little disconnected, perhaps, and abounding in repetitions,
but the substance of which is excellent, and the ideas as
remarkable, in general, for their originality as for their just-
ness. Translated into French in 1695 by P. Coste, and re-
printed several times in the lifetime of their author, the
TJioughts concerning Education have had a universal success.
They have exercised an undoubted influence on the educa-
tional writings of Rousseau and Helvetius. They have
received the enthusiastic praise of Leibnitz, who placed this
work above that on the Human Understanding. " I am
persuaded," said H. Marion recently, in his interesting study
on Locke, " that if an edition of the TJioughts were to be
published to-day in a separate volume, it would have a
marked success." l

210. Analysis op the Thoughts concerning Educa-
tion. — Without pretending to give in this place a detailed
analysis of Locke's book, which deserves to be read entire,
and which discusses exhaustivelv or calls to notice, one after
another, almost all important educational questions, we shall
attempt to make known the essential principles which are to
be drawn from it. These are : 1. in physical education, the
hardening process; 2. in intellectual education, practical
utility ; 3. in moral education, the principle of honor, set up
y as a rule for the free self-government of man.

1 John Locke. His Life and his Work. Paris, 1878.

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 197

211. Physical Education; The Hardening Process. —
The ideal of education, according to Locke, is " a sound
mind in a sound body*" A physician like Rabelais, the
author of the Thoughts concerning Education had special
competence in questions of physical education. But a love
for the paradoxical, and an excessive tendency towards the
hardening of the body, have marred, on this point, the re-
flections of the English philosopher. He has summed up
his precepts on this subject in the following lines : —

44 The whole is reduced," he says, " to a small number of
rules, easy to observe ; much air, exercise, and sleep ; a
simple diet, no wine or strong liquors ; little or no medicine
at all ; garments that are neither too tight nor too warm ;
finally, and above all, the habit of keeping the head and feet
cold, of often bathing the feet in cqld water and exposing
them to dampness." 1 But it is necessary to enter some-
what into details, and to examine closely some of these
ideas.

Locke is the first educator to write a consecutive and
methodical dissertation on the food, clothing, and sleep of
children. It is he who has stated this principle, afterwards
taken up by Rousseau : " Leave to nature the care of form-
ing the body as she thinks it ought to be done." Hence, no
close-fitting garments, life in the open air and in the sun ;
children brought up like peasants, inured to heat and cold,
playing with head and feet bare. In the matter of food,
Locke forbids sugar, wine, spices, and flesh, up to the age
of three or four. As to fruits, which children often crave
with an inordinate appetite, a fact that is not surprising, he
pleasantly remarks, " since it was for an apple that our first

parents lost paradise," he makes a singular choice. He

— - —

1 Thoughts, translation by G. Corapayrd, p. 57.

198 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

authorizes strawberries, gooseberries, apples, and pears ; but
he interdicts peaches, plums, and grapes. To excuse Locke's
prejudice against the grapes, it must be recollected that he
lived in England, a country in which the vine grows with
difficulty, and of which an Italian said, "The only ripe fruit I
have seen in England is a baked apple." As to meals,
Locke does not think it important to fix them at stated hours.
Fe"nelon, on the contrary, more judiciously requires that the
hour for repasts be absolutely determined. But this is not
the onlv instance in which Locke's wisdom is at fault.
What shall be said of that hygienic fancy which consists in
allowing the child " to have his shoes so thin, that they
might leak and let in water, whenever he comes near it " ?

It is certain that Locke treats children with an unheard-of
severity, all the more surprising in the case of one who had
an infirm and delicate constitution that could be kept in
repair only through precaution aud management. I do not
know whether the consequences of the treatment which he
proposes, applied to the letter, might not be disastrous.
Madame de S£vign6 was more nearly right when she wrote :
'• If your son is very robust, a rude education is good ; but
if he is delicate, I think that in your attempts to make him
robust, you would kill him." The body, says Locke, may be
accustomed to everything. We may reply to this by quoting
an anecdote of Peter the Great, who one day took it into his
head, it is said, that it would be best for all the sailors to
form the habit of drinking salt water. Immediately he pro-
mulgated an edict which ordered that all naval cadets should
henceforth drink only sea-water. The boys all died, and
there the experiment stopped.

Still, without subscribing to Locke's paradoxes, which
have found no one to approve of them except Rousseau, we
should recollect that in his precepts on physical education as

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 199

a whole, the author of the Thoughts deserves oar commenda-
tion for having recommended a manly course of discipline,
and a frugal diet, for having discarded fashionable conven-
tionalities and drawn near to nature, and for having con*
demned the refinements of an indolent mode of life, and for
being inspired by the simple and manly customs of England.

212. Moral Education. — In the thought of Locke, moral j
education takes precedence of instruction properly so called : v

"That which a gentleman ought to desire for his son,
besides the fortune he leaves him is, 1. virtue ; 2. prudence ;
3. good manners ; 4. instruction."

Virtue and prudence — that is, moral qualities and prac-
tical qualities — are of first consideration. "Instruction,"
says Locke again, " is but the least part of education." In
the book of Thoughts, where repetitions abound, there is
nothing more frequently repeated than the praise of virtue.

Doubtless it may be thought that Locke, like Herbert
Spencer in our own day, cherishes prejudices with respect to
instruction, and that he does not take sufficient account of
the moralizing influence exercised over the heart and will by
intellectual enlightenment ; but, even with this admission, we
must thank Locke for having protested against the teachers
who think they have done all when they have embellished the
memory and developed the intelligence.

The grand thing in education is certainly to establish good )
moral habits, to cultivate noble sentiments, and, finally, to ]
form virtuous characters. *

213. Honor, the Principle of Moral Discipline. —
But after having placed moral education in its proper rank,
which is the first, it remains to inquire what shall be the
principles and the methods of this education. Shall it be
the maxim of utility, as Rousseau requires ? Must the child,

200 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

before acting, inquire what is the good of this? Cut bono?
No ; utilitarian in instruction and in intellectual education, as
we have just seen, Locke is not so in moral education.
Shall it be fear, shall it be the authority of the teacher or of
parents, founded on punishments, upon the slavish feeling
of terror ? Still less. Locke reproves repressive discipline,
and is not inclined to chastisements. Shall it be affection,
the love of parents, the aggregate of tender sentiments?
Locke scarcely speaks of them. Of too little sensibility him-
self, he does not seem to think of all that can be done through
the sensibility of the child.

Locke, who perhaps is wrong in treating the child too
early, as though he were a man, who does not take sufficient
account of all the feebleness that is in infant nature, appeals
from the first to the sentiment of honor, and to the fear of
shame, that is, to emotions which, I fear, by their very
nobleness, are above the powers of the child. Honor, which
is, in fact, but another name for duty, and the ordinary
synonym of virtue, — honor may assuredly be the guide of
an adult and already trained conscience ; but is it not chi-
merical to hope that the child, from his earliest years, will be
sensible to the esteem or the contempt of those who surround
him ? If it were possible to inspire a child with a regard for
his reputation, I grant with Locke that we might henceforth
u make of him whatever we will, and teach him to love all
the forms of virtue " ; but the question is to know whether
we can succeed in this, and I doubt it, notwithstanding the
assurances of Locke.

Kant has very justly said : —

44 It is labor lost to speak of duty to children. They com-
prehend it only as a thing whose transgression is followed by
the ferule. ... So one ought not to try to call into play with
children the feeling of shame, but to wait for this till the

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBr. 201

period of youth comes. In fact, it cannot be developed in
them till the idea of honor has already taken root there."

Locke is the dupe of the same illusion, both when he
expects of the child enough moral power so that the sense of
honor suffices to govern him, and when he counts enough on
his intellectual forces to desire to reason with him from the
moment he knows how to speak. For forming good habits
in the child, and preparing him for a life of virtue, there is
full need of all the resources that nature and art put at the
disposal of the educator, — sensibility under all its forms,
the calculations of self-interest, the lights of the intelligence.
It is only little by little, and with the progress of age, that
an exalted principle, like the sentiment of honor or the senti-
ment of duty, will be able to emerge from out the mobile
humors of the child, and dominate his actions like a sovereign
law. The moral pedagogy of Locke is certainly faulty in that
it is not sufficiently addressed to the heart, and to the
potency of loving, which is already so great in the child. I
add, that in his haste to emancipate the child, to treat him as
a reasonable creature, and to develop in him the principles
of self-government, Locke was wrong in proscribing almost
absolutely the fear of punishment. It is good to respect the
liberty and the dignity of the man that is in the child, but it
is not necessary that this respect degenerate into supersti-
tion ; and it is not sure that to train firm and robust wills, it
is necessary to have them early affranchised from all fear
and all constraint.

214. Condemnation of Corporal Punishment. — It is
undeniable that Locke has not sufficiently enlarged the bases
of his theory of rcoral discipline ; but if he has rested incom-
plete in the positive part of his task, if he has not advised
all that should be done, he has been more successful in the

202 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

negative part, that which consists in eliminating all that
ought not to be done. The chapters devoted to punishments
in general, and in particular to corporal punishments, count
among the best in the Thovglits. Roll in and Rousseau have
often copied from them. It is true that Locke himself has
borrowed the suggestion of them from Montaigne. The
"severe mildness" which is the pedagogical rule of the
author of the Essays, is also the rule of Locke. It is in
accordance with this that Locke has brought to bear on the
rod the final judgment of good sense : " The rod is a slavish
discipline, which makes a slavish temper." He has yielded
to the ideas of his time on only one point, when he admits
one exception to the absolute interdiction of the rod, and
tolerates its use in extreme cases to overcome the obstinate
and rebellious resistance of the child. This is going too far
without any doubt; but to do justice to the boldness of
Locked views, we must consider how powerful the custom
then was, and still is, in England, in a country where the
heads of institutions think themselves obliged to notify the
public, in the advertisements published in the journals, that
the interdiction of corporal punishment counts among the
advantages of their schools. "It is difficult to conceive
the perseverance with which English teachers cling to the old
and degrading customs of corrections by the rod. ... A
more astonishing thing is that the scholars seem to hold to it
as much as the teachers." "In 1818," relates one of the
former pupils of Charterhouse, " our head master, Doctor
Russell, who had ideas of his own, resolved to abolish
corporal punishment and substitute for it a fine. Everybody
resisted the innovation. The rod seemed to us perfectly
consistent with the dignity of a gentleman ; but a fine, for
shame ! The school rose to the crv : ' Down with the fine !
Long live the rod ! ' The revolt triumphed, and the rod was

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 203

solemnly restored. Then we were glad- hearted over the
affair. On the next day after the fine was abolished, we
found, on entering the class-room, a superb forest of birches,
and the two hours of the session were conscientiously em-
ployed in making use of them."1,2

215. Intellectual Education. — In what concerns intel-
lectual education, Locke manifestly belongs to the school,
small in his time, but more and more numerous to-day, of
utilitarian teachers. lie would train, not men of letters, or
of science, but practical men, armed for the battle of life, pro-
vided with all the knowledge they will need in order to keep
their accounts, administer their fortune, satisfy the require-
ments of their profession, and, finally, to fulfill their duties as
men and citizens. In a word, he wrote for a nation of trades-
men and citizens.

216. Utilitarian Studies. — An undeniable merit of
Locke is that of having reacted against a purely formal in-
struction, which substitutes for the acquisition of positive
and real knowledge a superfluous culture, so to speak, a
training in a superficial rhetoric and an elegant verbiage.
Locke disdains and condemns studies that do not contribute
directly to a preparation for life. Doubtless he goes a little

1 Demogeot et Montucci, de V Enscignement secondaire en Angleterre,
p. 41.

3 On the question of corporal punishment in school, is not M. Compayre"
too absolute in bis assumptions? On what principle does he base bis
absolute condemnation of the rod ? What is to be done in those cases of
revolt against order and decency that occur from time to time in most
schools? There is no doubt that the very best teachers can govern without
resorting to this hateful expedient ; but what shall be done in extreme cases
by the multitude who are not, and never can be, teachers of this ideal
type ? Nor does this question stand alone. Below, it is related to family
discipline ; and above, to civil administration. If corporal punishment is
interdicted in the school, should it not be interdicted in the State ? (P.)

rwCTgf -• • -i^-^T-s:

204 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

too far in his reaction against the current formalism and \n
his predilection for realism. He is too forgetful of the fact
that the old classical studies, if not useful in the positive
sense of the term, and not satisfying the ordinary needs of
existence, have yet a higher utility, in the sense that they
may become, in skillful and discreet hands, an excellent
instrument for intellectual discipline and the education of the
judgment. But Locke spoke to fanatics and pedants, for
whom Latin and Greek were the whole of instruction, and
who, turning letters from their true purpose, wrongly mado
a knowledge of the dead languages the sole end, and not, as
should be the case, one of the means of instruction. Locke
is by no means a blind utilitarian, a coarse positivist, who
dreams of absolutely abolishing disinterested studies. He
wishes merely to put them in their place, and to guard against
investing them with a sort of exclusive privilege, and against
sacrificing to them other branches of instruction that are
more essential and more immediately useful.

217. Programme of Studies. — As soon as the child
knows how to read and write, he should be taught to draw.
Very disdainful of painting and of the fine arts in general,
whose benign and profound influence on the souls of children
his colder nature has not sufficiently recognized, Locke, by
way of compensation, recommends drawing, because drawing
may be practically useful, and he puts it on almost the same
footing as reading and writing.

These elements once acquired, the child should be drilled
in the mother tongue, first in reading, and afterwards in
exercises in composition, in brief narratives, in familiar
letters, etc. The study of a living language (Locke recom-
mends French to his countrymen) should immediately follow ;
and it is only after this has been acquired that the child shall
be put to the study of Latin. Save the omission of the

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 205

sciences, Locke's plan is singularly like that which for ten
years has been in use in the French lyce'es.

As to Latin, which follows the living language, Locke
requires that it shall be learned above all through use,
through conversation if a master can be found who speaks
it fluently, but if not, through the reading of authors. As
little of grammar as possible, no memoriter exercises, no
Latin composition, either in prose or verse, but, as soon
as possible, the reading of easy Latin texts, — these are the
recommendations of Locke that have been too little heeded.
The purpose is no longer to learn Latin for the sake of
writing it elegantly ; the only purpose truly desirable is to
comprehend the authors who have written in that language.
The obstinate partisans of Latin verse and conversation will
not read without chagrin these earnest protests of Locke
against exercises that have been too much abused, and that
impose on the learner the torment of writing in a language
which he handles with difficulty, upon subjects which he but
imperfectly understands. As to Greek, Locke proscribes it
absolutely. He does not disparage the beauty of a language
whose masterpieces, he says, are the original source of our
literature and science ; but he reserves the knowledge of it
to the learned, to the lettered, to professional scholars, and
he excludes it from secondary instruction, which ought to be
but the school which trains for active life. Thus relieved,
classical instruction will more easily welcome the studies that
are of real use and of practical application, — geography,
which Locke places in the first rank, because it is " an exercise
of the eyes and memory " ; arithmetic, which u is of so general
use in all parts of life and business, that scarce anything can
be done without it"; then what he somewhat ambitiously
calls astronomy, and which is in reality an elementary cos-
mography j the parts of geometry which are necessary for

EiM

." «c-

206 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

" a man of business" ; chronology and history, u the most
agreeable and the most instructive of studies " ; ethics and
common law, which do not yet have a place in French pro-
grammes ; finally, natural philosophy, that is, the physical
sciences ; and, to crown all, a manual trade and book-
keeping.

218. Attractive Studies. — Another characteristic of
Locke's intellectual discipline is, that, utilitarian in its pur-
pose, the instruction which he organizes shall be attractive
in its methods. After hatred for the pedantry which use-
lessly spends the powers of the learner in barren studies, the
next strongest antipathy of Locke is that which is inspired
by the rigor of a too didactic system of instruction, where
the methods are repulsive, the processes painful, and where
the teacher appears to his pupils only as a bugbear and a
marplot.

Although he ma}' go to extremes in this, he is partly right
in wishing to bring into favor processes that are inviting aud
methods that are attractive. Without hoping, as he does,
without desiring even, that the pupil may come to make no
distinction between study and other diversions, we are dis-
posed to believe that something may be done to alleviate for
him the first difficulties in learning, to entice and captivate
him without constraining him, and, finally, to spare him the
disgust which cannot fail to be inspired by studies too
severely forced upon him, and which are made the subject
of scourges and scoldings. It is especially for reading and
the first exercises of the child that Locke recommends the
use of instructive plays. t% They may be taught to read,
without perceiving it to be anything but a sport, and play
themselves into that which others are whipped for."

Children of every n^e are jealous of their independence
and eager for pleasure. No one before Locke had so clearly

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY. 207

recognized the need of the activity and liberty which are
natural to the child, or so strongly insisted on the necessity
of respecting his independent disposition and his personal
tastes. Here again English pedagogy of the seventeenth
century meets its illustrious successor of the nineteenth.
Herbert Spencer has thoroughly demonstrated the fact that
the mind really appropriates only the knowledge that affords
it pleasure and agreeable exercise. Now, there is pleasure
and agreeable excitation wherever there is the development
of a normal activity corresponding to an instinctive taste
and proportioned to the natural powers of the child ; and
there is no real instruction save at the expense of a real
display of activity.1

219. Should there be Learning by Be art? — To this
question, Should there be learning by heart? Locke gives a
resolute reply in the negative. The conclusion is absolute
and false ; but the premises that he assumes to justify his
conclusion are, if possible, falser still. Locke sets out from
this psychological idea, that the memory is not susceptible
of progress. He brings into the discussion his sensualistic
prejudices, his peculiar conception of the soul, which is

1 It is usually said that a pupil's distaste for a study indicates one of
two things, either the mode of presenting the subject is bad, or it is pre-
sented at an unseasonable period of mental development ; but this distaste
is quite as likely to be due to the fact that a certain mode of mental activity
has not yet been established ; for until fairly established, its exercise can-
not be pleasurable. The assumption that intellectual appetites already
exist and are waiting to be gratified, or that they will invariably appear at
certain periods of mental development, is by no means a general law of
the mental life. In many cases, these appetites must be created, and it
may often be that the studies employed for this purpose may not at first
be relished. And there are cases where, under the best of skill, this
relish may never come ; and still, the knowledge or the discipline is
so necessary that the studies may be enforced contrary to the pupil's
pleasure. (P.)

208 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

but a tabula rasa, an empty and inert capacity, and not a con-
geries of energies and of living forces that are strengthened
by exercise. He does not believe that the faculties, what-
ever they may be, can grow and develop, and this for the
good reason, according to his thinking, that the faculties
have no existence.

But here let him speak for himself : —

" I hear it is said that children should be employed in get-
ting things by heart, to exercise and improve their memories.
I would wish this were said with as much authority and
reason as it is with forwardness of assurance, and that this
practice were established upon good observation more than
old custom. For it is evident that strength of memory is
owing to an happy constitution, and not to any habitual
improvement got by exercise. 'Tis true what the mind is
intent upon, and, for fear of letting it slip, often imprints
afresh on itself by frequent reflection, that it is apt to retain,
but still according to its own natural strength of retention.
An impression made oil beeswax or lead will not last so
long as on brass or steel. Indeed, if it be renewed often, it
may last the longer ; but every new reflecting on it is a new
impression, and 'tis from thence one is to reckon, if one
would know how long the mind retains it. But the learning
pages of Latin by heart no more fits the memory for reten-
tion of anything else, than the graving of one sentence in
lead makes it the more capable of retaining firmly any other
characters." '

If Locke were right, education would become wholly im-
possible ; for, in case of all the faculties, education supposes
the existence of a natural germ which exercise fertilizes and
develops.

1 Thoughts, edited by R. II. Quick (Cambridge, 1880), pp. 153-4.

^* ■ ■ n. .

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 209

220. A Trade should bb learned. — Locke, like Boas-
Beau, but for other reasons, wishes his pupil to learn a trade :

" I can not forbear to say, I would have my gentleman
learn a trade, a manual trade; nay, two or three, but one
more particularly." l

Rousseau will say the same : " Recollect that it is not
talent that I require of you ; it is a trade, a real trade, a purely
mechanical art, in which the hands work more than the head."

But Locke, in haying his gentleman learn carpentry or
agriculture, especially designed that this physical labor should
lend the mind a diversion, an occasion for relaxation and
repose, and secure to the body a useful exercise. Rousseau
is influenced by totally different ideas. What he wants is,
first, that through an apprenticeship to a trade, l£mile may
protect himself against need in case a revolutionarj* crisis
should deprive him of his wealth. In the second place,
Rousseau obeys his. social, we might even say his socialistic,
preoccupations. Work, in his view, is a strict duty, from
which no one can exempt himself. " Rich or poor, every
idle citizen is a knave."

221. Working Schools. — Although Locke is almost (
exclusively preoccupied with classical studies and with a )
gentleman's education, nevertheless he has not remained /
completely a stranger to questions of primary instruction. \
In 1697 he addressed to the English government a remark-
able document on the importance of organizing " working
schools" for the children of the poor. All children over
three and under fourteen years of age are to be collected in
homes where they will find labor and food. In this way
Locke thought to contend against immorality and pauperism.
He would find a remedy for the idleness and vagabondage of

1 ThoughU, p. 177.

210 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the child, and lighten the care of the mother who is absorbed
in her work. lie would also, through habits of order and
discipline, train up steady men and industrious workmen. In
other terms, he attempted a work of social regeneration, and
the tutor of gentlemen became the educator of the poor.

222. Locke and Rousseau. — In the EmUe we shall
frequently find passages inspired by him whom Rousseau
calls " the wise Locke." Perhaps we shall admire even more
the practical qualities and the good sense of the English
educator when we shall have become acquainted with the
chimeras of his French imitator. In the case of Locke, we
have to do, not with an author who wishes to shine, but with
a man of sense and judgment who expresses his opinions,
and who has no other pretense than to understand himself and
to be comprehended by others. To appreciate the Thoughts
at their full value, they should not be read till after having
re-read the Emile, which is so much indebted to them. Ou
coming from the reading of Rousseau, after the brilliant
glare and almost the giddiness occasioned his reader by a
writer of genius whose imagination is ever on the wing,
whose passion urges him on, and who mingles with so many
exalted truths, hasty paradoxes, and nois}* declamations, it
is like repose and a delicious unbending to the spirit to go
to the study of Locke, and to find a train of thought always
equable, a style simple and dispassionate, an author always
master of himself, always correct, notwithstanding some
errors, and a book, finally, filled, not with flashes and smoke,
but with a light that is agreeable and pure.

[223. Analytical Summary. — 1. This study illustrates
the fact that the aims and methods of education are deter-
mined by the types of thought, philosophical, political,

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 211

religious, scientific, and social, that happen to be in the
ascendent; and also the tendency of the human mind to
adopt extreme views.

2. The subjective tendency of human thought is typified
by the Socratic philosophy, and the objective tendency by
the Baconian philosophy ; and from these two main sources
have issued two distinctive schools of educators, the formal-
ists and the realists, the first holding that the main purpose
of education is discipline, training, or formation, and the
other, that this purpose is furnishing instruction or informa-
tion. This line is distinctly drawn in the seventeenth
century, and the two schools are typified by Malebranche
and Locke.

3. The spirit of reaction is exhibited in the opposition to
classical studies, in the effort to convert study into a diver-
sion, in the use of milder means of discipline, and in the
importance attached to useful studies. In these particulars
the reaction of the sixteenth century is intensified.]

j-. _■ rr_~^T

CHAPTER X.

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY. — JACQUELINE PASCAL AND MADAME DE
MA1NTENON.

the education of women in the seventeenth century; madame
db 8eviqne j the abbe fleury j education in convents j port
royal and the regulations of jacqueline pascal; general
impression; severity and affection; general character of
8 a ini oyr; two periods in the institution of saint cyr;
dramatic representations; the reform of 1692; the part
played by madame de maintenon; her pedagogical writ-
ings ; interior organization of saint cyr j distrust of
reading; the study of history neglected; instruction insuf-
ficient; MANUAL LABOR; MORAL EDUCATION; DISCREET DEVO-
TION; SIMPLICITY IN ALL THINGS; FENELON AND SAINT CYR;
GENERAL JUDGMENT; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

224. The Education of Women in the Seventeenth
Century. — The Education of Girls of Fenelon has shown us
how far the spirit of the seventeenth century was able to go
in what concerns the education of women, as exhibited in
the most liberal theories on the subject; but in practice,
save in brilliant exceptions, even the modest and imperfect
ideal of Fenelon was far from being attained.

Chrysale was not alone of this opinion, when he said in
the learned Ladies: —

%% It is not very proper, and for several reasons, that a
woman should study and know so many things. To train the
minds of her children in good morals aud manners, to super-
intend her household, by keeping an eye on her servants,
and to control the ex|H>nditnrcs with economy, ought to be

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 21£

her study and philosophy.' ' l It is true that Moliere himself
did not sympathize with the prejudices whose expression he
put in the mouth of his comic character, and that he con-
cludes that a woman " may be enlightened on every subject"
(" Je consens qu'une femme ait des clart£s de tout"). But
in real fact and in practice, it is the opinion of Chrysale
that prevailed. Even in the higher classes, woman held
herself aloof from instruction, and from things intellectual.
Madame Racine had never seen played, and had probably
never read, the tragedies of her husband.

225. Madame de Sevigne. — However, the seventeenth
century was not wanting in women of talent or genius, who
might have made an eloquent plea in behalf of their sex ; but
they were content to give personal examples of a high order,
without any anxiety to be imitated. Madame de Lafayette
made beautiful translations from Latin ; Madame Dacier
was a humanist of the first order ; and Madame de Se" vigne*
knew the modern languages as well as the ancient. No one
has better described the advantage of reading. She recom-
mends the reading of romances in the following terms : —

" I found that a young man became generous and brave
in seeing my heroes, and that a girl became genteel and wise
in reading Cleopatra. There are occasionally some who take
things somewhat amiss, but they ivould perhaps do scarcely
any better if they could not read." 2

Madame de Se'vigne' had her daughter read Descartes, and
her granddaughter Pauline, the tragedies of Corneille.

"For my part," she said, " if I were to bring up my
granddaughter, I would have her read what is good, but not
too simple. I would reason with her." 3

1 Lea Femmes Savantes, Act n. Scene vn., Van Laun's translation.
* Letter of Nov. 16, 1689. 8 Letter of June 1, 1680.

ritatfh

214 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

226. The Abbe Fleury. — But Madame de Se'vigne' and
Madame de Grignan were but brilliant exceptions. If one
were to doubt the ignorance of the women of this period, it
would suffice to read this striking passage from the Abbe*
Fleurv, the assistant of F£nelon in the education of the
Duke of Bourgogne : —

4 'This, doubtless, will be a great paradox, that women
ought to learn anything else than their catechism, sewing,
and different little pieces of work, singing, dancing, and
dressing in the fashion, and to make a fine courtesy. As
things now go, this constitutes all their education." *

Fleury desires something else for woman. He demands
that she learn to write correctly in French, and that she
study logic and arithmetic. But we need not fear lest the
liberalism of a thinker of the seventeenth centun- carry him
too far. Fleury admits, for example, that history is abso-
lutely useless to women.

227. Education in the Convents. — It is almost exclu-
sively in convents that young girls then received what
passed for an education. The religious congregations that
devoted themselves to female education were numberless ;
we note, for example, among the most celebrated, the Ursu-
lines, founded in 1537 ; the Association of the Angelica,
established in Italy in 1536 ; and the Order of Saint Eliza-
beth. But, notwithstanding the diversity of names, all the
convents for girls resemble one another. In all of them
woman was educated for heaven, or for a life of devotion.
Spiritual exercises formed the only occupation of the pupils,
and study was scarcely taken into account.

228. Port Royal and the Regulations of Jacqueline
Pascal. — The best means of penetrating into the inner life

1 TraiU du choix et dc U mtthode des (ftudes, Chap.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 215

of the convents of the seventeenth century is to read the
Regulations for Children, written towards 1657 by Jacqueline
Pascal, Sister Saint Euphemia. The education of girls
interested the Jansenists not less than the education of
men ; but in this respect, Port Royal is far from deserving
the same encomiums in both cases.

229. General Impression. — There is nothing so sombre
and sad as the interior of their institution for girls, and
nothing so austere as the rules of Jacqueline Pascal.'

" A strange emotion, even at the distance of centuries,
is caused by the sight of those children keeping silent or
speaking in a whisper from rising till retiring, never walking
except between two nuns, one in front and the other behind,
in order to make it impossible, by slackening their pace on
the pretext of some indisposition, for them to hold any com-
munication ; working in such a way as never to be in com-
panies of two or three ; passing from meditation to prayer,
and from prayer to instruction ; learning, besides the cate-
chism, nothing but reading and writing ; and, on Sunday,
* a little arithmetic, the older from one to two o'clock, and
the younger from two to half past two ' ; the hands always
busy to prevent the mind from wandering ; but without
being able to become attached to their work, which would
please God as much the more as it pleased themselves the
less ; opposing all their natural inclinations, and despising
the attentions due the body * destined to serve as food for
worms ' ; doing nothing, in a word, except in the spirit of
mortification. Imagine those days of fourteen and sixteen
hours, slowly succeeding one another, and weighing down
on the heads of those poor little sisters, for six or eight
years in that dreary solitude, where there was nothing to
bring in the stir of life, save the sound of the bell announc-

216 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ing a change of exercise or of penance, and you will com*
prehend F£nelon's feeling of sadness when he speaks of the
shadows of that deep cavern in which was imprisoned and,
as it were, buried the youth of girls." 1

230. Severity and Love. — The severity of the Regula-
tions is such that the editor, M. de Pontchartrain, also a
Jansenist, allows that it will be impossible to obtain from
all children "so complete a silence and so formal a life";
and requires that the mistresses shall try to gain their affec-
tions. Love must be united with severity. Jacqueline
Pascal does not seem to be entirely of this opinion, since
she declares that only God must be loved. However, not-
withstanding her habitual severity, human tenderness some-
times asserts its rights in the rules which she established.
We feel that she loves more than she confesses, those young/
girls whom she calls " little doves." On the one hand,
the Regulations incite the pupils to eat of what is placed
before them indifferently, and to begin with what they like
the least, through a spirit of penitence ; but, on the other
hand, Jacqueline writes: "They must be exhorted to take
sufficient nourishment so as not to allow themselves to
become weakened, and this is why care is taken that they
have eaten enough." And so there is a touching solicitude
that is almost maternal in this remark : "As soon as they
have retired, each particular bed must be visited, to see
whether all proprieties have been observed, and whether the
children are well covered in winter." The mystic sister of
the ascetic Pascal has moments of tenderness. "Never-
theless, we must not cease to feel pity for them, and to
accommodate ourselves to them in every way that we can,
but without letting them know that we have thus conde-

1 Gr&rd, Memoire tur Venseignement secondaire des/illes, p. 56.

EDUCATION OP WOMEN. 211

scended." However, the dominant conception ever reap-
pearing, is the idea that human nature is evil ; that we have
to do with rebellious spirits which must be conquered, and
that they deserve no commiseration.

There is a deal of anxiety to make study agreeable !
Jacqueline directs her pupils to work at the very things that
are most repulsive, because the work that will please God
the most is that which will please tliem the least. The
exterior manifestations of friendship are forbidden, and
possibly friendship itself. " Our pupils shall shun every sort
of familiarity one towards another."

Instruction is reduced to the catechism, to the application
of the Christian virtues, to reading, and to writing. Arith-
\ metic is not taught save on holidays. It seems that memory
• is the only faculty that Jacqueline wishes to have developed}
"This opens their minds, gives them occupation, and keeps
them from evil thoughts." Have we not reason to say that
at Port Royal women have less value than men ! What a
distance between the solid instruction of Lancelot's and
Nicole's pupils and the ignorance of Jacqueline Pascal's !
Even when the men of Port Royal speak of the education
of women, they have more liberal ideas than those which are
applied at their side. Nicole declares that books are neces-
sary even in convents for girls, because it is necessary " to
sustain prayer by reading."

231. General Character of Saint Cyr. — In leaving
Port Royal for Saint Cyr, we seem, on coming out of a
• profound night, to perceive a ray of light. Without doubt,
Madame de Maintenon has not yet, as a teacher, all that
breadth of view that could be desired. Her work is far
from being faultless, but the founding of Saint Cyr (1686)
was none the less a considerable innovation. " Saint C3T,"
it has been said, " is not a convent. It is a great establish-

218 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

mcnt devoted to the lay education of young women of
noble birth ; it is a bold and intelligent secularization of the
education of women." There is some excess of praise in
this statement, and the lay character of Saint Cyr is very
questionable. La valine, an admirer, could write : " The
instructions of Madame de Maintenon are doubtless too
religious, too monastic." Let us grant, however, that
Madame de Maintenon, who, after having founded Saint
Cyr, was the director of it, extra muros, and even taught
there, at stated times, is personally the first lay teacher of
France. Let us grant, also, that at least in the beginning,
and up to 1092, the women entrusted with the work of
instruction were not nuns in the absolute sense of the term.
The}' were not bound by solemn and absolute vows.

But this character relatively laic, and this rupture with
monastic traditions, were not maintained during the whole
life of the institution.

232. Two Periods in tiik History of S'aint Ctr. —
Saint Cyr, in fact, passed, within a few years, through two
very different periods, and Madame de Maintenon followed
in succession two almost opposite currents. For the first
years, from 1686 to 1692, the spirit of the institution is
broad and liberal ; the education is brilliant, perhaps too
much so ; literary exercises and dramatic representations
have an honored place. Saint Cyr is an institution inclining
to worldliness, better fitted to train women of intellect than
good economists and housewives. Madame de Maintenon
quickly saw that she had taken a false route, and, from
1692, she reacted, not without excess, against the tendencies
which she had at first obeyed. She conceived an extreme
distrust of literary studies, and cut off all she could from the
instruction, in order to give her entire thought to the moral
and practical qualities of her pupils. Saint Cyr became a

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 219

convent, with a little more liberty, doubtless, than there was
m the other monasteries of the time, but it was a convent
still.

233. Dramatic Representations. — It was the notorious
success of the performance of Andromaque and Esther that
caused the overthrow of the original intentions of Madame
de Main tenon. Esther, in particular, was the greai event
of the first years of Saint Cyr. Racine distributed the
parts ; Boileau conducted the training in elocution ; and the
entire Court, the king at the head, came to applaud and
entertain the pretty actresses, who left nothing undone to
please their spectators. Heads were a little turned by all
this ; dissipation crept into the school. The pupils were
no longer willing to sing in church, for fear of spoiling their
voices. Evidently the route was now over a dangerous
declivity. The institution had been turned from its purpose.
Matters were in a way to establish, under another form,
another H6tel de Rambouillet.1

234. Reform of 1692. — At the first, as we have seen,
the ladies of Saint Louis, charged with the direction of Saint
Cyr, did not found a monastic order properly so-called ; but,
when Madame de Maintenon resolved to reform the general
spirit of the house, she thought it necessary to transform
Saint Cyr into a monaster}-, and she founded the Order of
Saint Augustine.

* " The name generally given to a social circle, which for more than half
a century gathered around Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet,
and her daughter, Julie d'Angennes, duchess de Montausier, and which
exercised a very conspicuous influence on French language, literature, and
civilization. . . . Her house soon became the place where all who had
genius, wit, learning, talent, or taste, assembled, and from these reunions
originated the French Academy, the highest authority of French literature,
ftM the Batons, the most prominent feature of French civilization."

— Johnson's Cyciopmdia.

220 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

But what she changed in particular was the moral dis-
cipline, and the programme of studies.

Madame de Maintenon has herself recited, in a memorable
letter,1 the reasons of that reform which modified so pro-
foundly the character of Saint Cyr : —

" The sorrow I feel for the girls of Saint Cyr," she said,
" can be cured only by time and by an entire cJiange in the
education that we have given them up to this hour. It is
verj' just that I should suffer for this, since I have contri-
buted to it more than any one else. . . . The whole establish-
ment has been the object of my pride, and the ground for
this feeling has been so real that it has gone to extremes that
I never intended. God knows that I wished to establish
virtue at Saint Cyr, but I have built upon the sand. Not
having, what alone can make a solid foundation, I wished
the girls to be witty, high-spirited, and trained to think ; I
have succeeded in this purpose. They have wit, and they
use it against us. They are high-spirited, and are more
heady and haughty than would be becoming in a royal
princess. Speaking after the manner of the world, we have
trained their reason, and have made them talkative, pre-
sumptuous, inquisitive, bold . . . witty, — such characters as
even we who have trained them cannot abide. . . . Let us
seek a remedy, for we must not be discouraged. ... As
many little things form pride, many little things will destroy
it. Our girls have been treated with too much consideration,
have been petted too much, treated too gently. We must
now leave them more to themselves in their class-rooms,
make them observe the daily regulations, and speak to them
of scarcely anything else. . . . Pray to God, and ask Him to
change their hearts ; and that He may give to all of them

1 See the Letter to Madame de Fontaine, general mistress of the school,
8ept. 20, 1001.

EDUCATION OP WOMEN. 221

humility. There should not be much conversation with them
on the subject. Everything at Saint Cyr is made a matter of
discourse. We often speak of simplicity, and try to define
it correctly . . . and yet, in practice, the girls make merry in
saying : 4 Through simplicity I take the best place ; through
simplicity I am going to commend myself.' Our girls must
be cured of that jesting turn of mind which I have given
them. . . . We have wished to shun the pettiness of certain
convents, and God has punished us for this haughty spirit.
There is no house in the world that has more need of humility
within and without than our own. Its situation near the
Court; the air of favor that pervades it; the favors of a
great king; the offices of a person of consideration, — all
these snares, so full of danger, should lead us to take meas-
ures directly contrary to those we have really taken. ..."

235. The Part played by Madame de Maintenon. —
Whatever may be the opinion respecting the tone of the edu-
cational work at Saint Cyr, there cannot be the least doubt
as to the admirable zeal of Madame dc Maintenon, and her
indefatigable devotion to the success of her favorite under-
taking. The vocation of the teacher was evidently hers.
For more than thirty years, from 1686 to 1717, she did not
cease to visit Saint Cyr every day, sometimes at six in the
morning. She wrote for the directresses and for the pupils
counsels and regulations that fill several volumes. Nothing
which concerns u her children " is a matter of indifference to
her. She devotes her attention to their meals, their sleep,
their toilet, as well as to their character and their instruc-
tion: —

" The affairs we discuss at Court are bagatelles ; those at
Saint Cyr are the more important. . . ." "May that establish-
ment last as long as France, and France as long as the world.
Nothing is dearer to me than my children of Saint Cyr.9'

222 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

It is not tenderness, it is well known, that characterizes
the soul of Madame de Maintenon ; but, at Saint Cyr, from
being formal and cold, which is her usual state, she becomes
loving and tender : —

" Forget nothing that may save the souls of our young
girls, that ma}' fortify their health and preserve their form."

One day, as she had come to the school, as her custom was,
to consult with the nuns, a company of girls passed by raising
a cloud of dust. The nuns, fearing that Madame de Main-
<\ tenon was annoyed by it, requested them to withdraw.
u Pray, let the dear girls be," replied Madame de Main-
tenon ; "I love them even to the dust they raise." Con-
versely, as it were, the pupils of Pestalozzi, consulted on
the question of knowing whether they were willing always to
be beaten and clawed by their old master, replied affirm-
atively : they loved him even to his claws !

236. IIek Pedagogical Writings. — It is only in our
day that the works of Madame de Maintenon have been
published in the integrity of their text, thanks to the labors
of The'ophile Lavallle. For the most part, these long and
interesting letters are devoted to education and to Saint Cyr.
These are, first, the Letters and Conversations on the Educa-
tion of Girls.1 These letters were written from dav to dav,
and are addressed, sometimes to the ladies of Saint Cyr, and
sometimes to the pupils themselves. "We find in them,"
says Lavallle, " for all circumstances and for all times, the
most solid teaching, masterpieces of good sense, of natural-
ness, and of truth, and, finally, instructions relative to educa-
tion that approach perfection. The Conversations originated
in the consultations that Madame de Maintenon had during
the recreations or the recitations, either with the ladies or

1 Two volumes, 2d edition, 1861.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 223

with the young women, who themselves collected and edited
the words of their governess."

After the Letters and Conversations comes the Counsels to
Young Women who enter Society,1 which contain general
advice, conversations or dialogues, and, finally, proverbs,
that is, short dramatic compositions, designed at once to
instruct and amuse the young ladies of Saint Cyr. These
essays are not admirable in all respects ; most often they are
lacking in imagination ; and Madame de Main tenon, though
an imitation of Fenelon, makes a misuse of indirect instruc-
tion, of artifice, and of amusement, in order to teach some
moral commonplaces by insinuation. Here are the titles of
some of these proverbs: Hie occasion makes the rogue;
Women make and unmake the home; Tliere is no situation
more embarrassing than tliat of holding the handle of the fry-
ing-pan.

Finally, let us note the third collection, the Historical and
Instructive Letters addressed to the Ladies of Saint Cyr.2

It is to be regretted that, out of these numerous volumes,
where repetitions abound, there have not been extracted, in
a methodical manner, a few hundred pages which should
contain the substance of Madame de Maintenon's thinking
on educational questions.

237. Interior Organization. — The purpose of the found-
ing of Saint Cyr was to assure to the two hundred and fifty
daughters of the poor nobility, and to the children of officers
dead or disabled, an educational retreat where they would be
suitably educated so as to be prepared for becoming either
nuns, if this was their vocation, or, the more often, good
mothers. As M. Gre'ard has justly observed, u the very

conception of an establishment of this kind, the idea of

■

1 Two volumes, 1867. 2 Two volumes, 1860.

224 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

making France pay the debt of France, educating the chil-
dren of those who had given her their blood, proceeds from
a feeling up to that time unknown." 1

Consequently, children of the tend'erest years, from six or
seven, were received at Saint Cyr, there to be cared for till
the age of marriage, till eighteen and twenty.

The young girls were divided into four classes, — the reds,
the greens, the yellows, and the blues. The blues were the
largest, and they wore the royal colors. Each class was
divided into five or six bands or families, of eight or ten
pupils each.

The ladies of Saint Cyr were ordinarily taken from the
pupils of the school. They were forty in number, — the supe-
rior, the assistant who supplied the place of the superior,
the mistress of the novices, the general mistress of the
classes, the mistresses of the classes, etc.

The capital defect of Saint Cyr is, that, as in the colleges
of the Jesuits, the residence is absolute and the sequestra-
tion complete. From her fifth to her twentieth year the
young girl belongs entirely to Saint Cyr. She scarcely
knows her parents. It will be said, perhaps, that in many
cases she has lost them, and that in some cases she could
expect only bad examples from them. But no matter ; the
general rule, which interrupted family intercourse to the
extent of almost abolishing it, cannot obtain our approbation.
The girl was permitted to see her parents only three or four
times a year, and even then these interviews would last only
for a half an hour each time, and in the presence of a mis-
tress. There was permission to write family letters from
time to time ; but as though she mistrusted the natural im-
pulses of the heart, and the free outpouring of filial affection,
Madame de Maintenon had taken care to compose some models

1 M. Gr&rd, MHnoire sur Venseignement secondare desJUlcs, 1882, p. 5a

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 225

of these letters. With more of reason than of feeling, Madame
de Maintenon is not exempt from a certain coldness of heart.
It seems that she would impose on her pupils the extraordi-
nary habits of her own family. She recollected having been
kissed only twice by her mother, on her forehead, and then
only after a long separation.

238. Distrust of Reading. — After the reforms of 1692,
the instruction at Saint Cyr became a matter of secondary
importance. Reading, writing, and counting were taught,
but scarcely anything besides. Reading, in general, was
viewed with distrust : " Teach girls to be very sparing as to
reading, and always to prefer manual labor instead." Books
of a secular nature were interdicted ; only works of piety
were put in the hands of pupils, such as the Introduction to a
Devout Life, by Saint Francois de Salles, and the Confessions
of Saint Augustine. " Renounce intellectual culture" is the
perpetual injunction of Madame de Maintenon.

" We must educate citizens for citizenship. It is not the
question of giving them intellectual culture. We must
preach family duties to them, obedience to husband, and care
for children. . . . Reading does more harm than good to
young girls. . . . Books make witlings and excite an in-
satiable curiosity."

239. The Study op History Neglected. — To judge of
the spirit of Saint Cyr, from the point of view of intellectual
education, it suffices to note the little importance that was
there given to history. This went so far as to raise the
question whether it were not best to prohibit the study of
French history entirely. Madame de Maintenon consents to
have it taught, but only just enough so that "pupils may
not confuse the succession of our kings with the princes of
other countries, and not take a Roman emperor for an

226 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

emperor of China or Japan, a king of Spain or of England
for a king of Persia or of Siam." As to the history of anti-
quity, it must be held in mistrust for the very reason — who
would believe it ? — of the beautiful examples of virtue that
it contains. " I should fear that those grand examples of
generosity and heroism would give our }'Oung girls too much
elevation of spirit, and make them vain and pretentious."
Have we not some right to feel surprised that Madame de
Maintenon is alarmed at the thought of raising the intelligence
of woman? It is true that she doubtless thought of the
romantic exaggerations produced by the reading of the Cyrus
(he Great and other Avritings of Mile, de Seud£ry. Let us
add, besides, to excuse the shortcomings of the programme
of Saint Cyr in the matter of history, that even for boys in
the colleges of the University, the order that introduced the
teaching of history into the classes dates only from 1695.

240. Insufficient Instruction. — ' * Our day," says Laval-
tee, " would not accept that education in which instruction
properly so-called was but a secondary matter, and entirely
sacrificed to the manner of training the heart, the reason, and
the character ; and an education, too, that, as a whole and in
its details, was wholly religious." The error of Madame de
Maintenon consists essentially in the wish to develop the
moral virtues in souls scarcely instructed, scarcely enlightened.
There was much moral discoursing at Saint Cyr. If it did
not always bear fruit, it was because the seed fell into intel-
ligences that were but little cultivated.

" Our young women are not to be made scholarly. Women
never know except by halves, and the little that they know
usually makes them conceited, disdainful, chatty, and dis-
gusted with serious things."

241. Manual Labor. — If intellectual education was
neglected at Saint Cyr, by way of compensation great atten-

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 227

tion was paid to manual education. The girls were there
taught to sew, to embroider, to knit, and to make tapestry ;
and there was also made there all the linen for the house,
the infirmary, and the chapel, and the dresses and clothing
of the ladies and the pupils : —

" But no exquisite productions," says Madame de Main te-
non, "nor of very elaborate design; none of those flimsy
edgings in embroidery or tapestry, which are of no use."

With what good grace Madame de Maintenon ever preaches
the gospel of labor, of which she herself gave the example !
In the coaches of the king, she always had some work in
hand. At Saint Cyr, the young women swept the dormitories,
put in order the refectory, and dusted the class-rooms. ' " They
must be put at every kind of service, and made to work at
what is burdensome, in order to make them robust, healthy,
and intelligent."

" Manual labor is a moral safeguard, a protection against

sin."

"Work calms the passions, occupies the mind, and does
not leave it time to think of evil."

242. Moral Education. — "The Institute," said Ma-
dame de Maintenon, " is intended, not for prayer, but for
action." What she wished, above all else, was to prepare
young women for home and family life. She devoted her
thought to the training of wives and mothers. "What I lack
most," she said, "is sons-in-law!" Hence she was inces-
santly preoccupied with moral qualities. One might make
a fine and valuable book of selections out of all the practical
maxims of Madame de Maintenon ; as her reflections on
talkativeness: "There is alwavs sin in a multitude of
words ; " on indolence : " What can be done in the farailv of
an indolent and fastidious woman ? " on politeness, "which
consists, above all else, in giving one's thought to others;*'

228 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

on lack of energy, then too common among women of the
world : ** The onlr concern is to eat and to take one's ease.
Women spend the day in morning-gowns, reclining in easy-
chairs, without any occupation, and without conversation ;
all is well, provided one be in a state of repose."

243. Discreet Devotion. — We must not imagine that
Saint Cyr was a house of prayer, a place of overdone devo-
tion. Madame de Maintenon held to a reasonable Christianity.
Piety, such as was recommended at Saint Cyr, is a piety that
is sAwflfart, judicious y and simjJe ; that is, conformed to the
state in which one ought to live, and exempt from refine-
ments.

"The young women are too much at church, considering
their age," she wrote to Madame de Brinon, the first director
of the institution. . . . tk Consider, I pray you, that this is
not to be a cloister." !

And later, after the reform had begun, this is what she
wrote : —

*; J^-t the piety with which our young girls shall be in-
spired be cheerful, gentle, and free. Let it consist rather
in the innocence of their lives, and in the simplicity of their
occupations, than in the austerities, the retirements, and the
refinements of devotion. . . . When a girl comes from a
eon vent, saying that nothing ought to interfere with vespers,
she is laughed at ; but when an educated woman shall say
that vesjjers may be omitted for the sake of attending her
nick husband, everybody will commend her. . . . When a
tfirl shall say that a woman does better to educate her children
and instruct her servants than to spend the forenoon in
church, that religion will be heartily accepted, and will make
itself loved and respected."2 Excellent advice, perhaps too

1 Lrttn-B historiqucf, Tome I. p. 48.
*Lettrc* hiitoriques, Tome I. p. 89.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 229

little followed ! Madame de Maintenon here speaks the lan-
guage of good sense, and we are wholly surprised to hear it
from the lips of a politic woman who, not without reason, and
for her part in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, has
the reputation of being an intolerant fanatic.

244. Simplicity in All Things. — The simplicity which
she recommended in religion, Madame de Maintenon de-
manded in everything, — in dress and in language : 4k Young
girls," she says, " must wear as few ribbons as possible."

A class-teacher had given a fine lecture, in which she ex-
horted her pupils to make an " eternal divorce " with sin.
44 Very well said, doubtless," remarked Madame de Mainte-
non ; " but, pray, who among our young ladies knows what
divorce is?"

245. Fenelon and Saint Cyr. — Michelet, speaking of
Saint Cyr, which he does not love, said : " Its cold governess
was much more a man than Fe'nelon." The fact is, that the
author of the Education of Girls gives a larger place to sen-
sibility and intelligence. It is not Madame de Maintenon
who said : " As much as possible, tenderness of heart must
be excused in young girls." It is not at Saint Cyr that these
maxims were practised. " Pray let them have Greek and
Roman histories. They will find in them prodigies of cour-
age and disinterestedness. Let them not be ignorant of the
history of France, which also has its beauty. . . . All this
serves to give dignity to the mind, and to lilt the soul to
noble sentiments." Nevertheless, F6nelon's work was
highly esteemed at Saint Cyr. It appeared in 1G87, and
Saint Cyr was founded in 1G8G. A great number of its
precepts were there observed, such as the following: " Fre-
quent leaves of absence should be avoided ; " " Young girla
should not be accustomed to talk much."

J i r*

230 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

246. General Judgment. — In a word, if the ideal pro-
posed to the young women of Saint Cyr by Madame de
Main tenon cannot satisfy those who, in our day, conceive " an
education broader in its scheme and more liberal in its spirit/*
at least we must do justice to an institution which was, as
its foundress said, " a kind of college, " a first attempt at
enfranchisement in the education of women. Without de-
manding of Madame de Maintenon what was not in her age
to give, let us be inspired by her in what concerns the
changeless education in moral virtues, and in the qualities
of discretion, reserve, goodness, and submission. "How-
ever severe that education may appear," says La valine, " I
believe it will suggest better reflections to those who observe
the way in which women are educated to-day, and the results
of that education in luxury and pleasure, not only on the
fireside, but still more on society and political life, and on
the future of the men that it is preparing for France. I
believe they will prefer that manly education, so to speak,
which purified private morals and begot public virtues ; and
that they will esteem and regret that work of Madame de
Maintenon, which for a century prevented the corruption of
the Court from extending to the provinces, and maintained
in the old counts-seats, from which came the greater part of
the nobility, the substantial virtues and the simple manners
of the olden time."

[247. Analytical Summary. — 1. The education of women
in the seventeenth century reflects the sentiment of the age
as to their relative position in society, their rights, and
their destiny. Woman was still regarded as the inferior of
man, in the lower classes as a drudge, in the higher as an
ornament ; in her case, intellectual culture was regarded as
either useless or dangerous ; and the education that was

EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

281

given her was to fit her for a life of devotion or a life of
seclusion from society.

2. The rules of Jacqueline Pascal exhibit the effects of
an ascetic belief on education, — human nature is corrupt;
all its likes are to be thwarted, and all its dislikes fostered
under compulsion.

3. The education directed by Madame de Maintenon is
the beginning of a rupture with tradition. It was a move-
ment towards the secularization of woman's education, and
towards the recognition of her equality with man, with re-
spect to her grade of intellectual endowments, her intellectual
culture, and to her participation in the duties of real life.

4 A/ The type of the higher education was still monastic,
both for men and women^ No one was able to conceive
that both sexes might be educated together with mutual
advantage.]

w^-

CHAPTER XI.

ROLLIN.

the uwtvbr8itt of paris; statutes of 1598 ant) of 1000; organiza-
tion of the different faculties j decadence of the university
of paris in the seventeenth century; the restoration of
studies and rollin (1661-1741) ; the treatise on studies j dif-
ferent opinions ; division of the treatise on studies ; gene-
ral reflections on education j studies for the first years j
the education of girls j the study of french j greek and
latin ; rollin the historian ; the teaching of history ;
philosophy ; scientific instruction j educational character
of rollin's pedagogy j interior discipline of colleges ;
public education j the rod j punishments in general ) con?
clubion; analytical summary.

248. The University of Paris. — Since the thirteenth
century, the University of Paris had been a centre of light
and a resort for students. Ramus could say : " This Uni^
versity is not the university of one city only, but of the^
entire world." But even in the time of Ramus, in conse-
quence of the civil discords, and by reason also of the prog-
ress in the colleges organized by the Company of Jesus, the
University of Paris declined ; she saw the number of her
pupils diminish. She persisted, however, in the full light of
the Renaissance, in following the superannuated regulations
which the Cardinal d'Estouteville had imposed on her in 1452 ;
she fell behind in the routine of the scholastic methods. A
reform was necessary, and in 1600 it was accomplished by
Henry IV.

BOLLIX. 233

249. Statutes of 1600. — The statutes of the new uni-
versity were promulgated " by the order and the will of the
most Christian and most invincible king of France and
Navarre, Henry IV." This was the first time that the
State directly intervened in the control of education, and
that secular power was set up in opposition to the absolute
authority of the Church.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a reform had
been made in the University, by the Popes Innocent III. and
Urban V. The reformer of 1452, the Cardinal d'Estouteville,
acted as the legate of the pontifical power. On the contrary,
the statutes of 1600 were the work of a commission named
by the king, and there sat at its deliberations, by the side of
a few ecclesiastics, magistrates, and even professors.

250. Organization of the Different Faculties. — The
University of Paris comprised four Faculties : the Faculties
of Theology, of Law, and of Medicine, which corresponded
to what we to-day call superior instruction, and the Faculty
of Arts, which was almost the equivalent of our secondary
instruction.1

It would take too long to enumerate in this place the
different innovations introduced by the statutes of 1600.
Let us merely say a word of the Faculty of Arts.

In the Faculty of Arts the door was finally opened to the
classical authors. In a certain degree the tendencies of the

Formerly secondary schools were schools in which was given a more
advanced instruction then in the primary schools; and they were distin-
guished into communal secondary schools, or communal colleges, and into
private secondary schools or institutions. . . . To-day, secondary instruc-
tion includes the colleges and lycees in which are taught the ancient lan-
guages, modern languages, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and
philosophy. Public instruction is divided into primary, secondary, and
superior instruction." — Lrrntfc.

CHAPTER XI.

ROLLIN.

THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS; STATUTES OF 1598 AND OF 1600; ORGANIZA-
TION OF THE DIFFERENT FACULTIES J DECADENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF PARIS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; THE RESTORATION OF
STUDIES AND ROLLIN (1661-1741) ; THE TREATISE ON STUDIES J DIF-
FERENT OPINIONS ; DIVISION OF THE TREATISE ON STUDIES J GENE-
RAL REFLECTIONS ON EDUCATION ; STUDIES FOR THE FIRST YEARS J
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS J THE STUDY OF FRENCH ,' GREEK AND
LATIN ; ROLLIN THE HISTORIAN ; THE TEACHING OF HISTORY ;
PHILOSOPHY ; SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION J EDUCATIONAL CHARACTER
OF ROLLIN'8 PEDAGOGY J INTERIOR DISCIPLINE OF COLLEGES J
PUBLIC EDUCATION; THE ROD; PUNISHMENTS IN GENERAL) CON?
CLUBION; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

248. The University op Paris. — Since the thirteenth
century, the University of Paris had been a centre of light
and a resort for students. Ramus could say: "This UnPi
versity is not the university of one city only, but of th4r -
entire world." But even in the time of Ramus, in conse-
quence of the civil discords, and by reason also of the prog-
ress in the colleges organized by the Company of Jesus, the
University of Paris declined ; she saw the number of her
pupils diminish. She persisted, however, in the full light of
the Renaissance, in following the superannuated regulations
which the Cardinal d'Estouteville had imposed on her in 1452 ;
she fell behind in the routine of the scholastic methods. A
reform was necessary, and in 1600 it was accomplished by
Henry IV.

BOLLIN. 233

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a reform had
been made in the University, b}' the Popes Innocent III. and
Urban V. The reformer of 1452, the Cardinal d'Estouteville,
acted as the legate of the pontifical power. On the contrary,
the statutes of 1600 were the work of a commission named
by the king, and there sat at its deliberations, by the side of
a few ecclesiastics, magistrates, and even professors.

It would take too long to enumerate in this place the
different innovations introduced by the statutes of 1600.
Let us merely say a word of the Faculty of Arts.

In the Faculty of Arts the door was finally opened to the
classical authors. In a certain degree the tendencies of the

1 " Formerly secondary schools were schools in which was given a more
advanced instruction then in the primary schools; and they were distin-
guished into communal secondary schools, or communal colleges, and into
private secondary schools or institutions. . . . To-day, secondary instruc-
tion includes the colleges and lyce'es in which are taught the ancient lan-
guages, modern languages, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and
philosophy. Public instruction is divided into primary, secondary, and
superior instruction." — Lrrntfc.

ti»

234 THE HI8T0BY OF PEDAGOGY.

Renaissance were obeyed. Nevertheless, the methods and
the general spirit were scarcely changed. Catholicism was
obligatory, and the French language remained under ban.
Frequent exercises in repetition and declamation were main-
tained. The liberal arts were always considered " the
foundation of all the sciences." Instruction in philosophy
was always reduced to the interpretation of the texts of Aris-
totle. As to history, and the sciences in general, no account
whatever was taken of them.

251. Decadence of the University in the Seventeenth
Century. — The reform, then, was insufficient, and the
results were bad. While the colleges of the Jesuits
attracted pupils in crowds, and while the Oratorians and
the Jansenists reformed secondary instruction, the colleges
of the University1 remained mediocre and obscure. Save
in rare exceptions, there were no professors of distinc-
tion ; the education was formal, in humble imitation of that
of the Company of Jesus ; there was an abuse of abstract
rules, of grammatical exercises, of written tasks, and of
Latin composition ; there was no disposition to take an ad-
vance step ; but an obstinate resistance to the new spirit,
which was indicated either by the interdiction of the philoso-
phy of Descartes, or by the refusal to teach in the French
language ; iu a word, there was complete isolation in im-

1 This refers to the University of Paris, which must be distinguished
from the Napoleonic University. " The latter was founded by a decree of
Napoleon 1., March 17, 1*08. It was first called the Imperial University,
and then the University of France. It comprises: 1. The faculties;* 2. the
lycees or colleges of the State; o. the communal colleges; 4. the primary
schools. All these are under the direction of a central administration." —

LlTTRfc.

* There are now five Faculties or institutions for special instruction, —
the Faculties of the Sciences, of Letters, of Medicine, of Law, and of Theol-
ogy. (P.) ,

ROLLIN. 235

movable routine, and in consequence, decadence, — such is a
summary history of the University of Paris up to the last
quarter of the seventeenth century.

252. The Restoration of Studies and Rollin (1661-
1741). — We must go forward to the time when Rollin
taught, to observe a revival in the studies of the University.
Several distinguished professors, as his master Hersan, Pour-
chot, and still others, had prepared the way for him. There
was then, from 1680 to 1700, a real rejuvenescence of
studies, which was initiated in part by Rollin.

Latin lost a little ground in consequence of a growing
recognition of the rights of the French language and the
national literature, which had just been made illustrious by so
man}' masterpieces. The spirit of the Jansenist methods
penetrated the colleges of the University. The Cartesian
philosophy was taught in them, and a little more attention
was given to the explication of authors, and a little less to
the verbal repetition of lessons. New ideas began to infil-
trate into the old citadel of scholasticism. The question
came to be asked if celibacy was indeed an indispensable
condition of the teaching office. Men began to comprehend
that at least marriage was not a reason for exclusion.
Finally, real progress was made in discipline as well as in
methods, and the indubitable proof of this is the Treatise on
Studies, by Rollin.

253. The Treatise on Studies. — Rollin has summed up
his educational experience, an experience of fifty years, in a
book which has become celebrated under the title of Treatise
on Studies. The full title of this work was : De la mani&re
cFenseigner et d'6tudier les belles-lettres i>ar rapport a V esprit
et an cozur. The first two volumes appeared in 1726, and
the other two in 1728.

236 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY,

The Treatise on Studies is not like the Emile^ which was
published twenty years later, a work of venturesome inquiry
and original novelties ; but is a faithful exposition of the
methods in use, and a discreet commentary on them. While
this treatise belongs by its date to the eighteenth century, it
is the pedagogy of the seventeenth century, and the tradi-
tions of the University under the reign of Louis XIV. that
Rollin has collected, and of which he has simply wished to
be the reporter. In the Latin dedication, which he addresses
to the Rector of the University of Paris, he clearly defines
his intentions and his purpose : —

" My first design was to put in writing and define the
method of teaching which has long been in use among you,
and which, up to this time, has been transmitted only by
word of mouth, and through a sort of tradition ; and to erect,
so far as I am able to do it, a durable monument of the
rules and practice which you have followed in the instruction
of youth, for the purpose of preserving, in all its integrity,
the taste for belles-lettres , and to preserve it, if possible,
from the injuries and the alterations of time."

254. Different Opinions. — Rollin has alwavs had warm
admirers. Voltaire called the Treatise a book " forever
useful," and whatever may be our reservations on the defi-
ciences, and on the short and narrow views of certain parts
of the pedagogy of Rollin, we must subscribe to this judg-
ment. But we shall not go so far as to accept the enthusi-
astic declarations of Villemain, who complains that the study
of the Treatise is neglected in our time, "as if new methods
had been discovered for training the intelligence and the
heart" ; and he adds, " Since the Treatise on Studies, not a
forward step has been taken." This is to undervalue all the
earnest efforts that have been made for two centuries by

BOLLIN. 237

educators just as profound as was the ever timid and cautious
Roll in. When we compare the precepts of the Treatise with
the reforms which the spirit of progress has already effected,
and particularly with those which it will effect, we are
astonished to hear Nisard say : " In educational matters,
the Treatise on Studies is the unique book, or better still,
the book."

To put such a burden of pompous praise on Rollin is to
compromise his real worth ; and without ceasing to do
justice to his wise and judicious spirit, we wish to employ
more discretion in our admiration.

255. Division op the Treatise on Studies. — Before
calling attention to the most interesting parts of the Treatise
on Studies, let us briefly state the object of the eight books
of which it is composed.

The Treatise opens with a Preliminary Discourse which
recites the advantages of instruction.

The title of the first book is : Exercises which are proper
for very young children; of the education of girls. Rollin
acknowledges that he treats only very siiperficiall}* " this
double subject," which is foreign to his original plan. In
fact, the first edition of his Treatise on Studies contained but
seven books, nnd it is only in 1734 that he wrote, "at the
urgent requests and prayers of several persons," that short
essay on the education of boys and girls which first appeared
under the form of a supplement, and which became the first
book of the work only in the subsequent editions.

The different subjects proper for training the youth in
the public schools, that is, in the colleges, — such is the
object of the six books which follow : Book II. Of the learn-
ing of the languages; that is, the study of Greek and Latin ;
Book III. Of poetry; Book IV. Of rhetoric; Book V. Of

^■fa

^3C*

238 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Vie three kinds of eloquence; Book VI. Of history; Book
VJI. Of philosophy .

Book VIII., the last, entitled Of the intenor government
of schools and colleges, has a particular character. It does
not treat of studies and intellectual exercises, but of disci-
pline and moral education. It is, on all accounts, the most
original and interesting part of Rollin's work, and it opens
to us the treasures of his experience. This eighth book has
been justly called the " Memoirs of Rollin." That which
constitutes its merit and its charm is that the author here at
last decides to be himself. He does not quote the ancients
so much ; but he speaks in his own name, and relates what
he has done, or what he has seen done.

256. General Reflections on Education. — There is
little to be gathered out of the Preliminary Discourse of
Rollin. He is but slightly successful in general reflections.
When he ventures to philosophize, Rollin easily falls into
platitudes. He has a dissertation to prove that "study
gives the mind more breadth and elevation ; and that study
gives capacity for business."

On the purpose of education, Rollin, who copies the
moderns when he does not translate from the ancients, is
content with reproducing the preamble of the regulations of
Henry IV., which assigned to studies three purposes : learn-
ing, morals and manners, and religion.

44 The happiness of kingdoms and peoples, and particularly
of a Christian State, depends on the good education of the
youth, where the purpose is to cultivate and to polish, by the
study of the sciences, the intelligence, still rude, of the young>
and thus to fit them for filling worthily the different vocations
to which they are destined, without which they will be useless
to the State ; and finally, to teach them the sincere religious

ROLLIN. 239

practices which God requires of them, the inviolable attach-
ment they owe to their fathers and mothers and to their
country, and the respect and obedience which they are bound
to render princes and magistrates."

257. Primary Studies. — Rollin is original when he in-
troduces us to the classes of the great colleges where he has
lived ; but is much less so when he speaks to us of little
children, whom he has never seen near at hand. He has
never known family life, and scarcely ever visited public
schools ; and it is through his recollections of Quintilian that
he speaks to us of children.

There is, then, but little to note in the few pages that he
has devoted to the studies of the first years, from three to
six or seven.

One of the most interesting things we find here, perhaps,
is the method which he recommends for learning to read, —
" the typographic cabinet of du Mas." "It is a novelty,"
says the wise Rollin, "and it is quite common and natural
that we should be suspicious of this word novelty" But
after the examination, he decides in favor of the system in
question, which consists in making of instruction in reading,
something analogous to the work of an apprentice who is
learning to print. The pupil has before him a table, and on
this table is placed a set of pigeon-holes, " logettes," which
contain the letters of the alphabet, printed on cards. The
pupil is to arrange on the table the different letters needed to
construct the words required of him. The reasons that
Rollin gives for recommending this method, successful tests
of which he had seen made, prove that he had taken into
account the nature of the child and his need of activity : —

"This method of learning to read, besides several other
advantages, has one which seems to me very considerable, —

242 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

He U content to require of women the four rules of urithn
luetic ; orthography, in which he is not over exacting, fori
" their ignorance of orthography should not be imputed to
them as a crime, since it is almost universal in their sex ; "
ancient history and the history of France, " which it is dis-l
graceful to every good Frenchman not to know." * As to
reading, Roll in is quite as severe as Madame de Maintenon :
" The reading of comedies and tragedies may be very dan-
gerous for young ladies." He sanctions only Esther and
Athalie. Music and dancing are allowed, but without enthu-
siasm and with endless precautions : —

" An almost universal experience shows that the study of
music is an extraordinary dissipation."

44 1 do not know how the custom of having girls learn to
sing and play on instruments at such great expense has
become so common. ... I hear it said that as soon as thev
enter on life's duties, they make no farther use of it."

2f>i). Tiik Study of French. — Rollin is chiefly preoccu-
pied with the study of the ancient languages ; but he has the
merit, notwithstanding his predilection for exercises in Latin,
of having followed the example of the Jansenists so far as
the importance accorded to the French language is oon-
eerned.

k* It is a disgrace," he says, " that we are ignorant of our
own language ; and if we are willing to confess the truth, we
will almost all acknowledge that we have never studied it."

Rollin admitted that he was " much more proficient in the
study of Latin than in that of French." In the opening of
his Tmi/Mi*, which he wrote in French only that he might
place himself within the reach of his young readers and their
parents, he excuses himself for making a trial in a kind of

1 RoUiu does not require it, however, of young

ROLLIN. 243

writing which is almost new to him. And in congratulating
him on his work, d'Aguesseau wrote, tfc You speak French
as if it were jour native tongue." Such was the Rector of
the University in France at the commencement of the
eighteenth century.

Let us think well of him, therefore, for having so over-
come his own habits of mind as to recommend the study of
French. He would have it learned, not only through use,
but also " through principles," and would have " the genius
of the language understood, and all its beauties studied."

Rolliu has a high opinion of grammar, but would not
encourage a misuse of it: —

" Long-continued lessons on such dry matter might be-
come very tedious to pupils. Short questions, regularly
proposed each day after the manner of an ordinary conversa-
tion, in which they themselves would be consulted, and in
which the teacher would employ the art of having them tell
what he wished to make them learn, would teach them in the
way of amusement, and, by an insensible progress, con-
tinued for several years, they would acquire a profound
knowledge of the language."

It is in the Treatise on Studies that we find for the first
time a formal list of classical French authors. Some of
these are now obscure and forgotten, as the Remarkable
Lives written by Marsolier, and the History of the Academy
of Inscriptions and Belles- Lettres, by de Boze ; but the most
of them have held their place in our programmes, and the
judgments of Rollin have been followed for two centuries, on
the Discourse on Universal History, by Bossuet, on the works
of Boilean and Racine, and on the Logic of Port Royal.

Like all his contemporaries, Rollin particularly recom-
mends Latin composition to his pupils. However, he has
spoken a word for French composition, which should bear,

rtb

244 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

first, on fables and historical narratives, then on exercises in
epistolary style, and finally, on common things, descriptions,
and short speeches.

260. Greek and Latin. — But it is in the teaching of
the ancient languages that Rollin has especially tried the
resources of his pedagogic art. For two centuries, in the
colleges of the University, his recommendations have been
followed. Iu Greek, he censures the stud}' of themes, and
reduces the stud}' of this language to the understanding of
authors. More of a Latinist than of a Hellenist, of all the
arguments he offers to justify the study of Greek, the best
is, that, since the Renaissance, Greek has always been
taught ; but, without great success, he admits : —

" Parents," he says, u are but little inclined in favor of
Greek. They also learned Greek, they claim, in their youth,
and they have retained nothing of it ; this is the ordinary
language which indicates that one has not forgotten much of
it."

But Latin, which it does not suffice to learn to read, but
which must be written and spoken, is the object of all
Rollin's care, who, on this point, gives proof of consummate
experience. Like the teachers of Port Royal, he demands
that there shall be no abuse of themes in the lower classes,
and recommends the use of oral themes, but he holds firmlv
to version, and to the explication of authors : —

u Authors are like a living dictionary, and a speaking
grammar, whereby we learn, through experience, the very
force and the true use of words, of phrases, and of the rules
of syntax."

This is not the place to analyze the parts of the Treatise
on Studies which relate to poetics and rhetoric, and which
are the code, now somewhat antiquated, of Latin verse and
prose. Rollin brings to bear on this theme great professional

ROLLIN. 245

sagacity, but also a spirit of narrowness. He condemns
ancient mythology, and excludes, as dangerous, the French
poets, save some rare exceptions. He claims that the true
use of poetry belongs to religion. He has no conception of
the salutary and wholesome influence which the beauties of
poetry and eloquence can exercise over the spirit.

261. Rollin the Historian. — Rollin has made a reputa-
tion as an historian. Frederick II. compares him to Thucy-
dides, and Chateaubriand has emphatically called him the
44 Fe"nelon of History." Montesquieu himself has pleasantly
said: " A noble man has enchanted the public through his
works on history r it is heart which speaks to heart ; we feel
a secret satisfaction in hearing virtue speak ; he is the bee of
France."

Modern criticism has dealt justly with these exaggerations.
The thirteen volumes of his Ancient History, which Rollin
published, from 1730 to 1738, are scarcely read to-day. His
great defect as an historian is his lack of erudition and of [
the critical spirit ; he accepts with credulity every fable and'
every legend.

We are to recollect, however, that as professor of history
— and in truth he pretended to be only this — Rollin has
greater worth than as an historian. He knew how to intro-
duce into the exposition of facts great simplicity and great
facility. And especially he attempted to draw from events
their moral lesson. u We ought not to forget," says a
German of our time, " that Rollin has never made anv
personal claim to be considered an investigator in historical
stud}*, but that the purpose he had chiefly in view was educa-
tional. As he was the first to introduce the study of history
into French colleges (this is true only of the colleges of
the University), he sought to remedy the complete absence
of historical reading adapted to the needs of the youn%»

246 THB HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

This is a great educational feat ; for it is undeniable that his
works are of a nature to give to the young of all nations a
real taste for the study of history, and at the same time
a vivid conception of the different epochs, and of the life of
nations." l

262. The Teaching op History. — However, considered
simply as a professor of history, Rollin is far from being
irreproachable. Doubtless it is good to moralize on history, ,
and to make of it, as he says, " a school of enduring glory
and real grandeur." But is not historical accuracy neces-
sarily compromised, and is there not danger of making the
subject puerile, when the teacher is guided exclusively by
the idea of moral edification?

Another graver fault in Rollin is that he systematically
omits the history of France, and with it, all modern history.
In this respect, he falls below the Oratory, Port Royal,
Bossuet, F£nelon, and Madame de Main tenon. It is inter-
esting to observe, moreover, that Rollin recognizes the utility
of the study of national history, but his excuse for omitting
it is the lack of time : —

u I do not speak of the historj' of France. ... I do not
think it possible to find time, during the regular course of
instruction, to make a place for this study; but I am far
from considering it as of no importance, and I observe with
regret that it is neglected by many persons to whom, never-
theless, it would be very useful, not to say necessary.
When I say this, it is myself that I criticise first, for I
acknowledge that I have not given sufficient attention to it,
and I am ashamed of being in some sort a stranger in my
own country after having traversed so many others."

1 Doctor Wolkor, quoted by Cadet, In his edition of Rollin, Paris, 1882

BOLLIN. 247

263. Philosophy. — It is moral edification that Rollin i
seeks in philosophical studies, as in historical studies. With t
but little competence in these matters, he admits that he has
applied himself only very superficially to the study of
philosophy. He knows, however, the value of ethics and
logic, which govern the morals and perfect the mind ; of
physics, which furnishes us a mass of interesting knowl-
edge ; and finally, of metaphysics, which fortifies the religious
sentiment. The ethics of antiquity seems to him worthy of
attention; it is, in his view, the introduction to Christian
ethics.

264. Scientific Instruction. — Rollin has given us a com-/
pendium of astronomy, of physics, and of natural history.
Without doubt his essays have but a moderate value.-
Roll in* s knowledge is often inexact, and his general ideas
are narrow. He is capable of believing that " nature entire
is made for man." But yet he deserves some credit for hav-
ing comprehended the part that the observation of the sensi-
ble world ought to play in education : —

44 1 call children's physic* a study of nature which requires
scarcely anything but eyes, and which, for this reason, is
within the reach of all sorts of persons, and even of children.
It consists in making yourselves attentive to the objects which
nature presents to us, to consider them with care, and to
admire their different beauties ; but without searching into
their secret causes, which comes within the province of the
physics of the scientist.

44 1 say that even children are capable of this, for they have
eyes, and are not wanting in curiosity. They wish to know ;
they are inquisitive. It is only necessary to awaken and
nourish in them the desire to learn and to know, which is
latural to all men, This study, moreover, if it may be so

,**--"--'-■■ ---'-■

248 THE HI8TOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

call**], far from being painful and tedious, affords only
pleasure and amusement : it may take the place of recrea-
tion, and ordinarily ought not to take place save in playing.
It is inconceivable how much knowledge of things children
might gain, if we knew how to take advantage of all the
occasions which they furnish for the purpose."

265. The Educative Character of Rollfs's Pedagogy.
— It should not be supposed that Rollin's exclusive purpose
was to make Latin ists and literary men. I know very well
that he himself has said that " to form the taste was his
principal aim." Nevertheless, he has thought of other
things, — moral qualities not less than intellectual endow-
ments. He wished to train at once "the heart and the
intellect." With him, instruction in all its phases takes an
educative turn. He esteems knowledge only because it leads)
to virtue. In the explication of authors, attention should be1
directed to the morality of their thoughts, at least as much
iih to their literary beauty. The maxims and examples which
their writings contain should be skillfully put in relief, so
that these readings may become moral lessons not less than
studies in rhetoric. To sum up in a word, Rollin follows the
tradition of the Jansenists, and not that of the Company of
•Jesus.

2(i0. Christianity of Rollin. — Rollin, though perse-
cuted for his Jansenist tendencies, was a fervent Christian.
11 A Koiniui probity" did not suffice for him; he desired a
Christian virtue. Consequently, he requires that religious
Instruction should form a part of every lesson. A regulation
which dates from his rectorship required that the scholar in
ouch class should learn and recite each day one or more
nmxium drawn from the Holy Scriptures. This custom has
boon maintained to this day. Rollin knew, moreover, that

BOLLIX. 249

the best means of inspiring piety is to preach by example,
and to be pious one's self : —

44 To make true Christians, — this is the end and purpose of
the education of children ; all the rest but fulfills the pur-
pose of means. . . . When a teacher has received this spirit,
there is nothing more to say to him. ..."

The religious spirit of Rollin comes to view on each page
of his book : —

44 It remains for me," he says, in concluding his preface,
44 to pray God, in whose hands we all are, we and our dis-
courses, to deign to bless my good intentions."

267. Interior Discipline of the Colleges. — The part
of the Treatise on Studies which has preserved the most
interest, and which will be studied with the most profit, is
certainly that which treats of the interior government of
schools and colleges. Here, though he does not completely
divest himself of his method of borrowings, and references
to the authority of others, and though he is especially under
the influence of Locke, whose wise advice on rewards and
punishments he reproduces almost verbatim, Rollin makes
use of a long personal experience. We have charged him
with not knowing the little child. On the other hand, he
knows exactly what scholars a little older are, — children
from ten to sixteen years old. And he not only knows
them, but he loves them tenderly. He gives them this testi-
mony, which affection alone can explain, that he has always
found them reasonable.

268. Enumeration of the Questions treated by Rol-
lin. — To give an idea of this part of the Treatise, the best
way is to reproduce the titles of the thirteen articles com-
posing the chapter entitled General Counsels on the Educa-
tion of the Young: —

Jmmm

260 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

I. What end should be proposed in education? II. How
to study the character of children in order to become able tc
instruct them properly. III. How at once to gain authority
over children. IV. How to become loved and feared.
V. Punishments: 1. Difficulties and dangers in punish-
ments ; 2. Rules to be observed in punishments. VI. Rep-
rimands : 1. Occasion for reprimanding; 2. Time for
making the reprimand ; 3. Manner of reprimanding. VII.
Reasoning with children. Stimulating them with the sense
of honor. Making use of commendation, rewards, and
caresses. VIII. How to train children to be truthful.
IX. How to train children to politeness, to cleanliness, and
to exactness. X. How to make study attractive. XI. How
to give rest and recreation to children. XII. How to train
the young to goodness by instruction and example. XIII.
Piety, religion, zeal for the salvation of children.

269. .Public Education. — Rollin does not definitely ex-
press himself on the superiority of public education. He
does not dare give formal advice to parents ; but he brings
forward the advantages of the common life of colleges with
so much force, that it is very evident that he prefers it to"
a private education. Let it be noted, besides, that he'
accepts on his own account " the capital maxim of the
ancients, that children belong more to the State than to
their parents."

270. The Rod. —In the matter of discipline, Rollini
leans rather to the side of mildness. However, he does not
dare pronounce himself absolutely against the use of the rod.
That which in particular causes him to hesitate, which gives
him scruples, which prevents him from expressing a censure
which is at the bottom of his heart, but which never rises to
his lips, is that there are certain texts of the Bible whose

ROLLIN. 251

interpretation is favorable to the use of the rod. It is inter-
esting to notice how, in a strait between his sentiments as a
docile Christian and his instincts towards mildness, the good
and timid Roiliu tries to lind a less rigorous meaning in the
sacred text, and to convince himself that the Bible does not
say what it seems to say. After many hesitations, he finally
comes to the conclusion that corporal chastisements are per-
mitted, but that they are not to be emplojed save in ex-
treme and desperate cases ; and this is also the conclusion
of Locke.

271. Punishments in General. — But how many wise
counsels on punishments, and on the precautions that must
be taken when we punish or reprimand ! One should refrain
from punishing a child at the moment he commits his fault,
because this might then exasperate him and provoke him to
new breaches of duty. Let the master be cool when he
punishes, and avoid the anger which discredits his authority.
The whole of this excellent code of scholastic discipline might
be quoted with profit. Rollin is reason and good sense itself
when he guides and instructs the teacher as to his relations
with the pupil. Doubtless the most of these precepts are not
new ; but when they come from the mouth of Rollin, there
is something added to them which I cannot describe, but
which gives to the most threadbare advice the authority of
personal experience.

272. Conclusion. — We shall not dwell on the other
precepts of Rollin. The text must be consulted for his
reflections on plays, recreations, the means of making study
attractive, and on the necessity of appealing to the child's
reason betimes, and of explaining to him why one does this
or that. In this last part of the Treatise on Studies there is
a complete infant psychology which is lacking neither in

bartMl

252 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

keenness nor in penetration. In particular, there is a code
of moral discipline which cannot be too highly commended
to educators, and to all those who desire, in the words of
Rollin, " to train at once the heart and the mind " of the
young. Rollin has worked for virtue even more than for
science. His works are less literary productions than works
on morals, and the author himself is the perfect expression
of what can be done for the education of the young by the
Christian spirit allied to the university spirit.

[273. Analytical Summary. — 1. The characteristic fact,1
disclosed by this study is the ver)T slow rate at which prog-,
ress in education takes place. There is also an enforce-
ment of the lesson which has reappeared from time to time,
that education follows in the wake of new and general
movements in human thought.

2. A more specific fact is the extreme conservatism of
universities, or the tenacity with which they hold to tradi-
tions. The question is suggested whether, after all, the
conservative habit of the university does not best befit its
judicial functions.

3. In the elbowing of the classics by history and French,
we see the rise of innovations which have become embodied
in the modern university.

•I. A new factor in the higher education is the interven-
tion of the State, as opposed to the historical domination of
the Church. In the reform of the University of Paris the
State became an educator.

f>. There is evidence of some progress in the historical
struggle towards the conception that woman has equal
rights with man in the benefits of education.]

CHAPTER XII.

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. — LA SALLE
AND THE BRETHREN OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS.

STATE OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY J
DEMIA AND THE INFANT SCHOOLS OF LYONS J CLAUDE JOLY,
DIRECTOR OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF PARIS J THE BOOK OF
THE PARISH SCHOOL; LA SALLE (1651-1719) AND THE CHRISTIAN
SCHOOLS; LIFE AND CHARACTER OF LA SALLE; A8CETIC TEN-
DENCIES; FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE BRETHREN
(1684); THE IDEA OF NORMAL SCHOOLS; THE IDEA OF GRATUITOUS
AND COMPULSORY INSTRUCTION J PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION J
CONDUCT OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS J SUCCESSIVE EDITIONS J
ABUSE OF SCHOOL REGULATIONS ; DIVISION OF THE CONDUCT J
INTERIOR ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOLS; SIMULTANEOUS IN-
STRUCTION J WHAT WAS LEARNED IN THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS J
METHOD OF TEACHING J THE CHRISTIAN CIVILITY J CORPORAL
CHASTISEMENTS J REPRIMANDS ,' PENANCES ,' THE FERULE ; THE
ROD ; REWARDS J MUTUAL ESPIONAGE J GENERAL CONCLUSION \
ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

274. The State of Primary Instruction in the Seven-
teenth Century. — It does not form a part of our plan to
follow from day to day the small increments of progress and
the slow development of the primary schools of France ;
bat we mast confine ourselves to the essential facts and to
the important dates.

The Catholic Church, in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, did not altogether renounce her interest in popu-
lar instruction. She took measures, without doubt, to evan-
golize the poor people, and sometimes " even to teach them

^»*»*— ■ tm

254 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

how to read and write." Nevertheless, up to the organiza-
tion of the Christian schools, by La Salle, no serious effort
was made. Some religious foundations establish gratuitous
schools in many places, — charjity schools, — but no compre-
hensive purpose directs these establishments. Conflicts of
prerogative among certain independent colleagues, as that
between the writing-masters and the masters of the infant
schools placed under the direct authority of the precentor, or
among the rectors and the tutors (6eoldtres) , that is, the
assistants of the bishops charged with the supervision of the
schools, — such dissensions came still further to defeat the
good intentions of individuals, and to embarrass the feeble
movement that was exerted in favor of popular instruction.
For example, towards 1680, the writing-masters attempted
to prevent the masters of the primary schools * from giving
writing lessons, at least, from giving their pupils any copies
except monosyllables; and a decree of Parliament is neces-
sary to re-establish the liberty — and then under certain
restrictions — of teaching to write.

"Christian instruction was neglected, not to say dishon-
ored," is the statement of contemporaries. The children
who attended the schools of the poor were subjected to pub-
lic contempt. They were obliged to wear on their caps a
distinctive badge. In brief, far from progressing, primary
instruction was rather in a state of decadence.

275. Demi a and the Primary Schools of Lyons. —
Among the progressive men who struggled against this
unhappy state of affairs, and who tried to develop the
Catholic schools, we must mention, before La Salle, Dgjnja,

1 Prtites froles. This is the term commonly applied to primary schools
at this period. By the Janseuists this term was used in a more distinctive
sense, and for this reason I have translated it "Little Schools" in Chap.
VU. ^P.)

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 255

a priest of Lyons, who, in 1666, founded the Congregation
of the Brethren of Saint Charles, for the instruction of poor
children. The Institute of La Salle was not organized till
eighteen years later, in 1684. In 1GG8, having addressed
to the provosts of the merchants of the city of Lyons a
warm appeal, his Proposals for the establishment of Christian
schools for the instruction of the poor, Dlmia obtained an
annual grant of two hundred livres. In 1675 .he was
charged by "express command" of the archbishop of
Lyons " with the management and direction of the schools
of that city and diocese," and drew up a body of school
regulations which was quoted as a model.1 For the method
of fc4 teaching to read, of learning the catechism, of cor-
recting children, and similar things," D£inia conformed to
the book known as the Parish School (Ecole paroissiale) , of
which we shall presently say a word. He took it upon him-
self to proceed " to the examination of the religion, the
ability, and the good morals, of the persons who proposed
to teach school." But, what was of greater moment, he
established, for preparing and training them, a sort of semi-
nary.

A few quotations will give an idea of De'mia's zeal in the
establishment of Christian schools.

44 This establishment is of such importance and of so
great utility, that there is nothing in our political organiza-
tion which is more worthy of the care and the watchfulness
of the magistrates, since on it depend our peace and public
tranquillity. The poor, not having the means of educating
their children, leave them in ignorance of their obligations.
• . . Thus we see, with keen displeasure, that such an edu-
cation of the children of the poor is totally neglected,
although it is the most important interest of the State, of

1 8m the Lectures ptdagogiques. Hacbette, 1883, p. 420.

254 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

how to read and write." Nevertheless, up to the organiza-
tion of the Christian schools, by La Salle, no serious^ effort
was made. Some religious foundations establish gratuitous
schools in mauy places, — charity schools, — but no compre-
hensive purpose directs these establishments. Conflicts of
prerogative among certain independent colleagues, as that
between the writing-masters and the masters of the infant
schools placed under the direct authorit}' of the precentor, or
among the rectors and the tutors (6coldtres) , that is, the
assistants of the bishops charged with the supervision of the
schools, — such dissensions came still further to defeat the
good intentions of individuals, and to embarrass the feeble
movement that was exerted in favor of popular instruction.
For example, towards 1680, the writing-masters attempted
to prevent the masters of the primary schools * from giving
writing lessons, at least, from (jiving their pupils any copies
except monosyllables; and a decree of Parliament is neces-
sary to re-establish the liberty — and then under certain
restrictions — of teaching to write.

1 Pctites Scales. This is the term commonly applied to primary schools
at this period. By the Jan sen is ts this term was used in a more distinctive
sense, and for this reason I have translated it "Little Schools" in Chap,
VII. ^P.)

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 255

a priest of Lyons, who, in 1G6G, founded the Congregation
of the Brethren of Saint Charles, for the instruction of poor
children. The Institute of La Salle was not organized till
eighteen years later, in 1684. In 1GG8, having addressed
to the provosts of the merchants of the city of Lyons a
warm appeal, his Proposals for the establishment of Christian
schools for the instruction of the pooi\ Dlmia obtained an
annual grant of two hundred livres. In 1675 .he was
charged by "express command" of the archbishop of
Lyons " with the management and direction of the schools
of that city and diocese," and drew up a body of school
regulations which was quoted as a model.1 For the method
of fc4 teaching to read, of learning the catechism, of cor-
recting children, and similar things," D6mia conformed to
the book known as the Parish School (Ecole paroissiule) , of
which we shall presently say a word. He took it upon him-
self to proceed " to the examination of the religion, the
ability, and the good morals, of the persons who proposed
to teach school." But, what was of greater moment, he
established, for preparing and training them, a sort of semi-
nary.

A few quotations will give an idea of D6mia's zeal in the
establishment of Christian schools.

44 This establishment is of such importance and of so
great utility, that there is nothing in our political organiza-
tion which is more worthy of the care and the watchfulness
of the magistrates, since on it depend our peace and public
tranquillity. The poor, not having the means of educating
their children, leave them in ignorance of their obligations.
• . . Thus -we see, with keen displeasure, that such an edu-
cation of the children of the poor is totally neglected,
although it is the most important interest of the State, of

1 8m the Lectures pfdayogiques. Hacbette, 188% p. 420.

■*

254 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

how to read and write." Nevertheless, up to the organiza-
tion of the Christian schools, by La Salle, no serious effort
was made. Some religious foundations establish gratuitous
schools in many places, — charity schools, — but no compre-
hensive purpose directs these establishments. Conflicts of
prerogative among certain independent colleagues, as that
between the writing-masters and the masters of the infant
schools placed under the direct authorit}' of the precentor, or
among the rectors and the tutors (dcoldtres), that is, the
assistants of the bishops charged with the supervision of the
schools, — such dissensions came still further to defeat the
good intentions of individuals, and to embarrass the feeble
movement that was exerted in favor of popular instruction.
For example, towards 1680, the writing-masters attempted
to prevent the masters of the primary schools l from giving
writing lessons, at least, from giving their pujrils any copies
except monosyllables; and a decree of Parliament is neces-
sary to re-establish the liberty — and then under certain
restrictions — of teaching to write.

4 'Christian instruction was neglected, not to say dishon-
ored," is the statement of contemporaries. The children
who attended the schools of the poor were subjected to pub-
lic contempt. They were obliged to wear on their caps a
distinctive badge. In brief, far from progressing, primary
instruction was rather in a state of decadence.

1 Petites tcoles. This is the term commonly applied to primary schools
at this period. By the Jan sen is ts this term was used in a more distinctive
sense, and for this reason I have translated it "Little Schools" in Chap,
VII. ^P.)

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 265

a priest of Lyons, who, in 1G66, founded the Congregation
of the Brethren of Saint Charles, for the instruction of poor
children. The Institute of La Salle was not organized till
eighteen years later, in 1684. In 16G8, having addressed
to the provosts of the merchants of the city of Lyons a
warm appeal, his Proposals for the establishment of Christian
schools for the instruction of the poor, Dlmia obtained an
annual grant of two hundred livres. In 1675 .he was
charged by "express command" of the archbishop of
Lyons " with the management and direction of the schools
of that city and diocese," and drew up a body of school
regulations which was quoted as a model.1 For the method
of " teaching to read, of learning the catechism, of cor-
recting children, and similar things," D£niia conformed to
the book known as the Parish School (Ecole jtaroissiule) , of
which we shall presently say a word. He took it upon him-
self to proceed " to the examination of the religion, the
ability, and the good morals, of the persons who proposed
to teach school." But, what was of greater moment, he
established, for preparing and training them, a sort of semi-
nary.

A few quotations will give an idea of D£mia's zeal in the
establishment of Christian schools.

44 This establishment is of such importance and of so
great utility, that there is nothing in our political organiza-
tion which is more worth}* of the care and the watchfulness
of the magistrates, since on it depend our peace and public
tranquillity. The poor, not having the means of educating
their children, leave them in ignorance of their obligations.
• . . Thus we see, with keen displeasure, that such an edu-
cation of the children of the poor is totally neglected,
although it is the most important interest of the State, of

1 8m the Lectures pe'dagogiques. Hacliette, 188% p. 420.

mtmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmmmatm

256 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

which they comprise the largest part; and, although it is
quite as necessary, and even more so, to maintain public
schools for them, as to support colleges for the children of
families in good circumstances. ..."

276. Claude Joly. — In 1676, Claude Joly, precentor of
Notre Dame, "collator, director, and judge of the primary
schools of the city, the suburbs, and the outskirts of Paris,"
published his Christian and Moral Counsels for the Instruction
of Children. There is but little to gather from this work,
where the author is so forgetful of elementary instruction as
to speak only of secondary instruction and of the educa-
tion of princes. What most concerns Claude Joly is to put
in force the regulations which forbid the association of boys
and girls in the schools. The separation of the sexes was
for a long time an absolute principle in France. D6mia, in
article nine of his regulations, restores the ordinance of the
archbishop of Lyons, " which forbids school-masters to
admit girls, and school-mistresses to admit boys." Rollin
was of the same opinion. Claude Joly, in the capacity of
chief precentor, bluntly claimed his sovereign rights in the
matter of primary instruction : —

"We shall contest the power claimed by the rectors of
Paris to control the schools, under the name and pretext of
charity, without the permission of the chief precentor, to
whom alone belongs this power. To him, also, belongs the
right of nomination to the schools of the religious and secu-
lar communities. We shall disclose, besides, the attempts
of writers to interfere with the teaching of orthography,
which belongs only to good grammarians, that* is, to the
masters of the little schools."

We see to what petty questions of prerogative was sacri-
ficed, in the seventeenth century, the great cause of popular
instruction.

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 257

277. The Book of the Parish School. — Under the
\ title, The Parish School, or the Manner of Properly Instruct'
\ing the Children in the Little Schools, a priest of the diocese
of Paris had written, in 1655, a school manual, often re-
printed,1 which became the general standard of the schools
during the years that followed, and which gives an exact
idea of what was narrow and poorly defined in the primary
instruction of that period.

The author of the Parish School does not have a high
opinion of the office of the teacher, which he regards as an
employment without lustre, without pleasure, and without
interest. He does not expect great results from instruction,
of which he is pleased to say, that it is not completely useless.
It is true that instruction is reduced to a very few things, —
reading, writing, and counting. To this the author adds
religion and politeness.

Let us observe in particular, that the programme of the
parish school also comprises the principles of the Latin lan-
guage. The primary school of that period was still con-
founded with the college of secondary instruction ; the
ancient languages and rhetoric were taught in it. In the
catalogue of the master's books, drawn up by the author of
the Parish School, we find a Greek grammar. In the classes,
the reading of Latin precedes the reading of French.

Some good advice in practical pedagogy might be extracted
from the first part of the work, especially on the duties of a
school-master, on the power of example, and on the necessity
of knowing the disposition of pupils. But how many art-
less assertions and mischievous precepts, in that school code
of the city of Paris, in the near presence of the grand cen-
tury ! The Parish School complains that the scholars eat
too much bread : —

1 We have before as the edition of 1722.

— 'z 5?.-_r.

258 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

" The children of Paris, as a rule, eat a great deal of
bread. This food stupefies the mind, and very often makes
them, at the age of nine or ten, incapable of learning.
Omnis repletio mala, panis vero pessima" A serious mat-
ter is that espionage is not only authorized, but is encouraged
and organized : —

"The master will select two of the most reliable and
intelligent to be on the lookout for the disorders and the
improprieties of the school and the church. They shall
write the names of the offenders, and of those guilty of
improprieties, on pieces of paper or on tablets, to be given
to the master. These officers shall be called observers.9*

278. La Salle (1651-1719) and the Christian Schools.
— The reading of the Parish School prepares us the better
to comprehend the work of La Salle. If one were in any
degree tempted to depreciate the Institute of the Brethren
of the Christian Schools, it would suffice, to counteract this
disposition, to contrast the reforms of La Salle, however
insufficient they may be, with the real state of ^e schools of
that period. To be equitably judged, human institutions
ought to be replaced in their setting and in their environ-
ment. It is easy to-day to formulate charges against the
pedagogy of the Brethren of the Christian Schools. But
considered in their time, and compared with what existed,
or rather with what did not exist, the establishments of La
Salle deserve the esteem and the gratitude of the friends of
instruction. They represent the first systematic effort of the
Catholic Church to organize popular instruction. What the
Jesuits did in the matter of secondary instruction, with im-
mense resources and for pupils who paid them for their
efforts, La Salle attempted in primary instruction, through
a thousand obstacles and for pupils who did not^pay.

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 259

279. Life and Character of La Salle. — We sHall have
to criticise in the most of its principles and in many details
of its practice, the educational institute of La Salle. But
that which merits an admiration without reserve is the
professional zeal of the founder of the order, the daunt-
less spirit of improvement which he displayed in the '
organization of his schools, and in the recruitment of
his teachers ; it is also his tenacious zeal which was dis-
couraged neither b}T the jealous opposition of corporations,
the writing-masters for example, nor by the inexplicable
opposition of the clergy ; and, finally, it is the indefatiga-
ble devotion of a beautiful life consecrated to the cause of
instruction, which was a long series of efforts and sacrifices.

At an early hour, La Salle had given proofs of the energy
of his character. Weak and sickly, he was obliged to #
struggle against the infirmities of his constitution. To|)T
overcome sleep, and to prolong his studious vigils, he
sometimes kneeled on sharp stones, and sometimes he placed
in front of him, upon his study-table, a board fitted with
iron points, against which his head would strike as soon as
fatigue made him doze and he leaned forward. Canon of
the chapter of Reims in 1667, ordained priest in 1678, he
resigned his prebendship in 1683, and, voluntarily making
himself poor, in order to approach those whose souls he
would save, he renounced his whole patrimony, to the great-
disgust of his friends, who treated him as a madman.

280. Ascetic Tendencies. — But it is not a disinterested
love of the people, it is not the thought of their moral regen-
eration, and of their intellectual progress, which animated
and sustained the efforts of La Salle. His purpose wae
above all else religious. He pushed devotion even to asceti-
cism. In his childhood, while he still lived at home, h&

260 THE HISTOKY OP PEDAGOGY.

came to have a sense of unrest in the parlors of his mother ^
and one evening, as his biographers relate, while those about
him were engaged in music, or were talking on worldly mat-
ters, he threw himself into the arms of one of his aunts, and
said to her, " Madam, relate to me the life of one of the
saints." He himself was a saint, though the Church did not
think him worthy of this venerable title. In his youth he
passed whole nights in prayer, and slept on boards. All his
life he was severe to himself and also to others, considering
abstinence and privations as the regimen of the Christian.
His adversaries, at different times, imputed this to him as a
crime. He was represented as a hardened man, pushing his
ascetic requirements to the extreme of cruelty. To appease
their anger, he removed penances and boHily inflictions from
his institution, but he maintained them for himself, and con-
tinued his life of voluntary suffering. Heroic virtues, it may
be ; but it may be added also, an unfortunate disposition
for a teacher of children. We distrust, in advance, a system
of teaching whose beginning was so sad, whose founder
inclosed his life within so narrow an horizon, and which, at
first, was illuminated by no rays of gladness and* good
humor.

281. Foundations of the Institute. — The Institute of
the Brethren was founded in 1684, but it was not sanctioned
by pontifical authority and royal power till forty years later,
iii 1724.

We shall not recite at full length the vicissitudes of the
first years of the Institute. We simply state that La Salle
inaugurated his work by offering hospitality in his own house
to several poor teachers. In 1679 he opened at Reims a
school for boys. In 1684 he imposed on his disciples vows
of stability and obedience^ and prescribed their costume. In
1688 he went to Paris in order to found schools there, and

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 261

it was here in particular, as he himself says, that " he saw
himself pecac^uted by the men from whom he expected help."
In spite of all these difficulties his enterprise prospered, and
when he died, in i.7^0? the Institute of the Brethren already
counted a large number of establishments for primary in-
struction.

282. The Idea of Normal Schools. — We kuow how
the teaching force was then recruited. In Paris, if we may
believe Pourchot, the chief precentor, Claude Joly, was
obliged to employ, for the direction of scjjpols, old-clothes-
men, innkeepers, cooks, nu^ns, wjp- makers, puppet-
players — the list might ^5e continued. Id 1682 ]\|arie
Moreau, a teacher, was scn£,hy Bossuet to keen the school
at Fert£-Gaucher. The recta)* of the place, iifflis capacity
as tutor (faoldtre) , wishing to ascertain her Competence,
subjected her to an examination, of which the followjflg is
an account : —

u 1. He asked her if sheJlould r£ad, Jind she replied that
she read passably well, but not well endigh to teach.

44 2. He gave her a pen to mend, and she declared that
she could not do it.

44 3. He handed her a Latin book and requested her to
read it, but she was prevented from making the attempt by
sister Rem}', who had just prevented her from exhibiting her
writing."1

Ignorance, and often moral unfitness, wras the general
character of the teachers of that period. The}' often entered
upon their duties without the least preparation. La Salle
had too great an anxiety for the good condition of his schools
to accept improvised teachers. So in 1085 he opened at
Reims, under the name of Seminary for Schoolmasters, a

1 Histoire <Vune €colc gratuite, par V. Plessier, p. 15.

riMi

262 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

. real normal school, in which teachers were to be trained for
the rural districts. Only D£mia had preceded him in this
work. Later he founded an establishment of the same kind
in Paris, and — a thing worthy of note — he annexed to this
normal school a primary school, in which the teaching was
done by the students in training under the direction of an
experienced teacher.

In the third part of his Conduct of Schools La Salle has
drawn up the rules for what he calls the training of new
masters. Here are the faults that he notices in young
teachers : —

1. An itching to talk ; 2. too great activity, which degen-
erates into petulance ; 3. indifference ; 4. preoccupation and
embarrassment ; 5. harshness ; 6. spite ; 7. partiality ; 8.
slowness and negligence ; 9. pusillanimity and lack of force ;
10. despondency and fretfulness ; 11. familiarity and
trifling; 12. distractions and loss of time; 13. fickleness;
14. giddiness; 15. exclusiveness ; 1G. lack of attention to
the different characters and dispositions of children.

283. The Idea op Gratuitous and Obligatory In-
struction. — The Institute of the Brethren of the Christian
Schools, say the statutes of the order in so many words, is a
society whose members make a profession to conduct schools
gratuitously. " La Salle thought only of the children of
artisans and of the poor, who, he said, being occupied
during- the whole day in earning their own livelihood and that
of their families, could not give their children the instruction
they need, and a respectable and Christian education." In
1694, the founder of the Institute and his first twelve disci-
pies went and kneeled at the foot of the altar, and pledged
themselves to "conduct collectively and through organized
effort schools of gratuitous instruction, even when, in order

tM^MU

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 263

to do this, they might be obliged to ask alms and to live on
bread alone."

But a thing still more remarkable than to have popular-
ized gratuitous instruction, already realized in many places
through charity schools, is to have formed the conception of
obligatory instruction. La Salle, who did not believe that
this was any encroachment on the liberty of parents, pro-
poses, in this Conduct of Schools, a means for affecting their
will : —

" If among the poor there are certain ones who are unwill-
ing to take advantage of the opportunities for instruction,
they should be reported to the rectors. The latter will be .
able to cure them of their indifference by threatening to give *
them no more assistance till they send their children to
school."

284. Professional Instruction. — Besides primary schools
proper, La Salle, who is truly an innovator, inaugurated the
organization of a technical and professional instruction.
At Saint^You, near Rouen, he organized a sort of college
where was taught " all that a young man can learn, with
the exception of Latin, and whose purpose was to prepare
the student for commercial, industrial, and administrative
occupations."

285. Conduct of the Christian Schools : Successive
Editions. — La Salle took the trouble to draw up for his
Institute a very miuute code of rules, with this title : Tl\e
Conduct of Schools. The first edition bears the date of
1720. It appeared at Avignon a year after the author's
death.1 Two other editions have since appeared, in 1811
and in 1870, with some important modifications. The sub-

1 We have before us a copy of this Avignon edition: J. Charles Chasta-
nler, printer and bookseller, near the College of the Jesuits.

264 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

stance has not been changed, but certain passages relative
to discipline, and to the use of tiie rod, have been sup-
pressed.

" With the view to adapt our education to the mildness of
the present state of manners," says the preface of 1811,
" we have suppressed or modified whatever includes cor-
poral correction, and have advantageously (sic) replaced
this, on the one hand, by good marks, by promises and
rewards, and on the other by bad marks, by deprivations
and tasks."

On the other hand, some additions have been made. The
Institute of the Brethren had to yield in part to the demands
of the times, and to subtract something from the inflexi-
bility of its government.

" The Brethren," it is said in the preface to the edition of
1870, written by the Frere Philip, " the Brethren have little
by little enlarged the original Conduct, in proportion as
they have perfected their methods. ... It is plain that a
book of this kind cannot receive a final form. New experi-
ments, progress in methods, legislative enactments, new
needs, etc., require that it receive divers modifications from
time to time."

28G. Abuse of Regulations. — A feature common to the
pedagogy of the Jesuits, and to that of the Brethren of the
Christian Schools, is, that everything is regulated in advance
with extraordinary exactness. No discretion is left to the
teachers. The instruction is but a rule in action. All nov-
elty is interdicted.

"It has been necessary," says the Preface of La Salle, to
prepare this Conduct of the Christian schools, " to the end
that there may be uniformity in all the schools, and in all
the places where there are Brethren of the Institute, and
that the methods employed may always be the same. Man

CATHOLICISM AND PRIM Alt Y INSTRUCTION. 265

is so subject to slackness, and even to chaugeableness, that
there must be written rules for him, in order to keep him
within the bounds of his duty, and to prevent him from
introducing something new, or from destroying that which
has been wisely established."

Need we be astonished, after this, that the teaching of the
Brethren often became a useless routine ?

287. Division of tiie Conduct. — The Conduct of the
Christian Schools is divided into three parts. The first
treats of all the exercises of the school, and of what is
done in it from the time the pupils enter till they leave.
The second describes the means for establishing and main-
taining order ; in a word, the discipline. The third treats of
the duties of the inspector of schools, of the qualities of
the teachers, and of the rules to be followed in the educa-
tion of the teachers themselves. This mav be called, so to
speak, the manual of the normal schools of the Institute.

288. Interior Organization of the ScnooLS. — That
which first . strikes the attention in the Christian Schools,
such as La Salle organized, is the complete silence that
reigns in them. Nothing is better than silence on the part
of pupils, when it can be obtained, but La Salle enjoins
silence on teachers as well. The Fi&re is a professor who
does noTtalk.

"He will watch carefully over himself, to speak very
rarely, and very low." " It would be of but little use for
the teacher to try to make his pupils keep silence if he does
not do this himself." " When necessity obliges him to speak
— and he is careful that this necessity is rare — he will
always speak in a moderate tone."

It might be said that La Salle fears a strong and sono-
rous voice.

/_e:

266 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

How, then, shall the teacher communicate with his pupils,
since he is almost debarred from the use of speech? La
Salle has invented, to supersede language, a complete sys-
tem of signs, a sort of scholastic telegraphy, a long account
of which will be found in several chapters of the Conduct.
b have prayers repeated, the teacher will fold his hands ;
to have the catechism repeated, he will make the sign of the
cross. In other cases he will strike his breast, will look at
the pupil steadily, etc. Besides, he will employ an instru-
ment of iron named a signal, which he will raise or lower,
and handle in a hundred ways, to indicate his wish, or to
announce the beginning or the close of such or such an
exercise.

What is the meaning of this distrust of speech? And
what are we to think of these schools of mutes where
teachers and pupils proceed only by sigus ? When a scholar
asks permission to speak, he will stand erect in his place,
with hands crossed and eyes modestly lowered. Doubtless,
to attempt to excuse these practices, we must consider the
annoyances of a noisy school, and the advantages of a
silent school where everything is done discreetly and noise-
lessly. Is there not, however, in these odd regulations,
something besides the desire for order and good conduct, —
the revelation of a complete system of pedagogy which is
afraid of life and liberty, and which, under the pretext of
making the school quiet, deadens the school, and, in the
end, reduces teachers and pupils to mere machines?

289. Simultaneous Instruction. — By the side of the
evil we must note the good. Up to the time of La Salle,
the individual, method was almost alone in use in primary
instruction ; but he substituted for this the simultaneous
method, that is, teaching given to all the pupils at the same
time. For this purpose, La Salle divided each school into

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 267

three divisions: "The division of the weakest, that of the ! '
mediocres, and that of the more intelligent or the more
capable."

"All the scholars of the same order will receive the
same lesson together. The instructor will see that all are
attentive, and that, in reading for example, all read in a
low voice what the teacher reads in a loud voice."

To aid the instructor, La Salle gives him one or two of
the better pupils of each division, who become his assistants,
and whom he calls inspectors, "The more children have
taught," said La Salle, " the more they will learn."

To be just, however, we must recognize, in certain recom-
mendations of La Salle, some desire to appeal to the judg-
ment and the reason of the child : —

"The teacher will not speak to the scholars during the
catechism, as in preaching, but he will interrogate them
almost eoutinually by questions, direct or indirect, in order
to make them comprehend that which he is teaching them."

The Frere Luccard, in his Life of the Venerable J. B. de
La Salle,1 quotes this still more expressive passage, borrowed
from his manuscript Counsels : —

" Let the teacher be careful not to lend his pupils too
much help in resolving the questions that have been proposed
to tnem. He ought, on the contrary, to invite them not
to be discouraged, but to seek with ardor what he knows
they will be able to find for themselves. He will convince
them that they will the better retain the knowledge they
have acquired by a personal and persevering effort."

290. WlIAT WAS LEARNED IN THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. .

— Reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, and the cate-
chism,— this is the programme of La Salle.

1 Two volumes, Paris, 1876.

ifefl

268 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

In reading, La Salle, agreeing in this respect with Port
Royal, requires that French books be used in the beginuing.

44 The book in which the pupil will begin to learn Latin is
the Psalter ; but this lesson will be given only to those who
can readily read in French."

La Salle requires that the pupil shall not be exercised in
writing till u he can read perfectly." He attaches, more-
over, an extreme importance to calligraphy, and it is known
that the Brethren have remained masters in this art. La
Salle does not weary in giviug advice on this subject: the
pens, the knife for mending them, the ink, the paper, the
tracing-papers and blotters, round letters and italic letters
(a bastard script) , — everything is passed in review.1 The
Conduct also insists u on the manner of teaching the proper
posture of the body" and " on the manner of teaching how
to hold the pen and the paper."

ifc It will be useful and timely in the beginning to give the
pupil a stick of the bigness of a pen, on which there are three
notches, two on the right and one on the left, to mark the
places where his fingers should be put."

The exercises in writing are to be followed by exercises in
orthography and in composition : —

" The teacher will require the pupils to compose and write
for themselves notes, receipts, bills, etc. He will also
require them to write out what they remember of the cate-
chism, and of the lectures that they have heard." 2

As to arithmetic, reduced to the four rules, we must
commend La Salle's attempt to have it learned by reason
and not by routine. Thus, he requires the teacher to inter-
rogate the pupil, in order to make him the better comprehend

1 The use of the round script was in fashion. La Salle introduced the
bastard hand.

'<* See Chap. II. of the Second Part.

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 2ti9

and retain the rule, or to make sure that he is attentive. He
44 will give him a complete understanding" of* what he
teaches; and, finally, he will require him u to produce a
certain number of rules that he has discovered for himself."

Prayers and religious exercises naturally hold a large place
in the schools organized by La Salle : —

"There shall always be two or three scholars kneeling,
one from each class, who will toll their beads one after
another." '

*' Care will everywhere be taken that the scholars hear the
holy mass every day."

" A half hour each day shall be devoted to the cate-
chism."

291. Method of Teaching. — The Institute of the
Brethren has often been criticised for the mechanical char-
acter of its instruction. The Frere Philip, in the edition of
the Conduct published in 1870, implicitly acknowledges the
justice of this criticism when he writes : " Elementary
instruction has assumed a particular character in these last
days, of which we must take account. Proposing for its
chief end to train the judgment of the pupil, it gives less
importance than heretofore to the culture of the memory ; it
makes especial use of methods which call into activity the
intelligence, and lead the child to reflect, to take account of
facts, to withdraw from the domain of words to enter into
that of ideas." Do not these wise cautions unmistakably
betray the existence of an evil tradition which should be
corrected, but which tends to hold its ground ? He who has
read the Conduct is not left in doubt that the general char-
acter of the pedagogy of the Christian Schools, at the first,
was a mechanical and routine exercise of the memory, and
the absence of life.

270 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

292. Christian Politeness. — Under the title of Rules
of Decorum and Christian Civility , La Salle had composed a
reading book, intended for pupils already somewhat ad-
vanced, and printed in Gothic characters.1 It was not only
a manual of politeness, but was, the Conduct claims, a
treatise on ethics, " containing all the duties of children,
both towards God and towards their parents." But we
would examine the work in vain for the justification of this
remark. In it are discussed only the puerile details of out-
ward behavior and of worldly bearing. It would, however,
be in bad taste to criticise at this day a book of another age,
whose artlessness makes us smile. La Salle's purpose was
certainly praiseworthy, though attempting a little too much.
It is said in the Preface that " there is not a single one of
our actions which ought not to be regulated b}* motives
purely Christian. " Hence an infinite number of minute
prescriptions upon the simplest acts of daily life.2

But here are a few specimens of this pretended elementary
ethics : —

"It is not proper to talk when one has retired, the bed
. being made for rest."

" One should ti-y to make no noise and not to snore while
asleep ; nor should one often turn from side to side in bed as
if he were restless and did not know on which side to lie."

tfc It is not becoming, when one is in company, to take off
one's shoes."

1 We have before us the sixth edition of this work: Rouen. 1729. La
Salle had written it towards the year 1703.

2 See, for example, the following chapters: upon the nose and the manner
of using the handkerchief and of sneezing (chap, vii.) ; upon the back, the
shoulders, the arms, and the elbow (chap, viii.) ; on the manner in which
one ought to behave with respect to the bones, the sauce, and the fruit
(chap, vi., of the second part) ; on the manner of behaving while walking
in the streets, on journeys, in carriages, and on horseback (chap. x.).

CATHOLICISM AND PBIMARY INSTBUCTION. 271

" It is impolite to play with a stick or a cane, and to use
it to strike the grouud or pebbles, etc., etc."

How many mistakes in politeness we should make every
day of our lives if the rules of La Salle were infallible !

293. Corporal Chastisements. — The Brethren, within
two centuries, have singularly ameliorated their system of cor-
rection. "Imperative circumstances" said the Frere Philip
in 1870, "no longer permit us to tolerate corporal punish-
ment in our schools." Already, in 1811, there was talk of
suppressing entirely, or at least modifying, the use of these
punishments. The instruments of torture were perfected.
ki We reduce the heavy ferule, the inconvenience of which
has been only too often felt, to a simple piece of leather,
about a foot long and an inch wide, and slit in two at one
end ; still we hope that by divine help and by the mildness
of our very dear and dearly beloved colleagues, they will
make use of it only in cases of unavoidable necessity, and
only to give a stroke with it on the hand, without the per-
mission ever to make any other use of it."

But at first, and in the original Conduct? corporal pun-
ishment is freely permitted and regulated with exactness.
La Salle- distinguished five sorts of corrections, — repri-
mand, penances, the ferule, the rod, expulsion from school.

294. Reprimands. — Silence, we have seen, is the funda-
mental rule of La Salle's schools : u There must be as little
speaking as possible. Consequently, corrections by word of
mouth are very rarely to be employed." It even seems,
adds the Conduct, that " it is much better not to use them
at all " !

A curious system of discipline, verily, where it is as good

» See the edition of 1720, from page 140 to page 180.

aaa

272 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

as forbidden to resort to admonitions, to severe reprimands,
to an appeal through speech to the reason and the feelings of
the child ; where, consequently, there is no place for the
moral authority of the teacher, but where there is at once
invoked the ultima ratio of constraint and violence, of the
ferule and the rod !

295. Penances. — La Salle recommends penances as well
as corporal corrections. By this term he means punishments
like; the following : maintaining a kneeling posture in the
school ; learning a few pages of the catechism by heart ;
44 holding his book before his eyes for the space of half an
hour without looking off ; " keeping motionless, with clasped
hands and downcast eyes, etc.

290. The Fehule. — We have not to discuss in this place
the use of material means of correction. The Brethren
themselves have repudiated them. Only it is provoking
that they bow to what they call 'k imperative circumstances,"
and not to considerations based on principles. But it is
interesting, were it only from an historical point of view, to
recall the minute prescriptions of the founder of the Order.

The Conduct first describes the ferule, " an instrument
formed of two pieces of leather sewed together ; it shall be
from ten to twelve inches long, including the handle ; the
palm shall be oval, and two inches in diameter ; the
palm shall be lined on the inside so as not to be wholly flat,
but rounded to fit the hand." Nothing is overlooked, we
observe ; the form of the ferule is ofliciallv defined. But
what shocks us still more is the nature of the faults that
provoke the application of the ferule: " 1. for not having
attended to the lesson, or for having played; 2. for being
tardy at school ; .**. for not having obeyed the first signal."
It is true that La Salle, always preoccupied with writing,

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 273

orders the ferule to be applied only to the left hand; the
right hand shall always be spared. The child, moreover, is
not to cry while he receives the ferule ; if he does, he is to
be punished and corrected anew.

297. The Rod. — In the penal code of La Salle, the cate-
gories of faults worthy of punishment are sharply defined.
The rod shall be employed for the followiug faults : 1 . re-
fusal to obey ; 2. when the pupil has formed the habit of not
giving heed to the lesson ; 3. when he has made blots upon
his paper instead of writing ; 4. when he has had a fight with
his comrades ; 5. when he has neglected his prayers in
church ; 6. when he has been wanting in " modesty " at
mass or during the catechism ; 7. when he lias been absent
from school, from mass, or from the catechism.

Even supposing that the principle of the rod is admissible,
we must still coudemn the wrong use which La Salle makes
of it, for faults manifestly out of proportion to such a chas-
tisement.

I ver}' well know that the author of the Conduct requires
that corrections shall be rare ; but could he be obeyed, when
he put into the hands of his teachers scarcely any other
means of discipline?

But to comprehend to what extent La Salle forgot what is
due to the dignity of the child, and considered him as a
machine, without any regard to the delicacy of his feelings,
with no respect for his person, we must read to the end the
strange prescriptions of this manual of the rod. The pre-
cautions that La Salle exacts make still more evident the
impropriety of such punishments : —

<fc When the teacher would punish a scholar with the rod,
he will make the ordiuarv sign to summon the attention of
the school ; next he will indicate by means of the signal the

tmm

274 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

decree which the pupil has violated, and then show him the
place where correction is ordinarily administered ; and he
will at once go there, and will prepare to receive the punish-
ment, standing in such a way as not to be seen indecently
by an}* one. This practice of having the scholar prepare
himself for receiving the correction, without any need on the
part of the teacher of putting his hand upon him, shall be
very exactly observed.

" While the scholar is preparing himself to receive the cor-
rection, the teacher shall be making an inward preparation
to give it in a spirit of love, and in a clear view of God.
Then he will go from his desk with dignity and gravity.

" And when he shall have reached the place where the
scholar is " (it is stated, moreover, that this place should be in
one of the most remote and most obscure parts of the school,
where the nakedness of the victim cannot be seen), " he will
speak a few words to him to prepare him to receive the cor-
rection with humility, submission, and a purpose of amend-
ment ; then he will strike three blows as is usual ; to go
beyond five blows, there would be needed a special order of
the director.

" He shall be careful not to put his hand on the scholar.
If the scholar is not ready, he shall return to his desk with-
out saying a word ; and when he returns, he shall give him
the most severe punishment allowed without special permis-
sion, that is, five blows.

' • When a teacher shall have thus been obliged to compel a
scholar to receive correction, he shall attempt in some way
a little time afterwards to make him see and acknowledge
his fault, and shall make him come to himself, and give him
a strong and sincere resolution never to allow himself again
to fall into such a revolt."

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 275

The moment is perhaps not well chosen to preach a
sermon and to violate the rule which forbids the Brethren
the use of the reprimand.

"After the. scholar has been corrected, he will modestly
kneel in the middle of the room before the teacher, with
arms crossed, to thank him for having corrected him, and
will then turn towards the crucifix to thank God for it, and
to promise Him at the same time not again to commit the
fault for which he had just been corrected. This he will do
without speaking aloud ; after which the teacher will give
him the sign to go to his place."

Is it possible to have a higher misconception of human
nature, to trifle more ingeniously with the pride of the child,
and with his most legitimate feelings, and to mingle, in the
most repulsive manner, indiscreet and infamous practices
with the exhibition of religious sentiments ?

44 It is absurd," says Kant, " to require the children whom
we punish to thank us, to kiss our hands, etc. This is to
try to make servile creatures of them.,,

To justify La Salle, some quotations from his works have
been invoked.

" For the love of God, do not use blows of the hand.
Be very careful never to give children a blow."

But it is necessary to know the exact thought of the
author of the Conduct, and this explains the following
passage : —

" No corrections should be employed save those which are
in use in the schools ; and so scholars should never be struck
with the hand or the foot."

In other words, the teacher should never strike except
with the authorized instruments, and according to the official
regulations.

Kb^MMMMHltffefcMMMIi

276 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

298. Mutual Espionage. — We may say without exag-
geration that the Conduct recommends mutual espionage : —

" The inspector of schools shall be careful to appoint
one of the most prudent scholars to observe^ those who make
a noise while .they assemble, and this scholar shall then
report to the teacher what has occurred, without allowing the
others to know of it."

299. Rewards. — While La Salle devotes more than forty
pages to corrections, the chapter on rewards comprises two
small pages.

Rewards shall be given fc' from time to time." They shall
be of three kinds : rewards for piety, for ability, and for
diligence. They shall consist of books, pictures, plaster
casts, crucifix and virgin, chaplets, engraved texts, etc.

300. Conclusion. — We have said enough to give an
exact idea of the Institute of the Christian Brethren in its
primitive form. Its faults were certainly grave, and we can-
not approve the general spirit of those establishments for
education where pupils are forbidden "to joke while they
are at meals" ; to give anything whatsoever to one another;
where children are to enter the school-room so deliberately
and quietly that the noise of their footsteps is not heard ;
where teachers are forbidden "to be familiar " with the
pupils, " to allow themselves to descend to anything com-
mon, as it would be to laugh ..." But whatever the dis-
tance which separates those gloomy schools from our modern
ideal, — from the pleasant, active, animated school, such as
we conceive it to-day, — there is none the less obligation to
do justice to La Salle, to pardon him for the practices which
were those of his time, and to admire him for the good
qualities that were peculiarly his own. The criticism that is

■U4.WP

CATHOLICISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 277

truly fruitful, is that which is especially directed to the
good, without caviling at the bad.1

[301. Analytical Summary. — 1. This study exhibits the
zeal of the Catholic Church in the education of the children
of the poor. The motive was not the spirit of domination,
as in the case of the Jesuits, but a sincere desire to engage
in a humane work.

2. A proof of the multiplication of schools, and so of the
diffusion of the new educational spirit, is the wretched
quality of those who were allowed to teach. There must be
schools even if they are poor ones.

3. The need of competent teachers led to the establish-
ment of the Teachers* Seminary, the parent of the modern
normal school. The two elements in this professional
instruction seem to have been a knowledge of the subjects
to be taught and of methods of organization and discipline.

4. The severe discipline and enforced silence of La Salle's
schools permit the inference that the school of the period
was the scene of lawlessness and disorder. The reaction
went to an extreme ; but considering the times, this excess
was a virtue.

5. The scarcity of teachers and the abundance of pupils
led to the expedient of mutual and simultaneous instruction.
While this method is absolutely bad, it was relatively good.

/ 6. To the benevolent and inventive spirit of La Salle is
due the organization of industrial schools.]

1 The influence of the teaching congregations in general, and of this one
in particular, on public education as administered by the State, is very
strikingly exhibited by Meunier in his Lutte dn Principe Clerical et du
Principe Laique dans V Ensciftnement (Paris: 1861). There is also inter-
esting information concerning La Salle. See particularly the introductory
Letter and Chaps. I. and II. (P.)

CHAPTER XIII.

ROUSSEAU AND THE EMILE.

tub pedagogy of the eighteenth century j the precursors ot
rousseau; the abbe de saint pierre; other inspirers of
rousseau; publication of the emile (1762); rous8eau as a
teacher; general principles of the emile j its romantic
and utopian character ,* division of the work j the first two
books ; education of the body and of the senses j let nature
act; tiik mother to nurse her own children; negative edu-
cation; THE CHILD'S RIGHT TO HAPPINESS; THE THIRD BOOK OF
THE EMILE ; CHOICE IN THE THINGS TO BE TAUGHT J THE ABBE
DE SAINT PIERRE AND ROUSSEAU ; EMILE AT FIFTEEN; EDUCATION OF
THE SENSIBILITIES; THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE EMILE; GENESIS
OF THE AFFECTIONS ,' MORAL EDUCATION J RELIGIOUS EDUCATION;
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH OF THE SAVOYARD VICAR; SOPHIE
AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN; GENERAL CONCLUSION; INFLC'
ENCE OF ROUSSEAU ; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

302. The Pedagogy of the Eighteenth Century:. —
The most striking of the general characteristics of French
pedagogy in the eighteenth ceutury, is that iu it the lay spirit
comes into mortal collision with the ecclesiastical spirit.
What a contrast between the clerical preceptors of the seven-
teenth century and the philosophical educators of the eight-
eenth! The Jesuits, all-powerful under Louis XIVM are
to be decried, condemned, and finally expelled in 1762.
The first place in the theory and in the practice of education
will belong to laymen. Rousseau is to write the Emile.
D'Alembert and Diderot will be the educational advisers of
the Empress of Russia. The parliamentarians, La Chalotais

BOUSSEAU AND TH£ EMILE. 279

and Holland, will attempt to substitute for the action of the
Jesuits the action of the State, or, at least, one of the powers
of the State. Finally, with the Revolution, the lay spirit
will succeed in triumphing.

Again, the pedagogy of the eighteenth century is distin-
guished by its critical and reformatory tendencies. The
century of Louis XIV. is, in geueral, a century of content ;
the century of Voltaire, a century of discontent.

Besides, the philosophical spirit, which associates the
theory of education with the laws of the human spirit, which
is not content to modify routine by a few ameliorations of
detail, which establishes general principles and aspires to an
ideal perfection, — the philosophical spirit, with its excel-
lencies and with its defects, — will come to the light in the
Emile, and in some other writings of the same period.

Finally, and this last characteristic is but the consequence
of the others, education tends to become national, and at the
same time humane. Preparation for life replaces preparation
for death. During the whole of the eighteenth century, a
conception is in process of elaboration which the men of the
Revolution will exhibit in its true light, — that of an educa-
tion, public and national, which makes citizens, which works
for country and for real life.

303. Precursors of Rousseau. — The greatest educational
event of the eighteenth century, before the expulsion of the
Jesuits and the events of the French Revolution, is the pub-
li cation of the Emile. Rousseau is undeniablv the first in
rank among the founders of French pedagogy, and his influ-
ence will be felt abroad, especially in Germany. But what-
ever may be the originality of the author of the Emile, his
system is not a stroke of genius for which no preparation
had been made. He had his precursors, and he profited by
their works. A Benedictine, who might have spent hit

DU1C1J LlihO

liuvention ;
-Was inspir

280 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

strength to better advantage, has written a book on the
Plagiarisms of J. J. Ifousseau.1

We do not propose to treat Rousseau as a plagiarist, for he
surely has inspiration of his own, and his own boldness in
but however much of an innovator he may be, he
inspired by Montaigne, by Locke, and without speaking
of those great masters whom he often imitated, he had his
immediate predecessors, whose ideas on certain points are in
conformity with his own.

304. TnE Abbe de Saint Pierre (1658-1743). — Among
the precursors of Rousseau, a place among the first must be
assigned to the Abb6 de Saint Pierre, a dreamy, fantastic
spirit, fitted more to excite curiosity than to deserve admir-
ation, whom Rousseau himself called " a man of great pro-
jects and petty views." His projects in fact were great,
at least in number. Between " a project to make sermons
more useful, and a project to make roads more passable,"
there came, in his incoherent and varied work, several pro-
jects for perfecting education in general, and the education
of girls in particular.

The dominant idea of the Abb6 de Saint Pierre is his
anxiety in behalf of moral education. In proportion as we
advance towards the era of liberty, we shall notice a grow- "
ing interest in the development of the moral virtues.

The Abb6 de Saint Pierre requires of man four essential
qualities : justice, benevolence, the discernment of virtue or
judgment, and, lastly, instruction, which holds but the lowest
rank. Virtue is of more worth than the knowledge of Latin.

44 It cannot be said that a great knowledge of Latin is not
an excellent attainment ; but in order to acquire this knowl-

l Dom Joseph Cajet, Lee Plagiats de J. J. R. de Geneve sur Pidueation,
1768.

ROUSSEAU AND THE EMILE. 281

edge, it is necessary to give to it an amount of time that
would be incomparably better employed in acquiriug great
skill in the observation of prudence. Those who direct edu-
cation make a very great mistake in employing tenfold too
much time in making us scholarly in the Latin tongue, aud
in employing tenfold too little of it in giving us a confirmed
use of prudence." l

But what are the means proposed by the Abbe" de Saint
Pierre? All that he has devised for organizing the teaching/
of the social virtues is reduced to the requirement of reading
edifying narratives, of playiug moral pieces, and of accus-
toming young people to do meritorious acts in the daily inter-\
course of the school. When the lessons have been recited
and the written exercises corrected, the teacher will say to
the pupil : " Do for me an act of prudence, or of justice, or
of benevolence." This is easier to sav than to do. College
life scared}' furnishes occasion for the application of the
social virtues.

But the Abbe" de Saint Pierre should be credited with his
good intentions. He is the first in France to give his thought
to this matter of professional instruction. The mechanic
arts, the positive sciences, the apprenticeship to trades, —
these things he places above the stud}* of languages. Around
his college, and even in his college, there are to be mills,
printing offices, agricultural implements, garden tools, etc.

Was it not also an idea at once new and wise, to establish
a continuous department of public instruction, a sort of per-
manent council, charged with the reformation of methods
and with establishing, as far as possible, uniformity in all
the colleges of the kingdom?

Finally, we shall commend the Abbe* de Saint Pierre for
having persistently urged the necessity of the education of

l (Euvres diverse*, Tome L p. 12.

282 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

women. From F6nelon to the Abbe* de Saint Pierre, from
1680 to 1730, great progress was made in this question. We
seem already to hear Condorcet when we read the following
passage : —

"The purpose should be to instruct girls in the elements
of all the sciences and of all the arts which can enter into
ordinary conversation, and even in several things which re-
late to the different employments of men, such as the history
of their country, geography, police regulations, and the prin-
cipal civil laws, to the end that they can listen with pleasure to
what men shall say to them, ask relevant questions, and easily
keep up a conversation with their husbands on the daily
occurrences in their occupations."

For the purpose of sooner attaining his end, the Abbe* de
Saint Pierre, anticipating the centuries, demanded for women
national establishments, colleges of secondary instruction.
He did not hesitate to cloister young girls in boarding-schools,
and in boarding-schools without vacations ; and he entreated
the State to organize public courses for those who, he said,
" constitute one-half of the families in society."

305. Other Inspireks op Rousseau. — With the eight-
eenth century there begins for modern thought, in education
as in everything else, an era of international relations, of
mutual imitation, of the action and reaction of people on
people. The Frenchman of the seventeenth century had al-
most absolutely ignored Comenius. Rousseau knows Locke,
and also the Hollander Crousaz,1 whom, by the way, he treats
rather shabbily, speaking of him as "the pedant Crousaz."

Crousaz, however, had some good ideas. He criticised
the old methods, which make "of the knowledge of Latin

1 De V Education des en/ants, la Haye, 1722; Pen&tes libres iur Ut inr
itructions publique* de* bos colleges, Amsterdam, 1727.

ROUSSEAU AND THE £mILK. 288

and Greek the principal part of education " ; and he preached
scientific instruction and moral education.

In the Spectacle of Nature, which was so popular in its
day, the Abbe* Pluche also demanded that the study of the
dead languages should be abridged * : —

" Experience with the pitiable Latinity which reigns in the
colleges of Germany, Flanders, Holland, and in all places
where the habit of always speaking Latin is current, suffices
to make us renounce this custom which prevents a young
man from speaking his own tongue correctly."

The Abbe" Pluche demanded that the time saved from
Latin be devoted to the living languages. On the other
hand, he insisted on early education, and on this point he
was the complement to his master, Rollin, who, he said,
wrote rather u for the perfection of studies than for their
beginning."

Still other writers were able to suggest to Rousseau some
of the ideas which he developed in the Emile. Before him,
La Condamine declared that the Fables of La Fontaine are
above the capacity of children.2 Before him, Bonneval, much
interested in physical education, violently criticised the use of
long clothes, and claimed for children an education of the
senses. He demanded, besides, that in early instruction, the
effort of the teacher should be limited to the keeping of evil
impressions from the childish imagination, and that instruc-
tion in the truths of religion should be held in abeyance.

We shall discover in the Emile all these ideas in outline
revived and developed with the power and with the brilliancy
of genius, sometimes transformed into boisterous paradoxes,
but sometimes, also, transformed into solid and lasting
truths.

1 Spectacle de la nature, Paris, 1732, Vol. VI. Entretien eur V education*
3 Lettre critique $ur r education, Paris, 1701.

nit ii

284 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

306. Publication of the ISmile (1762). — Roasseau has
made striking statements of nearly all the problems of edu-
cation, and he has sometimes resolved them with wisdom,
and always with originality.

Appearing in 1762, at the moment when the Parliament
was excluding the Jesuits from France, the Emile came at
the right moment in that grand overthrow of routine and
tradition to disclose new hopes to humanity, and to announce
the advent of philosophic reason in the art of educating men.
But Rousseau, in writing his book, did not think of the
Jesuits, of whom he scarcely speaks ; he wrote, not for the
man of the present, but for the future of humanit}* ; he com-
posed a book endowed with endless vitality, half romance,
half essay, the grandest monument of human thought on the
subject of education. The Emile, in fact, is not a work of
ephemeral polemics, nor simply a practical manual of peda-
gogy, but is a general system of education, a treatise on
psychology and moral training, a profound analysis of human
nature.

307. Was Rousseau prepared to become a Teacher? —
Before entering upon the study of the Emile, it is well to
inquire how the author had been prepared by his character
and by his mode of life to become a teacher. The history of
French* literature offers nothing more extraordinary than the
life of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Everything is strange in the
destiny of that unfortunate great man. Rousseau com-
mitted great faults, especially in his youth ; but at other
moments of his life he is almost a sage, a hero of private
virtues and civic courage. He traversed all adventures and
all trades. Workman, servant, charlatan, preceptor, all in
turn ; he lodged in garrets at a sou, and experienced days
when he complained that bread was too dear. Through all

Mk^k^B

ROUSSEAU AND THE ifoilLE. 285

these miseries and these humiliations a soul was in process
of formation made up, above all else, of sensibility and
imagination.

Rousseau's sensibility was extreme. The child who,
unjustly treated, experienced one of those violent Gts of
passion which he has so well described in his Confessions,
and who writhed a whole night in his bed, crying u Caniifex,
carnifex!" was surely not an ordinary child. "I had no
idea of things, but all varieties of feeling were already
known to me. I had conceived nothing ; I had felt every-
thing." Even a mediocre representation of Alzire made him
beside himself, and he refused witnessing the play of trage-
dies for fear of becoming ill.

The sentiment of nature early inspired him with a passion
which was not to be quenched. His philosophic optimism
and his faith in providence were never forgotten. Other
pure and generous emotions filled his soul. The study of
Plutarch had inspired him with a taste for republican virtues
and with an enthusiasm for liberty. Falsehood caused him
a veritable horror. He had the feeling of equity in a high
degree. Later, to the hatred of injustice there was joined in
his heart an implacable resentment against the oppressors of
the people. He had doubtless received the first germ of this
hate when, making the journey afoot from Paris to Lyons,
he entered the cabin of a poor peasant, and there found, as
iu a picture, the affecting summary of the miseries of the
people.

At the same time he was an insatiable reader. He nour-
ished himself on the poets, historians, and philosophers of
antiquity, and he studied the mathematics and astronomy.
As some one has said, " That life of reading and toil, inter-
rupted by so many romantic incidents and adventurous
undertakings, had vivified his imagination as a regular course

AriaiM

286 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

of study in the College of Plessis could not possibly have
done."

It is in this way that his literary genius was formed, and,
in due order, bis genius for pedagogy. We need not seek in
tbe life of Rousseau any direct preparation for the composi-
tion of the Emile, It is true that for a time he had been
preceptor, in 1739, in the family of Mablv, but he soon
resigned duties in which he was not successful. A little
essay which he composed in 1740 l does not yet give proof
of any great originality. On the other hand, if he loved to
observe children, he observed, alas, only the children of
others. There is nothing sadder than that page of tbe Confes-
sions in which he relates how he often placed himself at the
window to observe the dismission of school, in order to listen
to the conversations of children as a furtive and unseen
observer !

| The Emile is thus less the result of a patient induction and
of a real experience than a work of inspiration or a brilliant
improvisation of genius.

308. General Principles of the £mile. — A certain
number of general principles run through the entire work, and
give it a systematic form and a positive character.

The first of these is the idea of the innocence and of the
\ perfect goodness of the child. The Emile opens with this
Hole mn declaration: —

u Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the
Author of nature ; everything degenerates in the hands of
man." And in another place, " Let us assume as an incon-
testal>le*maxim that the first movements of nature are always
right ; there is no original perversity in the human heart."

Without doubt Rousseau was right in opposing the pessi-

1 Projet pour V education de At. de Ste-Marie.

ROUSSEAU AND THE KMILE. 287

mism of those who see in the child a being thoroughly wicked
and degraded before birth ; he is deceived in turn when he
affirms that there is no germ of evil in human nature.

Society is wicked and corrupt, he says, and it is from I 0
society that all the evil comes ; it is from its pernicious /
influence that the soul of the child must be preserved ! But,
we reply, how did society itself happen to be spoiled and
vitiated ? It is nothing but a collection of men ; and if the
individuals are innocent, how can the aggregate of individu-
als be wicked and perverse? But let the contradictious of
Rousseau pass ; the important thing to note is that from his
optimism are derived the essential characteristics of the
education which he devises for Emile. This education will [
be at once natural and negative : —

44 iSmile," says Gr6ard, " is a child of nature, brought up
by nature, according to the rules of nature, for the satisfac-
tion of the needs of nature. This sophism is not merely in-
scribed at random on the frontispiece of the book, but is its
very soul ; and it is by reason of this sophistry that, sepa-
rated from the body of reflections and maxims that give it so
powerful an interest, Rousseau's plan of education is but a
dangerous chimera."

Everything that society has established, Rousseau con-
demns in a lump as fictitious and artificial. Conventional /
usages he despises ; and he places Emile at the school of I
nature, and brings him up almost like a savage.

On the other hand, the education of Emile is negative, at
least till his twelfth year ; that is, Rousseau lets nature have
her wav till then. For those who think nature evil, educa-
tion ought to be a work of compression and of repression.
But nature is good ; and so education consists simply in let-
ting her have free course. To guard the child from the shock
of opinions, to form betimes a defence about his soul, to

288 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

assure against every exterior influence the free development
of bis faculties — such is the end that he proposes to himself.

Another general principle of the Emile^ another truth
which Rousseau's spirit of paradox quickly transforms into
error, is the idea of the distinction of ages : —

" Each age, each state of life, has its proper perfection,
and a sort of maturity which is its own. We have often
heard of a man growu ; but let us think of a child grown.
That sight will be newer to us, and perhaps not less agree-
able."

" We do not know infancy. With the false ideas we have,
the further we go, the more we are astray. The most learned
give their attention to that which it is important for men to
know without considering what children are in a condition to
comprehend. The}* always look for the man in the child*
without thinking of what he was before he became a man."

" Everything is right so far, and from these observations
there proceeds a progressive education, exactly conforming
in its successive requirements to the progress of the faculties.
But Rousseau does not stop in his course, and he goes be-
yond progressive education to recommend an education in
fragments, so to speak, which isolates the faculties in order
to develop them one after another, which establishes an abso-
lute line of dcmarkation between the different ages, and
which ends in distinguishing three stages of progress \n the
soul. Rousseau's error on this point is in forgetting that
the education of the child ought to prepare for the education
of the young man. Instead of considering the different ages
as the several rings of one and the same chain, he separates
them sharply from one another. He does not admit that
marvellous unity of the human soul, which seems so strong in
man only because God has, so to speak, woven its bands into
the child and there fastened them." (Gr6ard).

ROUSSEAU AtfD THE JMILE. 289

809. Romantic Character of the £mile. — A final ob-
servation is necessary before entering into an analysis of the
Emile ; it is that in this, as in his other works, Rousseau is
not averse to affecting singularities, and with deliberation
and effrontery to break with received opinions. Doubtless we
should not go so far as to say with certain critics that the
Emile is rather the feat of a wit than the serious expression
of a grave and serious thought; but what it is impossible
not to grant is that which Rousseau himself admits in his
preface : " One will believe that he is reading, not so much
a book on education as the reveries of a visionary." £mile,
in fact, is an imaginary being whom Rousseau places in strange
conditions. He does not give him parents, but has him
brought up by a preceptor in the country, far from all society. / L i
£mile is a character in a romance rather than a real man. /

^ 310. Division op the Work. — Without doubt, there
are in the Emile long passages and digressions that make the
reading of it more agreeable and its analysis more difficult.
But, notwithstanding all this, the author confines himself to
a methodical plan, at least to a chronological order. The
different ages of Emile serve as a principle for the division
of the work. The first two books treat especially of the in-
fant and of the earliest period of life up to the age of twelve.
The only question here discussed is the education of the body
and the exercise of the senses. The third book corresponds
to the period of intellectual education, from the twelfth to
the fifteenth year. In the fourth book, Rousseau studies
moral education, from the fifteenth to the twentieth year.

Finally, the fifth book, in which the romantic spirit is still
rampant, is devoted to the education of woman.

311 . The First Two Books of the £mile. — It would be
useless to search this first part of the Emile for precepts rela-

***^—^*— i " *' n^^^ay^^tt^B

290 THE HISTOBV; OF PEDAGOGY.

tive to the education of the mind and the heart. Rousseau
has purposely eliminated from the first twelve years of t,he
child's life everything which concerns instruction and moral
discipline. At the age of twelve, iSmile will know how to
run, jump, and judge of distances ; but he will be perfectly
ignorant. The idea would be that he has studied nothing ac
all, and " that he has not learned to distinguish his right
hand from his left."

The exclusive characteristic of Smile's education, during
this first period, is, then, the preoccupation with physical
development and with the training of the senses.

Out of many errors, we shall see displayed some admirable
flashes of good sense, and grand truths inspired by the prin-
ciple of nature.

^-312. Let Nature have her Wat. — What does nature
demand? She demands that the child have liberty of move-
ment, and that nothing interfere with the nascent activities
of his limbs. What do we do, on the contrary? We put
him in swaddling clothes ; we imprison him. He is deformed
by his over-tight garments, — the first chains that are imposed
on a being who is destined to have so many others to bear !
On this subject, the bad humor of Rousseau does not tire.
He is prodigal in outbreaks of spirit, often witty, and some-
times ridiculous.

44 It seems," he says, " as though we fear that the child
may appear to be alive." "Man is born, lives, and dies, in a
state of slavery ; at his birth he is stitched into swaddling-
clothes ; at his death he is nailed in his coffin ; and as long
as he preserves the human form he is held captive by our
institutions."

We shall not dwell on these extravagances of language
which transforms a coffin and a child's long-clothes into inati-

ROUSSEAU AND THE KMILE. 291

tutions. The protests of Rousseau have contributed towards
a reformation of usages ; but, even on this point, with his
great principle that everything must be referred to nature,
-because whatever nature does she does well, the author of
Emile is on the point of going astray. No more for the
bodv than for the mind is nature sufficient in herself ; she
must have help and watchful assistance. Strong supports
are needed to prevent too active movements and dangerous
strains of the body ; just as, later on, there will be needed a
vigorous moral authority to moderate and curb the passions
of the soul.

313. The Mother to nurse her own Children. — But
there is another point where it has become trite to praise
Rousseau, and where his teaching should be accepted without
reserve. This is when he strongly protests against the use
of hired nurses, and when he eloquently summons mothers
to the duties of nursing their own children. Where there is
no mother, there is no child, says Rousseau, and he adds,
where there is no mother, there is no family ! " Would you
recall each one to his first duties? Begin with the mothers.
You will be astonished at the changes you will produce ! "
It would be to fall into platitudes to set forth, after Rous-
seau, and after so many others, the reasons which recom-
mend nursing by the mother. We merely observe that
Rousseau insists on this, especially on moral grounds. It is
not merely the health of the child ; it is the virtue and the
morality of the family ; it is the dignity of the home, that he
wishes to defend and preserve. And, in fact, how many
other duties are provided for and made easier by the per-
formance of a primal duty.

314. Hardening of the Body. — So far, the lessons of
nature have instructed Rousseau. He is still right when ho

■ *— — — maammmnm&h

292 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

wishes iSmile to grow hardy, to become inured to privations,
to become accustomed at an early hour to pain, and to
learn how to suffer ; but from being a stoic, Rousseau soon
becomes a cynic Contempt for pain gives place to a con-
tempt for proprieties. £mile shall be a barefoot, like Dioge-
nes. Locke gives his pupil thin shoes ; Rousseau, surpassing
him, completely abolishes shoes. He would also like to
suppress all the inventions of civilization. Thus £mile,
accustomed to walk in the dark, will do without candles.
" I would rather have Eraile with eyes at the ends of his
fingers than in the shop of a candle-maker." All this tempts
us to laugh ; but here are graver errors. Rousseau objects
to vaccination, and proscribes medicine. l£mile is fore-
handed. He is in duty bound to be well. A physician will
be summoned only when he is in danger of death. Again,
Rousseau forbids the washing of the new-born child in wine,
because wine is a fermented liquor, and nature produces
nothing that is fermented. And so there must be no play-
things made by the hand of man. A twig of a tree or a
poppy -head will suffice. Rousseau, as we see, by reason of
his wish to make of his pupil a man of nature, brings him
into singular likeness with the wild man, and assimilates
him almost to the brute.

315. Negative Education. — It is evident that the first
period of life is that in which the use of negative education
is both the least dangerous and the most acceptable. Ordi-
narily, Emile's preceptor will be but the inactive witness,
the passive spectator of the work done by nature. Had
Rousseau gone to the full length of his system, he ought to
have abolished the preceptor himself, in order to allow the
child to make his way all alone. But if the preceptor is
tolerated, it is not to act directly on £mile, it is not to per-

ROUSSEAU AND THE iSMILE. 293

form the duties of a professor, in teaching him what it is
important for a child to know ; but it is simply to put him in
the way of the discoveries which he ought to make for himself
in the wide domain of nature, and to arrange and to combine,
artificially and laboriously, those complicated scenes which
are intended to replace the lessons of ordinary education.
Such, for example, is the scene of the juggler, where fimile
is to acquire at the same time notions on physics and on
ethics. Such, again, is the conversation with the gardener,
Robert, who reveals to him the idea of property. The pre-
ceptor is no longer a teacher, but a mechanic. The true
educator is nature, but nature prepared and skillfully ad-
justed to serve the ends that we propose to attain. Rousseau
admits only the teaching of things : —

4fcDo not give your pupil any kind of verbal lesson; he
should receive none save from experience." "The most
important, the most useful rule in all education, is not to
gain time, but to lose it."

The preceptor will interfere at most only by a few timid
and guarded words, to aid the child in interpreting the les-
sons of nature. "State questions within his comprehension,
and leave him to resolve them for himself. Let him not
know anything because you have told it to him, but because
he has comprehended it for himself."

'" For the body as for the mind, the child must be left to
himself."

" Let him run, and frolic, and fall a hundred times a day.
So much the better ; for he will learn from this the sooner to
help himself up. The welfare of liberty atones for many
bruises."

In his horror for what he calls " the teaching and pedantic
mania," Rousseau goes so far as to proscribe an education
in habits : —

294 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

" The only habit that a child should be allowed to form
is to contract no habit."

316. The Child's Right to Happiness. — Rousseau did
not tire of demanding that we should respect the infancy that
is in the child, and take into account his tastes and his apti-
tudes. With what eloquence he claims for him the right of
being happy !

" Love childhood. Encourage its sports, its pleasures, and
| its instinct for happiness. Who of you has not sometimes
regretted that period when a laugh was always on the lips,
and the soul always in peace? Why will you deny those
little innocents the enjoyment of that brief period which is so
soon to escape them, and of that precious good which they
cannot abuse ? Whv will vou fill with bitterness and sorrow
those first years so quickly passing which will no more re-
turn to them than they can return to you ? Fathers, do }*ou
know the moment when death awaits vour children? Do
not lay up for yourselves regrets by depriving them of the
few moments that nature gives them. As soon as they can
feel the pleasure of existence, try to have them enjoy it, and
act in such a wav that at whatever hour God summons them
they may not die without having tasted the sweetness of
livin<r."

317. Proscription of Intellectual Exercises. — Rous-
seau rejects from the education of £raile all the intellectual
exercises ordinarily employed. He proscribes history on the
pretext that Emile cannot comprehend the relations of events.
He takes as an example the disgust of a child who had been
told the anecdote of Alexander and his physician : —

ik I found that he had an unusual admiration for the cour*
age, so much lauded, of Alexander. But do you know in
what he saw that courage? Simply in the fact 'that he
swallowed a drink that had a bad taste."

ROUSSEAU AND THE £MILE. 295

And from this Rousseau concludes that the child's intelli-
gence is not sufficiently open to comprehend history, and that
he ought not to learn it. The paradox is evident. Because
£mile is sometimes exposed to the danger of falling into ^
errors of judgment, must he be denied the opportunity of
judging? Similarly, Rousseau does not permit the study of
the languages. Up to the age of twelve, l£mile shall know
but one language, because, till then, incapable of judging and
comprehending, he cannot make the comparison between
other languages and his own. Later, from twelve to fifteen,
Rousseau will find still other reasons for excluding the study
of the ancient languages. And it is not only history and the
languages ; it is literature in general from which iSmile is
excluded by Rousseau. No book shall be put into his hands,
not even the Fables of La Fontaine. It is well known with
what resolution Rousseau criticises The Crow and the Fox.

318. Education of the Senses. — The grand preoccupa-
tion of Rousseau is the exercise and development of the
senses of his pupil. The whole theor}- of object lessons, and
even all the exaggerations of what is now called the intuitive
method, are contained in germ in the Emile : —

44 The first faculties which are formed and perfected in us
are the senses. These, then, are the first which should be
cultivated ; but these are the very ones that we forget or that
we neglect the most."

Rousseau does not consider the senses as wholly formed
by nature ; but he makes a special search for the means of
forming them and of perfecting them through education.

44 To call into exercise the senses, is, so to speak, to learn
to feel ; for we can neither touch, nor see, nor hear, except as
we have been taught."

Only, Rousseau is wrong in sacrificing everything to this

296 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

education of the senses. He sharply criticises this favorite
maxim of Locke, " We must reason with children." Rous-
seau retards the education of the judgment and the reason,
and declares that " he would as soon require that a child be
five feet high as that he reason at the age of eight."

319. The Third Book of the £mile. — From the twelfth
to the fifteenth year is the length of time that Rousseau has
devoted to study and to intellectual development proper. It
is necessary that the robust animal, "the roe-buck," as he
calls iSmile, after a negative and temporizing education of
twelve years, become in three years an enlightened intelli-
gence. A 8 the period is short, Rousseau disposes of the time
for instruction with a miser's hand. Moreover, lSinile is very
poorly prepared for the rapid studies which are to be im-
posed on him. Not having acquired in his earlier years the
habit of thinking, having lived a purety physical existence, he
will have great difficulty in bringing to life, within a few
months, his intellectual faculties.

But without dwelling on the unfavorable conditions of
fimile's intellectual education, let us see in what it will
consist.

320. Choice in the Things to be taught. — The princi-
ple which guides Rousseau in the choice of Smile's studies
is no other than the principle of utility : —

" There is a choice in the things which ought to be taught as
well as in the time fit for learning them. Of the knowledges
within our reach, some are false, others are useless, and still
others serve to nourish the pride of him who has them. Only
the small number of those which really contribute to our good
are worthy the care of a wise man, and consequently of a
child whom we wish to render such. It is not a question of
knowing what is, but only what is useful."

«ri

BOUSSEAU AND THE folELE. 297

821. Rousseau and the Abbe de Saint Pierre. — Among
educators, some wish to teach everything, while others de-
mand a choice, and would retain only what is necessary.
The Abbe* de Saint Pierre follows the first tendency. He
would have the scholar learn everything at college ; a little
medicine towards the seventh or eighth year, and in the
other classes, arithmetic and blazonry, jurisprudence, Ger-
man, Italian, dancing, declamation, politics, ethics, astron-
omy, anatomy, chemistry, without counting drawing and the
violin, and twenty other things besides. Rousseau is wiser.
He is dismayed at such an accumulation, at such an obstruc-
tion of studies, and so yields too much to the opposite ten-
dency, and restricts beyond measure the list of necessary
studies.

322. Smile's Studies. — These, in fact, are the studies to
which iSmile is limited : first, the physical sciences, and, at
the head of the list, astronomy, then geography, geography
taught without maps and by means of travel : —

i% You are looking for globes, spheres, maps. "What
machines ! Why all these representations ? Why not begin
by showing him the object itself ? "

Here, as in other places, Rousseau prefers what would be
best,- but what is impossible, to that which is worth less, but
which alone is practicable.

But Rousseau does not wish that his pupil, like the pupil of
Rabelais, become an "abyss of knowledge."

" When I see a man, enamored of knowledge, allow him-
self to yield to its charms, and run from one kind to another
without knowing where to stop, I think I see a child on the
sea-shore collecting shells, beginning by loading himself with
them ; then, tempted by those he still sees, throwing them
aside, picking them up, until, weighed down by their number,

298 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

and no longer knowing which to choose, he ends by rejecting
everything, and returns empty-handed."

No account is made of grammar and the ancient languages
in the plan of EmhVs studies. Graver still, history is pro-
scribed. This rejection of historical studies, moreover, is
systematically done. Rousseau has placed iSmile in the
country, and has made him an orphan, the better to isolate
him ; to teach him history would be to throw him back into
society that he abominates.

323. No Books save Robinson Crusoe. — One of the con-
sequences of an education that is natural and negative is the
suppression of books. Always going to extremes, Rousseau
is not content to criticise the abuse of books. He deter-
mines that up to his fifth year £mile shall not know what a
book is : —

u I hate books," he exclaims ; " they teach us merely to
speak of things that we do not know."

, Besides the fact that this raving is rather ridiculous in the
case of a man who is a writer by profession, it is evident that
Rousseau is roving at random when he condemns the use of
books in instruction.

One book, however, one single book, has found favor in
his sight. Robinson Crusoe will constitute by itself for a long
time the whole of Emile's library. We understand without
difficulty Rousseau's kindly feeling for a work which, under
the form of a romance, is, like the Entile, a treatise on natu-
ral education, finiile and Robinson strongly resemble each
other, since they are self-sufficient and dispense with
societv.

324. Excellent Precepts on Method. — At least in the
general method which he commends, Rousseau makes amends
for the errors in his plan of study : —

ROUSSEAU AND THE EMILE. 299

"Do not treat the child to discourses which he cannot
understand. No descriptions, no eloquence, no figures of
speech. Be content to present to him appropriate objects.
Let us transform our sensations into ideas. But let us not
jump at once from sensible objects to intellectual objects.
Let us always proceed slowly from one sensible notion to
another. In general, let us never substitute the sigu for the
thing, except when it is impossible for us to show the
thing."

"I have no love whatever for explanations and talk.
Things ! things ! I shall never tire of saying that we ascribe
too much importance to words. With our babbling education
we make only babblers."

But the whole would bear quoting. Almost all of Rous-
seau's recommendations, in the way of method, contain an
element of truth, and need only to be modified in order to
become excellent.

325. Exclusive Motives op Action. — A great question*
in the education of children is to know to what motive we
shall address ourselves. Here again, Rousseau is exclusive
and absolute. Up to the age of twelve, £mile will have
been guided by necessity ; he will have been made depend-
ent on things, not on men. It is through the possible and
the impossible that he will have been conducted, by treating
him, not as a sensible and intelligent being, but as a force of
nature against which other forces are made to act. Not till
the age of twelve must this system be changed. iSmile has
now acquired some judgment ; and it is upon an intellectual
motive that one ought now to count in regulating his con-
duct. This motive is utility. The feeling of emulation can-
not be employed in a solitary education. Finally, at the
age of fifteen, it will be possible to appeal to the heart, to

tarn

300 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

feeling, and to recommend to the young man the acts we set
before him, no longer as necessary or useful, but as noble,
good, and generous. The error of Rousseau is in cutting
up the life of man to his twentieth year into three sharply
defined parts, into three moments, each subordinated to a
single governing priuciple. The truth is that at every age
an appeal must be made to all the motives that act on our
will, that at every age, necessity, interest, sentiment, and
finally, the idea of duty, an idea too often overlooked by
Rousseau, as all else that is derived from reason, — all these
motives can effectively intervene, in different degrees, in the
education of man.

326. ISmile learns a Trade. — At the age of fifteen,
Smile will know nothing of histor}*, nothing of humanity,
nothing of art and literature, nothing of God ; but he will
know a trade, a manual trade. By this means, he will be
sheltered from need in advance, in case a revolution should
strip him of his fortune.

"We are approaching," says Rousseau, with an astonish-
ing perspicacity, " a century of revolutions. Who can give
you assurance of what will then become of you ? I hold it
to be impossible for the great monarchies of Europe to last
much longer. They have all had their day of glory, and
every State that dazzles is in its decline."

We have previously noticed, in studying analogous ideas in
the case of Locke, for what other reasons Rousseau made of
Emile an apprentice to a cabinet-maker or a carpenter.

327. Smile at the Age op Fifteen. — Rousseau takes
comfort in the contemplation of his work, and he pauses
from time to time in his analyses and deductions, to trace
the portrait of his pupil. This is how he represents him at
the age of fifteen : —

BOUSSEAU AND THE SMILE. 301

" lSmile has but little knowledge, but that which he has is
really his own ; he knows nothing by halves. In the small
number of things that he knows, and knows well, the most
important is that there are many things which he does not
know, but which he can some day learn ; that there are many
more things which other men know, but which he will never
know ; and that there is an infinity of other things which no
man will ever know. He has a universal mind, not through
actual knowledge, but through the ability to acquire it. He
has a mind that is open, intelligent, prepared for everything,
and, as Montaigne says, if not instructed, at least capable
of being instructed. It is sufficient for me that he knows
how to find the ofichat good is it? with reference to all that
he does, and the why? of all that he believes. Once more,
my object is not at all to give him knowledge, but to teach
him how to acquire it as he may need it, to make him esti-
mate it at its exact worth, and to make him love truth above
everything else. With this method, progress is slow ; but
there are no false steps, and no danger of being obliged to
retrace one's course."

All this is well ; but it is necessary to add that even 3? mile
has faults, great faults. To mention but one of them, but
one which dominates all the others, he sees things only from
the point of view of utility, and he would not hesitate, for
example, " to give the Academy of Sciences for the smallest
bit of pastry."

328. Education op the Sensibilities. — It is true that
Rousseau finally decides to make of £mile an affectionate
and reasonable being. " We have formed," he says, " his
body, his senses, his judgment; it remains to give him a
heart." Rousseau, who proceeds like a magician, by wave of
wand and clever tricks, flatters himself that within a day's

302 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

time Emile is going to become the most affectionate, the
most moral, and the most religious of men.

32 J . The Fourth Book of the £mile. — The develop-
ment of the affectionate sentiments, the culture of the moral
sentiment, and that of the religious sentiment, such is the
triple subject of the fourth book, — vast and exalted questions
that lend themselves to eloquence in such a way that the
fourth book of the Emile is perhaps the most brilliant of the
whole work.

33#. Genesis of the Affectionate Sentiments. — Here
Rousseau is wholly in the land of chimeras. Emile, who
lives in isolation, who has neither family, friends, nor com-
panions, is necessarily condemned to selfishness, and every-
thing Rousseau can do to warm his heart will be useless.
Do we wish to develop the feelings of tenderness and affec-
tion? Let us begin by placing the child under family or
social influences which alone can furnish his affections the
occasion for development. For fifteen years Rousseau leaves
the heart of Emile unoccupied. What an illusion to think
he will be able to fill it all at once ! When we suppress the
mother in the education of a child, all the means that we can
invent to excite in, his soul emotions of gentleness and
affection are but palliatives. Rousseau made the mistake of
thinking that a child can be taught to love as he is taught to
read and write, and that lessons could be given to iSmile in
feeling just as lessons are given to him in geomefry.

331. Moral Education. — Rousseau is more worthv of
being followed when he demands that the moral notions of
right and wrong have their first source in the feelings of sym-
pathy and social benevolence, on the supposition that accord-
ing to his system he can inspire Emile with such feelings.

ROUSSEAU AND THE KMILE. 803

We enter, finally, the domain of morals," he says. " If
this were the place for it, I would show how from the first
emotions of the heart arise the first utterances of the con-
science, and how, from the first feelings of love and hate
arise the first notions of good and evil. I would make it
appear that justice and goodness are not merely abstract
terms, conceived by the understanding, but real affections
of the soul enlightened by the reason."

Yes ; let the child be made to make his way gradually
towards a severe morality, sanctioned by the reason, in
having him pass through the gentle emotions of the heart.
Nothing can be better. But this is to be done on one condi-
tion : this is, that we shall not stop on the way, and that the
vague inspirations of the sensibilities shall be succeeded by
the exact prescriptions of the reason. Now Rousseau, as
we know, was never willing to admit that virtue was anything
else than an affair of the heart. His ethics is wholly an
ethics of sentiment.

332. Religious Education. — We know the reasons which
determined Rousseau to delay till the sixteenth or eighteenth
year the revelation of religion. It is that the child, with his
sensitive imagination, is necessarily an idolater. If we
speak^to him of God, he can form but a superstitious idea of
him. "Now," says Rousseau, pithily, u when the imagina-
tion has once seen God, it is verv rare that the understanding
conceives him." In other terms, once plunged in supersti-
tion, the mind of the child can never extricate itself from it.
We must then wait, in the interest of religion itself, till the
child have sufficient maturity of reason and sufficient power
of thought to seize in its truth, divested of every veil of
sense, the idea of God, whose existence is announced to him
for the first time.

804 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

It is difficult to justify Rousseau. First, is it not to be
feared that the child, if he has reached his eighteenth year in
ignorance of God, may find it wholly natural to be ignorant
of him still, and that he reason and dispute at random with
his teacher, and that he doubt instead of believe? And if
he allows himself to be convinced, is it not at least evident
that the religious idea, tardily inculcated, will have no pro-
found hold on his mind? On the other hand, will the child,
with his instinctive curiosity, wait till his eighteenth year to
inquire the cause of the universe? Will he not form the
notion of a God in his own way ?

" One might have read, a few years ago," says Villemain,
41 the account, or rather the psychological confession, of a
writer (Sentenis), a German philosopher, whom his father
had submitted to the experiment advised by the author of

Emile. Left alone by the loss of a tenderly loved wife, this
father, a learned and thoughtful man, had taken his infant
son to a retired place in the country ; and not allowing him
communication with any one, he had cultivated the child's
intelligence through the sight of the natural objects placed
near him, and by the stud}* of the languages, almost without
books, and in carefully concealing from him all idea of God.
The child had reached his tenth year without having either
read or heard that great name. But then his mind {bund
what had been denied it. The sun which he saw rise each
morning seemed the all-powerful benefactor of whom he felt
the need. He soon formed the habit of going at dawn to the
garden to pay homage to that god that he had made for
himself. His father surprised him one day, and showed him
his error by teaching him that all the fixed stars are so many
suns distributed in space. But such was then the disap-
pointment and the grief of the child deprived of his worshio,

T1 " ' ™** =Li— J.'—g^ ^ ~—~-t mam^!2

ROUSSEAU AND THE lSMILE. 305

that the father, overcome, acknowledged to him that there
was a God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth."1

333. The Savoyard Vicar's Profession of Faith. —
Rousseau has at least attempted to retrieve, by stately lan-
guage and an impassioned demonstration of the existence of
God, the delay which he has spontaneous!}' imposed on his
pupil.

The Savoyard Vicar's Profession of Faith is an eloquent
catechism on natural religion, and the honest expression of a
sincere and profound deism. The religion of nature is evi-
dently the only one which, in Rousseau's system, can be
taught, and ought to be taught, to the child, since the child is
exactly the pupil of nature. If Emile wishes to go beyond
this, if he needs a positive religion, this shall be for himself
\o choose.

334. Sophie and the Education of Women. — The weak-
est part of the Emile is that which treats of the education of
woman. This is not morel v because Rousseau, with his
decided leaning towards the romantic, leads fimile and his
companion into odd and extraordinary adventures, but it is
especially because he misconceives the proper dignity of
woman. Sophie, the perfect woman, has been educated only
to complete the happiness of Emile. Her education is wholly
relative to her destinv as a wife.

"The whole education of women should be relative to men ;
to please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves
honored and loved by them, to educate the young, to care for
the older, to advise them, to console them, to make life agree-
able and sweet to them, — these are the duties of women in
every age."

** i Report of Villemain on the work of the Pcre Girard (1844).

804 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

" One might have read, a few years ago," says Villemain,
64 the account, or rather the psychological confession, of a
writer (Sentenis), a German philosopher, whom his father
had submitted to the experiment advised by the author of
Emile. Left alone by the loss of a tenderly loved wife, this
father, a learned and thoughtful man, had taken his infant
son to a retired place in the countr}- ; and not allowing him
communication with any one, he had cultivated the child's
intelligence through the sight of the natural objects placed
near him, and by the stud}' of the languages, almost without
books, and in carefully concealing from him all idea of God.
The child had reached his tenth year without having either
read or heard that great name. But then his mind Sound
what had been denied it. The sun which he saw rise each
morning seemed the all-powerful benefactor of whom he felt
the need. He soon formed the habit of going at dawn to the
garden to pay homage to that god that he had made for
himself. His father surprised him one day, and showed him
his error by teaching him that all the fixed stars are so many
suns distributed in space. But such was then the disap-
pointment and the grief of the child deprived of his worshiu,

ROUSSEAU AND THE &\IILE. 305

that the father, overcome, acknowledged to him that there
was a God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth."1

334. Sophie and the Education of Women. — The weak-
est part of the Emile is that which treats of the education of
woman. This is not merely because Rousseau, with his
decided leaning towards the romantic, leads iSmile and his
companion into odd and extraordinary adventures, but it is
especially because he misconceives the proper dignity of
woman. Sophie, the perfect woman, has been educated only
to complete the happiness of Emile. Her education is wholly
relative' to her destinv as a wife.

" * Report of ViUemain on the work of the Pcre Girard (1844).

306 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

u Sophie," says Gr6ard, " has but virtues of the second
order, virtues of conjugal education." It has been said that
marriage is a second birth for man, that he rises or falls
according to the choice which he makes. For woman, ac-
cording to the theory of Rousseau, it is the true advent into
life. According to the expressive formula of Michelet, who,
in a sentence, has given a marvellous summary of the doc-
trine, but in attaching to it a sense which poetizes it, " the
husband creates the wife." Sophie, up to the day of her
marriage, did not exist. She had learned nothing and read
nothing " except a Barime and a TM&maque which have
chanced to fall into her hands." She has been definitelv
admonished, "that were men sensible, every lettered girl
will remain a girl." It is iSmile alone who is to instruct her,
and he will instruct her and mould her into his own ideal,
and in conformity to his individual interest.

While it was only in his youth that he received the first
principles of the religious feeling, Sophie must be penetrated
with it from infancy, in order that she may early form the
habit of submission. He commands and she obeys, the first
duty of the wife being meekness. If, during her youth, she
has freely attended banquets, amusements, balls, the theatre,
it is not so much to be initiated into the vain pleasures of
the world, under the tutelage of a vigilant mother, as to be-
long, once married, more fully to her home and to her
husband. She is nothing except as she is by his side, or as
dependent on him, or as acting through him. Strange and
brutal paradox, which Rousseau, it is true, corrects and
repairs in detail, at every moment by the most happy and
charming inconsistencies."

Sophie, briefly, is an incomplete person whom Rousseau is
not careful enough to educate for herself.

In her subordinate and inferior position, the cares of the

-MM

ROUSSEAU AND THE EMILE. 307

household occupy the largest place. She cuts and makes
her own dresses : —

44 What Sophie knows best, and what was taught her with
most care, is the work of her sex. There is no needle- work
which she does not know how to make."

It is not forbidden her, but is even recommended that she
introduce a certain coquetry into her employments : —

44 The work she loves the best is lace-making, because
there is no other that gives her a more agreeable attitude,
and in which the fingers are used with more grace and
deftness."

She carries daintiness a little too far : —

44 She docs not love cooking ; its details have some disgust
for her. She would sooner let the whole dinner go into the
fire than to soil her cuffs."

Truly this is fine housewifery ! We feel that we have here
to do with a character in a romance who has no need to dine.
Sophie would not have been well received at Saint Cyr, where
Madame de Maintenon so severely scolded the girls who were
too fastidious, 44 fearing smoke, dust, and disagreeable odors,
even to making complaints and grimaces on their account as
though all were lost."

335. General Conclusion. — In order to form a just esti-
mate of the Emile, it is necessary to put aside the impressions
left by the reading of the last pages. We must consider as
a whole, and without taking details into account, that work,
which, notwithstanding all, is very admirable and profound.
It is injured by analysis. To esteem the Emile at its real
worth, it must be read entire. In reading it, in fact, we are
warmed by contact with the passion which Rousseau puts into
whatever he writes. We pardon his errors and chimeras by
reason of the grand sentiments and the grand truths which
we meet at every step. We must also take into account the

308 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

time when Rousseau lived, and the conditions under which he
wrote. We have not a doubt that had it been written thirty
years later, in the dawn of the Revolution, for a people who
were free, or who desired to be free, the Emile would have
been wholly different from what it is. Had he been working
for a republican society, or for a society that wished to become
such, Rousseau would not have thrown himself, out of
hatred for the reality, into the absurdities of an over-spe-
cialized and exceptional education. We can judge of what
he would have done as legislator of public instruction in the
time of the Revolution, by what he wrote in his Considerations
on the Government of Poland : —

" National education belongs only to people who are
free. ... It is education which is to give to men the national
mould, and so to direct their opinions and their tastes that
they will become patriots by inclination, by passion, and by
necessity" (we would only add, by duty). "A child, in
opening his eyes, ought to see his country and nothing but
his country. Every true republican, along with his mother's
milk, will imbibe love of country, that is, of law and liberty.
This love constitutes his whole existence. He sees but his
country, he lives but for her. So soon as he is alone, he is
nothing ; so soon as there is no more of country, he is no
more. . . . While learning to read, I would have a child of
Poland read what relates to his country ; at the age of ten, I
would have him know all its productions ; at twelve, all its
provinces, all its roads, all its cities ; at fifteen, the whole of
its history ; and at sixteen, all its laws ; and there should not
be in all Poland a notable deed or an illustrious man, of which
his memory and his heart were not full."

33G. Influence of tiie 1?mile. — That which proves
better than any commentary can the high standing of the
Emile, is the success which it has obtained, the influence

BOUSSEAU AND THE &MILE. 309

which it has exerted, both in France aud abroad, and the
durable reuown attested by so many works designed, either
to contradict it, to correct it, or to approve it and to dis-
semiuate its doctrines. During the twenty-five years that
followed the publication of the Entile, there appeared in the
French language twice as many books on education as dur-
ing the first sixty years of the century. Rousseau, besides
all that he said personally which was just and new, had the
merit of stimulating minds and of preparing through his
impulsion the rich educational harvest of this last one hun-
dred vears.

To be convinced of this, it suffices to read this judgment
of Kant : —

44 The first impression which a reader who does not read
for vanity or for killing time derives from the writings of
Rousseau, is that this writer unites to an admirable penetra-
tion of genius a noble inspiration and a soul full of sensi-
bility, such as has never been met with in any other writer,
in any other time, or in any other country. The impression
which immediatelv follows this, is that of astonishment
caused by the extraordinary and paradoxical thoughts which
he develops. ... I ought to read and re-read Rousseau,
till the beauty of his style no more affects me. It is only
then that I can adjust my reason to judge of him."

[337. Analytical Summary. — 1. The study of the Emile
exhibits, in a very striking manner, the contrast between the
respective agencies of art and nature in the work of educa-
tion, and also the power of sentiment as a motor to ideas.

2. What Monsieur Compayr6 has happily called Rous-
seau's u misuse of the principle of nature" marks a recoil
against the artificial and fictitious state of society and opinion
in France in the eighteenth century. In politics, in religion,
and in philosophy, there was the domination of authority, and

**mmmmmamStaMmim*+^

310 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

bat a small margin was left for the exercise of freedom,
versatility, aud individual initiative ; while education was
admin is te red rather as a process of manufacture, than of
regulated growth.

t 3. The conception that the child, by his very constitution,
is predetermined, like plants and animals, to a progressive
development quite independent of artificial aid, easily degen-
erates into the hypothesis that the typical education is a
process of spontaneous growth.

4. The error in this hypothesis is that of exaggeration or
of disproportion. Education is neither a work of nature
alone, nor of art alone, but is a natural process, supple-
mented, controlled, and perfected by human art. What
education would become when abandoned wholly to " nature "
may be seen in the state of a perfected fruit which has been
allowed to revert to its primitive or natural condition.

5. Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the
fact that he is not the victim of his environment, but is en-
dowed with the power to control his environment, almost to
re-create it, and so to rise superior to it. This ability gives
rise to human art, which is a coordinate factor with nature
in the work of education.

6. This convenient fiction of "Nature," conceived as an
infallible and incomparable guide in education, has intro-
duced countless errors into educational theorv ; and Miss E. R.
Sill is amply justified in saying that "probably nine-tenths
of the popular sophistries on the subject of education, would
be cleared away by clarifying the word Nature."1

7. In spite of its paradoxes, its exaggerations, its over-
wrought sentiment, and florid declamation, the Emilen in its
general spirit, is a work of incomparable power and of per-
ennial value.]

i Atlantic Monthly, February, 18S3, p. 175,

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. —
CONDILLAC, DIDEROT, HELVETIUS, AND KANT.

the philosophers of the eighteenth century j condillac (1716-
1780); abuse of the philosophic spirit; must wk reason
with children ? preliminary lessons j the art of think-
ing j other parts of the course of study j personal
reflection; excesses of devotion criticised; diderot (171&-
1784); his pedagogical works; his qualities as an educa-
tor j necessity of instruction j idea of a system of public
instruction; criticism of frencii colleges; PROPOSED re-
forms ; preference for the sciences ; incomplete tiews
on the province of letters; opinion of marmontel; other
novelties of diderot's plan; helvetius (1715-1771); paradoxes
of the treatise on man ; refutation of helvetius by
diderot; instruction secularized; the encyclopaedists; kant
(1724-1804); high conception of education j psychological op-
timism j respect for the liberty of the child ; culture of
the faculties; stories interdicted; different kinds of
punishment; religious education; analytical summary.

338. The Philosophers of the Eighteenth Century. —
If there has been considerable progress made in education in
the eighteenth century, it is due, in great part, to the efforts
of the philosophers of that age. It is no longer alone the
men who are actually engaged in the schools that are pre-
occupied with education ; but nearly all the illustrious
thinkers of the eighteenth century have discussed these great
, questions with more or less thoroughness. The subject is
far from being exhausted by the study of Rousseau. Besides
the educational current set in movement by the EmiJr, the
other philosophers of that period, in their isolated and inde-

812 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

pendent march, left original routes which it remains to fol-
low. From out their errors and conceptions of systems there
emerge some new outlooks and some definite truths.

339. Condillac (1715-1780). — An acute and ingenious
psychologist, a competitor and rival of Locke in philosophy,
Condillac is far from having the same authority in matters
pertaining to education ; but still there is profit to be derived
from the reading of his Course o£Sludy, which includes not
less than thirteen volumes. This important work is a collec-
tion of the lessons which he had composed for the education
of the infant Ferdinand, the grandson of Louis XV., and
heir of the dukedom of Parma, whose preceptor he became
in 1757.

340. Abuse op the Philosophic Spirit. — It is certainlv
a matter of congratulation that the philosophical spirit is
entering more and more largely into the theories of educa-
tion, and there would be only words of commendation for
Condillac had he restricted himself to this excellent declara-
tion, that pedagogy is nothing if it is not a deduction from
psychology. But he does not stop there, but with an indis-
cretion that is to be regretted, he arbitrarily transports into
education certain philosophical principles which it is not
proper to apply to the art of educating men, whatever may
be their theoretical truth ; thus Condillac, having established
the natural order of the development of the sciences and the
arts in the history of humanity, presumes to impose the same
law of progress upon the child.

" The method which I have followed does not resemble the
usual manner of teaching ; but it is the very way in which
men were led to create the arts and the sciences." l

1 Discours prtliminaire sur la grammaire, in the (Euvre* completes of
Condillac, Tome VI. p. 264.

5E^w5E53^B^^2i^MMHtaMMidMH

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 313

In other terms, the child must do over again, on his own
account, kk that which the race has done." He must be com-
pelled to follow, step by step, in its long gropings, the slow
progress made by the race.1

There is, dduBTless, an element of truth in the error of
Condillac. The sciences and the arts began witli the obser-
vation of particulars, and thence slowly rose to general prin-
ciples ; and to-day no one thinks of denying the necessity of
proceeding in the same manner in education, so far as this is
possible. It is well at the first to present facts to the child,
and to lead him step by step, from observation to observation,
to the law which governs them and includes them ; but there is
a wide distance between the discreet use of the inductive and .
experimental method, and the exaggerations of Condillac.
No one should seriously think of absolutely suppressing the
synthetic method of exposition, which, taking advantage of
the work accomplished through the centuries, teaches at the
outset the truths that have been already acquired. It would
be absurd to compel the chihj. painfully to recommence the
toil of the race.2

1 This is also the main principle in Mr. Spencer's educational philosophy.
" The education of the child must accord both in mode and arrangement
with the education of mankind as considered historically ; or, in other
words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same
course as the genesis of knowledge in the race." — Education, p. 122. (P.)

2 The general law of human progress is inheritance supplemented by
individual acquisition. Using the symbols i (inheritance) and a (acqui-
sition), the progress of the race from its origin upwards, through successive
generations, may be exhibited by this series : i ; i + a ; i (2 a) + a ; i (3 a) + a ;
i (4a)+a. If the factor of inheritance could be eliminated, as Condillac
and Spencer recommend, the series would take this form: a' ; a" ; a"';
air ; ar : the successive increments in acquisition being due to successive
increments in power gained through heredity. But, happily, the law of in-
heritance cannot be abrogated, and so philosophers write books in order to
save succeeding generations from the fate of Sisyphus. (P.)

314 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Graver still, Condillac, led astray bjLhia-loxfi,foE-philoso«
phizing, presumes to initiate the child, from the very begin-
ning of his studies, into psychological analysis.

" The first thing to be done is to make the child acquainted
with the faculties of his soul, and to make him feel the need
of making use of them."

In other terms, the analysis of the soul shall be the first
object proposed to the reflection of the child. It is not
proposed to make him attentive, but to teach him what
attention is.

How can one seriously think of making of the child a little
psychologist, and of choosing as the first element of his edu-
cation the very science that is the most difficult of all, the
one which can be but the coronation of his studies?

341. Must we reason with Children? — Rousseau had
sharply criticised the famous maxim of Locke : uWe must
reason with children." Condillac tries to restore it to credit,
and for this purpose he invokes the pretended demonstra-
tions of a superficial and inexact psychology.

"It has been proved/' he says, "that the faculty of
reasoning begins as soon as the senses commence to de-
velop ; and we have the early use of our senses only because
we early began to reason." Strange assertions, which are
disproved by the most elementary observation of the facts in
the case. Condillac here allows himself to be imposed upon
by his sensational psychology, the tendency of which is to
efface the peculiar character of the different intellectual
faculties, to derive them all from the senses, and, conse-
quently, to suppress the distance which separates a simple
sensation from the subtile, reflective, and abstract process
which is called reasoning. It cannot be admitted for a
single instant that the faculties of the understanding are, as
be says, "the same in the child* as in the mature man,"

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 315

There is, doubtless, in the child a beginning of reasoning, a
sort of instinctive logic ; but this infantile reasoning can be
applied only to familiar objects^ such as are sensible and
concrete. It were absurd to employ it on general and ab-
stract ideas.

342. Preliminary Lessons. — We shall quote, without
comment, the first subjects of instruction which, under the
title of Legons prtliminaires, Condillac proposes to his
pupil: 1. the nature of ideas; 2. the operations of the
soul; 3. the habits; 4. the difference between the soul and
the body ; 5. the knowledge of God.

How are we to conceive that Condillac had the pretension
to place these high philosophical speculations witliin the
reach of a child of seven years who has not yet studied the
grammar of his native language ! How much better some
fables or historical narratives would answer his purpose !

But Condillac does not stop there. When his pupil has a
systematic knowledge of the operations of the soul, when
he has comprehended the genesis of ideas ; in a word, when,
towards the age of eight or ten, he is as proficient in philos-
ophy as his master, and almost as capable of writing the
Treatise an Sensations, what do you think he is invited to
study? Something which very much resembles the philoso-
phy of history : —

" After having made him reflect on his own infancy, I
thought that the infancy of the world would be the most
interesting subject for him, and the easiest to study."

343. The Art of Thinking. — It is only when he judges
that the mind of his pupil is sufficiently prepared by psycho-
logical analysis and by general reflections on the progress
of humanity, that Condillac decides to have him enter upon
the ordinary course of study. Here the spirit of system die-

316 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

appears, and gives place to more judicious and more practi-
cal ideas. Thus Condillac thinks that "the study of gram-
mar would be more wearisome than useful if it come too
early." Would that he had applied this principle to psychol-
ogy ! Before studying grammar, then, Condillac's pupil reads
the poets, — the French poets, of course, — and preferably
the dramatic authors, Racine especially, whom he reads for
the twelfth time. The real knowledge of the language pre-
cedes the abstract study of the rules. Condillac himself
composed a grammar entitled the Art of Speaking. In this
he imitates the authors of Port Royal, " who," he says,
44 were the first to write elementary books on an intelligent
plan." After the Art of Speaking he calls the attention of
his pupil to three other treatises in succession, — the Art of
Writing, or rhetoric, the Art of Reasoning, or logic, and the
Art of TJiinking. We shall not attempt an analysis of these
works, which have gone out of date, notwithstanding the
value of certain portions of them. The general characteris-
tic of these treatises on intellectual education is that the
author is pre-occupied with the relations of ideas more than
with the exterior elegancies of style, with the development of
thought more than with the beauties of language : —

"Especially must the intelligence be nourished, even as
the body is nourished. We must present to it knowledge,
which is the wholesome aliment of spirit, opinions and errors
being aliment that is poisonous. It is also necessary that
the intelligence be active, for the thought remains imbecile
as long as, passive rather than active, it moves at random."

344. Other Parts of the Course op Study. — It
seems that Condillac is in pursuitjof but one single purpose,
— to make of his pupil a thinking being. The study of
Latin is postponed till the time when the intelligence, being
completely formed, will find in the study of that language

If ^PM«+^M&*fc«— ■■Mfc

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 317

only the difficulty of learning words. Condillac has but
little taste for the study of th§^nc|ent Jauguagfes. He rele-
gates the study of Latin to the second place, and omits
Greek entirely. But he accords a 'great importance to his-
torical studies.

"After having learned to think, the Prince made the study
of history his priucipal object for six years."

Twelve volumes of the Course of Study have transmitted
to us Condillac's lessons in history. In this he does not take
delight, as Rolliu does, in long narrations ; but he analyzes,
multiplies his reflections, and abridges facts ; he philoso-
phizes more than he recites the facts of history.

345. Personal Reflection. — What we have said of Con-
dillac's Course of Study suffices to justify the judgment
expressed of his pedagogy by one of his disciples, Gerando,
when he wrote: " He who had so thoroughly studied the
manner in which ideas are formed in the human mind, had
but little skill in calling them into being in the intelligence
of his pupil."

But we would judge our author unjustly if, after the criti-
cisms we have made of him, we were not to accord him the
praise he deserves, especially for having comprehended, as he
has done, the value of personal reflection, and the superiority
of judgment over memory. A few quotations will rehabilitate
the pedagogy of Condillac in the minds of our readers.

Above all else there must be an exercise in personal
reflection : —

" I grant that the education which cultivates only the
memory may make prodigies, and that it has done so ; but
these prodigies lalst only during the time of infancy. . . .
He who knows only by heart, knows nothing. ... He who
has not learned to reflect has not been instructed, or, what is
still worse, -has been poorly instructed."

**Mm

■Mt

318

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

"True knowledge. ia in.. the reflection, which has acquired
it, much more than in the memory, which holds it in keep*
ing ; and the things which we are capable of recovering are
better known than those of which we have a recollection.
It does not suffice, then, to give a child knowledge. It is
necessary that he instruct himself by seeking knowledge on
his own account, and the essential point is to guide him
properly. If he is led in an orderly way, he will acquire
exact ideas, and will seize their succession and relation.
Then, able to call them up for review, he will be able to
compare them with others that are more remote, and to
make a final choice of those which he wishes to studv.
Reflection can always recover the things it has known,
because it knows how it originally found them ; but tho
memory does not so recover the things it has learned,
because it does not know how it learns."

This is why Cond iliac places far above the education wa
receive, the education that we give~ourselves : —

"Henceforth, Sir, it remains for you alone to instruct
yourself. Perhaps you imagine you have finished ; but it is I
who have finished. You are to begin anew ! "

346. Excessive Devotion Criticised. — What beautiful
lessons Condillac also addresses to his pupil to induce him to
enfranchise himself from ecclesiastical tutelage ! Written
by an abbot, the eloquent page we are about to read proves
how the lay spirit tended to pronounce itself in the eighteenth
century.

" You cannot be too pious, Sir; but if your piety is not
enlightened, you will so far forget your duties as to be
engrossed in the little things of devotion. Because prayer is
necessary, you will think you ought always to be praying,
not considering that true devotion consists first of all in
fulfilling the duties of your station in life : it will not be your

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 319

fault that you do not live in your heart as in a cloister.
Hypocrites will swarm around you, the monks will issue
from their cells. The priests will abandon the service of the
altar in order to be edified with the sight of your holy
works. Blind prince ! you will not perceive how their con-
duct is in contradiction with their language ^ You will not
even observe that the men who praise you for always being
at the foot of the altar, themselves forget that it is their own
duty to be there. You will unconsciously take their place
and leave to them your own. You will be continually at
prayer, and you will believe that you assure your salvation.
They will cease to* pray, and you will believe that they
assure their salvation. Strange contradiction, which turns
aside ministers from the Church to give bad ministers to the
State." i

347. Diderot (1713-1784). — To him who knows noth-
ing of Diderot save his works of imagination, often so licen-
tious, it will doubtless be a surprise to see the name of this
fantastic writer inscribed in the catalogue of educators.
But this astonishment will disappear if we will take the
trouble to recollect with what versatility this mjghty spirit
could vary the subject of his reflections, and pass from the
gay to the solemn, and especially with what ardor, in con-
junction with D'Alembert, he was the principal founder of
the Encyclopidie, and the indefatigable contributor to it.

348. His Pedagogical Works. — But there is no room
for doubt. Diderot has written at least two treatises that
belong to the history of education: first, about 1773, The
Systematic Refutation of the Book of Helvetius on Man, an
incisive and eloquent criticism of the paradoxes and errors

of Helvetius; and, in the second place, about 1776, a com-

^—^-^— ^— .

1 Coura d'ttudes, Tome X. Introduction.

320 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

pletc scheme of education, composed at the request of Cath-
erine II., under the title, Plan of a University.1

349. His Merits as an Educator. — Doubtless Diderot
did not have sufficient gravity of character or sufficiently
definite ideas to be a perfect educator ; but, by way of com-
pensation, the natural and acquired qualities of his mind
made him worthy of the confidence placed in him by Cathe-
rine II. in entrusting him with the organization, at least in
theory, of the instruction of the Russian people. First of
all, he had the merit of being a universal thinker, " suffi-
ciently versed in all the sciences to know their value, and
not sufficiently profound in any one to give it a preference
inspired by predilection." Engaged in the scientific move-
ment, of which the EncyclopMie was the centre, he at the
same time cherished an enthusiastic passion fox. Jet$ers. He
worshipped Shakespeare and modern poetry, but he was not
less enamored of classical antiquity, and for several years,
he says, "he thought it as much a religious duty to read a
song of Homer as a good priest would to recite his breviary."

350. Necessity of Instruction. — Diderot, and this is
to his praise, is distinguished from the most of his contem-
poraries, and especially from Rousseau, by his ardent faith
in the moral efficacy of instruction : —

" Far from corrupting," he exclaims, "instruction sweet-
ens character, throws light on duty, makes vice less gross,
and either chokes it or conceals it. . . . I dare assert that
purity of morals has followed the progress of dress, from the
skin of animals to fabrics of silk."

Hence he decides on the necessity of instruction for all : —
" From the prime minister to the lowest peasant, it is good
for every one to know how to read, write, aud count."

1 See (Euvres completes of Diderot. Edited by Tourneux, 1876-77.
Tomes IL and III.

Am*

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 321

And he proposes to all people the example of Germany,
with her strongly organized system of primary instruction.
He demands schools open to all children, u schools of read-
ing, writing, arithmetic, and religion, " in which will be
studied both a moral and a political catechism. Attend-
ance on these schools shall be obligatory, and to make com-
pulsion possible, Diderot demands gratuity. He goes even
farther, and would have the child fed at school, and with his
books would have him find bread.

351. The Conception op Public Instruction. — Like all

»-- -~— -»«*»

who sincerely desire a strong organization of instruction,
Diderot assigns the direction of it to theJState. His ideal of
a Russian university bears a strong resemblance to the French
University of 1808. He would have at its head a politician,
a statesman, to whom should be submitted all the affairs of
public instruction. He even went so far as to entrust to
this general master of the university the duty of presiding
over the examinations, of appointing the presidents of col-
leges, of excluding bad pupils, and of deposing professors
and tutors.

352. Criticism op French Colleges. — Secondary instruc-
tion,- what was then called the Faculty of Arts, is the princi-
pal object of Diderot's reflections. He criticises the traditional
system with extreme severity, and his charge, though some-
times unjust, deserves to be quoted : —

t4 It is in the Faculty of Arts that there are still taught
to-day, under the name of belles-lettres, two dead languages
which are of use onlv to a small number of citizens ; it is
there that they are studied for six or seven years without
being learned ; under the name of rhetoric, the art of speak-
ing is taught before flie art of thinking, and that of speaking
elegantly before having ideas ; under the name of logic, the
head is filled with the subtilties of Aristotle, and of his very

322 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

sublime and very useless theory of the syllogism, and there
is spread over a hundred obscure pages what might have been
clearly stated in four ; under the name of ethics, I do not
know what is said, but I know that there is not a word said
either of the qualities of mind or heart ; under the name of
metaphysics, there are discussed theses as trifling as they are
knotty, the first elements of scepticism and bigotry, and the
germ of the unfortunate gift of replying to everything ; under
the name of physics, there is endless dispute about the ele-
ments of matter and the system of the world ; but not a word
on natural history, not a word on real chemistry, very little
on the movement and fall of bodies ; very few experiments,
less still of anatomy, and nothing of geography." l

353. Proposed Reforms. — After such a spirited criticism,
it was Diderot's duty to propose earnest and radical reforms ;
but all of those which he suggests are not equally com-
mendable.

Let us first note the idea revived in our day by Auguste
Comte and the school of positlvists, of a connection and a
subordination of the sciences, classified in a certain order,
according as they presuppose the science which has preceded,
or as they facilitate the study of the science which follows,
and also according to the measure of their utility.2 It is
according to this last principle in particular, that Diderot
distributes the work of the school, after having called atten-
tion to the fact that the order of the sciences, as determined
by the needs of the school, is not their logical order : —

" The natural connection of one science with the others
designates for it a place, and the principle of utility, more
or less general, determines for it another place."

1 (Euvresy Tome III. p. 459.

2 For Comte's classification of the sciences, see Spencer's Ulxutrationt
of Universal Progress, Chap. IIL (P.)

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUBY. 323

But Diderot forgets that we must take into account, not
alone the principle of utility in the distribution of studies,
but that the essential thing of all others is to adapt the order
of studies to the progress of the child in age and aptitudes.

354. Preferences for the Sciences. — Although equally
enamored of letters and the sciences, Diderot did not know
how to hold a just balance between a literary and a scientific
education. Anticipating Condorcet and Auguste Comte, he
displaces the centre of instruction, and gives a preponderance,
to the sciences. Of the eight classes comprised in his
Faculty of Arts, the first five are devoted to the mathematics,
to mechanics, to astronomy, to physics, and to chemistry.
Grammar and the ancient languages are relegated to the last
three years, which nearly correspond to what are called in
our colleges the " second " and " rhetoric." x

The charge that must be brought against Diderot in this
place, is not merely that he .puts an unreasonable restriction
on Jiterary -studies, but also that he makes a bad distribution
of scientific studies in placing the mathematics before physics.
It is useless for him to assert that "it is easier to learn
geometry than to learn to read." He does not convince us
of this. It is a grave error to begin by keeping the child's
attention on numerical abstractions, by leaving his senses
unemployed, by postponing so long the study of natural
history and experimental physics, those sciences expressly
adapted to children, because, as Diderot himself expresses
it, " they involve a continuous exercise of sight, smell, taste,
and memory."

To excuse Diderot's error, it does not suffice to state that
his pupil does not enter the Facnltv of Arts till his twelfth
year. Till that period, he will learn only reading, writing,

i See note, p. 131.

324 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

and orthography. There is ground for thinking that these
first years will be rather poorly employed ; but besides this,
it is evident that even at the age of twelve the mind is not
sufficiently mature to be plunged into the cold deductions of
mathematics.

355. Incomplete Views as to the Scope of Literart
Studies. — Diderot's attitude with respect to classical studies
is a matter of surprise. On the one hand, he postpones their
study till the pupil's nineteenth and twentieth year. On the
other, with what enthusiasm this eloquent scholar speaks of
the ancients, particularly of Homer !

44 Homer is the master to whom I am indebted for what-
ever merit I have, if indeed I have any at all. It is difficult
to attain to excellence in taste without a knowledge of the
Greek and Latin languages. I early drew my intellectual
nourishment from Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon,
Plato, and Euripides on the one hand, and from Moses and
the Prophets on the other."

How are we to explain this contradiction of an incon-
sistent and ungrateful humanist who extols the humanities
to the skies, and at the same time puts such restrictions on
the teaching of them as almost to annihilate them? The
reason for this is, that, in his opinion, the belles-lettres are j»
useful only for the training of orators and poots,¥ut are not/
serviceable in the general development of the mind. Conse-
quently, being fancy studies, so to speak, they are fit only
for a small minority of pupils, and have no right to the first
place in a common education, destined for men in general.
Diderot is not able to discern what, in pedagogy, is their
true title to nobility, — that thev are an admirable instru-
ment of intellectual gymnastics, and the surest and also the
most convenient means of acquiring those qualities of just-

SSttliMMMBHH

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 325

nesB, of precision, and of clearness, which are needed by all
conditions of men, and are applicable to all the special em-
ployments of life.1

356. Opinion of Marmontel. — Diderot seems to reduce
the office of letters to a study of words, and to an exercise of
memory. He might have learned a lesson from one of his
contemporaries, Marmontel, whose intellect, though less bril-
liant, was sometimes more just, an advantage Which the
intelligence gains from early discipline in the study of the
languages : —

"The choice and use of words, in translating from one
language to another, and even then some degree of elegance
in the construction of sentences, began to interest me ; and
this work, which did not proceed without the analysis of ideas,
fortified my memory. I perceived that it was the idea attached
to the word which made it take root, and reflection soon made
me feel that the study of the languages was also the study of
the art of distinguishing shades of thought, of decomposing it,
of forming its texture, and of catching with precision its
spirit and its relations ; and that along with words, an equal
number of new ideas were introduced and developed in the

1 This thought will bear extension as in the following quotation : " The
reasoning that I oppose starts from the low and false assumption that in-
struction serves only for the practical use that is made of it; for example,
that he who, by his social position, does not make use of his intellectual
culture, has no need of that culture. Literature, from this point of view,
is useful only to the man of letters, science only to the scientist, good man-
ners and fine bearing cnly to men of the world. The poor man should be
ignorant, for education and knowledge are useless to him. Blasphemy,
Gentlemen! The culture of the mind and the culture of the soul are duties
for every man. They are not simple ornaments; they are things as sacred
as religion" (Renan, Famillc ctlZtat, p. 3). This is a sufficient answer
to Mr. Spencer's assumption (Education, p. 84), that the studies that arc
best for guidance are at the same time the best for discipline. See also
Dugald Stewart (Elements, p. 12). (P.)

220 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

bead* of the yoong,1 and that in this war the early Humeri
were a course in elementary philosophy, much more rich,
more extended, and of greater real utility than we think,
when, we complain that in our colleges nothing is learned but
Latin." *

*.SU1. Othkb Novelties ix Diderot's Plax. — Without
entering into the details of the very elaborate organization
of Diderot's Rustian University , we shall call attention to
some other novelties of his system : —

1. The division of the classes into several series of paral-
lel courses : first, the series of scientific and literary courses ;
then, the series of lectures devoted to religion, to ethics, and
to history ; and finally, courses in drawing, music, etc.

2. The whimsical idea of teaching history in an inverted
order, so to speak, in beginning with the most recent events,
and little by little going back to antiquity.

tf. His extreme estimate of the art of reading: "Let a
teacher of reading be associated with a professor of drawing ;

1 TIiIn thought throws light on a dictum of current pedagogy, "First,
the idea, then the term." It shows that very often, in actual experience,
the sequence is from term to idea. The relation between term and idea is
the same in kind as that between sentence and thought. Must we then say,
" First the thought, then the sentence " ? Or, " First the thought, then the
chapter or the book ' ' ?

The disciplinary value of translation is also well stated. It may be
doubted whether the schools furnish a better "intellectual gymnastic"
Three high intellectual attainments are involved in a real translation : 1.
The separation of the thought from the original form of words; 2. The
seizing or comprehension of the thought as a mental possession; and 3. The
embodying of the thought in a new form. A strictly analogous process, of
Almost equal value in its place, is that variety of reading in which the
pupil is required to express the thought of the paragraph in his own lan-
1ju<t</e. This exereise involves the three processes above stated, and may
bo railed "the translation of thought from one form into another, in the
same language." (l\)

8 Marmontel, .\femoires d'un perc pour servir a V instruction de set en*
fants, Tome I. p. 10,

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUBY. 327

there are so few men, even the most enlightened, who know
how to read well, a gift always so agreeable, and often so
necessary."

4. A special regard for the study of art and for aesthetic,
education, which could not be a matter of indifference to the
great art critic who wrote the Salons.

5. A reform in the sj'stem of ushers.1 Diderot would '
have for supervising assistants in colleges, educated men,
capable on occasion of supplying the places of the profes-
sors themselves. To attach them to their duties, he requires
that some dignity be given to their modest and useful func-
tions, and that the usher be a sort of supernumerary, or
" professor in reversion," who aspires to the chair of the pro-
fessor, whose place he supplies from time to time, and which
he may finally attain.

358. Helvetius (1715-1771). — In undertaking the study
of the thoughts of Helvetius on education, and the rapid
analysis of his Treatise on Man, we shall not take leave of
Diderot, for the work of Helvetius has had the good or the
bad fortune of being commented on and criticised by his
illustrious contemporary. Thanks to the Systematic Refuta-
tion of the Book of Helvetius on Man, which forms a charming
accompaniment of pungent or vigorous reflections to a dull
and languid book, the reading of the monotonous treatise of
Helvetius becomes easy and almost agreeable.

359. The Treatise on Man. — Under this title, a little
long, De Vhomme, de ses facnlUs intellectuelles et de son e*du-
cation, Helvetius has composed a large work which he had in
contemplation for fifteen years, and which did not appear
till after his death, in 1772. As a matter of fact, education
does not directly occupy the author's attention except in the

1 Mditre d'ttude : " He who in a lycee, college, or boarding-school, has
oversight of pupils daring study hours and recreations." — Lixtb&.

828 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

first and the last chapters (sections I. and X.) . With this
exception, the whole book is devoted to long developments
of the favorite maxims of his philosophy : as the intel-
lectual equality of all men, and the reduction of all the pas-
sions to the pursuit of pleasure ; or to platitudes, such as
the influence of laws on the happiness of people, and the evils
which result from ignorance.

360. Potency op Education. — When he does not fall
into platitudes, Helvetius goes off into paradoxes that are
presumptuous and systematic. His habitual characteristic
is pedantry. in what i$ false. According to him, for example,
education is all-powerful ; it is the sole cause of the differ-
ence between minds. The mind of the child is but an empty
capacity, something indeterminate, without predisposition.
The impressions of the senses are the only elements of the
intelligence ; so that the acquisitions of the five senses are
the only thing that is of moment ; " the senses are all that
there is of man." It is not possible to push sensationalism
further than this.

The impressions of the senses are, then, the basis of
human nature, and as these impressions vary with circum-
stances, Helvetius arrives at this conclusion, that chance is
the great master in the formation of mind and character.
Consequently, he undertakes to produce at will men of
genius, or, at least, men of talent. For this purpose, it
suffices to ascertain, by repeated observations, the means
which chance employs for making great men. These means
once discovered, it remains only to set them at work arti-
ficially and to combine them, in order to produce the same
effects.

" Genius is a product of chance. Rousseau, like a count-
less number of illustrious men, may be regarded aa one of
the masterpieces of chance."

PHILOSOPHEBS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 329

361. Helvetius refuted by Diderot. — It is easy to
reply to extravagant statements of this sort. Had Helve-
tius consulted teachers and parents, had he observed himself,
had he simply reflected on his two daughters, so unequally
endowed though identically educated, he would doubtless
have felt constrained to acknowledge the limitations of
education ; he would have comprehended that it cannot give
imagination to minds of sluggish temperament, nor enthusi-
asm and sensibility to inert souls, and that the most marvel-
lously helpful circumstances will not make of a Helvetius a
Montesquieu or a Voltaire.

But if it is easy to refute Helvetius, it is impossible to
criticise him with more brilliancy and eloquence than Diderot
has done. With what perfection of reason he restores to
nature, to innate and irresistible inclinations, the influence
which Helvetius denies to them in the formation of char-
acter !

44 The accidents of Helvetius," he says, 44 are like the
spark which sets on fire a cask of wine, and which is extin-
guished in a bucket of water."

44 For thousands of centuries the dew of heaven has fallen
on the rocks without making them fertile. The sown fields
await it in order to become productive, but it is not the dew
that scatters the seed. Accidents themselves no more pro-
duce anything, than the pick of the laborer who delves
in the mines of Golconda produces the diamond that it
brings to the surface."

Doubtless education has a more radical effect than that
which is attributed to it bv La Bruverc when he said that
44 it touches only the surface of the soul." But if it can do
much, it cannot do all. It perfects if it is good ; it deadens
and it perverts if it is bad ; but it can never be a substitute
for lacking aptitude, and can never replace nature.

830

THE HISTOBY OP PEDAGOGY.

362. Secularized Instruction. — In other parts of his
system Helvetius is in accord with Diderot. Like him, he
believes the necessary condition of progress in education is
that it be made secular and entrusted to the civil power.
The vices of education. come from the opposition of the two
powers, spiritual and temporal, that assume to direct it.
Between the Church and the State there is an opposition of
interests and views. The State would have the nation
become brave, industrious, and enlightened.. The Church
demands a blind submission and unlimited credulity. Hence
there is contradiction in pedagogical precepts, diversity in
the means that are employed, and, consequently, an educa-
tion that is hesitating, that is pulled in opposite directions,
that does not know definitely where it is going, that misses
its way, that gropes and wastes time.

But the conclusion of Helvetius is not as we might expect,
— the separation of Church and State in the matter of

instruction and education, such as recent laws have estab-

lished in France. No ; Helvetius would have the State
absorb the Church, and have religious power and civil
power lodged in the same hands and both belong to those
who control the government, — a vexatious confusion that
would end in the oppression of consciences.

Helvetius, whatever may be thought of him, does not
deserve to claim our attention for any length of time, and we
cannot seriously consider as an authority in pedagogy a writer
who, in intellectual as in moral education, reduces ever}*thing
to a single principle, the development and the satisfaction of
physical sensibility.1

1 It Is a matter of surprise that In a German Pedagogical Library the very
first French work published is the Traits de V Homme of Helvetius. This
is giving the place of honor to what is perhaps of the most ordinary value
in French pedagogical literature.

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUBY. 331

363. The Encyclopaedists. — The vast collection which,
under the name Encyclopedic, sums up the science and the
philosophy of the eighteenth century, touches educational
questions only in passing. Properly speaking, the Encyclo-
pe'die contains no system of pedagogy. The principal frag-
ment is the article Education, written by the grammarian
and Latinist Dumarsais.

But this piece of work is little worthy of its author, and
little worthy in particular of the Ency elope* die. It contains
scarcely anything but vague and trite generalities, and
belongs to the category of those articles for padding which
caused Voltaire to say : u You accept articles worthy of the
Journal of TreVoux." We shall notice, however, in this
article, the importance accorded to the study of physics, and
to the practice of the arts, even the most common, and the
marked purpose to " subordinate " knowledges and studies,
or to distribute them in a logical, or rather psychological,
order ; for example, to cause the concrete always to precede
the abstract. But, after having lost himself in considera-
tions of but little interest on the development of ideas and
sentiments in the human soul, the author, who is decidedly
far below his task, concludes by recommending to young
people " the reading of newspapers."

The other pedagogical articles of the Encyclopedic are
equally deficient in striking novelties. If the great work of
D'Aleinbert and Diderot has contributed something to the
progress of education, it is less through the insufficient
efforts which it has directly attempted in this direction, than
through the general influence which it has exercised on the
French mind in extolling the sciences in their theoretical
study as well as in their practical applications, in diffusing
technical knowledge, in glorifying the industrial arts, and in
thus preparing for the coming of a scientific and positive

332 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

education in place of an education exclusively literary and of
pure form.

364. Kant (1724-1804). —We know the considerable
influence which, for a century, Kant has exercised on the
development of philosophy. Since Descartes, no thinker had
to the same degree excited an interest in the great problems
of philosophy, nor more vigorously obliged the human reason
to render an account of itself. It is then a piece of good
fortune for the science of education that a philosopher of this
order has taken up the discussion1 of pedagogical questions,
and has thrown upon them the light of his penetrating criti-
cism. The admiration which he felt for Rousseau, his atten-
tive and impassioned reading of the Emile^ his own reflec-
tions on the monastic education which he had received at the
Collegium Fredericianum, a sort of small seminary conducted
by the Pietists, the experience which he had had as a precep-
tor in several families that entrusted him with their children,
and finally, above all else, his profound studies on human
nature and his exalted moral philosophy, had given him a
capital preparation for treating educational questions. Pro-
fessor at the University of Konigsberg, he several times
resumes the discussion of pedagogical subjects with a marked
predilection for them, and the notes of his lectures, collected
by one of his colleagues, formed the little Treatise on Peda-
gogy which we are about to analyze.1

3C>f>. Hkjii Conception of Edccation. — In the opinion
of Kaut, the art of educating men, with that of governing
thorn, is the most difficult and the most important of all. It
is by education alone that humanity can be perfected and
regenerated : —

1 See the French translation of this tract at the end of the volume, pub-
lished by Monsieur Barni, under the title. Elements mtta physique* de la
doctrine dc la vcrtu. Paris, 1855. The work of Kant appeared in German
in 1803.

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 333

u It is pleasant to think that human nature will always be
better and better developed by education, and that at last
there will thus be given it the form which best befits it.

4fc To know how far the omnipotence of education can go,
it would be necessary that a being of a superior order should
undertake the bringing up of men."

But in order that it may attain this exalted end, education
must be set free from routine and traditional methods. It
must bring up children, not in view of their success in the
present state of human society, but " in view of a better state,
possible in the future, and according to an ideal conception
of humanity and of its complete destination."

366. Psychological Optimism. — Kant comes near
accepting the opinion of Rousseau on the original innocence
of man and the perfect goodness of his natural inclina-
tions : —

44 It is said in medicine that the physician is but the ser-
vant of nature. This is true of the moralist. Ward off the
bad influences from without, and nature can be trusted to
find for herself the best way." 1

Thus Kant does not tire of exalting the service which
Rousseau had rendered pedagogy, in recalling educators to
the confidence and respect that are due to calumniated human
nature. Let us add, however, that the German philosopher
is not content to repeat Rousseau. He corrects him in
affirming that man, at his birth, is neither good nor evil,
because he is not naturally a moral being. He does not be-
come such till he raises his reason to the conception of duty i
and law. In other terms, in the infant everything is in germ.
'. The infant ts a being in preparation. The future alone, the
development which he will receive from his education, will
make him good or bad. At the beginning, he has but inde-

1 Extract from Kant's Fragments posthumes.

fc 111 '-

834 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

terminate dispositions, and evil will come, not from a definite
inclination of nature, but solely from the fact that we will
not have known how to direct it, — from the fact, according
to Kant's own expression, that we will not have u subjected
nature to rules."

367. Respect for the Liberty op the Child. — The
psychological optimism of Kant inspires him, as it does
Rousseau, with the idea of a negative education, respectful
of the libertv of the child : —

" In general, it must be noted that the earliest education
should be negative ; that is to say, nothing should "Be~added
to the precautions taken by nature, and that the effort should
be limited to the preservation of her work. ... It is well to
employ at first but few helps, and to leave children to learn
for themselves. Much of the weakness of man is due, not
to the fact that nothing is taught him, but to the fact that
false impressions are communicated to him."

Without going so far as to say with Rousseau that all
dependence with respect to men is contrary to order, Kant
took great care to respect the liberty .of the pupil. He com-
plains of parents who are always talking about " breaking
the wills of their sons." He maintains, not without reason,
that it is not necessary to offer much resistance to children,
if we have not begun by yielding too readily to their caprices,
and by always responding to their cries. Nothing is more
harmful to them than a discipline which is provoking and
degrading. But, in his zeal for human liberty, the theorist
of the autonomy of wills goes a little too far. He fears, for
example, the tyranny of habits. He requires that they be
prevented from being formed, and that children be accus-
tomed to nothing. He might as well demand the suppression
of all education, since education should be but the acquisition
of a body of good habits.

**^H^AflM-<— >«M«itaMMMfc«MMh

PHILOSOPHERS OP THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 335

368. Stories Interdicted. — In the education of the in-
tellectual faculties or talents, which he calls the physical cul-
ture of the soul, as distinguished from moral culture, which
is the education of the will, Kant also approaches Rousseau.
He proscribes romances and stories. 4k Children have an ex-
tremely active imagination which has no need of being devel-
oped by stories." It may be said in reply, that fables and
fictions, at the same time that they develop the imagination,
also direct it and adorn it with their own proper grace, and'
may even lend it moral support. Rousseau, notwithstanding
the ardor of his criticisms on the Fables of La Fontaine, him-
self admitted the moral value of the apologue.

369. Culture of the Faculties. — That which distin-
guishes Kant as an educator is that he is pre-occupied with
the culture of the faculties much more than with the acquisi-
tion of knowledge. He passes in review the different intel-*
lectual forces, and his reflections on each of them might be
collected as the elements of an excellent system of educational
psychology. He will criticise, for example, the abuse of
memory : —

44 Men who have nothing but memory," he says, " are but
living lexicons, and, as it were, the pack-horses of Parnassus."

For the culture of the understanding, Kant proposes u at
first to train it passively to some degree," by requiring of the
child examples which illustrate a rule, or, on the contrary,
the rule which applies to particular examples.

For the exercise of the reason, he recommends the SocratK.
method, and, in general, for the development of all the fac-
ulties of the mind, he thinks that the best way of proceeding
is to cause the pupil to be active : —

44 The best way to comprehend is to do. What we learn
the most thoroughly is what we learn to some extent by
ourselves."

336 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

370. Different Kinds of Punishments. — Kant has made
a subtile analysis of the different qualities with which punish-
ment may be invested. He distinguishes from physical
punishment, moral punishment, which is the better. It con-
sists in humiliating the pupil, in greeting him coolly, " in
encouraging the disposition of the child to be honored and
loved, that auxiliary of morality." Physical punishments
ought to be employed with precaution, " to the end that they
may not entail servile dispositions."

Another distinction is that of natural punishments and
artificial punishments. The first are preferable to the second,
because they are the very consequences of the faults which
have been committed; "indigestion, for example, which a
child brings on himself when he eats too much." Another
advantage of natural punishment, Kant justly remarks, "is
that man submits to it all his life." !

Finally, Kant divides punishments into negative and posi-
tive. The first arc to be used for minor faults, and the
others are to be reserved for the punishment of conduct that
is absolutely bad.

Moreover, whatever punishment may be applied, Kantt
advises the teacher to avoid the appearance of feeling malice]
towards the pupil : —

"The punishments we inflict while exhibiting signs of
anger have a wrong tendency."

371. Religious Education. — At first view, we might
be tempted to think that Kant has adopted the conclusions
of Rousseau, and that, like him, he refuses to take an early

1 Monsieur Compayre* seems to give his sanction to the " Discipline of
Consequences." 1 think that Mr. Fitch has correctly stated its limitations
(Lectures, p. 117). Kant doubtless borrowed the idea from Rousseau, who
employs it in the government of his imaginary pupil. (See Miss Worthing-*
ton's translation of the £mile, p. <K>.) This doctrine is the basis of Mr.
Speneer's chapter on Moral Education. (P.)

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 337

occasion to inculcate in the child's mind the notion of a
Supreme Being: —

u Religious idea&.always suppose some system of theology.
Now, how are we to teach theology to the young, who, far
from knowing the world, do not yet know themselves? How
shall the young who do not yet know what duty is, be in a
condition to comprehend an immediate duty towards God?"

To speak of religion to a young man, it would then be logical
to wait till he is in a condition to form a clear and fixed con-
ception of the nature of God. But it is impossible to do
this, says Kant, because the young man lives in a society
where he hears the name of the Divinity spoken at each
moment, and where he takes part in continual observances
of piety. It is better, then, to teach him at an early hour
true religious notions, for f«ar that he may borrow from
other men notions that are superstitious and false. In
reality, Kant dissents from Rousseau only because, re-estab-
lishing the conditions of real life, he restores £mile to society,
no longer keeping him in a fancied state of isolation. What a
broad and noble way, moreover, of conceiving religious edu-
cation ! The best wa}' of making clear to the mind of
children the idea of God, is, according to Kant, to seek an
analogy in the idea of a human father. It is necessary,
moreover, that the conception of duty precede the conception
of God ; that morality precede, and that theology follow.
Without morality, religion is but superstition ; without
morality, the pretended religious man is but a courtier, a
suitor for divine favor.

372. Moral Catechism. — Those who know to what a
height Kant could raise the theory of morality, will not be
surprised at the importance which he ascribes to the teaching
of morals.

"Our schools," he says, " are almost entirely lacking in

gmam

338 THE H1STOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

one thing which, however, would be very useful for training
children in probity, — I mean a catechism on duty. It should
contain, in a popular form, cases concerning the conduct to
be observed in ordinary life, and which would always naturally
raise this question : Is this right or not ? "

He had begun to write a book of this kind under the title
Moral Catechism;1 and he would have desired that an hour
a day of school time be given to its study, " in order to
teach pupils to know and to learn by heart their duty to men,
— that power of God on the earth." The child, he says
again, would there learn to substitute the fear of his own
conscience for that of men and divine punishment, inward
dignity for the opinion of others, the intrinsic value of
actions for the apparent value of words, and, finally f a serene
and cheerful piety for a sad and gloomy devotion.

[373. Analytical Summary. — 1. This study exhibits the
influence of philosophical systems on education. New con-
ceptions of human destiny, new theories with respect to the
composition of human nature, or a new hypothesis concerning
man's place in nature, determine corresponding changes iu
educational theory.

2. Perhaps the broadest generalization yet reached in
educational theory is the assumption made by Condillac,
that the education of each individual should be a repetition
of civilization in petto. With Mr. Spencer this hypothesis
becomes a law. ~"

3. In theory, the secularization of education has begun.
The Church is to lose one of its historical prerogatives, and
the modern State is to become an educator.

1 Helvetius, but poorly qualified for teaching moral questions, had had
the idea of a Catechiime de probite. Saint Lambert published, in 1798, a
CaMchi$me univenel.

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 339

4. Helvetius typifies what may be called the plastic theory
in education, or the conception that the teacher, if wise
enough, may ignore all differences in natural endowment.
This makes man the victim of his environment. The truth
evidently is that man is the only creature which can bend
circumstances to his will ; and he has such an endowment of
power in this direction that he can virtually recreate his en-
vironment and thus rise superior to it. And farther than
this, there are innate differences in endowment that will per-
sist in spite of all' that education can do.

5. The culture value of literary studies is justly exhibited
in the quotation from Marmontel, and in particular the dis-
ciplinary value of translation.

6. Education for training, discipline,, or culture, as dis-
tinguished from an education whose chief aim is to impart
knowledge, receives definite recognition from Kant.]

is-\
art ]

CTTAPTEI? XV.

THE ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL 1NST1UVTK >X. —
LA CHALOTAIS AND HOLLAND.

jesuits and parliamentarians; expulsion of the jesuits (1764);
general complaints against the education of the jesuits;
efforts made to replace them j la chalotais (1701-1786) ; his
essay on national education (1763) j secularization of
education ; practical end of instruction j new spirit in
education j intuitive and natural instruction ; studies
of the earliest period; criticism of negative education;
history avenged of the disdain of rousseau; geography;
natural history ; physical recreations j mathematical
recreations; studies of the second period; the living
languages; other studies; the question of books; aristo-
cratic prejudices; instruction within the reach of all;
normal schools j spirit of centralization ; turgot (172t-
1781); analytical summary.

874. Jesuits and Parliamentarians. — Of the educators
of the eighteenth century of whom we have been speaking
up to the present time, no one has been called to exercise an
immediate and direct action on the destinies of public edu-
cation ; no one of them had the power to apply the doctrines
which were so dear to him to college education ; so that, so
far, we have studied the theory and not the practice of edu- 1
cation in the eighteenth century.

On the contrary, the members of the French Parliaments,
after having solicited and obtained from the king the expul-
sion of the Jesuits, made memorable efforts* from 1762 up
to the eve of the Revolution, to supply the places of the

OBIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 341

teachers whom they had driven away, to correct the faults
of the ancient education, and to give effect to the idea,
cherished b}' the most of the great spirits of that time, of a
nation aj^exlucation adapted to the needs of civil-^asciet}*.
They were the practical organizers of instruction ; they pre-
pared the foundation of the French University of the nine-
teenth century ; they resumed, not without lustre, the
struggle too often interrupted, which the Jansenists had
sustained against the Jesuits.

375. Expulsion of the Jesuits (1764). — The causes of
the expulsion of the Jesuits were doubtless complex, and,
above all else, political. In attacking the Company of Jesus,
the Parliaments desired especially to defend the interests of
the State, compromised by a powerful society which tended
to dominate all Christian nations. But reasons of an edu-
cational character had also some influence on the condemna-
tion pronounced against the Jesuits by all the Parliaments of
France. From all quarters, in the reports which were drawn
up by the municipal or royal officers of all the cities where
the Jesuits had colleges, complaint is made of the scholastic
methods and usages of the Company. Reforms were de-
manded which they were incapable of realizing. '

And it is not in France alone that the faults in the educa-
tion of the Jesuits were vigorously announced. In the edict
of 1759, by which the king of Portugal expelled the Jesuits
from his kingdom, it was said : u The study of the human-
ities has declined in the kingdom, and the Jesuits are evi-
dently the cause of the decadence mto which the Greek and
Latin tongues have fallen." Some years later, in 17G8, the
king of Portugal congratulated himself on having banished
"the moral corruption, the superstition, the fanaticism, and
the ignorance, which had been introduced by the Society of
Jesus.1

m » ■

842 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

376. General Complaints against the Education of the
Jesuits. — Even in the middle of the eighteenth century the
Jesuits were still addicted to their_oJ(J. routine, and even their
faults were aggravated with the times.
/ At Auxerre, complaint is made that pupils study in their
schools only a few Latin authors, and that they leave them
without ever receiving into their hands a single French
author.

At Moulins, a request is made that at least one hour a
• week be devoted to the history of France, which proves that
the Society of Jesus, always enslaved to its immobile formal-
ism, did not grant even this little concession to the teaching
of history.

At Orleans, the necessity of teaching children the French
language is insisted on.

At Montbrison, the wish is expressed that pupils be taught
a smattering of geography, especially of their own country.

At Auxerre, it is proved that in the teaching of philos-
ophy the time is employed " in copying and learning note-
books filled with vain distinctions and frivolous questions."

At Montbrison, the request is made " that the rules of
reasoning be explained in French, and that there be a disuse
of debates which train only disputants and not philosophers."
~~ It would be interesting to pursue this study, and to collect
from these reports of 1762, — real memorials of a scholastic
revolution, — all the complaints of public opinion against the
Jesuits. Even in religion, the Company of Jesus is charged
with substituting for the sacred texts, books of devotion com-
posed by the Fathers. At Poitiers, a demand is made in
favor of the Old and the New Testaments, the study of
which was wholly neglected. From time to time the Jesuits
were accused of continually mixing religious questions with
classical studies and of catechising, at every turn. " The

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 343

masters of the fifth and sixth forms in the College of
Auxerre dogmatize in the themes which they dictate to the
children." Finally, the Company of Jesus maintained in
the schools the teaching of moral casuistry ; it encouraged
bigotry and superstition ; it relaxed nothing from the sever-
ity of its discipline, and provoked violent recriminations
among some of its former pupils who had preserved a pain-
ful recollection of corrections received in its colleges.1

377. Efforts made to displace the Jesuits. — The Par- \
1 iaments, then, did nothing more, so to speak, than register
the verdict of public opinion everywhere excited against the
Jesuits. But while they heartily joined in the general rep-
robation, they undertook to determine the laws of the new
education. " It is of little use to destroy," they said, " if I
we do not intend to build. The public good and the honor
of the nation require that we should establish a civil education
which shall prepare each new generation for filling with sue- j
cess the different employments of the State." It is not just
to say with Michel Breal, that " once delivered from the
Jesuits, the University installed itself in their establishments
and continued their instruction." Earnest attempts were
made to reform programmes and methods. La Chalotais,
Guy ton de Morveau, Holland, and still others attempted
by their writings, and, when they could, by their acts, to
establish a system of education which, while inspired by
Rollin and the Jansenists, attempted to do still better.

378. La Chalotais (1701-1785). — Of all the parliamen-
tarians who distinguished themselves in the campaign under-
taken towards the middle of the eighteenth century against
the pedagogy of tht^jttiits, the most celebrated, and the

1 See the pamphlet F^^^^^^H?^ entitled : Mt moires historiques fur
VdrbilianUme et let corl^^^^^^mje suites.

344

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

most worthy of being such, is undoubtedly the solicitor-
general of the Parliament of Bretagne, Reu6 de la Chalotais.
A man of courage and character, he was arrested and im-
prisoned in the citadel of Saiut Malo for having upheld the
franchise of the province of Bretagne ; and it was in his
prison, in 1765, that he drew up for his defence an eloquent
and impassioned memorial, of which Voltaire said, " Woe
to every sensitive soul that does not feel the quivering of a
fever in reading it I "

379. His Essay on National Education. — The Essni of
LaChalotais appeared in 1763, one year after' the EmUe.
Coming after the ambitious theories of a philosopher who,
scorning polemics and the dissensions of his time, had
written only for humanity and the future, this was a modest
and opportune work, the effort of a practical man who
attempted to respond to the aspirations and the needs of his
time. Translated into several languages, the Ensai d'4duca-
Hon nationale obtained the enthusiastic approval of Diderot,
and also of Voltaire, who said, " It is a terrible book against
the Jesuits, all the more so because it is written with moder-
ation." Grimm carried his admiration so far as to write, " It
would be difficult to present in a hundred and fifty pages
more reflections that are wise, profound, useful, and truly
worthy of a magistrate, of a philosopher, of a statesman."
Too completely forgotten to-day, this little composition of
LaChalotais deserves to be republished. Notwithstanding
some prejudices that mar it, it is already wholly penetrated
with the spirit of the Revolution.

380. Secularization of EduAtiok. — As a matter of
fact, the whole pedagogy of the^^MkBfbentury is domi-
nated by the idea of the i - ^^k ^H ■■ I i ■ of instruc-
tion. Thorough -going Gnllicam^H ^^m ■ or Holland,
dauntless free-thinkers like ■ ■ *B^Br : ■ ■ !■. -. all believe

«#

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 345

and assert that public instruction is a civil affair, a " govern-
ment undertaking," as Voltaire expressed it. All wish to
substitute lay teachers for religious teachers, and to open
civil schools upon the ruins of monastic schools.

44 Who will be persuaded," says Holland in his report of
1708, " that fathers who feel an emotion that an ecclesiastic
never should have known, will be less capable than he of
educating children ? "

La Chalotais also demands these citizen teachers. He
objects to those instructors who, from interest as well as
from principle, give the preference in their affections to the
supernatural world over one's native land.

44 I do not presume to exclude ecclesiastics," he said,
44 but I protest against the exclusion of laymen. 1 dare claim
for the nation an education which depends only on the State,
because it belongs essentially to the State ; because every
State has an inalienable and indefeasible right to instruct its
members ; because, finally, the children of the State ought to
be educated by the members of the State." This does not
mean that La Chalotais is irreligious ; but he desires a national
religion which does not subordinate the interests of the
country to a foreign power. What he wants especially is,
that the Church, reserving to herself the teaching of divine
truth, abandon to the State the teaching of morals, and the
control of purely human studies. He is of the same opinion
as his friend Duclos, who said : — •

44 It is certain that in the education which was given at
Sparta, the prime purpose was to train Spartans. .ttHHtS'
that in every State the purpose should }>e* tojfaik iflpf^Ehe
spirit of citizenship ; and, in our case, JBfcaihj»enchmen,
and in order to make Frenchmen, to HH^fllke men of
them."1 ' ^** ^

1 Duclos, Considerations sur les mwurs de ce siecle, Ch. II. Sur r Educa-
tion et lesprtjugU,

346 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

381. Practical Purpose of Instruction. — The partic-
ular charge brought by La Chalotais against the education of
his time, against that of the Unixfirsity as well as against

! that of the Jesuits, is, that it does not prepare children for
;real life, for life in the State. "A stranger who should visit
1 our colleges might conclude that in France we think only of
peopling the seminaries, the cloisters, and the Latin col-
onies." How are we to imagine that the study of a dead
language, and a monastic discipline, are the appointed means
for training soldiers, magistrates, and heads of families?

"The greatest vice of education, and perhaps the most
inevitable, while it shall be entrusted to persons who have
renounced the world, is the absolute lack of instruction on |
the moral and political virtues. Our education does not
affect our habits, like that of the ancients. After having
endured all the fatigues and irksomeness of the college, the
young find themselves in the need of learning in what consist
the duties common to all men. They have learned no prin-
ciple for judging actions, evils, opinions, customs. They
have everything to learn on matters that are so important.
They are inspired with a devotion which is but an imitation
of religion, and with practices which take the place of virtue,
and are but the shadow of it."

382. Intuitive and Natural Instruction. — A pupil of
the sensational school, a disciple of Locke and of Condillac,
La Chalotais is too much inclined to misconceive, in the
development of the individual, the play of natural activities
and innate dispositions. But, by way of compensation, his
predilection for sensationalism leads him to excellent thoughts
on the necessity of beginning with sensible objects before

dvancing to intellectual studies, and first of all to secure an
education of the senses.

"I wish nothing to be taught children except facts which

- -TIM ■ ■ ■ *-*-' :

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 347

are attested by the eyes, at the age of seven as at the age of
thirty.

" The principles for instructing children should be those
by which nature herself instructs them. Nature is the best
of teachers. "

" Every method which begins with abstract ideas is not.'
made for children.

" Let children see many objects ; let there be a variety of
such, and let them be shown under many aspects and on
various occasions. The memory and the imagination of
children cannot be overcharged with useful facts and ideas
of which they can make use in the course of their lives."

Such are the principles according to which La Chaiotais
organizes his plan of studies.

383. The New Spirit in Education. — The purpose,
then, is to replace that monastic and ultramontane education
(this is the term employed by La Chaiotais) , and also that
narrow education, and that repulsive and austere discipline,
" which seems made only to abase the spirit" ; that sterile
and insipid teaching, " the most usual effect of which is to
make study hated for life " ; those scholastic studies where
young men " contract the habit of disputing and caviling" ;
and those ascetic regulations " which set neatness and health
at defiance." The purpose is to initiate children into our
most common and most ordinary affairs, into what forms
the conduct of life and the basis of civil societv.

" Most young men know neither the world which they
inhabit, the earth which nourishes them, the men who supply
their needs, the animals which serve them, nor the workmen
and citizens whom thev emplov. Thev have not even any

%f l ft c ft/

desire for this kind of knowledge. No advantage is taken
of their natural curiosity for the purpose of increasing it.

348 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

They know how to admire neither the wonders of nature nor
the prodigies of the arts."

This is equivalent to saying that they should henceforth
learn all that up to this time they had been permitted to be
ignorant of.

384. Studies of the First Period. — Education, ac-
cording to La Chalotais, should be divided into two periods •.
the first from five tp ten, the second from ten .to seventeen.

During the first period, we have to do with children who
have no experience because they have seen nothing, who
have no power of attention because they are incapable of any
sustained effort, -and no judgment because they have not yet
any general ideas ; but who, by way of compensation, have
senses, memory, and some power of reflection. It is neces-
sary, then, to make a careful choice of the subjects of study
which shall be proposed to these tender intelligences ; and
La Chalotais decides in favor of history, geography, natural
history, physical and mathematical recreations.

u The exercises proposed for the first period," he says,
" are as follows : learning to read, write, and draw ; dancing
and music, which ought to enter into the education of persons
above the commonalty ; historical narratives and the lives of
illustrious men of every country, of every age, and of every
profession ; geography, mathematical and physical recrea-
tions ; the fables of La Fontaine, which, whatever may be
said of them, ought not to be removed from the hands of
children, but all of which thev should be made to learn bv
heart; and besides this, walks, excursions, merriment, and
recreations ; I do not propose even the studies except as
amusements."

385. Criticism of Negative Education. — La Chalotais
is often right as against Rousseau. For example, he has
abundantly refuted the Utopia of a negative education in

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 849

which nature is allowed to have her way, and which consid-
ers the toil of the centuries as of no account. It is good sense
itself which speaks in reflections like these : —

" If man is not taught what is good, he will necessarily
become preoccupied with what is bad. The mind and the
heart cannot remain unoccupied. ... On the pretext of
affording children an experience which is their own, they are
deprived of the assistance of others' experience."

386. History avenged of the Disdain of Rousseau. —
The sophisms of Rousseau on history are brilliantly refuted.
History is within the comprehension of the youngest. The
child who can understand Tom Thumb and Blue Beard, can
understand the history of Romulus and of Clovis. More-
over, it is to the history of the most recent times that
La Chalotais attaches the greatest importance, and in this
respect he goes beyond his master Rollin : —

" I would have composed for the use of the child histories
of every nation, of every century, and particularly of the
later centuries, which should be written with greater detail,
and which should be read before those of the more remote
centuries. I would have written the lives of illustrious men
of all classes, conditions, and professions, of celebrated .
heroes, scholars, women, and children."

387. Geography. — La Chalotais does not separate the
study of geography from that of history, and he requires
that, without entering into dry and tedious details, the pupil
be made to travel pleasantly through different countries, and
that stress be put i% on what is of chief importance and inter-
est in each country, such as the most striking facts, the
native land of great men, celebrated battles, and whatever
is most notable, either as to manners and customs, to
natural productions, or to arts and commerce."

850 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

888. Natural History. — Another study especially
adapted to children, says La Chalotais with reason, is
natural history: "The principal thing is first to -show the
different objects just as they appear to the eyes. A repre-
sentation of them, with a precise and exact description, is
sufficient."

"Too great detail must be avoided, and the objects chosen
must be such as are most directly related to us, which are
the most necessary and the most useful."

" Preference shall be given to domestic animals over those
that are wild, and to native animals over those of other
countries. In the case of plants, preference shall be given
to those that serve for food and for use in medicine."

As far as possible, the object itself should be shown, so
that the idea shall be the more exact and vivid, and the
impression the more durable.

889. Recreations in Physics. — La Chalotais explains
that he means by this phrase observations, experiments, and
the simplest facts of nature. Children should early be made
acquainted with thermometers, barometers, with the micro-
scope, etc.

890. Recreations in Mathematics. — All this is excellent,
and La Chalotais enters resolutely into the domain of modern
methods. What is more debatable is the idea of putting
geometry and mathematics into the programme of children's
studies, under this erroneous pretext, that "geometry pre-
sents nothing but the sensible and the palpable." Let us
grant, however, that it is easier to conceive " clear ideas of
bodies, lines, and angles that strike the eyes, than abstract
ideas of verbs, declensions, and conjugations, of an accusa-
tive, an ablative, a subjunctive, an infinitive, or of the
omitted that."

ORIGIN OP LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 351

891 . Studies of the Second Period. — La Chalotais post-
pones the study, of the classical languages till the second
period, the tenth year. The course of study for this second
period will comprise: 1. French and Latin literature, or the
humanities ; 2. a continuation of history, geography, math-
ematics, and natural history ; 3. criticism, logic, and meta-
physics ; 4. the art of invention ; 5. ethics.

La Chalotais complains that his contemporaries neglect
French literature, as though we had not admirable models in
our national language. Out of one hundred pupils there are
not five who will find it useful to write in Latin ; while there
is not one of them who will have occasion to speak or write
in Greek, and to construct Latin verses. All, on the con-
trary, ought to know their native raeguage. Consequently,
our author suggests the idea of devoting the morning session
to French, and that of the afternoon to Latin, so that the
pupils who have no need of the ancient languages may pur-
sue only the courses in French.

892. The Living Languages. — La Chalotais thinks the
knowledge of two living languages to be necessary, " the
English for science, and the German for war." German
literature had not yet produced its masterpieces, and it is
seen that at this period the utility of German appears espe-
cially with reference to military affairs. However it may be,
let us be grateful to him for having appreciated, as he has
done, the living languages. ik It is wrong," he says, u to
treat them nearly as we treat our contemporaries, with a sort
of indifference. Without the Greek and Latin languages
there is no real and solid erudition ; and there is no complete
erudition without the others."

393. Other Studies. — How many judicious or just reflec-
tions we have still to gather from the Essay on National Educa-

*mmmmMmmMmmmmmmammm^——^*m*M

362 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tion, as upon the teaching of the ancient languages, which La
Chalotais, however, is wrong in restricting to too small a
number of years ; upon the necessity of presenting to pupils
as subjects for composition, not puerile amplifications, or
dissertations on facts or matters of which they are ignorant,
but things which they know, which have happened to them,
44 their occupations, their amusements, or their troubles";
upon logic or criticism, the study of which should not be
deferred till the end of the course, as is still done in our day ;
upon philosophy, which is, he says, 44 the characteristic of
the eighteenth century, as that of the sixteenth was erudition,
and that of the seventeenth was talent ! " La Chalotais
reserves the place of honor to ethics, 44 which is the most
important of all the sciences, and which is, as much as any
other, susceptible of demonstration."

394. The Question of Books. — In tracing his programme
of studies, so new in many particulars, La Chalotais took
into account the difficulties that would be encountered in
assuring, and, so to speak, in improvising, the execution
of it, at a time when there existed neither competent teachers
nor properly constructed books. Teachers especially, he
said, are difficult to train. But, while waiting for the re-
cruiting of the teaching force, La Chalotais puts great de-
pendence on elementary books, which might, he thought, be
composed within two years, if the king would encourage the
publication of them, and if the Academies would put them
up for competition.

44 These books would be the best instruction which the mas-
ters could give, and would take the place of every other
method. Whatever course we may take, we cannot dispense
with new books. These books, once made, would make
trained teachers unnecessary, and there would then be no
longer any occasion for discussion as to their qualities,

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 358

whether they should be priests, or married, or single. All
would be good, provided they were religious, moral, and
knew how to read ; they would soon train themselves while
training their pupils."

There is much exaggeration in these words. The book, as
we know, cannot supply the place of teachers. But the lan-
guage of La Chalotais was adapted to circumstances as they
existed. He spoke in this way, because, in his impatience
to reach his end, he would try to remedy the educational
poverty of his time, and supply the lack of good teachers by
provisional expedients, by means which he found within his

provjgK
rafted)

895. Aristocratic Prejudices. — That which we would
expunge from the book of La Chalotais is his opinion on pri-
mary instruction. Blinded by some unexplained distrust of
the people, and dominated by aristocratic tendencies, he com-
plains of the extension of instruction. lie demands that the
knowledge of the poor do not extend beyond their pursuits.
He bitterly criticises the thirst for knowledge which is begin-
ning to pervade the lower classes of the nation.

" Even the people can study. Laborers and artisans send
their children to the colleges of the smaller cities. . . . When
these children have accomplished a summary course of study
which has taught them only to disdain the occupation of their
father, they rush into the cloisters and become ecclesiastics ;
or they exercise judicial functions, and often become subjects
harmful to society. The Brethren of the Christian Doctrine
(sic), who are called ignorantins, have just appeared to com-
plete the general ruin ; they teach people to read and write
who ought to learn only to draw, and to handle the plane and
the file, but have no disposition to do it. They are the rivals
or the successors of the Jesuits."

A singular force of prejudice was necessary to conceive that

854 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the Brethren of the Christian Schools were instructing the
people too highly.

Let it be said, however, towards exonerating LaChalotais,
that he perhaps does not so much attack the instruction in
itself, as the bad way in which it is given. What he censures
is instruction that is badly conceived, that which takes people
from their own class. In some other passages of his book
we see that he would be disposed to disseminate the new
education among the ranks of the people.

u It is the State, it is the larger part of the nation, that
' must be kept principally in view in education ; for twenty
; millions of men ought to be held in greater consideration
than one million, and the peasantry , ivho are not yet a class in
France, as they are in Sweden, ought not to be neglected in a
system of instruction. Education is equally solicitous that
letters should be cultivated, and that the fields should be
plowed ; that all the sciences and the useful arts should be
perfected ; that justice should be administered and that relig-
ion should be taught; that there should be instructed and
competent generals, magistrates, and ecclesiastics, and skill-
ful artists and citizens, all in fit proportion. It is for the
government to make each citizen so pleased with his condi-
tion that he may not be forced to withdraw from it."

Let us quote one sentence more, which is almost the for-
mula that to-day is so dear to the friends of instruction : —

44 We do not fear to assert, in general/ that in the condi-
tion in which Europe now is, the people that are the most
enlightened will always have the advantage over those who
are the less so."

896. General Conclusion. — Notwithstanding the faults
which mar it, the work of La Chalotais is none the less one of
the most remarkable essays of the earlier French pedagogy.
41 La Chalotais," says Gr6ard, "belongs to the school of

ORIGIN OP LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 355

RoBflpftflu ; but on more than one point he departs from the
plan traced by the master. He escapes from the allurements
of the paradox. Relatively he has the spirit of moderation.
He is a classic without prejudices, an innovator without
temerity."

His book is pre-eminently a book of polemics, written with
the ardor of one who is engaged in a fight, and overflowing
with a generous passion. What noble words are the fol-
lowing : —

" Let the young man l§arn what bread a ploughman, a
day laborer, or an artisan eats. He will see in the sequel
how they are deprived of the bread which they earn with so
much difficulty, and how one portion of men live at the ex-
pense of the other."

In these lines, which breathe a sentiment of profound pity
for the disinherited of this world, we already hear, as it were,
the signal cry announcing the social reclamations of the
French Revolution.

379. Rolland (1734-1794). — La Chalotais, after hav-
ing criticised the old methods, proposed new ones ; Rolland
attempted to put them in practice. La Chalotais is a polemic
and a theorist ; Rolland is an administrator. President of the
Parliament of Paris, he presented to his colleagues, in 1768,
a Report which is a real system of education.1 But above
all, he gave his personal attention to the administration of
the College Louis-le-Grand. An ardent and impassioned
adversary of the Jesuits, he used every means to put public
instruction in a condition to do without them. " Noble and
wise spirit, patient and courageous reason, who, for twenty
years, even during exile and after the dissolution of his
society, did not abandon for a single moment the work he

1 See the Iiecueil of the works of President Rolland, printed in 1783, by
order of the executive committee of the College Louis-le-Grand.

&od THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

had undertaken, but brought it, almost perfected, to the
very con lines of the Revolution ; a heart divested of every
ambition, who, chosen by popular wish, and by the cabinet
of the king, as director of public instruction, obstinately
entrenched himself in the peace of his studious retreat." This
is the judgment of a member of the University, in the nine-
teenth century, Dubois, director of the Normal School.

No doubt Holland is not an original educator. " It is in
Roll'm's TraiU des itudes" he says, " that every teacher will
find the true rules for education." Besides, he borrowed
Ideas from La Chalotais, and also from the Me* moires which
the University of Paris drew up in 1763 and 1764 at the
request of Parliament ; so that the interest in his work is
less, perhaps, in its personal views than in the indications
it furnishes relative to the situation of the University and
its tendency towards self-reformation.

398. Instruction within the Reach of All, — At least
on one point Holland is superior to La Chalotais ; he takes a
bold stand for the necessity of primary instruction, and for
the progress and ditFusion of human knowledge.

" Education cannot be too widely diffused, to the end that
there may be no class of citizens who may not be brought to
participate in its benefits. It is expedient that each citizen
receive the education which is adapted to his needs." l

It is true that Holland joins in the wish expressed by the
University, which demanded a reduction in the number of
colleges. Hut only colleges for the higher studies were in
question, and Holland thought less of restricting instruction
than of proportioning and adapting it to the needs of the
different classes of societv.

" Each one ought to have the opportunity to receive the
education which is adapted to his needs. . . . Now each

1 Recueil, etc, p. 25.

ORIGIN OP LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 357

soil," adds Holland, " is not susceptible of the same culture
and the same product. Each mind does not demand the
same degree of culture. All men have neither the same
needs nor the same talents ; and it is in proportion to these
talents and these needs that public education ought to be
regulated."

Holland shared the prejudices of La Chalotais against "the
new Order founded bv La Salle " ; but none the less on this
account did he demand instruction for all.

" The knowledge of reading and writing, which is the key
to all the other sciences, ought to be universally diffused.
Without this the teachings of the clergy are useless, for the
memory is rarely faithful enough ; and reading alone can
impress in a durable manner what it is important never to
forget." Would it be granted by every one to-day, affected
by prejudices that' are ever re-appearing, that " the laborer
who has received some sort of instruction is but the more
diligent and the more skillful by reason of it " ?

899. The Normal School. — We shall not dwell upon
the methods and schemes of study proposed by Holland.
Save very urgent recommendations relative to the study of
the national history and of the French language, we shall
find nothing very new in them. What deserve to be pointed
out, by way of compensation, are the important innovations
which he wished to introduce into the general organization
of public instruction.

First there was the idea of a higher normal school, of a
seminary for professors. The University had already
expressed the wish that such an establishment should be
founded. To be convinced how much this pedagogical sem-
inary, conceived as far back as 1763, resembled our actual
Normal School, it suffices to note the following details. The
establishment was to be governed by professors drawn from

858 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

the different faculties, according to the different subjects of
instruction. The young men received on competitive exam-
ination were to be divided into three classes, corresponding
to the three grades of admission. Within the establishment
they were to take part in a series of discussions, after a
given time to submit to the tests for graduation, and finally
to be placed in the colleges. Is it not true that there was
no important addition to be made to this scheme ? Holland
also required that pedagogics have a place among the studies
of these future professors, and that definite and systematic
instruction be given in this art, so important to the teachers
of youth.

Holland does not stop even there. He provides for
inspectors, or visitors , who are to examine all the colleges
each year. Finally, lie subjects all scholastic establishments
to one Mingle authority, to a council of the government, to
which ho applies the rather odd title, the " Bureau of Corre-
spondence. "

400. Spirit op Centralization. — Whatever opinion
may bo formed of absolute centralization, which, in our cen-
tury, has become the law of public instruction, and has
caused the disappearance of provincial franchises, it is certain
that the parliamentarians of the eighteenth century were the
first to conceive it and desire it, if not to realize it. Paris, in
Holland's plan, becomes the centre of public instruction.
The universities distributed through the provinces are co-or-
dinated and made dependent on that of Paris.

<% Is it not desirable," said Holland, " that the good taste
which everything concurs to produce in the capital, be dif-
fused to the very extremities of the kingdom ; that every
Frenchman participate in the treasures of knowledge which
are there accumulating from clay to day ; that the young men
who have the same country, who are destined to serve the same

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 359

prince and to fulfill the same functions, receive the same les-
sons and be imbued with the same maxims ; that one part of
France be not under the clouds of ignorance while letters
shed the purest light in another ; in a word, that the time
come when a young man educated in a province cannot be
distinguished from one who has been trained in the cap-
ital?" And he adds that " the only means for attaining an
\ end so desirable is to make Paris the centre of public instruc-
tion."

Besides the gain that will thus accrue to instruction, Holland
sees this other advantage, that, through uniformity in instruc-
tion, there will be secured a uniformity in manners and in
laws. By means of a uniform education, " the young men
of all the provinces will divest themselves of all their preju-
dices of birth ; they will form the same ideas of virtue and
justice ; they will demand uniform laws, which would have
offended their fathers."

Bj' this means, finally, there will be developed a national
spirit, a national character, and a national jurisprudence,
1 " the only means of recreating love of countn*." Is it not
true that the great magistrates of the close of the eighteenth
century deserve also to be counted among the founders of
French unity?

401; Tcrgot (1727-1781).— In his M&moires to the king
(1775), Turgot set forth analogous ideas, and also demanded
the formation of a council of public instruction. He made
an eloquent plea for the establishment of a civil and national
education which should be extended to the country at large.

" Your kingdom, Sir, is of this world. Without opposing
any obstacle to the instructions whose object is higher, and
which already have their rules and their expounders, I
think I can propose to you nothing of more advantage to
your people than to cause to be given to all your subjects an

860 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

instruction which shows them the obligations they owe to
society and to your power which protects them, the duties
which those obligations impose on them, and the interest
which they have in fulfilling those duties for the public good
and their own. This moral and social instruction requires
books expressly prepared, by competition, and with great
care, and a schoolmaster in each parish to teach them to
children, along with the art of writing, reading, counting,
measuring, and the principles of mechanics.'*

44 The study of the duty- <of_£itizenship ought to be the
foundation of all the other studies."

" There are methods and establishments for training
geometricians, physicists, and painters, but there are none
for training citizens."

In a word, La Chalotais, Holland, Turgot, and some of
their contemporaries, were real precursors of the French
Revolution in the matter of education. At the date of 1762
the scholastic revolution began, at least so far as secondary
instruction is concerned. The Parliaments of that period
conceived the plan of the University of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and prepared for the work of Napoleon I. But they
left to the men of the Revolution the honor of being the first
to organize primary instruction.

[402. Analytical Summary. — 1. This study exhibits the
evils brought upon a country by an education controlled and ■
administered by a dominant Church for the attainment of
its own ends ; and also the efforts of a nation to save itself
from imminent disaster by making the State the great public
educator.

2. The right of the State to self-preservation is the vindi-
cation of its right to control and direct public education.
The State thus becomes the patron of the, public school ;

ORIGIN OP LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 361

the product it requires is good citizenship ; and for the sake
of securing this product the State endows the school, wholly
or in part.

3. The situation in France, as described in this study, is
an aggravated case of what may occur whenever education is
administered by a class having special interests and ambi-
tions ; and under some form there must be the intervention
of the State as a means of protecting its own interests.

4. When education is administered in the main by the
literary class, there is some danger that the instruction may
not be that which is best adapted to the needs of other
classes.]

mC — —

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. — MIRABEAU, TALLEYRAND,

CONDORCET.

CONTRADICTORY JUDGMENTS ON THE WORK OF THE FRENCH REVOLU-
TION J GENERAL CHARACTER OF THAT WORK; THE 8TATE OF PRI-
MARY INSTRUCTION; WHAT WAS TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS; DISCIPLINE;
THE SITUATION OF TEACHERS; THE RECRUITMENT OF TEACHERS;
WHAT THE SCHOOL ITSELF WAS J THE PECULIAR WORK OF THE
REVOLUTION; THE CAHIERS OF 1789; MIRABEAU (1749-1791) AND
HIS TRAVAIL 8UR L'iN8TUUCTION PUBLIQUB ; DANGERS OF
IGNORANCE J LIBERTY OF TEACHING J THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
AND THE RAPPORT OF TALLEYRAND J TALLEYRAND (1758-1838);
POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF UNIVERSAL INSTRUCTION J FOUR GRADES

OF instruction; political catechism ; INDEPENDENT morality ;

THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY AND THE RAPPORT OF CONDORCET;
CONDORCET (1743-1794) J GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON EDUCATION;
INSTRUCTION AND MORALITY; INSTRUCTION AND PROGRESS; LIBER-
ALITY OF CONDORCET,' FIVE GRADES OF INSTRUCTION; PURPOSE
AND PROGRAMME OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION; IDEA OF COUR8E8
FOR ADULTS; THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN; PREJUDICES; FINAL
JUDGMENT; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

404. Contradictory Judgments on the Work of the
Revolution. — An historian of education in France, Thery,
opens his chapter on the Revolution with these contemptuous
words. u One does not study a void, one does not analyze a
negation."1 A more recent historian of public instruction
during the Revolution, Albert Duruy, arriving at the work
of Condorcet, certainly the most important undertaking of

* * Thdry, Histoire de I Education en France, Paris, 1861, Tome H. p. 188.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 363

the pedagogy of the Revolution, does not hesitate to record
this absolute and summary judgment: "We are now no
longer in the real and in the possible ; we are travelling in
the laud of chimeras ; we are soaring in space at heights
which admit of only ideal attainment."1

How easy it is to say this ! To believe these facile
judges, one who would estimate the efforts of the Revolu-
tion in the matter of public instruction would have to choose
between a nothing and a chimera. The men of the RejA|-
tion have done nothing, say some ; they are dreamerffVm
idealists, say others.

These assertions do not bear examination. For every
impartial observer it is certain that the Revolution opened a
new era in education, and the proof of this is to be found in
the very documents that our opponents so triflingly condemn,
and the practical spirit of which they misconceive.

405. General Character of that Work. — It is not
that the men of the Revolution were ed^ators in the strict
sense of the term. The science of educarton is not indebted
to them for new methods. They have not completed the
work of Locke, of Rousseau, and of La Chalotais ; but
they were the first to attempt a legislative organization of a
vast 8}*stem of public instruction. It is just to place them
in the front rank of the men who might be called "educa-
tional statesmen." Doubtless they lacked time for apply-
ing their ideas, but they had at least the merit of having
conceived these ideas, and of having embodied them in
legislative acts. The principles which we proclaim to-day,
they formulated. The solutions which we attempt to put in
practice after a century of waiting, were decreed by them.
The reader who will follow the long series of reports and

1 Albert Duruy, L' instruction publique et la Revolution, p. 80.

364 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

decrees which constitutes the pedagogical work of the Rev-
olution will have witnessed the genesis of popular instruc-
tion in France.

406. The State of Primary Instruction. — In order
to form a proper appreciation of the merits of the men of
the Revolution, it is first necessary to consider in what a
deplorable.. state they found primary instruction. What a
contrast between that which they hoped to do and the actual
situation in 1 V 89 ! I very well know that fancy sketches
have been drawn of the old regime. A very showy enu-
meration has been made of the number of colleges ; but we
have not been told how many of these colleges had no pro-
fessors, and how many had no pupils. And so of the
schools ; they are found everywhere, but it remains to be
shown what was taught in them, and whether anything was
taught in them.1

Party writers who are bound to gainsay the work of the
French Revolution in the matter of education, generally put
under contribution, to serve their political prejudices, the old
communal archives. They cite imaginary statistics which
prove, for example, that in the diocese of Rouen, in 1718,
there were 855 schools for boys, and 306 schools for girls,
for a territory of 1159 parishes.

It is first necessary to verify these statistics, whose accu-
racy has not been demonstrated, and whose figures were
evidently obtained only by counting a school wherever the
rector of the parish gave lessons in reading and in the cate-
chism to three or four children.

But there are other replies to make to the traducers of the
Revolution who tax their ingenuity to prove that instruction
was flourishing under the old regime, and that the Revolution

1 J. Simon, Dieu,patrie, et liberty, p. 11.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 365

destroyed more than it created. With this assumed efflo-
rescence of schools of which we hear, it is necessary to
contrast the results as shown by authentic statistics of the
number of illiterates. In 1790 there was 53 per cent of men
and 73 per cent of women who could not sign their names
to their marriage contracts.

Besides, we must inquire what was taught in these pre-
tended schools, how many children attended them, and what
was the material and moral condition of the teachers who
directed them.

407. What was taught in the Schools. — Instruction
was reduced to the catechism, to reading and writing. On
this point there can be no dispute. The official pro-
gramme of the Brethren of the Christian Schools did not go
beyond this. The ordinance of Louis XIV., dated in 1698,
has been pompously quoted.

4fc We would have appointed," it is there said, "as far as
it shall be possible, masters and mistresses in all the par-
ishes where there are none, to instruct all children, and in
particular those ichose parents have made profession of the
pretended reformed religion, in the catechism and the prayers
which are necessary ; to take them to mass on every work
day ; and also to teach reading and writing to those who trill
need this knoivledge."

But does not this very text support those who maintain
that the Monarchy and the Church have never encouraged
primary instruction except as required by the necessities of
the straggle against heresy, and that primary instruction
tinder the old regime was scarcely more than an instrument
of religious domination ?

Most often the school was simply a place to which parents
sent their children for temporary care. Writing was not
always taught in it. A school- mistress of Haute-Mame

366 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

was forbidden to teach writing " for fear her pupils might
employ their knowledge in writing love-letters."

408. Discipline. — Corporal punishments were more than
ever the order of the day. The bishop of Montpellier, at
the end of the seventeenth century, forbids, it is true, beat-
ing with sticks, kicks, and raps on the head ; but he author-
izes the ferule and the rod, on the condition that the patient
be not completely exposed.

409. Condition of the Teachers. — That which is graver
still is that the teachers themselves (I speak of lay teachers,
who, it is true, were not numerous) lived in a wretched con-
dition, without material independence and without moral
dignity. In general, there were no fixed salaries. Wages
varied from 40 to 200 francs, arbitrarily fixed by the vestry-
board or by the community, in return for a great number of
services the most various and the least exalted. The school-
masters were far less teachers than sextons, choristers,
beadles, bell-ringers, clock-makers', and even grave-diggers.
" Attendance at marriages and at burials was counted at the
rate of 15 sols and dinner for marriages, and 20 sols for
burials." And Albert Duruy concludes that in this there
were substantial advantages to the school-masters ; 1 — advan**
tages dearly bought in ever}' case, and repudiated by those
who were interested in them. "The more services we ren-
der the community," said the teachers of Bourgogne in their
complaints in 1789, "the more we are degraded. "* The
school-masters were scarcely more than the domestics of the
cure*.

1 Albert Duruy, op. cit., p. 16.

9 DoMances presented to the States-General by the teachers of the
umaller cities, hamlets, and villages of Bourgogne.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 367

In order to live, they were not only obliged to accept
these church services, but they also became shoemakers,
tailors, innkeepers, millers, etc. The teacher of the com-
mune of Angles, in the High Alps, was a " barbers'
surgeon."

Thus there was no assured salary, and consequently nc
moral consideration. " In the communes, teachers were
regarded as strangers and not as citizens ; like tramps and
vagrants, they were not admitted to the assemblies of the
commune."

410. The Recruitment op Teachers. — Nowhere were
there normal schools for the training of teachers. The
schools were entrusted to the first comer. The bishop
granted his approbation, or permission to teach, after an
examination of the most summary kind. The duties of
teaching were the means of subsistence which were accepted
without call and without serious preparation. In Provence,
school-masters attended kinds of "teachers' fairs" for the
purpose of being hired. In the Alps, teachers were numer-
ous, but only in winter. They tarried in the plain and in
the valleys only during the inclement season. They returned
home for the labors of the summer.

Consequently, most of the schools existed only in name.
44 The schools," we are told,1 " were in vacation for four or
five months." For a half of the year, the school -masters
were free to follow another trade, or, rather, to devote them-
selves more completely to their ordinary trade, which their
school duties did not always interrupt.

411. What the School Itself was. — School-houses were
most frequently merely wretched huts, wooden cots, and nar-
row ground-floors, badly lighted, which served at the same

1 A. Duruy, op. cit^ p. 10.

368 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

time as a domicile for the school-master and his family, and
as a class-room for pupils. Benches aud tables were things
rarely seen, and pupils wrote while standing.

In a word, the state of primary instruction, when the
States-General opened in 1789, was as follows: schools
few in number and poorly attended ; few lay teachers, trained
no one knows how, without thorough instruction, and, _ as
they themselves said, "degraded" by their inferior position;
few or no elementary books ; gratuity only partial ; finally,
a general indifference for elementary instruction, which phil-
osophers like Voltaire, and Rousseau, and Parliamentarians
like La Chalotais, themselves lightly esteemed.

412. The Proper Work of the Revolution. — I do not
saj* that the Revolution accomplished all that there was to be
attempted in order to bring instruction up to the needs of the
new society ; but it purposed to do this. Every time a lib-
eral ministr}' has decided to work for the promotion of in-
struction, it has revived its plans ; and it is these same plans
that by a vigorous effort public authority has attempted to
realize in recent times.

413. The Reports of 1789. — Already, in the reports of
1789, public opinion vigorously pronounced itself iu favor. of
educational reforms. "The cahiers of 1789, even those
of the clerg}- and the nobility, demand the reorganization of
public instruction on a comprehensiye. plan. The cahiers
of the clergy of Rodez and of Saumur demand ' that there
may be formed a plan of national education for the young';
those of Lyons, that education be restricted 4 to a teaching
body whose members may not be removable except for neg-
ligence, misconduct, or incapacity ; that it may no longer be
conducted according to arbitrary principles, and that all pub-
lic instructors be obliged to conform to a uniform plan

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 369

adopted by the States-General.' The colliers of the nobility
of Lyons insist that ' a national character ' be impressed on
the education of bothjexes. Those of Paris demand c that
public education be perfected, and extended to all classes of
citizens.' Those of Blois, fc that there be established a coun-
cil composed of the most enlightened scholars of the capital
and of. the provinces and of the citizens of the different
orders, to form a plan of national education, for the use of
all the classes of society, and to edit elementary treatises.' " *

414. Mirabeau (1749-1791). — From the first days of
the Revolution, pedagogical literature abounds, and gives evi-
dence of the ever-growing interest which public opinion
attaches to educational questions. The Oratorians, of whom
LaChalotais said, u that they were free from the prejudices
of the school and of the cloister, and that thev were citi-
zens," present to the National Assembly a series of scholastic
plans. On its part, the Assembly sets itself at work ; Tal-
leyrand prepares his great report, and Mirabeau embodies his
own reflections in four eloquent discourses.

Mirabeau's discourses, published after his death through
the good offices of his friend Cabanis, had the following
titles : 1 . Draft of a Law for the Organization of the Teach-
ing Body ; 2. Public and Military Festivals; 3. Organiza-
tion of a National Lyce'e; 4. Tlie Education of the Heir
Presumjrtive of the Crown.

415. The Dangers of Ignorance. — With what brilliancy
the illustrious orator made appear the advantages and the
necessity of instruction !

"Those who desire that the peasant may not know how *
to read or write, have doubtless made a patrimony of his

1 See the Dictionnaire de Ptdagogie, Article France. J r ;-

370 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ignorance, and their motives are not difficult to appreciate ;
but they do not know that when they have made a wild beast
of a man, they expose themselves to the momentary danger
of seeing him transformed into a savage beast. Without in-
1 telligence there is no morality. But on whom, then, is it
important to bestow intelligence, if it is not upon the rich ?
Is not the safeguard of their enjoyments the morality, of the
people ? Through the influence of the laws, through that ol
a wise administration, through the efforts to which each one
should be inspired by the hope of ameliorating the condition
of his fellows, exert yourselves, public and private citizens,
to diffuse in all quarters the noble fruits of knowledge.
Believe that in dissipating one single error, in propagating
one single wholesome truth, you will do something for the
happiness of the human race ; and whoever you are, do not
have the least doubt that it is only by this means that you
can assure your own happiness."

But through some inexplicable spirit of timidity, Mirabeau
did not draw from these principles the consequences that
they permit. He does not admit that the State can impose
the obligation to attend school,
v "Society," he says, "has not the right to prescribe in-
| struction as a duty. . . . Public authority has not the right,
with respect to the members of the social body, to go beyond
the limits of watchfulness against injustice and of protection
against violence. . . ." "Society," he adds, "can exact of
each one only the sacrifices necessary for the maintenance
of the liberty and the safety of all."

Mirabeau forgets that the obligation to send children to
school is exactly one of those necessary sacrifices which the
State has the right to impose on parents.

Hostile to obligation, Mirabeau feels no greater partisan-
ship for gratuity : —

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 371

"Gratuitous education," he said, " is paid for by every-
body, while its -fruits are immediately gathered by only a '
small number of individuals."

416. Liberty of Teaching. — Like so manj other gener-
ous spirits, Mirabeau cherished the dream of the most com-
plete liberty of teaching.1

" Your single purpose," he said to the members, " is to give
to man the use of all his faculties, to make him enjoy all his

i What is meant by " liberty of teaching " will be better understood from
the following quotations from the Dictionnaire de Pddagogie, Premiere
Partie, p. 1575 et seq. : —

" Liberty of teaching, in a country which has proclaimed obligatory in-
struction, is the equal right of all to give that instruction, or the prohibition
of every monopoly which would put that instruction into the hands either
of privileged individuals, or of corporations, or even of the State, to the
exclusion of every other teaching body.1'

" Under the old regime, the education of the masses was committed to
the hands of the Church ; the colleges, directed by a body of men who were
all ecclesiastics, gave 'a vain pretence of an education, where the memory
alone was exercised, and where the reason was insulted in the forms of
reasoning.' "

" The purpose of the men of the Revolution was, then, above all else, to
emancipate science, and to guarantee the right of free inquiry; and while
rescuing instruction from the tyranny of tbe Church, to assure to citizens
in general the opportunity to acquire the knowledge that is essential to
man. On the one hand, they would take precautions against the abuse
of power by a government which had always shown itself hostile to free
thought . . . ; on the other, in opposition to the old doctrine which con-
demned the people to ignorance, they proclaimed the duty of the State to
create a system of public instruction, common to all citizens."

" It is at this point of view that we must place ourselves in order to gain
a correct notion of the plans that were submitted to the Constituent Con-
vention and the Legislative Assembly. What Talleyrand and Condorcet
desired was, first, to organize, under the form of a public service, a system
of national education in which all might participate; and in the second
place, to take precautions against the Church and the royal authority, and
so prevent despotic power from attempting to prevent the development of
new troths and the teaching of theories which it judged contrary to its
policy and interests. For them, liberty of teaching is the demand of phil-
osophic liberty against ecclesiastical and secular^ authority." (P.)

372 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

rights, to develop the corporate life out of all the individual
lives freely developed, and the will of the whole out of all
personal wills."

417. Distribution op Studies. — In Mirabeau's plan,
public aud national instruction depends, not on the executive
power, but on " the magistrates who truly represent the peo-
ple, that is to say, who are elected and often renewed by the
people," — in other terms, the officers of departments or dis-
tricts. Establishments for instruction ought not to form a
consolidated bod}\

Let us observe, finally, that by the side of the primary
schools Mirabeau established a college of literature for each
department, and at Paris, a single National Lyc6e, " designed
to secure to a select number of French youth the means of
finishing their education." In this he established a chair of
method, which, he said, ought to be the basis of instruction.

In conclusion, the work of Mirabeau is .but a very imper-
fect sketch, and a sort of graduated transition between the
old and the new regime.

We do not yet find in it the grand ideas which are to
impassion men, and it is the Rapport of Talleyrand which
constitutes the real introduction to the educational work of
the Revolution.

418. The Constituent Assembly and Talleyrand. —
The constitution of Sept. 4, 1791, announced the following
provision : —

"There shall be created and organized a system of public
instruction, common to all citizens, and gratuitous with re-
spect to those branches of instruction which are indispensable
for all men."

It was to put in force the decree of the Constitution that
Talleyrand drew up his Rapport and presented it to the

mm^

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 373

Assembly at the sessions of September 10 and 11. The
entire bill contained not less than 208 articles. Having
reached the term of its troubled existence, the Assembly did
not find the time to discuss it, and, while regretting u not
having established the bases of the regeneration of educa-
tion," it referred the examination of Talleyrand's work to
the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly showed but little anxiety to
accept the legacy of its predecessor. Another report, that
of Condorcet, was prepared, so that the bill of Talleyrand
never had the honor of a parliamentary discussion.

419. Talleyrand (1758-1838). — The ex -bishop of
Autun, having become a revolutionist of 1789, before being
the chamberlain of Napoleon I. and the minister of Louis
XVIII., scarcely deserves by his character the esteem of
history ; he too often gave a striking example of political
versatility. But at least, by his supple and acute intelli-
gence, and by the abundance of his ideas, he has always
risen to the height of the various tasks that he has under-
taken, and his Rapport is a remarkable work.

420. General Principles. — As Montesquieu has said,
u the laws of education ought to be relative to the principles
of government." It is by this truth that Talleyrand is
inspired in the long considerations that serve as a preamble
to his bill.

What was to be done in the presence of a constitution
which, limiting the powers of the king, called the entire peo-
ple to participate in political life? That constitution would
have remained sterile, would have been but a dead letter, if
a suitable education had not come to vivify it by causing it
to pass, so to speak, into the blood of the nation. In what
did the new regime consist? You have separated, said

374 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Talleyrand to the members, you have separated the will of
the whole, or the power of making the laws, from the execu-
tive power, whicli you have reserved to the king. But that
general will must be upright, and, in order to be upright, it
must be enlightened and instructed. After having given
(power to the people, you ought to teach them wisdom. Of
what use would it be to enfranchise brutal and unconscious
forces, to turn them over to their own keeping? Instruction
is the necessary counterpoise of liberty. The law, which is
henceforth the work of the people, ought not to be at the
mercy of the tumultuous opinions of an ignorant multitude.

421. Education as related to Liberty and Equality.
— Talleyrand is pleased with his thought, and, considering
in turn the two fundamental ideas of the Revolution, the
idea of equality and the idea of liberty, he shows, not with-
out some length of analysis, that instruction is necessary, on
the one hand, to create free individuals, by giving to them a
conscience and a reason, and on the other, to draw men
together by diminishing the inequality of intelligences.

422. Rules for Public Instruction. — Instruction i9
due to all. There must be schools in the villages as in the
cities. Instruction ought to be given by all ; there ought to
be no privilege in instruction. Fiuall}*, instruction ought to
extend to all subjects ; everything shall be taught which can
be taught : —

"In a well organized society, though no one can attain to
universal knowledge, it should nevertheless be possible to
learn everything."

423. Political Education. — At the basis of every
educational system there is always a dominant and essential
thought. In the Middle Age — and the Middle Age is con-
tinued in the schools of the Jesuits — ft is the idea of salva-

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 875

tion, it is the preparation of the soul for the future life. In
the seventeenth century it is the conception of a perfect
justness of spirit joined to uprightness of heart; such
was the ideal of the solitaries of Port Royal. In 1792 poli-
tics became the almost exclusive preoccupation of the
educators of youth. Everything else — religion, accuracy
of judgment, nobility of heart — is relegated to the second
place : man is nothing more than a political animal, brought
into the world to know, to love, and to obey the constitution.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man became, in the sys-
tem of Talleyrand, the catechism of childhood. It is neces-
sary that the future citizen learn to know, to love, to obey,
and finally to perfect the constitution. We cannot help
thinking that Talleyrand himself showed a marvellous apti-
tude for loving and obeying the constitution. Unfortunately
this has not always been the case ! /

424. Universal Morality. — One of the most beautiful
pages of Talleyrand's work is certainly that in which he
recommends the teaching of universal morality, and claims
the autonomy of natural laws, distinct from all positive
religion.

"We must learn to infuse ourselves with morality, which
is the first need of all constitutions. . . . Morality must be
taught as a real science, whose principles will be demon-
strated to the reason of all men, and to that of all ages. It
is only in this way that it will resist all trials. It has long
been a matter of lamentation to see men of alt nations and
of all religions make it depend exclusively on that multitude
of opinions which divide them. From this have resulted
great evils ; for abandoning morality to uncertainty, and
often to absurdity, it has necessarily been compromised ; it
has been made versatile and unsettled. It is time to estab-
lish it upon its own bases, and to show men that if baneful

876 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

divisions separate them, they at least have in morality a
common meeting place where they all ought to take refuge
and unite for protection. It is necessary, then, to detach it
in some sort from everything else, in order to reunite it at
once to that which merits our approval and our homage.
. . . This change is simple and injures nothing ; above all,
it is possible. How is it possible not to see, in fact, that
abstraction being made of every system and of every opinion,
and by considering in men only their relations with other
men, they can be taught what is good and just, made to love
it, and made to find happiness in virtuous actions and
wretchedness in those which are not so?"

425. Four Grades of Instruction. — The organization
of instruction, in Talleyrand's bill, -vas " to be combined
with that of the government," and to bo modeled after the
division of administrative functions. The Rapport estab-
lished four grades of instruction. There wa& a school for
each caotett, corresponding to each primary assembly. Then
came intermediate or secondai^iu^truction, intended, if not
for all, at least for the greater number, and given in the
principal town of the, district, or arrondissement. In the third
place, special schools, scattered over th&, territory of the
kingdom, in the pnncipal Umu$ of the departments, prepare
young men for the different professions. Finally, the select
intelligences find at Paris^ frfthe Rational Institute, all that
constitutes the higher instruction.

The great novelty of this system was the creation of can-
tonal schools, open to peasants andjc^ workmen, to those
whom, up to this time, improvidence or the purpose of the
great sent off to their plows or to their planes.

426. Gratuity op Primary Instruction. — Talleyrand did
not desire compulsory education any more than Mirabeau ;

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 877

but, in accordance with the constitution of 1791, he demands
the gratuity of primary instruction. Society is under obli-
gations to give elementary instruction, but not intermediate
and secondary instruction, and still less, special and higher
instruction. Gratuitous for the lowest grade, and in case
of that elementary knowledge which constitutes for every
civilized man a real moral necessity, instruction ought not
to be free to young men who-aspire to a liberal profession,
because they have leisure, and whojiave leisure because they
have wealth. However, Talleyrand admits exceptions in the
case of talent. By the creation of national scholarships,
the doors of all the schools will be opened to select intelli-
gences whom the lowness of their condition would condemn
to remain obscure and unappreciated, did not society lend to
them a helping hand.

427. Programme op Primary Instruction. — Primary
instruction should comprise the principles of the national
language, the elementary njjes of calculation and mensura-
tion ; the elements of religion, the principles of mojals, the
principles of the constitution ; finally, the development of
the physical, intellectual, and moral powers.

428. Means op Instruction. — We shall not insist on the
details of the organization of the different parts of that
which Talleyrand himself called his " immense machine."
Let us notice only the last part of his work, where he dis-
cusses a certain number of general questions under this
arbitrary and unjustifiable title : Des moyens <T instruction*
The professors, carefully chosen, shall be elected by the
king. Talleyrand does not determine that they shall be
irremovable, but he requires that their, situation shall be
surrounded by all possible guarantees. Prizes, and rewards
of every kind, shall encourage the teachers of youth to re-

878 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

double their zeal and to find new methods. Talleyrand
counts on dramatic representations and on national holidays
to hasten the progress of instruction. Finally, let it be
added that he entrusts the supreme direction of public in-
struction to six commissioners, chosen by the king and
obliged to make an annual report.

429. The Education op Women. — Talleyrand, in his
proposal, has not wholly forgotten women, and what he has
said of them is just and sensible. He discusses the question^ ^
of their political rights, and, in accord with tradition andl-^jt
good sense, he concludes that the happiness of women, their r
own interests, their nature and their proper destination, I

\ ought to forbid them from entering the political arena. J
What is particularly fit for them is a domestic^sducation,
which, received in the family, prepares them for living there.

I Like Mirabeau, he wishes woman to remain a woman.] Her
function, said the great orator, is to perpetuate the species,
to watch with solicitude over the perilous periods of early
youth, and u to enchain to her feet all the energies of the
husband by the irresistible power of her weakness." With-
out being as gallant in his expressions, Talleyrand's thought
is the same. He thought it necessary, however, in order to
respond to certain proprieties, that the State should estab-
lish institutions of public education destined to replace the
convents.

This desire sets right whatever was unreasonable in this
passage of his proposed law : —

" Girls shall not be admitted to the primary schools after
the age of eight. After that age the National Assembly
advises parents to entrust the education of their daughters
only to themselves, and reminds them that this is their first
duty."

MMaMataMartftMaMMMMMttJa

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 379

430. The Legislative Assembly and Condorcet. — Of
all the educational undertakings of the Revolution, the most
remarkable is that of Condojget. His Rapport presented to
the Legislative ^Assembly, in behalf of the committee on
public instruction, April 20 and 21, 1792, reprinted in 1793
by order of the Convention, did not directly have the honor
of a public discussion ; but it contained principles and solu-
tions which are found in the deliberations and legislative
acts of his successors. It remained, during the whole dura-
tion of the Convention, the widely accessible source whence
the legislators of that time, like Romme, Bouquier, and Lak-
anal, drew their inspiration.

431. Condorcet (1743-1794). — Condorcet was admira-
"bly qualified for the task which the Legislative Assembly

imposed on him, in charging him with the organization of
public instruction. During the first years of the Revolution
he had employed his leisure (he was not a member of the
Constituent Assembly) in writing five MSmoires on instruc-
tion, which appeared in a periodical called the Bibliothkque
de Vhomme public. The Rapport which he submitted to the
Assembly was a sort of re'sume' of his long reflections. Con-
dorcet brought to this work, not the indiscreet imagination
of an improvised educator, but the authority of a competent
thinker, who, if he had no personal experience in teaching,
had at least reflected much on these topics and was con-
scions of all their difficulties. Besides, he devoted himself
to his work with the ardor of an enthusiastic nature, and
with the serious convictions of a mind that had carried
farther than any one else the religion of progress and zeal
for the public good.

432. General Considerations upon Instruction. — All
the Revolutionists have sung the praises of instruction, of

380 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

which they were the passionate admirers. Condorcet Is its
reflective partisan. He did not love it more than the others,
but he comprehended it better, and better stated why it
should be loved. He first takes up the ideas of Talleyrand,
and shows that without instruction, liberty and equality
would be chimeras : —

"A free constitution which should not be correspondent
to the universal instruction of citizens, would come to destruc-
tion after a few conflicts, and would degenerate into one of
those forms of government which cannot preserve the peace
among an ignorant and corrupt people."

Anarchy or despotism, such is the future of peoples who
have become free before having been enlightened.

As to equality, without falling into the chimeras of an in-
struction which should be the same for all, and which should
reduce all men to the same level, Condorcet desires to realize
it so far as it is possible. He desires that the poorest and
the humblest shall be sufficiently instructed to belong to him-
self, and not to be at the mercv of the first charlatan who
comes along; and also to be able to fulfill his civil duties, to
be an elector, a juror, etc.

433. Instruction and Morality. — The instrument of
liberty and equality, instruction, in the opinion of Condorcet,
is, in addition, the real source of public morality and of
human progress. If it were not correspondent to the
advances in knowledge, a free and impartial constitution
would be hostile rather than favorable to good morals.

" Instruction alone can give the assurance that the princi-
ple of justice which the equality of rights ordains, shall not be
in contradiction with this other principle, which prescribes
that only those rights shall be accorded to men which they
can exercise without danger to society."

THB FRENCH REVOLUTION. 381

But it is moral reasons still more than political motives
that make instruction the condition of virtue. Condorcet
has shrewdly seen that the vices of the people come chiefly
from their intellectual impotency.

" These vices come," he says, " from the need of escaping
from ennui in moments of leisure, and in escaping from it
through sensations and not through ideas."

These are notable words which should never be lost sight
of by the teachers and moralists of the people.

To cause gross natures to pass from the life of the senses
to the intellectual life ; to make study agreeable to the end
that the higher pleasures of the spirit may struggle success-
fully against the appetites for material pleasures ; to put
the book in the place of the wine bottle ; to substitute the
library for the saloon ; in a word, to replace sensation by idea*
— such is the fundamental problem of popular education.

434. Instruction and Progress. — Condorcet was a
fanatic on the subject of progress. Up to the last moment
of his life he dreamed of progress, its conditions, and its
laws. Now the most potent means of hastening progress is
to instruct men ; and here is the final reason why instruction
is so dear to him.

These are grand words : —

"If the indefinite improvement of our species is, as I be-
lieve, a general law of nature, man ought no longer to regard
himself as a being limited to a transitory and isolated exis-
tence, destined to vanish after an alternative of happiness or
of misery for himself, and of good and evil for those whom
chance has placed near him ; but he becomes an active part
of the grand whole, and a fellow-laborer in a work that is
eternal. In an existence of a moment, and upon a point in
space, he can, by his works, compass all places, relate him-

MHMMMttMM^taHHi^M

382 THE HISTORY. OF PEDAGOGY.

self to all the centuries, and continue to act long centuries
after his memory has disappeared from the earth." And
further on: "For a long time I have considered these views
as dreams which were to be realized only in an indefinite
future, and for a world where I should not exist. A happy
event has suddenly opened an immense career to the hopes
of the human race ; a single instant has put a century of dis-
tance between the man of to-day and him of to-morrow."

435. The Liberality of Condorcet. — Wrongly credited
with a despotic and absolute habit of mind, Condorcet is, on
the contrary, full of scruples and penetrated with respect as
regards the liberty of individual opinions. In fact, he care-
fully distinguishes instruction from education. Instruction (
has to do with positive and certain knowledge, the truths of
fact and of calculation ; education, with political and religious
beliefs. Now, if the State is the natural dispenser of instruc-
tion, it ought, on the contrary, in the'matter of education, to
forbear, and to declare itself incompetent. In other words,
the State ought not to abuse its power by imposing by force
on its citizens such or such a religious Credo, such or such I
a political dogma.

" Public authority cannot establish a body of doctrine
which is to be exclusively taught. No public power ought
to have the authority, or even the permission, to prevent the
development of new truths, or the teaching of theories con-
trary to its particular policy or to its momentary interests."

436. Five Grades op Instruction. — Condorcet distin-
guishes five grades of instruction : 1. Primary schools proper ;
2. Secondary schools, that is, such as we now call higher
primary schools ; 3. Institutes, or colleges of secondary in-
struction ; 4. Lycies, or institutions of higher instruction ;
5. The National Society of Sciences and Arts, which corre-
sponds to our Institute.

***■

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 383

Two things are especially to be noted: first, Condorcet
establishes for the first time higher primary schools, and de-
mands one for each district, and, in addition one for each town
of four thousand inhabitants ; then, for primary schools proper,
he takes the population as a basis for their establishment, and
requires one for each four hundred inhabitants.1

437. Purpose and Plan of Primary Instruction. —
Condorcet has admirably defined the purpose of primary in-
struction : —

"In the primary schools there is taught that which is
necessary for each individual in order to direci_iiis_pwn con-
duct and to enjoy the plenitude of his own rights."

The programme comprised reading, writing, some notions
on grammar, the rules of arithmetic, simple methods of
measuring a field and a building with exactness ; a simple
description of the productions of the country, of the processes
in agriculture and the arts; the development of the first
moral ideas and the rules for conduct derived from them ;
finally, such of the principles of social order as can be put
within the comprehension of children.

438. The Idea of Courses for Adults. — Condorcet -
was strongly impressed with the necessity of continuing the
instruction of the workman and of the peasant after with-
drawal from school : —

1 Public instruction as now organized in France is of three grades, as
follows: —

" Primary instruction, which gives the elements of knowledge, reading,
writing, and arithmetic. Secondary instruction, embracing the study of
the ancient languages, of rhetoric, and the first elements of the mathemati-
cal and physical sciences, and of philosophy. This is given in the lycees
and colleges, as well as in the smaller seminaries. Superior instruction,
designed to teach in all their completeness letters, the languages, the sci-
ences, and philosophy. This is given in the Faculties, in the College of
France, and in the larger seminaries.' ' — Lrrrafc. (P.)

384 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

u We have observed that instruction ought not to abandon
individuals the moment they leave the schools ; that it ought
to embrace all ages ; that there is no period of life when it is
not useful and possible to learn, and that this supplementary
instruction is so much the more necessary as that of infancy
has been contracted to the narrowest limits. Here is one
of the principal causes of the ignorance in which the poor
classes of society are to-day plunged ; they lacked not nearly
so much the possibility of receiving an elementary instruction
as that of preserving its advantages."

Consequently, Condorcet proposed, if not courses of in-
struction for adults, at least something very like them, —
weekly lectures, given each Sunday by the village teachers,
a kind of lay sermons.

"Each Sunday the teacher shall give a public lecture
which citizens of all ages will attend. In this arrangement
we have seen a means of giving to young people those neces-
sary parts of knowledge, which, however, did not form a part
of their primary education."

439. Professional and Technical Education. — But
Condorcet does not think his duty to the people done when
he has given them intellectual emancipation. He is very
anxious to give in addition to the sons of peasants or work-
men the means of struggling against misery, by diffusing
more and more among the masses of the people a technical
knowledge of the arts and trades. He deserves to be
counted among the adepts in professional instruction and in
industrial education. He asks that there be placed in the
schools " models of machines or of trades" ; and in all grades
of instruction, he recommends with a special solicitude the
teaching of the practical arts.

We fancy we are doing something new to-day when we
establish school museums. "Each school," says Condorcet,

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 385

•• shall have a small library, and a small cabinet in which
shall be placed some meteorological instruments or some
specimens of natural history."

440. The Education of Women. — Condorcet may be
regarded as one of the most ardent apostles of the education
of women. He wishes education to be common and equal.
He is evidently wrong when he dreams of a perfect identity
of instruction for the two sexes, when he forgets the partic-
ular destination of women, and the special character of their
education. But we have found so many educators disposed
to depreciate the abilities of woman, that we are happy to
find at last one voice that exalts them, even beyond
measure.

Let us recall, however, the excellent reasons which he
gives in support of his thesis on the equality of education.
It is necessary that women should be instructed : 1 . in order

/that they may be able to bring up their children, of whom
they are the natural instructors ; 2. in order that they may

•be the worthy companions, the equals of their husbands, that
they may feel an interest in their pursuits, share in their
preoccupations, and, finally, participate in their life, such
being the condition of conjugal happiness ; 3. in order,
further, by an analogous reasdh* that they may not quench,

'by their ignorance, that inspiration of heart and mind which
previous studies have developed in their husbands, but that*
they may nourish this flame by conversation and reading in
common ; 4. finally, because this is just, — because the two

• sexes have an equal right to instruction.

441. Reservations* to be made. — All is not equally
worthy of commendation in the work of Condorcet. Some
faults and some omissions mar this fine piece of political
pedagogy. The faults are, first, the exaggerated idea of lib-

386 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

erty and of equality. From Condorcet's ardors for liberty there
issues, in his plan for education, a grave error, — the idea of
making of the teaching body a sort of State within the State,
an independent authority, a fourth power, released from all
exterior authority, governing itself and administering its
own affairs, the State intervening only as treasurer to pay for
the services which it neither regulates nor supervises. The
liberal Daunou, while explaining the system of our author,
has criticised it on this point.1 " Condorcet," he said, " the
enemy of corporations, has sanctioned one in his scheme of
national instruction ; he established, as it were, an academic
church. This is because Condorcet, the enemy of kings,
would add in the balance of public powers one counter-
balance more to that royal power whose monstrous existence,
in a free constitution, is sufficiently attested by the alarms
and fears of all the friends of liberty."

The passion for equality led Condorcetinto another chimera,
— that of the absolute gratuity of instruction of all grades.

Finally, in his dreams of infinite perfectibility, Condorcet
allows himself to be carried so far away as to imagine for
man, and to expect from instruction, results that are utterly
unattainable. Instruction, according to him, ought to be so
complete " as to cause the disappearance of every inequality
which induces dependence."

442. Prejudices op the Mathematician. — From another
point of view, Condorcet was led astray by his predilection,
for the sciences. He so far forgot that he was a member of
the French Academy as to obey only his tendencies, a little*,
too exclusive, as a mathematician and a member of the
Academy of Sciences. By a reaction, natural enough,
against those long centuries in which an abuse was made of

1 See the Rapport of Daunou presented to the National Convention, 27
Vendlmiaire, year IV.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 887

literary culture, Condorcet is too prompt to underrate the
influence of letters in education, and to invest the sciences
with the place of honor. The reasons which he invokes to
justify his preference are not all conclusive.

443. Omissions. — The idea of obligatory instruction is#
still wanting injhe scheme we are examining. We shall be
surprised, perhaps, that Condorcet, who has so clearly pro-
claimed the necessity of universal instruction, did not think
to impose obligatory attendance, which is the only means of
establishing it. This is because the early revolutionists, in
the ardor of their enthusiasm, did not suspect the opposition
to the accomplishment of their plans that was to come from
the indifference of the greater number, and from the preju-
dices of those who, as Condorcet has eloquently said,
44 thought they were obeying God while betraying their coun-
try." It seemed to them that when centres of light had
been made to glow over the whole surface of the country,
citizens would hasten after them, impelled by a natural
appetite, spontaneously thirsting for enlightenment. They
were deceived. These hopes, a little artless, were destined
to be disproved by facts; and it was to triumph over the
neglect of some, and the resistance of others, that the Con-
vention, supplying one of the rare defects in Condorcet's
plan, decreed, on several occasions, instruction " imperative
and forced," as was then said.

On still another point, Condorcet remained inferior to his
successors ; in his report there was no mention made of the
organization of jiojma], schools. In this grave and funda-
mental question of the education of the teaching body,
Condorcet contented himself with a provisional expedient,
which consisted in entrusting to the professors of the grade
immediately higher the care of preparing teachers for the
grade lower.

— »•■

388 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

444. Final Conclusion. — But even with these reserva-
tions, the work of Condorcet deserves scarcely anything but
praise. We have commended its new and exalted concep-
tions. Its beautiful and exact arrangement and its masterly
style also deserve praise. Condorcet's periods are symmetri-
cal in their fullness, and the expression is precise and vigor-
ous. Doubtless there is some monotony and some frigidity
in that style so concise and strong. But at intervals there
are outbursts of passion. The man whom his contempora-
ries compared to u an enraged lamb," or to a " volcano
covered with snow," is painted to the life in his writings.
His Rapport is like a beautiful and finished statue of marble,
cold to the touch, but upon which the hand might feel beat-
ing in places a vein warm with life.

[445. Analytical Summary. — 1. The more important
lessons to be derived from this study are the following : the
necessity of making instruction universal and of having it
administered by the State ; the need of making instruction
obligatory, and, in certain grades, gratuitous ; the value of
intellectual culture as a moral safeguard.

2. The right of the State to self-preservation carries with
it the right to ordain the establishment of schools for giving
a certain kind and degree of instruction. This constitutes
the first form of compulsion.

3. When there is not a voluntary and general attendance
on the schools ordained by the State, it may avail itself of
the supplementary right to make attendance obligatory.
This constitutes the second form of compulsion.

4. Gratuity is the logical sequence to compulsion. If the
State may require all children to partake of a certain degree
of instruction, it must make such instruction free.

5. Should instruction that is above the compulsory grade
be free? This depends on the question whether the State

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,

889

needs a certain amount of the higher culture, and whether
this required amount will be secured at the pupils' own ex-
pense. Monsieur Compayr6 decides, as against Condorcet
(paragraph 441), that the higher grades of instruction
should not be gratuitous. In this country the prevailing
theory is that the higher education should be endowed by
the State.

6. The relation of instruction to morality has never been
more Justly and pointedly stated than in paragraph 433.
This is not only good sense but sound philosophy.]

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CONVENTION. — LEPELLETIER SAINT-FABGEATJ,

LAKANAL, DAUNOU.

the contention; successive measures; the bill of lanthenas;
the bill of romme j the national holidays j elementary
books; decree of may 80, 1793; lakanal (1762-1845); daunou
(1761-1840) ; the bill of lakanal, sieves, and daunou j lepelle-
tier 8a1nt-fargeau (1760-1793) ; his scheme of education (july
13, 1793) j lepelletier and condorcet j compulsory education
in boarding-schools; the child belongs to the republic;
school occupations; absolute gratuity j the rights of the
family; saint-just j the romme law j the bouquier law; the
lakanal law; educational methods; elementary books,*
geography; letters and sciences; the foundation of normal
schools; the normal school of paris; central schools ; their
defects; positive and practical spirit; great foundations
of the convention; the LAW OF OCTOBER 27, 1795; insufficiency
of daunou's scheme ; ANALYTICAL summary.

446. The Convention. — The Constituent Assembly and
the Legislative Assembly had done nothing more than to
prepare reports and projected decrees, without either dis-
cussing them or bringing them to a vote. The Convention
went so far as to vote, but it did not have the time to exe-
cute the resolutions, contradictory and incoherent, which it
was forced to adopt, one after another, by the fluctuation
of political currents.

447. Successive Measures. — Nothing definite in the
way of execution issued from the enthusiastic passion which
the Convention exhibited for the organization of primary
instruction. First there was a triumph of modern ideas in

■•#•:■«- ■"' : '

THE CONVENTION. 891

the bill of Lanthcnas, the first article of which was adopted
December 12, 1792 ; and they appeared again in the bill of
Sieyes, Daunou, and Lakanal, presented June 26, 1793,
and defeated after an exciting discussion. But the influence
of the Girondists was succeeded by the domination of the
Montagnards1 whose dictatorial and violent spirit is indi-
cated: 1. in the bill of Lepelletier, adopted through the
support of Robespierre, August 13, 1793; 2. in the bill
projected and presented by Romrae in behalf of the commis-
sion of public instruction, October 20, 1793, and passed on
the following day ; 3. and lastly in the bill of Bouquier,
which, presented December 19, 1793, became the decree of
December 26. The reaction which followed resulted in the
legislative acts by which the Convention finished its
educational work. The bill of Sieyes, Daunou, and Laka-
nal was reconsidered, and November 17, 1793, it was substi-
tuted for the bill of Bouquier. Finally, when the constitution
of 1794 was substituted for the constitution of 1793, a new
law of public instruction was passed on the report of Daunou,
October 27, 1795, and it is this law which presided over
the organization of schools under the Directory.

In this confusion, this chaos of bills and counter-bills, it is
difficult to establish any clew that is wholly trustworthy.
We shall restrict ourselves to noting the points that seem
essential. *

Impatient to finish its business, the committee on public

1 A term applied to the most pronounced revolutionists of the Convention
and of the National Assembly.

3 It is impossible, within the limits prescribed by the character and plan
of this work, to enter into detail and enumerate all the decrees and counter-
decrees of the Convention on the subject of public instruction. To see
clearly into this chaos and this confusion, it is necessary to read the
excellent article of Monsieur GuiUaume in the Dictionnaire de Ptdagogie,
article Convention.

892 THB HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

instruction, which the Convention had appointed October 2,
1792, decided to put aside, for the present, the other branches
of public instruction, and proposed for immediate action
only the organization of primary schools, by taking, as a
point of departure, the bill which Condorcet had presented
to the Legislative Assembly. The report of Lanthenas and
a proposed decree were within a few weeks the results of
these deliberations ; but in all its parts this result is scarcely
more than the reproduction of Condorcet's work, and presents
nothing original. Let us note, however, the idea of as-
sociating the pupil with his teacher in the work of instruc-
tion : —

44 Teachers will call to their aid the pupils whose intelligence
shall have made the most rapid progress ; and they will thus
be able, vei-y easily, to give to four classes of pupils, in the
same session, all the attention needed for their progress.
At the same time, the efforts made by the most competent
to teach what they know to their schoolmates, will be much
more instructive to themselves than the lessons they receive
from their masters."

Further, let us notice title III. of the proposed decree
relative to the measures to be taken in order to make obli-
gatory the use of the French language, and to abolish the
patois, or particular idioms. The minimum salary of men
teachers was fixed at six hundred francs. The appointment
of teachers was entrusted to the heads of families, who were
to elect one from a list prepared by a " commission of edu-
cated persons" appointed by the Councils-General of the
communes and the Directories of departments.

448. The Bill of Lanthenas. — The discussion of the bill
of Lanthenas began on December 12, 1792, but only article
first was carried, and the bill itself did not become a law.

THE CONVENTION. 898

On December 20, another member of the Convention,
Rom me, mathematician, deputy from Puy-de-D6me, read
a new report on public instruction.

449. The Bill of Romme. — The bill of Lanthenas
aimed at only the first grade of instruction, but the report of
Romme embraced the four grades of instruction, and was
but little more than a reproduction of Condorcet's work.
But no legislative measure followed the reading of his bill,
and up to the 30th of May, 1793, there is scarcely anything
to be noted, as the educational work of the Convention, save
the bill of Rabaud Saint-£tienne on public festivals, and the
report of Arbogast on elementary books.

450. National Holidays. — It is difficult to form an
idea of the importance which the' men of this period attributed
to the educational influence of national holidays. At vari-
ance on so many points, they all agree in thinking that the
French people could be instructed and regenerated simply
by establishing popular solemnities.

u It is a kind of institution," said Robespierre, " which
ought to be considered as an essential part of public educa-
tion,— I mean national holidays."

Daunou also persisted in considering national holidays as
the most certain and the most comprehensive means of pub-
lic instruction. The decree passed at his request established
seven national holidavs : that of the foundation of the
Republic, of young men, of husbands, of thanksgiving, of
agriculture, of liberty, of old men.

451. Elementary Books. — An important point in the
pedagogy of the Revolution was the attention given to the
composition of elementary books. On several occasions
the Convention put up for competition these modest works
intended to aid parents or teachers in their task. It was one

894 THE H1STOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

of the happiest thoughts of that period to desire that there
should be placed in the hands of parents simple methods and
well-arranged books which might teach them how to bring up
their children. The difficulty of this kind of composition
was understood, and so application was made to the most
distinguished writers. Bernardin de Saint Pierre was em-
ployed to edit the Elements of Morality.

December 24, 1792, Arbogast had submitted to the Con-
vention a proposed decree in which it was said : —

" It is only the superior men in a science, or in an art,
those who have sounded all its depths, and have earned it to
its farthest limits, who are capable of composing such ele-
mentary treatises as are desirable."

452. Decree of May 30, 1793. — The first decree of the
Convention relative to primary schools was passed May 30,
1793. But this laconic law contained nothing very new.
Besides, it was forgotten in the storm which on the next
day, May 31, swept away the Girondists, and gave to the
Montagnards the political supremacy.

453. Lakanal (1762-1845). — After the revolution of
May 31, among the men who, in the committee on public in-
struction and in the assembly itself, were occupied with the
educational organization of France, we must assign the first
place to Lakanal and Daunou. On June 26, 1793, three
days after the adoption of the new constitution, Lakanal
brought to the tribune the bill which he had drawn up in
conjunction with Daunou and Sieyes.

Lakanal is one of the purest and most remarkable charac-
ters of the French Revolution.1 " Lakanal," said Marat, to
whom some one had denounced him, " works too much to

1 See a recent sketch, Lakanal, by Paul Legendre (Paris, 1882), with a
Preface by Paul Bert.

THE CONVENTION. 395

have the time to conspire." Industrious and thoughtful,
after having taught philosophy with the *4 Doctrinaires," of
whom he was the pupil, he became the first, after Condorcet,
of the educators of the Revolution. " His appearance," says
Paul Bert, *' has always particularly attracted me. It unites
gentleness with force, energy with serenity. We feel that
this austere citizen has never known any other passion than
that of well-doing, and has neither desired nor obtained any
other reward than that of having done his duty. He despises
violence of language, and hates that of acts ; and so we do
not find him, under the Empire, a baron like Jean-Bon Saint
Andr6, a minister like Fouche1 , or a senator like a whole herd."

454. Daunou (1761-1840). — At an early period in his
life, Daunou had taught philosophy in the colleges of the
Oratorians, of whom he was a member. In 1789 he pub-
lished in the Journal Encyclop6dique, a plan of national
education which was approved by the Oratory, and which
he presented to the Constituent Assembly in 1790. In the
Convention he took an active part in the work of the com-
mittee on public instruction, and assisted in the preparation
of Lakanal's first bill. In the same year he published an
Essay on Public Instruction. In the Council of the Five
Hundred he was appointed to make a report on the organiza-
tion of special schools. Under the Empire he accepted the
management of the national archives. Under the Restora-
tion he was appointed professor of history in the College of
France. Finally, after 1830, we find him once more in the
Chamber of Deputies, giving proof of unusual energy and
vitality, and presenting in opposition to the minister of pub-
lic instruction, de Mon tali vet, a counter-bill, the principal
aim of which was to lodge with the municipal authorities the
administration of schools, a power which the government
wished to leave in the hands of the inspectors.

396 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

455. The Bill of Lakanal, Sieyes, and Daunou. —
These are the principal provisions of this bill : a school for
each thousand inhabitants ; separate schools for girls and
boys ; the election of teachers entrusted to a board of in-
spectors composed of three members, and located at the gov-
ernment centre of each district ; the general organization of
methods, regulations, and school regime placed in the hands
of a central commission sitting with the Corps Legislatif,
and placed under its authority ; an education which embraces
the whole man, at once intellectual, physical, moral, and in-
dustrial ; the first lessons in reading given to boys as to girls
by a woman teacher; arithmetic, geometry, physics, and
morals included in the programme of instruction ; visits to
hospitals, prisons, and workshops ; finally, liberty granted to
private initiative to found schools.

" The law can put no veto on the right which all citizens
( have to open private courses and schools, free in all grades
' of instruction, and to direct them as shall seem to them
best." (Art. 61.)

This was pushing liberality rather far.

Another distinctive feature of this bill, which is not with-
out value, is the respect shown the character and functions
of the teacher. On public occasions the schoolmaster shall
wear a medal with this inscription : He who instructs is a
second father. The form is rather pretentious, but the sen-
timent is good. Other articles do not merit the same com-
mendation, particularly the one which established theatres in
each canton, in which men and women would take part in
music and dancing.

The bill of Lakanal, vigorously opposed by a part of the
Assembly, was not adopted. Under the leadership of Robes-
pierre, the Convention gave preference to the dictatorial and
violent measure of Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau.

THE CONVENTION, 397

456. Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau (1760-1793). — As-
sassinated in 1793, Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau left among
his papers an educational bill which Robespierre took up,
and which he presented to 'the Assembly July 13,; 1793, on
the occasion of the debate opened on the motion fli Barrere.
A month later the bill was passed by the Convention, but be-
fore being carried into operation, the decree was revoked.
The Assembly receded from the accomplishment of a reform
in which some good intentions could not atone for measures
that, on the whole, were mischievous and tyrannical.

457. His Scheme of Education. — The plan of Lepel-
letier scarcely deserves the admiration which Michelet gives
it, who salutes in this work the "revolution of childhood " and
who declares that it is u admirable in spirit, and in no respect
chimerical." An imitation with but little originality of the
institutions of Lycurgus and the reveries of Plato, the plan
of Lepelletier is scarcely more than an historical curiosity.

458. Lepelletier and Condorcet. — Lepelletier accepted
Condorcet's plan in all that relates to secondary schools, insti-
tutes, and lyce*es, that is to say, higher primary instruction,
secondary instruction, and superior instruction.

" I find," he said, u in these three courses a plan which
seems to me wisely conceived."

But Lepelletier follows only his own fancy in the concep-
tion of those curious boarding-schools, little barracks for
childhood, in which he confined all children by force, wrest-
ing them from their parents, and placing at the expense of
the State their moral training, as well as their material
support.

459. Obligatory Attendance in Boarding-Schools. —
In education, Lepelletier represents the doctrine of the
Jacobins. In order to make France republican, he would
emploj' radical and absolute measures.

898 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

" Let us ordain," he says, fct that all children, girls as well
as boys, girls from five to eleven, and boys from five to
twelve, shall be educated in common, at the expense of the
State, and shall receive, for six or seven years, the same
education."

In order that there may be complete equality, their food,
like their instruction, shall be the same ; even more, their
dress shall be identical. Docs Lepelleticr then desire, in his
craze for equality, that girls shall be dressed like boys?

460. The Child belongs to the Republic. — The idea
of Lepelletier is that the child is the property of the State,
a chattel of the Republic. The State must make the child in
its own image.

"In our system," he says, ki the entire being of the child
belongs to us ; the material never leaves the mould." And
he adds, " Whatever is to compose the Republic ought to be
cast in the republican mould."

Lepelletier imposes on all children, girls and boys, the
same studies, — reading, writing, numbers, natural morality,
domestic economy. This is almost the programme of Con-
dorcet. But he adds to it manual labor. All children shall
be employed in working the soil. If the college has not at
its disposal enough land to cultivate, the children shall be
taken out on the roads, there to pick up stones or to scatter
them. Can we imagine, without smiling, a system of educa-
tion, in which our future advocates and writers are to spend
six years in transporting material upon the highways?

461. Absolute Gratuity. — The colleges in which Lepel-
letier sequesters and quarters all the children are to be abso-
lutely free. Three measures were proposed for covering the
expense: 1. tuition paid by parents in easy circumstances;
2. the labor of the children ; 3. the balance needed furnished

THE CONVENTION. 899

by the State. But is there not just a little of the chimerical
in counting much on the work of children of that age ?

462. The Rights of the Family. — Lepelletier takes
but little account of the rights of the family. However,
notice must be taken of that idea which Robespierre thought
" sublime, " — the creation, at each college, of a council of
heads of families, entrusted with the oversight of teachers
and their children.

463. Saint- Just. — Saint-Just, in his Institutions ripub-
licaines, maintains opinions analogous to those of Lepelletier.
He admits that the child belongs to his mother till the age of
five ; but from the age of five till death he belongs to the
Republic. Till the age of sixteen boys are fed at the ex-
pense of the State. It is true that their food is not expen-
sive. It is composed of grapes, fruit, vegetables, milk-diet,
bread, and water. Their dress is of cotton in all seasons.
However, Saint-Just did not subject girls to the same regime.
More liberal on this point than Lepelletier, he would have
them brought up at home.

464. The Romme Law (Oct. 30, 1793). — Romme was
one of the most active members of the committee on public
instruction. He was the principal author of the bill which
the Convention passed in October, 1793, the principal articles
of which were conceived as follows : —

" Art. 1. There are primary schools distributed through-
out the Republic in proportion to the population.

" Art. 2. In these schools children receive their earliest
physical, moral, and intellectual education, the best adapted
to develop in them republican manners, love of country, and
taste for labor.

44 Art. 3. They learn to speak, read, and write the French
language.

400 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

u They are taught the acts of virtue which most honor free
men, and particularly the acts of the French Revolution most
fit to give them elevation of soul, and to make them worthy
of liberty and equality.

" They acquire some notions of the geography of France.

" The knowledge of the rights and duties of the man and
the citizen is brought within their comprehension through
examples and their own experience.

"They are given the first notions of the natural objects
that surround them, and of the natural action of the
elements.

tfc They have practice in the use of numbers, of the com-
pass, the level, weights and measures, the lever, the pulley,
and in the measurement of time.

4 ' They are often allowed to witness what is done in the
fields and in workshops ; and they take part in these em-
ployments as far as their age permits."

But the bill of Romme was not put in operation. The
Convention presently decided on a revision of the decree it
had passed, and the bill of Bouquier was substituted for the
bill of Koinme.

4G5. The Bouquier Law (Dec. 19, 1793). — Bouquier
was a man of letters, deputy from Dordogne, and belonged
to the Jacobinic party. He spoke of his bill as follows : —

" It is a simple and natural scheme, and one easy to exe-
cute ; a plan which forever proscribes all idea of an academic
bodv, of a scientific societv, of an educational hierarchv ; a
plan, finally, whose bases are the same as those of the con-
stitution, liberty, equality, and simplicity."

The Bouquier bill was adopted December 19, and remained
in force till it was superseded by the Lakanal law.

These are its principal provisions : —

Hfias _

THE CONVENTION. 401

" The right to teach is open to all." " Citizens, men and
women, who would use the liberty to teach, shall be required
to produce a certificate of citizenship and good morals, and
to fulfill certain formalities." u They shall be designated as
instituteurs and institutrices." They shall be placed " under
the immediate supervision of the municipality, of parents,
and of all the citizens." " They are forbidden to teach any-
thing contrary to the laws and to republican morality." On
the other hand, parents are required to send their children to
the primary schools. Parents who do not obey this order
are sentenced, for the first offence, to pay a fine equal to a
fourth of their school tax. In case of a second offence, the
fine is to be doubled and the children to be suspended for ten
years from their rights as citizens. Finally, young people
who, on leaving the primary schools, " do not busy them-
selves with the cultivation of the soil, shall be required to
learn a trade useful to society."

Enforced school attendance, and what is an entirelv differ-
ent thing, the obligation of citizens to work, were thus estab-
lished by the Bouquier law.

Let us add that the author of this bill, which, like so many
others, was not executed, had strange notions on the sciences
and on instruction.

" The speculative sciences," he says, " detach from society
the individuals who cultivate them. . . . Free nations have
no need of speculative scholars, whose minds arc constantly
travelling over desert paths."

Hence, no scientific instruction. The real schools, " the
noblest, the most useful, the most simple, arc the meetings
of committees. The Revolution, in establishing national
holidays, in creating popular associations and clubs, has
placed in all quarters inexhaustible sources of instruction.
Then let us not go and substitute for this organization, as

402 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

simple and sublime as the people that creates it, an artificial
organization, based on academic statutes which should no
longer infect a regenerated nation."

466. The Lakanal Law (Nov. 17, 1794).— There still
remained something of the spirit of Lepelletier in the Bouquier
law, though the idea of an education in common had been
abandoned ; but the Lakanal law openly breaks with the ten-
dencies of Robespierre and his friends.

The law which was passed November 17, 1794, upon the
report of Lakanal, reproduced in its spirit and in its principal
provisions the original bill which the influence of Robespierre
had defeated.

The following was the programme of instruction contained
in this law.

The instructor shall teach : —

" 1. Reading and writing; 2. the declaration of the
rights of man and the constitution ; 3. elementary lessons
on republican morals ; 4. the elements of the French lan-
guage both spoken and written ; 5. the rules of simple cal-
culation and of surveying; 6. lessons on the principal
phenomena and the most common productions of nature ;
there shall be taught a collection of heroic actions and songs
of triumph."

At the same time the bill required that the schools be
divided into two sections, one for the girls and the other for
the boys, and distributed in the proportion of one to each
thousand inhabitants. The teachers, nominated by the people
and confirmed by a jury of instruction, are to receive salaries
as follows : men, twelve hundred francs ; women, one thou-
sand francs.

467. Pedagogical Methods. — Lakanal had given much
thought to pedagogical methods. It is the interior of the
school, not less than its exterior organization, that preoc-

THB CONVENTION. 403

copied bis generous spirit. Like the most of bis contem-
poraries, a partisan of Condillac's doctrine, he believed that
the idea could not reach the understanding except through
the mediation of the senses. Consequently, he recommended
the method which consists " in first appealing to the eyes of
pupils, . . . iu creating the understanding through the senses,
... in developing morals out of the sensibility, just as un-
derstanding out of sensation." This is an excellent method
if we add to it a corrective, if we do not forget to excite the
intelligence itself, and to make an appeal to the interior forces
of the soul.

468. Elementary Books. — A few other quotations will
suffice to prove with what acuteness of pedagogic sense
Lakanal was endowed.1 Very much interested in the com-
position of works for popular instruction, he sharply distin-
guished the elementary book, which brings knowledge within
the reach of children, from the abridgment, which does no
more than condense a long work. 4i The abridged," he said,
" is exactly opposed to the elementary." No one has better
comprehended than he the difficulty of writing a treatise on
morals for the use of children : —

" It requires special genius. Simplicity in form and art-
less grace should there be mingled with accuracy of ideas ;
the art of reasoning ought never to be separated from that
of interesting the imagination ; such a work should be con-
ceived by a profound logician and executed by a man of
feeling. There should be found in it, so to speak, the ana-
lytical mind of Condillac and the soul of F6nelon."

469. Geography. — Lakanal has defined with the same
exactness the method to be followed in the teaching of
geography. "First let there be shown," he says, "in

1 See in the Revue politique et litttralre, for Oct. 7, 1882, an excellent
article on Lakanal, by Monsieur Janet.

404 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

every school, the plan of the commune in which it is situated,
and then let the children see a map of the canton of which
the commune forms a part ; then a map of the department,
and then a map of France ; after which will come the map
of Europe and of other parts of the world, and lastly a map
of the world.1

470. Letters and Sciences. — More just than Condorcet,
Lakanal did not wish scientific culture to do prejudice to
literary culture : —

" For a long time we have neglected the belles-lettres,
and some men who wish to be considered profound regard
this stud}' as useless. It is letters, however, which open
the intelligence to the light of reason, and the heart to
impressions of sentiment. They substitute morality for
interest, give pupils polish, exercise their judgment, make
them more sensitive and at the same time more obedient to
the laws, more capable of grand virtues."

471. Necessity op Normal Schools. — LakanaPs highest
title to glory is that he has associated his name with the
foundation of normal schools. The idea of establishing
pedagogical seminaries was not absolutely new; A number
of the friends of instruction, both in the seventeenth and in
the eighteenth century,3 had seen that it would be useless to
open schools, if good teachers had not been previously

1 If the consensus of philosophic opinion is trustworthy, there is no basis
whatever in psychology for this sequence. On the almost uniform testi-
mony of psychologists, the organic mental sequence is from aggregates to
parts ; so that if the method of presentation is to be in harmony with the
organic mode of the mind's activities, the sequence should be as follows:
the globe; the eastern continent; Europe; France; the department; the
canton; the commune. On the mental sequence, see Hamilton's Lectures,
Vol. I. pp. 60, 70, 368, 371, 469, 498, 600, 502, 503. (P.)

* Dumonstier, rector of the University of Paris in 1645, La Salle, and in
the eighteenth century, the Abbe' Courtalon.

THE CONVENTION, 405

trained ; but the Convention has the honor of having for the
first time given practical effect to this vague aspiration.

Decreed June 2, 1793, the foundation of normal schools
was the object of a report by Lakanal on October 26, 1794.
In a style which was inferior to his ideas, and which would
have been more effective had it been simpler, Lakanal sets
forth the necessity of teaching the teachers themselves be-
fore sending them to teach their pupils : —

"Are there in France, are there in Europe, are there in
the whole world, two or three hundred men (and we need
more than this number) competent to teach the useful arts
and the necessary branches of knowledge, according to
methods which make minds more acute, and truths more
clear, — methods which, while teaching you to know one
thing, teach you to reason upon all things ? No, that numbei
of men, however small it may appear, exists nowhere on the
earth. It is necessary, then, that they be trained. In being
the first to decree normal schools, you have resolved to create
in advance a very large number of teachers, capable of be-
ing the executors of a plan whose purpose is the regenera-
tion of the human understanding, in a republic of twenty-five
millions of men, all of whom democracy renders equal."

The term normal schools (from the Latin word norma, a
rule) was not less new than the thing. Lakanal explains
that it was designed by this expression to characterize with
exactness the schools which were to be the type and the
standard of all the others.

472. The Normal School of Paris. — To accomplish
his purpose, Lakanal proposed to assemble at Paris, under
the direction of eminent masters, such as Lagrange, Berthol-
let, and Daubenton, a considerable number of young men,
called from all quarters of the Republic, and designated "by
their talents as by their state of citizenship." The masters

406 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

of this great normal school were to give their pupils u lessons
on the art of teaching morals, . . . and teach them to apply
to the teaching of reading and writing, of the first elements
of calculation, of practical geometry, of history and of
French grammar, the methods outlined in the elementary
courses adopted by the National Convention and published
by its orders." Once instructed " in the art of teaching
human knowledge," the pupils of the Normal School of Paris
were to go and repeat in all parts of the Republic the " grand
lectures " they had heard, and there form the nucleus of pro-
vincial normal schools. And thus, says Lakanal with exag-
geration, " that fountain of enlightenment, so pure and so
abundant, since it will proceed from the foremost men of the
Republic of every class, poured out from reservoir to reser-
voir, will diffuse itself from place to place throughout all
France, without losing anything of its purity in its course."
October 30, 1794, the Convention adopted the proposals
of Lakanal. The Normal School opened January 20, 1795.
Its organization was defective and impracticable. First, there
were too many pupils, — four hundred young men admitted
without competitive tests, and abandoned to themselves in
Paris ; professors who were doubtless illustrious, but whose
literary talent or scientific genius did not perhaps adapt itself
sufficiently to the needs of a normal course of instruction and
of a practical pedagogy ; lectures insufficient in number,
which lasted for only four months, and which, on the testi-
mony of Daunou, " were directed rather towards the heights
of science than towards the art of teaching." Thus the
experiment, which terminated May 6, 1795, did not fulfill
the hopes that had been formed of it : the idea of establish-
ing provincial normal schools was not carried out. But no
matter ; a memorable example had been given, and the fruit-
ful principle of the establishment of normal schools had made
a start in actual practice.

THE CONVENTION. 40T

473. Central Schools. — The central schools, designed
to replace the colleges of secondary instruction, were estab-
lished by decree of February 25, 1795, on the report of
Lakanal. Daunou modified them in the law of October 25,
1795. They continued, without great success, till the law of
May 1, 1802, which suppressed them.

474. Defects op the Central Schools. — The Central
Schools of Lakanal resembled, trait for trait, the Institutes
of Condorcet. And it must be confessed that here the imi-
tation is not happy. Lakanal made the mistake of borrow-
ing from Condorcet the plan of these poorly defined establish-
ments, in which the instruction was on too vast a scale, and
the programmes too crowded, where the pupil, it seems, was
to learn to discuss de omni re scibili. Condorcet went so far
as to introduce into his Institutes a course of lectures on mid-
wifery ! The Central Schools, in which the instruction was
a medley of studies indiscreetly presented to an overdriven
auditory, do honor neither to the Convention that organized
them, nor to Condorcet who had traced the first sketch of
them.

475. Positive and Practical Spirit. — However, there
was something correct in the idea which presided over the
foundation of the Central Schools. We find this expressed in
the Essays on Instruction, by the mathematician, Lacroix.1
Lacroix calls attention to the fact that the progress of the
sciences and the necessity of learning a great number of new
things, impose on the educator the obligation to take some
account of space ; and, if I may so speak, of clipping the
wings of studies which, like Latin, had thus far been the
unique and exclusive object of instruction.

* Essais sur l'enseignement. Paris, 1806.

408 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

In the Central Schools, in fact, the classical languages
held only the second place. Not only were the mathematical
sciences, and those branches of knowledge from which the
pupil can derive the most immediate profit, associated with the
classics, but the preference was given to them. In the minds
of those who organized these schools, the positive and prac-
tical idea of success in life was substituted for the speculative
and disinterested idea of mental development for its own sake.
In reality, these two ideas ought to complete each other,
and not to exclude each other. The ideal of education con-
sists in finding a system which welcomes both. But in the
Central Schools the first point of view absorbed the second.
These establishments resembled the industrial schools of our
da}*, but with this particular defect, that there was a deter-
mination to include everything in them, and to give a place
to new studies without wholly sacrificing the old. Let there
be created colleges of practical and special instruction ; noth-
ing can be better, for provision would thus be made for the
needs of modern societv. But let no one force literarv studies
and the industrial arts to live together under the same roof.

476. Great Foundations of the Convention. — In the
first years of its existence, the Convention had given its at-
tention only to primary schools. It seemed as though teach-
ing the illiterate to read was the one need of society. In the
end the Convention rose above these narrow and exclusive
views, and turned its attention towards secondary instruction
and towards superior instruction. It is particularly by the
establishment of several special schools for superior instruc-
tion that the Convention gave proof of its versatility and
intelligence.

In quick succession it decreed and founded the Polytechnic
School, under the name of the Central School of Public Works

THE CONVENTION. 409

(March 11, 1794) ; the Normal School (October 30, 1794) ;
the School of Mars (June 1, 1794) ; the Conservatory of Arts
and Trades (September 29, 1794). The next year it organ-
ized the Bureau of Longitudes, and finally the Natioual Insti-
tute. What a magnificent effort to repair the ruins which
anarchy had made, or to supply the omissions which the old
regime had patiently suffered ! Of these multiplied creations
the greater number remain and still flourish.

477. Law of October 27, 1795. — Those who ask us to
see in the decree of October 27, 1795, " the capital work of
the Convention in the matter of instruction, the synthesis of
all its previous labors and proposals, the most serious effort
of the Revolution,"1 evidently put forward a paradox. La-
kanal and his friends would certainly have disavowed a law
which cancels with a few strokes of the pen the grand revo-
lutionary principles in the matter of education, — the gratu-
ity, the obligation, and the universality of instruction.

The destinies of public instruction are allied to the fate of
constitutions. To changes of policy there correspond, b}' an
inevitable recoil, analogous changes in the organization of in-
struction. Out of the slightly retrograde constitution of 1793
there issued the educational legislation of 1794, of which it
could be said that " the spirit of reaction made itself pain-
fully felt in it."

Daunou, who was the principal author of it, doubtless had
high competence in questions of public instruction ; but with
a secret connivance of his own temperament he yielded to the
tendencies of the times. He voluntarity condescended to
the timidities of a senile and worn-out Assembly, which,
having become impoverished by a series of suicides, had
scarcely any superior minds left within it.

1 Albert Duruy, op. cit. p. 137.

408 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

In the Central Schools, in fact, the classical languages
held only the second place. Not only were the mathematical
sciences, and those branches of knowledge from which the
pupil can derive the most immediate profit, associated with the
classics, but the preference was given to them. In the minds
of those who organized these schools, the positive and prac-
tical idea of success in life was substituted for the speculative
and disinterested idea of mental development for its own sake.
In reality, these two ideas ought to complete each other,
and not to exclude each other. The ideal of education con-
sists in finding a system which welcomes both. Hut in the
Central Schools the first point of view absorbed the second.
These establishments resembled the industrial schools of our
day, but with this particular defect, that there was a deter-
mination to include every tiling in them, and to give a place
to new studies without wholly sacrificing the old. Let there
be created colleges of practical and special instruction ; noth-
ing can be better, for provision would thus be made for the
needs of modern society. But let no one force literary studies
and the industrial arts to live together under the same roof.

In quick succession it decreed and founded the Polytechnic
School, under the name of the Central School of Public Works

THE CONVENTION. 409

(March 11, 1794) ; the Normal School (October 30, 1794) ;
the School of Mars (June 1, 1794) ; the Conservatory of Arts
and Trades (September 29, 1794). The next }*ear it organ-
ized the Bureau of Longitudes, and finally the National Insti-
tute. What a magnificent effort to repair the ruins which
anarchy had made, or to supply the omissions which the old
regime had patiently suffered ! Of these multiplied creations
the greater number remain and still flourish.

The destinies of public instruction are allied to the fate of
constitutions. To changes of policy there correspond, by an
inevitable recoil, analogous changes in the organization of in-
struction. Out of the slightly retrograde constitution of 1793
there issued the educational legislation of 1794, of which it
could be said that " the spirit of reaction made itself pain-
fully felt in it."

Daunou, who was the principal author of it, doubtless had
high competence in questions of public instruction ; but with
a secret connivance of his own temperament he yielded to the
tendencies of the times. He voluntarily condescended to
the timidities of a senile and worn-out Assembly, which,
having become impoverished by a series of suicides, had
scarcely any superior minds left within it.

1 Albert Duruy, op, cit. p. 137.

410 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

478. Insufficiency of Daunou's Scheme. — Nothing
could be more defective than Daunou's plan. The number
of primary schools was reduced. It is no longer proposed
to proportion them to the population. Daunou goes back to
the cantonal schools of Talleyrand : u There shall be estab-
lished in each canton of the Republic one or more primary
schools." We are far from Condorcet, who required a school
for each group of four hundred souls, and from Lakanal, who
demanded one for each thousand inhabitants. On the other
hand, teachers no longer receive a salary from the State.
The State merely assures to them a place for a class-room
and lodging, and also a garden ! " There shall likewise be fur-
nished the teacher the garden which happens to lie near these
premises." There is no other remuneration save the annual
tuition paid by each pupil to the teacher. At the same stroke
the teacher was made the hireling of his pupils, and gratuity
of instruction was abolished. Only the indigent pupils, a
fourth of the whole number, could be exempted by the muni-
cipal administration from the payment of school fees. Finally,
the programme of studies was reduced to the humblest pro-
portions : reading, writing, number, and the elements of
republican morality.

After so many noble and generous ambitions, after so
many enthusiastic declarations in favor of the absolute gra-
tuity of primary instruction, after so many praiseworthy
efforts to raise the material and moral condition of teachers,
and to cause instruction to circulate to the minutest fibres of
the social tissue, the Convention terminated its work in a
mean conception which thinned out the schools, which im-
poverished the programmes, which plunged the teacher anew
into a precarious state of existence, which put him anew at
the mercy of his pupils, without, however, taking care to
assure him of patronage, and which, for his sole compensa

THE CONVENTION. 411

tion in case be had no pupils to instruct, guaranteed him tbe
right to cultivate a garden, if, indeed, there should be one in
the neighborhood of the school ! Had the law of 1 795 been
in fact the educational will of the Convention, is it not true,
at least, that it is after the manner of those wills extorted by
undue means, where a man by his final bequests recalls his
former acts, and proves himself faithless to all the aspirations
of his life ?

No, it is not from Daunou, but from Talleyrand, from
Condorcet, and from Lakanal that we must seek the real
educational thought of the Revolution. Doubtless the meas-
ure of Daunou had over all previous measures the advan-
tages of being applied, and of not remaining a dead letter ;
but the glory of the early Revolutionists should not be belit-
tled by the fact that circumstances arrested the execution of
their plans, and that a century was necessary in order that
society might attain the ideal which they had conceived.
They were the first to proclaim the right and the duty of each
citizen to be instructed and enlightened. We are ceaselessly
urged to admire the past and to respect the work of our
fathers. We do not in the least object to this, but the Rev-
olution itself also forms a part of that past, aud we regret
that the men who so eloquently preach the worship of tradi-
tions and respect for ancestors, are precisely those who the
most harshly disparage the efforts of the Revolution.

[479. Analytical Summary. — 1. The educational legis-
lation of the French Revolution, apparently so inconsiderate,
so vacillating, and so fruitless, betrays the instinctive feeling
of a nation in peril, that the only constitutional means of re-
generation is universal instruction, intellectual and moral.

2. Out of the same instinct grew the conception that the
starting-point in educational reform is the instruction and

412

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

inspiration of the teaching body. The normal school lies at
the very basis of national safety and prosperity.

3. The immediate fruitlessness of the educational legisla-
tion of the Revolution, is another illustration of the general
fact that no reform is operative, which in any considerable
degree antedates the existing state of public opinion. Could
there be a revelation of the ideal education, human society
could grow into it only by slow and almost insensible degrees.
While there can be rational growth only through some degree
of anticipation, it is perhaps best that educators have only
that prevision which is provisional.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

PESTALOZZI.

9ERMAW PBDAOOOT J THE PIETISTS AND FRANC KB (1663-1727) J THE
PHILANTHROPISTS AND BASEDOW (1723-1790) J THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOLS;
PESTALOZZI (1746-1827); THE EDUCATION OF PESTALOZZI ; PESTA*
LOZZI AS AN AGRICULTURIST; HOW PESTALOZZI BECAME A TEACHER;
EDUCATION OF HIS SON J THE SCHOOL AT NEL'IIOF (1775-1780); PES-
TALOZZI AS A WRITER (1780-1787) J LEONARD AND GERTRUDE
(1781); NEW EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE; OTHER WORKS; THE
ORPHAN ASYLUM AT 8TANZ (1798-1799) J METHODS FOLLOWED AT
8TANZ J THE SCHOOLS AT BURGDORF (1799-1801) ; HOW GERTRUDE
TEACHES HER CHILDREN (1801) J PESTALOZZl's STYLE J ANALYSIS
OF THE GERTRUDE ; THE INSTITUTE AT BURGDORF (1801-1804) ;
THE INSTITUTE AT YVERDUN (1805-1825) J TENTATIVE8 OF PESTA-
LOZZI ; ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES; EDUCATIONAL PROCESSES; SIMPLI-
FICATION OF METHODS; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY,

480. German Pedagogy. — For two centuries Germany
has been the classical land of pedagogy ; and to render an
account of all the efforts put forth in that country in the
domain of education it would be necessary to write several
volumes.

From the opening of the eighteenth century, says Dittes,
" a change for the better takes place. Ideas become facts.
The importance bf education is more and more recognized ;
pedagogy shakes off the ancient dust of the school and in-
terests itself in actual life ; it is no longer willing to be a
collateral function of the Church, but begins to become an
independent art and science. A few theologians will still
render it important service, but in general they will do this
outside the Church, and often in opposition to it."

414 THE HISTOltY OF PEDAGOGY.

While awaiting the grand find fruitful impulsion of Pesta-
lozzi, the history of pedagogy ought to mention at least the
Pietists, " whose educational establishments contributed to
prepare the way for the new methods," and after them, the
Philanthropists, of whom Basedow is the most celebrated
representative.

481. The Pietists and Francke (1663-1727). — Francke
played nearly the same part in Germany that La Salle did in
France. He founded two establishments at Halle, the Pceda-
gogium and the Orphan Asylum, which, in 1727, contained
more than two thousand pupils.* He belonged to the sect of
Pietists, Lutherans who professed an austere morality, and,
in conformity with the principles of his denomination, h*
made piety the supreme end of education.

That which distinguishes and commends Francke, is hi?
talent for organization. He was right in giving marked at-
tention to the material condition of schools and to needed
supplies of apparatus. The Paedagogium was installed in 171?
in comfortable quarters, and there were annexed to it *
botanical garden, a museum of natural history, physical ap-
paratus, a chemical and an anatomical laboratory, and a shop
for the cutting and polishing of glass.

After him his disciples, Niemeyer, Semler, and Hecker.
continued his work, and, in certain respects, reformed it.
They founded the first real schools of Germany. They kept
up the practical spirit, the professional pedagogy of their
master, and assured the development of those educational
establishments which still exist to-day under the name of
the Institutions of Francke.

482. The Philanthropists and Basedow (1723-1790).*^
With Basedow, a more liberal spirit, borrowed in part from
Rousseau, gained entrance into German pedagogy. Basedow

PESTALOZZL 415

founded at Dessau a school which received the praise of the
philosopher Kant, and of the clergyman Oberlin. He desig-
nated it by a name which reflects his humanitarian intentions,
the Philanthropinum. In the methods which he employed in
it he seems always to have had before his eyes the exclama-
tion of Rousseau : u Things, things ! Too many words ! "
The intuitive method, or that of teaching by sight, was prac-
tised in the school of Dessau.

The principal work of Basedow, his Elementary Book, is
scarcely more than the Orbis Pictus of Comenius recon-
structed according to the principles of Rousseau. At Dessau,
the pretence was made of teaching a language in six months.
44 Our methods," says Basedow, " make studies only one-
third as long and thrice as agreeable." An abuse was made
of mechanical exercises. The children, at the command of
the master : Imitamini sariorem, — Imitamini sutorem, — all
began to imitate the motions of a tailor who is sewing, or of
a shoemaker who is using his awl. Graver still, Basedow
made such an abuse of object lessons as to represent to chil-
dren certain scenes within the sick-chamber, for the pur-
pose of teaching them their duties and obligations to their
mothers.1

483. Schools for the People. — Great efforts were made
in the eighteenth century, in the Catholic, as well as in the
Protestant countries of Germany, towards the development
of .popular instruction. Maria Theresa and Frederick II. con-
sidered public instruction as an affair of the State. Private
enterprise was added to the efforts of the government. In
Prussia, a nobleman, Rochow (1734-1805), founded village

* Besides Basedow, there should be mentioned among the educators who
have become noted in Germany under the name of Philanthropists, Salz-
man (1741-1811) andCampe (1746-1818).

416

THE HI8TOBY OP PEDAGOGY.

schools; and in Austria, two ecclesiastics, Felbiger (1724-
1788) and Kindermann (1740-1801), contributed by their
activity in education to the reform of schools.

Nevertheless, the results were still very poor, and the pub-
lic school, especially the village school, remained in a sorry
eondition.

" Almost everywhere," says Dittes, " there were employed
as teachers, domestics, corrupt artisans, discharged soldiers,
degraded students, and, in general, persons of questionable
morality and education. Their pay was mean, and their
authority slight. Attendance at school, generally very irreg-
ular, was almost everywhere entirely suspended in summer.
Many villages had no school, and scarcely anywhere was the
school attended by all the children. In many countries, most
of the children, especially the girls, were wholly without in-
struction. The people, especially the peasantry, regarded
the school as a burden. The clergy, it is true, always re-
garded themselves as the proprietors of the school, but on
the whole they did but very little for it, and even arrested its
progress. The nobility was but little favorable, in general,
to intellectual culture for the people. . . . Instruction re-
mained mechanical and the discipline rude. It is reported
that a Suabian schoolmaster, who died in 1782, had inflicted
during his experience in teaching 911,527 canings, 124,010
whippings, 10,235 boxes on the ear, and 1,115,800 thumps
on the head. Moreover, he had made boys kneel 777 times
on triangular sticks, had caused the fool's cap to be worn
5001 * times, and the stick to be held in air 1707 times. He
had used something like 3000 words of abuse. ..."

1 What a painstaking soul to be so exact in his accounts! Doubtless ht
had an eye to the future publication of his record as a maitre de fottet!
This account is rather too exact to be trustworthy. (P.)

PESTALOZZI. 417

484. Pe8Talozzi (1746-1827). — In Switzerland, the sit-
uation of primary instruction was scarcely better. The
teachers were gathered up at hazard ; their pay was wretched ;
in general they had no lodgings of their own, and they were
obliged to hire themselves out for domestic service among the
well-off inhabitants of the villages, in order to find food and
lodging among them. A mean spirit of caste still dominated
instruction, and the poor remained sunk in ignorance.

It was in the very midst of this wretched and unpropitious
state of affairs that there appeared, towards the end of the
eighteenth century, the most celebrated of modern educators,
a man who, we may be sure, was not exempt from faults,
whose mind had deficiencies and weaknesses, and whom we
have no intention of shielding from criticism, by covering
him with the praises of a superstitious admiration ; but who
is pre-eminently great by reason of his unquenchable love for
the people, his ardent self-sacrifice, and his pedagogic instinct.
During the eighty years of his troubled life, Pestalozzi never!
ceased to work for children, and to devote himself to theifJ
instruction. War or the ill-will of his countrymen destroyed
his schools to no purpose. Without ever despairing, he
straightway rebuilt them farther away, sometimes succeed-
ing, through the gift of ardent speech, which never deserted
him, in communicating the inspiration to those about him ;
gathering up in all places orphans and vagabonds, like a kid-
napper of a new species ; forgetting that he was poor, when
he saw an occasion to be charitable, and that he was ill, when
it was necessary to teach ; and, finally, pursuing with an un-
conquerable energy, through hindrances and obstacles of
every description, his educational apostleship. u It is death
or success ! " he wrote. " My zeal to accomplish the dream
of my life would have carried me through air or through fire,
no matter how, to the highest peak of the Alps ! "

418 THE HISTOBY OP PEDAGOGY.

485. The Education of Pestalozzi. — The life of Pes-
talozzi is intimately related to his educational work. To
comprehend the educator, it is first necessary to have become
acquainted with the man.

Born at Zurich in 1746, Pestalozzi died at Brugg in Argo~
via in 1827. This unfortunate great man always felt the
effects of the sentimental and unpractical education given
him by his mother, who was left a widow with three children
in 1751. He early formed the habit of feeling and of being
touched with emotion, rather than of reasoning and of reflect-
ing. The laughing-stock of his companions, who made sport
of his awkwardness, the little scholar of Zurich accustomed
himself to live alone and to become a dreamer. Later,
towards 1760, the student of the academy distinguished him-
self by his political enthusiasm and his revolutionary daring.
At that early period he had conceived a profound feeling for
the miseries and the needs of the people, and he already pro-
posed as the purpose of his life the healing of the diseases of
society. At the same time there was developed in him an
irresistible taste for a simple, frugal, and almost ascetic life.
To restrain his desires had become the essential rule of his
conduct, and, to put it in practice, he forced himself to sleep
on a plank, and to subsist on bread and vegetables. Life in
the open air had an especial attraction for him. Each year
he spent his vacations in the country at his grandfather's, who
was a minister at Hcengg. Omne malum ex urbe was his
favorite thought.

486 . Pestalozzi an Agriculturist ( 1 765-1 775) . — Pes-
talozzi's call to be a teacher manifested itself at first only by
some vague aspirations, of which it would be easy to find the
trace in the short essays of his youth, and in the articles
which he contributed in his twentieth year to a students'
journal published at Zurich. After having tried his hand]

^mm^**i—m^*^m^mmtm.mmmii^mm^mmmm*mm~

PESTALOZZI. 419

. unsuccessfully at theology and law, he became an agricul-
\turist. When he established at Neuhof an agricultural en-
ter prise, he thought less of enriching himself than of raising
the material condition of the Swiss peasantry by organizing
new industries. But notwithstanding his good intent, and
the assistance of the devoted woman whom he had married
in 1769, Anna Schultess, Pestalozzi, more enterprising than
skillful, failed in his industrial establishments. In 1775 he
had exhausted his resources. It is then that he formed an
heroic resolution which typifies his indiscreet generosity.
Poor, and scarcely more than able to support himself, he
opened on his farm an asylum for poor children.

487. How Pestalozzi became an Educator. — The asy-
lum for poor children at Neuhof (1775-1780) is, so to speak,
the first step in the pedagogical career of Pestalozzi. The
others will be the orphan asylum at Stanz (1798-1799), the
primar}' schools at Burgdorf (1799) , the institute at Burgdorf
(1801-1804), and, finally, the institute at Yverdun (1805-

H825).

The first question that is raised when we study systems
of education, is, how the authors of those systems became
teachers.

The best, perhaps, are those who became such because of
their great love for humanity, or because of their tender love
for their children. Pestalozzi is of this class. It is because
he has ardently dreamed from his youth of the moral amelio-
ration of the people ; and it is also because he has followed
with a tender solicitude the first steps of his little son Jacob
on life's journey, that he became a great teacher.

488. The Education of his Son. — The Father's Jour-
nal^ where Pestalozzi noted from day to day the progress of

1 See interesting quotations from the " Journal d'un pere," in the excel-
lent biography of Pestalozzi, by Roger de G aim pa.

420 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

his child, shows him intent on applying the principles of
Rousseau. At the age of eleven, Jacob, like iSmile, did not
yet know how to read or to write. Things before words, the
intuition of sensible objects, few exercises in judgment,
respect for the powers of the child, an equal anxiety to hus-
band his liberty and to secure his obedience, the constant
endeavor to diffuse joy and good humor over education, —
such were the principal traits of the education which Pesta-
lozzi gave his son, an education which was a real experiment
in pedagogy, from which the pupil perhaps suffered some-
what, but from which humanity was to derive profit. From
this period Pestalozzi conceived some of the ideas which be-
came the principles of his method. The father had made the
educator. One of the superiorities of Pestalozzi over Rous-
seau is, that he loved and educated his own child.

489. The Asylum at Neuiiof. — Madame de Stael was
right in saying that " we must consider Pestalozzi's school
as limited to childhood. The education which it gives is
designed onl}* for the common people." And, in fact, the
first and the last establishments of Pestalozzi were schools
for small children. In the last vears of his life, when lie
was obliged to leave the institute of Yverdun, he returned
to Neuhof, and there had constructed a school for poor
children.

The school at Neuhof was to be above all else, in Pesta-
lozzi's thought, an experiment in moral and material regen-
eration through labor, through order, and through instruction.
Many exercises in language, singing, reading of the Bible, —
such were the intellectual occupations. But the greater part
of the time was devoted to agricultural labor, to the cultiva-
tion of madder.

Notwithstanding his admirable devotion, Pestalozzi did not
long succeed in his philanthropic plans. He had to contend

+amm**imn*m*mmmiit—l*>

PESTALOZZI. 421

against the prejudices of parents, and the ingratitude of the
children. Very often the little beggars whom he had gath-
ered up waited only till they had received from him new
clothing, and then ran away and resumed their vagabond
life. Besides, he lacked resources. lie became poor, and
fell more and more into debt. His friends, who had aided
him on the start, warned him that he would die in a hospital
or in a mad-house.

" For thirty years," he says himself, " my life was a des-
perate struggle against the most frightful poverty. . . . More
than a thousand times I was obliged to go without dinner,
and at noon, when even the poorest were seated around a
table, I devoured a morsel of bread upon the highway . . . ;
and all this that I might minister to the needs of the poor,
by the realization of my principles."

•

490. Pestalozzi a Writer. — After the check to his un-
dertaking at Neuhof , Pestalozzi renounced for some time all
practical activity, and it was by his writings that he mani-
fested, from 1780 to 1787, his zeal in education.

/In 1780 appeared the Evening Hours of a Recluse, a series

of aphorisms on the rise of a people through education. In

this, Pestalozzi sharply criticised the artificial method of the

school, and insisted on the necessity of developing the soul

\ through what is within, — through interior culture : —

" The school everywhere puts the order of words before
the order of free nature."

" The home is the basis of the education of humanity."
" Man, it is within yourself, it is in the inner sense of your
power, that resides nature's instrument for your develop-
ment."

491. Leonard and Gertrude. — In 1781 Pestalozzi
published the first volume of Leonard and Gertrude. He

422 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

had written it within the blank spaces of an old account book.
This book, the most celebrated perhaps of all Festalozzi's
writings, is a sort of popular romance in which the author
brings upon the stage a family of working-people. Gertrude
here represents the ideas of Pestalozzi on the education of
children. The three other volumes (1783, 1785, 1787) re-
late the regeneration of a village through the concerted action
of legislation, administration, religion, and the school, and
especially the school, " which is the centre whence everything
should proceed."

/"Leonard and Gertrude is the only one of Pestalozzi's
'works which Diesterweg1 recommends to practical teachers*

" It was my first word," says Pestalozzi, " to the heart of
the poor and of the abandoned of the land."

In making Gertrude the principal character of his romance,
Pestalozzi wished to emphasize one of his fundamental ideas,
which was to place the instruction and the education of the
", people in the hands of mothers.

492. New Experiments in Agriculture. — From 1787
to 1797 Pestalozzi returned to farming. It is from this
period that date his relations with Fellenberg, the celebrated
founder of Agricultural Institutes, and with the philosopher
Fichte, who showed him the agreement of his ideas with the
doctrine of Kant. His name began to become celebrated,
and, in 1792, the Legislative Assembly proclaimed him a
French citizen, in company with Washington and Klopstock.

During these years of farm labor, Pestalozzi had meditated
different works which appeared in 1797.

493. Other "Works of Pestalozzi. — Educational thought
pervades all the literary works of Pestalozzi. Thus his
tables, short compositions in prose, all have a moral and

1 See Chap. XIX.

PESTALOZZI. 428

educational tendency. Also, in his Researches on the Course
of Nature in the Development of the Human Race, he sought
to justify the preponderant office which he accorded to nature
in the education of man. But Pestalozzi was not successful
in philosophical dissertations.

44 This book," he says himself, 'k is to me only another
proof of my lack of ability ; it is simply a diversion of my
imaginative faculty, a work relatively weak. . . . No one,"
he adds, " understands me, and it has been hinted that the
whole work has been taken for nonsense."

This judgment is severe, but it is only just. Pestalozzi
had an intuition of truth, but he was incapable of giving a
theoretical demonstration of it. His thought all aglow, and
his language all imagery, did not submit to the concise and
methodical exposition of abstract truths.

494. The Orphan Asylum at Stanz (1798-1799).—
Up to 1798 Pestalozzi had scarcely found the occasion to
put in practice his principles and his dreams. The Helvetic
Revolution, which he hailed with enthusiasm as the signal of
a social regeneration for his country, finally gave him the
means of making a trial of his theories, which, by a strange
destiny, had been applied by other hands before having been
applied by his own.

The Helvetic government, whose sentiments were in har-
mony with the democratic sentiments of Pestalozzi, offered
him the direction of a normal school. But he declined, in
order that he might remain a teacher. He was about to take
charge of a school, the plan of which he had organized, when
events called him to direct an orphan asylum at Stanz.

495. Methods followed at Stanz. — From six to eight
o'clock in the morning, and from four to eight in the after-
noon, Pestalozzi heard the lessons of his pupils. The rest

424 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

of the time was devoted to manual labor. Even during the
lesson, the child at Stanz "drew, wrote, and worked." To
establish order in a school which contained eighty pupils,
Pestalozzi had the idea of resorting to rhythm ; " and it was
found," he says, " that the rhythmical pronunciation increased
the impression produced by the lesson." Having to do with
pupils absolutely ignorant, he kept them for a long time on
the elements ; he practised them on the first elements till
they had mastered them. He simplified the methods, and
sought in each branch of instruction a point of departure
adapted to the nascent faculties of the child. The mode of
teaching was simultaneous. All the pupils repeated in a
high tone of voice the words of the teacher ; but the instruc-
tion was also mutual : —

" Children instructed children ; they themselves tried the
experiment ; all I did was to suggest it. Here again I obeyed
necessity. Not having a single assistant, I had the idea of
putting one of the most advanced pupils between two others
who were less advanced." ~

Reading was combined with writing. Natural history artcT:
geography were taught to children under the form of con-
versational lessons.

But what engrossed Pestalozzi above all else was tdj
develop the moral sentiments and the interior forces of thp
conscience. He wished to make himself loved by his pupils,
to awaken among them, in their daily association, sentiments
of fraternal affection, to excite the conception of each virtue
before formulating its precept, and to give the children moral
lessons through the influence of nature which surrounded
them and through the activity which was imposed on them.

Pestalozzi's chimera, in the organization at Stanz, was to
transport into the school the conditions of domestic life, —
the desire to be a father to a hundred children.

mma

PESTALOZZI. 425

u 1 was convinced that my heart would change the condi-
tion of my children just as promptly as the sun of spring
would reanimate the earth benumbed by the winter."

" It was necessary that my children should observe, from
dawn to evening, at every moment of the day, upon my brow
and on my lips, that my affections were fixed on them, that
their happiness was my happiness, and that their pleasures
were my pleasures."

" I was everything to my children. I was alone with them
from morning till night. . . . Their hands were in my hands.
Their eyes were 'fixed on my eyes."

496. Results accomplished. — Without plan, without
apparent order; merely by the action and incessant com-
munication of his ardent soul with children ignorant and
perverted by misery ; reduced to his own resources in a
house where he was himself " steward, accountant, footman,
and almost servant all in one," Pestalozzi obtained surpris-
ing results.

"I saw at Stauz," he says, "the power of the human
faculties. . . . My pupils developed rapidly ; it was another
race. . . . The children very soon felt that there existed in
them forces which they did not know, and in particular they
acquired a general sentiment of order and beauty. They
were self-conscious, and the impression of weariness which
habitually reigns in schools vanished like a shadow from my
class-room. They willed, they had power, they persevered,
they succeeded, and they were happy. They were not
scholars who were learning, but children who felt unknown
forces awakening within them, and who understood where
these forces could and would lead them, and this feeling
gave elevation to their mind and heart."

"It is out of the folly of Stanz," says Roger de Guimps,

426 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

" that has come the primary school of the nineteenth cen-
tury."

While the pupils prospered, the master fell sick of over-
Work. When the events of the war closed the orphan
asylum, it was quite time for the health of Pestalozzi. He
raised blood and was at the limit of his strength.

497. The Schools of Burgdorf (1799-1802). — As
soon as he had recovered his health, Pestalozzi resumed the
course of his experiments. Not without difficulty he suc-
ceeded in having entrusted to him a small class in a primary
school of Burgdorf. He passed for an ignoramus.

" It was whispered that I could neither write, nor compute,
nor even read decently." Pestalozzi does not defend him-
self against the charge, but acknowledges his incapacity, and
even asserts that it is to his advantage.

" My incapacity in these respects was certainly an indis-
pensable condition for my discovery of the simplest method
of teaching."

What troubled him most in the school at Burgdorf " was
that it was subjected to rules." " Never in my life had I
borne such a burden. I was discouraged. I cringed under
the routine yoke of the school."

Nevertheless, Pestalozzi succeeded admirably in his little
school. Then more advanced pupils were given him, but
here his success was less. He always proceeded without a
plan, and he gave himself great trouble in obtaining results
that he might have attained much more easily with a little
more system. Blunders, irregularities, and whimsicalities
were ever compromising the action of his good will. To be
convinced of this, it suffices to read the books which he pub-
lished at this period, and in particular the most celebrated,
of which we shall proceed to give a brief analysis.

PESTALOZZI. 427

498. How Gertrude teaches her Children. — It is
under this title that in 1801 Pestalozzi published an exposi-
tion of his doctrine.1 "It is the most important and the
most profound of all his pedagogical writings/' says one of
his biographers. We shall not dispute this ; but this book
also proves how the mind of Pestalozzi was inferior to his
heart, how the writer was of less worth than the teacher.
Composed under the form of letters addressed to Gessner,
the work of Pestalozzi is too often a tissue of declamations,
of rambling thoughts, and of personal grievances. It is the
work of a brain that is in a state of ferment, and of a heart
that is overflowing. The thought is painfully disentangled
from out a thousand repetitions. Why need we be aston-
ished at this literary incompetence of Pestalozzi when he
himself makes the following confession: " For thirty years
I had not read a single book ; I could not longer read them."

499. Pestalozzi's Style. — The style of Pestalozzi is the
eery man himself: desultory, obscure, confused, but with
sudden flashes and brilliant illuminations in which the warmth
of his heart is exhibited. There are also too many compari-
sons ; the imagery overwhelms the idea. Within a few
pages he will compare himself, in succession, "to a sailor,
who, having lost his harpoon, would try to catch a whale
with a hook," to depict the disproportion between his
resources and his purpose ; then to a straw, which even a
cat would not lay hold of, to tell how he was despised ;
to an owl, to express his isolation ; to a reed, to indicate
his feebleness ; to a mouse which fears a cat, to characterize
his timidity.

1 A second edition appeared in the lifetime of the author, in 1820, with
some important modifications. The French translation published in 1882
by Dr. Darin wm made from the first edition.

428 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

500. Analysis op the Gertrude. — It is not easy to
analyze one of Pestalozzi's books. To begin with, How
Gertrude teaches her Children is a very bad title, for Gertrude
is not once mentioned in it. This proper name became for
Pestalozzi an allegorical term by which he personifies himself.

The first three letters are rather autobiographical memoirs
than an exposition of doctrine. Pestalozzi here relates his
first experiments, and makes us acquainted with his assist-
ants at Burgdorf, — Krusi, Tobler, and Buss. In the letters
which follow, the author attempts to set forth the general
principles of his method. The seventh treats of language ;
the eighth, of the intuition of forms, of writing, and of
drawing ; the ninth, of the intuition of numbers and of com-
putation; the tenth and twelfth, of intuition in general.
For Pestalozzi, intuition was, as we know, direct and ex-
perimental perception, either in the domain of sense, or in
the interior regions of the consciousness. Finally, the last
letters are devoted to moral and religious development.

Without designing to follow, in all its ramblings and in all
its digressions, the mobile thought of Pestalozzi, we shall
gather up some of the general ideas which abound in this
overcharged and badly composed work.

501, Methods Simplified. — The purpose of Pestalozzi
was indeed, in one sense, as he was told by one of his
friends, to mechanize instruction. He wished, in fact, to
simplify and determine methods to such a degree that they
might be employed by the most ordinary teacher, and by the
most ignorant father and mother. In a word, he hoped to
organize a pedagogical machine so well set up that it could
in a manner run alone.

" I believe," he says, " that we must not dream of making
progress in the instruction of the people as long as we have

-"■- -"-■=

PESTALOZZI. 429

not found the forms of instruction which make of the
teacher, at least so far as the completion of the elementary
studies is concerned, the simple mechanical instrument of a
method which owes its results to the nature of its processes,
and not to the ability of the one who uses it. I assert that
a school-book has no value, save as it can be employed by a
master without instruction as well as by one who has been
taught."

This was sheer exaggeration, and was putting too little
value on the personal effort and merit of teachers. On this
score, it would be useless to found normal schools. Pesta-
lozzi, moreover, has given in his own person a striking
contradiction to this singular theory ; for he owed his success
in teaching much more to the influence of his living speech,
and to the ardent communication of the passion by which his
heart was animated, than to the methodical processes which
he never succeeded in combining in an efficient manner.

502. The Socratic Method. — Pestalozzi recommends
the Socratic method, and he indicates with exactness some of
the conditions necessary for the employment of that method.
He first observes that it requires on the part of the teacher
uncommon ability.

"A superficial and uncultivated intelligence," he says,
" does not sound the depths whence a Socrates made spring
up intelligence and truth."

Besides, the Socratic method can be employed only with
pupils who already have some instruction. It is absolutely
impracticable with children who lack both the point of de-
parture, that is, preliminary notions, and the means of
expressing these notions, that is, a knowledge of language.
And as it is always necessary that Pestalozzi 's thought
•hould wind up with a figure of speech, he adds : —

430 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

"In order that the goshawk and the eagle may plunder
eggs from other birds, it is first necessary that the latter
should deposit eggs in their nests.'*

503. Word, Form, and Number. — A favorite idea of
Pestalozzi, which remained at Yverdun, as at Burgdorf, the
principle of his exercises in teaching, is that all elemen-
tary knowledge can and should be related to three princi-
ples, — word, form, and number. To the word he attached
language, to form, writing and drawing, and to" number,
computation.

"This was," he says, "like a ray of light in my re-
searches, like a Deus ex machinal" Nothing justifies such
enthusiasm. It would be very easy to show that Pestalozzi's
classification, besides that it offers no practical interest, is
not justifiable from the theoretical point of view, first be-
cause one of the elements of his trilogy, the word, or lan-
guage, comprises the other two ; and then because a large
part of knowledge, for example, all physical qualities, does not
permit the distinction of which he was superstitiously fond.

504. Intuitive Exercises. — What is of more value is
the importance which Pestalozzi ascribes to intuition. An
incident worthy of note is that it is not Pestalozzi himself,
but one of the children of his school, who first had the idea
of the direct observation of the objects which serve as the
text for the lesson. One day as, according to his custom, he
was giving his pupils a long description of what they
observed in a drawing where a window was represented, he
noticed that one of his little auditors, instead of looking at
the picture, was attentively studying the real window of the
school-room.

From that moment Pestalozzi put aside all his drawings,
and took the objects themselves for subjects of observation.

•Kb

PESTALOZZI. 431

" The child," he said, " wishes nothing to intervene be-
tween nature and himself.'1

Ramsauer, a pupil at Burgdorf, has described, not with-
out some inaccuracy perhaps, the intuitive exercises which
Pestalozzi offered to his pupils : —

" The exercises in language were the best we had, espe-
cially those which had reference to the wainscoting of the
school-room. He spent whole hours before that wainscot-
ing, very old and torn, busy in examining the holes and
rents, with respect to number, form, position, and color, and
in formulating our observations in sentences more or less de-
veloped. Then Pestalozzi would ask us, Boys, what do you
see? (He never mentioned the girls.)

Pupil : I see a hole in the wainscoting.

Pestalozzi : Very well ; repeat after me : —
I see a hole in the wainscoting.
I see a large hole in the wainscoting.
Through the hole I see the wall, etc., etc."

505. The Book for Mothers. — In 1803 Pestalozzi pub-
lished a work on elementary instruction, which remained un-
finished, entitled The Book for Mothers. This was another
Orbis Pictua without pictures. Pestalozzi's intention was to
introduce the child to a knowledge of the objects of nature
or of art which fall under his observation. In this he tar-
ried too long over the description of the organs of the body
and of their functions. A French critic, Dussault, said,
with reference to this : —

" Pestalozzi gives himself much trouble to teach children
that their nose is in the middle of their face." In his anxiety
to be simple and elementary, Pestalozzi often succeeds in
reality in making instruction puerile. On the other hand,
the P&re Girard complains that the exercises in language

432

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

which compose The Book for Mothers, " really very well ar-
ranged, are also very dry and monotonous."

506. A Swiss Teacher in 1793. — To form a just esti-
mate of the efforts of Pestalozzi and his assistants, we must
take into account the wretched state of instruction at the
period when they attempted to reform the methods of teach-
ing. Kriisi, Pestalozzi's first assistant, one of those who
were perhaps the nearest his heart, has himself related how
he became a teacher. He was eighteen, and till then his
only employment had been that of a peddler for his father.
One day, as he was going about his business with a heavy
load of merchandise on his shoulders, he meets on the road a
revenue officer of the State, and they enter into conversation.
" Do you know," said the officer, " that the teacher of Gais
is about to leave his school ? Would vou not like to succeed
him ? — It is not a question of what I would like ; a school-
master should have knowledge, in which I am absolutely lack-
ing. — What a school-master can and should know with us,
you might easily learn at your age." — Krusi reflected, went
to work, and copied more than a hundred times a specimen
of writing which he had procured ; aud he declares that this
was his only preparation. He registered for examination.
The day for the trial arrived.

" There were but two competitors of us," he saj*s. " The
principal test consisted in writing the Lord's Prayer, and to
this I gave my closest attention. I had observed that in
German, use was made of capital letters ; but I did not know
the rule for their use, and took them for ornaments. So I
distributed mine in a symmetrical manner, so that some were
found even in the middle of words. In fact, neither of us
knew anything.

'* When the examination had been estimated, I was sum-

PBSTALOZZI. 433

moned, and Captain Schoepfer informed me that the exam-
iners had found us both deficient ; that my competitor read
the better, but that I excelled him in writing ; . . . that,
besides, my apartment, being larger than that of the other
candidate, was better fitted for holding a school, and, finally,
that I was elected to the vacant place."

Is it not well to be indulgent to teachers whom we meet on
the highway, who scarcely know how to write, and whom a
captain commissions?

507. The Institute at Burgdorf (1802). — When Pes-
talozzi published the Gertrude and The Book for Mothers^ he
was not simply a school-master at Burgdorf ; he had taken
charge of an institute, that is, of a boarding-school of higher
primary instruction. There also he applied the natural
method, " which makes the child proceed from his own intui-
tions, and leads him by degrees, and through his own efforts,
to abstract ideas." The institute succeeded. The pupils of
Burgdorf were distinguished especially by their skill in draw-
ing and in mental arithmetic. Visitors were struck with their
air of cheerfulness. Singing and gymnastics were held in
honor, and also exercises on natural history, learned in the
open field, and during walks. Mildness and liberty charac-
terized the internal management. "It is not a school that
yon have here," said a visitor, " but a family ! "

508. Journey to Paris. — It was at this period that Pes-
talozzi made a journey to Paris, as a member of the consulta
called by Bonaparte to decide the fate of Switzerland. He
hoped to take advantage of his stay in France to disseminate
his pedagogical ideas. But Bonaparte refused to see him,
saying that he had something else to do besides discussing
questions of a b c. Monge, the founder of the Polytechnic
School, was more cordial, and kindly listened to the explana-

434 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tions of the Swiss pedagogue. But he concluded by saying,
" It is too much for us ! " More disdainful still, Talleyrand
had said, " It is too much for the people ! "

On the other hand, at the same period, the philosopher
Maine de Biran, then sub-prefect at Bergerac, called a disciple
of Pestalozzi, Barraud, to found schools in the department of
Dordogne, and he encouraged with all his influence the appli-
cation of the Pestalozzian method.

509. The Institute at Yverdun (1805-1825).— In 1803
Pestalozzi was obliged to leave the castle of Burgdorf . The
Swiss government gave him in exchange the convent of
Mtinchen-Buchsee. Pestalozzi transferred his institute to
this place, but only for a little time. In 1805 he established
himself at Yverdun, at the foot of Lake Neufchatel, in French
Switzerland ; and here, with the aid of several of his col-
leagues, he developed his methods anew, with brilliant success
at first, but afterwards through all sorts of vicissitudes, diffi-
culties, and miseries.

The institute at Yverdun was rather a school of secondary
instruction, devoted to the middle classes, than a primary
school proper.* Pupils poured in from all sides. The char-
acter of the studies, however, was poorly defined, and Pesta-
lozzi found himself somewhat out of his element in his new
institution, since he excelled only in elementary methods and
in the education of little children.

510. Success op the Institute. — Numerous visitors be-
took themselves to Yverdun, some through simple love of
strolling. The institute of Yverdun made a part, so to speak,
of the curiosities of Switzerland. People visited Pestalozzi
as they went to see a lake or a glacier. As soon as notice
was given of the arrival of a distinguished personage, Pesta-
lozzi summoned one of his best masters, Ramsauer or
Schmid.

PESTALOZZI. 435

" Take your best pupils," he said, u and show the Prince
what we are doing. He has numerous serfs, and when he is
convinced, he will have them instructed."

These frequent exhibitions entailed a great loss of time.
Disorder reigned in the instruction. The young masters
whom Pestalozzi had attached to his fortunes were over-
whelmed with work, and could not give sufficient attention to
the preparation of their lessons. Pestalozzi was growing old,
and did not succeed in completing his methods.

511. The Tentatives of Pestalozzi. — The teaching of
Pestalozzi was in reality but a long groping, an experiment
ceaselessly renewed. Do not require of him articulate ideas,
and methods definitely established. Always on the alert, and
always in quest of something better, his admirable pedagogic
instinct never came to full satisfaction. His merit was that
he was always on the search for truth. His theories almost
always followed, rather than preceded, his experiments. A
man of intuition rather than of reasoning, he acknowledges
that he went forward without considering what he was doing.
He had the merit of making many innovations, but he was
wrong in taking counsel of no one but himself, and of his
personal feelings. 4k We ought to read nothing," he said ;
44 we ought to discover everything." Pestalozzi never knew
how to profit by the experience of others.

He never arrived at complete precision in the establish-
ment of his methods. He complained of not being under-
stood, and he was not in fact. One of his pupils at Yverdun,
Volliemin, thus expresses himself : —

44 That which was called, not without pretense, the method
of Pestalozzi was an enigma for us. It was for our teachers
themselves. Each of them interpreted the doctrine of the
master in his own way ; but we were still far from the time

436 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

when these divergencies engendered discord ; when our
principal teachers, after each had given out that he alone
had comprehended Pestalozzi, ended by asserting that Pes-
talozzi himself was not understood; that he had not been
understood except by Schmid, said Schmid, and by Niederer,
said Niederer."

512. Methods at Yverdun. — The writer whom we have
just quoted gives us valuable information on the methods
which were in use at Yverdun : —

" Instruction was addressed to the intelligence rather than
to the memory. Attempt, said Pestalozzi to his colleagues,
to develop the child, and not to train him as one trains a
dog."

" Language was taught us by the aid of intuition ; we
learned to see correctly, and through this very process to
form for ourselves a correct idea of the relations of things.
What we had conceived clearly we had no difficulty in
expressing clearly."

" The first elements of geography were taught us on the
spot. . . . Then we reproduced in relief with clay the valley
of which we had just made a study."

"We were made to invent geometry by having marked
out for us the end to reach, and by being put on the route.
The same course was followed in arithmetic ; our computa-
tions were made in the head and viva voce, without the aid
of paper."

513. Decadence of the Institute. — Yverdun enjoyed
an extraordinary notoriety for some years. But little by
little the faults of the method became apparent. Internal
discords and the misunderstanding of Pestalozzi's col-
leagues, of Niederer, " the philosopher of the method," and
of Schmid, the mathematician, hastened the decadence of

PESTALOZZI. 437

an establishment in which order and discipline had never
reigned. Pestalozzi was content with being the spur of the
institute. He became more and more unfit for practical
affairs. He allowed all liberty to his assistants, and also to
his pupils. At Yverdun the pupils addressed their teachers
in familiar style. The touching fiction of paternity trans-
ported into the school, which was successful with Pestalozzi
in his first experience in teaching, and with a small number
of pupils, was no longer practicable at Yverdun, with a mass
of pupils of every age and of every disposition.

514. Judgment of Pere Girard. — In 1809 the Pere
Girard1 was commissioned by the Swiss government to
inspect the institute. The result was not favorable, though
Girard acknowledges that he conceived the idea of his own
method from studying at first hand that of Pestalozzi.

The principal criticism of Girard bears on the abuse of
mathematics, which, under the influence of Schmid, became
in fact more and more the principal occupation of teachers
and pupils.

"I made the remark," he says, " to my old friend Pes-
talozzi, that the mathematics exercised an unjustifiable sway
in his establishment, and that I feared the results of this on
the education that was given. Whereupon he replied to me
with spirit, as was his manner : * This is because I wish m}*
children to believe nothing which cannot be demonstrated as
clearly to them as that two and two make four.' My reply
was in the same strain : ' In that case, if I had thirty sons,
I would not entrust one of them to you, for it would be
impossible for you to demonstrate to him, as you can that
two and two make four, that I am his father, and that I
have a right to his obedience.' "

1 See the following chapter.

488 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

It is evident that Pestalozzi was deviating from his own
inclinations. The general character of his pedagogy is in
fact to avoid abstraction, and in all things to aim at concrete
and living intuition. Even in religion, he deliberately
excluded dogmatic teaching, precise and literal form, and
sought only to awaken in the soul a religious sentiment,
sincere and profound. The Pfcre Girard had remarked to
him that the religious instruction of his pupils was vague
and indeterminate, and that their aspirations lacked the
doctrinal form. " The form," replied Pestalozzi, " I am
still looking for it ! "

515. The Last Years of Pestalozzi. — Disheartened by
the decadence of his institute, Pestalozzi left Yverdun in
1824, and sought a retreat at Neuhof, on the farm where he
had tried his first experiments in popular education. It is
here that he wrote his last two works, — The Swan's Sang and
My Destinies. Januarj- 25, 1827, he was taken to Brugg to
consult a physician. He died there February 17; and two
days after he was buried at Birr. It is there that the Canton
of Argovia erected a monument to him in 1846, with the
following inscription : —

" Here lies Henry Pestalozzi, born at Zurich, January 12,
1746, died at Brugg, Februarj' 17, 1827, savior of the poor
at Neuhof, preacher of the people in Leonard and Gertrude,
father of orphans at Stanz, founder of the new people's
school at Burgdorf and at Miinchen-Buchsee, educator of
humanity at Yverdun, man. Christian, citizen: everything
for others, nothing for himself. Blessed be his name."

516. Essential Principles. — Pestalozzi never took the
trouble to formulate the essential principles of his pedagogy.
Incapable of all labor in abstract reflection, he borrowed
from his friends, on every possible occasion, the logical

PESTALOZZI. 439

exposition of his own methods. In his first letter to Gess-
ner, he is only too happy to reproduce the observations of
the philanthropist Fischer, who distinguished five essential
principles in his system : —

1. To give the mind an intensive culture, and not simply
extensive : to form the mind, and not to content one's self
with furnishing it ;

2. To connect all instruction with the study of language ;

3. To furnish the mind for all its operations with funda-
mental data, mother ideas ;

4. To simplify the mechanism of instruction and study ;

5. To popularize science.

On several points, indeed, Pestalozzi calls in question the
translation which Fischer has given of his thought; but,
notwithstanding these reservations, powerless to find a more
exact formula, he accepts as a finality this interpretation of
his doctrine.

Later, another witness of the life of Pestalozzi, Morf, also
condensed into a few maxims the pedagogy of the great
teacher : —

1. Intuition is the basis of instruction ;

2. Language ought to be associated with intuition ;

3. The time to learn is not that of judging and of criti-
cising ;

4. In each branch, instruction ought to begin with the
simplest elements, and to progress by degrees while follow-
ing the development of the child, that is to say, through a
series of steps psychologically connected ;

5. We should dwell long enough on each part of the in-
struction for the pupil to gain a complete mastery of it ;

6. Instruction ought to follow the order of natural
development, and not that of synthetic exposition ;

7. The individuality of the child is sacred ;

440 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

8. The principal end of elementary instruction is not to
cause the child to acquire knowledge and talents, but to
develop and increase the forces of his intelligence ;

9. To wisdom there must be joined power; to theoretical
knowledge, practical skill ;

10. The relations between master and pupil ought to be
based on love ;

1 1 . Instruction proper ought to be made subordinate to
the higher purpose of education.

Each one of these aphorisms would need a long com-
mentary. It is sufficient, however, to study them in the aggre-
gate, in order to form an almost exact idea of that truly
humane pedagogy which reposes on psychological principles.

Krfisi could say of his master: "With respect to the
ordinary knowledge and practices of the school, Pestalozzi
was far below a good village magister; but he possessed
something infinitely superior to that which can be given by a
course of instruction, whatever it mav be. He knew that
which remains concealed from a great number of teachers, —
the human spirit and the laws of its development and culture,
the human heart and the means of vivifying it and ennobling
it."

517. Pedagogical Processes. — The pedagogy of Pesta-
lozzi is no less valid in its processes than in its principles.
Without presuming to enumerate everything, we will indicate
succinctly some of the scholastic practices which he employed
and recommended : —

The child should know how to speak before learning to
read.

For reading, use should be made of movable letters glned
on pasteboard. Before writing, the pupil should draw.
The first exercises in writing should be upon slates.

Uh =»^W*w— 5i-i— i-*Jk-MHS*i

PBSTALOZZI. 441

In the study of language, the evolution of nature should
be followed, first studying nouns, then qualificatives, and
finally propositions.

The elements of computation shall be taught by the aid of
material objects taken as units, or at least by means of strokes
drawn on a board. Oral computation shall be the most
employed.

The pupil ought, in order to form an accurate and exact
idea of numbers, to conceive them alwavs as a collection of
strokes or of concrete things, and not as abstract figures.
A small table divided into squares in which points are rep-
resented, serves to teach addition, subtraction, multiplica-
tion, and division.

There was neither book nor copy-book in the schools ot
Burgdorf.

The children had nothing to learn by heart. They had to
repeat all at once and in accord the instructions of the
master. Each lesson lasted but an hour, and was followed
by a short interval devoted to recreation.

Manual labor, making paper boxes, working in the garden,
gymnastics, were associated with mental labor. The last
hour of each day was devoted to optional labor. The pupils
said, " We are working for ourselves."

A few hours a week were devoted to military exercises.

Surely everything is not to be commended in the processes
which we have just indicated. It is not necessary, for ex-
ample, that the child conceive, when he computes, the con-
tent of numbers, and Pestalozzi sometimes makes an abuse
of sense intuition. He introduces analysis, and an analysis
too subtile and too minute, into studies where nature alone
does her work. " My method," he said, " is but a refinement
of the processes of nature." He refines too much.

442 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

518. Pestalozzi and Rousseau. — Pestalozzi has often
acknowledged what he owed to Rousseau. "My chimerical
and unpractical spirit was taken," he said, "with that chimer-
ical and impracticable book. . . • The system of liberty ideally
established by Rousseau, excited in me an infinite longing
for a wider and more bounteous sphere of activity."

The great superiority of Pestalozzi over Rousseau is that
he worked for the people, — that he applied to a great num-
ber of children the principles which Rousseau embodied only
in an individual and privileged education. £mile, after all,
is an aristocrat. He is rich, and of good ancestry ; and is
endowed with all the gifts of nature and fortune. Real pu-
pils do not offer, in general, to the action of teachers, mate-
rial as docile and complaisant. Pestalozzi had to do only
with children of the common people, who have everything to
learn at school, because they have found at home, with busy
or careless parents, neither encouragement nor example, —
because their early years have been only a long intellectual
slumber. For these benumbed natures, many exercises are
necessary which would properly be regarded as useless if it
were a question of instructing children of another condition.
Before condemning, before ridiculing, the trifling practices of
Pestalozzi, and of teachers of the same school, we should
consider the use to which these processes were applied. The
real organizer of the education of childhood and of the peo-
ple, Pestalozzi has a right to the plaudits of all those who
are interested in the future of the masses of the people.

519. Conclusion. — We should not flatter ourselves that
merely by means of an analysis of Pestalozzi's methods, we
can comprehend the service of a man who excelled in the
warmth of his charity, in his ardor of devotion and of propa-
gandism, and in I know not what that makes a grand per*

-11 1 w-~~~" * ' -*~^~^-

PESTALOZZI. 443

sonality, more than by the clearness and the exactness of
his theories. It is somewhat with Pestalozzi as with those
great actors who carry with them to their tomb a part of the
secret of their art.

He was especially-great in heart and in love. To read
some of his writings, we would sometimes be tempted to say
that his intellect was far inferior to the expectation excited
by his name ; but what a splendid revenge he takes in the
domain of sentiment !

He passionately loved the people. He knew their suffer-
ings, and nothing turned him from his anxiety to cure them.
In the presence of a beautiful landscape, he thought less of
the charming scene that was displayed before his eyes than
of the poor people who, under those splendors of nature, led
a life of misery.

That which assures him an immortal glory is the high pur-
pose that he set before himself, — his ardor to regenerate
humanity through instruction. Of what consequence is it
that the results obtained were so disproportionate to his
efforts, and that he could say, " The contrast between what
I would and what I could is so great that it cannot be ex-
pressed " ? Even the French Revolution did not succeed in
the matter of instruction, in making its works commensurate
with its aspirations.

The love and the admiration of all the friends of instruction
are forever secured to Pestalozzi. He was the most sugges-
tive, the most stimulating, of modern educators. If it was
not given him to act sufficiently on French pedagogy, he was
in Germany the great inspirer of reform in popular education.
While he was despised by Bonaparte, he obtained, in 1802,
from the philosopher Fichte, this fine compliment, "It is
from the institute of Pestalozzi that I expect the regenera-
tion of the German nation."

442 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

518. Pestalozzi and Rousseau. — Pestalozzi has often
acknowledged what he owed to Rousseau. '*Mv chimerical
and unpractical spirit was taken," he said, " with that chimer-
ical and impracticable book. . . . The system of liberty ideally
established by Rousseau, excited in me an infinite longing
for a wider and more bounteous sphere of activity."

The great superiority of Pestalozzi over Rousseau is that
he worked for the people, — that he applied to a great num-
ber of children the principles which Rousseau embodied only
in an individual and privileged education. iSmile, after all,
is an aristocrat. He is rich, and of good ancestry ; and is
endowed with all the gifts of nature and fortune. Real pu-
pils do not offer, in general, to the action of teachers, mate-
rial as docile and complaisant. Pestalozzi had to do only
with children of the common people, who have everything to
learn at school, because they have found at home, with busy
or careless parents, neither encouragement nor example, —
because their early years have been only a long intellectual
slumber. For these benumbed natures, many exercises are
necessary which would properly be regarded as useless if it
were a question of instructing children of another condition.
Before condemning, before ridiculing, the trifling practices of
Pestalozzi, and of teachers of the same school, we should
consider the use to which these processes were applied. The
real organizer of the education of childhood and of the peo-
ple, Pestalozzi has a right to the plaudits of all those who
are interested in the future of the masses of the people.

519. Conclusion. — We should not flatter ourselves that
merely by means of an analysis of Pestalozzi's methods, we
can comprehend the service of a man who excelled in the
warmth of his charity, in his ardor of devotion and of p*x>pa-
gandism, and in I know not what that makes a grand per*

PESTALOZZI. 443

sonality, more than by the clearness and the exactness of
his theories. It is somewhat with Pestalozzi as with those
great actors who carry with them to their tomb a part of the
secret of their art.

The love and the admiration of all the friends of instruction
are forever secured to Pestalozzi. He was the most sugges-
tive, the most stimulating, of modern educators. If it was
not given him to act sufficiently on French pedagogy, he was
in Germany the great inspirer of reform in popular education.
While he was despised by Bonaparte, he obtained, in 1802.
from the philosopher Fichte, this fine compliment, u It is
from the institute of Pestalozzi that I expect the regenera-
tion of the German nation."

attitta

444

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

[520. Analytical Summary. — 1. Inveniam viam ant
faciam. To know the end is to find the way ; and to be pos-
sessed of an impuise to reach an end is to make a way.
There are thus two categories of educational reformers.
Some see a goal by the light of reason and reflection, and
then lay out a logical route to it which they may or may not
traverse, but which some one will ultimately traverse.
Others are dominated by an intense feeling, and grope their
uncertain way towards a goal whose outline and position are
only dimly discerned through the mists of emotion. With
some, the motive is intellectual, with others, it is emotional ;
and in their higher manifestations these endowments are mu-
tually exclusive.

2. Pestalozzi belongs pre-eminently to the emotional re-
formers. He felt intensely, but he saw vaguely. His im-
pulses were the highest and the noblest that can animate the
human soul, but at every stage in his career his success was
compromised by his inability to see things in their normal
relations and proportions. Conscious of his inability to
frame a rational defence of his system, he was glad to bor-
row philosophic insight from abroad ; but he could not live
with colleagues who would test the logic of his methods.

3. Tested by the simplest rules of order, symmetry, and
economy, the schools organized by Pestalozzi were failures ;
but tested by the exalted humanity, the heroic devotion, and
self-sacrifice of their founder, and by the new life which,
through his example, was henceforth to animate the teaching
profession, his schools were successful beyond all precedent.
Judged by modern standards, Pestalozzi was a poor teacher,
but an unsurpassed educator.

4. The conception which the humanitarian warmth of Pes-
talozzi's nature converted into a motive, was that true edu-
tion is a growth, the outward evolution of an inward life.

PE8TALOZZL

445

The conception itself was as old as David and Socrates, but
it had ceased to have the power of a living truth.

5. The history of human thought shows that there has
ever been a tendency to separate form from content, or letter
from spirit, and as constant a predilection for form or letter,
as distinguished from content or spirit; and the essential
work of reform has consisted in reanimation. This illustrates
and defines Pestalozzi's mission as an educator. The story
of his devotion and suffering is the most pathetic in the his-
tory of education, and it should be unnecessary to repeat the
lesson that was taught at such cost.]

iiOi

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. — FRCEBEL AND THE

PERE GIRARD.

the pedagogy op the nineteenth century j frcebel (1782-1852) ;
youth of frcebel; different employments; call to teach;
frcebel and pestalozzi j treatise on the spherical j new
studies; institute of keilhau; the education of max;
analysis of that work; love for children; unity of edu-
cation ; different stages in the development of man j
naturalism of frcebel; new experiments in teaching; kin-
dergartens; origin of the kindergartens; the gifts of
frcebel; appeal to the instincts of the child; importance
of 8pokt9; principal needs of the child; faults in frcebel 'ft
method; the last establishments of frcebel; frcebel and
diesterweg; popularity of frcebel; the pere girard (1765-
1850); life of the pere girard j plan of education for hel-
vetia; last years of the pere girard; teaching of the
mother tongue; grammar of ideas; discreet use of rules;
educative course in the mother tongue j analysis of that
work; moral arithmetic; moral geography; influence of
girard; analytical summary.

521. The Pedagogy of the Nineteenth Century. —
Pestalozzi really belongs to our century by the close of his
career, and especially by the posthumous glory of his name.
With Froebel and the Pere Girard, we enter completely
upon the nineteenth century ; both, in different degrees and
with characteristics of their own, continue the work of
Pestalozzi.

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 447

522. Frcebel (1782-1852).— It may be said of Froebel
as of Pestalozzi, that in France at least, he is more praised
than known, more celebrated than studied. We have been
tardy in speaking of him, — it is scarcely twenty years since ;
but it seems that our admiration has sought to atone for the
slowness of its manifestation by its vivacity and its ardor.
The name of the founder of Kindergartens has become almost
popular, while his writings have remained almost unknown.

An impartial and thorough study of Froebel's work will
abate rather than encourage this excessive infatuation and
this somewhat artificial enthusiasm. Assuredly, Froebel
had grand qualities as a teacher ; bqt he lacked a profound
classical culture and also the sense of proportion. Like
most of the Germans of this century, he has ventured on the
conceptions of a nebulous philosophy, and following the
steps of Hegel, he has too often deserted the route of obser-
vation and experiment, to strike out into metaphysical diva-
gations. Frcebel's imagination magnifies and distorts every-
thing. He cannot see objects as they are, but lends them
a symbolical meaning, and wanders off into transcendental
and obscure considerations. But his practical work is worth
more than his writings, and he cannot be denied the glory
of having been a bold and happy innovator in the field of
early education.

523. The Youth of Froebel. — Froebel was born in
Thuringia in 1782. He lost his mother almost at birth, and
was educated by his father and his uncle, both village
pastors. We recollect that by a contrary destiny, Pestalozzi
was brought up by his mother. From his earliest years he
manifested remarkable traits of character, and also mental
tendencies which were a little singular. He was dreamy and
wholly penetrated with a profound religious sentiment.

448 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Thus, the day when he believed that he was assured by per*
emptory reasoning that he was not doomed to eternal flames,
was an event in his life. Ardently enamored of nature, he
considers her as the true inspirer of humanity. This had
also been the conception of Rousseau and of Pestalozzi, but
it exhibits itself with much more power in the case of
Froebel.

It is difficult to comprehend the exaggeration of his
thought when he says that nature, attentively observed,
appears to us as the symbol of the highest aspirations of
human life.

" Entire nature, even the world of crystals and stones,
teaches us to recognize good and evil, but nowhere in a more
living, tranquil, clear, and evident way than in the world of
plants and flowers."

Morality, thus understood, is a little vague. We do not
deny that the calm life of the fields contributes to surround
us with a pure atmosphere, and to beget within us wholesome
and elevated aspirations ; but one must have a singularly
sentimental temperament to believe that nature can give us
" the clearest and the most obvious " lessons in morals.

524. Different Occupations. — The first part of Frae-
bel's life gives evidence of a certain unsteadiness of mind.
Inconstant in his tastes, he cannot settle on a fixed mode of
life. Improvident and poor, like Pestalozzi, he is in turn
forester, intendant, architect, preceptor; he feels his way
up to the day when his vocation as a teacher is suddenly
revealed to him. Moreover, he studies everything, — law,
mineralogy, agriculture, mathematics.

525. Vocation to Teacii. — It was in 1805, at Frankfort,
that Froebel began to teach. He was then twenty-three.
The teacher Gruner offered him a position as instructor in

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 449

the model school which he directed ; Froebel accepted, but
he was of that number who do nothing artlessly.

" An accidental circumstance determined my decision. I
received news that my certificates were lost [certificates that
he had sent to an architect to secure a position with him].
I then concluded that Providence had intended, by this inci-
dent, to take from me the possibility of a return backward."

At the end of a few days he wrote to his brother
Christopher : —

44 It is astonishing how my duties please me. From the
first lesson it seemed to me that I had never done anything
else, and that I was born for that very thing. I could no
longer make it seem to me that I had previously thought of
following any occupation but this, and yet I confess that the
idea of becoming a teacher had never occurred to me."

526. Froebel and Pestalozzi. — At the school in Frank-
fort, Froebel, still a novice in the art of teaching, attempted
scarcely more than scrupulously to apply the Pestalozzian
methods.

And upon many points Froebel remained to the end a
faithful disciple of Pestalozzi. Intuition is the fundamental
principle of his method, and we might say that his effort in
pedagogy consists chiefly in organizing into a system the
sense intuitions which Pestalozzi proposed to the child some-
what at random and without plan.

FnEbel had had direct relations with Pestalozzi. In 1808
he went to Yverdun with three of his pupils, and there spent
two years, taking part in the work of the institute, and
becoming acquainted with the methods of the master. He
declares that it was a " decisive " epoch in his life.

Bat let us note, in passing, the difference in character
between Pestalozzi and Froebel. While Pestalozzi is ever

450 THE HISTOKY OF PEDAGOGY.

ready to accuse himself with a touching humility, Froebel
regards himself as almost infallible. He never attributes
failure to his own insufficiency, but lays the blame on destiny
or on the ill-will of others. Pestalozzi is* ever forgetting
himself, and he is so neglectful as to be uncouth in his attire.
" He never knew how to dress," say his biographers ; " his
distraction made him forget sometimes his cravat, and at
others his garters." Froebel, on the contrary, affected an
elegant and theatrical bearing. He studied effect. At cer-
tain periods, as we are told, he wore Hessian boots and a
Tyrolese cap with high plumes.

527. The Treatise on Sphericity (1811). — It was
about 1811 that the peculiar originality of Froebel manifested
itself, and this was done, it must be confessed, in an unfortu-
nate way, by the publication of his Treatise on SpJiericity.

Pestalozzi somewhere wrote : "If my life is entitled to
any credit, it is that of having placed the square at the basis
of an intuitive instruction which has never yet been given to
a people."1 This language coming from Pestalozzi is cer-
tainly calculated to surprise us ; but at least Pestalozzi
meant square in the proper sense of the term, as a
geometrical figure, or as a form for drawing. When Froe-
bel speaks to us of the sphere, and makes of it the basis of
education, it is a wholly different thing.

In reading the Treatise on Sphericity, we are sometimes
tempted to inquire whether we have to do with a well-
balanced mind, or whether an exuberant imagination has not
caused the author to lose the consciousness of reality.

According to Froebel, the sphere is the ideal form : —

" The sphere seems like the prototype or the unity of all
bodies and of all forms. Not an angle, not a line, not a

1 Comment Gertrude instrvit set en/ants, translated by Darin, p. 204.

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 451

plane, not a surface, is shown in it, and jet it has all points
and all surfaces."

Let this pass ; but besides this, the sphere has mysterious
relations with spiritual things ; it teaches the perfection of
the moral life.

"To labor conscientiously at the development of the
spherical nature of a being, is to effect the education of a
being. "

An incident borrowed from the life of Frcebel will com-
plete the picture. He enlisted as a volunteer in 1812, and
made the campaigns of 1812-1813, with Langethal and Mid-
den dor f, who were afterward to be his colleagues. After
the war, he returned to Berlin, passing through the whole of
Germany. During the whole journey, he says, " I was seek-
ing something, but without reaching a definite idi*& of what
I was in quest of, and nothing could satisfy me. Wholly
engrossed in this thought, I entered one day into a very
beautiful garden, ornamented with plants the most various.
•I admired them, and yet none of them brought relief to my
inmost feeling.

" Passing them in review, at a glance, in my soul, I sud-
denly discovered that among them there was no lily. . . .
Then I kuew what was lacking in that garden, and what I
was looking for. How could my inmost feeling have mani-
fested itself to me in a more beautiful way? You seek, I
said to myself, tranquil peace of heart, harmony of life, add
purity of soul, in the image of the lily, that peaceful flower,
simple and pure. The garden, with all its varied flowers,
but without the blossoms of the lilv, was for me like life
agitated and variegated, but without harmony and without
unity."

528. New Studies. — Froebel returned to Berlin in 1814,
and there obtained an assistant's place in the mineralogicol

■Mi

452 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

museum. He there studied at leisure the geometrical forms
of crystals, and reflected anew on their symbolical meaning.
Perhaps he derived from these studies the idea of the first
gifts which he afterwards introduced into his Kindergartens.
It was not till two years afterwards that he formed the defi-
nite resolution to devote himself to the education of youth
(1816). He first established himself at Griesheim, and then
at Keilhau (a league's distance from Rudolstadt), where,
with five pupils, all his nephews, he opened a school which
he called by a pompous title, and one hardly justifiable at
the beginning, the General German Institute of Education.
He succeeded in associating with himself Langethal and
Middendorf. The establishment was administered at first on
a verj* modest scale, as the resources were slender ; but it
prospered little by little, and in 1826 it numbered more than
fifty pupils.

529. Institute at Keilhau. — The principles of Pestalozzi
were applied at Keilhau. Langethal and Middendorf
passed their apprenticeship in the Pestalozzian method under
the direction of Frcebel. The three professors met in the
common hall, and there were frequently heard as echoes
from their discussion the words : intuition, personal initia-
tive, jrroceeding from the known to the unknown. " They are
learning the system," said the children who heard them.

At Keilhau, physical, intellectual, and moral education
marched abreast. The master was to attempt to penetrate
the individuality of each child, to the end that he might thence
provoke the free development of that individuality. The
government was austere and the fare frugal. The system
of physical hardening was carried to an extreme. The
pupils, winter and summer, wore a blouse and cotton trou-
sers. A considerable time was devoted to religious excr-

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 453

rises. Froebel always remained attached to the Lutheran
Church, though his orthodox}* might have seemed open to
suspicion, and he always thought that education ought to be
essentially religious.

44 All education that is not founded on religion is sterile."
And he adds, "All education that is not founded on the
Christian religion is defective and incomplete." 1

530. The Education op Man. — It was at Keilhau in
1826, that Froebel published his principal work, The Edu-
cation of Man.*

At that date, the idea of Kindergartens had not yet taken
form in his mind ; and The Education of Man was not so
much the exposition of the practical applications of Froebel's
method, as a nebulous and tumid development of his meta-
physical principles. It is a book little read, and, let it be
confessed, partly illegible ! We have ventured to speak of
the nonsense written bv Pestalozzi. What shall be said of
the mystical dreams of Froebel ? The pedagogy of the Ger-
mans, like their philosophy, has for a century often lost its
way in strange theories which absolutely surpass the com-
prehension of the French mind. From a mass of vague and
pretentious speculations on universal nature, there are culled
with difficult}* some ideas which are well founded. How-
ever, let us try to gather up the obscure idea of Froebel,
made still more obscure by the exterior form of the work.
In the first edition Froebel had omitted to introduce into the
text any division into chapters and paragraphs. The read-
ing of this uninterrupted text could not fail to be laborious ;
even with the somewhat artificial divisions which were subse-

1 See the Aphorisms published by Froebel in 1821.
9 See the French translation by Madame de Crombrugghe, Paris, 1881.
Also, the English translation by Josephine Jarvis, New York, 1885.

452 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

museum. He there studied at leisure the geometrical forms
of crystals, aud reflected anew on their symbolical meaning.
Perhaps he derived from these studies the idea of the first
gifts which he afterwards introduced into his Kindergartens.
It was not till two years afterwards that he formed the defi-
nite resolution to devote himself to the education of youth
(1816). He first established himself at Grieshcim, and then
at Keilhau (a league's distance from Rudolstadt), where,
with five pupils, all his nephews, he opened a school which
he called by a pompous title, and one hardly justifiable at
the beginning, the General German Institute of Education.
He succeeded in associating with himself Langethal and
Middendorf. The establishment was administered at first on
a verj' modest scale, as the resources were slender ; but it
prospered little by little, and in 1826 it numbered more than
fifty pupils.

529. Institute at Keilhau. — The principles of Pestalozzi
were applied at Keilhau. Langethal and Middendorf
passed their apprenticeship in the Pestalozzian method under
the direction of Froebel. The three professors met in the
common hall, and there were frequently heard as echoes
from their discussion the words : intuition, personal initia-
tive, proceeding from the known to the unknown. " They are
learning the system," said the children who heard them.

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 453

rises. Froebel always remained attached to the Lutheran
Church, though his orthodox}* might have seemed open to
suspicion, and he always thought that education ought to be
essentially religious.

•• All education that is not founded on religion is sterile."
And he adds, "All education that is not founded on the
Christian religion is defective and incomplete." 1

530. The Education op Man. — It was at Keilhau in
1826, that Froebel published his principal work, The Edu-
cation of Man.*

At that date, the idea of Kindergartens had not yet taken
form in his mind ; and The Education of Man was not so
much the exposition of the practical applications of Froebel's
method, as a nebulous and tumid development of his meta-
physical principles. It is a book little read, and, let it be
confessed, partly illegible ! We have ventured to speak of
the nonsense written bv Pestalozzi. What shall be said of
the mystical dreams of Froebel? The pedagogy of the Ger-
mans, like their philosophy, has for a century often lost its
way in strange theories which absolutely surpass the com-
prehension of the French mind. From a mass of vague and
pretentious speculations on universal nature, there are culled
with difficulty some ideas which are well founded. How-
ever, let us try to gather up the obscure idea of Froebel,
made still more obscure by the exterior form of the work.
In the first edition Froebel had omitted to introduce into the
text any division into chapters and paragraphs. The read-
ing of this uninterrupted text could not fail to be laborious ;
even with the somewhat artificial divisions which were subse-

m -— ■ ■ ■ — — ■ ^ ^ m^IM

1 See the Aphorisms published by Froebel in 1821.
3 See the French translation by Madame de Crombrugghe, Paris, 1881.
Also, the English translation by Josephine Jarvis, New York, 1885.

■Ml

454 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

quently introduced, The Education of Man remains difficult
to read and to analyze.

531. Analysis op the Work. — The introduction is the
most interesting part of the work. We might reduce the
somewhat confused ideas which it contains to three essentia]
points, to three general ideas, of philosophy, of psychology,
and of pedagogy.

The idea of general philosophy is this : " Everything comes
solely from God. In God is the unique principle of all
things."

It is a vague pantheism which consists in believing that
all the objects of nature are the direct manifestations of the
divine activity.

" The end, the destiny of each thing, is to publish abroad
its being, the activity of God which operates in it, and the
manner in which this activity is combined with the thing."
From these premises Froebel is logically brought to this psy-
chological statement, that everything is good in man, for it
is God who acts in him. He pushes his optimism so far as
to say : —

"From his earliest age the child yields himself to justice
and right with a surprising tact, for we rarely see him avoid-
ing them voluntarily."

The pedagogical conclusion is easy to guess : Education
shall be essentially a work of liberty and of spontaneity. It
ought to be indulgent, flexible, supple, and restricted to pro-
tecting and overseeing.

" The vocation of man, considered as a reasonable intelli-
gence, is to let his nature act in manifesting the action of God,
who operates in him ; to publish God outwardly, to acquire
the knowledge of his real destiny, and to accomplish it in all
liberty and spontaneity."

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 455

These last two words are repeated ad nauseam. Froebel
goes so far as to say that there can be no general form of
education to impose or even to recommend, because account
must be taken of the nature of each child, and the free
development of his individuality provoked by inviting him
to action and to personal exertion. The choice in the mani-
festation of the exterior form of education ought to be left
to the intelligence of the educator, and there ought to be
almost as many ways of educating men as there are individ-
uals, with their own natures aspiring to a personal develop-
ment.

532. Love for Children. — Froebel, and this is perhaps
his best quality, loves children tenderly. He speaks of
them with touching accents, but be does not fail to mingle
with his affection for them his habitual symbolism. The
child is not for him simply the little real being that he has
under his eyes. He sees him through mystic veils, so to
speak, and, as it were, crowned with an aureole : —

44 Let the child always appear to us as a living pledge of
the presence, of the goodness, and of the love of God."

533. Unity op Education. — Froebel is alwavs bitterlv
complaining of the fragmentary and scrappy character of the
ordinary education. His dream was to introduce unity into
it. In this respect he separates himself squarely from Rous-
seau. The different stages of life form an uninterrupted
chain. " Let life be considered as being but one in all its
phases, as forming one complete whole."

534. Different Stages in the Development of Man.
— Froebel, in The Education of Man, considers in succes-
sion the different periods of life. The first three chapters
treat of theirs* stages of development in man, — the nurseling,
the child, the young boy. We here find pages full of charm,

456 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

upon the education of the child by the mother, and upon the
progress of the faculties ; but pretentious considerations
and whimsical interpretations too often come to spoil the
psychology of Frcebel.

" The child," he says, u scarcely knows whether he loves
the flowers for themselves, for the delight which they give
him, ... or for the vague intuition which they give him of
the Creator."

Farther on he speaks of introducing the child to colors,
and from this exercise he at once draws moral conclusions :
the child loves colors because he comes by means of them
" to the knowledge of an interior unity."

535. The Naturalism op Frcebel. — The elements of
education according to Frcebel are, with religion, the artis-
tic studies, mathematics, language, and, above all, nature.
" Teachers should scarcely let a week pass without taking to
the country a part of their pupils. They shall not drive them
before them like a flock of sheep. • . . They shall walk with
them as a father among his children, or a brother among his
brothers, in making them observe and admire the varied
richness which nature displays to their eyes at each season
of the year.1

536. New Experiments in Teaching. — The institute of
Keilhau did not long prosper. In 1829 it was necessary to
close it for lack of pupils. Froebel lacked the practical quali-
ties of an administrator. In 1831 he tried in vain to open a
new school at Wartensee in Switzerland. The attacks of the
clerical party obliged him to abandon his project. After
several other attempts he was elected director of an orphan
asylum at Burgdorf ; and it was there that he resolved to
devote his pedagogical efforts to the education of early
childhood.

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 4t5T

The little village of Burgdorf had the honor, within a period
of thirty-five years, of offering an asylum to Pestalozzi and
to Frcebel, and of being the scene of their experiments in
pedagogy.

537. The Kindergartens. — The master conception of
Frcebel, the creation of the Kindergarten, was only slowly
developed in his mind. It was only in 1840 that he invented
the term. Of course, given the imagination of Froebel, and
his tendency to symbolism, children's garden ought to be
taken in its allegorical sense. The child is a plant, the school
a garden, and Froebel calls teachers " gardeners of chil-
dren." l

But before giving a name to his school for early childhood,
Froebel had long cherished the idea of it. In 1835, at Burg-
dorf, he attempted to realize it ; in 1837, at Blankenburg,
near Rudolstadt, he founded his first infant school.

538. Origin of the Kindergarten. — Without wishing to
belittle the originality of Froebers creation, it is right to say
that it was suggested to him in part by Comenius. The phil-
osopher Krause had pointed out to him the importance of the
writings of the Slavic educator. He studied them, and the
Kindergarten certainly has some relations of parenthood with
the schola materni gremii. There is, however, one essential
difference between the idea of Comenius and that of Froebel,
— the first confided to the mother the cares which the second
relegates to the teachers of the children's gardens.

It is said that it was from seeing a child playing at ball
that Froebel conceived the first idea of his svstem. We know

i Consequently it is wrong to take Froebers expression in the sense that
he wished to establish by the side of each school a garden, a lawn planted
with trees and adorned with flower-beds. See Greard, L'inatruction pri»
maire a Paris, 1877, p. 73.

458 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

what importance he attached to the spherical form and to
play. The first principle of his Kindergarten was then that
the child ought to play, and to play at hall.

But Froebel enveloped the simplest ideas in prolix and
whimsical theories. If he recommends the ball, it is not for
positive reasons, nor because it is an inoffensive play, very
appropriate to the need of movement which characterizes the
child. It is because the ball is the symbol of unitv. The
cube, which was to succeed the ball, represents diversity in
unity. It is also because the word ball is a symbolic word,
formed from letters borrowed from the German words BUd
von all, picture of the ivhole.

Froebel came to attribute an occult meaning to the differ-
ent letters of words. He thought he found in the figures of
the year 1836, the date of his first conception of the Kinder-
garten, the proof that that year was to open to humanity a
new era, and he expressed his views in an essay entitled :
TJie Year 1836 requires a Renovation of Life. In this we
read such things as these: "The word marriage (German
Ehe) represents by its two vowels e-6, life; these two vowels
are united by the consonant //, thus symbolizing a double
life which the spirit unites ; again, the two halves thus united
are similar and equal each to each : e-/<-e." And farther on :
44 What does the word German (Deutsch) signify? It is de-
rived from the word deuten (signifying to manifest), which
designates the act by which self-conscious thought is clearly
manifested outwardly. ... To be a German is then to raise
one's self as an individual and as a whole, by a clear mani-
festation of one's self, to a clear consciousness of self."

539. The Gifts op Froebel. — Under the graceful
name of gifts, Froebel presents to the child a certain number
of objects which are to serve as material for his exercises.

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZL 459

The five gifts are contained in a box from which they are
taken in succession, as the children are in a condition to re-
ceive them. In the original plan of Froehel, these gifts
were: 1. the ball; 2. the sphere and the cube; 3. the cube
divided into eight equal parts ; 4. the cube divided into eight
rectangular parallelopipeds, in the form of building-bricks,
which the child will use as material for little constructions ;
5. the cube divided in each of its dimensions, that is, cut into
twenty-seven equal cubes ; three of them are subdivided into
two prisms, and three others into four prisms, by means of
an oblique section, single or double.1 And to these gifts
Frcebel added other objects, such as thin strips of wood and
little sticks for constructing figures ; and bits of paper for
braiding, folding, dotting, etc.

The conception of Froebel does not rest, as one might
think, on the adaptation of the objects which he chooses in
succession, to the faculties of the child. It is not this at all
which interests him. The order which he has adopted is
derived from another principle. According to him, the form
of bodies has an intimate relation with the general laws of
the universe. There is, consequently, a methodical grada-
tion to be observed, according to the intrinsic character of
the objects themselves, for the purpose of initiating the child
into the laws of the divine thought symbolized in the sphere,
in the cube, in the cylinder, etc. Froebel was greatly irritated
at those of his scholars who misunderstood the philosophical

mport of his "gifts," and who saw in them only plays.

■• If my material for instruction possesses some utility," he
said, " it does not owe it to its exterior appearance, which
has nothing striking and offers no novelty. It owes it sim-

1 The disciples of Frcebel have modified in different manners his system
of gifts. See, for example, the Jardin d'etifants, by Goldammer, French
translation by Louis Foamier, 1877.

460 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ply to the way in which I use it, that is, to my method
and to the philosophical law on which it is founded. The
justification of my system of education is entirely in this law;
according as this law is rejected or admitted, the system falls
or continues with it. All the rest is but material without any
value of its own."

It is this " material," however, which for Frcebel had no
value, that his admirers have above all preserved of his
method, without longer caring for the allegorical sense which
he attached to it.

540. Appeal to the Instincts op the Child. — That
which makes, notwithstanding so much that is whimsical, the
lasting merit of Frcebers work, that which justifies in part
the admiration which it has excited, is that he organized the
salle d'asile, the infant school, and that he realized for it
that which Pestalozzi had attempted for the elementary
school. He knew how to make an appeal to the instincts of
the youngest child, to combine a system of exercises for the
training of the hand, for the education of the senses, to
satisfy the need of movement and activity which develops
itself from the first day of life, and, finally, to make of the
child a creator, a little artist always at work.

For the old education, which he calls " a hot-house educa-
tion," and in which the instruction, premature through lan-
guage, smothers in their germs the native powers of the
child, in order to excite his memory and his judgment by
artificial means, — for this education he substitutes a free and
cheerful education which cultivates the faculties of the child
by love, and which makes a just estimate of his instincts.
Books are suppressed, and lessons also. The child freely
expands in play.

541. The Importance of Play. — With Froebel, play be-
came an essential element of education. This ingenious

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 461

teacher knew how to make of it an art, an instrument for the
development of the infant faculties.

44 The plays of the child," he said, " are, as it were, the
germ of the whole life which is to follow, for the whole man
develops and manifests itself in it; in it he reveals his
noblest aptitudes and the deepest elements of his being.
The whole life of man has its source in that epoch of exis-
tence, and whether that life is serene or sad, tranquil or
agitated, fruitful or sterile, whether it brings peace or war,
that depends on the care, more or less judicious, given to the
beginnings of existence."

542. Principal Needs op the Child. — Gr6ard, in a re-
markable study on the method of Froebel, reduces the aspira-
tions of the child to three essential instincts : —

1. The taste for observation : —

44 All the senseTot tne crura are on the alert; all the ob-
jects which his sight or his hand encounters attract him,
interest him, delight him."

2. The need of activity, the taste for construction : —

44 Itlsnot enough that we show him objects ; it is neces-
sary that he touch them, that he handle them, that he appro-
priate them to himself. • • . He takes delight in construct-
ing ; he is naturally geometrician and artist."

8. Finally, the sentiment of personality : —

44 He Wishes to have his own place, his own occupation,
his own teacher."

Now Frcebers method has precisely for its object the
satisfaction of these different instincts.

44 To place the child before a common table," sajs Gr6ard,
44 but with his own chair and a place that belongs to him, so
that he feels that he is the owner of his little domain ; to
excite at the very beginning his good will by the promise of

mm^mM

462 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

an interesting game ; to develop in succession under his
very eyes the marvels of the five gifts : to teach him in the
first place, from concrete objects exposed to his sight, balls
of colored worsted and geometrical solids, to distinguish
color, form, material, the different parts of a body, so as to
accustom him to see, that is, to seize the aspects, the figures,
the resemblances, the differences, the relations of things ;
then to place the objects in his hands, and to teach him to
make with the balls of colored worsted combinations of col-
ors agreeable to the eye, to arrange, with matches united
by balls of cork, squares, angles, triangles of all sorts, to
set up little cubes in the form of crosses, pyramids, etc. ; —
then, either by means of strips of colored paper placed in
different directions, interlaced into one another, braided as a
weaver would make a fabric, or with the crayon, to drill him
in reproducing, in creating, designs representing all the
geometrical forms, so that to the habit of observation is
gradually joined that of invention ; finally, while his hand
is busy in concert with his intelligence, and while his need of
activity is satisfied, to take advantage of this awakened and
satisfied attention to fix in his mind by appropriate questions
some notions of the properties and uses of forms, by relating
them to some great principle of general order, simple and
fruitful, to mingle the practical lesson with moral observa-
tions, drawn in particular from the incidents of the school
— this, in its natural progress and its normal development, is
the method of Frcebel."

543. Defects in Fiuebel's Method. — .There is ground
for thinking, notwithstanding all, that Fraebel's method is a
little complicated, a little artificial, and that it sometimes
proceeds in opposition to the natural disposition of children.
Their soul, he said, cannot in the first period of its develop-

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZL 463

ment, recognize itself, apprehend itself, save in the percep-
tion of the simplest forms of the exterior world, presented in
a concrete manner. Now nature of herself does not offer
these elementary forms ; it is necessary to know how to ex-
tract them from the intinite diversity of things. And Froe-
bel found these simple forms in the sphere, the cube, and the
cylinder.

But these forms, we reply, are but abstractions ; it does
not suffice to say that the cube and the sphere are material
and palpable, — they are none the less the product of ab-
stract thought on this account ; nature does not present these
simple geometrical forms ; everything in them is complex.
Now the nascent thought is employed at first on real things,
on the living and irregular forms of animals and vegetables ;
then in this case, the mind proceeds naturally from the com-
plex to the simple, from the concrete to the abstract. It
seems, on the contrary, that Froebel begins with the abstract
in order to arrive at the concrete.

In the school of Froebel other defects have been developed.
An abuse has been made of the exercises in imitation and
invention. The child has been made to produce marvels of
construction which take too much of his time and demand of
him too much effort. It has been forgotten that these em-
plo3*ments should be preparatory exercises, — means, and
not the end of education.

544. The Last Establishments op Frcebel. — Towards
1840, the ideas of Froebel began to become popular. His
methods attracted attention. Then he wished to transform
his school at Blankenburg into a model establishment. He
addressed an appeal to the German nation in favor of his
work, but it was only slightly successful. Obliged in 1844
to close his institute, through lack of resources, he then

464 THE H1STO&Y OF PEDAGOGY.

travelled through Germany in order to make known his
methods. He did not derive from his journey the profit that
he expected from it, and, discouraged, he returned once
more to Keilhau, where he opened a course in method, or a
normal course, for the use of young women who were pre-
paring themselves for the education of infants. This asso-
ciation with women, in which Froebel lived till his death,
exercised a profound influence on the development of his
system. A much greater share of attention was given to the
practical exercises, and the mathematics was put in the back-
ground.

In 1850 he obtained through the intervention of the Bar-
oness von Marenholtz, one of his most ardent admirers, the
lease of the Castle of Marie n thai, and to this he transferred
his establishment. A long period of activity seemed open-
ing before him. He personally directed the games of the
children, and trained the teachers ; but he died suddenly
in 1852.

545. Froebel and Diesterweg. — However, before his
death, Froebel was able to witness the growing success of
his work. Each day he received eminent adhesions ; for ex-
ample, that of Diesterweg.1 It was through the mediation
of the Baroness von Marenholtz that Froebel and Diesterweg,
the celebrated director of the normal school of Berlin, be-
came acquainted. Diesterweg was a strong and practical
spirit, who contributed much to the development of instruction
in Prussia. At first he had a contempt for Froebel, whom
he treated as a charlatan ; but on his first conversation with
him he changed his opinion. He was taken to the school-
room in which Froebel was teaching ; but wholly intent on

i See on Diesterweg the article by Pecaut, iu the Dictionnaire de
Pidagogie.

d&i^HH^^^aiWCh

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 465

his work, Froebel did not observe the presence of the visitor.
Diesterweg was impressed by seeing this old man devoting
himself entirely to his Utile pupils, and his prejudices disap-
peared. To a certain extent he became the propagator of
Froebel' s ideas. He agreed with him on his general concep-
tion of the needs of the child, and of the province of woman
as the earliest educator.

546. Success op Frcebel's Work. — Froebel had other imi-
tators. Like Pestalozzi, he inspired a large number of minds
by his writings, and through the zeal of Madame von Maren-
holtz, and of some other disciples, his practical work pros-
pered. The Kindergartens have been multiplied in many
places, and particularly in Austria.

547. The Pere Girard (1765-1850). — The Pere Girard
is the most eminent educator of modern Switzerland. Less
celebrated than Pestalozzi and Froebel, he yet has this advan-
tage over them, of having been better prepared for his pro-
fession as an educator. After having finished a thorough
and complete course of classical study, he for a long time
taught the same subjects in the same school. He acquired
experience and wrote his treatises only in an advanced age,
at a time when he was in complete possession of his ideas.
He was in fact seventy-nine years old when he published
his book On the Systematic Teaching of the Mother Tongue.
It is a work of mature thought, and sums up a whole life-
time of labor. Less addicted to system than Froebel and
Pestalozzi, the Pfcre Girard still carries mere system too
far, and makes a misuse of the principle which consisted in
making of all the parts of instruction the elements of moral
education.

548. Life op the Pere Girard. — Girard was born in
Friburg in 1765. His pedagogic instinct manifested itself

466 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

at an early hour. While still very young he aided his mother
in instructing his fourteen brothers and sisters. Like Froebel,
he was passionately fond of religious questions. One day as
he had heard his preceptor say that there was no salvation
outside of the Roman Church, he sought his mother in tears,
and asked her if the Protestant tradesman who brought her
. fruit each day would be damned. His mother reassured
him, and he always remained faithful to what he called " the
theology of his mother," — a tolerant and broad theology
which brought on him the hatred of the Jesuits.

At the age of sixteen he entered the order of the Gray
Friars, and completed his novitiate at Lucerne. He then
taught in several convents, in particular at Wurtzburg, where
he remained four years (1785-1788). He returned to Fri-
burg in 1789, and for ten years he devoted himself almost
exclusively to his ecclesiastical functions.

But his vocation as an educator was even then indicated
by some things that he had written.

In 1798, under the influence of the ideas of Kant, whose
philosophical doctrine he had ardently studied, he published
a Scheme of Education for all Helvetia, addressed tp the
Swiss minister Stapfer, who was also the patron of Pesta-
lozzi.

It was only in 1804, that Girard devoted himself entirely
to teaching, the very year in which Froebel began his work.
He was appointed to direct the primary school at Friburg,
which had just been entrusted to the Gray Friars. Girard
received the title of " prefect of studies," and for nineteen
years, from 1805 to 1823, he exercised his functions "as a
teacher in that school. Very small in the beginning, the
school had a remarkable growth. There was added to it
even a school for girls. At first Girard had Gray Friars for
colleagues; but he soon replaced them with lay teachers,

rt«ta

THE SUCCESSORS OF PE8TALOZZI. 467

who obeyed him better and devoted themselves more entirely
to their task. The teacher of drawing was a Protestant.

549. Success op the School at Friburg. — A disciple
and an admirer of Girard, the pastor Naville, has related in
his work on Public Education 1 the brilliant results obtained
by Girard in his school at Friburg.

•"He had trained a body of youth the like of which
perhaps no city in the world could furnish. It was
not without a profound emotion that the friends of hu-
manity contemplated a spectacle so uew and so touching.
That ignorant and boorish class, full of prejudices, which
everywhere abounds, was no longer met with at Friburg. . . .
The young there developed graces of an amiable deportment
which were never marred by anything disagreeable in tone,
speech, or manner. If, seeing children approaching you
covered with rags, you approached them thinking that you
were about to encounter little ruffians, you were wholly sur-
prised to have them reply to you with politeness, with judg-
ment, and with that accent which bespeaks genteel manners
and a careful education. . . . You will find the explanation
in the school, when you observe the groups where these same
children exercise by turns, as in playing, their judgment and
their conscience. Three or four hours a day emplojed in
this work gave the young that intelligence, those sentiments,
and those manners which delighted you."

550. The Last Years op the Pere Girard. — Notwith-
standing the success of his instruction, the Pere Girard was
obliged to abandon the charge of his school in 1823. His
loss of position was the result of the intrigues of the Jes-

*D« Mducatton publique. Paris, 1833, p. 158. Naville (1784-1846)
founded in 1817, at Vernier, near Geneva, an institute where he applied
with success the educative method of the Pere Girard.

****+s*eammmmmmmaaEtm

468 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

uits, whose college had been re-established in 1818. He left
Friburg amid universal regrets, and retired to Lucerne, where
he taught philosophj* till 1834. At that date he returned to
his native city and lived a life of seclusion. It was then
that he wrote his pedagogical works. But through his disci-
ples, and particularly through the pastor Naville, the methods
of the Pere Girard were known before he had published any-
thing.

551. Teaching of the Mother Tongue. — Let us now
examine the general spirit of the pedagogy of Girard. It is
in the theoretical work which he published in 1844, and
which was crowned by the French Academy in the same year,
that we must look for the principles of his method. It con-
sisted in " choosing a study which may be considered as one
essential part of the instruction common to all the classes of
society, and which nevertheless is fit for calling into exercise
all the intellectual powers." This study was the mother
tongue, which Girard employed for the moral and religious
development of children.

Villemain, in his report on the books of Girard, has clear-
ly defined the purpose of the common school as conceived by
the educator of Friburg : —

44 Where the period of instruction is necessarily short and
its object limited, a wise choice of method is the thing of
first importance, for upon this choice will depend the educa-
tion itself. If that method is purely technical, if its exclu-
sive object is reading, writing, and the rules of grammar and
computation, the child of the common people will be poorly
instructed and will not be educated at all. A difficult task
burdens his memory without developing his soul. A new
process is placed at his disposal, one workshop more is open
to him, so to speak ; but the trace left by that instruction

THB SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 469

will not be deep, will sometimes even be lost through lack of
application and exercise, and will not have acted on the
moral nature, too often absorbed eventually by a monotonous
devotion to duty or the excessive fatigue of bodily labor.
The only, the real people's school, is then that in which all
the elements of study serve for the culture of the soul, and
in which the child grows better by the things which he learns
and by the manner in which he learns them."

552. Analysis of this Work. — The book of Girard is
divided into four parts. The first contains general considera-
tions on the manner in which the mother teaches her children
to speak, upon the purpose of a course of instruction on the
mother tongue, and on the elements which should compose it.

The second part is entitled : The Systematic Teaching of
the Mother Tongue considered solely as the Expression of
Tliought. It is language considered in itself ; but Girard
desires that the word should always be united to the thought.
It is not necessary that the teaching of grammar should be
reduced to verbal instruction ; it should also serve to develop
the thought of pupils.

In the third part, the Systematic Teaching of the Mother
Tongue considered as the Means of Intellectual Culture, Girard
considers everything which can contribute to the development
of the faculties.

In the fourth part, the Systematic Teaching of Language
employed for the Culture of the Heart, Girard shows how the
teaching of language may assist in moral education.

A fifth part, Use of the Course in the Mother Tongue, is,
so to speak, the material part of the book, and, as it were,
the outline of the great practical work of Girard, the Edu-
cative l Course in the Mother Tongue.

i I am aware that this term is not found in the latest Webster, but I see
no other way of expressing the force of the word tducattf, which seems to
signify the disciplinary, or rather the culture, value of a study. (P.)

470 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

553. The Grammarian, the Logician, the Educator,
— In other terms, Girard places himself in succession at
four different points of view in the teaching of language : —

" Four persons," he says, 4t ought to concur in construct-
ing the course in the mother tongue : the grammarian, the
logician, the educator, and, finally, the man of letters/*

The task of the grammarian is to furnish the material of
the language and its proper forms.

The logician will teach us what must be done in order to
cultivate the intelligence of the young.

The educator will ever be inspired by this grand truth :
" Man acts as he loves, and he loves as he thinks." He will
try to grave in the souls of children all the beautiful and
grand truths which can awaken and nourish pure and noble
affections.

Finally, the man of letters has also his part in the course
in language, in the sense that pupils, besides being required
from the beginning of their studies to invent propositions
and sentences, will have a little later to compose narratives,
letters, dialogues, etc.

554. The Grammar op Ideas. — Elementary instruction
should have for its purpose the development of the mind
and the judgment. It is no longer a question of cultivating
the memory alone and of causing words to be learned. The
Pere Girard would have grammar made an exercise in
thinking.

"The grammars in use," he says, u are intended simply
to teach correctness in speaking and writing. By their aid
we are able finally to avoid a certain number of faults in
style and orthography. . . . This instruction becomes a
pure affair of memory, and the child becomes accustomed
to pronounce sounds to which he attaches no meaning. The

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 471

child needs a grammar of ideas. . . . Our grammars of
words are the plague of education."

In other terms, grammar should be made above all else an
exercise in thinking, and, as it were, 4i the logic of childhood."

555. Discreet Use op Rules. — The Pere Girard does
not proscribe rules. The teaching of language cannot do
without them ; 4fc but there is," he says, " a proper manner
of presenting them to children, and a just medium to hold."

In the teaching of grammar we must follow the course
which the grammarians themselves have followed in order to
construct their science: " The rules were established on
facts. It is then to facts that they must be referred in
instruction, in order that by this means children may be
taught to do intelligently what they have hitherto done
through blind imitation. . . . Few rules, many exercises.
Rules are always abstract, dry, and for this very reason
poorly adapted to please children, even when they can com-
prehend them. We ought, then, in general, to make a very
sparing use of them."

So the Pere Girard particularly recommends practical
exercises, oral instruction, the continual use of the black-
board, the active and animated co-operation of all the mem-
bers of the class, rapid interrogation, the Socratic method,
the abuse of which, however, he criticises.1

556. Moral Arithmetic.8 — The Pere Girard, like almost
all the men who have conceived an original idea, has fallen

1 See Chap. III. of Book III. paragraph 1st. Just medium between two
txtr ernes.

* Here is an example from Pere Girard's arithmetic: —
" A father had the habit of going every evening to the dram-shop, and
often left his family at home without bread. During the five years that
be led this life, he spent, the first year, 197 francs, the second, 204 francs,

472 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

into the love of systematizing. He believed that not only
language, but all the branches of study might contribute to
moral education.

" He conceived," says Naville, " that by means of a
selection of problems adapted to the development of the
social affections in the family, the commune, and the State,
one might give to arithmetic such a wholesome direction that
it might be made to contribute, not only to making the child
prudent and economical, but even more to extend his views
beyond the narrow circle of selfishness, and to cultivate in
him beneficent dispositions." *

557. Moral Geography. — It is in the same spirit that
he claimed to find in the study of geography a means of
contributing to the development of the moral nature.

"According to my honest conviction, every elementary
work for children ought to be a means of education. If it
is limited to giving knowledge, if it is limited to developing
the faculties of the pupil, I can approve the order and the
life which the author has known how to put into his work ;
but I am not satisfied with it. I am even offended to find
only a teacher of language, of natural history, of geography,
etc., when I expected something much greater, — an instructor
of the young, training the mind in order to train the heart.
. . . Geography lends itself as marvellously to this sublime
purpose, although in a sphere a little narrower."2

558. Educative Course in the Mother Tongue. —
Girard is not content to state his doctrine in his book On the

the third, 212 francs, and the fourth, 129 francs. How many francs would
this unfortunate father have saved if he had not had a taste for drink ? " (P.)

1 Naville, De V Education publique, p. 411.

* Explication du plan de Fribourg en Suisse, 1817.

.^.~--*m.~-r~

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 478

Systematic Teaching of the Mother Tongue ; but in the four
volumes of his Educative Course (1844-1846) he has applied
his method. Full of new and radical views, original in the
arrangement of material as in its system of exposition,
revolutionary even in its grammatical terminology, this book
is a mine from which we may borrow without stint, only
we shall not advise wholesale adoption : there is matter to
take and to leave.1

559. Analysis of this Work. — The title indicates the
general character of the work. In his Cours idticatif, Girard
does not separate education from instruction. The purpose
is to develop the moral and religious sentiments of the child,
no less than to teach him his native language.

The first lessons in grammar ought to be lessons in things.
The child is made to name the objects which he knows, — per-
sons, animals, things, — and through these he is made to ac-
quire notions of nouns, common and proper, of gender and
number. He is then induced to find for himself the physical,
intellectual, and moral qualities of objects, and by this means
is made familiar with qualifying adjectives. Care is taken,
moreover, while causing each qualit}' to be named, as farther
on while causing each judgment to be expressed, to ask the
child, " Is this right? Is this wrong?"

The agreement of adjective with noun is learned by prac-
tice. The child is drilled in applying adjectives to the nouns
which he has found, and vice versa.

Once in possession of the essential elements of the propo-
sition, the child begins the study of the proposition itself,
and finally the study of the verb. Girard makes it a princi-
ple always to have the conjugations made by means of propo-

1 See the interesting articles of Lafargue in the Bulletin ptdagogique
de I'enseignement aecondaire, 1882.

474 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

sitioDB. At first, however, he employs in simple propositions
only the indicative, the infinitive, the imperative, and the
participle ; he postpones till later the study of the conditional
and the subjunctive. It is to be noted, in addition, that he
brings forward simultaneously the simple tenses of all the
conjugations.

The order followed by Girard is wholly different from that
of the ordinary grammars. This is how he explains it : —

" In their first part, the grammars set out in a row the nine
sorts of words, and thus give in rapid succession their defini-
tions, distinctions, and variable forms, which introduces a
legion of terms wholly unknown to the child. The second
part of these grammars takes up these words again in the
same order, so as, in an uninteresting way, to regulate
their use in construction, — a tedious and arid system, which
affords the child no interest."

Elsewhere, speaking of his own work, he writes : —

" My work differs essentially from the grammars which
are put in the hands of children. When we write on lan-
guage for adults, we may adhere to definitions, distinctions,
rules, and exceptions, and formulate statements regarding
their proper use ; but he who writes for children ought to
have the education of the mind and heart in view, and regu-
late on that basis the course and form of instruction. The
course ought to be rigorously progressive, and the pupils
ought, from beginning to end, to assist themselves in con-
structing a grammar of their own."

" So, instead of making generalizations on the noun,
adjective, verb, etc., and of connecting with these parts of
speech all that relates to them, we must apply ourselves to
the substance of language, passing step by step from the
simple to the complex, and teaching children to think, in
order to teach them to comprehend and to speak the language

MB— MMtfHSJHH

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 475

of man. The little details cannot appear till later, and aa
occasion requires. From this there necessarily results a
.displacement of grammatical material which has been indus-
triously collected and arranged. Hence, also, a great parsi-
mony in definitions and abstract distinctions which repel
children."

560. Educational Influence of the Pere Girard. —
The influence of the P&re Girard was not extended simply to
Switzerland. It has radiated abroad. His ideas have been
disseminated in Italy, propagated by the Abb£ Lambruschini
and by Enrico Mayer. A journal even has been founded to
serve as the organ of the " Girardists " of the Peninsula.
In France, Michel, in the Journal de V Education pratique,
and Rapet in different works,1 have commended to public
attention the methods of the Swiss educator. Finally, it
may be remarked that the principles very recently set forth
by the Conseil supMeure de V instruction publique (1880),
on the teaching of French in the elementary classes of the
lyc£es, are in great part the echo of the pedagogical doctrine
of the P&re Girard.

[561. Analytical Summary. — 1. In this study we have the
third exposition, in historical order, — Rousseau, Pestalozzi,
Froebel, — of the doctrine of nature as applied to education.
This doctrine may be summarized as follows : —

The existing order of things is conceived as an animated
organism, and is personified under the term Nature. All
living things, such as plants, animals, and men, are products
of the creative power that is immanent in nature, and each
is predetermined to an upward development in the line of

* Monsieurs Rapet and Michel were associated in the publication of the
Cours 4ducatifde la tongue maternelle.

474 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

The order followed by Girard is wholly different from that
of the ordinary grammars. This is how he explains it : —

44 In their first part, the grammars set out in a row the nine
sorts of words, and thus give in rapid succession their defini-
tions, distinctions, and variable forms, which introduces a
legion of terms wholly unknown to the child. The second
part of these grammars takes up these words again in the
same order, so as, in an uninteresting way, to regulate
their use in construction, — a tedious and arid S3*stem, which
affords the child no interest."

Elsewhere, speaking of his own work, he writes : —

44 My work differs essentially from the grammars which
are put in the hands of children. When we write on lan-
guage for adults, we may adhere to definitions, distinctions,
rules, and exceptions, and formulate statements regarding
their proper use ; but he who writes for children ought to
have the education of the mind and heart in view, and regu-
late on that basis the course and form of instruction. The
course ought to be rigorously progressive, and the pupils
ought, from beginning to end, to assist themselves in con-
structing a grammar of their own."

44 So, instead of making generalizations on the noun,
adjective, verb, etc., and of connecting with these parts of
speech all that relates to them, we must apply ourselves to
the substance of language, passing step by step from the
simple to the complex, and teaching children to think, in
order to teach them to comprehend and to speak the language

Irfh

THE SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZI. 475

560. Educational Influence op the Pere Girard. —
The influence of the Pere Girard was not extended simply to
Switzerland. It has radiated abroad. His ideas have been
disseminated in Italy, propagated by the Abbe* Lambruschini
and by Enrico Mayer. A journal even has been founded to
serve as the organ of the " Girardists" of the Peninsula.
In France, Michel, in the Journal de V Education pratique,
and Rapet in different works,1 have commended to public
attention the methods of the Swiss educator. Finally, it
may be remarked that the principles very recently set forth
by the Conseil mpfoieure de Vinstruction publique (1880),
on the teaching of French in the elementary classes of the
lyce*es, are in great part the echo of the pedagogical doctrine
of the Pere Girard.

[561 . Analytical Summary. — 1. In this study we have the
third exposition, in historical order, — Rousseau, Pestalozzi,
Froebel, — of the doctrine of nature as applied to education.
This doctrine may be summarized as follows : —

1 Monsieurs Rapet and Michel were associated in the publication of the
Court 4ducatifde to tongue maternelle.

476 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

growth. This growth is an unfolding from within outward,
and each individual thing, as a child, has reached the
term of its development when it has grown into the type of
its kind. In the case of tiie human species, this growth is
best when it is natural, and it is natural to the degree in
which it takes place without the deliberate intervention of
art. This process of development is Nature's work, and its
synonym is education. Education is best when it is most
natural, that is, when it suffers least from human interfer-
ence. The question of the relative parts to be played by
Nature and by Art in education has given rise to two schools
of educators.

2. In Froebel's application of this doctrine, the original
conception is obscured by three circumstances : 1 . his deism ;
2. his mysticism or symbolism ; 3. his dependence on artifi-
cial agents, his " gifts," and his belief in the potency of
abstractions.

3. The Kindergarten has introduced many ameliorations
into primary instruction, and its tendency is to make child-
life happy through self-activity. Its shortcomings are that
it undervalues the acquisition of second-hand knowledge,
obscures the distinction between work and play, and indis-
poses, and perhaps unfits, the pupil to contend with real
difficulties.1

4. The effect of this new movement in primary instruction
upon educational science has been wholesome. It has induced
a closer study of child nature, has enlisted the sympathies

1 " Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will,
that conflict with difficulty, which we call effort. Easy, pleasant work
does not make robust minds, does not give men a consciousness of their
powers, does not train them to endurance, to perseverance, to steady force
of will, that force without which all other acquisitions avail nothing."
Dr. Channing.

Un^Ml

THB SUCCESSORS OF PESTALOZZL

477

and affections in support of elementary instruction, and has
profoundly modified the conception of the primary school.

5. Whether the Kindergarten is to be maintained apart,
as an institution sui geveris, or whether it is to lose its iden-
tity by the absorption of its spirit into the primary school, is
a question for the future. Probably the latter result will
follow.

6. The misuse of a good thought is seen in the attempt of
the Pere Girard to give a distinct moral value to every school
exercise. It is the verdict of experience that the moral
value of science is greatest when it is taught simply as science,
and that the direct teaching of ethics should be conducted
on an independent basis. "]

CHAPTER XX.

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS.

women a8 educators; madame de genl18 (1746-1830); pedagogical
works; encyclopedic education; imitation of rousseau ;
miss edge worth (1787-1849); miss hamilton (1758-1816); madame
campan (1752-1822); commendation of home education; prog-
ress in instruction j interest in popular education j
madame de remubat (1780-1821); outline of feminine psy-
chology ; the serious in education ; philosophical spirit ;
madame guizot (1773-1827); letters on education; psychological
optimism ; nature of the child ; philosophical rationalism j
madame necker de sau8sure (1765-1841) ; madame necker de
saussure and madame de stakl j progressive education and
rousseau; originality of madame necker de saussure; divis-
ion of progressive education j development of the facul-
ties ; culture of the imagination ; education of women j
madame pape-carpentier (1815-1878) ; general character of
her works ; principal works of madame pape-carpentier j
object lessons j other women who were educators j du-
panloup and the education of women ; analytical sum-
MARY.

562. Women as Educators. — One of the characteristic
features of the pedagogy of the nineteenth century is the
constant progress in the education of women. Woman will
be better instructed, and at the same time she will play a
more important part in instruction. Primary schools for girls
did not exist, so to speak, in France, at the commencement
of this century. Fourcroy, who reported the bill of May 1,
1802, declared that "the law makes no mention of girls."
But through the efforts of the monarchy of July, and stili

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 479

more of the liberal laws of the second and of the third Repub-
lic, the primary instruction of girls will become more and
more general. Secondary public instruction will be * created
for women by the law of December 20, 1880, and the equality
of the two sexes, in respect of education, will tend more and
more to become a reality, through the influence of govern-
mental action as well as that of private initiative.

But not less remarkable is the important part which women,
by their abstract reflections or by their practical efforts, have
taken in the progress of pedagogy. In the history of educa-
tion, the nineteenth century will be noted for the great num-
ber of its women who were educators, some who were real
philosophers and distinguished writers, and others, zealous
and enthusiastic teachers.

563. Madame de Genlis (1746-1830). — While she does
not belong to the nineteenth century by her pedagogical
writings, Madame de Genlis has certain rights to a foremost
place in the list of the educational women of our time. She
had in the highest degree the pedagogic vocation ; only, that
vocation became a mania and was squandered on everything.
Madame de Genlis wished to know everything in order that
she might teach everything. " She was more than a woman
author," says Sainte-Beuve, wittily; " she was a woman
teacher; she was born with the sign on her forehead."

Young girls of their own accord play mamma with their
dolls. From the age of seven, Madame de Genlis played
teacher.

" I had a taste for teaching children, and I became school-
mistress in a curious way. . . . Little boys from the village
came under the window of my parents' country-seat to play.
I amused myself in watching them, and I soon took it into
my head to give them lessons."

480 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Twenty years later, the village teacher became the gov-
erness of the daughters of the Duchesse de Chart res, and the
governor of the sons of the Duke de Chartres (Philippe-
£galit6) .

564. Pedagogical Works. — The principal work of
Madame de Genlis, Letters on Education (1782), treats of
the education of princes and also of " that of young persons
and of men." In giving it that other title, Addle and Theo-
dore, the author indicated her intention of rivaling Rousseau,
and of educating a man and a woman more perfect than
iSinile and Sophie.

Although she had a profoundly aristocratic nature, Madame
de Genlis, after the revolution of 1789, seemed for an instant
to follow the liberal current which was sweeping minds along.
It was then that she published the Counsels on the Education
of the Dauphin^ and some parts of her educational journal,
entitled Lessons of a Governess. She never ceased to preach
love of the people to sovereigns, and in justice this must be
said to her credit, that she did not write merely for courtly
people. She protests, and with spirit, " that she is the first
author who has concerned herself with the education of the
people. This glory," she adds, " is dear to my heart." In
support of these assertions, Madame de Genlis cites the
fourth volume of her ThSdtre d'tducation, which is, she says,
u solely intended for the children of tradesmen and artisans ;
domestics and peasants will there see a detailed account of
their obligations and their duties."

565. Encyclopaedic Education. — It has been said with
reason that Madame de Genlis was the personification of
encycloptedic instruction.1

l Grdard, Mtmoire sur Venseignement secondaire des fillet t p. 78.

rf*. !■-;■ i - -^mfc

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 481

•• Her programme of instruction had no limits. She favors
Latin, without, however, thinking the knowledge of it indis-
pensable. She gives a large place to the living languages.
At Saint Leu, her pupils garden in German, dine in English,
and sup in Italian. At the same time she invents gymnastic
apparatus, — pulleys, baskets, wooden beds, lead shoes.
Nothing takes her at unawares, her over-facile pen stops at
nothing; she is universal. A plan for a rural school for
children in the country is wanted, and she furnishes it."

566. Imitation op Rousseau. — Madame de Genlis never
ceased to criticise Rousseau, and yet, in her educational
romances, the inspiration of Rousseau is everywhere present.
How can we fail to recognize a pupil of Rousseau in the
father of Adele and Theodore, who leaves Paris in order to
devote himself entirely to the education of his children, to
make himself " their governor and their friend, and finally,
to screen the infancy of his son and daughter from the exam-
ples of vice " ? And the methods manufactured by Rousseau,
the unforeseen lessons, the indirect means employed to in-
struct without having the appearance of doing so, — Madame
de Genlis desires no others. Nothing is more amusing than
the description of the country-seat of the Baron d'Almane,
the father of Adele and Theodore. It is no longer a country-
seat ; it is a school-house. The walls are no longer walls ;
they are charts of history and maps of geography.

44 When we would have our children study history accord-
ing to a chronological order, we start from my bed-chamber,
which represents sacred history ; from there we enter my
gallery, where we find ancient history ; we reach the parlor,
which contains Roman history, and we end with the gallery
of Monsieur d'Almane (it is the Baroness who speaks), where
is found the history of France."

VM- ti

482 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

In her pedagogic fairyland, Madame de Genlis does not
wish the child to meet a single object which may not be
transformed into an instrument of instruction. Addle and
Theodore cannot take a hand-screen without finding a geog-
raphy lesson represented on it, and drawn out at full length.
Here are pictures worked in tapestry ; they are historical
scenes ; on the back of them care has been taken to write
an explanation of what they represent. At least, those five
or six movable partitions which are displayed in the apart-
ment on cold days have no instructive purposes? You are
mistaken. There is painted and written on them the history
of England, of Spain, of Germany, and that of the Moors
and the Turks. Even in the dining-room, mythology encum-
bers the panels of the room, and u it usually forms the sub-
ject of conversation during the dinner." In that castle,
bewitched, so to speak, by the elf of history, there is not a
glance that is lost, not a minute without its lesson, not a
corner where one may waste his time in dreaming. Histon
pursues you like a ghost, like a nightmare, along the corri-
dors, on the stairs, even on the carpet on which you tread,
and on the chairs upon which you sit. The true way to
disgust a child forever with historical studies is to condemn
him to live for eight days in this house-school of Madame de
Genlis.

567. Miss Edgeworth (1767-1849). —It is with the
Scotch philosophy and the psychological theories of Reid and
Dugald Stewart, that were inspired in different degrees two
distinguished women, who honored English pedagogy at the
beginning of this century, — Miss Edgeworth and Miss Ham-
ilton.

In her book on Practical Education, published in 1798,1

1 French translation by Pictet, 1801.

fc. r trig it

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 483

Miss Edgeworth does not lose herself in theoretical disserta-
tions. Her book is a collection of facts, observations, and
precepts. The first chapter treats of toys, and the author
justifies this beginning by saying that in education there is
nothing trivial and minute. It is first by conversations, and
then by the use of the inventive, analytical, and intuitive
method, that Miss Edgeworth proposes to train her pupils ;
and her reflections on intellectual education deserve to be
considered. In moral education she agrees with Locke, and
seems to place great reliance on the sentiment of honor, and
on the love of reputation. In every case she absolutely
ignores the religious feeling. The characteristic of her sys-
tem is that it makes " a total abstraction of religious ideas."

568. Miss Hamilton (1758-1816). — Miss Hamilton is
at once more philosophical and more Christian than Miss
Edgeworth. It is from the psychologist Hartley that she
borrows her essential principle, which consists in making of
the association of ideas the basis of education. Hartley saw
in this the sovereign law of intellectual development. But,
on the other hand, she declares " that she follows no other
guide than the precepts of the Gospel."

The principal work of Miss Hamilton, her Letters on the
Elementary Principles of Education (1801),1 has a more
theoretical character than the book of Miss Edgeworth.
With her it is above all else a question of principles, which,
she says, are more necessary than rules. We find but few
reflections on teaching proper. She borrows the very words
of Dugald Stewart to define the object of education : —

" The most essential objects of education are the follow-
ing : first, to cultivate all the various principles of our nature,
both speculative and active, in such a manner as to bring

1 French translation by Cheron, 2 vols., Paris, 1804.

484 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

them to the greatest perfection of which they are suscepti-
ble ; and secondly, by watching over the impressions and
associations which the mind receives in early life, to secure
it against the influence of prevailing errors ; and, as far
as possible, to engage its prepossessions on the side of
truth." l

To cultivate the intellectual and moral faculties, Miss
Hamilton places her chief dependence, as we have said, on
the principle of the association of ideas. We must break up,
or, rather, prevent from being formed, all false associations,
that is, all inaccurate judgments. Order once re-established
among ideas, the will will be upright, and the conduct well
regulated. In other terms, this was to subordinate, perhaps
too completely, the development of the moral faculties to the
culture of the intellectual faculties.

44 It is evident," says Miss Hamilton, " that all our desires
are in accord with ideas of pleasure, and all our aversions
with ideas of pain."

The educator will then try to associate the idea of pleasure
with what is good and useful for the child and for the man.

Let us also note, in passing, the solicitude of Miss Hamil-
ton for the education of the people : —

44 From most of the writers on education it would appear
that it is only to people of rank and fortune that education
is a matter of any importance. . . . My plan has for its
object the cultivation of the faculties that are common to the
whole human race."2

On this point her thought was the same as that of Miss
Edgeworth, whose father, in 1799, in the Irish Parliament,
had caused the adoption of the first law on primary instruc-
tion.

^ 1 1 1 ^^— ^^^^^M" ■ I ■ I I -*-

1 Stewart, Elements, p. 11.
* Letters, Vol. I. p. 11.

WOMEN AS EDUCATOBS. 485

569. Madame Campan (1752-1822).— Twenty-five years'
experience, either at the court of Louis XV., or in the school
at Saint-Germain, which she founded under the Revolution,
or finally in the institution at ficouen, the direction of which
was entrusted to her by Napoleon I., in 1807, — such are the
claims which at once assure to Madame Campan some author-
ity on pedagogical questions.1 Let us add that good sense,
a methodical and prudent mind, — in a word, qualities which
were reasonable rather than brilliant, — directed that long
personal experience.

" First I saw," she said, " then I reflected, and finally I
wrote."

570. Eulogy on Home Education. — From a teacher,
from the directress of a school, we would expect prejudices
in favor of public education in boarding-schools. That which
secures our ready confidence, is that Madame Campan, on
the contrary, appreciates better than an}' one else the advan-
tages of maternal education : —

" To create mothers," she said, u this is the whole educa-
tion of women." Nothing seems to her superior to a mother
governess " who does not keep late hours, who rises betimes,"
who, finally, devotes herself resolutely to the important duty
with which she is charged.

44 There is no boarding-school, however well it may be con-
ducted, there is no convent, however pious its government
may be, which can give an education comparable to that
which a young girl receives from a mother who is edu-
cated, and who finds her sweetest occupation and her true
glory in the education of her daughter."

Madame Campan, moreover, reminds mothers who would

1 See the two volumes published in 1824 by Barriere, on the Education,
par Madame Campan, followed by the Conseils aux jeunes fllles.

486 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

be the teachers of their own daughters, of all the obligations
which are involved in such a charge. Too often the mother
who jealously keeps her daughter near her, is not capable of
educating her. In this case there is only the appearance of
home education, and as Madame Campan wittily says, " this
is no longer maternal education; it is but education at
home."

571. Progress in Instruction. — F6nelon was Madame
Campan's favorite author. On the other hand, there was
some resemblance between the rules of the school at ficouen
and those of Saint Cyr. The spirit of the seventeenth cen-
tury lives again in the educational institutions of the nine-
teenth, and Madame Campan continues the work of Madame
de Main tenon.

However, there is progress in more than one respect, and
the instruction is more solid and more complete.

"The purpose of education," wrote Madame Campan to
the Emperor, " ought to be directed : 1. towards the domes-
tic virtues ; 2. towards instruction, to such a degree of per-
fection in the knowledge of language, computation, history,
writing, and geography, that all pupils shall be assured of
the happiness of being able to instruct their own daughters."

Madame Campan desired, moreover, to extend her work.
She demanded of the Emperor the creation of several public
establishments " for educating the daughters of certain classes
of the servants of the State." She desired that the govern-
ment should take under its supervision private institutions,
and contemplated for women as for men a sort of university
u which might replace the convents and the colleges." But
Napoleon was not the man to enter into these schemes. The
schools of " women-logicians " were scarcely to his taste,
and the teaching congregations, which he restored to their
privileges, the better served his purpose.

WOMEN AS EDUCATOBS. 487

572. Interest in Popular Education. — One might be-
lieve that Madame Cam pan, who had begun by being the
teacher of the three daughters of Louis XV., and who asso-
ciated with scarcely any save the wealthy or the titled, had
never had the taste or the leisure to think of popular instruc-
tion. It is nothing of the sort, as is proved by her Counsels
to Young Girls, a work intended for Elementary Schools.

44 There is no ground for fearing that the daughters of the
rich will ever be in want of books to instruct them or of
governesses to direct them. It is not at all so with the chil-
dren who belong to the less fortunate classes. ... I have
seen with my own eyes how incomplete and neglected is the
education of the daughters of country people. ... It is for
them that I have penned this little work."

The work itself has not perhaps the tone that could be de-
sired, nor all the simplicity that the author would have wished
to give it ; but we must thank Madame Campan for her in-
tentions, and we count among her highest claims to the
esteem of posterity the effort which she made in her old age
to become, at least in her writings, a simple school-mistress
and a village teacher.

573. Madame de Remusat (1780-1821). — Madame de
Remusat has written only for women of the world. Herself
a woman of the world, lady of the palace of the Empress
Josephine, she had no personal experience in the way of
teaching. She had nothing to do with the practice of educa-
tion save in supervising the studies of her two sons, one of
whom became a philosopher and an illustrious statesman,
Charles de Remusat. The noble book of Madame de Remu-
sat, her Essay on the Education of Tubmen, does not commend
itself by reason of its detailed precepts and scholastic meth-
ods, but by its lofty reflections and general principles.1

1 The work of Madame de Remusat was published in 1824, after the au-
thor's death, under the direction of Charles de Remusat.

486 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

571. Progress in Instruction. — F6nelon was Madame
Campan's favorite author. On the other hand, there was
some resemblance between the rules of the school at iScouen
and those of Saint Cyr. The spirit of the seventeenth cen-
tury lives again in the educational institutions of the nine-
teenth, and Madame Campan continues the work of Madame
de Main tenon.

However, there is progress in more than one respect, and
the instruction is more solid and more complete.

44 The purpose of education," wrote Madame Campan to
the Emperor, 44 ought to be directed : 1. towards the domes-
tic virtues ; 2. towards instruction, to such a degree of per-
fection in the knowledge of language, computation, history,
writing, and geography, that all pupils shall be assured of
the happiness of being able to instruct their own daughters."

Madame Campan desired, moreover, to extend her work.
She demanded of the Emperor the creation of several public
establishments 44 for educating the daughters of certain classes
of the servants of the State." She desired that the govern-
ment should take under its supervision private institutions,
and contemplated for women as for men a sort of university
44 which might replace the convents and the colleges." But
Napoleon was not the man to enter into these schemes. The
schools of " women-logicians " were scarcely to his taste,
and the teaching congregations, which he restored to their
privileges, the better served his purpose.

WOMEN AS EDUCATOB8. 487

572. Interest in Popular Education. — One might be-
lieve that Madame Cam pan, who had begun by being the
teacher of the three daughters of Louis XV. , and who asso-
ciated with scarcely any save the wealthy or the titled, had
never had the taste or the leisure to think of popular instruc-
tion. It is nothing of the sort, as is proved by her Counsels
to Young Girls, a work intended for Elementary Schools.

" There is no ground for fearing that the daughters of the
rich will ever be in want of books to instruct them or of
governesses to direct them. It is not at all so with the chil-
dren who belong to the less fortunate classes. ... I have
seen with my own eyes how incomplete and neglected is the
education of the daughters of country people. ... It is for
them that I have penned this little work."

The work itself has not perhaps the tone that could be do*
sired, nor all the simplicity that the author would have wished
to give it ; but we must thank Madame Campan for her in-
tentions, and we count among her highest claims to the
esteem of posterity the effort which she made in her old age
to become, at least in her writings, a simple school-mistress
and a village teacher.

573. Madame de Remusat (1780-1821). — Madame de
Remusat has written only for women of the world. Herself
a woman of the world, lady of the palace of the Empress
Josephine, she had no personal experience in the way of
teaching. She had nothing to do with the practice of educa-
tion save in supervising the studies of her two sons, one of
whom became a philosopher and an illustrious statesman,
Charles de Remusat. The noble book of Madame de Remu-
sat, her Essay on the Education of Women, does not commend
itself by reason of its detailed precepts and scholastic meth-
ods, but by its lofty reflections and general principles.1

1 The work of Madame de Remusat was published in 1824, after the au«
thor's death, under the direction of Charles de Remusat.

488 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

574. Sketch op Feminine Psychology. — Let us first
notice different passages in which the author sketches by a
few touches the psychology of woman, and determines her
sphere in life : —

u Woman is the companion of man upon the earth, but
yet she exists on her own account ; she is inferior, but not
subordinate"

The expression here betrays Madame de Re'musat, and it
would be more accurate to say that woman is not inferior to
man, that she is his equal, but that in existing civil and so-
cial conditions she necessarily remains subordinate to him.

But with what perfect justness the amiable writer charac-
terizes the peculiar qualities of woman !

"We lack continuity and depth when we would apply
ourselves to general questions. Endowed with a quick in-
telligence, we hear promptly, we even divine and see just as
well as men ; but too easily moved to remain impartial, too
mobile to be profound, perceiving is easier for us than observ-
ing. Prolonged attention wearies us ; we are, in short, more
mild than patient. More sensitive and more devoted than
men, women are ignorant of that sort of selfishness which
an independent being exhibits outwardly as a consciousness
of his own power. To obtain from them any activity what-
ever, it is almost always necessary to interest them in the
happiness of another. Their very faults are the outgrowths
of their condition. The same cause will excite in man
emotions of pride, and in woman only those of vanity."

575. The Serious in Education. — Madame de Re'musat,
still more than Madame Campan, belongs to the modern
school. She desires for woman an education serious and
grave.

44 1 see no reason for treating women less seriously than

mB^mmmmmmmmma^

WOMEN AS EDUCATOBS. 489

men, for misrepresenting truth to them under the form of a
prejudice, duty under the appearance of a superstition, in
order that they may accept both the duty and the truth."

She does not in the least incline to the opinion of the over-
courteous moralist Joubert, who, with more gallantry than real
respect for women, said : u Nothing too earthly or too mate-
rial ought to employ young ladies ; only delicate material should
busy their hands. . . . They resemble the imagination, and
like it they should touch only the surface of things." *

Madame de Reumsat enters into the spirit of her time, and
her admiration for the age of Louis XIV. does not make her
forget what she owes to the new society, transformed by
great political reforms.

44 We are drawing near the time when every Frenchman
shall be a citizen. In her turn, the destiny of woman is
comprised in these two terms : wife and mother of a citizen.
There is much morality, and a very severe and touching
morality, in the idea which ought to be attached to that word
citizen. After religion, I do not know a more powerful mo-
tive than the patriotic spirit for directing the young towards

the good."

It is no longer a question, then, of training the woman and
the man for themselves, for their individual destiny. They
must be educated for the public good, for their duties in
society. Madame de R6musat is not one of those timid
and frightened women who feel a homesickness for the past,
whom the present terrifies. Liberal and courageous, she
manfully accepts the new regime ; she proclaims its advan-
tages, and, if she writes like a woman of the seventeenth
century, almost with the perfection of Madame de Se'vigne',
her chosen model, she at least thinks like a daughter of the
Revolution.

i Joubert, Penstes.

490

THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

576. Philosophical Spirit. — That which is not less re-
markable is the philosophical character of her reflections.
She believes in liberty and in conscience. It is conscience
which she purposes to substitute, as a moral rule, " for
despotic and superficial caprices." It is no longer by the
imperative term, you must, but by the obligatory term, you
ought, that the mother should lead and govern her daughter.

" On every occasion let these words, I ought, re-appear in
the conversation of the mother."

This is saying that the child ought to be treated as a free
being. The end, and at the same time the most efficient
means, of education, is the wise employment of liberty.
While keeping the oversight of the child, he must be left to
take care of himself, and on many occasions to follow the
course that he will. By this means his will will be developed,
and his character strengthened ; and this is an essential point
according to Madame de R£musat.

"If under Louis XIV.," she says, "the education of
woman's mind was grave and often substantial, that of her
character remained imperfect.

577. Madame Guizot (1773-1827). — Madame Guizot
first became known under her maiden name, Pauline de
Meulan. In the closing years of the eighteenth century she
had written several romances, and had contributed to the re-
view of Suard, the Publiciste. In 1812 she married Guizot,
the future author of the law of 1833, who had just founded
the Annals of Education,1 From this period, all her ideas
and all her writings were directed almost exclusively

1 The Annates de V Education appeared from 1811 to 1814. It is an inter-
esting collection to consult. In it Guizot published among other pedagog-
ical works, his studies on the ideas of Rabelais and Montaigne, afterwards
reprinted in the volume, lttudcs Morales,

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 491

towards ethics and education. She published in succession,
Children (1812), Raoul and Victor (1821), and, finally, her
masterpiece, the Family Letters on Education (1826) .

578. The Letters on Education. — To give at once an
idea of the merit of this book,1 we shall quote the opinion of
Sainte-Beuve : —

"The work of Madame Guizot will survive the Emile\
marking in this line the progress of the sound, temperate,
and refined reason of our times, over the venturesome genius
of Rousseau, just as in politics the D4mocratie of De Tocque-
ville is an advance over the Control Social. Essential to
meditate upon, as advice, in all education which would pre-
pare strong men for the difficulties of our modern society,
this book also contains, in the way of exposition, the noblest
moral pages, the most sincere and the most convincing,
which, with a few pages from Jouffroy, have been suggested
to the philosophy of our age by the doctrines of a spiritual-
istic rationalism."

579. Psychological Optimism. — The philosophical spirit
is not lacking in the Letters on Education. The whole of
Letter XII. is a plea in behalf of the relative innocence of
the child. That which is bad in the disorderly inclination,
says the author, is not the inclination, but the disorder : —

" The inclinations of a sentient being are in themselves
what they ought to be. It has been said that a man could
not be virtuous if he did not conquer his inclinations ; hence,
his inclinations are evil. This is an error. No more could
the tree produce good fruit, if, in pruning it, the disorderly
flow of the sap were not arrested. Does this prove that the
sap is harmful to the tree ? "

1 Education domestique ou Lettres de famille sur V education. 2 vols.
Paris, 1826.

492 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

It follows from these principles that discipline ought not
to be severe.

" Do you not think it strange," exclaims Madame Guizot,
" that for centuries education has been, so to speak, a sys-
tematic hostility against human nature ; that to correct and
to punish have been synonymous ; and that we have heard
only of dispositions to break, and natures to overcome, just
as though it were a question of taking away from children
the nature which God has given them in order to give them
another such as teachers would have it ? "

580. Nature of the Child. — That which gives a great
value to the work of Madame Guizot is, that besides the
general considerations and the philosophical reflections, we
there find a great number of circumstantial experiences and
detailed observations which are admissible in a sound trea-
tise on pedagogy. Like the psychology of the child, peda-
gogy itself, at least in its first chapters, ought to be conceived
and written near a cradle. Madame Guizot forcibly indi-
cates the importance of the first years, where the future des-
tiny of the child is determined : " In those imperfect organs,
in that incomplete intelligence, are contained, from the first
moment of existence, the germs of that which is ever more
to proceed from them either for better or for worse. The
man will never have, in the whole course of his life, an im-
pulse which does not belong to that nature*, all the features
of which are already foreshadowed in the infant. The infant
will never receive a keen and durable impression, however
slight, an impress of whatever kind, whose effects are not to
influence the life of the man."

At the same time that she sees in the infant the rough
draft of the man, Madame Guizot recognizes with a remark-
able delicacy of psychologic sense, that which distinguishes.

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 498

that which characterizes, the irreflective and inconsiderate
nature of the child. What is more just than this observation ?

"We often deceive ourselves in attributing to the conduct
of children, because it is analogous to our own, motives
similar to those which guide ourselves."

What better observation than the example which Madame
Guizot cites in support of this statement !

u Louise, by a sudden impulse, drops her toys, throws
herself upon my neck, and cannot cease kissing me. It
seems that all my mother's heart could not sufficiently
respond to the warmth of her caresses ; but bj* the same
playful impulse she leaves me to kiss her doll or the arm of
the chair which she meets on her way."

581. Philosophic Rationalism. — Madame Guizot pushes
rationalism much farther than Madame de Re"musat, and still
farther than Madame Necker de Saussure. She is first a
philosopher, then a Christian. She more nearly approaches
Rousseau. She would first form in the minds of children the
universal idea of God before initiating them into the particular
dogmas of positive religions. She bases morals on the idea
of duty, which is " the only basis of a complete education."

u I would place," she says, u each act of the child under
the protection of an idea or of a moral sentiment."

Recalling the distinction made by Dupont de Nemours
between paternal commands and military commands, the
first addressing themselves to the reason, the others to be
observed without protest and with a passive obedience, she
does not conceal her preference for the use of the first,
because she would form in the woman, as in the man, a spirit
of reason and of liberty. She absolutely proscribes personal
interest, and hence declares that " rewards have always
seemed to her contrary to the true principle of education."

494 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Let us say, lastly, without being able to enter into detail,
that the book of Madame Guizot deserves to be read with
care. There will be found in it a great number of excellent
refections on instruction which ought to be substantial
rather than extensive ; upon the reading of romances, and
upon the theatre, which she does not forbid; upon easy
methods, which she condemns ; and, finally, on almost all
pedagogical questions.1

582. Madame Necker de Saussure (1765-1841). —
There are in the history of education privileged moments,
periods that are particularly and happily fruitful. It is thus
that within the space of a few years there appeared in suc-
cession the books of Madame de R£musat, of Madame
Guizot, and, the most important of all, the Progressive Edu-
cation of Madame Necker de Saussure.2

A native of Geneva, like Rousseau, Madame Necker de
Saussure has endowed French literature with an educational
masterpiece, which for elevation of view and nobleness of
inspiration, can take rank by the side of the Emile. Though
she may sometimes be too logical and too austere, and while
in general she is lacking in good humor, and while she looks
upon life only through a veil of sadness, Madame Necker is
an incomparable guide in educational affairs. She brings to
the subject remarkable qualities of perspicacity and penetra-
tion, and a spirit of marked gravity. She takes a serious
view of life, and applies herself to training the noblest quali-
ties of the human soul. Profoundly religious, she unites a
14 philosophical boldness to the submission of faith." She
is, in some measure, a Christian Rousseau.

1 See in the Revue ptdagogique, 1883, No. 6, an interesting study on
Madame Guizot, by Bernard Perez.

2 Ultducatton progressive ou tltude du court de la nature humaine.
3 vols. 1836-1838.

uMk

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 495

588. Madame Necker de Saussure and Madame de
Stael. — The first work of Madame Necker, Notice of the
CJtaracter and tfie Writings of Madame de Stael, already gives
proof of her interest id education. The author of the Pro-
gressive Education here studies with care the ideas of her
heroine on education and instruction. It is plain that she
has profited by some of the solid reflections in the noble
book on Germany i and particularly by this opinion on the
gradual and progressive method of Rousseau and of Pes-
talozzi : —

" Rousseau calls children into activity by degrees. He
would have them do for themselves all that their little powers
permit them to do. He does not in the least force their
intelligence ; he does not make them reach the result with-
out passing over the route. He wishes the faculties to be
developed before the sciences are taught."

" What wearies children is to make them jump over inter-
mediate parts, to make them advance without their really
knowing what they think they have learned. With Pestalozzi
there is no trace of these difficulties. With him, children
take delight in their studies, because even in infancy, they
taste the pleasure of grown men, namely, comprehending
and completing that on which they have been engaged."

Moreover, Madame Necker must have recognized her own
spirit, her preference for a severe and painstaking educa-
tion, in this passage where Madame de Stael vigorously pro-^
tested against amusing and easy methods of instruction : —

" The education that takes place through amusement
dissipates thought ; labor of some sort is one of the great
aids of nature ; the mind of the child ought to accustom
itself to the labor of study, just as our soul to suffering. . . .
You will teach a multitude of things to your child by means
of pictures and cards, but you will not teach him how to
learn."

496 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

584. Progressive Education and Rousseau. — It is
undeniable that Madame Necker owes much to Rousseau ;
but she is far from always agreeing with him.

For Rousseau, man is good ; for her, man is bad. The
first duty of the teacher should be to reform him, to raise
him from his fall ; the purpose of life is not happiness, as an
immoral doctrine maintains, but it is improvement ; the basis
of education ought to be religion.

Even when she is inspired by Rousseau, Madame Necker
is not long in separating from him. Thus we may believe
that she borrows from him the fundamental idea of her book,
the idea of a successive development of the faculties, to
which should correspond a parallel movement in educational
methods. Like the author of the Entile, she follows the
awakening of the senses in the infant. She considers the
infant as a being sui generis " who lives only on sensations
and desires." She sees in the infant a distinct period of life,
an age whose education has its own special rules. But at
that point the resemblances stop ; for Madame Necker de
Saussure hastens to add that, from the fifth year, the child
is in possession of all his intellectual faculties. He is no
longer simply a sentient being, a robust animal like firaile ;
but he is a complete being, soul and body. Consequently,
education should take account of his double nature. Moral
education ought not to be separated from physical education,
and cannot begin too soon.

44 It is a great error to believe that nature proceeds in the
systematic order imagined by Rousseau. With her, we
nowhere discern a commencement ; we do not surprise her at
creating, and it always seems that she is developing."

So, in education, we must know how to appeal, at the
same time and as soon as possible, to the different motives,
instinctive or reflective, selfish or affectionate, which sway
the will.

■**■

^i ,mm—— ^M*ajraffi

WOMEN AS EDUCATOBS. 497

Often, in practice, the two thinkers approach each other,
and, even in her protestations against her countryman,
Madame Necker de Saussure preserves something of Rous-
seau's spirit. Thus, she does not desire the negative educa-
tion which leaves everything to nature. The teacher ought
not to allow the child to do (laisser faire), but cause him to
do (f aire f aire) . But, at the same time, she demands that
the will be strengthened, so that education may find in it a
point of support ; that the character be hardened ; that some
degree of independence be accorded to the child ; " that in
permissible cases he be allowed to come to his own decision ;
and that half-orders, half-obligations, tacit entreaties, and
insinuations, be avoided." Is not this retaining all that is
just and practical in Rousseau's theory, namely, the necessHy
of associating the special and spontaneous powers of the
child with the work of education? Madame de Saussure
adopts a just medium between the active education which
makes a misuse of the master's instruction, and the passive
education which makes a misuse of the pupil's liberty. She
would willingly have accepted this precept of Froebel, " Let
teachers not lose sight of this truth : it is necessary that
always and at the same time they give and take, that they
precede and follow, that they act and let act."

585. Originality of Madame Necker. — Though she had
reflected much on the writings of her predecessors, it is never-
theless to her personal experience and to her original investi-
gations that Madame Necker owes the best of her thought.
She had herself followed the advice which she gives to moth-
ers, of "observing their children, and of keeping a journal,
in which a record should be made of each step of progress,
and in which all the vicissitudes of physical and moral health
should be noted." It is a rich psychological fund, and at the

- ifc-Jl'SW

498 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

same time a perpetual aspiration after the ideal, which makes
the strength and the beauty of the Progressive Education.
With what penetrating insight Madame Necker has pointed
out the difficulty and also the charm of the study of children !

"It were so delightful to fix the fugitive image of child*
hood, to prolong indefinitely the happiness of contemplating
their features, and to be sure of ever finding again those dear
creatures whom, alas, we are always losing as children, even
when we still have the happiness of keeping them ! "

"We must love children in order to know them, and we
divine them less by the intelligence than by the heart."

Thanks to the pronounced taste for the study of child
nature, the most just psj-chological observations are ever
mingled, in the Progressive Education, with the precepts of
education, and it has been truly said that " this book is
almost a journal of domestic education which takes the pro-
portions of a theory."

586. Division of the Progressive Education. — The
Progressive Education appeared in 1836 and 1838 in three
volumes. The first three books treat of the history of the
soul in infancy ; the fourth examines the general principles
of teaching, independently of the age of the pupil ; the fifth
studies the child of from five to seven years of age ; the sixth
takes us to the tenth vear ; the seventh shows " the distinc-
tive marks of the character and the intellectual development
of boys, during the years which immediately precede ado-
lescence." Finally, the last four books form a complete
whole, and treat of the education of women during the whole
course of life.

587. Development of the Faculties. — We cannot at-
tempt in this place to analyze a work so rich in ideas as the
work of Madame Necker. Let us limit ourselves to indicating

WOMEN AS BDUCATOKS. 499

the essential points in her system of education. First, it is
the preoccupation of training the will, a faculty which is too
much neglected by teachers, but which, nevertheless, is the
endowment which dominates life. Madame Necker treats this
subject in a masterly way in a chapter to which she prefixes
these words as a superscription : —

44 Obedience to law constrains the will without enfeebling
it, while obedience to man injures it or enervates it.

44 It is, above all, to place the interior education of the
soul above superficial and formal instruction.

44 To instruct a child is to construct him within; it is to
make him become a man."

588. Culture op the Imagination. — Whatever impor-
tance she attaches to the active powers, Madame Necker does
not neglect the contemplative faculties. The imagination,
next to the will, is the faculty of the soul which has most
often engrossed her attention.

44 She has made it appear," says a distinguished writer,"
44 that this irresistible power, when we believe it to have been
conquered, takes the most diverse forms ; that it disguises
its power and arouses with a secret fire the most miserable
passions. If you refuse it space and liberty, it slinks away
in the depths of selfishness, and under vulgar features it
becomes avarice, cowardice, and vanity."

44 So it is necessary to see with what tender anxiety
Madame Necker watches its first movements in the soul of
the child ; with what intelligent care she seeks to make of it
from entrance upon life, the companion of truth ; how she
surrounds it with everything which can establish it within the
circle of the good. The studies which extend our intellectual
horizon, the spectacle of nature in her marvelous diversities,
the emotions of the arts, — nothing seems to her superfluous

500 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

or dangerous for directing the imagination in the way that is
good. She fears to see it escape, through the lack of pleas-
ures that are intense enough, in the direction of other routes."1

In other terms, it is not proposed to repress the imagina-
tion, still less to destroy it ; but merely to guide it gently,
to associate it with reason and virtue, to awaken it to a taste
for the good, and to an admiration for nature.

" Show him a beautiful sunset, in order that nothing which
can enchant him may pass unnoticed."

589. The Education of Women. — In her special studies
on the education of women, Madame Necker, who in other
parts of her work sometimes makes an improper use of vague
declarations of principles, without entering sufficiently into
the details of practical processes, has had the double merit
of assigning to the destiny of women an elevated ideal, and
of determining with precision the means of attaining it.
She complains that we too often adhere to Rousseau's pro-
gramme, that of an education which relates exclusively to
the conjugal duties of the woman. She recommends that the
marriage of young girls be delayed, so that they may have
time to become " enlightened spirits and intelligent crea-
tures " ; so that they may acquire, not " an assortment of all
petty knowledges," but a solid instruction, which prepares
them for the duties of society and of maternity, which make
of them the first teachers of their children, which, in a word,
starts them on the way towards that personal perfection
which they will never completely attain except by the efforts
of their whole life.2

1 Preface to the fifth edition of the Progressive Education, Paris.
Gamier.

2 We must include in the educational school of Madame Necker de
Saussure one of her countrymen, the celebrated Vinet (1799-1847), who, in
his excellent book, V Education, la famille et la socifti (Pari*, 1856), has
vigorously discussed certain educational questions.

WOMEN A8 EDUCATORS. 50l

590. Madame Pape-Carpentier (1815-1878).— With
Madame Pape-Carpentier, we leave the region of theories to
enter the domain of facts ; we have to do with a practical
teacher. In 1846, after several trials at teaching at La
Fleche, her native city, and at Mans, she published her
Counsels on the Management of Infant Schools. In 1847 she
founded at Paris a Mothers9 Normal School, which the next
year, under the ministry of Carnot, became a public estab-
lishment, and which, in 1852, under the ministry of Fortoul,
took the distinctive title Practical Courses on Infant Schools.
It is there that during twenty-seven years Madame Pape-
Carpentier applied her methods and trained a large number
of pupils, more than fifteen hundred, who have propagated
in France and abroad her teaching and her ideas. In 1847
she was removed from the management of her normal school
through intrigues ; but her loss of position was not of long
duration. A little later she was appointed inspector-general
of infant schools.

591. General Character of her Works. — Madame
Pape-Carpentier may be considered as a pupil of Pestalozzi
and of Froebel. She was specially occupied with elementary
education, and carried into her work a spirit of great sim-
plicity. We must not demand of her ambitious generalities
nor views on abstract metaphysics ; but she excels in practical
wisdom, and speaks the language of childhood to perfection.

592. Principal Works op Madame Pape-Carpentier.
— Among the important works of Madame Pape-Carpentier
we shall recommend the following in particular : —

1. Advice on the Management of Infant Schools (1845).
In her preface the author excuses herself for undertaking
" a subject of such gravity." But she goes on to say that
" no instruction has yet been given the teacher on the educa-

602 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tion of the poor child," and she asks the privilege of speak-
ing in the name of her personal experience. This book,
often reprinted, has become Enseignernent pratique dans les
8aUes d'asile.1

2. Narratives and Lessons on Objects (1858) . This is a
collection of little stories, fc' simple as childhood, " which
were tested before children before being written, and in
which Madame Pape-Carpentier attempts to teach them
things which are good : " I mean," she says, " things really,
seriously good."

3. Pedagogical Discussions held at the Sorbonne (1867).
During the Universal Exposition of 1867, Monsieur
Duruy had assembled at Paris a certain number of teachers
before whom pedagogical discussions were held. Madame
Pape-Carpentier took upon herself the special task of ex-
plaining to them how the methods of the infant school might
be introduced into the primary school.

4. Reading and Work for Children and Mothers (1873).
Here Madame Pape-Carpentier is especially intent on
popularizing the methods of Froebel ; she suggests ingenious
exercises which can be applied to children to give them skill
in the use of their fingers, and to inspire them with a taste
for order and symmetry.

5. Complete Course of Education (1874). This book,
which would have been the general statement of the peda-
gogical principles of the author, was left incomplete. Only
three volumes have appeared. A few quotations will make
known their spirit.

" To co-operate with nature in her work, to extend it, to
correct her when she goes wrong, — such is the task of the
educator. In all grades of education, nature must be
respected.

1 See the sixth edition, Paris, Hachette, 1877.

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 503

" The child should live in the midst of fresh and soothing
impressions ; the objects which burround him in the school
should be graceful and cheerful.

" Socrates has admirably said, ' The duty of education is
to give the idea birth rather than to communicate it.' "

6. Note on the Education of the Senses, and some Peda-
gogical Appliances (1878). Madame Pape-Carpentier is
very much interested in the education of the senses, because,
she says, "every child born into the world is a workman in
prospect, a future apprentice to an occupation still unknown."
It is then necessary to perfect at an early hour the natural
tools he will need in order to fulfill his task. The education
of the senses will have its place some day or other in the
official programmes, and, for this sense-training, instruments
are just as necessary as books are for the culture of the in-
tellect.

593. Lessons on Objects. — "The object-lesson is the
new continent on which Madame Pape-Carpentier has planted
her standard." She herself wrote a number of works which
contain models of object-lessons ; she has stated the theory
of them, notably in her discussions of 18G7. It is even
permissible to think that she has made a wrong use of them.
With her, the object-lesson becomes a universal process
which she applies to all subjects, to chemistry, to physics,
to grammar, to geography, and to ethics.

However it may be, this is the course to follow according
to her : it is necessary to conform to the order in which the
perceptions of the intelligence succeed each other. The
child's attention is first struck by color. Then he will dis-
tinguish the form of the object, and would know its use,
its material, and mode of production. It is according to
this natural development of the child's curiosity that the
object-lesson should proceed.

604

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Moreover, it can be given with reference to everything.
Madame Pape-Carpentier admits what she calls " occasional
lessons " ; but she also thinks that object-lessons can be
given according to a plan, a fixed programme.

Madame Pape-Carpentier deserves, then, to be heard as an
experienced adviser in whatever relates to elementary in-
struction ; but that which we must admire in her still more
than her professional skill and her pedagogical knowledge, is
an elevated conception of the teacher's work, and a lofty in-
spiration coming from her devotion to children and her love
for them.

" To educate children properly," she said, "ought to be
for the teacher only the second part of his undertaking ; the
first, and the most difficult, is to perfect himself."

" What we are able to do for children is measured by the
love we bear them."

594. Other Women who were Educators. — If the edu-
cation of women has received an important development in
our day, it is due, then, in great part to the women who have
shown what they were worth and what they could do, either
as teachers or as educators. And yet the history whose
principal features we have just traced remains very incom-
plete. By the side of the celebrated women whose works we
have studied, we should mention Mademoiselle Sauvan, who,
in 1811, founded at Chaillot an educational establishment
which she did not leave till about 1830, to take the intel-
lectual and moral direction of the girls' schools of Paris ; l
Madame de Maisonneuve, author of an Essay on the Instruc-
tion of Women,2 in which she sums up the results of a long

1 See the work entitled Madamoiselle Sauvan, premiere inspectrice de$
icoles de Paris, sa vie, son ceuvre, par E. Gossot. Paris, 1880.

2 Essai sur V instruction des femmes. Tours, 1841.

^AUHfaL

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS. 505

experience acquired in the management of a private boarding-
school.

But men have also contributed by their theoretical objec-
tions, or by their practical efforts, to the progress of the edu-
cation of women. It would be of interest, for example, to
study the courses in secondary instruction of Lou rm and
(1834), and the Courses in Maternal Education, of L6vi
Alvarfcs (1820) . "Monsieur L6vi," says Gr£ard, " makes the
mother tongue and history the basis of instruction. He him-
self sums up his methods in this formula of progressive edu-
cation : Facts, comparison of facts, moral or philosophical
consequence of facts ; that is, seeing, comparing, judging.
This is the very order of nature." Let us mention also the
work of Aim6 Martin, Hie Education of Mothers,1 which for
several years enjoyed an extraordinary reputation that it
would be rather difficult to justify.

595. DlJPANLOUP AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. A

bishop of the nineteenth century, Dupanloup, has assumed
to rival F6neion in the delicate question of the education of
women. Different works, and in particular the one which he
esteemed most, his Letters on the Education of Girls, pub-
lished after his death in 1879, give proof of the interest
which he took in these questions. These letters are for the
most part real letters which were addressed to women of the
time. Notwithstanding the variety and the freedom of the
epistolary form, the work may be divided into three parts :
1. the principles of education; 2. the education of young
women ; 3. free and personal study in the world. Dupanloup
should be thanked for having summoned woman to a true
intellectual culture, and for not consenting to have her facul-
ties remain " smothered and useless." Through the revela-

l The first edition is dated 1834. The ninth was published in 1873.

506 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tions of the confessional and the spiritual direction of a great
number of women, Dupanloup knew exactly what a void
an incomplete education of the mind and heart leaves in the
soul. He is iudeed willing to acknowledge that piety is not
enough, and with a certain breadth of spirit which drew upon
him the censure of the ultramontane press, he recommends
the serious studies to women. His counsels, however, are
addressed only to women of the middle classes, to those who,
he says, " occupy the third story of houses in Paris." His
book is rather a reminiscence of the seventeenth century, of
its manners and its habits of thinking, than a living work of
to-day, adapted to the needs of modern society.

[596. Analytical Summary. — 1. The formal discussion
of woman's education by women marks an important epoch
in the history of education. Had the education of men been
wholly, or even chiefly, discussed by women, it cannot be
doubted that it would have been more or less partial and
imperfect.

2. The formal discussion of infant education by women is
scarcely less important ; for nothing less than maternal in-
stinct and affection can divine the nature and the needs of
the child.

3. This study calls attention to the need of making the
education of women serious instead of ornamental. Plato
based his recommendation of the equal education of men and
women on equality of civil functions. In modern thought
it is the conception of equal rights and of equal abilities
that tends to prescribe the same course of intellectual train-
ing for both sexes.

4. The educational work of the two Englishwomen, Miss
Edge worth and Miss Hamilton, can be studied with great prof-

^Hrtfe

WOMEN AS EDUCATORS.

507

it. The first excels in practical wisdom, and the second in
philosophic insight.

5. The Progressive Education of Madame Necker is a
classic which fairly ranks with the Emile of Rousseau, and
the Education of Herbert Spencer.",

CHAPTER XXL

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF EDUCATION IN THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

THE PEDAGOGY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY J VOTES OP THE COUN-
CILS-GENERAL (1801) ; FOURCROY AND THE LAW OF 1802 J FOUNDA-
TION OF THE UNIVER8ITY (1806) ; ORGANIZATION OF THE IMPERIAL
UNIVERSITY J INTENTIONS OF THE DYNASTY J PRIMARY INSTRUC-
TION neglected; origin of mutual instruction; bell and
lancaster ; success of mutual instruction in france j moral
advantages; economical advantages; organization of
schools on the mutual system j vices of this system j state
of primary instruction j guizot and the law of 1833 j higher
primary schools; circular of guizot; progre8s in popular
instruction ; programmes of primary instruction j the
theorists of education j jacotot (1770-1840) j the paradoxes
of jacotot ; all is in all; the saint-simonians and the
phalansterians j fourier (1772-1837) j augusts comte (1798-1857)
and the positivists ; dupanloup (1802-1878) j analysis of the
treati8e on education; errors and prejudices; the spirit-
ualistic school and the university men; analytical sum-
MARY.

. 597. The Pedagogy of the Nineteenth Century. — An
/ effort more and more marked to organize education in accord-
ance with the data of psychology and on a scientific basis,
and to co-ordinate pedagogical methods in accordance with a
rational plan ; a manifest tendency to take the .control of
education from the hands of the Church in order to restore it
to the State and to lay society ; a larger part accorded the
family in the management of children ; a faith more and more

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 509

sanguine in the efficacy of instruction, and an ever-growing \
purpose to have every member of the human family partici-
pate in its benefits, — such are some of the characteristics of
the pedagogy of the nineteenth century. Education tends
more and more to become a social problem"]" It is to be an
affair of universal interest. It is no longer to be merely a
question of regulating select studies for the use of a few who
are the favorites of birth and fortune ; but science must be
placed within the reach of all, and through the simplification
of methods and the "universal distribution of knowledge, it
must be adapted to the democratic spirit of the new society.
We have no intention to follow in this place, in all its
details, and in the diversity of its currents, this educational 1
movement of a century which has not yet said its last word ;
but we must limit ourselves to calling attention to the points
which seem to us essential.

598. Laws of the Councils-General op 1801. — Not-

withstanding the efforts of the Revolution, public instruction
in France, during the first part of the nineteenth century,
was far from being flourishing. There was urgent need of
introducing reforms. The Councils-General were summoned
in 1801 to give their advice on the organization of studies.
That which is very noticeable in the State papers of the
Councils-General of 1801, is that the departmental assem-
blies agree in demanding the establishment of a National
University. The Councils-General complain that the pro-
cessors, being no longer united by the ties of solidarity, as
were the members of the religious teaching congregations of
the old regime, march at random, without unity, without
concerted direction. They solicit, then, a uniform organi-
zation of instruction. They even conceive the idea of an <
official instruction administered exclusively by the State. I

510 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

599. Fouroroy1 and the Law of 1802. — We have not
the space to dwell long on the bill of Fourcroy, which became
the law of 1802, although tbis measure, it has been said, was
amended twenty-three times before being submitted to the
Corps Le'gislatif and to the Tribunate.

Fourcroy did not sufficiently recognize the rights of the
State. Doubtless he did not go so far as to assert, with
Adam Smith, that education should be abandoned entirely
to private enterprise ; but he thinks that the task of organ-
izing the primary schools must be left to the communes.
In his opinion, that which prevented the success of these
schools was the attempt to impose too great a uniformity
on them. He demands that the teachers be chosen by the
mayors, or by the municipal councillors, who alone are cog-
nizant of the local interests. The primary school is the need
of all. Then let it be the affair of all. Fourcroy was mis-
taken. Primary instruction became a reality in France only
on the day when the State vigorously put its hand on it.

On certain points, however, the law of 1802 prepared the
way for the approaching creation of Napoleon ; for example,
in giving to the First Consul the appointment of the pro-
fessors of the colleges, and in placing the primary schools
under the supervision of the prefects.

600. Foundation of the University (1806). — The law
of May 11, 1806, completed by the decrees of March 17,
1808, and of 1811, established the University, that is, a
teaching corporation, unique and entirely dependent on the
State : —

" There shall be constituted a body charged exclusively

» ■^ — *^~ ~~" ^ ^-~

1 Fourcroy (1755-1800), a celebrated chemist, was director-general of
public instruction in 1801. He prepared, in the following years, the decreet
relative to the establishment of the University.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 511

with instruction and public education throughout the whole
extent of the Empire."

Instruction thus became a function of the State, on the
same basis as the administration of justice or the organiza-
tion of the army.

At the samo time that it lost all autonomy, all indepen-
dence, the University gained the formidable privilege of
being alone charged with the national instruction.

"No one can open a school or teach publicly, without
being a member of the Imperial University and without hav-
ing been graduated from one of its Faculties." " No school
can be established outside of the University, and without the
authorization of its head."

We know what protestations were excited, even on the
start, by the establishment of this Universit}' monopoly.
" It was not enough to enchain parents ; it was still neces-
sary to dispose of the children. Mothers have been seen
hastening from the extremities of the Empire, coming to re-
claim, in an agony of tears, the sons whom the government
had carried off from them." Thus spoke Chateaubriand,
before lavishing his adulations on the restorer of altars, and
he added, with an extravagance of imagination which recoils
on itself, "Children were placed in schools where they were
taught at the sound of the drum, irreligion, debauchery, and
contempt for the domestic virtues ! " Joseph de Maistre
was more just: " Fontanes,"1 he said, "has large views
and excellent intentions. The plan of his University is
grand and comprehensive. It is a noble body. The soul
will come to it when it can. Celibacy, subordination, devo-
tion of the whole life without religious motive, are required.
Will they be obtained ? " *

i Fontanes (1757-1821), first Grand Master of the University.
* Mimoire politique of Joseph de Maistre, Paris, 1858, p. 30.

512 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

601. Organization of the Imperial University. — The
Imperial University comprised, like the present University,
Colleges, Lyce*es, and Faculties. The Colleges furnished
secondary instruction, like the Lyce*es, but less complete.
There were a Faculty of Letters and a Faculty of Sciences
for each academic centre ; but these Faculties were very
poorly equipped, with their endowment of from five to ten
thousand francs at most, and with their few professors. The
professors of the neighboring Lyce'e (professors of rhetoric
and mathematics) formed a part of the establishment, and
-jach Faculty included at most but two or three other chairs.

Latin and mathematics formed the basis of the instruction
in the Lvc6es. The Revolution had not come in vain, since
that which it had vigorously demanded was now realized ;
the sciences and the classical languages were put on a foot-
ing of equality.

602. Dynastic Prepossessions. — That which absorbed
the attention of the founder of the Imperial University was
less the schemes of study than the general principles on
which the rising generations were to be nourished. In this
respect the thought of the Emperor is not obscure. He does
not dissemble it. God and the Emperor are the two words
which must be graven into the depths of the soul.

44 All the schools of the Imperial University will make as
the basis of their instruction : 1 . the precepts of the Catholic
religion ; 2. fidelity to the Emperor, to the imperial mon-
archy, the depository of the happiness of the people, and to
the Napoleonic d}*nasty, the conservator of the unity of
France, aud of all the ideas proclaimed by the Constitution."

44 Napoleon," as Guizot says, 44 attempted to convert into
an instrument of despotism an institution which tended to
be only a centre of light."

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 513

603. Primary Instruction neglected. — Primary instruc-
tion never occupied the attention of Napoleon I. The decree
of 1805 contented itself with promising measures intended to
assure the recruitment of teachers, especially the creation of
one or more normal classes within the colleges and lyce'es.
Moreover, the Grand Master was to encourage and to license
the Brethren of the Christian Schools, while supervising their
establishments. Finally, the right to establish schools was
left to families or to religious corporations, the budget of the
Empire containing no item of appropriation for the cause of
popular instruction.

The Restoration was scarcely more generous towards the
instruction of the people. By the ordinance of February 29,
1815, it granted fifty thousand francs as encouragement to the
primary schools. Was this derisive liberality any better than
complete silence and neglect? A more important measure
was the establishment of cantonal committees charged with
the supervision of primary schools. These committees were
placed, sometimes under the direction of the rector, and at
others under the authority of the bishop, at the pleasure of
the vicissitudes of politics. Certificates of qualification were
delivered to the members of the authorized congregations, on
the simple presentation of their letters of permission. We
can imagine what a body of teachers could be assured by such
a mode of recruitment.

In anticipation of the monarchy of July, which in its liberal
dispositions was to appear more regardful of popular educa-
tion, private initiative signalized itself under the Restoration
by the foundation of the Society for Elementary Instruction^
and also by the encouragement it gave to the first attempts at
mutual instruction.

604. Origin of Mutual Instruction. — Two Englishmen,
Bell and Lancaster, have claimed the honor of Imjivye^ Vcl-

'mii-Smii—^mtmm—mmammmir-aumM

514 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

vented mutual instruction. The fact is, neither of them
invented it ; they simply gave it currencj7. It is in France,
if not in India, that we must look for the real origin of
mutual instruction. We have seen that Madame de Mainte-
non, Rollin, La Salle, and Pestalozzi, practised it, and to a
certain extent gave it currency. In the eighteenth century
Herbault had employed it in the hospital of La Pitie* (1747),
the Chevalier Pauiet at Vincennes (1774), and, finally, the
Abbe* Gaultier,1 also a Frenchman, had introduced the use of
it into London, in 1792, some years before Bell brought it
from India.

605. Bell (1753-1832) and Lancaster (1778-1838).—
Bell and Lancaster are none the less the, first authorized
propagators of the mutual method, or, as the English say, of
the monitorial system. Bell had used it at Madras, in imita-
tion of the Hindoo teachers, and in 1798 he introduced it into
England. But at the same period, a young English teacher,
Lancaster, applied the same methods with success, and, so
far as it appears, through a suggestion absolutely personal
and original. Lancaster was a Quaker, and Bell a Church-
man, so that public opinion in England was divided between
the two rivals. The truth is that they had applied at the
same time a system which was known before their day, and
which must naturally have been suggested to all teachers who
have too large a number of children to instruct, as a result
of the inadequacy of their resources and the lack of a teaching
force sufficiently large.

606. Success of Mutual Instruction in France. — Mu-
tual instruction, which was maintained in certain schools of

1 The Abbe* Gaultier (1746-1818), author of a large number of works on
elementary instruction, and almost a reformer in his way. He employed
teaching by sight, and recommended varied exercises, such as games where
he introduced counters^ tickets, interrogations in the form of lotttrie*.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 515

Paris till 1867, for a long time enjoyed an extraordinary
credit in France. Under the Restoration, its success was so
great that it became the fashion, and even a craze. Patron-
ized by the most eminent men of that day, by Royer-Collard,
by Laisne\ by the Duke Decazes, by the Duke Pasquier,
mutual instruction became the flag of the liberal party in the.
matter of instruction. Political passions became involved in
it. The new system came into competition with the tradi-
tional instruction of the Brethren of the Christian Schools,
and was fought and denounced as immoral by all the' partisans
of routine. " Mutual instruction was charged with destroy-
ing the foundation of social order by delegating to children
a power which ought to belong only to men. . . . Men held
for or against simultaneous instruction, its rival, as if it were
a question of an article of the Charter." *

607. Moral Advantages. — The friends of mutual instruc-
tion, in order to justify their enthusiasm, made the most of
moral reasons. What can be more touching, they said, than
to see children communicating to one another the little that
they know? What an excellent lesson of charity and of
mutual aid ! The Gospel has said, Love one another. Was
it not giving to the divine precept a happy translation to add,
Instruct one another! An attempt was made, moreover, to
introduce mutuality into discipline and into the repression
of school faults. The school, on certain solemn occasions,
was converted into a court for trying criminals. " All this
was done ver}' seriously, and it was also very seriously felt
that these practices, passing from a class of children to a
class of adults, would contribute to introduce into society the
habits of a true and useful fraternity."

1 See Gre*ard, L*en&eignement primaire a Paris de 1867 a 1877. A memoir
published in 1877, pp. 75-90. See also an interesting study full of personal
recollections of E. Deschamps, L' enseignement mutual. Toulouse, 1883.

516 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

608. Economical Advantages. — To tell the truth, mu-
tual instruction was above all else " a useful expedient,"
according to Roll in' s expression. At a period when teachers
were scarce, when the budget of public instruction did not
exist, it was natural that an economic system which dispensed
with teachers, and which reduced to almost nothing the cost
of instruction, should be hailed with enthusiasm. Let us add
that there was also an economy in books, since " there was
need of only one book, which pupils never used, and which
would thus last for several years."

Jomard calculated that there were 3,000,000 children to
instruct, and that, according to the ordinary system, this
would require the expenditure of more than 45,000,000
francs.1

Now, according to the calculations of the Comte de La-
borde,2 1000 pupils being able to be educated by one single
teacher, by the system of mutual instruction, more easily
than 30 could have been by the old system, a sum of 10,000
francs granted annually by the State would suffice to educate
in twelve years the entire generation of poor children.8

609. Organization of Schools on the Mutual Plan. —
Bell defined mutual instruction as " the method by means
of which a whole school may instruct itself, under the super-
vision of one single master."

Here is the picture of a mutual school, as described by
Cre'ard : —

That was a striking spectacle at the first glance, — those

1 Jomard (1777-1802), member of the Society for Elementary Instruc-
tion, author of Tableaux des tcoles Mmentaires.

2 The Comte de Laborde (1771-1842), author of a plan & education pour
les enfant s.

8 Among the other propagators of mutual instruction, mention should be
made of the Abbe* Gaultier, Larochefoucauld-Liancoort, De Laateyrie, etc

n n

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 517

long and vast structures which contained a whole school*
such as the older generations of our teachers recollect still to
have seen at the Halle aux Draps. In the middle of the
room, throughout its entire length, were rows of tables hav-
ing from five to twenty places each, having at one end, at
the right, the desk of the monitor, and the board having
models of writing, itself surmounted by a standard or tele-
graph which served to secure, by means of directions easy to
read, regularity of movements ; at the side of the room, and
all along the walls, there were rows of semi-circles, about
which were arranged groups of children ; on the walls, on a
line with the eye, there was a blackboard on which were
performed the exercises in computation, and from which
were suspended the charts for reading and grammar ; right
at his side, within reach of his hand, was the stick with
which the teacher was provided for conducting the lesson ;
finally, at the lower part of the room, on a wide and high
platform, accessible by steps and surrounded by a balus-
trade, was the chair of the master, who, employing in suc-
cession, according to fixed rules, voice, bdton, or whistle,
surveyed the tables and groups, distributing commendation or
reproof, and directing, in a word, like a captain on the deck
of his vessel, the whole machinery of instruction."

In respect of systematic movements and exterior order,
nothing is more charming than the appearance of a school
conducted on the mutual plan. It remains to inquire what
were the educational results of the system, and whether the
fashion which brought it into favor was justified by real
advantages.

610. Vices op Mutual Instruction. — The monitor was
the mainspring of the mutual method. But what was the
monitor? A child, more intelligent, doubtless, than his com-

518 THE HI8T0RY OF PEDAGOGY.

rades, but too little instructed to be equal to his task. The
mutual school did not open till ten o'clock. From eight to
ten there was a class for the monitors. There they learned
in haste what they were, for the rest of the day, to teach to
the other children. The purpose of the master being to form
good instruments as quickly as possible, they were fitted up
for their trade by the most expeditious methods.

" What sort of teachers could such a preparation produce?
To teach is to learn twice,' it has been truly said ; but on
the condition of having reflected on that which has been
learned and upon that which is to be taught. To convey light
into the intelligence of another, it is first necessary to have
produced the light within one's self, a thing which supposes
the enlightened, penetrating, and persevering action of a
mind relatively mature and trained. From the class where
they have just been sitting as pupils, the monitors — mas-
ters improvised as by the wave of a wand, — passed to
the classes of children whom they were to indoctrinate"
(Greard) .

The instruction, consequently, became purely mechanical.
The monitor faithfully repeated what he had been taught.
Everything was reduced to mechanical processes.

Let us observe, besides, that from the moral point of
view, the mutual system left much to be desired. The mon-
itors, we are told, did not escape the intoxications of
pride. Even in the family they became petty tyrants.
Parents complained of their dictatorial habits and their tone
of authority.

However it may be, mutual instruction has rendered
undeniable services, thanks to the zeal of such teachers as
Mademoiselle Sauvan and Monsieur Sarazin ; but its repu-
tation went on diminishing in proportion as the State became

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 519

more and more disposed to make sacrifices, and as it was
possible to multiply the services of teachers.1

611. The State of Primary Instruction. — Under the
title, Exhibit of Primary Instruction in France, a member of
the University, P. Lorain, published in 1837 a resume* of the
inquiry, which, by the orders of Guizot, had been made in
1833 throughout the whole extent of France, by the labors
of more than 400 inspectors. Here are some of the sad
results of this inquiry : all the teachers did not know how to
write ; a large number employed the mechanism of the three
fundamental rules without being able to give an}* theoretical
reason for these operations. " The ignorance was general."

As under the old regime, the teacher practiced all the
trades ; he was day-laborer, shoemaker, innkeeper.

44 He had his wife Bupply his place while he went hunting
in the fields."

The functions of the teacher, poorly rewarded, exposed to
the risk of a very slender tuition, enjoyed no consideration.

"The teacher was often regarded in the community on
the same footing as a mendicant, and between the herdsman
and himself, the preference was for the herdsman."

Consequently, the situation of school-master was the most
often sought after by men who were infirm, crippled, unfit
for any other kind of work.

44 From the teacher without arms, to the epileptic, how
many infirmities to pass through ! "

612. Guizot and the Law of June 28, 1833. — Primary
instruction, so often decreed by the Revolution, was not

1 Two noted attempts to extend and popularize the monitorial system
are exhibited in the following works: Pillans, The Rationale of Discipline
(Edinburgh, 1852); Bentham, Chrestomathia (London, 1816).

520 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

really organized in France till by the law of June 28, 1833,
the honor of which is due in particular to Guizot, then minis-
ter of public instruction.1

Primary instruction was divided into two grades, — elemen-
tary and higher. Henceforth there was to be a school for
each commune, or at least for each group of two or three
communes. The State reserved the right of appointing
teachers, and of determining their salary, which, it is true,
in certain places, did not exceed two hundred francs. Poor
children were to be received without pay.

613. Higher Primary Schools. — One of the most praise-
worthy purposes of the legislator of 1833 was the establish-
ment of higher primary instruction.

44 Higher primary instruction," he said, 44 necessarily in-
cludes, in addition to all the branches of elementary primary
instruction, the elements of geometry, and its common appli-
cations, especially linear drawing and surveying, information
on the physical sciences and natural history, applicable to
the uses of life, singing, the elements of history and geog-
raphy, and particularly of the history and geography of
France. According to the needs and the resources of local-
ities, the instruction shall receive such developments as shall
be deemed proper."

A higher primary school was to be established in the chief
towns of the department and in all the communes which had
a population of more than six thousand souls. The law was
executed in part. In 1841, one hundred and sixty -one
schools were founded. But little by little, the indifference
of the government, and, above all, the vanity of parents who
preferred for their children worthless Latin studies to a good

1 It is at the same period , in 1832, that Gerando published his Court
normal dot imtituteurs.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 521

and thorough primary instruction, discouraged these first
efforts.

The legislator of 1 833 had good reason for thinking that a
good vest was worth more than a poor coat. His mistake
was in thinking that people would be persuaded to abandon
the coat in order to take the vest.1 The higher schools were
almost everywhere annexed to the colleges of secondary in-
struction. To suppress their independence and their own
distinctive features was to destroy them. The final blow
was given them by the law of 1850, which abstained from
pronouncing their name, and which condemned them by its
silence.

614. Circular of Guizot. — In transmitting to teachers
the law of June 28, 1833, Guizot had it followed by a cele-
brated circular, which eloquently stated the proper office of
the teacher, his duties and his rights. Here are some pas-
sages from it :

44 Do not make a mistake here, Sir. While the career of
primary instruction may be without renown, its duties inter-
est the whole of society, and it is an occupation which shares
the importance attached to public functions. . . . Universal
primary instruction is henceforth to be one of the guarantees
of order and social stability." '

The circular next examines the material advantages which
the new law assured to teachers, and it continues thus : —

44 However, Sir, as I well know, the foresight of the law
and the resources at the disposal of public authority, will
never succeed in rendering the humble profession of a com-
munal teacher as attractive as it is useful. Societv could
not reward him who devotes himself to this service for all
that he does for it. There is no fortune to gain ; there is

1 Cournot, Des institutions df instruction publique, p. 315.

M*flK!

522 THE HI8T0KY OF PEDAGOGY.

scarcely any reputation to acquire in the difficult duties which
he performs. Destined to see bis life spent in a monotonous
occupation, sometimes even to encounter about him the in-
justice and the ingratitude of ignorance, he would often grow
disheartened, and would perhaps succumb did he not draw
his strength and his courage from other sources than from
the prospect of an interest immediate and purely personal.
It is necessary that a profound sense of the moral importance
of his work sustain and animate him, and that the austere
pleasure of having served men and secretly contributed to the
public good, become the noble reward which his conscience
alone can give. It is his glory to aim at nothing beyond his
obscure and laborious condition, to spend himself in sacri-
fices scarcely counted by those who profit by them, and, in
a word, to work for men and to look for his reward only
from God."

615. Progress of Popular Instruction. — It would be
an interesting history to relate in detail the progress of popu-
lar education in France from the law of 1833 to our day.
The public bins of the Republic of 1848, the liberal proposi-
tions of Carnot and of Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, the recoil
of the law of March 15, 1850, the statu quo of the first years
of the Second Empire, then towards the end the praiseworthy
efforts and tentatives of Duruy, and, finally, under the Third
Republic, the definite and triumphant organization, — all
this is sufficiently known and too recent to justify us in
dwelling on it here.

For successfully introducing anew into the laws the princi-
ples of gratuity, obligation, and secularization, as proclaimed
by the French Revolution, not less than a century was neces-
sary. And in particular, the better spirits allowed them-
selves to be convinced of the need of obligatory instruction .

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUBY. 523

only by slow degrees. However, in 1833, Cousin, who re-
ported the law of Guizot to the Chamber of Peers, expressed
himself as follows : —

u A law which should make of primary instruction a legal
obligation seems to me to be no more above the powers of
the legislator than the law on the national guard, and that
which you have just made on a forced appropriation for the
public good. If reasons of public utility justify the legisla-
tor in appropriating private property, why do not reasons of
a much higher utility justify him in doing less, — in requir-
ing that children receive the instruction indispensable to every
human creature, to the end that he may not become danger-
ous to himself or to society as a whole ? "

Cousin added that the commission of which he was the
chairman would not have receded from measures wisely com-
bined to make instruction obligatory, had it not been afraid
of provoking difficulties, and, in this way, of postponing a
law that was awaited with impatience. The evident neces-
sity of instructing the people, the interests of society, the
interests of families and individuals, — all these considera-
tions have insensibly overcome the scruples or the illusions
of a false liberality, and it is no longer necessary, to-day, to
repeat the eloquent pleas of Car not in his bill of 1848, of
Duruy, and of Jules Simon.

In 1873 Guizot expressed himself as follows : —

" The liberty of conscience and that of families are facts
and rights which, in this question, ought to be scrupulously re-
spected and guaranteed ; but, under the condition of this
respect and of these guarantees, it may happen that the state
of society and the state of minds ma}' render legal obligation,
in respect of primary instruction, legitimate, salutary, and nec-
essary. This is the condition of things to-day. The movement
in favor of obligatory instruction is sincere, serious, national.

524 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Powerful examples authorize and encourage it. In Germany,
in Switzerland, in Denmark, in most of the American States,
primary instruction has this character, and civilization has
reaped excellent fruits from it. France and its government
have reason to welcome this principle."

616. Programmes of Primary Instruction. — At the
same time that primary instruction made progress by its ever-
growing extension, and by the participation in it of a greater
number of individuals, its programmes were also extended,
and it is interesting to compare in this respect the different
laws which have regulated the matter of instruction in our
century.

The law of 1833 said: " Elementary primary instruction
necessarily comprises moral and religious instruction, reading,
writing, the elements of the French language and of compu-
tation, the legal system of weights and measures."

The bill presented, June 30, 1848, by Carnot, minister of
public instruction, expresses itself thus: —

44 Primary instruction comprises: 1. reading, writing, the
elements of the French language, the elements of computa-
tion, the metric system, the measure of distances, elementary
notions of the phenomena of nature, and the principal facts
of agriculture and of industry, linear drawing, singing,
elementary notions on the history and geography of France ;
2. a knowledge of the duties and the rights of man and
citizen, the development of the sentiments of liberty, equality,
and fraternity ; 3. the elementary rules of hygiene, and use-
ful exercises in physical development."

4 4 The religious instruction is given by the ministers of the
different communions."

According to the bill of Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire (April
10, 1849), elementary instruction for boys, necessarily com-

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 525

prised " moral, religious, and civic instruction, reading,
wnting, the elements of the French language, the elements
of computation, the legal system of weights and measures,
linear drawing, elementary notions of agriculture and of
hygiene, singing and gymnastic exercises.

"According to the needs and resources of localities, ele-
mentary primary instruction shall receive the developments
which shall be thought proper, and shall comprise, in partic-
ular, notions on the history and geography of France."

Finally, the law of March 15, 1850, is worded thus : —
44 Art. 23. Primary instruction comprises moral and relig-
ious instruction, reading, writing, the elements of the French
language, computation, and the legal system of weights and
measures. It may comprise in addition, arithmetic applied
to practical operations, the elements of history and geogra-
phy, notions of the physical sciences and of natural history
applicable to the ordinary purposes of life, elementary in-
struction on agriculture, trade, and hygiene, surveying, level-
ing, linear drawing, singing and gymnastics."

Progress has especially consisted, since 1850, in rendering
obligatory that which was simply optional. History, for
example, did not become a subject of instruction till 1867.

617. The Theorists of Education. — Along with the
progress of primary instruction, the historian of the peda-
gogy of the nineteenth century would have also to follow the
development of secondary instruction and of superior in-
struction. He would have to write the history of the Univer-
sity, reforming the methods of its lyce'es and its colleges, and
ever enlarging in a noble spirit of liberty the studies of its
faculties. But we should depart from the limits of our plan,
were we to undertake this order of inquiries, and were we to
enter into details which pertain to contemporary history.

526 THE HISTOKY OF PEDAGOGY.

That which should engage our attention is the theoretical
reflections of the different thinkers who, in our century, have
discussed the principles and the laws of education, of those
at least who have become celebrated for their novel views.

618. Jacotot (1770-1840). — Jacotot, who has maintained
scarcely any celebrity in France except for the singularity of
his paradoxes, is perhaps of all French educators of the
nineteenth century the one who has received most attention
abroad, particularly in Germany. " Jacotot," says Doctor
Dittes, " has incited a lasting improvement in the public in-
struction of Germany. The reform which he introduced into
the teaching of reading is important. He started with an
entire sentence, which was pronounced, explained, and learned
by heart by the children, and afterward analyzed into its
constituent parts."1 On the other hand, a French critic,
Bernard Perez, has drawn the following portrait of Jacotot : —

" He was the best and the most lovable of men. He had
the firmness, patience, honesty, and candor of superior minds,
an inexhaustible goodness and a universal charitv which
make him close all his letters with this formula, 4 1 espe-
cially commend to you the poor.' This ardent philanthropy,
as well as his enthusiasm and his zeal for instruction, per-
vades even his writings, though full of inequalities and
verbal eccentricities." 2

619. Paradoxes of Jacotot. — In his principal work,
Universal' Instruction,8 Jacotot has set forth his principles,
which are so many paradoxes, " All intelligences are equal " ;
" Every man can teach, and even teach that which he him-

— — — - - ■ -

1 Dittes, op. cit. p. 272.

2 See Jacotot et sa mtthode d' Emancipation intellectuelle, by Bernard
Perez. Paris, 1883.

8 Enstignement universel. Paris, 1823.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 527

self does not know " ; " One can instruct himself all alone " ;
"All is in all."

Doubtless at the basis of Jacotot's paradoxes there is an
element of truth ; for example, the very just idea that the
best teaching is that which encourages young minds to think
for themselves. Doubtless also he qualified the exaggera-
tion of his statement when he said that the inequality of
wills at once destroys the equality of intelligences. But the
violent and unreasonable form which he gave to his ideas
has compromised them in public opinion. That which is
true and fruitful in his system has been forgotten, and we
recall only the whimsical formulas in which he delighted.

620. All is in All. — The most famous of Jacotot's
paradoxes is the formula, " All is in all." The whole of
Latin is in a page of Latin ; the whole of music is in a piece
of music ; the whole of arithmetic, in a rule of computation.

In practice, Jacotot made his pupils learn the first six
books of the Telemachus. Upon this text, once learned,
and recited twice a week, there were constructed all sorts of
exercises, and these sufficed for the complete knowledge of
the French language. In the same way the Epitome His-
tonce Sacrce, put in the hands of pupils, and learned in
two months, was almost the sole instrument for the study of
Latin. In fact, and aside from evident exaggerations,
Jacotot' rightly thought that it is necessary, as he said, "to
learn something well, and to connect with this all the rest."

621. The Followers op Saint Simon and of Fourier. —
There is little of practical value to be gathered from the writ-
ings of the celebrated u topis ts, who, at the opening of this
century, became known by their plans of social organization.
It is the chimerical which characterizes their systems. Cabet
demanded among other absurdities that all ancient books be

528 !tHE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

burned, and that no new books be written except by com-
mand of the State. Besides, he would have the school-code
established by the children themselves.1

Victor Consed£rant suppressed, not books, but discipline
and authority. "The child," he said, " shall no longer be
disobedient, because he shall no longer be commanded." 2

Saint Simon, in 1816, communicated to the Society far
Elementary Instruction, a brief essay which gave proof of his
interest in education. For him and his disciples, education
is u the aggregate of efforts to be employed in order to adapt
each new generation to the social order to which it is called

I by the march of humanity." This was to mark the contrast
between modern tendencies which aspire above all else to an
earthlv and a social end, with ancient tendencies which were
subservient to supernatural ideas. ^Esthetic sentiments,
scientific methods, industrial activity, — such is the triple
development which special and professional education should
consider. But above this the Saint-Simonians place moral
education, too much neglected, as they think, which should
consist particularly in developing in the young the sympa-
thetic and affectionate faculties. The Saint-Simonians placed
but little dependence on science and abstract principles for
assuring among men the reign of morality. Sentiment, in

v their view, is the true moral principle, and education, conse-
quently, ought to be essentially the education of the heart.

622. Fourier (1772-1837). — Fourier, like Saint Simon,
had educational pretensions. There is nothing more curious
than his treatise on Natural Education. In it there is onlv
here and there a flash of good sense mingled with a multi-
tude of grotesque fancies.

^- ■■ ■ _ ^ i

1 Cabet, Voyar/e en Icarie. Paris, 1842.

2 Consede'rant, Thtorie d? education rationnelle et attrayante du dix-
neuvibne tikcle, Paris, 1844.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 529

Fourier renews the Utopias of Plato, and confides infants
to public nurses. He is more reasonable when, in spite of ]/
his declamations on the excellence of nature, he is really
willing to recognize in children a diversity of characters, and
divides u the nurslings and the babies" into three classes, —
" the benign, the malign, and the devilkins."

*We must also commend Fourier for his efforts to encour-
age industrial activity. There is perhaps a valuable hint in//
those walks which he recommends children to take through
manufactories and shops, so that at the sight of such or such
a tool, their particular vocation may be suggested to them !

The instincts of the child are sacred in the eves of Fourier,
even the worst, their inclination to destroy, for example, or
their contempt for the rights of property. Far from oppos-
ing them, he turns them to account and utilizes them, by
employing destructive and slovenly children in occupations
in accord with their tastes ; for example, in the pursuit of
reptiles, and in the cleansing of sewers.

But it is useless to enter into longer details. The education
of the Fourierites is neither a discipline nor a rule of life ; it is
simply a system of complaisant adherence, and even of ardent
provocation, to the instincts which the child inherits from
nature. It is no longer a question either of directing or of
training ; it is simply necessary to emancipate and to excite.

623. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) and the Positivists. —
The positivi8t school, and its illustrious founder, Auguste
Comte, could not omit, in their encyclopaedic works, a ques-
tion so important as that of education. The author of the
Course in Positive Philosophy had even announced a special
treatise on pedagogy, " a great subject," he said, " which
has not vet been undertaken in a manner sunlcientlv svstem-
atic." l The promise was not kept, but from different pas-

1 Cours de philosophic positive, second edition, 1864. Vol. VI. p. 771.

528

!tHE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

burned, and that no new books be written except by com-
mand of the State. Besides, he would have the school-code
established by the children themselves.1

Victor Consed£rant suppressed, not books, but discipline
and authority. "The child," he said, " shall no longer be
disobedient, because he shall no longer be commanded." 2

Saint Simon, in 1816, communicated to the Society for
Elementary Instruction, a brief essay which gave proof of his
interest in education. For him and his disciples, education
is " the aggregate of efforts to be employed in order to adapt
each new generation to the social order to which it is called
by the march of humanity." This was to mark the contrast
between modern tendencies which aspire above all else to an
earthlv and a social end, with ancient tendencies which were
subservient to supernatural ideas. ^Esthetic sentiments,
scientific methods, industrial activity, — such is the triple
development which special and professional education should
consider. But above this the Saint-Simonians place moral
education, too much neglected, as they think, which should
consist particularly in developing in the young the sympa-
thetic and affectionate faculties. The Saint-Simonians placed
but little dependence on science and abstract principles for
assuring among men the reign of morality. Sentiment, in
their view, is the true moral principle, and education, conse-
quently, ought to be essentially the education of the heart.

^- ■■ _ ^ i

1 Cabet, Voyage en Icarie. Paris, 1842.

2 Consederant, Thtorie cC Education rationnelle et attrayante du dix-
neuviime sikcle. Paris, 1844.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 529

Fourier renews the Utopias of Plato, and confides infants
to public nurses. He is more reasonable when, in spite of J/
his declamations on the excellence of nature, he is really
willing to recognize in children a diversity of characters, and
divides " the nurslings and the babies" into three classes, —
44 the benign, the malign, and the devilkins."

*We must also commend Fourier for his efforts to encour-
age industrial activity. There is perhaps a valuable hint in/
those walks which he recommends children to take through
manufactories and shops, so that at the sight of such or such
a tool, their particular vocation may be suggested to them !

623. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) and the Positivists. —
The positivist school, and its illustrious founder, Auguste
Comte, could not omit, in their encyclopaedic works, a ques-
tion so important as that of education. The author of the
Course in Positive Philosophy had even announced a special
treatise on pedagogy, " a great subject," he said, " which
has not yet been undertaken in a manner sufficiently system-
atic." l The promise was not kept, but from different pas-

1 Cours de philosophic positive, second edition, 1864. Vol. VI. p. 771.

530 THE H1STOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

sages in the writings of Auguste Comte it is possible to re-
construct, in its principal features, the education which would
be derived from his system.

Comte took for his guide the natural and specific evolution
of humanity.

44 Individual education can be adequately estimated only
according to its necessary conformity with collective evo-
lution."

As positivism represents, in the view of Comte, the su-
preme degree of the evolution of humanity, the new education
ought to be positive.

44 Right-minded men universally recognize the necessity of
replacing our European education, a system essentially theo-
logical, metaphysical, and literary, by a positive education,
conformed to the spirit of our epoch, and adapted to the
needs of modern civilization/'

The teaching of science, then, shall be the basis of educa-
tion ; but this teaching will bear its fruits only on one con-
dition, and this is, that at last we renounce " the exclusive
specialty, the too pronounced isolation, which still charac-
terizes our manner of conceiving and cultivating the sciences."
The precise purpose of the Course in Positive Philosophy was
to remedy the deleterious influence of a too great specializa-
tion of research, by establishing the relations and the hie-
rarchy of the sciences. Comte made of mathematics the
point of departure in scientific instruction. This was the
very reverse of the modern tendency, which consists in begin-
ning with the concrete and physical studies.

Auguste Comte, in his project for social reform, demanded
universal instruction, and he bitterly complains of the indif-
ference of the ruling classes for the instruction of the poor.

44 Nothing is more profoundly characteristic of the exist-
ing anarchy than the shameful indifference with which the

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUBY. 531

higher classes of to-day habitually regard the total absence
of popular education, the exaggerated prolongation of which,
however, threatens to exert on their approaching destiny a
frightful reaction."

Comte does not go so far, however, as to dream of an
identical education for all men, an integral education, as it
has been called. He admits degrees in instruction, " which,"
he says, " will allow varieties of extension in a system con-
stantly similar and identical."

624. Dupanloup (1803-1878). — Of all the ecclesiastical
writers of our century, he who has the most ardently studied
the problems of education is certainly Bishop Dupanloup.
Important works give proof of the educational zeal of the
eloquent prelate. But they were composed with more spirit
than wisdom, and they betray the zeal of the Christian
apologist more than the inspiration of an impartial love for
the truth. Extravagances of language and exaggerations
of thought too often prevent the reader from feeling, as he
ought, the moral and religious inspiration out of which pro-
ceeded those books of ardent and profound faith, but of faith
more than of charity. Notwithstanding their length and
their vast proportions, these books are pamphlets, works of
combat. One should be on his guard against taking them
for scientific treatises. Serenity is lacking in them, and from
the very first, we feel ourselves enveloped in an atmosphere
of trouble and storm.

625. Analysis op the Treatise on Education. — How-
ever, the three volumes of the Education will be read with
profit. The first volume treats of education in general, and
contains three books. In the first book the author determines
the character of education, which has for its purpose to culti-
vate the faculties, to exercise them, to develop them, to

532 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

strengthen them, and, finally, to polish them. In the following
books the author studies the nature of the child, of whom he
sometimes speaks with a touching tenderness ; and examines
the means of education, which are " religion, instruction,
discipline, and physical culture." Discipline consists in sup-
porting, preventing, and repressing. Discipline is to educa-
tion " that which the bark is to the tree which it surrounds.
It is the bark which holds the sap, and forces it to ascend to
the heart of the tree."

The general title of the second volume is, On Authority
and Respect in Education. Authority and respect, in the
eyes of the author, are the two fundamental things. From
this point of view, he studies what he calls the personnel of
education ; that is, God, the parents, the teacher, the child,
and the schoolmate.

The third volume, entitled Educational Men, treats of the
qualities befitting the head master of an educational estab-
lishment, and of his different colleagues.1

626. Errors and Prejudices. — Although he wrote a
beautiful chapter entitled, Of the Respect due the Dignity of
the Child and the Liberty of his Nature, Dupanloup is still
more struck with the faults than with the virtues of child-
hood. He shudders in thinking of his thoughtlessness, of
his curiosity, of his sensuality, and especially of his pride.
So he distrusts commendation and rewards.

" In praising your pupils," he says to the teacher, " do you
not fear to excite their pride ? The pride of scholars is a
terrible evil ; it begins in the ' third,' develops in the * sec-
ond,' blossoms in i rhetoric,' and becomes established in
4 philosophy.' " *

1 The principal educational works of Dupanloup are Education, 1851,
three volumes; De la haute Education intellcctttelle, 1855, three volumes;
Lettrcs sur ^education Ues/Ulcs, 1870, one volume.

8 See note to page 131.

EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 533

To this mistrust of human nature is joined a singular
pessimism with respect to the functions of the teacher.

" There is found," he says, " in this service, grave
troubles. Sometimes, if we are worthy of this service, if we
sacrifice ourselves to it, we can find consolations in it, but
pleasure, never ! "

The verdict is severe and absolute, but it recoils in part on
him who pronounces it. How not mistrust an educator who
declares that there is no sweetness mingled with the fatigues
of teaching, and who condemns the teachers of youth to a
life of complete sacrifice aud bitterness ?

The greatest fault in the educational spirit of Dupanloup
is that he does not cross the narrow limits of an education in
small seminaries. Dupanloup wrote only for the middle
classes. He had no interest in popular education ; he does
not love the lay teacher ; he detests the University. Finally,
he is the man who inspired the law of May 15, 1850.

627. The Spiritualistic School and University Men.
— The philosophers of the French spiritualistic school have
not in general paid great attention to the theory of education.
The most illustrious of them, Cousin (1792-1868), at the
same time that he aided in organizing University instruction,
carefully studied educational institutions abroad, especially
in his two works, Public Instruction in Holland (1837), and
Public Instruction in Germany (1840). The works of Jules
Simon have the same practical character, but with a marked
tendency to treat by preference the questions of primary
instruction. The School (1864) is a manifesto in favor of
gratuity and obligation.

The University men, on their part, have, in this century,
acted rather than speculated. They have been intent rather
on making good pupils than on composing theories. There

584 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

would, however, be valuable truths to cull from the works of
Cournot,1 of Bersot,2 and especially of Michel Br6al.*

[G28. Analytical Summary. — 1. One of the main charac-
teristics of the educational thought of this century is doubtless
the effort to deduce the rules of practice from certain first
principles. The principles of instruction are to be found, for
the most part, in the science of psychology, and the principles
of education, in part, in social science and even in jurispru-
dence.

2. The purpose of Napoleon to secure the perpetuity of his
dynasty through the influence of his Imperial University, is
a striking proof of the belief in the potency of ideas, and of
the belief in the potency of popular instruction as a means
of national strength. y

3. The history of mutual instruction exhibits three impor-
tant facts : 1 . the effect of agitation in arousing public inter-
est in educational questions ; 2. the manner in which peculiar
circumstances suggest an expedient which can be justified on
no absolute grounds ; 3. the danger of converting such an
expedient into a " system" for universal adoption.

4. Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Jacotot, attempted to make
instruction universal by simplifying its processes to such a
degree that every mother might be a teacher and every house-
hold a school.

5. In Comte we see the re-appearance of Condillac's doc-
trine, that the historic education of the race is the type of
individual education. The same hypothesis will re-appear in
Mr. Spencer's Education.']

1 Cournot published in 1864 a remarkable book under this title : Des tn-
9tttntions d' instruction publiqve.

2 See the Essnis de philosoph ie et de morale, by E. Bersot, and also fitudes
et discours (1879).

8 See especially the well-known book of Breal, Quelqtte* mots $ur fin*
•truction publiquc en France.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE SCIENCE OP EDUCATION. — HERBERT SPENCER

AND ALEXANDER BAIN.

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION; THE GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS; THE ENG-
LISH philosophers; Herbert spencer's education; plan of
the work ; definition of education ; HUMAN destiny ; utili-
tarian tendencies; different categories of activities;
criticism of mr. spencer's classification; effects on
education ; science is the basis of education ; 8cience for
health and industrial activity ; science for family life j
science for esthetic activity j exaggerations and prej-
udices ; intellectual education j laws of mental evolu-
tion j personal education; moral education j system of
natural punishments j difficulties in application j return
to nature j physical education ; general judgment j mr.
bain and the science of education; general impressions;
divisions of the book ; psychological order and logical
order; modern education j errors in theory j utilitarian
tendencies; final judgment; american educators j chan-
ning; horace mann; conclusion; analytical summary.

629. The Science of Education. — To-day, thanks to
important works, the science of education is no longer an
empty term, an object of vague aspirations for philosophers,
of easy ridicule for wits. Doubtless it is far from being
definitely established ; but it no longer conceals its name
and its pretensions ; it defines its purpose and its methods ;
and manifests its youthful vitality in all directions.

Up to the present period, philosophers had scarcely thought
of organizing pedagogy, of constructing it on a rational

MM m

536 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

basis. On the other hand, the practice of education is still
less advanced than the conceptions of philosophers. Here
we the more often follow a thoughtless routine, or the vague
inspirations of instinct. The methods in use are not co-
ordinated. They present a curious mixture of old traditions
and modern surcharges. It is this lack of definiteness, of
co-ordination of ideas, and the spectacle of these contradic-
tions, which caused Richter * to sav : " The education of the
day resembles the Harlequin of the Italian comedy who comes
on the stage with a bundle of papers under each arm.
* What do you carry under your right arm ? ' he is asked.
' Orders,' he replies. ' And under your left arm ? ' ' Counter-
orders ! ' "

Quite a number of the philosophers of the nineteenth cen-
tury have attempted to remedy this incoherence, and, by
appealing to the scientific spirit, to regulate educational
processes that have fallen into excesses of empiricism or of
routine. It is these attempts which we are summarily to
recite.

630. The German Philosophers. — Since Kant, and bv
his example, the most of German philosophers have asso-
ciated the theory of education with their speculations on
human nature.

Fichte (1762-1814), in his Discourse to the German Na-
tion, proclaimed the necessity of a national education to
secure the regeneration of his country and its restoration to
its former standing. The advocate of a public and common
education, because he would fight against the selfishness
which family life encourages, he contributed by his eloquent

1 J. P. Richter, better known under the name Jean Paul (1763-1825), the
author of a spirited and scholarly book, Lev ana, or the Doctrine of Educa-
tion, 1803.

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 537

appeals to restore the intellectual and moral grandeur, and
consequently, the material grandeur, of German}-.

Schleiermacher (1768-1834) wrote a Doctrine of Educa-
tion, which was not published till 1849. In this lie develops,
among other ideas, this proposition, that religious education
does not belong to the school, but that it is the affair of the
family and the Church.

Herbart (1776-1841) has composed a series of pedagogi-
cal writings which assign him a special place in the list of
educational philosophers. Let us call attention, in particular,
to his General Pedagogy (180G), and the Outline of my Les-
sons on Pedagogy (1840). That which distinguishes Her-
bart is his attempt to reduce to a 8}Tstem ail the rules of
pedagogy by giving them for a basis his own psychological
theory. He inaugurated a new method in psychology, which
does not seem, however, to have given the results that were
expected from it, — the mathematical method. For him, psy-
chology is only the mechanism of the mind, and by means of
mathematical formula calculation may be applied to measure
the force of ideas. The soul does not possess innate facul- /
ties ; it is developed progressively. /

But it would require long efforts to enter into the secrets
of Herbart's original thought. Let it suffice to say, that
nurtured from an early period on the ideas of Pestalozzi,
whose friend he was, he has founded a real school of
pedagogy.

Beneke (1798-1854) is the author of a Doctrine of Educa-
tion and Instruction, which is, in the opinion of Doctor
Dittes, a masterpiece of psychological pedagogy. Beneke
agrees with Herbart on a great number of points. His
pedagogical methods have been popularized by J. G. Dressier,
director of the normal school at Bauzen, who died in I860.1

1 See The Elements of Psychology, on the Principles of Beneke (Lon-
don, 1871).

mmm

588 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Charles Schmidt, who died in 1864, wrote a large number
of works on pedagogy, in which he is inspired by the phre-
nology of Gall and his fantastical hypotheses. Doubtless
this inspiration is not happy, and the works of Schmidt are
more valuable for their details, for their special reflections,
than for their general doctrine. But from his undertaking
there issues at least this truth; that the science of education
should have for its basis, not only psychology, but physiol-
ogy also, the science of the whole man, body and mind.

There is no country where pedagogy has received a more
philosophical and a higher development than in Germany.
Even the great poets, Lessing, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller,
have contributed through certain grand ideas to the construc-
tion of a science of education.

631. The English Philosophers. — English philosophy,
with its experimental and practical character, and with its
positive and utilitarian tendencies, was naturally called to
exercise a great influence on pedagogy. There are more
truths to gather from the thinkers who, in different degrees,
have followed Locke and Bain, and who have preserved a
taste for prudent observation and careful experiments, than
from the German idealists, enamored of hypothesis and sys-
tematic constructions.

Without doubt this explains the considerable success which
the recent books of Herbert Spencer and Alexander Bain
have obtained even in France.

632. The Book of Herbert Spencer. — If it were suffi-
cient to define with exactness the end to be attained, and to
discover the true method for constructing the science, Her-
bert Spencer's book on Education, Intellectual, Moral, and
Physical i1 would be a satisfactory treatise ; but it is one thing

* The first French translation appeared in 1878.

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 539

to comprehend that psychology is the only solid basis of a
complete and exact pedagogy, and another thing to deter-
mine the real laws of psychology.

" Education will not l*e definitely systematized," says Mr.
Spencer, " till the day when science shall be in possession of
a rational psychology."

This day has nbt yet come, and Herbert Spencer, who is
the first to recognize the fact, modestly presents his work
only as an essay. But if it docs not yet contain a perfect
and fully worked out theory of education, the essay of the
English philosopher is at least a vigorous effort, and a nota-
ble step towards a rational pedagogy, towards the science of
education, which, as Virchow expresses it, " ought forever
to proscribe the gropings of an ignorant education whose
experiments are ever to be gone over anew."

633. Plan op the Work. — Every system of education
supposes at the same time an ethics, — I mean a certain con-
ception of life and of human destiny, and a psychology, —
that is, a knowledge more or less exact of our faculties and
of the laws which preside over their development. There are,
in fact, in education, two essential questions: 1. What are
the subjects of study and instruction, proper to create the
qualities, the aggregate of which constitutes the type of the
well-educated man? 2. By what methods shall we teach
the child rapidly and well that which it is proper for him to
learn? There are, in other terms, the question of end and
the question of means. Ethics is necessary to resolve the
first, and psychology, to illustrate the second.

It is in accordance with this plan that Mr. Spencer has
arranged the different parts of his work. The first chapter,
entitled What Knowledge is of Most Worth? is in substance
but a series of reflections on the final purpose, on the differ-

540 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

ent forms, of human activity, and, consequently, on the rela-
tive importance, on the rank, which should be assigned to
the studies which go to compose a complete education.

In the three other chapters, Intellectual, Moral, aud Phy-
sical Education^ the author examines the methods which are
deemed the best for instructing the intelligence, perfecting
the moral character, and fortifying the body.

634. Definition of Education. — Herbert Spencer begins
with a definition of education : —

ki Education," he says, "is all that we do for ourselves,
and all that others do for us, for the purpose of bringing us
nearer the perfection of our nature. . . . The ideal of edu-
cation would be to furnish man with a complete preparation
for life as a whole. . . . Do not attempt to give an exclu-
sive development of one order of knowledge at the expense
of the rest, however»important it may be. Let us distribute
our attention over the whole, and justly proportion our efforts
to their relative value. ... In general, the object of educa-
tion ought to be to acquire as completely as possible the
knowledge that is best adapted to develop individual and
social life under all its aspects, and to do no more than
glance at the subjects which contribute the least to this
development."1

This definition is wrong in being a little pretentious and
in not adapting itself to all the forms of education. It is
true, perhaps, if it is a question of the idea] to be attained in
a complete instruction, accessible to a few privileged men,
but it could not be applied to popular education. It soars
too high above human conditions and social realities.

1 Tn this, as in several other instances, Monsieur Compayre' gives a sum-
mary of the author's thought rather than an exact quotation. (P.)

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 541

635. Human Destiny. — The conception of human destiny,
as Mr. Spencer outlines it in the opening of his book, has
very marked utilitarian tendencies. His first complaint
against the current education is that it sacrifices the useful
to the agreeable ; that as matters now go, everything which
pertains to mental adornment and display has precedence
over the kuowiedge which might increase our well-being and
assure our happiness. As in the history of dress, with
savages for example, it is proved that the ornamental in
dress precedes the useful ; so in instruction, ornamental
studies are preferred to useful studies. This is especially
the case with women, who have a decided preference for the
qualities of pure decoration.1

In his rather vigorous reaction against the luxuries which
in classical instruction would wrongly substitute themselves
\ for more necessary studies, Mr. Spencer goes so far as to
say : —

"Just as the Orinoco Indian paints and tattooes himself,
so the child in this country learns Latin because it forms a
part of the education of a gentleman."

However, we do not construe this literally. Mr. Spencer
does not go so far as to suppress the disinterested studies
which are as much the more necessary as they seem to be
the more superfluous. He merely demands that instruction
be not reduced to a training in the trivial elegancies of a'
dead language, or to a study of trifles in history, such as the
dates of battles, and the birth and death of princes.

636. Utilitarian Tendencies. — Utility, that is, the influ-
ence on happiness, — such is the true criterion by which arc

1 As, historically, ornament precedes dress, on Mr. Spencer's main prin-
ciple, it need not be till late in life that women dress sensibly. Or ought not
the genesis of dress in the individual to follow the same order as the gene-
sis of dressJn the race? (P.)

542 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

to be estimated, admitted or excluded, and finally classified,
the subjects proposed for the study of man as the elements
of his education. It is understood, however, that happiness
is to be considered in its widest and highest sense. Happi-
ness does not consist in the satisfaction of such or such a
privileged inclination. It consists in being all that it is
possible to be, — in complete living. To prepare us for a
complete life, — such is the function of education.

637. Different Categories of Activity. — Complete life
supposes different kinds of activity, which ought to be subor-
dinated one to another according to their importance and
dignity. The following statement shows how Mr. Spencer
proposes to classify these different categories of activities
according to an ascending scale of progress : —

1. In the first rank is placed the activity which ministers
simply to self-preservation. It would be of no consequence
to be an eminent scholar, or a citizen and a patriot, or a
devoted father ; or rather, all this would be impossible, if
one did not first know how to assure his safetv and his life.

2. Then comes the series of activities which tend indirectly
to the same end of physical well-being, by the acquisition
and production of the material goods necessary for existence,
that is, industry and the different occupations.

3. In the third place, man employs his activities in the
service of his family, — he has children to support and tc
bring up.

4. Social and political life is the fourth object of his
efforts. This supposes, as a previous condition, the accom-
plishment of family duties, just as family life itself supposes
the normal development of the individual life.

5. Finally, human existence is consummated and crowned,
so to speak, in the exercise of the activities which, in a single

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 543

word, we might call aesthetic, and which, taking advantage
of the leisure left from care and business, will find satisfac-
tion in the culture of letters and the arts.

638. Criticism op this Classification. — What excep-
tions can be taken to this exact and methodical table of the
different elements of an existence complete, normal, and
consequently human? Is it necessary to remark that the
happiness thus understood does not differ from what we call
virtue? None of the five elements distinguished by Mr.
Spencer can be safely omitted. The first could not be
neglected without endangering the material reality of life ;
nor the last, without impairing its moral dignity. In some
degree they are mutually necessary, in this sense, that the
lower, or selfish activities, are the conditions which make
possible the other parts of human duty ; and that the higher,
or disinterested activities, become, as it were, the justifica-
tion of the toil we endure in order to exist and to satisfy
material necessities.

We have, however, one grave reserve to make. Mr.
Spencer is wrong in putting into the last category of activi-
ties that which is the crown of the others, all that which con-
cerns the moral development of the individual. Between the
second and the third class of activities we ask to interpolate
another form of activity. — that which constitutes the indi-
vidual moral life, that which, in every man, even the humblest
and the poorest, calls into exercise the conscience, the rea-
son, and the will. Mr. Spencer's system is decidedly too
aristocratic. It seems to reserve the moral life for men o!
leisure. In a democratic society, which believes in equality
and which would not have this an empty term, there are ef-
forts which must be made for the moral development of the
human being in all conditions, and it would be wrong to

544 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

reduce personal activity to the care of health and material
well-being.

639. Effects on Education. — It is now easy to com-
prehend the duties of education. Conforming its efforts to
nature, distributing its lessons according to the exact divis-
ion of human functions, it will seek the branches of knowl-
edge the most fit for making of the pupil, first, a sound and
healthy man, then a toiler, a workman, — a man, in a word,
capable of earning his livelihood ; then it will train him for
the family and the State, by endowing him with all the
domestic and civic virtues ; finally, it will open to him the
brilliant domain of art under all its forms.

640. Science is the Basis of Education. — When we
have once divided human life into a certain number of super-
imposed stages which education should teach us to ascend
one after another, it becomes necessary to know what are the
facts and the branches of knowledge which correspond to
each one of these different steps. To this question Mr.
Spencer replies that in all the grades of human development
that which is pre-eminently necessary ,_that which is the basis
of education, is science.

641. Science for Health and Industrial Activity. —
It is in the first part of education, that which has for its object
self-preservation, that science is the leas,t useful. So far,
education may be in great part negative, because nature has
taken it upon herself to lead us to our destination. The
child cries at the sight of a stranger, and throws himself
into the arms of his mother when he feels the slightest sor-
row. However, in proportion to his growth, man has more
and more need of science, and he could not do without physi-
ology and hygiene. By this means will he shun all those

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 545

little acts of imprudence, all those physical faults, which
shorten life, or pave the way for infirmities in old age. By
this means he will diminish the interval, which is so consid-
erable, between the length of life as it might be and the
brevity of life as it is. Evident truths, but too often un-
heeded !

" How many scholars," exclaims Mr. Spencer, " who
would blush if caught saying Iphigenia instead of Iphigenia,
show not the slightest shame in confessing that they do not
know where the Eustachian tubes are, and what are the
actions of the spinal cord ! "

With respect to the activities which might be called lucra-
tive, and to the kind of instruction which they require, Mr.
Spencer still shows the utility of science. He knows how
great a disposition there is in modern society to promote pro-
fessional or industrial instruction ; but he thinks, not without
reason, that we do not proceed as we should in order to be
completely successful in this direction. All the sciences,
mathematics through its applications to the arts, mechanics
through its connection with industries where machines play
so great a part, physics and chemistry through the knowledge
they furnish on matter and its properties, even the social
sciences by reason of the relations of commerce with poli-
tics, — all the sciences, in a word, contribute to develop the
skill and the prudence of the man who is employed in any^
trade or occupation whatever.

642. Science for Family Life. — A point in which the
originality of Mr. Spencer's thought is distinctly marked,
and which he develops with an eloquent earnestness, is the
necessity of enlightening parents, and particularly mothers,
upon their obligations and duties, and of putting them
in a condition to direct the education of their children by

mmmmmmt

546 THE HI8TOEY OF PEDAGOGY.

teaching them the natural laws of body and mind: "Is it
not monstrous," he says, "that the fate of a new genera-
tion should be left to the chances of unreasoning custom,
impulse, fancy, — joined with the suggestions of ignorant
nurses and the prejudiced counsel of grandmothers. . . .
In the actual state of things the best instruction, even
among the favored by fortune, is scarcely more than au
instruction of celibates." We are ever saying that the voca-
tion of woman is to bring up her children, and yet we teach
her nothing of that which she ought to know in order to ful-
fill worthily this great task. Ignorant as she is of the laws
of life and of the phenomena of the soul, knowing nothing
of the nature of the moral emotions or of physical disorders,
her intervention in the education of the child is often more
disastrous than her absolute inaction would be.

643. Science in ^Esthetic Education. — Mr. Spencer
next shows that social and political activity also has need of
being enlightened by science. One is a citizen only on the
condition of knowing the history of his country.

That which it is more difficult to grant Mr. Spencer, is
that aesthetic education, in its turn, is based on science. Is
there not some exaggeration, for example, in asserting that
poor musical compositions are poor because they are lack-
ing in truth? and that they are lacking in truth "because
they are lacking in science " ? Does one become a man of
letters and an artist as one becomes a geometrician? To
cultivate with success those arts which are as the flower of
civilization, is there not required, besides talent and natural
gifts, a long practice, a slow initiation, something, in a
word, more delicate than the attention which suffices for
being instructed in science?

644. Exaggerations and Prejudices. — We believe as
thoroughly as any one can in the efficiency and in the educa-

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 547

tional virtues of science, and we would willingly make it, as
Mr. Spencer does, the basis of education. We must be on
our guard, however, against cultivating this religion of
science until it becomes a superstition. Our author is not
completely exempt from this danger.

That science develops the intellectual qualities, such as
judgment, memory, reasoning, we admit; that it develops
them better than the study of the languages, let even this be
granted ! But it is impossible for us not to protest when Mr.
Spencer represents science as endowed with the same efficacy
for inspiring moral qualities, such as perseverance, sincerity,
activity, resignation to the will of nature, piety even, and
religion. Science appears to us an infallible means of ani-
mating and exciting the different energies of the soul ; but
will it also have the quality of disciplining them? Thanks
to science, man will know that which it is proper to do, if he
wishes to be a workman, a parent, or a citizen, but on this
express condition, that he wills; and this education of the
will, is it still science which shall be charged with it? We
mav be allowed to doubt it.

Mr. Spencer himself now seems to share this doubt, if we
may trust one of his recent works.1 " Faith in books and in
nature," it is there said, " is one of the superstitions of our
times." We deceive ourselves, says the author, when we
establish a connection between the intelligence and the will,
for conduct is determined not by knowledge but by emo-
tion.

" He who would hope to teach geometry by giving lessons
in Latin, would scarcely be more unreasonable than those
who count on producing better sentiments by means of a dis-
cipline of the intellectual faculties."

1 Introduction to Social Science, p. 390.

548 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

To tell the truth, Mr. Spencer has here fallen into another
extreme, and he seems to us at one time to have granted too
much, and at another too little, to the influence of instruction
on morality.

645. Intellectual Education. — So far we have exam-
ined along with Mr. Spencer only the nature of the objects
and of the knowledge which befit the education of man. It
remains to inquire how the mind can assimilate this knowl-
edge. Pedagogy has not only to draw up in theory a bril-
liant programme of necessary studies, but it also searches
out the means and the methods to be employed, in order that
these studies may be presented to the mind, and may have
the greater chance of being thus presented with profit.

In this somewhat more practical part of his work, Mr.
Spencer thinks that pedagogy should be guided by the idea
of evolution ; that is, of the progressive course of a being
who makes himself, who creates himself little by little, and
who develops in succession, according to fixed laws, powers
originally enveloped in the germs that he has received from
nature, or that have been transmitted to him b}' heredity.

646. Laws of Intellectual Evolution. — In other terms,
Mr. Spencer shows that the precepts of pedagogy cannot be
definitely deduced until the laws of mental evolution have
been accurately established, and he attempts to determine
some of these laws.

He proves that the mind passes naturally from the simple
to the complex, from the indefinite to the definite, from the
concrete to the abstract, from the empirical to the rational ;
that the genesis of the individual is the same as the genesis
of the race ; that the intelligence assimilates by preference
that which it discovers for itself; finally, that all culture
which profits the pupil is, at the same time, an exercise
which stimulates him and delights him.

ucsjsfc

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 549

From this there result these practical consequences : that
it is necessary first to present to the child simple subjects of
study, individual things, sensible objects, for the purpose of
starting him gradually on his way towards complex truths,
abstract generalities, conceptions of the reason ; that noth-
ing can be exacted of the child's intelligence but vague and
incomplete notions which the travail of the mind will gradu-
ally clarify and elaborate ; that education ought to be in
petto, for each individual, a repetition and a cop}* of the gen-
eral march of civilization and of the progress of humanity ;
that it is necessary to count more on the personal effort of
the pupil than upon the action of the teacher ; that, finally,
it is necessarv to find the methods which interest, and even
those which amuse. Hence the educator, instead of oppos-
ing nature, instead of disconcerting her in her course and in
the insensible steps of her real development, will restrict
himself to following her step by step, and education will be
no longer a force which obstructs, which represses, which
smothers ; but, on the contrary, a force which sustains and
stimulates by associating with itself the work of the sponta-
neous powers of the soul.

647. Self-Education. — Mr. Spencer attaches great im-
portance to that maxim which recommends us to encourage
above all else self -education : —

"In education the process of self -development should be
encouraged to the fullest extent. Children should be led to
make their own investigations, and to draw their own infer- \
ences. They should be told as little as possible, and induced

to discover as much as possible. Humanity has progressed

solely by self-instruction ; and that to achieve the best re-
sults, each mind must progress somewhat after the same
fashion, is continually proved by the marked success of self-

550 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

made men. Those who have been brought up under the
ordinary school-drill, and have carried away with them the
idea that education is practicable only in that style, will
think it hopeless to make children their own teachers. If,
however, they will call to mind that the all-important knowl-
edge of surrounding objects which a child gets in its early
years is not without help, — if they will remember that the
child is self-taught in the use of its mother tongue, — if they
will estimate the amount of that experience of life, that out-
of -school wisdom which every boy gathers for himself, — if
they will mark the unusual intelligence of the uncared-for
London gamin, as shown in all the directions in which his
faculties have been tasked, — if further, they will think how
many minds have struggled up unaided, not only through the
mysteries of our irrationally-planned curriculum, but through
hosts of other obstacles besides ; they will find it a not un-
reasonable conclusion, that if the subjects be put before him
in right order and right form, any pupil of ordinary capac-
ity will surmount his successive difficulties with but little
assistance."

648. Moral Education. — Moral education, without fur-
nishing occasion for as complete a theory as intellectual
education, has, nevertheless, suggested to Mr. Spencer some
important reflections.

Mr. Spencer expressly declares that he does not accept the
dogma of Lord Palmerston, or what would be called in
France the dogma of Rousseau, namely, that all children are
born good. He would incline the rather toward the contrary
opinion, which, " though untenable," he says, u seems to us
less wide of the truth " ! Doubtless, we must not expect too
much moral goodness of children ; but it may be found that
Mr. Spencer exaggerates a little, and draws too dark a por-

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 551

trait of the child when he says, " The child resembles the
savage ; his physical features, like his moral instincts, recall
the savage." Taken literally, such pessimism would lead
logically to an over-severe moral discipline, wholly repressive
and restraining. Such, however, is not the conclusion of
Mr. Spencer, who recommends a course of tolerance and
mildness, a system of relative letting alone which we might
almost think dictated by the optimism of Rousseau. He
censures the brutal discipline of the English schools. Finally,
he would have the child treated, not as an incorrigible rebel
who is obedient only to force, but as a reasonable being
capable of readily comprehending the reasons and the advan-
tages of obedience, from the simple fact that he takes into
account the connection of cause and effect.

649. System op Natural Punishments. — The true moral
discipline, according to Mr. Spencer, is that which puts the/
child in a state of dependence on nature, who teaches him to
detest his faults by reason of the natural consequences which'
they involve. It is necessary to renounce artificial punish-
ments, which are almost always irritating and taken amiss,
and to have recourse, as a rule, only to the privations and the
inconveniencies which are the necessary consequences, and,
as it were, the inevitable reactions, of the acts which have
been committed.

A boy, for example, puts his room in disorder. In this
case, the method of natural punishment requires that he him-
self shall repair the mischief ; and in this way he will soon
correct himself of a turbulence from which he will be the first
to suffer.

A little girl, through indolence, or through tarrying too
long over her toilet, has made herself late for a walk. Let
her be punished by not waiting for her, by leaving her at

562 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

home. This is the best means of curing her in the future of
her indolence and coquetry.

The system which tends thus to substitute the lessons of
nature for artificial penalties, certainly offers great advan-
tages. It subjects the child, not to the authority of a pass-
ing teacher, or of parents who will one day die, but to a law
whose action neither ceases nor ever relents. Artificial pun-
ishments often provoke the resistance of the child because he
does not comprehend their meaning, and because, proceeding
from the human will, they can be taxed with injustice and
caprice. Could one as easily refuse to bow before the imper-
sonal force of nature, — a force which exactly adjusts the
punishment to the fault,1 which accepts no excuse, against
which there is no appeal, and which, without threats, with-
out anger, rigorously and silently executes the law?

650. Difficulties in Application. — Mr. Spencer's prin-
ciple is excellent, but the opportunities for applying it are
far less frequent than our philosopher believes. The child,
in most cases, is too little reflective, too little reasonable, to
comprehend, and especially to heed, the suggestions of per-
sonal interest.

Let us add that this principle is wholly negative, that it
furnishes at most only the means of shunning evil ; that even
in according to it an efficacy it does not have, it would still
be necessary to reproach it with narrowing moral culture by
reducing it to the rather mean solicitude for simple utility ;
finally, that it exercises no influence on the development of
the positive virtues, on the disinterested educatiou of moral-
ity in what is noble and exalted.

1 So far as experience can testify, this is a pure assumption. The most
trifling injuries are often the most painful, and the most serious the most
painleos. (P.)

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 553

Finally, the system of natural punishments would incur the
danger of often being cruel, and of causing the child an irrep-
arable injury. Let pass the pin-cushion, the boiling water,
and the candle-flame, — examples which Mr. Spencer pro-
poses ; but what shall we say of the bar of red-hot iron which
he lets the child pick up? What shall be said, above all, of
the grave consequences entailed by the faults of a young man
left to himself?

44 Would it not be," says Gre*ard justly, " to condemn the
child to a regime so severe as to be an injustice, to count
solely on the effects of natural reactions* and inevitable con-
sequences, for the purpose of disciplining his will? The
penalty which the}' provoke is the most often enormous as
compared with the fault which has produced them, and man
himself demands for his conduct other sanctions than those
of a harsh reality. He desires that we judge the intention
as well as the fact ; that he be commended for his efforts ;
that in the first instance extreme measures be not taken
against him ; that the blow fall on him if needs be, but with-
out crushing him, and while extending to him a hand to help
him up."1

651. Return to Nature. — However it may be, Mr.
Spencer is to be commended for having shown that for moral
education as for intellectual education, the method which ,
approaches nature the nearest is also the best. The return
to nature which was the characteristic of Rousseau's theories
and of Pestalozzi's practice, is also the dominant trait of Mry
Spencer's pedagogy.

If we look closely into the matter, this decided purpose to
follow nature implicates something besides the superficial

1 See the Esprit de discipline dans Ve'ducation, a memoir of Greard,
published in the Revue Pfdagogique, 1883, No. 11.

664 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

condemnation of methods introduced by art and human de-
vice. It supposes a fundamental belief, — the belief in the
beneficent purpose of natural instincts. To have confidence
in nature, to fall back on the spontaneous forces of the soul,
because we discern behind them or in them a higher provi-
dence or an internal foresight, is a belief generally useful and
suggestive for conducting human affairs, but particularly
necessary for directing the education of man. It is not
without some surprise that we discover this belief at the basis
of Mr. Spencer's pedagogy, as though, by a contradiction
which is not new, the evolutionist philosophy, which seems
to exclude final causes from the conception of the universe,
had been practically constrained to bow before them, and to
proclaim, at least in the matter of education, the salutary
efficacy of the theory which admits them.

Thus, in speaking of physical education, Mr. Spencer
remarks that the sensations are the natural guides,, which it
would be dangerous not to follow.

" Happily, that all-important part of education which goes
to secure direct self-preservation, is in great part already
provided for. Too momentous to be left to our own blunder-
ing, Nature takes it into her own hands."

Speaking in another place of the instincts which induce
the child to move himself and to seek in physical exercise the
basis of physical well-being, he declares that to oppose these
instincts would be to go counter to the means " divinely
arranged " for assuring the development of the body.

652. Physical Education. — The chapter devoted by Mr.
Spencer to physical education, is such as might be expected
from a thinker who is wholly exempt from idealistic preju-
dices and who does not hesitate to write : —

uThe history of the world shows that the well-fed races
have been the energetic and dominant races."

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 556

It is necessary first and above all to establish physical
force in man, and to create within him " a robust animal."

44 The actual education of children is defective in several
particulars : in an insufficiency of food, in an insufficiency
of clothing, in an insufficiency of exercise, and in an excess
of mental application."

Mr. Spencer complains that modern education has become
wholly intellectual, and that it neglects the body. He
reminds us that " the preservation of health is one of our
duties," and that there exists a thing which might be called
44 physical morality."

Here, as everywhere, Mr. Spencer demands that we follow
the indications of nature. He explains on physiological
grounds the apparently inordinate appetite which children
show for certain foods, — sugar, for example. He urgently
entreats that preference shall be given to play and to free
and spontaneous exercise, over gymnastics.

653. General Judgment. — That which, in our opinion,
attests the truth of the pedagogical laws which we have just
discussed, is that they are in agreement with the general
opinions of the great modern reformers in educatiou. It is
thus that Spencer's ideas are in close harmony with those
which Pestalozzi had employed at Stanz. The success which
he obtained there, as Mr. Spencer has remarked, depended
on two things : first, on the attention which he used in
determining what kind of instruction the children had need
of, and next, on the pains he took to associate the new knowl-
edge with that which the}* already possessed.

Mr. Spencer's essay, then, deserves the attention of edu-
cators. There is scarcely a book in which a keen scent for
details comes more agreeably to animate a fund of solid
arguments, and from which it is more useful to extract the

\rf

656 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

substance. However, it must not be read save with precau-
tion. The brilliant English thinker sometimes fails in just-
ness and measure, and his bold generalizations need to be
tested with care.

654. Alexander Bain and Education as a Science. —
Less brilliant than the work of Mr. Spencer, the book of
Mr. Bain, Education as a Science, recommends itself by
merits of studied analysis and scholarly minuteness. Others
surpass Mr. Bain in brilliancy of imagination, in originality
and in enthusiasm ; but no one equals him in richness of
details, in acuteness and abundance of observations. After
the more venturesome have taken the lead and have pub-
lished the original sketch, Mr. Bain appears and writes the
methodical and complete manual. His own work resembles
that of a conscientious guard who marches in the rear of
a victorious army, and by a wise organization makes sure
the positions conquered by the march of an impetuous
commander-in-chief. His book, in other terms, is but the
studious and thorough development of Mr. Spencer's prin-
ciples.

655. General Impression. — It is impossible in an analy-
sis to bring out the merit of a book which is especially
valuable for the multiplicity of the questions which the
author discusses in it, and for the infinite variety of the
solutions which he proposes. There are landscapes which
discourage the painter, because, notwithstanding their
beauty, they are too vast, too full of details, to admit of
being crowded into a frame. We may say the same of Mr.
Bain's book. One must have studied it himself in order to
form an estimate of its value. Professors of all classes will
here find pages of well-considered counsels, and judicious
reflections upon educational methods. The nature of stud-

THE SCIENCE OP EDUCATION. 557

ies, the sequence of subjects, the gradation of difficulties,
the choice of exercises, the comparison of oral instruction
with text-book instruction, modes of discipline, — nothing
escapes a thinker who is not a mere theorist or an amateur
educator, but a professional man, a competent teacher, an
experienced professor.

Indeed, no one should allow himself to be deceived by this
fine phrase, Education as a Science, which might disconcert
and turn aside whole classes of readers, such as those who,
in works on education, especially desire a guide for practice.
On the contrary, they will have every reason to commend a
book which passes very quickly from generalities to applica-
tions, and which is above all else a manual of practical and
technical pedagogy. The study of it will be profitable not
merely to professors who are teaching the higher branches of
literature and science, but even to the humblest instructors,
and even — for Mr. Bain overlooks no detail — to teachers
of reading and writing.

656. Division op the Work. — Education as a Science
comprises three parts: 1. psychological data ; 2. methods;
3. modern education.

The author first inquires in what order the faculties are
developed, and what effect this order should have on the
distribution of studies. This is the psychological part.
Then follows a discussion of what Mr. Bain calls the logical
order, that is, of the relations which exist between the
studies themselves and their different parts. This is the
" analytical problem " of education.1

These preliminaries being established, Mr. Bain enters

1 By the " analytical problem " of education, Mr. Bain means the deter*
mining of the education value of subjects. See Education as a Science,
Chapter V. (P.)

i - ■■' Hi

558 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

upon the principal theme, — the methods of instruction. He
discusses one after another the first elements of reading,
object-lessons, " which, more than any other means of
instruction, require to be practised with care, for without
this, an admirable process might, in unskillful hands, be
nothing more than a thing of seductive appearance, but with-
out value" ; then methods relating to history, geography, the
sciences, and the languages.

Finally, in his third book, Mr. Bain exhibits a new plan of
study, with particular reference to secondary instruction.

657. Psychological Order and Logical Order. — In
his reflections on the development of the mind and upon the
distribution of studies, Mr. Bain is inspired by the prin-
ciples which have guided Mr. Spencer.

u Observation precedes reflection. The concrete comes
before the abstract."

In education, then, the sequence should be from the sim-
ple to the complex, from the particular to the general, from
the indefinite to the definite, from the empirical to the rational,
from analysis to synthesis, from the outline to details ; finally,
from the material to the immaterial.

Such would be the ideal order in education ; but Mr. Bain
remarks that in practice all sorts of obstacles come to disturb
this rigorous sequence.

658. Modern Education. — The plan of secondary studies
which Mr. Bain recommends to the reformers of teaching is
the result and the r£stim& of all these observations.

Intellectual education, common to all young people. who
receive a liberal instruction, would henceforth comprise three
essential parts : 1 . the sciences ; 2. the humanities ; 3. rhet-
oric and the national literature. We see at once what is to

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 559

be understood by this last item; but the two others have
need of some explanations.

The sciences are divided into two groups : those which are
to be mastered, — arithmetic, geometry, algebra, physics,
chemistry, biology, psychology ; and the natural sciences,
which should be studied only superficially because they would
overwhelm the memory under the weight of too large a num-
ber of facts. Geography,, which, one does not know why, is
included in the sciences, while history is attached to the hu-
manities, will complete the programme of scientific studies.

As to the humanities, Mr. Bain preserves scarcely more
than the name while suppressing the thing ; for in the cur-
tailed and disfigured domain which he persists in calling by
this name, he cuts off precisely that which has always been
considered as constituting its essence, — the study of the
dead languages. He excludes from it even the living lan-
guages, and that which he still decorates with the fine title
of humanities, is still science, — moral science, it is true, —
u history and sociology with political economy and jurispru-
dence."

A course in universal literature, but, be it. understood,
without original texts, might afterwards be added to this pre-
tended teaching of the humanities.

Two or three hours a week would be devoted parallelly,
during the whole course of study, which would last six years,
to each of the three departments of instruction which Mr.
Bain thinks equally important.

As to the real humanities, dead or living languages, they
should no longer be included in education save as optional
and extra studies, on the same basis as the accomplishments.
And, appealing to the future, Mr. Bain even predicts that
"a day will come when it will be found that this is still
granting them too large a place in education."

560 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Mr. Bain, then, gives all his preferences to scientific
studies, and his book might properly be entitled, not only
Education as a Science, but also Science in Education.

659. Theoretical Errors. — Mr. Bain reproaches letters
with giving the mind the habit of servility. By what sin-
gular revulsion of thought can the liberal studies par excel-
lence be represented as a school of intellectual servitude ? It
is rather to scientific instruction that we may properly return
the accusation of enslaving the spirit. By their inexorable
evidence and by their very exactness, do not the sciences
sometimes smother the originality and the free flight of the
imagination ?

This defect, however, does not cut them off from a right
to a place, and to a large place, in the programme of intel-
lectual education. Let us accept with favor their alliance,
let us admit them to a certain degree of fellowship, but do
not let us tolerate their encroachments. In a word, the ob-
ject of the sciences is either pure abstractions or material
realities. He who studies mathematics and physics first ac-
quires real knowledge of high value ; and, on the other hand,
he strengthens his mind through the habits engendered by
the rigorous methods which the sciences employ. We cheer-
fully grant to Mr. Bain that the sciences are at the same time
admirable sources of useful truths and valuable instruments
of mental discipline. By cultivating them we gain not only
the positive knowledge which they teach respecting the world,
but also the power, rigor, and exactness which they impose
on their adepts.

660. Insufficiency of the Sciences. — But the question is
to know whether the sciences, so useful and so necessary for
enriching and disciplining the mind, are also the best agents
for training it. The educator is not in the situation of the

r*rrm - VT

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 561

farmer who has only two things to do, — to plow and sow
the field which he cultivates. The work of education is vast
in another direction. It has to do with developing the apti-
tudes or latent energies, that which the philosophy of the day
hardly allows us longer to call faculties, but that which they
re-establish under another name, that of the unconscious
forces of the soul ; it has to do, not with laboring on a soil
almost entirely prepared by nature, but in great part with
creating the soil itself. Now, the sciences are indeed the
seed which it will be proper by and bj' to sow on the field, but
they are not the substance which nourishes and fertilizes it.

661. Sensualistic Tendencies. — If we go to the bottom
pf Mr. Bain's thought and doctrine on the mind, we shall
find the secret of his ardent preference for the teaching of
the sciences. His errors in practical pedagogy proceed from
theoretical errors on human nature.

For him, as for Locke, there are not, properly speaking,
intellectual forces independent of the facts which succeed
one another in the consciousness. Consequently, there is
not an education of the faculties. Memory or imagination,
considered as a distinct power, as an aptitude more or less
happy, is but a word. It is nothing apart from the recollec-
tions or the images which are successively graven in the mind.
For Mr. Bain, as for Locke, the best education is that which
places items of knowledge side by side in the mind, which
accumulates facts there, but not that which seeks to enkindle
in the soul a flame of intelligence.

That which also warps the theoretical views of Mp. Bain
is that he accords no independence, no individual life, to the
mind ; and that for him, back of the facts of consciousness,
there come to view, without any intermedium, the cerebral
organs. Now the brain is developed of itself ; it acquires

562 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

fatally, with the progress of years, more weight and more
volume ; it passes from the age of concrete things to the age
of abstractions. Hence a reduction, an inevitable contrac-
tion, of the sphere of education. There is nothing more to
do than to let nature have her way, and to fill the vase which
she charges herself with constructing.

662. Utilitarian Tendencies. — Finally, to conclude thi«
indication of the general ideas which dominate and whici
mar the pedagog3r of Mr. Bain, let us observe that a positive
and practical utility, a vulgar utility, mingles too many of
its inspirations with it. The criterion of utility is some-
times applied to it with an artless extravagance. Thus, in
the languages, only those words should be learned which
occur the most often, and in the sciences, only the parts
which are of the most frequent use. Even in moral educa-
tion, as it is conceived by the English philosopher, are to be
found, as we might expect, these utilitarian and narrow
views.

Would one believe, for example, that Mr. Bain makes
the fear of the penal code the mainspring of the teaching
of virtue ? * Here, at least, we must acknowledge that sci-
ence is insufficient. "To pretend, for example, that physi-
ology can teach us moderation in the sexual appetite is to
attribute to it a result which no science has yet been able to
give." But must we count any more, as Mr. Bain would

1 We might dwell on Mr. Bain's observations relative to punishments.
Here is what Greard says of them : " Mr. Bain, with infinite good sense
and disciplinary tact, is much less concerned with applying the role than
with the conditions according to which it should be applied. On this point
he enters into details full of scruples. He does not hesitate to call to his
aid the knowledge of the masters of penal jurisprudence, and his recom-
mendations, added to those of Bentham, comprise not less than thirty
articles."

:t-n

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 563

have us, for example, on social influences and on personal
experience ? In this truly experimental education in virtue,
ethics would be learned just as the mother tongue is learned,
by use, by the imitation of others ; and moral instruction,
properly so called, would be a sort of grammar which is to
rectify vicious practices.

663. Final Judgment. — But our criticisms on the gen-
eral tendencies of Mr. Bain's pedagogy subtract nothing from
our admiration of the sterling qualities of his Education as a
Science. Doubtless there would also be errors of detail tc
notice, or some particular methods to discuss ; for example,
that of never doing more than one thing at a time, or the pro-
priety of first teaching to children the history of their country.
Mr. Bain forgets that mythological history and sacred his-
tory, by their legendary and fabulous character, offer a par-
ticular attraction to the childish imagination, and are better
adapted than history proper to infant minds. But, aside
from the portions which are debatable, how many wise obser-
vations to gather on the different processes of instruction,
on the transition from the concrete to the abstract, on the
discretion which must be employed in object-lessons, the use
of which so easily degenerates into abuse ! Even through
its absolute theories, Education as a Science will render
great services ; for, to illustrate the march of thought, noth-
ing is so valuable as opinions which are exclusive and sin-
cere. It were even desirable, if one did not fear to experi-
ment on human souls, in anima sublimi, that according to
Mr. Bain's plan, the experiment should be tried of an educa-
tion exclusivelv scientific.

664. American Educators. Channing (1780-1842). —
The general fault of English pedagogy is its aristocratic
character. For Mr. Spencer and Mr. Bain, as for Locke, it

564 THB HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

is simply a question of the education of a gentleman. It is
in America, in tbe writings of Charming and Horace Mann,
that we must seek the elements of a theory of democratic
education, and of popular instruction.1

Channing, a Unitarian minister, associated religious senti-
ment and philosophic reason, and desired that in theology
itself everything should issue in the supremacy of the human
judgment. The most interesting of his writings are the pub-
lic lectures which he gave in Boston in 1838, and the object
of which is the education one gives himself, and the eleva-
tion of the working classes. We lack the space to give an
analysis of these lectures, but a few quotations will make
known the general spirit of the American reformer : —

"I am not discouraged b}' the objection that the laborer,
if encouraged to give time and strength to the elevation of
his mind, will starve himself and impoverish the country,
when I consider the energy, and the efficiency of Mind.

4 4 The highest force in the universe is Mind. This created
the heavens and earth. This has changed the wilderness into
fruitfulness, and linked distant countries in a beneficent min-
istry to one another's wants. It is not to brute force, to
physical strength, so much as to art, to skill, to intellectual
and moral energy, that men owe their mastery over the world.
It is mind which has conquered matter. To fear, then, that
by calling forth a people's mind, we shall impoverish and
starve them, is to be frightened at a shadow."

44 It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with
superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication
are in the reach of all. In the best books, great men talk to
us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls

1 There should be added to these the works of Swiss, Italian, and French
educators, particularly of Siciliani, and the original and eminently sugges-
tive studies of Bernard Perez.

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 565

into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices
of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual
life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give
to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual
presence, of the best and greatest of our race. No matter
how poor I am ; no matter though the prosperous of my own
time will not enter my obscure dwelling ; if the sacred writers
will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton
will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shake-
speare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the
workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with
his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual
companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though
excluded from what is called the best society in the place
where I live."

665. Horace Mann (1796-1859). — Horace Mann is not
a philosopher who discusses education, but a statesman who,
reformed and developed the education of his country. Secre-
tary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he opened
schools, founded libraries, and pronounced a great number of
discourses, the best known of which is The Necessity of
Education in a Republican Government.

"When, then," he often said, "will men give their thought
to infancy? We watch the seed which we confide to the
earth, but we do not concern ourselves with the human soul
till the sun of youth has set. Were it in my power, I would
scatter books over all the earth as men sow wheat on the
plowed fields."

Speaking to Americans, to working people, and to trades-
men, he made apparent the positive advantages of instruc-
tion : —

" If to-morrow some one were to tell you that a coal mine

566 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

had been discovered which would pay ten per cent, you would
all rush to it ; and yet there are men whom you let grovel in
ignorance when you might realize from forty to fifty per cent
on them. You are ever giving your thought to capital and
to machines ; but the first machine is man, and the first capi-
tal, man, and you neglect him."

But he also interested himself in the moral effects of edu-
cation, especially in a democratic society, where each citizen
is a sovereign : —

"The education which has already been given a people
makes it necessary to give them more. By instructing them,
new powers have been awakened in them, and this intellectual
and moral energy must be regulated. In this case we have
not to do with mechanical forces, which, once put in action,
accomplish their purpose and then stop. No ; these are spir-
itual forces endowed with a principle of life and of progress
which nothing can quench."

666. Conclusion. — The labors of Mr. Spencer and Mr.
Bain, the works of Channing and Mann, and others still,
will contribute, we hope, to prepare the definite solutions
demanded bj* our times in the matter of education. These
solutions are important for the security and the greatness of
our country. More than ever it is necessary that education
become something else than an affair of inspiration, aban-
doned to caprice and hazard, but that it be a work of reflec-
tion. It is said that the future is uncertain, that events are
leading French society no one knows where, and that our
destinies are at the mercy of the most unforeseen storms.
We do not believe this, since it is within our power that it
shall be otherwise. There is a means, in fact, of assuring
the future of peoples, and this is to give them an intellectual
and moral education which purifies the soul and strengthens

THE SCIENCE OP EDUCATION. 567

character. Do not let us look for regeneration and progress
from a sudden and miraculous transformation ; do not let us
demand them even of the immediate efficiency of such or
such a political institution. Everything here below is accom-
plished according to the laws of a slow progression, by
trifling and successive modifications. Just as for the child
there is no abridgment which allows us to suppress the
slow steps of the insensible growth which each year brings
forward, so for nations there is no other process than the
action, slow but sure, of a wise and vigorous education, for
causing them to pass from vice to virtue, from abasement to
grandeur.

The partisans of evolution sometimes seem to announce
to us the near apparition of a race superior to our own,
called to supplant us, as we shall have supplanted the infe-
rior races. One day or another we shall be liable, it seems,
to meet " at the angle of a rock" the successor of the
human race. We count but little on such promises, and the
coming of this hypothetical race of men, suddenly evoked
by a wave of the magic wand of natural selection, leaves us
very incredulous.

Happily, we know another means, a much surer process,
for causing to appear, not a strange race, until now un-
known, but generations of more worth than our own, which
are superior to it in physical force, as in qualities of mind
or virtues of character. This means is to establish, through
reflection and reason, an education better adapted to our
destination ; an education broader and more complete, at
once more severe and more liberal, since it will at the same
time exact more toil and permit more scope ; in which the
child will learn to count more on himself ; in which his indo-
lence will no longer be encouraged by accustoming him
inopportunely to invoke supernatural aid ; in which instruc-

568 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

tion will no longer be a formulary recited as lip-service, but
an inner and profound acquisition of the soul, in which the
fear of the conscience will be substituted for the other rules
of conduct, and in which thought and free reflection will no
longer be distrusted ; finally, an education more scientific
and more rational, because it will neglect nothing which can
develop a human soul and bring it into likeness with its
ideal. Now that education to which the future belongs,
notwithstanding the obstacles which the spirit of the past
will still stir up against it, — that education is not possible,
its laws cannot be established, its methods cannot be prac-
tised, except on one condition ; this is, that the psychology
of the child be written, and well written, and that reflection
draw from this psychology all the consequences which it
permits.

[667. Comment on Mr. Spencer's Education. — Mon-
sieur Compayre* might have emphasized his cautions. Read
with caution, and with a purpose to weigh the truth, Mr.
Spencer's Education is inspiring and wholesome ; but it may
be doubted whether there has been written, since the Emile,
a book on education which is so well fitted to deceive
an unwary reader by its rhetoric and philosophic plausi-
bility. The air of breadth and candor with which the writer
sets out is eminently prepossessing, and the reader is almost,
obliged to assume that he is being led .to foregone conclu-
sions. The first chapter, in particular, is a piece of 'literary
art, in which there is such a deft handling of sentiment and
pathos as to unfit the susceptible reader for exercising his
own critical judgment.

In this place I can only indicate in the briefest manner
what seem to be the fundamental errors contained in the
book: —

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 669

1. Mr. Spencer does not distinguish between the immedi-
ate and the mediate practical value of knowledges. We may
admit with' him that science is of inestimable value to the

t human race ; but it does not follow by any means that every
person must be versed in science. As we need not own
everything that is essential to our comfort, so we need not
have as a personal possession all the knowledge that we
need for guidance.

2. It is a very low conception of education that would
limit its function to adapting a man merely to that state in
life into which he chances to be born. The Bushman, the
Red Indian, and the accountant, are unfortunate illustra-
tions of the province of education. Often the highest func-
tion of education is to lift a man out of his ancestral state.

3. That the value of a subject for guidance is the same
as its value for discipline, is true under only one assump-
tion, — that the, Bushman is always to remain a Bushman,
and the Red Indian always a Red Indian, as by the new
philosophy of course they should. Practical teachers very
well know that, as a rule, the studies that are the most
valuable for practical use are the least valuable for disci-
pline. Mr. Spencer quotes no better proof of his assump-
tion than " the beautiful economy of Nature."

4. Mr. Spencer's proposed education is sordid in its utili-
tarianism. He is preoccupied with man as an instrument
rather than with a human being aspiring towards the highest
type of his kind. A liberal education should be preoccu-
pied first with the training of the man, then with the train-
ing of the instrument.

5. Mr. Spencer's restatement of Condillac's and Comte's
loctrine, that individual education should be a repetition of
civilization in petto, is at best but a specious generalization,
fhe doctrine cannot be applied to practice, in any considers*

rik

570

THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

ble degree, if we would, and should not be, if we could, for
it ignores one essential factor in progress, — inheritance.

6. The part assigned to " Nature" in the work of educa-
tion is so overstrained as to be unnatural and absurd. .
Physical science has long since discarded this myth of
Nature personified. It is only in educational science that
this fiction is still employed to eke out an argument.

7. The doctrine of consequences which underlies Mr.
Spencer's system of moral education is applicable to but a
limited number of cases, or, if applied with thoroughness,
is inhuman. Not even all the fit would survive if they were
not shielded from the consequences of their acts by human
sympathy and oversight.]

APPENDIX.

Suggestions to Teachers of the History op Pedagogy.

The two aims to be kept in view in the teaching of this
subject are culture and guidance. The purpose should be to
extend the intellectual horizon of the teacher, or, to use
Plato's phrase, to make him " the spectator of all time and
all existence " ; and, in the second place, to furnish the
teacher with a clew which will safely conduct him through
the mazes of systems, methods, and doctrines. There is no
other profession that has derived so little profit from capital-
ized experiences; and there is no profession in which cul-
ture and breadth are more necessary.

For securing the ends here proposed, it is recommended
that a plan somewhat like the following be pursued in the
use of this volume : —

1. If there are three recitations a week, assign one
chapter for each of the first two recitations, to be carefully
and thoughtfully read, and require each pupil to select one
special topic to present and discuss when he is called upon
in the recitation ; and for the third recitation in each week,
require each pupil to select a topic from any part of the
book which has thus far been studied. The purpose of this
plan is to bring before the class, in sharp outline, the salient
points of the subject; and, at the same time, to create a
sense of the organic unity of the theme as a comprehensive

572 APPENDIX,

whole. When there are more than three recitations a week,
only a part of a chapter need be assigned for an advance
lesson.

2. When the first survey of the subject has been made
in the way just suggested, a review may be conducted as
follows : —

(1.) Biographical. Following a chronological order, di-
vide the whole treatise into as many sections as there are
recitations to be devoted to this purpose, and require each
pupil to make a careful study of some educator, as Socrates,
Montaigne, or Pestalozzi, and to present this theme when
called upon in recitation. When there is opportunity, en-
courage pupils to amplify their themes with information de-
rived from other sources.

(2.) Topical. Require each pupil to select some doctrine,
system, or method, and to show, in a systematic wa}~, its
origin, progress, and termination. In this review, encourage
the critical spirit, and make the recitation to consist, in part,
of a free discussion of principles and doctrines. The value
of this subject for guidance will appear in this part of the
study.

(3.) By Chapters. Require each pupil to prepare a sum-
mary of some chapter in the book, emphasizing the more
important truths that are taught in it, and showing the ten-
dency or drift of educational thought. The culture value of
the subject will appear in this part of the study. By this
mode of treatment, the subject can be compassed, with good
results, in twenty weeks.

3. Where no more than twelve or fourteen weeks can be
given to this subject, it is recommended that the following
chapters be selected: I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., X.,
XII., XIII., XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI., XXII.

For use in Teachers9 Meetings held by superintendents, the

APPENDIX. 578

following chapters are suggested: II., III., V., VI., VTL,
X., XIII., XVIII., XX., XXII.

For use in Teachers' Reading Circles, either of the above
selections will serve a good purpose.

A Select List op Works Supplementary to " Compayrk's

History of Pedagogy."

1. The Cyclopaedia of Education. New York.

2. Buisson. Dictionnaire de Pddagogie. Parts 1-156. Paris.

3. Lindner. Handbuch der Erziehungskunde. Wien and Leip-

zig.

4. K. Schmidt. Die Geschichte der P&dagogik. Cothen.

5. G. Compayre*. Historic Critique des Doctrines de l'£ducation

en France. Paris.

6. Barnard. German Teachers and Educational Reformers.

7. Barnard. French Teachers, Schools, and Pedagogy.

8. Barnard. English Teachers, Educators, and Promoters of

Education.

9. Barnard. American Teachers, Educators, and Benefactors of

Education.

10. Barnard. Pestalozzi and Swiss Pedagogy.

11. Biber. Pestalozzi and his Plan of Education. London.

12. Donaldson. Lectures on the History of Education. Edin-

burgh.

13. Kriisi. Pestalozzi: his Life, Work, and Influence. Cin-

cinnati.

14. Lorenz. Life of Alcuin. London.

15. Mrs. Mann. Life of Horace Mann. Boston.

16. Meiklejohn. Dr. Andrew Bell. London.

17. Morley, J. Rousseau. London.

18. Mullinger. The Schools of Charles the Great. London.

19. Quick. Essays on Educational Reformers. Cincinnati.

574

20. Shuttleworth. Four Periods of Public Education. London.

21. Arnold. Higher Schools and Universities of Germany.

London.

22. Hart. German Universities. New York.

23. De Guimps. Histoire de Pestalozzi. Lausanne.

24. De Guimps. La Philosophie et la Pratique de l'£ducation.

Paris.

25. Meunier. Lutte du Principe Clerical et de Principe Laique

dans l'Enseignement. Paris.

26. Gaufrls. Claude Baduel et la R£forme des Etudes au XVI9

Steele. Paris.

27. Bentham. Chrestomathia. London.

28. Drane. Christian Schools and Scholars. London.

29. Ascham. The Scholemaster. Notes by Mayor. London.

80. Locke. Thoughts concerning Education. Notes by Quick.
Cambridge.

31. Laurie. John Amos Comenius. Boston.

32. Lancelot. Narrative of a Tour to La Grande Chartreuse.

London.

33. Schimmelpenninck. Narrative of the Demolition of Port Royal

London.

84. Hamilton, Elizabeth. Letters on the Elementary Principles

of Education. London.

85. Spencer. Education : Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. N. Y.

36. Rousseau, fimile. Extracts. Boston.

37. Blackie. Four Phases of Morals. N. Y.

38. Aristotle. The Politics and Economics. London.

39. Craik. The State in its Relation to Education. London.

40. Cousin. Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia

41. Gill. Systems of Education. Boston.

42. Souquet. Les Ecrivains Pedagogues du XVI* Siecle- Paris.

43. Mann. Lectures on Education. Boston.

44. Quintilian. Institutes of Oratory. London.

45. Plato. The Republic and the Laws. London.

46. Xenophon. The Memorabilia of Socrates. N. Y.

47. Plutarch. Morals. Boston.

48. MacAlister. Montaigne on Education. Boston.

APPENDIX.

675

49. Pestalozzi. Leonard and Gertrude. Boston.

50. Necker de Saussure. Education Progressive. Paris.

51. Cochin. Pestalozzi: sa Vie, ses (Euvres, ses M^th odes-

Paris.

52. Compayre*. Cours de Pe'dagogie. Paris.

53. Milton. Tractate on Education. Cambridge.

54. Fe'nelon. Fables. Paris.

55. Flnelon. The Education of a Daughter. Dublin.

56. Martin. Lea Doctrines Pldagogiques des Grecs. Paris.

57. Jacotot. Enseignement Universel. Paris.

58. Adams. The Free School System of the United States

London.

59. Conrad. The German Universities for the last Fifty Years.

Glasgow.

60. Capes. University Life in Ancient Athens. N. Y.

61. Mahaffy. Old Greek Education.

62. Chassiotis. L'Instruction Publique chez les Grecs. Paris.

63. Spiers. School System of the Talmud. London.

64. Simon. L'£ducation et l'Instruction des Enfants chez lee

Anciens Juifs. Paris.

65. Edgeworth. Practical Education. N. Y.

Note. — For other supplementary works, and for a more com-
plete description of the books in the above list, consult the Bibliog
raphy of G. Stanley Hall (Boston : D. C. Heath & Co.).

INDEX.

■•©•■

Abelard, 75.

Academy, 22 ; French, 219, 801, 386.

Achilles, 46.

207, 461, 476 ; categories of, 642 ;

the divine, 464 ; industrial, 644.
Adalberic, 68.
Adaptation, 27, 31, 79, 90, 92, 168,

200, 294, 323, 329, 364, 461, 630,

663.
Adele and Theodore, of Madame de

Genlis, 480.
Age, for public instruction, 11, 14,

16, 19, 31, 32, 34, 38, 49, 60, 66,

287, 323, 347, 348.
Agricola, Rudolph, 87.
Agriculture, 420.
Ahriman, 14.

Aix-la-Chapelle, Council of, 73.
Alcuin, 72.

Alexander, 11, 36, 294.
Alexander, 118.
Alfred the Great, 73.
All is in All, 627.
Amusements, 33, 94, 96, 98, 118,

119, 146, 161, 248, 294, 306, 348

468, 460.
Amyot, 63, 64.
Analysis, 22, 23, 32, 42, 96, 188, 284,

314, 668.
Anselm, Saint, 76, 77, 119.
Antiquity, education in, 1-16, 18,

87, 820.
Arabic, 102.
.Arab*, 77. •

Arbogast, 893, 394,

Argovia, 418, 438.

Argument, 19, 62, 74, 80, 146.

Aristophanes, 20, 87.

Aristotle, 10, 11, 22, 42, 46, 62, 69,
66, 74, 321 ; plan of education,
36-41 ; of music, 20, 39.

Arithmetic, 76,80, 98, 114, 129, 205,

268, 269, 441 ; moral, 471.
Arnauld,154; General Grammar, 165.
Art, 80, 31, 60, 116, 179, 309, 310,

327, 646; of education, 22, 39, 60,
85, 91, 122, 810, 476 ; industrial,
331, 361, 384, 528, 545; of creat-
ing thought, 23, 91, 166, 167, 316,
316, 471.

Artisans, 16, 28, 40, 98, 118, 134,
136, 209, 300, 666.

Arte, Faculty of, 233, 234, 321, 341,
612; the Seven Liberal, 75, 119.

Asceticism, 4, 63, 66, 66, 160, 161,

269, 260.

Assembly, Constituent, 371, 372,

390, 395 ; Legislative, 371, 373,

390; National, 369, 391.
Assistant, 10, 131, 267, 327, 424.
Astronomy, 6, 11, 32, 71, 74, 76, 98,

129, 157, 205.
Athens, education at, 17, 40, 43.
Atlantic Monthly, 310.
d'Aubign*?, 63.
Augustine, Saint, 47, 64, 68, 71

219, 225.
Augustus, 46, 47.
Aurelius, Marcus, 58, 68.

.■"■.■J1 .suaa,

578

TH£ HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

Austria, 465.

Authority, 16, 74, 81, 110, 122, 186,

172, 191, 264, 309, 518, 528, 632 ;

basis of, 13, 32, 74, 149, 161.
Auxerre, 342.
Ayignon, 139, 263.

Bacon, 32, 123, 124, 133, 136, 192,

211.
Bain, 124, 194, 538, 650-663 ; errors

of, 559-663.
Barraud, 434.
Barrere, 397.
Barriere, 486.
Basedow, 414.
Basil, Saint, 64.
Bausset, Cardinal de, 178.
Bauzen, 537.

Beauty, 30, 31, 84, 98, 646.
Beauvilliers, 165, 166.
Beckx, 142, 145.
Belief, 74, 143, 191, 304, 381.
Bell, Andrew, 6, 513-617.
Belles-lettres, 113, 160, 162, 236, 321,

322, 324, 404.
Benedict, Saint, 69.
Benedictines, 68, 76, 279.
Bentham, Chrestomalhia, 100, 519,

562.
Berlin, 451, 464.
Bernardin de Saint Pierre, 394.
Bersot, 149, 634.
Bert, Paul, 395.
Berthollet, 405.

Burgdorf, 419, 426, 433, 466, 467.
Benille, 160.
Bias, 32.

Bible, 7, 65, 81, 86, 99, 113, 120,
^J?48, 304, 324, 342, 420.
"Billom, College of, 141.
Bills, Educational, 390-411, 509-

512, 519-625.

Birr, 438.

Blackie, Four Phases of Morals, 21,
Blankenburg, 457, 463.
Boarding-schools, 282, 327, 397, 433,

485.
Body, 28, 29, 33, 38, 65, 94, 196-199,

292-315 ; exercises for, 18, 19, 28.

94, 135, 289-292.
Boeotia, 63.
Bohemia, 125.
Boileau, 182, 219, 243.
Bonneval, 283.

Book for Mothers, Pestalozzi's, 431.
Books, 70, 86, 105, 132, 240, 298,

369, 393, 528; use of, 106, 107,

218, 298, 352, 429, 441, 516, 664.
Bossuet, 141, 182-186, 243.
Boufflers, Marquis de, 148.
Bouquier, 379, 391, 400; Law of,

400,401.
Bourgogne, 366; Duke of, 166,

177-182.
Boys, education of, 6, 8, 34, 48, 64,

94, 114, 284-302, 398.
Boze, de, 243.
Brahmins, 4, 5.
Brlal, Michel, 113, 343, 634.
Bretagne, 344.

Brethren of Saint Charles, 266.
Brethren of the Christian Schools,

112, 138, 147, 263-277, 863, 365,

513, 616.
Brinon, Madame de, 228.
Browning, 64.
Brugg, 418, 438.
Buddha, 4.
Buisson, Dictionnaire de P€dagogie,

13, 130, 369.
" Bureau of Correspondence," 368.
Burnier, 163.

Burnouf , Histoire du Bouddhisme, 6.
Buss, 428b

579

Cabanis, 809.

Cabet, 627.

Cabinet, school, 385.

Cabinet of du Mas, 239.

Cadet, 240.

Caesar, 61, 106.

Caesar de Bus, 139.

Cajet, Dom Joseph, 280.

Calvin, 113.

Cambridge, University of, 77.

Campan, Madame, 485-487.

Campe, 415.

Campus Martius, 44.

Carnot, 501, 521, 524.

Carre', 153.

Carthage, 105.

Caste, 2, 14, 16, 16, 28, 33, 42, 143,

256, 564.
Casuistry, 65, 67, 343.
Catechism, 44, 81, 113, 272, 321,

338,364.
Catherine II., of Russia, 320.
Catholicism, 139, 253-277.
Cavern, Plato's, 32.
Centralization, 358, 361, 386, 395,

396, 612 ; opposed, 372.
Central Schools, 407.
Ceremonies, 12, 30, 36, 146, 199,

287, 393.
Chaillot, 504.
Chaldee, 95.
Chance, 328, 329.
Channing, 59, 476, 563-665.
Character, 490, 497.
Charicles, 25.
Charity, 37, 61, 281; condemned,

29, 163.
Charlemagne, 71-73, 106.
Charles the Bold, 68, 73.
Charron, Wisdom, 110.
Chastanier, 263.
Chateaubriand, 245, 611.

Chevalier de la Tour-Landry, 79.
Child, 38, 89, 46, 79, 169, 195, 196 ;
age for study, 11, 39, 49, 287 ;
development of, 31, 38, 60, 195,
455, 456, 498; education of, 46,
48, 80, 86, 103, 107, 122, 129, 163,
169, 237, 240, 284-304, 318, 420,
442, 501-504, 520-525 ; etiquette,
88, 89, 199, 270 ; inclination of,
3, 33, 79, 159, 169, 207, 257, 291,
333, 334, 346, 454, 460, 492, 647,
649 ; indulgence of, 60, 172, 178,
206, 651 ; moral protection of,
39, 49, 60, 78, 88, 173, 248, 470-
475 ; punishment of, 6, 7, 12, 83,
76, 77, 78, 102, 271-276, 661 ; the
property of the State, 27, 397, 898.

Chinese, 11-13; civil service of, 16.

Chrice, 51.

Christian Doctrine, The Order of
the, 139.

Christianity, 8, 61, 116, 174, 228,
248,304.

Christian Marriage, of Erasmus, 90.

Christians, The Early, 61-67.

Chrysale, 212, 213.

Chrysippus, 48, 61.

Church, The, 68, 69, 81, 139, 233,
319, 330, 366, 371, 413.

Cicero, A 47, 70, 06, 101.

Ciceromanta, 85.

Circular of Guizot, 621.

Citharist, 20.

Civil Government, 360, 374, 400,480

Clarke, 196.

Classes, 267, 501.

Cleanliness, 65, 90, 93, 94.

Clergy, 103, 164.

Clermont, 141.

Cloister, 06, 60, 217, 346.

Co-education, 128, 231, 266, 369,
378, 398.

580

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Colleges, 85, 141, 233, 234, 237, 249,
321, 382, 512.

Colloquy of the Abbe", of Erasmus,
90.

Comedy, 30, 39.

Comenius, 106, 112, 118, 121-136,
155, 282, 415, 457.

Communication, 13, 53, 106; lack
of, 70, 161, 217, 266; of knowl-
edge, 41, 53, 71, 113, 131, 147,
565.

CompayrS, 190, 194, 203, 309, 336,
389,568.

Compulsion, 120, 136, 182, 255, 263,
321, 370, 387, 397, 398, 400, 523,
533.

Comte, 322, 323, 529-531.

Conde*, 141,

Condillac, 124, 194, 312-319, 340,
403, 534; Grammaire, 124.

Condorcet, 282, 323, 379-389, 392,
397, 407.

Conduct of Schools, La Salle's,
262-276.

Confucius, 12.

Conjugal Precepts, Plutarch's, 55.

Conscience, 24, 57, 58, 61, 105, 163,
200, 201, 303, 330, 424, 622, 543.

Con side rant, Victor, 628.

Constituent Assembly, 372, 390,305.

Construction, 459, 461, 499.

Convention, The, 390-411.

Convents, 62-70, 214-218, 378, 485.

Conversation, 106, 205, 299 ; with
Aristodemus, 26; Art of, 22, 106,
107; of Buddha and Purna, 4, 5.

Conversations, of Madame de Main-
tenon, 222-229.

Cordova, 77.

Coriolanus, 45.

CorneUle, 141, 213.

Cornelia, 45.

Corporal punishment, 6, 7, 8, 12,
33, 61, 76, 77, 78, 102, 147, 148,
162, 160, 202, 203, 251, 271-276\
336, 651.

Coste, P., 196.

Cotton, Montaigne, 102.

Council of Carthage, 64.

Council of public instruction, 369.
369, 392, 396.

Councils-General, 392, 609.

Counsels to her Daughter, of Madame
de Lambert, 176.

Courage, 15, 18, 36, 294, 522.

Cournot, 534.

Courseo/,SWy,Condillac,8,214-219.

Courses for adults, 383, 384.

Courses of study, 321, 326, 348,365,
377, 383, 398, 402, 472, 486,
520-525, 559.

Courtalon, 404.

Cousin, 156, 523, 533.

Coustel, Education of Children, 154.

Critias, 25.

Crousaz, 282.

Culture, 8, 31, 41, 47, 65, 60, 69, 111,
158, 325, 388, 543, 565 ; Athenian,
18, 30, 31, 43 ; Chinese, 13 ; Egyp-
tian, 14 ; of the imagination, 499,
500; of the Middle Age, 69; self,
67, 69, 87, 301, 383, 421,439, 476,
504, 549, 664; studies, 40, 60,
157, 324-326, 335, 339.

Curiosity, 106, 130, 170, 184, 247,
347, 603.

Cyropxdia, Xenophon's, 14, 34, 35,
36.

Czech, 125, 126.

Dacier, Madame, 213.
D'Alembert, 278, 319, 881.
Dancing, 118, 161, 181, 214, 306, 396
Darin, 427.

INDEX.

681

Daubenton, 405.

Daunou, 380, 391, 396, 410, 411.

Dauphin, The, 182-185.

David, 06.

Decazes, 515.

Deism, 99, 304, 305, 454, 476.

De Lastevrie, 516.

Domia, 254-258.

Demogeot, 203,

Demosthenes, 114.

De Ratione Studii, of Erasmus, 88.

De Sacy, 154.

Descartes, 141, 162, 167, 187-192,

213, 234.
Deschamps, 515.
Dessau, 415.
Destiny, of man, 62, 109, 135, 136,

163, 188, 239, 454, 492, 539, 542,

567 ; of woman, 500.
De Tocqueville, 491.
Development, 13, 23, 31, 38, 49, 91,

98, 111, 129, 158, 208, 288, 313,

381, 412, 421, 423, 436, 439, 465,

476, 495, 603, 542; precocious,

60,240.
Deventer, 86.
Devotion, 214-217, 228, 269, 305,

318, 442.
Dialectics, 32, 42, 45, 52, 76, 76, 118.
Dialogue, 22, 24.
Dialogues of the Dead, Flnelon's,

166, 179.
Dictionnaire de Pe"dagogie, 11, 13,

130, 309, 371, 391, 464.
Didactica Magna, 124, 126.
Didactics, 22, 60, 53, 66, 78, 97, 121,

206.
Diderot, 121, 278, 319-327, 344.
Diesterweg, 422, 464, 465.
Dignity, of mother, 291, 384; of

persons, 18, 35, 57, 62, 78, 162,

201, 207, 273, 304, 338.

Diogenes, 292.

Diogenes Laertius, 37.

Discipline, 6, 7, 11, 20, 33, 36, 88,
41, 44, 50, 61, 76, 77, 81, 88, 101,
102, 111, 119, 146-148, 159-162,
180, 199, 203, 238, 249-252,
263-266, 270-276, 336, 866, 410,
551 ; of consequences, 336, 551.

Discourse on Method, of Descartes,
188.

Discovery, 124, 157, 435, 549.

Dittes, Histoire de V education, 3, 6,
13, 114, 418, 416, 626, 637.

Division of labor, 131, 152, 266,
354,569.

Doctors, of the Church, 63, 67, 68,
74, 75.

Doctrinaries, The, 139, 396.

Domitian, 47, 53.

Dona t us, 118.

Dordogne, 400, 4S4.

Drama, 219, 223, 242, 316, 878.

Drane, Augusta F., Christian Schools
and Scholars, 72.

Drawing, 39, 130, 204, 326.

Dressier, 537.

Dualism, 14 ; Socratic, 23, 24

Dubois, 356.

Duclos, 345.

Dumarsais, 831.

Dumonstier, 404.

Dupanloup, 505, 531, 532.

Dupont de Nemours, 493.

Duruy, 862, 366, 409, 602, 522, 628.

Dussault, 431.

Duty, 200, 333, 337, 338, 490, 493 ;
of teacher, 60, 199, 267, 291.

Economics, 34, 55.

Economy, 36, 398; in education,
516 ; of nature, 3, 31, 286, 290, 55a
£couen, 486.

682

TEDS HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Edgworth, Miss, 482.

Education, 30-33, 41, 42, 48, 80,
666 ; in antiquity, 1-10 ; Atheni-
an, 18, 28, 43; by the Church,
63, 69, 81, 143, 233, 277 ; defini-
tion of, 33, 37, 103, 640; domes-
tic, 7, 8, 36, 48, 64, 65, 127, 227,
378, 422, 486, 498; extent of, 31,
34, 51, 100, 104, 128, 168, 184,
185,563,667; formal, 12, 145-147,
347; among the Greeks, 17-42;
higher, 6, 28, 31, 56, 76, 80, 113,
128, 233, 612 ; intellectual, 29, 31,
39, 41, 110, 166, 157, 203, 468-476,
496, 548 ; moral, 39, 41, 48, 59,
99, 136,159-162, 177-182,199-203,
245-252, 280, 380, 381, 465, 650,
667 ; national, 340-389, 623, 630,
636,664-568; negative, 287-310,
384, 348, 497, 542-555 ; the new,
03, 123, 192, 208, 210, 284-^310,
848, 347, 456, 400, 542; obliga-
tory, 8, 13, 16, 42, 115, 120, 136,
182, 255, 263, 321, 370, 371, 387,
400, 409, 411, 623; the old, 92,
144, 192, 283, 364, 460, 647;
physical, 19, 29, 38, 41, 43, 70, 93,
119, 135, 196-109, 283, 496, 564,
555; power of, 6, 80, 103, 181,
186, 328, 329, 333, 544, 565 ; pub-
lic, 8, 13, 27, 37, 49, 113-136, 182,
209, 250, 279, 48-1, 565; purpose
of, 98, 104, 136, 158, 181, 238,
316, 318, 346, 347, 383, 454, 483,
496, 531, 636, 664, 567 ; Roman,
43-60; science of, 22, 48, 53, 69,
635-571; scientiflc, 28, 32, 40,
91, 151, 157, 535-555; self, 67,
69, 87, 299, 383, 421, 439, 476, 504,
649, 664 ; Spartan, 18, 31, 37, 43 ;
systematic, 2, 38, 41, 91, 128, 288,
525, 631, 647 ; treatises on, 9, 14,

27, 33, 34, 35, 87, 40, 47, 64, 66,
66, 68, 64, 80, 88, 92, 100, 103, 110,
126, 154, 166, 196, 223, 236, 319,
421, 422, 431, 438, 480, 601-603 ;
universal, 8, 13, 16, 62, 100, 116,
118, 129, 136, 297, 374, 411, 468,
480, 481, 510, 626-631, 634, 665 ;
a universal right, 16, 33, 37, 65,
168, 326, 366, 484, 630 ; of women,
34, 66, 109, 110, 115, 116, 128,

168, 174-176, 212-231, 241, 282,
305, 307, 378, 385, 478-607.

Education, Spencer's, 3, 100, 124,

607, 634, 638-555.
Education as a Science, Bain's, 124,

194, 556-563.
Education of Girls, Flnelon's, 166-

169, 174-177, 184, 212, 229.
Education of Man, FnBbel's, 463-

466.
Education of a Prince, Nicole's, 154.
Education of Women, of Madame de

Remusat, 487-490.
Egypt, 14.

Elocution, 21, 61, 62, 107.
£mile, The, 27, 98, 126, 210, 236,

278-310.
Emotions, 42, 66, 206, 207, 286, 303,

650, 661.
Emulation, 67, 146, 162, 183, 299.
Encyclope'die, The, 319.
Encyclopedists, 337, 480.
England, 72, 664.
Entretiens sur Its Sciences, Lamy's,

160, 151.
Environment, 3, 39, 68, 70, 194, 258,

310, 339.
Epicureans, 52, 108, 141.
Equality, 61, 190, 328, 874, 380,400,

565 ; of sex, 241, 266, 384, 479, 606.
Erasmus, 86-91, 94 ; works of, 86

886.

INDEX.

583

Espionage, 147, 258, 276.
Esther, 219, 242.
Estouteville, Cardinal d\ 232.
Ethics, 24, 37, 30, 42, 60, 67, 76,

206, 247, 270, 292, 322, 326, 361,

470, 477, 491, 539.
Ethnology, 2.
Etiquette, 88, 94, 161, 199, 227, 270 ;

of ladies, 90, 227.
Eudemon of Rabelais, 92-100.
Euthydemus, The, 24.
Evil, 14, 31, 65, 66, 159, 169; cause

of, 4, 14, 159, 217, 287, 333, 381,

492 ; how overcome, 56, 66, 160,

217, 333, 381, 566.
Evolution, 530.
Examinations, 16 ; of teachers, 255,

261, 321, 358, 367, 432, 613.
Example, 63.
Exclusiveness, 12, 14, 40, 54, 70,

143, 217, 224, 352, 640.
Excursions, 97, 98, 348, 456.
Existence of God, Frfnelon's, 166.
Experience, 10, 32, 53, 92, 93, 97,

106, 136, 485.
Explanation, 11, 133, 156, 299.
Expulsion, 271.

Fables, 190, 240, 244, 295, 316, 335,

348, 494.
Fables, Fenelon's, 166, 173, 177-

180, 186.
Faculties, The, 233, 321, 383, 511-

513.
Faire /aire, 497.
Faith, 74, 113, 143, 304, 381.
Family, 7, 12, 35, 36, 37, 45, 64, 60,

128, 129, 291, 378, 609, 634, 642,

546 ; sacrificed, 27, 146, 224, 397,

398, 399.
Farrar, Archdeacon, 14.
Fathers, The early, 68, 67, 68.

Fathers, 90, 103, 108, 109, 345, 424,

545.
Faults, in education, 40, 46, 67, 68,

69, 74, 92, 108, 109, 116, 133, 143,

145, 149, 161, 167, 168, 171, 181,

189, 201, 226, 270-276, 292, 302-

307, 322, 329, 341, 342, 432, 437,

462, 463, 470, 518, 534, 552, 668 ;

of Greek pedagogy, 40; of women,

488, 489.
Fear, 200, 201.

Feelings, 33, 180, 275, 295,300,444.
Felbiger, 416.
Fellenberg, Agricultural Institutes,

422.
Fencing, 70, 98, 114.
Fenelon, 78, 164-186, 198, 212,214,

229, 241, 282, 403, 486.
Ferrier, Greek Philosophy, 21.
Ferule, 102, 272.
Fichte, 422, 443; Discourse to the

German Nation, 536.
Firmness, 33, 101, 274.
Fischer, 439.
Fitch, 336.
Ftechier, 141.
Fieury, The Abbe*, 74, 76, 154, 166,

214, 240.
Fontaine, Madame de, 220.
Fontanes, 511.
Form, 430.
Formalism, 12, 36, 74, 91, 145, 211,

263, 342, 445.
Fortoul, 601.
Fourcroy, 478, 610.
Fourier, 627, 629.
Fournier, 459.

France, 72,218-224; College of, 85.
Francke, 414.
Frankfort, 448.
Freedom, 40, 61, 101, 166, 310, 666;

annihilated, 3, 4, 74, 92, 403 ; of

584

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

intelligence, 72, 77, 91, 191, 394,

664.
French, 102, 154, 234, 242, 342, 357,

392.
French Revolution, The, 71, 308,

360, 362-389, 522.
Friburg, 465, 467.
FroBbel, 446-465, 601.
Fronto, 58.
Frugality, 14, 15, 36, 65, 169, 197,

199, 229, 258, 418, 462.
Fulneck, 125.
Fustel de Coulanges, 61.

Gall, 538.

Gamala, Joshua Ben, 9.

Gamaliel, 11.

Qargantua of Rabelais, 91-100.

Gamier, 500.

Garot, 240.

Gaudentius, Letter to, 64.

Gaultier, The Abbd, 514, 616.

Genesis, of knowledge, 313, 668.

Geneva, College of, 113.

Genlis, Madame de, 176, 479-482.

Geography, 24, 80, 129, 151, 169,

183, 205, 240, 297, 322, 342, 349,

400, 403, 436, 481 ; moral, 472.
Geometry, 11, 31, 47, 51, 76, 80, 98,

129, 205, 436.
Grfrando, 620.
German, 351.
Germany, 114

526.
Germany

495.
Gerso
Ges&iJW427.

of Frce)>el/ 452, 458, 459,

Girard, The Pere, 431, 437, 446, 466-
475. .

e de Stael,

Girls, destiny of, 500; education
of, 6, 8, 11, 35, 64, 65, 66, 79, 80,
90, 109, 110, 117, 128, 168, 174,
175, 212-231, 237, 241, 305, 306,
307, 384, 398, 399, 478-507.

Girondists, 391.

God, 61, 63, 99, 174, 182, 286, 288,
464, 622 ; belief in, 26, 27, 173,
304, 337; duty to, 30, 66, 149,

182, 216, 217, 220, 270, 304, 512;
knowledge of, 315, 337; omni-
presence of, 3, 192, 454.

Goethe, 638.

Goldammer, 459.

Golden rule, example of, 5, 78.

Gonzagas, Prince of, 79.

Good, The, 30, 31, 286.

Goodwin, Plutarch's Morals, 64.

Gorgias, The, 24.

Gossot, 604.

Gournay, Mademoiselle, 110.

Government, 238, 264, 270-276.

Gracchus, 45.

Grades, 127, 128, 137, 224, 233, 234,

267, 288, 323, 348, 376, 382, 393,

496, 548, 559.
Grammar, 19, 20, 24, 39, 47, 61, 71,

90, 130, 133, 144, 164, 155, 171,

183, 243, 316, 323, 470-476.
Grammarian, 20, 51, 103, 470.
Gratuity, 120, 254, 262, 321, 367,

370, 372, 376, 386, 388, 398, 622,

523, 633, 566.
Gray Friars, 466.
Gre'ard, 216, 223, 287,288, 306, 364,

457, 461, 480, 606, 516, 616, 618,

553, 562.
Greek, the study of, 48, 71, 86, 95,

102, 106, 121, 143, 144, 183, 189,

206, 237, 244, 267, 283, 317, 321,

324-326, 351, 362, 481, 512, 647,

669.

INDEX.

585

Greek pedagogy, 11, 17-42.

Gregory the Great, Saint, 68.

Grie8heim, 452.

Grignan, Madame de, 214.

Grimm, 344.

Groot, Gerard, 86.

Gro88elin, 135.

Grote, History of Greece, 21.

Gruner, 448.

Guienne, College of, 101, 102.

Guidance, as object of instruction,
16, 49, 57, 201, 291, 293, 318.

Guillaume, 391.

Guizot, 490, 512, 519-522; Madame,
490-494.

Guyon, Madame, 174.

Guyot, 154.

Guyton de Morveau, 343.

Gymnasium, 128, 145; Greek, 19.

Gymnastics, 19, 28, 29, 39, 44, 79,
94, 135, 195-199, 292, 433 ; intel-
lectual, 324, 326; interdicted, 66.

Habits, 293, 315, 334.

Halle, 414.

Halle aux Draps, mutual school, 517.

Hamilton, 194, 404.

Hamilton, Miss, 482-484.

Hannibal, 105.

Happiness, 3, 294, 328.

" Hardening process," 196-198,291,

292, 452.
Harmony, 20, 29, 31, 89, 41, 52, 79,

110, 461.
Hartley, 483.
Harvard College, 126.
Health, 29, 39, 65, 79, 94, 169, 222,

642.
Heart, 12, 56, 06, 110, 303, 443, 469,

471-476, 498.
Hebrew, 96, 99, 118, 121.
Hebrews, 7-11.

Hecker, 414.

Hegel, 447.

Heidelberg, University of, 77.

Helvetius, 196, 319, 327-330, 344.

Henry IV., of France, 63, 147, 232,

233.
Herbart, 194, 637.
Herbault, 514.
Herder, 538.
Heredity, 313.
Herodotus, 32.
Hersan, 236.
Hindoos, 2-4.
History, 12, 32, 33, 36, 47, 63, 76,

80,91, 106, 116, 118, 129, 144, 145,

161, 173, 175, 179, 190, 206 ; of

education, 85, 126.
Holidays, 393.

Holiness, 63, 68, 100, 214-217, 228.
Holland, 86, 282, 283.
Holland, Philemon, Plutarch's

Morals, 64.
Homer, 20, 64, 320, 324.
Honor, 196, 199, 200, 302.
Horace, 45, 59, 87, 324.
How Gertrude teaches her Children,

Pestalozzi's, 427.
Hue, 13.
Humanist, 91, 100, 163, 195, 213,

824.
Humanities, The, 73, 80, 91, 144,

151, 324, 325,486, 351, 558-561.
Humanities, Arnold's, 154.
Human UndursuMing, Locke's, 196.
Hume, 194.
Hygiene, 89, 79, 84, 94, 197, 292,

644.

Ideal, 66, '104, 161, 279 ; Chinese,
12, 13 ; of the Fathers, 66 ; Greek,
41; Hebrew, 7;* Hindoo, 3-5;
Roman, 44, 57 ; Persian, 14, 15.

686

THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

Idealist*, 193, 363.

Ideas, 315, 381 ; birth of, 23, 326,

326, 381, 439, 471, 503; grammar

of, 471; innate, 439; religious,

3, 42, 62 ; made significant, 107,

133, 157, 293.
Identity, loss of, 3.
Ignorance, 13, 18, 29, 68, 70, 72, 116,

143, 225, 226, 300, 364, 369, 519;

learned, 92, 104, 107, 117, 189;

Socratic, 22, 24.
Imagination, 42, 97, 98, 133, 135,

174, 176, 191, 285, 347, 403, 499,

500.
Imitation, 12, 49, 50, 84, 144,462, 467.
Imitation, Gerson's, 77, 78.
Immobility, 16, 18, 145, 342.
Impressions, 208, 295, 328, 334, 461,

484, 492, 503.
India, education in, 6, 514.
Individuality, 3, 15, 37, 67, 84, 85,

123, 136, 168, 207, 310, 313, 338,

381, 439, 452, 461, 489, 549; loss

of, 4, 27, 29, 67, 63, 98, 145, 146,

274, 346.
Induction, 26, 27, 36, 96, 107, 121,

123, 133, 167, 295, 313, 548.
Indulgence, 60; of teachers, 90,

146.
Inertness, intellectual, 2, 29, 44, 68,

70, 92, 144, 228, 329, 518.
Instinct, 24, 31, 93, 133, 290, 460,

629, 536.
Institute of the Brethren, 112, 138,

153-163, 252-277.
Institutes, 382.

Institutes of Oratory, 48, 60, 89.
Instruction, 13, 39, 46, 79, 199, 280,

879 ; Christian, 62, 269 ; domestic,

7, 27, 45, 46, 55, 127, 129, 227,

378, 384, 485; ecclesiastical, 63,

69, 81, 139, 167, 218, 238, 845;

gratuitous, 69, 73, 78, 120, 254,
262, 263, 321, 367, 870, 376, 386,
398, 409, 523, 566 ; indirect, 170,
177-182, 184, 186, 223, 287-310,
481 ; mutual, 6, 63, 131, 267, 392,
424, 613-619, 534 ; national, 340-
389, 623, 666 ; need of, 70, 71,
116, 116, 320, 356, 369, 523, 566 ;
popular, 8, 130, 415, 438, 480, 487,
622 ; primary, 13, 20, 40, 56, 81,
86, 112-136, 139, 142, 163, 177,
209, 239, 240, 263-277, 321, 353,
366, 360, 364, 384, 417, 433, 455-
465, 468-475, 606, 524, 625; pub-
lic, 8, 9, 11, 20, 27, 38, 46, 49, 73,
78, 114, 128, 182, 209, 321, 330,
622-625; religious, 98, 111,113,
115, 118, 267, 303, 336, 346, 380,
438,452,466,564; secondary, 86,
113, 128, 139, 143, 205, 233, 282;
self, 67, 87, 136, 166, 318, 383,
421, 439, 476, 504, 549, 564 ; sense,
193, 283, 403; simultaneous, 51,
152, 240, 266, 277, 424, 616 ; tech-
nical, 193, 206, 263, 281, 331, 376,
384, 408, 414, 419, 645.

Intelligence, 38, 68, 71, 72, 80, 93,
101, 191, 192, 296, 316, 320, 354,
370, 436, 440, 455, 498 ; disregard
for, 44, 68, 70, 92, 143, 171, 403 ;
works of, 26, 27, 109, 156, 167,
394, 564.

Interpretation, 15, 158, 293.

Intuition, 129, 182, 133, 290-510,
403, 415, 423, 428, 438, 449, 462;
648-665.

Irony, Socratic, 23.

Israelites, 6-11.

Italy, 84, 475.

Jacotot, 190, 626, 627.
Janet, 403.

INDEX.

587

Jansenista, 110, 153-163, 234.
Janua linguarum reserata, of Come-

nius, 126, 127, 134.
Jealousy, 12, 25, 153, 259.
Jena, Prussians at, 8.
Jerome, Saint, 64, 71.
Jeromites, 86.
Jesuits, 85, 130-150, 180, 232, 234,

258, 270, 340-344, 468; of the

East, 12.
Jewess, education of, 8, 11.
Jews, 8-11, 16.
John of Wessel, 86, 87.
Joly, Claude, 256, 261.
Jomard, 516.

Josephine, The Empress, 467.
Joubert, 480.
Jouffroy, 62, 401.
Judgment, 100, 104, 156, 163, 101,

281, 205, 206, 460, 467, 470.
Juilly, College of, 160.
Justice, 15, 30, 40, 280, 281, 303.
Juvenal, 50.

Kant, 200, 300, 332-338, 415, 422,
536.

Keilhau, 452, 464.

Khung-tsze, 12, 13.

Kindergartens, 447, 452, 457-465,
476, 477.

Kindermann, 416.

Klopstock, 422.

Knowledge, 15, 53, 80, 101, 104,
113, 102,370,547; clearness of,
53; of facts, 75, 120, 200; a
means, 41, 57, 01, 104 ; of nature,
01, 06, 120, 206, 440; source of,
68, 134, 313, 548 ; before practice,
32, 67, 71, 135; value, 60; for
women, 108, 176, 252, 282, 307,
384, 488, 405, 600, 606.

Konigberg, University of, 882.

Krause, 457.
Kriisi, 428, 432.

Labor, 476, 405 ; manual, 206, 200,
226, 227, 263, 300, 308, 300, 424,
441,506.

Laborde, Comte de, 516.

La Bruyere, 320.

La Chalotais, 278, 343-355, 363.

La Condamine, 283.

Lacroix, 407.

Laita, Letter to, 64-67.

Lafargue, 473.

Lafayette, Madame de, 213.

La Fleche, 501, College of, 189.

La Fontaine, 240, 283, 205, 335.

Lagrange, 405.

Laisne', 515.

Laissezfaire, 160, 208, 203.

Lakanal, 130, 370, 304; Law of,
402-408.

Lambert, Madame de, 176.

Lambruschini, The Abbe', 475.

Lamoignon, 141.

Lamy, The Pere, 160.

Lancaster, 513, 614.

Lancelot, 163, 164, 156, 217.

Langethal, 451, 452.

Language, 2, 70, 82, 116, 118, 126,
134, 180, 323-326, 428, 431, 441,
481, 647 ; native, 48, 70, 113, 118,
121, 126, 156, 183, 268, 857, 400,
460-471.

Lanthenas, 301, 892.

Lao-tsze, 12, 13.

La Piti£, 514.

Larochefoucauld-Liancourt, 616.

Laromiguiere, 139.

La Salle, 112, 147, 254-277, 357,
404, 414, 514. r

Latermii Council, 69.

.!■■* fcf ■■'

588

THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

Latin, the study of, 48, 70, 71, 90,
91, 95, 101, 102, 105, 118, 121, 131,
140, 144, 154, 183, 189, 205, 237,
244, 257, 281, 317, 324, 326, 481,
512, 547.

Laurie, S. S., Comenius, 126.

Lavallee, 218, 222, 226, 230.

Laws, 44, 45, 46, 182, 333, 499;
educational, 399-402, 484, 509;
Plato's, 30, 33, 34.

Lay teachers, 340-345, 466, 508, 533.

Lecointe, The Pere, 150.

Legendre, 394.

Legislative Assembly, 371, 373, 379,
390, 422.

Leibnitz, 136, 141, 196.

Leisure, 87, 377, 381, 543.

Lelong, The Pere, 150.

Leonard and Gertrude, Pestalozzi'a,
421.

Lepelletier Saint - Fargeau, 391,
397.

Lessing, 538.

Letters to Lucitius, 52.

Letters to Pope Innocent XI., Bos-
suet's, 182, 183.

Le'vi Alvares, 505.

Lewes, George Henry, 41.

L'Hopital, 53.

Liberal Education of Children, of
Erasmus, 88.

Liberty, 62, 70, 72, 93, 119, 151, 172,
201, 207, 263, 285, 294, 3Q, 374,

400, 420, 436, 441, 454, 490, 493,
499, 565; of teaching, 371-396,

401, 511, 513.

Life, family, 60, 424, 500, 546;
monastic, 66, 146; practical, 44,
53, 60, 92, 93, 105, 115, 204, 279,
296, 408, 529, 541, 562; public,

• 32, 115, 130, 279, 360,374, 400,
489; stages of, 455, 456, 542.

Lissa, 125.

Literature, 11, 80, 78, 100, 166, 17$
295, 351, 404, 558, 565 ; classical,
73, 80, 86, 95, 189, 324-326, 351,
481, 547, 559; Greek, 11, 48, 80,
84, 559; Latin, 46, 59, 84, 324-
326 ; profane, 64, 86, 87, 176, 219.

Little Schools of Port Royal, 140,
153, 254.

Littre, 69, 233, 234, 383.

Lives, Plutarch's, 53.

Locke, 49, 110, 126, 187, 194-210,
249, 280, 296, 346, 363, 538, 561.

Logic, 6, 24, 31, 52, 75, 76,316,316,
321, 351, 470, 658.

Logic, Port Royal, 154, 243.

Lorain, P., 519.

Lorenz, Life of Alcuin, 72.

Louis XIV., 147, 182, 236, 279, 366,
489.

Louis-le-Grand, College of, 355.

Louis the Pious, 68, 73.

Lourmand, 505.

Lore, 31, 37, 66, 89, 162, 216, 302,
440, 443, 455, 504, 515 ; of country,
8, 44, 182, 308, 399, 489.

Loyola, 140, 163; Constitutions, 142.

Lubbock, Sir John, 2.

Luccard, 267.

Lucerne, 466, 468.

Lupus of Ferrieres, 68, 70.

Luther, 86, 113-120.

Luxembourg, 141.

Luxury, effect of, 36, 50, 182.

Lyc<fe, 131, 205, 327, 372, 382, 512.

Lyceum, 22, 40.

Lycurgus, 34, 56, 397.

Lyons, 254, 255, 285, 368.

Macaulay, 144.
Madras, 514.
Magdcda, 90.

INDEX.

589

Magistrates, 25, 28, 81, 71, 72.
Maieutics, 23, 42, 72, 156, 326, 381,

439, 471, 503.
Maine de Biran, 139, 434.
Main tenon, Madame de, 176, 218-

231,307,486,514.
Maisonneuve, Madame de, 604.
Maifitre, Joseph de, 149, 511.
Malebranche, 187, 192-194, 211.
Man, 61, 62, 104; conception of, 4,

188, 499, 539 ; the perfect, 7, 30,

31, 57, 68, 69, 62, 98, 104, 172,

278, 386, 451, 483, 500, 540.
Mann, Horace, 566, 567.
Manners, 29, 59, 65, 81, 88, 89, 94,

111,199,270; of Chinese, 12; of

Greeks, 21.
Mansel, 194.
Marat, 394.
Marcellus, 105.

Marenholtz, Baroness von, 464, 465.
Maria Theresa, 415.
Marienthal, 464.
Marion, H., 196.
Marmontel, 325, 326, 339.
Marriages, 38, 55, 384, 500.
Marsolier, 243.
Martin, Aime*, 605.
Martin, Alexander, Les Doctrines

Pe'dagogiques des Greet, 18.
Martin, Henry, 183.
Mascaron, 150.
Massillon, 150.
Mathematics, 6, 24, 31, 68, 76, 98,

118, 180, 193, 323, 386, 437, 630;

for women, 66.
Mather, Cotton, 126.
Maturity, 10, 40, 288.
Mauriac, College of, 141.
Mayer, Enrico, 476.
Mean, The, 03, 160, 151.
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, 68.

Melancthon, 113.
Melmoth, Pliny, 21.
Memorabilia, The, 24, 26, 26, 32.
Memoriter, 11, 16, 49, 92, 106, 121,

133, 205, 207.
Memory, 16, 42, 49, 68, 72, 81, 88,

92, 105, 135, 191, 208, 317, 336,

371, 460.

Method, 16, 20, 22, 42, 49, 63, 69,
72, 88, 90, 119, 126, 132, 269, 298,

372, 468, 636, 639, 657; attrac-
tive, 33, 90, 97, 98, 101, 119, 206,
415, 494, 495, 641; Chinese, 13;
dialectic, 32, 42, 74, 76; didactic,
22, 72, 97, 111; educative, 467,
469; intuitive, 127, 132, 295-310,
312, 346, 402-404, 416-446, 452,
461-463, among the Jews, 11;
Port Royal, 166, 162, 236; of
reading, 49, 107, 240, 241, 602;
repulsive, 33, 119, 494,495; So-
cratic, 22-27, 72, 211, 336, 429,
471; synthetic, 313, 469.

Methods, Lancelot's, 164.

Meunier, 277.

Michel, 475.

Michelet, 122, 306, 892.

Middendorf, 451, 452.

Middle Age, The, 67-81, 110, 171 ;

ignorance in, 68, 70.
Mildness, 10, 33, 66, 89, 160, 260,

251, 433; severe, 101, 161, 202,

216, i,64, 452, 492.
Milton, 54.
Mind, 96, 157, 470, 637, 664; not

tabula rasa, 68, 208.
Mirabeau, 369-372.
Moderation, 11, W, 82, 109, 170.
Modesty, 21, 34, 68, 92, 163, 162.
Moliere, 141, 176, 213.
Monasteries, 69, 71, 167.
Monge, 438.

590

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Monitors, 131, 147, 268, 276, 514-619.

Montagnards, 391, 394.

Montaigne, 86, 101-110, 183, 202,
280, 301, 490; of Greek educa-
tion, 18, 19, 29, 36.

Montaign, College of, 87.

Montalivet, 396.

Montausier, 147, 219.

Montbrison, 342.

Monteil, 76.

Montesquieu, 20, 246 329, 373.

Montpellier, 366.

Morality, 100, 106, 136, 370, 375 ;
good conduct, 16, 41, 67; Pla-
tonic, 30, 31, 34; utilitarian, 12,
302-305, 554.

Morals, 6, 8, 14, 39, 42, 48, 50-60,
105, 177, 186, 227, 252, 269, 320,
337, 370, 375, 380, 384, 471-475,
647, 665.

Moravian Brethren, 125.

Moreau, Marie, 261.

Mothers, 39, 44, 48, 55, 90, 108, 127,
129, 534 ; duties of, 291, 384, 422,
456, 457, 469, 485, 486, 600, 546.

Mother-tongue, 121, 144, 165, 204,
243, 465-471.

Motives, 300, 493.

Moulins, 342.

Miinchen-Buchsee, 434.

Museum, 384, 414, 452.

Music, 18, 20, 28, 31, 51, 62, 76, 98,
119, 326, 396 ; interdicted, 65, 175.

Mutual instruction, 131, 267, 392,
424, 513-519, 534.

Mysticism, 63, 125, 136, 193, 458,
476; criticism of, 94, 447, 453.

Mythology, 20, 663.

Naples, University of, 77.
Napoleon I., 360, 433, 443, 486,
486, 510-613.

National Assembly, 369.
National Education , of La Chalo-

tais, 344-355.
National holidays, 393.
Native tongue, 48, 85, 89, 119, 121,

144, 165, 204, 243, 351.
Natural history, 11, 40, 96, 97, 114,

322, 360, 424, 433.
Nature, 24, 31, 32, 48, 93, 170, 290,

309, 310, 448, 456, 475, 476, 553 ;

no commencement in, 496 ; econ-
omy of, 3, 286, 423, 448, 496 ;

following, 2, 36, 290, 312, 347,

349, 401, 433, 603, 529, 661;

human, 46, 48, 159, 169, 217, 286,

333, 454, 491, 632, 636, 550;

morality in, 448; return to, 663;

study of, 91, 93, 96, 118, 121, 132,

133,290.
Naville, 74, 467.
Necker de Saussure, Madame,

493-600.
Neufchatel, 434.
Neuhof, 419, 420.
New Education, The, 93, 123, 13?,

190, 208, 284-310, 343, 347, 466,

460, 642.
Newspapers, 331.
Nicole, 65, 164-159, 217; Logic,

154 ; Education of a Prince, 164.
Niederer, 436.
Niemeyer, 414.
Nirvana, 5.
Nisard, 237.
Normal Schools, 255, 259, 261,

262, 357, 367, 387, 404, 405, 406,

412, 423, 429, 464, 501.
North, Sir Thomas, Plutarch, 64.
Novum Organum, 123.
Number, 428, 430, 441; of pupila.

10.

INDEX.

591

Oberlin, 415.

ObjecMessons, 97, 98, 111, 133,
170, 192, 247, 293, 296, 400, 415,
430, 473, 602, 603, 568, 663.

Obligation. See Compulsion, Edu-
cation, State.

Observation, 75, 96, 97, 98, 123,
133, 136, 192, 293, 461, 668.

Old Education, The, 92, 116, 144,
192, 283, 364, 460, 647.

Olynthiacs, 113.

Optimism, 169, 201, 286, 333, 464,
491, 651.

Oratorians, 150-163, 192, 369, 395.

Oratory, 47, 62.

Oratory, The, 160.

Orbis sensualium pictus, of Corne-
ll his, 127, 134, 135, 416.

Order of Study, of Erasmus, 88.

Organization, 414, 456; of Chris-
tian education, 62, 115, 259; of
instruction, 363, 368, 510; of
schools, 9, 27, 37, 69, 71, 77, 117,
127, 128, 265, 396 ; of the State,
27,35.

Orleans, 103, 120, 342.

Ormuzd, 14.

Orphan Asylum, Francke's, 414.

Ovid, 87.

Oxenstiem, 125.

Oxford, University of, 77, 196.

Pacatula, 64.

Padua, University of, 78.

FcEdagogium. 414.

Tainting, 18, 98, 204.

Palatine school, 72.

Palestra, 19.

Pamiers, College of, 141.

Pansophia, 100, 126, 129, 297, 374,

411,468,480,631,666.
Pantagruel, 96.

Pantheism, 463; of Hindoos, 2-4.

Pape-Carpentier, Madame, 60 1-604.

Papinian, 95.

Paris, 368, 433; Normal School at,
405, 406; University of, 76, 79,
141, 232, 233-235, 356, 404.

Parish School, The, 267, 268.

Parliaments, French, 340, 343.

Pascal, 156, 162.

Pascal, Jacqueline, 154, 214-217 ;
Regulations for Children, 154,
215, 216.

Pasquier, 69, 515.

Patak, 125.

Patience, 10, 68, 79, 160, 251, 621.

Paul III., Pope, 141.

Paula, 64-67.

Paulet, 614.

Pauline de Meulan, Madame Gui-
zot, 490-494.

Pecaut, 464.

Pedagogics, 358, 372.

Pedagogue, 19, 45, 46, 102, 292.

Pedagogy, 46, 62, 63, 73, 83, 86,
91, 103, 121, 165, 190, 278,311,
368, 454; English, 187, 207,
536-570; German, 413; of the
Jansenists, 158; of the Jesuits,
148 ; modern, 190, 192, 278, 456,
558.

Pedants, 74, 92, 106, 146, 168, 204,
328.

Penances, 260, 272.

People, The, 14, 16, 21, 33, 65, 78,
113, 114, 130, 209, 263, 308, 320,
872, 380, 415, 420, 441, 480, 484,
665; exclusion of, 15, 28, 40, 64,
70, 80, 143, 352, 640.

Perez, 494, 526, 564.

Perfection, 7, 14, 33, 69, 63, 99,
104, 172, 278, 386, 451, 483, 600,
640.

usa

592

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Pericles, 22, 40, 46.

Perigordian, 102.

Persia, 14 ; education by the State,
16, 36, 36.

Personality, 461.

Pessimism, 169-162, 632, 633,
666.

Pestalozzi, 122, 126, 413-446, 448,
601, 614, 637, 663, 666.

Peter the Great, 108.

Philanthropists, 414.

Philip of Macedon, 11.

Philosophers, 21, 22, 46, 66, 67,
311, 479.

Philosophy, 28, 47, 61, 62, 74, 77,
99, 103, 106, 129, 146, 161, 152,
179, 183, 234, 237, 247, 316, 326,
342, 351, 464, 638; definition,
106; of education, 126, 136, 168,
163, 188, 279, 310, 469, 497, 635-
670; Greek, 11, 30, 40, 211 ; for
magistrates, 28.

Phoenix, 46.

Physics, 52, 129, 206, 247, 292, 322,
323, 350, 396.

Piccolomini, ^neas Sylvius, 79, 80.

Pictet, 482.

Pietists, 414.

Pillans, 519.

Plan of a University, Diderot's,
320.

Plato, 11, 22, 24, 27, 42, 46, 52, 56,
59, 91, 95, 324, 397, 529; aim of,
34; caste in, 28; of the drama,
30, 56; of music, 20, 31.

Platter, Thomas, 132.

Play, 458,^460,-461.

Pleasures, 294, 328.

Plessier, 261.

Plessis, College of, 286.

Pliny, Letters, 21, 69.

Pluche, The Abbe, 283.

Plutarch, 45, 63-68, 286; educa,
tion of women, 34, 36, 66; train-
ing of children, 64, 89.

Poetry, 30, 66, 87.

Poitiers, 342.

Poland, 126, 308.

Politeness, 29, 88, 89, 161, 227,270,
467.

Politics, 32, 37, 42, 130, 860, 374,
489, 642; Aristotle's, 37, 40;
Plato's, 28; versatility in, 373.

Polybius, 47.

Ponocrates of Rabelais, 93-100.

Pontchartrain, de, 217.

Port Royal, 152-163,216-217; de-
molition of, 163.

Portugal, The King of, 341

Positivists, 629-631.

Pourchot, 236, 261.

Practice, 105, 134, 136, 166, 365,
471 ; of education, 85.

Prague, University of, 77.

Praise, 49, 60, 67, 146, 162, 169, 632.

Precision, 188, 240, 264, 326.

Priests, 116 ; as educators, 5, 6, 15,
140-163.

Principles, 17, 464; of education,
33, 37, 46, 83, 121, 136, 168, 190,
191, 309, 313, 346, 430, 439-441,
483, 622, 526, 634, 666-670.

Professors, 21, 22, 76, 233, 368, 377,
512.

Progress, 381 ; popular instruction,
8, 12, 38, 112-136, 363, 479.

Progressive Education, of Madame
Necker, 494-600.

Pronunciation, 11, 51.

Protestantism, 112-136.

Protestants, 85.

Proverbs, 7.

Prudence, 100, 104, 106, 108, 161,
199, 280, 281, 645.

INDEX.

598

Psychology, 24, 42, 46, 50, 136, 104,
261, 284, 312, 314, 336, 430, 464,
488, 402, 407, 508, 634, 537, 630,
558.

Public schools, 117, 130, 264, 416.

Punishment, 152, 160, 180, 200, 240-
252, 270-276, 336, 651-653 ; cor-
poral, 6, 21, 51, 102, 122, 147, 148,
104, 201-203, 271-276.

Purity, 30, 48, 66, 461.

Puma, 4, 5.

Pythagoras, 52.

Quadrivium, 75, 76.

Questioning, The art of, 22, 23, 25,

42, 72, 170, 267.
Quick, R. H., 208; Educational

Reformers, 121.
Quintilian, 46, 47-52, 80, 230, 241;

of indulgence, 60.

Rabaud Saint-fctienne, 303.

Rabbins, 10, 11.

Rabelais, 01-100, 107, 207, 400.

Racine, 176, 213, 210, 243, 316.

Rambouillet, Hotel de, 210.

Ramsauer, 431, 434.

Ramus, 85, 166, 232.

Rapet, 476,

Ratich, 121.

Rationalism, philosophic, 400, 403.

Ratio Studiorum, of the Jesuits,

142.
Reading, 11, 40, 61, 67, 60, 75, 86,

00, 107, 166, 204, 226, 230, 268,

326, 424, 440.
Realism, 01, 204, 211, 308, 300.
Reason, 31, 32, 38, 42, 67, 100, 104,

108, 122, 136, 136, 174, 100, 284,

314, 333, 335, 444, 454, 401, 403.
Reasoning, 23, 74, 82, 123, 165, 101,

267, 206, 316, 403.

Recreation, 87, 03, 04, 110, 146,
248, 251, 204, 303, 441, 458, 400,
461; mathematical, 348, 350;
physical, 360, 306.

Recruitment of teachers, 367, 613.

Redolfi, 3.

Refinement, conventional, 12, 36,
80, 143, 227.

Reflection, 101, 208, 317, 318, 444,
558.

Reform, 4, 36, 73, 83, 220, 236, 270,
322, 381, 416, 406.

Reformation, The, 80, 84, 03, 00,
113-136.

Refutation of Helvetius on Man, Di-
derot's, 310.

Reid, 482.

Reims, 250, 260.

Religion, 4, 6, 8, 30, 42, 44, 68, 62,
73, 08, 00, 118, 228, 303, 305, 326,
337, 376, 381, 453, 480, 564.

Remusat, Madame de, 487-400.

Renaissance, 71, 80, 81, 83-111, 234.

Renan, 325, Vie de Je'sus, 11 ; edu-
cation of women, 34.

Repetition, 11, 121, 136, 173.

Republic, Plato's, 27-33.

Respect, for teacher, 6, 10, 181,
184, 200, 632.

Rewards, 67, 147, 104, 240, 260,
276, 362, 403, 622, 632.

Rhetoric, 6, 18, 21, 47, 48, 61, 71,
85, 100, 144, 171, 180, 316, 321.

Rhythm, 20.

Richter, 536.

Rights of Man, Talleyrand's, 375.

Robespierre, 301, 303, 307, 402.

Robinson Crusoe, 208.

Rochefoucault, 103.

Rochow, 416.

Rod, The, 6, 7, 61, 76, 102, 147, 14a
202, 273.

*MM

594

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Kodez, 141, 368.

Roger de Guimps, 419, 426.

Rolland, 270, 343, 355-350 ; Law of,

300,400.
Rollin, 50, 188, 202, 232-252, 283,

317, 340, 357, 514.
Roman Law, 44.
Rome, 43-60.
Romme, 370, 301, 303, 300 ; Law of,

300,400.
Rouen, 263, 270, 364.
Rousseau, 27, 36, 38, 07, 08, 110, 126,

171, 106, 107, 108, 202, 200, 210,

278-310, 332-337, 348, 363, 368,

415, 426, 442, 448, 481, 406, 553.
Routine, 3, 12, 74, 02, 140, 101, 232,

235, 265, 333, 536.
Royer-Collard, 515.
Rudolstadt, 452, 457.
Rules, 134, 156, 264, 471.
Russell, Doctor, 202.

Sacrifices, 4, 30, 250, 260, 417.

Saint Cyr, 218-231, 307, 486.

Saint Cyran, 153, 160.

Sainte-Beuve, 156, 470, 401.

Saint Francois de Salles, 225.

Saint Gall, 68.

Saint Germain, 485.

Saint Hilaire, Barthelemy, 622, 524.

Saint-Just, 300.

Saint Leu, 481.

Saint Malo, 344.

Saint Pierre, The AbM, 280-282,

207.
Saint Pierre, Bernardin de, 304.
Saint Simon, 148, 166, 181, 183,

527, 628.
Saint Yon, 263.
Salamanca, 77.
Salary, of teachers, 366, 367, 302,

402, 410, 417, 610, 620.

Salian hymns, 44.

Salzman, 415.

Sauvan, Mademoiselle, 504, 618.

Savages, education of, 1, 13, 202,
641.

Savoyard Vicar's Profession of Faith.
Rousseau's, 806.

Sazarin, 518.

Schiller, 538.

Schleiermacher, 637.

Schmid, 434, 436.

Schmidt, Charles, 638.

Scholasticism, 71, 74 ; criticism of,
02, 107, 116, 140, 235.

School-house, 131, 132, 367.

Schools, 113, 116, 117, 401, 422;
adornment of, 103, 131 ; at
Athens, 10, 20, 21 ; central, 407,
408; in China, 13; claustral, 60,
75, 76, 116, 282, 345 ; etymology
of the word, 87 ; European type
of, 131; infant, 467-466, 601-
604 ; in India, 6, 514 ; Jewish, 0 ;
Latin, 110, 128, 130, 131, 144,
346 ; of the Middle Age, 60, 77, I
78; Palatine, 72; primary, 120,
128, 100, 234, 254-277, 366, 383,
426, 477, 610, 520-526; public,
114, 128, 136, 416; real, 414;
at Rome, 45, 52; secular, 114,
130, 233, 264, 278, 207, 318, 388,
500, 522.

Schoepfer, Captain, 433.

Schultaus, 146.

Schultess, Anna, 410.

Science, 40, 61, 76, 77, 06, 07, 100,
106, 161, 183, 247, 281, 207, 323,
386, 404, 431, 512, 668, 660; of
education, 22, 33, 37-41, 42, 64,
85, 05, 104, 363, 400, 435-470 ;
neglect of, 74, 86, 01, 146, 401.

Scipio, 106.

INDEX.

595

8cudery, Mademoiselle de, 226.

Sculpture, 98.

Secularization, 114, 130, 233, 254,

278, 297, 318, 319, 338, 340-344,

609, 522.
Siguier, 141.

Self-abasement, 4, 65, 161, 221, 260.
Self -consciousness, 4, 24, 42, 57,

133, 158, 317, 318, 428, 458.
Self-control, 57, 68, 152, 196, 499.
Selfishness, 4, 108, 300, 302, 499,

636, 542.
Self-renunciation, 4, 5, 63, 148, 149,

215, 269, 346.
Seminary for Schoolmasters, 261,

277, 367, 367, 387, 404.
Semler, 414.
Seneca, 52, 53, 59, 91.
Sensationalism, 133, 187, 193, 208,

296, 328, 346, 381, 403, 554, 561.
Senses, 132, 133, 135, 168, 193, 194,

283-310; education of, 295, 314,

328, 449, 496, 503, 542-565.
Sensibilities, 285, 330 ; training of,

2, 38, 133, 193, 200, 201, 301, 329,

330, 403, 503, 554.
Sentenis, 304.
Sentiments, 302-805.
Sequence of studies, 157, 323, 403,

404, 452, 463, 474, 548, 568.
Seven Liberal Arts, The, 76, 76,

119.
SeMgnl, Madame de, 152, 198, 213,

489.
Sexes, equality of, 241, 266, 384,

479, 488 ; separation of, 8, 34, 266,

378, 396, 402, 466.
Shaftesbury, Lord, 196.
Shakespeare, 64, 320.
Siciliani, 564.
Sidonius, Apolllnaris, 68.
Sieves, 391-396.

Signal, 266, 278.
Silence, 265, 266.
Sill, Miss £. R., 310.
Simon, J., 7, 364, 623, 533.
Simplicity, 121, 157, 158, 221, 228,

229, 403, 439, 474.
Singing, 51, 119, 214, 420, 433.
Site, for schools, 6, 20, 131, 132.
Slaves, 39, 40 ; as teachers, 45.
Smith, Adam, 510.
Society, 3, 54, 61, 70, 98, 287, 298,

489, 600, 509, 623 ; unity of, 18,

37, 73, 98, 116, 126, 282, 369, 516,

566.
Socrates, 22, 42, 62.
Socratic method, 22-27, 32, 211,

429, 471.
Solomon, 9, 99, 119.
Solon, 19, 21.
Sophie, 305-307.
Sophists, 21.
Soul, 3, 38, 316, 461 ; culture of, 58,

84, 193, 469, 546; development

of, 18, 19, 28, 29, 33, 38, 67, 91,

99, 136, 192, 288, 329, 468, 496-

600,665.
Spain, 77, 132.
Sparta, 17, 345.
Specialists, 103, 209, 300, 825.
Spelling, 155.
Spencer, Herbert, 29, 66, 100, 194,

207, 313, 322, 326, 607, 538-^555 ;

of caste, 3; prejudices of, 546,

647, 662, 663-655.
Sphericity, of Froebel, 460, 461, 459.
Spirit, 12, 13, 92, 101, 326, 647 ; of

Christianity, 61, 62; national,

369, 401, 489, 490, 623, 665; of

Protestantism, 113, 120.
Spiritual life, 18, 38, 67, 208, 279,

316.
Spiritualistic School, 628, 688.

596

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Spontaneity, 4, 24, 208 ; in educa-
tion, 17, 31, 33, 57, 101, 114, 130,
284-309, 452, 454, 407, 547 ; sup-
pressed, 12, 114, 143, 271.

Stael, Madame de, 420, 495.

Stanz, 419, 423.

Stapfer, 466.

State, The, 12, 27, 54, 61, 330, 341 ;
duty to educate, 13, 16, 27,38,
42, 60, 81, 116, 233, 236, 238, 260,
252, 255, 277, 282, 321, 345, 353,
360, 363-389, 398, 415, 509, 620-
525, 565 ; physical education by,
19, 29.

States-General, 120, 366, 368.

Stewart, Dugald, 325, 482, 484.

Stoics, 52, 58, 141, 292.

Strasburg, College of, 85.

Studies, 20, 31, 34, 49, 61, 76, 88,
106, 118, 119, 296, 402, 539, 658;
Bacon of, 32, 123; classical, 143,
162, 163, 204, 211, 252, 283, 317,
321, 324-326, 351, 352, 481, 512,
647 ; disciplinary, 40, 60, 80, 98,
118, 203, 204, 211, 296-298, 539,
562 ; diversity of, 129, 181, 448 ;
gradation of, 38, 80, 88, 90, 122,
130, 131, 204, 233, 267, 495, 620,
525, 558, 559; Jewish, 11; pain-
ful, 33, 171, 207, 217, 252, 346,
476, 496; pleasurable, 33, 49, 79,
171, 181, 206, 240, 348, 467-465,
495, 641, 549; sequence of, 157,
323, 403, 452, 463, 474, 648, 658 ;
simultaneous, 51, 152, 240, 266,
267, 424, 515; utilitarian, 40, 60,
80, 98, 118, 203, 211, 296-298,
539, 562; educational value of,
60, 105, 204, 323-326, 339, 388,
469, 557, 558; for women, 174,
384, 486, 495, 500, 506.

Sturm, 85.

Sweden, 125, 353.
Switzerland, 465, 524.
Summaries, 15, 41, 59, 81, 110, 18$

163, 185, 210, 230, 262, 277, 310,

338, 360, 388, 411, 444, 475, 506,

534,668.
Supervision, 359, 369, 392, 396, 399,

401, 486, 510.
Syllogism, 74, 80, 85, 149.
Symmetry, 31, 38, 39, 82, 84, 93,

163, 394, 896, 444, 458, 547.
Synthesis, 313.

Tabula rasa, 58, 208.

Talent, 3, 42, 67, 93, 158, 286, 828 ;
encouragement of, 377.

Talleyrand, 369, 372-379, 434.

Talmud, 10, 11.

Teachers, 13, 50, 53, 69, 117, 261,
267, 266, 266, 292, 366, 367, 392,
470, 479,600, 613,522, 627; Aris-
totle, 36, 41 ; faults of, 262 ; re-
spect for, 6, 10, 100, 120, 396, 604,
521, 522, 532; as tradesmen, 367,
619; training of, 405, 504; vir-
tues of, 10, 50, 261, 255, 455, 532 ;
women as, 44, 384, 458, 478-507.

"Teachers' fairs," 367.

Teaching, 41, 46, 49, 63, 79, 88, 90,
114, 122, 226, 246, 267, 269, 352,
426, 427 ; of geography, 403, 404 ;
of history, 326,349; of objects,
97, 132, 293.

Teaching Congregations, The, 138-
163, 192, 253, 486, 509.

Telemachus, Fe*nelon's, 166, 176, 182,
306.

Temperance, 14, 15, 18, 35, 36, 194,
197, 292, 381.

Tennis, 94, 104.

Terence, 87, 183, 324.

Term, 106, 107, 133, 320.

INDEX.

597

Tertullian, 64,

Text-books, 132, 173, 352, 360, 368,
393, 403, 429, 441 ; uniformity in,
121.

Theme, 158, 244.

Themistocles, 20.

Theology, 69, 74, 77, 174, 234,
337.

Theory, 17, 60, 74, 134; of educa-
tion, 85, 340, 509, 525-570.

Theresa, Saint, 64.

TheVy, 362.

Things, 85, 97, 106, 107, 132, 133,
293, 415.

Thomassin, The Pere, 150, 152.

Thought, 3, 57, 74, 97, 107, 157, 316,
469; life of, 41, 63, 193, 326, 326,
381, 468, 475, 565.

Thoughts, Locke's, 195-208.

Thucydides, 33, 43, 245.

Thuringia, 447.

Tobler, 428.

Tournon, College of, 141.

Trades, 118, 119, 206, 209, 263, 300,
384, 400, 401, 519.

Tradition, 13, 143, 383.

Tragedy, 30, 285.

Training, 41, 111 ; of children, 64,
129 ; mental, 18, 19, 20, 24, 58,
96, 157,203,324-326,381,468-475,
496, 548; physical, 18, 19,39,41,
79, 80, 94, 197, 283, 496, 554, 555 ;
of the senses, 38, 96, 97, 133, 193,
208, 283, 289-308, 503; of will,
499, 547.

Translation, Value of, 327, 330.

Treatise on Pedagogy, Kant's,
332-338.

Treatise on Studies, Rollin's, 235.

Trivium, 76, 76.

Truth, 24, 161, 193, 301.

Turgot, 359.

Tutor, 69, 327, 618.
Twelve Tables, 44.

Uniformity, 264, 281.

Unity, 18,450; of education, 466 ;

in teaching, 129, 152, 288, 359,

609.
Universal Instruction, Jacotot's, 626,

527.
Universals, 32, 463, 627.
University, 22, 76, 77, 128, 252;

Diderot's, 326, 327 ; for women,

486.
University of France, 233, 243, 321,

341, 343, 356, 360, 609-612, 633.
Unselfishness, 10, 78, 136, 522.
Utility, 40, 44, 60, 115, 1S6, 189,

196, 200, 201, 296-510, 408, 629,

538,541,562 ; of culture, 324-326,

381, 523.
Ursulines, 214.

Values, educational, 60, 823-326,
339, 388, 469, 657.

Van Laun, 213.

Varet, 154, 159; Christian Educa-
tion, 154.

Varro, 47.

Vaughan and Davies, Republic, 31.

Venice, 79.

Vernier, 467.

Version, 158, 244.

Veturia, 45.

Vice, cause of, 60, 116, 381 ; how
overcome, 66, 118, 160, 186, 881.

Vienna, University of, 77.

Villemain, 236, 304, 468.

Vincennes, 614.

Vinet, 600.

Virchow, 639.

Virgil, 64, 87, 97, 324.

598

THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

Virtue, 26, 80, 36, 39, 104, 199, 200,
230, 381 ; moral, 280 ; passive, 5,
55, 80, 226 ; Roman, 44, 62.

Vittorino da Feltre, 78.

Vires, 91, 132.

Vivonne, Catherine de, 219.

Voltaire, 80, 141, 230, 279, 329, 331,
344, 345, 368.

Vuilfemin, 436.

Warriors, 15, 28, 31, 70.

Wartensee, 456.

Washington, 422.

Watson, Quintilian, 60.

Wessel, John of, 87.

Wittenberg, University of, 113.

Whipping, 6, 7, 61, 76, 102, 147, 148.

Will, 13, 61, 194, 201, 334, 372, 476,
484, 643, 547, 552, 553.

Wine, 194, 292, 381.

Wisdom, 15, 41, 48, 67 ; the high-
est, 3, 67, 104, 106, 135, 296, 381.

Wolker, Doctor, 246.

Women, 6, 16, 34, 44, 48, 60, 90,
488, 606 ; education of, 6, 15, 16,
27, 34, 36, 48, 56, 66, 79, 80, 90,

91, 109, 110, 115, 117, 128, 168,
174-176, 212-231, 262, 282,
306-307, 328, 384, 464 ; nnsezed,
27,606.

Words, 85, 106, 107, 132, 134, 144,
325, 326, 415, 430.

Wordsworth, 54.

Works, of Comenius, 125-127 ; of
Diderot, 319 ; of Erasmus, 87-90;
of Fe'nelon, 166; of Madame de
Genlis, 480 ; of Madame de
Main tenon, 222 ; of Madame
Pape-Carpentier, 601-603 ; of
Pestalozzi, 421, 422, 431, 438;
of Plutarch, 53-68.

Worthington, Miss, 171, 336.

Writing, 6, 11, 49, 67, 86, 88, 90,
204, 268; schools, 120, 264.

Wurtzburg, 466.

Xenophon, 14, 34, 35, 36, 66.

Yverdun, 419, 420, 434, 449.

Zurich, 418.
Zwingli, 113, 114.

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