Chapter 18

[98]Here as usual Rollin uses Quintilian without directly quoting him. He gives in a note the passage he had in his mind. “Id imprimis cavere oportebit, ne studia qui amare nondum potest oderit; et amaritudinem semel præceptam etiam ultra rudes annos reformidet (Quint., lib. j, cap. 1.)”[99]Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel were also in this sense realists, but they held that the educational value of knowledge lay not in itself, but only in so far as it was an instrument for developing the faculties of the mind.[100]Henry Barnard (English Pedagogy, second series, p. 192), speaks of Hoole as “one of the pioneer educators of his century.” According to Barnard he was born at Wakefield, in 1610, and died in 1666, rector of “Stock Billerica” (perhaps Stock with Billericay), in Essex.[101]A very interesting suggestion of Cowley’s is that another house be built for poor men’s sons who show ability. These shall be brought up “with the same conveniences that are enjoyed even by rich men’s children (though they maintain the fewer for that cause), there being nothing of eminent and illustrious to be expected from a low, sordid, and hospital-like education.”[102]It would seem as if these Puritans were more active in body than in mind: even the seniors, like the children at Port-Royal,tombent dans la nonchalance. Dury has to lay it down that “the Governour and Ushers and Steward if they be in health should not go to bed till ten.” (p. 30.)[103]It is a sign of the failure of all attempts to establish educational science in England that though the meaning of “real” and “realities” which connected them withresseemed established in the sixteen hundreds, our language soon lost it again. According to a writer inMeyer’s Conversations Lexicon(first edition) “reales” in this sense occurs first in Taubmann, 1614. Whether this is correct or not it was certainly about this time that there arose a contest betweenHumanismusandRealismus, a contest now at its height in theGymnasienandRealschulenof Germany. For a discussion of it,seeM. Arnold’s “Literature and Science,” referred to above (p. 154).[104]Many of Petty’s proposals are now realized in the South Kensington Museum.[105]Later in the century Locke recommended that “working schools should be set up in every parish,” (seeFox-Bourne’sLocke, or Cambridge edition of theThoughts c. Ed., App. A, p. 189). The Quakers seem to have early taken up “industrious education.” John Bellers, whoseProposals for Raising a College of Industry(1696) was reprinted by Robt. Owen, has some very good notions. After advising that boys and girls be taught to knit, spin, &c., and the bigger boys turning, &c., he says, “Thus the Hand employed brings Profit,the Reason used in it makes wise, and the Will subdued makes them good” (Proposals, p. 18). Years afterwards in a Letter to the Yearly Meeting (dated 1723), he says, “It may be observed that some of the Boys in Friends’ Workhouse in Clerkenwell by their present employment of spinning are capable to earn their own living.”[106]Petty does not lose sight of the body. The “educands” are to “use such exercises whether in work or for recreation as tend to the health, agility, and strength of their bodies.”I have quoted Petty from the very valuable collection of English writings on Education reprinted in Henry Barnard’sEnglish Pedagogy, 2 vols. Petty is in Vol. I. In this vol. we have plenty of evidence of the working of the Baconian spirit;e.g., we find Sir Matthew Hale in aLetter of Advice to his Grandchildren, written in 1678, saying that there is little use or improvement in “notional speculations in logic or philosophy delivered by others; the rather because bare speculations and notions have little experience and external observation to confirm them, and they rarely fix the minds especially of young men. But that part of philosophy that is real may be improved and confirmed by daily observation, and is more stable and yet more certain and delightful, and goes along with a man all his life, whatever employment or profession he undertakes.”[107]“In this respect,” says Professor Masson, “the passion and the projects of Comenius were a world wider than Milton’s.” (L. of M.iij, p. 237.)[108]Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib(“the Tractate” as it is usually called), was published by Milton first in 1644, and again in 1673.SeeOscar Browning’s edition, Cambridge Univ. Press.[109]The University of Cambridge. The first examination was in June, 1880.[110]“Believe it, my good friend, to love truth for truth’s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world and the seed-plot of all other virtues.” L. to Bolde, quoted by Fowler,Locke, p. 120. This shows us that according to Locke “the principal part of human perfection” is to be found in the intellect.[111]Lady Masham seems to consider these two characteristics identical. She wrote to Leclerc of Locke after his death: “He was always, in the greatest and in the smallest affairs of human life, as well as in speculative opinions, disposed to follow reason, whosoever it were that suggested it; he being ever a faithful servant, I had almost said a slave, to truth; never abandoning her for anything else, and following her for her own sake purely” (quoted by Fox-Bourne). But it is one thing to desire truth, and another to think one’s own reasoning power the sole means of obtaining it.[112]“I am far from imagining myself infallible; but yet I should be loth to differ from any thinking man; being fully persuaded there are very few things of pure speculation wherein two thinking men who impartially seek truth can differ if they give themselves the leisure to examine their hypotheses and understand one another” (L. to W. M., 26 Dec., 1692). Again he writes: “I am persuaded that upon debate you and I cannot be of two opinions, nor I think any two men used to think with freedom, who really prefer truth to opiniatrety and a little foolish vain-glory of not having made a mistake” (L. to W. M., 3 Sept., 1694).[113]Compare Carlyle:—“Except thine own eye have got to see it, except thine own soul have victoriously struggled to clear vision and belief of it, what is the thing seen or the thing believed by another or by never so many others? Alas, it is not thine, though thou look on it, brag about it, and bully and fight about it till thou die, striving to persuade thyself and all men how much it is thine! Notitis thine, but only a windy echo and tradition of it bedded [an echobedded?] in hypocrisy, ending sure enough in tragical futility is thine.” Froude’sThos. Carlyle, ij, 10. Similarly Locke wrote to Bolde in 1699:—“To be learned in the lump by other men’s thoughts, and to be right by saying after others is much the easier and quieter way; but how a rational man that should enquire and know for himself can content himself with a faith or religion taken upon trust, or with such a servile submission of his understanding as to admit all and nothing else but what fashion makes passable among men, is to me astonishing.” Quoted by Fowler,Locke, p. 118.[114]For Rabelais,seep. 67supra.In the notes to the Cambridge edition of theThoughtsLocke’s advice on physical education is discussed and compared with the results of modern science by Dr. J. F. Payne.[115]“Examinations directed, as the paper examinations of the numerous examining boards now flourishing are directed, to finding out what the pupil knows, have the effect of concentrating the teacher’s effort upon the least important part of his function.” Mark Pattison inN. Quart. M., January, 1880.[116]Michelet (Nos fils, chap. ij.ad f.p. 170), says of Montaigne’s essay: “c’est déjà une belle esquisse, vive et forte, une tentative pour donner,non l’objet, le savoir, maisle sujet, c’est l’homme.”[117]Pope seems to contrast Montaigne and Locke:“But ask not to what doctors I apply!“Sworn to no master, of no sect am I:“As drives the storm, at any door I knock,“And house with Montaigne now, or now with Locke.”Satiresiij., 26.Perhaps as Dr. Abbott suggests he took Montaigne as representing active and Locke contemplative life.[118]See“An introduction to the History of Educational Theories,” by Oscar Browning.[119]“History and the mathematics, I think, are the most proper and advantageous studies for persons of your quality; the other are fitter for schoolmen and people that must live by their learning, though a little insight and taste of them will be no burthen or inconvenience to you, especially Natural Philosophy.”Advice to a young Lord written by his father, 1691, p. 29.[120]“Il n’y a point avant la raison de véritable éducation pour l’homme.” (N. H., 5th P., Lett. 3. Conf.supra, p. 227.)[121]“La première éducation doit donc être purement négative. Elle consiste, non point à enseigner la vertu ni la vérité, mais à garantir le cœur du vice et l’esprit de l’erreur. Si vous pouviez ne rien faire et ne rien laisser faire; si vous pouviez amener votre élève sain et robuste à l’âge de douze ans, sans qu’il sût distinguer sa main droite de sa main gauche, dès vos premières leçons les yeux de son entendement s’ouvriraient à la raison; sans préjugés, sans habitudes, il n’aurait rien en lui qui pût contrarier l’effet de vos soins. Bientôt il deviendrait entre vos mains le plus sage des hommes; et, en commençant par ne rien faire, vous auriez fait un prodige d’éducation.”Ém.ij., 80.[122]“Exercez son corps, ses organes, ses sens, ses forces, mais tenez son âme oisive aussi longtemps qu’il se pourra. Redoutez tous les sentiments antérieurs au jugement qui les apprécie. Retenez, arrêtez les impressions étrangères: et, pour empêcher le mal de naître, ne vous pressez point de faire le bien; car il n’est jamais tel que quand la raison l’éclaire. Regardez tous les délais comme des avantages: c’est gagner beaucoup que d’avancer vers le terme sans rien perdre; laissez mûrir l’enfance dans les enfants. Enfin quelque leçon leur devient-elle nécessaire, gardez-vous de la donner aujourd’hui, si vous pouvez différer jusqu’à demain sans danger.”Ém.ij., 80.[123]“Effrayez-vous donc peu de cette oisiveté prétendue. Que diriez-vous d’un homme qui, pour mettre toute la vie à profit, ne voudrait jamais dormir? Vous diriez: Cet homme est insensé; il ne jouit pas du temps, il se l’ôte; pour fuir le sommeil il court à la mort. Songez donc que c’est ici la même chose, et que l’enfance est le sommeil de la raison.”Ém.ij., 99.[124]“Il n’y a pas de philosophie plus superficielle que celle qui, prenant l’homme comme un être égoïste et viager, prétend l’expliquer et lui tracer ses devoirs en dehors de la société dont il est une partie. Autant vaut considérer l’abeille abstraction faite de la ruche, et dire qu’à elle seule l’abeille construit son alvéole.” Renan,La Réforme, 312.[125]“Tout est bien, sortant des mains de l’Auteur des choses; tout dégénère entre les mains de l’homme.”[126]“Nous naissons faibles, nous avons besoin de forces; nous naissons dépourvus de tout, nous avons besoin d’assistance; nous naissons stupides, nous avons besoin de jugement. Tout ce que nous n’avons pas à notre naissance, et dont nous avons besoin étant grands, nous est donné par l’éducation. Cette éducation nous vient ou de la nature, ou des hommes, ou des choses. Le développement interne de nos facultés et de nos organes est l’éducation de la nature; l’usage qu’on nous apprend à faire de ce développement est l’éducation des hommes; et l’acquis de notre propre expérience sur les objets qui nous affectent est l’éducation des choses.”Ém.j., 6.[127]“Puisque le concours des trois éducations est nécessaire à leur perfection, c’est sur celle à laquelle nous ne pouvons rien qu’il faut diriger les deux autres.”Ém.j., 7.[128]“Vivre ce n’est pas respirer, c’est agir; c’est faire usage de nos organes, de nos sens, de nos facultés, de toutes les parties de nous-mêmes qui nous donnent le sentiment de notre existence. L’homme qui a le plus vécu n’est pas celui qui a compté le plus d’années, mais celui qui a le plus senti la vie.”Ém.j., 13.[129]“On ne connaît point l’enfance: sur les fausses idées qu’on en a, plus on va, plus on s’égare. Les plus sages s’attachent à ce qu’il importe aux hommes de savoir, sans considérer ce que les enfants sont en état d’apprendre. Ils cherchent toujours l’homme dans l’enfant, sans penser à ce qu’il est avant que d’être homme. Voilà l’êtude à laquelle je me suis le plus appliqué, afin que, quand toute ma méthode serait chimérique et fausse, on pût toujours profiter de mes observations. Je puis avoir très-mal vu ce qu’il faut faire; mais je crois avoir bien vu le sujet sur lequel on doit opérer. Commencez donc par mieux étudier vos élèves; car très-assurément vous ne les connaissez point.”[130]“La nature veut que les enfants soient enfants avant que d’être hommes. Si nous voulons pervertir cet ordre, nous produirons des fruits précoces qui n’auront ni maturité ni saveur, et ne tarderont pas à se corrompre: nous aurons de jeunes docteurs et de vieux enfants. L’enfance a des manières de voir, de penser, de sentir, qui lui sont propres; rien n’est moins sensé que d’y vouloir substituer les nôtres.”Ém.ij., 75; also inN. H., 478.[131]“Nous ne savons jamais nous mettre à la place des enfants; nous n’entrons pas dans leurs idées, nous leur prêtons les nôtres; et, suivant toujours nos propres raisonnements, avec des chaînes de vérités nous n’entassons qu’extravagances et qu’erreurs dans leur tête.”Ém.iij., 185.[132]“Je voudrais qu’un homme judicieux nous donnât un traité de l’art d’observer les enfants. Cet art serait très-important à connaître: les pères et les maîtres n’en ont pas encore les éléments.”Ém.iij., 224.[133]Rousseau says: “Full of what is going on in your own head, you do not see the effect you produce in their head: Pleins de ce qui se passe dans votre tête vous ne voyez pas l’effet que vous produisez dans la leur.” (Ém.lib. ij., 83.)[134]“Or, toutes les études forcées de ces pauvres infortunés tendent à ces objets entièrement étrangers à leurs esprits. Qu’on juge de l’attention qu’ils y peuvent donner. Les pédagogues qui nous étalent en grand appareil les instructions qu’ils donnent à leurs disciples sont payés pour tenir un autre langage: cependant on voit, par leur propre conduite, qu’ils pensent exactement comme moi. Car que leur apprennent-ils enfin? Des mots, encore des mots, et toujours des mots. Parmi les diverses sciences qu’ils se vantent de leur enseigner, ils se gardent bien de choisir celles qui leur seraient véritablement utiles, parce que ce seraient des sciences de choses, et qu’ils n’y réussiraient pas; mais celles qu’on paraît savoir quand on en sait les termes, le blason, la géographie, la chronologie, les langues, etc.; toutes études si loin de l’homme, et surtout de l’enfant, que c’est une merveille si rien de tout cela lui peut être utile une seule fois en sa vie.”Ém.ij., 100.[135]“En quelque étude que ce puisse être, sans l’idée des choses représentées, les signes représentants ne sont rien. On borne pourtant toujours l’enfant à ces signes, sans jamais pouvoir lui faire comprendre aucune des choses qu’ils représentent.”Ém.ij., 102.[136]“Non, si la nature donne au cerveau d’un enfant cette souplesse qui le rend propre à recevoir toutes sortes d’impressions, ce n’est pas pour qu’on y grave des noms de rois, des dates, des termes de blason, de sphère, de géographie, et tous ces mots sans aucun sens pour son âge et sans aucune utilité pour quelque âge que ce soit, dont on accable sa triste et stérile enfance; mais c’est pour que toutes les idées qu’il peut concevoir et qui lui sont utiles, toutes celles qui se rapportent à son bonheur et doivent l’éclairer un jour sur ses devoirs, s’y tracent de bonne heure en caractères ineffaçables, et lui servent à se conduire pendant sa vie d’une manière convenable à son être et à ses facultés.”Ém.ij., 105; alsoN. H., P. v., L. 3.Sans étudier dans les livres, l’espèce de mémoire que peut avoir un enfant ne reste pas pour cela oisive; tout ce qu’il voit, tout ce qu’il entend le frappe, et il s’en souvient; il tient registre en lui-même des actions, des discours des hommes; et tout ce qui l’environne est le livre dans lequel, sans y songer, il enrichit continuellement sa mémoire, en attendant que son jugement puisse en profiter. C’est dans le choix de ces objets, c’est dans le soin de lui présenter sans cesse ceux qu’il peut connaître, et de lui cacher ceux qu’il doit ignorer, que consiste le véritable art de cultiver en lui cette première faculté; et c’est par là qu’il faut tâcher de lui former un magasin de connaissances qui servent à son éducation durant sa jeunesse, et à sa conduite dans tous les temps. Cette méthode, il est vrai, ne forme point de petits prodiges et ne fait pas briller les gouvernantes et les précepteurs; mais elle forme des hommes judicieux, robustes, sains de corps et d’entendement, qui, sans s’être fait admirer étant jeunes, se font honorer étant grands.[137]“L’activité défaillante se concentre dans le cœur du vieillard; dans celui de l’enfant elle est surabondante et s’étend au dehors; il se sent, pour ainsi dire, assez de vie pour animer tout ce qui l’environne. Qu’il fasse ou qu’il défasse, il n’importe; il suffit qu’il change l’état des choses, et tout changement est une action. Que s’il semble avoir plus de penchant à détruire, ce n’est point par méchanceté, c’est que l’action qui forme est toujours lente, et que celle qui détruit, étant plus rapide, convient mieux à sa vivacité.”Ém.j., 47.[138]It would be difficult to find a man more English, in a good sense, than the present Lord Derby or, whether we say it in praise or dispraise, a man less like Rousseau. So it is interesting to find him in agreement with Rousseau in condemning the ordinary restraints of the school-room. “People are beginning to find out what, if they would use their own observation more, and not follow one another like sheep, they would have found out long ago, that it is doing positive harm to a young child, mental and bodily harm, to keep it learning or pretending to learn, the greater part of the day. Nature says to a child, ‘Run about,’ the schoolmaster says, ‘Sit still;’ and as the schoolmaster can punish on the spot, and Nature only long afterwards, he is obeyed, and health and brain suffer.”—Speech in 1864.[139]All this is very crude, and so is the artifice by which Julie in theNouvelle Héloïseentraps her son into learning to read. No doubt Rousseau is right when he says that where there is a desire to read the power is sure to come. But “reading” is one thing in the lives of the labouring classes to whom it means reading aloud in school, and quite another in families of literary tastes and habits with whom the range of thought is in a great measure dependent on books. In such families the children learn to read as surely as they learn to talk. They mostly have access to books which they read to themselves for pleasure; and of course it is absurdly untrue to say that they learn nothing but words and do not think. In my opinion it may be questioned whether the world of fiction into which their reading gives them theentréedoes not withdraw them too much from the actual world in which they live. The elders find it very convenient when the child can always be depended on to amuse himself with a book; but noise and motion contribute more to health of body and perhaps of mind also. While children of well-to-do parents often read too much, the children of our schools “under government” hardly get a notion what reading is. In these schools “reading” always stands for vocal reading, and the power and the habit of using books for pleasure or for knowledge (other than verbal) are little cultivated.[140]“Il veut tout toucher, tout manier; ne vous opposez point à cette inquiétude; elle lui suggère un apprentissage très-nécessaire. C’est ainsi qu’il apprend à sentir la chaleur, le froid, la dureté, la mollesse, la pesanteur, la légèreté des corps; à juger de leur grandeur, de leur figure et de toutes leurs qualités sensibles, en regardant, palpant, écoutant, surtout en comparant la vue au toucher, en estimant à l’œil la sensation qu’ils feraient sous ses doigts.”Ém.j., 43.[141]“Voyez un chat entrer pour la première fois dans une chambre: il visite, il regarde, il flaire, il ne reste pas un moment en repos, il ne se fie à rien qu’après avoir tout examiné, tout connu. Ainsi fait un enfant commençant à marcher, et entrant pour ainsi dire dans l’espace du monde. Toute la différence est qu’à la vue, commune à l’enfant et au chat, le premier joint, pour observer, les mains que lui donna la nature, et l’autre l’odorat subtil dont elle l’a doué. Cette disposition, bien ou mal cultivée, est ce qui rend les enfants adroits ou lourds, pesants ou dispos, étourdis ou prudents. Les premiers mouvements naturels de l’homme étant donc de se mesurer avec tout ce qui l’environne, et d’éprouver dans chaque objet qu’il aperçoit toutes les qualités sensibles qui peuvent se rapporter à lui, sa première étude est une sorte de physique expérimentale relative à sa propre conservation, et dont on le détourne par des études spéculatives avant qu’il ait reconnu sa place ici-bas. Tandis que ses organes délicats et flexibles peuvent s’ajuster aux corps sur lesquels ils doivent agir, tandis que ses sens encore purs sont exempts d’illusion, c’est le temps d’exercer les uns et les autres aux fonctions qui leur sont propres; c’est le temps d’apprendre à connaître les rapports sensibles que les choses ont avec nous. Comme tout ce qui entre dans l’entendement humain y vient par les sens, la première raison de l’homme est une raison sensitive; c’elle qui sert de base à la raison intellectuelle: nos premiers maîtres de philosophie sont nos pieds, nos mains, nos yeux. Substituer des livres à tout cela, ce n’est pas nous apprendre à raisonner, c’est nous apprendre à nous servir de la raison d’autrui; c’est nous apprendre à beaucoup croire, et à ne jamais rien savoir. Pour exercer un art, il faut commencer par s’en procurer les instruments; et, pour pouvoir employer utilement ces instruments, il faut les faire assez solides pour résister à leur usage. Pour apprendre à penser, il faut donc exercer nos membres, nos sens, nos organes, qui sont les instruments de notre intelligence; et pour tirer tout le parti possible de ces instruments, il faut que le corps, qui les fournit, soit robuste et sain. Ainsi, loin que la véritable raison de l’homme se forme indépendamment du corps, c’est la bonne constitution du corps qui rend les opérations de l’esprit faciles et sûres.”Ém.ij., 123.[142]“Exercer les sens n’est pas seulement en faire usage, c’est apprendre à bien juger par eux, c’est apprendre, pour ainsi dire, à sentir; car nous ne savons ni toucher, ni voir, ni entendre, que comme nous avons appris. Il y a un exercice purement naturel et mécanique, qui sert à rendre le corps robuste sans donner aucune prise au jugement: nager, courir, sauter, fouetter un sabot, lancer des pierres; tout cela est fort bien: mais n’avons-nous que des bras et des jambes? n’avons-nous pas aussi des yeux, des oreilles? et ces organes sont-ils superflus à l’usage des premiers? N’exercez donc pas seulement les forces, exercez tous les sens qui les dirigent; tirez de chacun d’eux tout le parti possible, puis vérifiez l’impression de l’un par l’autre. Mesurez, comptez, pesez, comparez.”Ém.ij., 133.[143]E.g.—What can be better than this about family life? “L’attrait de la vie domestique est le meilleur contrepoison des mauvaises mœurs. Le tracas des enfants qu’on croit importun devient agréable; il rend le père et la mère plus nécessaires, plus chers l’un à l’autre; il resserre entre eux le lien conjugal. Quand la famille est vivante et animée, les soins domestiques font la plus chère occupation de la femme et le plus doux amusement du mari. Ainsi de ce seul abus corrigé résulterait bientôt une réforme générale; bientôt la nature aurait repris tous ses droits. Qu’une fois les femmes redeviennent mères bientôt les hommes redeviendront pères et maris.”Ém.j., 17. Again he says in a letter quoted by Saint-Marc Girardin (ij., 121)—“L’habitude la plus douce qui puisse exister est celle de la vie domestique qui nous tient plus près de nous qu’aucune autre.” We may say of Rousseau what Émile says of the Corsair:—“Il savait à fond toute la morale; il n’y avait que la pratique qui lui manquât.” (Ém. et S.636). And yet he himself testifies:—“Nurses and mothers become attached to children by the cares they devote to them; it is the exercise of the social virtues that carries the love of humanity to the bottom of our hearts; it is in doing good that one becomes good; I know no experience more certain than this: Les nourrices, les mères, s’attachent aux enfants par les soins qu’elles leur rendent; l’exercice des vertus sociales porte au fond des cœurs l’amour de l’humanité; c’est en faisant le bien qu’on devient bon; je ne connais point de pratique plus sure.”Ém.iv., 291.[144]Elsewhere he asserts in his fitful way that there is inborn in the heart of man a feeling of what is just and unjust. Again, after all his praise of negation he contradicts himself, and says: “I do not suppose that he who does not need anything can love anything; and I do not suppose that he who does not love anything can be happy: Je ne conçois pas que celui qui n’a besoin de rien puisse aimer quelque chose; je ne conçois pas que celui qui n’aime rien puisse être heureux.”Ém.iv., 252.[145]This part of Rousseau’s scheme is well discussed by Saint-Marc Girardin (J. J. Rousseau, vol. ij.). The following passage is striking: “How is it that Madame Necker-Saussure understood the child better than Rousseau did? She saw in the child two things, a creation and a ground-plan, something finished and something begun, a perfection which prepares the way for another perfection, a child and a man. God, Who has put together human life in several pieces, has willed, it is true, that all these pieces should be related to each other; but He has also willed that each of them should be complete in itself, so that every stage of life has what it needs as the object of that period, and also what it needs to bring in the period that comes next. Wonderful union of aims and means which shews itself at every step in creation! In everything there is aim and also means, everything exists for itself and also for that which lies beyond it! (Tout est but et tout est moyen; tout est absolu et tout est relatif.)”J. J. R., ij., 151.[146]“Je n’aime point les explications en discours; les jeunes gens y font peu d’attention et ne les retiennent guère. Les choses! les choses! Je ne répéterai jamais assez que nous donnons trop de pouvoir aux mots: avec notre éducation babillarde nous ne faisons que des babillards.”Ém.iij., 198.[147]“Forcé d’apprendre de lui-même, il use de sa raison et non de celle d’autrui; car, pour ne rien donner à l’opinion, il ne faut rien donner à l’autorité; et la plupart de nos erreurs nous viennent bien moins de nous que des autres. De cet exercice continuel il doit résulter une vigueur d’esprit semblable à celle qu’on donne au corps par le travail et par la fatigue. Un autre avantage est qu’on n’avance qu’à proportion de ses forces. L’esprit, non plus que le corps, ne porte que ce qu’il peut porter. Quand l’entendement s’approprie les choses avant de les déposer dans la mémoire, ce qu’il en tire ensuite est à lui: au lieu qu’en surchargeant la mémoire, à son insu, on s’expose à n’en jamais rien tirer qui lui soit propre.”Ém.iij., 235.[148]“Sans contredit on prend des notions bien plus claires et bien plus sûres des choses qu’on apprend ainsi de soi-même, que de celles qu’on tient des enseignements d’autrui; et, outre qu’on n’accoutume point sa raison à se soumettre servilement à l’autorité, l’on se rend plus ingénieux à trouver des rapports, à lier des idées, à inventer des instruments, que quand, adoptant tout cela tel qu’on nous le donne, nous laissons affaisser notre esprit dans la nonchalance, comme le corps d’un homme qui, toujours habillé, chaussé, servi par ses gens et traîné par ses chevaux, perd à la fin la force et l’usage de ses membres. Boileau se vantait d’avoir appris à Racine à rimer difficilement. Parmi tant d’admirables méthodes pour abréger l’étude des sciences, nous aurions grand besoin que quelqu’un nous en donnât une pour les apprendre avec effort.”Ém.iij., 193.[149]I avail myself of the old substantival use of the wordelementaryto express its German equivalentElementarbuch.[150]“Who has not met with some experience such asthis? A child with an active and inquiring mind accustomed to chatter about everything that interests him is sent to school. In a few weeks his vivacity is extinguished, his abundance of talk has dried up. If you ask him about his studies, if you desire him to give you a specimen of what he has learnt, he repeals to you in a sing-song voice some rule for the formation of tenses or some recipe for spelling words. Such are the results of the teaching which should be of all teaching the most fruitful and the most attractive!” Translated fromQuelques Mots, &c., by M. Bréal.[151]In these visits he observed how the children suffered from working in factories. These observations influenced him in after years.[152]In these aphorisms Pestalozzi states the main principles at work in his own mind; but this bare statement is not well suited to communicate these principles to the minds of others. For most readers the aphorisms have as little attraction as the enunciations, say, of a book of Euclid would have for those who knew no geometry. But as his future life was guided by the principles he has formulated in this paper it seems necessary for us to bear some of these in mind.What he mainly insists upon is that all wise guidance must proceed from a knowledge of the nature of the creature to be guided; further that there is a simple wisdom which must direct the course of all men. “The path of Nature,” says he, “which brings out the powers of men must be open and plain; and human education to true peace-giving wisdom must be simple and available for all. Nature brings out all men’s powers by practice, and their increase springs fromuse.” The powers of children should be strengthened by exercise on what is close at hand; and this should be done without hardness or pressure. A forced and rigid sequence in instruction is not Nature’s method, says he: this would make men one-sided, and truth would not penetrate freely and softly into their whole being. The pure feeling for truth grows in a small area; and human wisdom must be grounded on a perception of our closest relationships, and must show itself in skilled management of our nearest concerns. Everything we do against our consciousness of right weakens our perception of truth and disturbs the purity of our fundamental conceptions and experiences. On this account all wisdom of man rests in the strength of a good heart that follows after truth, and all the blessing of man in the sense of simplicity and innocence. Peace of mind must be the outcome of right training. To get out of his surroundings all he needs for life and enjoyment, to be patient, painstaking, and in every difficulty trustful in the love of the Heavenly Father, this comes of a man’s true education to wisdom. Nothing concerns the human race so closely and intimately as—God. “God as Father of thy household, as source of thy blessing—God as thy Father; in this belief thou findest rest and strength and wisdom, which no violence nor the grave itself can overthrow.” Belief in God which is a part of our nature, like the sense of right and wrong and the feeling we can never quench of what is just and unjust, must be made the foundation in educating the human race. The subject of that belief is that God is the Father of men, men are the children of God. To this divine relationship Pestalozzi refers all human relationships as those of parent and child, of ruler and subject. The priest is appointed to declare the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men.The only text I have seen is that reprinted by Raumer (Gesch. d. Päd.). From Otto Fischer (Wichtigste Pädagogen), I learn that this is the edition of 1807, which differs, at least by omission, from the original of 1780.[153]There are now four parts, first published respectively in 1781, 1783, 1785, and 1787 (O. Fischer). The English translation in two small vols. (1825) ends with the First Part, but Miss Eva Channing has recently sought to weld the four parts into one (Boston, U.S.—D.C. Heath & Co.), and in this form the book seems to me not only very instructive but very entertaining also. Not many readers who look into it will fail to reach the end, and few are the books connected with education of which this could prudently be asserted. “All good teachers should read it with care,” says Stanley Hall in his Introduction, and if they thus read it and catch anything of the spirit of Pestalozzi both they and their pupils will have reason to rejoice.[154]In the pages of this Journal Pestalozzi taught that it was “the domestic virtues which determine the happiness of a nation.” Again he says: “On the throne and in the cottage man has equal need of religion, and becomes the most wretched being on the earth if he forget his God.” “The child at his mother’s breast is weaker and more dependent than any creature on earth, and yet he already feels the first moral impressions of love and gratitude.” “Morality is nothing but a result of the development of the first sentiments of love and gratitude felt by the infant.The first development of the child’s powers should come from his participation in the work of his home; for this work is what his parents understand best, what most absorbs their attention, and what they can best teach. But even if this were not so, work undertaken to supply real needs would be just as truly the surest foundation of a good education.To engage the attention of the child, to exercise his judgment, to raise his heart to noble sentiments, these I think the chief ends of education: and how can these ends be reached so surely as by training the child as early as possible in the various daily duties of domestic life?” It would seem then that at this time Pestalozzi was for basing education on domestic labour and would teach the child to be useful. But it is hard to see how this principle could always be applied.[155]One of these I have already given (suprap. 292). I will give another, not as by any means one of the best, but as a fit companion to Rousseau’s “two dogs.”“26.The two colts.“Two colts as like as two eggs, fell into different hands. One was bought by a peasant whose only thought was to harness it to his plough as soon as possible: this one turned out a bad horse. The other fell to the lot of a man who by looking after it well and training it carefully, made a noble steed of it, strong and mettlesome. Fathers and mothers, if your children’s faculties are not carefully trained and directed right, they will become not only useless, but hurtful; and the greater the faculties the greater the danger.”Compare Rousseau: “Just look at those two dogs; they are of the same litter, they have been brought up and treated precisely alike, they have never been separated; and yet one of them is sharp, lively, affectionate, and very intelligent: the other is dull, lumpish, surly, and nobody could ever teach him anything. Simply a difference of temperament has produced in them a difference of character, just as a simple difference of our interior organisation produces in us a difference of mind.”N. Héloise.5me P. Lettre iii.

[99]Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel were also in this sense realists, but they held that the educational value of knowledge lay not in itself, but only in so far as it was an instrument for developing the faculties of the mind.

[100]Henry Barnard (English Pedagogy, second series, p. 192), speaks of Hoole as “one of the pioneer educators of his century.” According to Barnard he was born at Wakefield, in 1610, and died in 1666, rector of “Stock Billerica” (perhaps Stock with Billericay), in Essex.

[101]A very interesting suggestion of Cowley’s is that another house be built for poor men’s sons who show ability. These shall be brought up “with the same conveniences that are enjoyed even by rich men’s children (though they maintain the fewer for that cause), there being nothing of eminent and illustrious to be expected from a low, sordid, and hospital-like education.”

[102]It would seem as if these Puritans were more active in body than in mind: even the seniors, like the children at Port-Royal,tombent dans la nonchalance. Dury has to lay it down that “the Governour and Ushers and Steward if they be in health should not go to bed till ten.” (p. 30.)

[103]It is a sign of the failure of all attempts to establish educational science in England that though the meaning of “real” and “realities” which connected them withresseemed established in the sixteen hundreds, our language soon lost it again. According to a writer inMeyer’s Conversations Lexicon(first edition) “reales” in this sense occurs first in Taubmann, 1614. Whether this is correct or not it was certainly about this time that there arose a contest betweenHumanismusandRealismus, a contest now at its height in theGymnasienandRealschulenof Germany. For a discussion of it,seeM. Arnold’s “Literature and Science,” referred to above (p. 154).

[104]Many of Petty’s proposals are now realized in the South Kensington Museum.

[105]Later in the century Locke recommended that “working schools should be set up in every parish,” (seeFox-Bourne’sLocke, or Cambridge edition of theThoughts c. Ed., App. A, p. 189). The Quakers seem to have early taken up “industrious education.” John Bellers, whoseProposals for Raising a College of Industry(1696) was reprinted by Robt. Owen, has some very good notions. After advising that boys and girls be taught to knit, spin, &c., and the bigger boys turning, &c., he says, “Thus the Hand employed brings Profit,the Reason used in it makes wise, and the Will subdued makes them good” (Proposals, p. 18). Years afterwards in a Letter to the Yearly Meeting (dated 1723), he says, “It may be observed that some of the Boys in Friends’ Workhouse in Clerkenwell by their present employment of spinning are capable to earn their own living.”

[106]Petty does not lose sight of the body. The “educands” are to “use such exercises whether in work or for recreation as tend to the health, agility, and strength of their bodies.”I have quoted Petty from the very valuable collection of English writings on Education reprinted in Henry Barnard’sEnglish Pedagogy, 2 vols. Petty is in Vol. I. In this vol. we have plenty of evidence of the working of the Baconian spirit;e.g., we find Sir Matthew Hale in aLetter of Advice to his Grandchildren, written in 1678, saying that there is little use or improvement in “notional speculations in logic or philosophy delivered by others; the rather because bare speculations and notions have little experience and external observation to confirm them, and they rarely fix the minds especially of young men. But that part of philosophy that is real may be improved and confirmed by daily observation, and is more stable and yet more certain and delightful, and goes along with a man all his life, whatever employment or profession he undertakes.”

[106]Petty does not lose sight of the body. The “educands” are to “use such exercises whether in work or for recreation as tend to the health, agility, and strength of their bodies.”

I have quoted Petty from the very valuable collection of English writings on Education reprinted in Henry Barnard’sEnglish Pedagogy, 2 vols. Petty is in Vol. I. In this vol. we have plenty of evidence of the working of the Baconian spirit;e.g., we find Sir Matthew Hale in aLetter of Advice to his Grandchildren, written in 1678, saying that there is little use or improvement in “notional speculations in logic or philosophy delivered by others; the rather because bare speculations and notions have little experience and external observation to confirm them, and they rarely fix the minds especially of young men. But that part of philosophy that is real may be improved and confirmed by daily observation, and is more stable and yet more certain and delightful, and goes along with a man all his life, whatever employment or profession he undertakes.”

[107]“In this respect,” says Professor Masson, “the passion and the projects of Comenius were a world wider than Milton’s.” (L. of M.iij, p. 237.)

[108]Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib(“the Tractate” as it is usually called), was published by Milton first in 1644, and again in 1673.SeeOscar Browning’s edition, Cambridge Univ. Press.

[109]The University of Cambridge. The first examination was in June, 1880.

[110]“Believe it, my good friend, to love truth for truth’s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world and the seed-plot of all other virtues.” L. to Bolde, quoted by Fowler,Locke, p. 120. This shows us that according to Locke “the principal part of human perfection” is to be found in the intellect.

[111]Lady Masham seems to consider these two characteristics identical. She wrote to Leclerc of Locke after his death: “He was always, in the greatest and in the smallest affairs of human life, as well as in speculative opinions, disposed to follow reason, whosoever it were that suggested it; he being ever a faithful servant, I had almost said a slave, to truth; never abandoning her for anything else, and following her for her own sake purely” (quoted by Fox-Bourne). But it is one thing to desire truth, and another to think one’s own reasoning power the sole means of obtaining it.

[112]“I am far from imagining myself infallible; but yet I should be loth to differ from any thinking man; being fully persuaded there are very few things of pure speculation wherein two thinking men who impartially seek truth can differ if they give themselves the leisure to examine their hypotheses and understand one another” (L. to W. M., 26 Dec., 1692). Again he writes: “I am persuaded that upon debate you and I cannot be of two opinions, nor I think any two men used to think with freedom, who really prefer truth to opiniatrety and a little foolish vain-glory of not having made a mistake” (L. to W. M., 3 Sept., 1694).

[113]Compare Carlyle:—“Except thine own eye have got to see it, except thine own soul have victoriously struggled to clear vision and belief of it, what is the thing seen or the thing believed by another or by never so many others? Alas, it is not thine, though thou look on it, brag about it, and bully and fight about it till thou die, striving to persuade thyself and all men how much it is thine! Notitis thine, but only a windy echo and tradition of it bedded [an echobedded?] in hypocrisy, ending sure enough in tragical futility is thine.” Froude’sThos. Carlyle, ij, 10. Similarly Locke wrote to Bolde in 1699:—“To be learned in the lump by other men’s thoughts, and to be right by saying after others is much the easier and quieter way; but how a rational man that should enquire and know for himself can content himself with a faith or religion taken upon trust, or with such a servile submission of his understanding as to admit all and nothing else but what fashion makes passable among men, is to me astonishing.” Quoted by Fowler,Locke, p. 118.

[114]For Rabelais,seep. 67supra.In the notes to the Cambridge edition of theThoughtsLocke’s advice on physical education is discussed and compared with the results of modern science by Dr. J. F. Payne.

[114]For Rabelais,seep. 67supra.

In the notes to the Cambridge edition of theThoughtsLocke’s advice on physical education is discussed and compared with the results of modern science by Dr. J. F. Payne.

[115]“Examinations directed, as the paper examinations of the numerous examining boards now flourishing are directed, to finding out what the pupil knows, have the effect of concentrating the teacher’s effort upon the least important part of his function.” Mark Pattison inN. Quart. M., January, 1880.

[116]Michelet (Nos fils, chap. ij.ad f.p. 170), says of Montaigne’s essay: “c’est déjà une belle esquisse, vive et forte, une tentative pour donner,non l’objet, le savoir, maisle sujet, c’est l’homme.”

[117]Pope seems to contrast Montaigne and Locke:“But ask not to what doctors I apply!“Sworn to no master, of no sect am I:“As drives the storm, at any door I knock,“And house with Montaigne now, or now with Locke.”Satiresiij., 26.Perhaps as Dr. Abbott suggests he took Montaigne as representing active and Locke contemplative life.

[117]Pope seems to contrast Montaigne and Locke:

“But ask not to what doctors I apply!“Sworn to no master, of no sect am I:“As drives the storm, at any door I knock,“And house with Montaigne now, or now with Locke.”Satiresiij., 26.

“But ask not to what doctors I apply!

“Sworn to no master, of no sect am I:

“As drives the storm, at any door I knock,

“And house with Montaigne now, or now with Locke.”

Satiresiij., 26.

Perhaps as Dr. Abbott suggests he took Montaigne as representing active and Locke contemplative life.

[118]See“An introduction to the History of Educational Theories,” by Oscar Browning.

[119]“History and the mathematics, I think, are the most proper and advantageous studies for persons of your quality; the other are fitter for schoolmen and people that must live by their learning, though a little insight and taste of them will be no burthen or inconvenience to you, especially Natural Philosophy.”Advice to a young Lord written by his father, 1691, p. 29.

[120]“Il n’y a point avant la raison de véritable éducation pour l’homme.” (N. H., 5th P., Lett. 3. Conf.supra, p. 227.)

[121]“La première éducation doit donc être purement négative. Elle consiste, non point à enseigner la vertu ni la vérité, mais à garantir le cœur du vice et l’esprit de l’erreur. Si vous pouviez ne rien faire et ne rien laisser faire; si vous pouviez amener votre élève sain et robuste à l’âge de douze ans, sans qu’il sût distinguer sa main droite de sa main gauche, dès vos premières leçons les yeux de son entendement s’ouvriraient à la raison; sans préjugés, sans habitudes, il n’aurait rien en lui qui pût contrarier l’effet de vos soins. Bientôt il deviendrait entre vos mains le plus sage des hommes; et, en commençant par ne rien faire, vous auriez fait un prodige d’éducation.”Ém.ij., 80.

[122]“Exercez son corps, ses organes, ses sens, ses forces, mais tenez son âme oisive aussi longtemps qu’il se pourra. Redoutez tous les sentiments antérieurs au jugement qui les apprécie. Retenez, arrêtez les impressions étrangères: et, pour empêcher le mal de naître, ne vous pressez point de faire le bien; car il n’est jamais tel que quand la raison l’éclaire. Regardez tous les délais comme des avantages: c’est gagner beaucoup que d’avancer vers le terme sans rien perdre; laissez mûrir l’enfance dans les enfants. Enfin quelque leçon leur devient-elle nécessaire, gardez-vous de la donner aujourd’hui, si vous pouvez différer jusqu’à demain sans danger.”Ém.ij., 80.

[123]“Effrayez-vous donc peu de cette oisiveté prétendue. Que diriez-vous d’un homme qui, pour mettre toute la vie à profit, ne voudrait jamais dormir? Vous diriez: Cet homme est insensé; il ne jouit pas du temps, il se l’ôte; pour fuir le sommeil il court à la mort. Songez donc que c’est ici la même chose, et que l’enfance est le sommeil de la raison.”Ém.ij., 99.

[124]“Il n’y a pas de philosophie plus superficielle que celle qui, prenant l’homme comme un être égoïste et viager, prétend l’expliquer et lui tracer ses devoirs en dehors de la société dont il est une partie. Autant vaut considérer l’abeille abstraction faite de la ruche, et dire qu’à elle seule l’abeille construit son alvéole.” Renan,La Réforme, 312.

[125]“Tout est bien, sortant des mains de l’Auteur des choses; tout dégénère entre les mains de l’homme.”

[126]“Nous naissons faibles, nous avons besoin de forces; nous naissons dépourvus de tout, nous avons besoin d’assistance; nous naissons stupides, nous avons besoin de jugement. Tout ce que nous n’avons pas à notre naissance, et dont nous avons besoin étant grands, nous est donné par l’éducation. Cette éducation nous vient ou de la nature, ou des hommes, ou des choses. Le développement interne de nos facultés et de nos organes est l’éducation de la nature; l’usage qu’on nous apprend à faire de ce développement est l’éducation des hommes; et l’acquis de notre propre expérience sur les objets qui nous affectent est l’éducation des choses.”Ém.j., 6.

[127]“Puisque le concours des trois éducations est nécessaire à leur perfection, c’est sur celle à laquelle nous ne pouvons rien qu’il faut diriger les deux autres.”Ém.j., 7.

[128]“Vivre ce n’est pas respirer, c’est agir; c’est faire usage de nos organes, de nos sens, de nos facultés, de toutes les parties de nous-mêmes qui nous donnent le sentiment de notre existence. L’homme qui a le plus vécu n’est pas celui qui a compté le plus d’années, mais celui qui a le plus senti la vie.”Ém.j., 13.

[129]“On ne connaît point l’enfance: sur les fausses idées qu’on en a, plus on va, plus on s’égare. Les plus sages s’attachent à ce qu’il importe aux hommes de savoir, sans considérer ce que les enfants sont en état d’apprendre. Ils cherchent toujours l’homme dans l’enfant, sans penser à ce qu’il est avant que d’être homme. Voilà l’êtude à laquelle je me suis le plus appliqué, afin que, quand toute ma méthode serait chimérique et fausse, on pût toujours profiter de mes observations. Je puis avoir très-mal vu ce qu’il faut faire; mais je crois avoir bien vu le sujet sur lequel on doit opérer. Commencez donc par mieux étudier vos élèves; car très-assurément vous ne les connaissez point.”

[130]“La nature veut que les enfants soient enfants avant que d’être hommes. Si nous voulons pervertir cet ordre, nous produirons des fruits précoces qui n’auront ni maturité ni saveur, et ne tarderont pas à se corrompre: nous aurons de jeunes docteurs et de vieux enfants. L’enfance a des manières de voir, de penser, de sentir, qui lui sont propres; rien n’est moins sensé que d’y vouloir substituer les nôtres.”Ém.ij., 75; also inN. H., 478.

[131]“Nous ne savons jamais nous mettre à la place des enfants; nous n’entrons pas dans leurs idées, nous leur prêtons les nôtres; et, suivant toujours nos propres raisonnements, avec des chaînes de vérités nous n’entassons qu’extravagances et qu’erreurs dans leur tête.”Ém.iij., 185.

[132]“Je voudrais qu’un homme judicieux nous donnât un traité de l’art d’observer les enfants. Cet art serait très-important à connaître: les pères et les maîtres n’en ont pas encore les éléments.”Ém.iij., 224.

[133]Rousseau says: “Full of what is going on in your own head, you do not see the effect you produce in their head: Pleins de ce qui se passe dans votre tête vous ne voyez pas l’effet que vous produisez dans la leur.” (Ém.lib. ij., 83.)

[134]“Or, toutes les études forcées de ces pauvres infortunés tendent à ces objets entièrement étrangers à leurs esprits. Qu’on juge de l’attention qu’ils y peuvent donner. Les pédagogues qui nous étalent en grand appareil les instructions qu’ils donnent à leurs disciples sont payés pour tenir un autre langage: cependant on voit, par leur propre conduite, qu’ils pensent exactement comme moi. Car que leur apprennent-ils enfin? Des mots, encore des mots, et toujours des mots. Parmi les diverses sciences qu’ils se vantent de leur enseigner, ils se gardent bien de choisir celles qui leur seraient véritablement utiles, parce que ce seraient des sciences de choses, et qu’ils n’y réussiraient pas; mais celles qu’on paraît savoir quand on en sait les termes, le blason, la géographie, la chronologie, les langues, etc.; toutes études si loin de l’homme, et surtout de l’enfant, que c’est une merveille si rien de tout cela lui peut être utile une seule fois en sa vie.”Ém.ij., 100.

[135]“En quelque étude que ce puisse être, sans l’idée des choses représentées, les signes représentants ne sont rien. On borne pourtant toujours l’enfant à ces signes, sans jamais pouvoir lui faire comprendre aucune des choses qu’ils représentent.”Ém.ij., 102.

[136]“Non, si la nature donne au cerveau d’un enfant cette souplesse qui le rend propre à recevoir toutes sortes d’impressions, ce n’est pas pour qu’on y grave des noms de rois, des dates, des termes de blason, de sphère, de géographie, et tous ces mots sans aucun sens pour son âge et sans aucune utilité pour quelque âge que ce soit, dont on accable sa triste et stérile enfance; mais c’est pour que toutes les idées qu’il peut concevoir et qui lui sont utiles, toutes celles qui se rapportent à son bonheur et doivent l’éclairer un jour sur ses devoirs, s’y tracent de bonne heure en caractères ineffaçables, et lui servent à se conduire pendant sa vie d’une manière convenable à son être et à ses facultés.”Ém.ij., 105; alsoN. H., P. v., L. 3.Sans étudier dans les livres, l’espèce de mémoire que peut avoir un enfant ne reste pas pour cela oisive; tout ce qu’il voit, tout ce qu’il entend le frappe, et il s’en souvient; il tient registre en lui-même des actions, des discours des hommes; et tout ce qui l’environne est le livre dans lequel, sans y songer, il enrichit continuellement sa mémoire, en attendant que son jugement puisse en profiter. C’est dans le choix de ces objets, c’est dans le soin de lui présenter sans cesse ceux qu’il peut connaître, et de lui cacher ceux qu’il doit ignorer, que consiste le véritable art de cultiver en lui cette première faculté; et c’est par là qu’il faut tâcher de lui former un magasin de connaissances qui servent à son éducation durant sa jeunesse, et à sa conduite dans tous les temps. Cette méthode, il est vrai, ne forme point de petits prodiges et ne fait pas briller les gouvernantes et les précepteurs; mais elle forme des hommes judicieux, robustes, sains de corps et d’entendement, qui, sans s’être fait admirer étant jeunes, se font honorer étant grands.

Sans étudier dans les livres, l’espèce de mémoire que peut avoir un enfant ne reste pas pour cela oisive; tout ce qu’il voit, tout ce qu’il entend le frappe, et il s’en souvient; il tient registre en lui-même des actions, des discours des hommes; et tout ce qui l’environne est le livre dans lequel, sans y songer, il enrichit continuellement sa mémoire, en attendant que son jugement puisse en profiter. C’est dans le choix de ces objets, c’est dans le soin de lui présenter sans cesse ceux qu’il peut connaître, et de lui cacher ceux qu’il doit ignorer, que consiste le véritable art de cultiver en lui cette première faculté; et c’est par là qu’il faut tâcher de lui former un magasin de connaissances qui servent à son éducation durant sa jeunesse, et à sa conduite dans tous les temps. Cette méthode, il est vrai, ne forme point de petits prodiges et ne fait pas briller les gouvernantes et les précepteurs; mais elle forme des hommes judicieux, robustes, sains de corps et d’entendement, qui, sans s’être fait admirer étant jeunes, se font honorer étant grands.

[137]“L’activité défaillante se concentre dans le cœur du vieillard; dans celui de l’enfant elle est surabondante et s’étend au dehors; il se sent, pour ainsi dire, assez de vie pour animer tout ce qui l’environne. Qu’il fasse ou qu’il défasse, il n’importe; il suffit qu’il change l’état des choses, et tout changement est une action. Que s’il semble avoir plus de penchant à détruire, ce n’est point par méchanceté, c’est que l’action qui forme est toujours lente, et que celle qui détruit, étant plus rapide, convient mieux à sa vivacité.”Ém.j., 47.

[138]It would be difficult to find a man more English, in a good sense, than the present Lord Derby or, whether we say it in praise or dispraise, a man less like Rousseau. So it is interesting to find him in agreement with Rousseau in condemning the ordinary restraints of the school-room. “People are beginning to find out what, if they would use their own observation more, and not follow one another like sheep, they would have found out long ago, that it is doing positive harm to a young child, mental and bodily harm, to keep it learning or pretending to learn, the greater part of the day. Nature says to a child, ‘Run about,’ the schoolmaster says, ‘Sit still;’ and as the schoolmaster can punish on the spot, and Nature only long afterwards, he is obeyed, and health and brain suffer.”—Speech in 1864.

[139]All this is very crude, and so is the artifice by which Julie in theNouvelle Héloïseentraps her son into learning to read. No doubt Rousseau is right when he says that where there is a desire to read the power is sure to come. But “reading” is one thing in the lives of the labouring classes to whom it means reading aloud in school, and quite another in families of literary tastes and habits with whom the range of thought is in a great measure dependent on books. In such families the children learn to read as surely as they learn to talk. They mostly have access to books which they read to themselves for pleasure; and of course it is absurdly untrue to say that they learn nothing but words and do not think. In my opinion it may be questioned whether the world of fiction into which their reading gives them theentréedoes not withdraw them too much from the actual world in which they live. The elders find it very convenient when the child can always be depended on to amuse himself with a book; but noise and motion contribute more to health of body and perhaps of mind also. While children of well-to-do parents often read too much, the children of our schools “under government” hardly get a notion what reading is. In these schools “reading” always stands for vocal reading, and the power and the habit of using books for pleasure or for knowledge (other than verbal) are little cultivated.

[140]“Il veut tout toucher, tout manier; ne vous opposez point à cette inquiétude; elle lui suggère un apprentissage très-nécessaire. C’est ainsi qu’il apprend à sentir la chaleur, le froid, la dureté, la mollesse, la pesanteur, la légèreté des corps; à juger de leur grandeur, de leur figure et de toutes leurs qualités sensibles, en regardant, palpant, écoutant, surtout en comparant la vue au toucher, en estimant à l’œil la sensation qu’ils feraient sous ses doigts.”Ém.j., 43.

[141]“Voyez un chat entrer pour la première fois dans une chambre: il visite, il regarde, il flaire, il ne reste pas un moment en repos, il ne se fie à rien qu’après avoir tout examiné, tout connu. Ainsi fait un enfant commençant à marcher, et entrant pour ainsi dire dans l’espace du monde. Toute la différence est qu’à la vue, commune à l’enfant et au chat, le premier joint, pour observer, les mains que lui donna la nature, et l’autre l’odorat subtil dont elle l’a doué. Cette disposition, bien ou mal cultivée, est ce qui rend les enfants adroits ou lourds, pesants ou dispos, étourdis ou prudents. Les premiers mouvements naturels de l’homme étant donc de se mesurer avec tout ce qui l’environne, et d’éprouver dans chaque objet qu’il aperçoit toutes les qualités sensibles qui peuvent se rapporter à lui, sa première étude est une sorte de physique expérimentale relative à sa propre conservation, et dont on le détourne par des études spéculatives avant qu’il ait reconnu sa place ici-bas. Tandis que ses organes délicats et flexibles peuvent s’ajuster aux corps sur lesquels ils doivent agir, tandis que ses sens encore purs sont exempts d’illusion, c’est le temps d’exercer les uns et les autres aux fonctions qui leur sont propres; c’est le temps d’apprendre à connaître les rapports sensibles que les choses ont avec nous. Comme tout ce qui entre dans l’entendement humain y vient par les sens, la première raison de l’homme est une raison sensitive; c’elle qui sert de base à la raison intellectuelle: nos premiers maîtres de philosophie sont nos pieds, nos mains, nos yeux. Substituer des livres à tout cela, ce n’est pas nous apprendre à raisonner, c’est nous apprendre à nous servir de la raison d’autrui; c’est nous apprendre à beaucoup croire, et à ne jamais rien savoir. Pour exercer un art, il faut commencer par s’en procurer les instruments; et, pour pouvoir employer utilement ces instruments, il faut les faire assez solides pour résister à leur usage. Pour apprendre à penser, il faut donc exercer nos membres, nos sens, nos organes, qui sont les instruments de notre intelligence; et pour tirer tout le parti possible de ces instruments, il faut que le corps, qui les fournit, soit robuste et sain. Ainsi, loin que la véritable raison de l’homme se forme indépendamment du corps, c’est la bonne constitution du corps qui rend les opérations de l’esprit faciles et sûres.”Ém.ij., 123.

[142]“Exercer les sens n’est pas seulement en faire usage, c’est apprendre à bien juger par eux, c’est apprendre, pour ainsi dire, à sentir; car nous ne savons ni toucher, ni voir, ni entendre, que comme nous avons appris. Il y a un exercice purement naturel et mécanique, qui sert à rendre le corps robuste sans donner aucune prise au jugement: nager, courir, sauter, fouetter un sabot, lancer des pierres; tout cela est fort bien: mais n’avons-nous que des bras et des jambes? n’avons-nous pas aussi des yeux, des oreilles? et ces organes sont-ils superflus à l’usage des premiers? N’exercez donc pas seulement les forces, exercez tous les sens qui les dirigent; tirez de chacun d’eux tout le parti possible, puis vérifiez l’impression de l’un par l’autre. Mesurez, comptez, pesez, comparez.”Ém.ij., 133.

[143]E.g.—What can be better than this about family life? “L’attrait de la vie domestique est le meilleur contrepoison des mauvaises mœurs. Le tracas des enfants qu’on croit importun devient agréable; il rend le père et la mère plus nécessaires, plus chers l’un à l’autre; il resserre entre eux le lien conjugal. Quand la famille est vivante et animée, les soins domestiques font la plus chère occupation de la femme et le plus doux amusement du mari. Ainsi de ce seul abus corrigé résulterait bientôt une réforme générale; bientôt la nature aurait repris tous ses droits. Qu’une fois les femmes redeviennent mères bientôt les hommes redeviendront pères et maris.”Ém.j., 17. Again he says in a letter quoted by Saint-Marc Girardin (ij., 121)—“L’habitude la plus douce qui puisse exister est celle de la vie domestique qui nous tient plus près de nous qu’aucune autre.” We may say of Rousseau what Émile says of the Corsair:—“Il savait à fond toute la morale; il n’y avait que la pratique qui lui manquât.” (Ém. et S.636). And yet he himself testifies:—“Nurses and mothers become attached to children by the cares they devote to them; it is the exercise of the social virtues that carries the love of humanity to the bottom of our hearts; it is in doing good that one becomes good; I know no experience more certain than this: Les nourrices, les mères, s’attachent aux enfants par les soins qu’elles leur rendent; l’exercice des vertus sociales porte au fond des cœurs l’amour de l’humanité; c’est en faisant le bien qu’on devient bon; je ne connais point de pratique plus sure.”Ém.iv., 291.

[144]Elsewhere he asserts in his fitful way that there is inborn in the heart of man a feeling of what is just and unjust. Again, after all his praise of negation he contradicts himself, and says: “I do not suppose that he who does not need anything can love anything; and I do not suppose that he who does not love anything can be happy: Je ne conçois pas que celui qui n’a besoin de rien puisse aimer quelque chose; je ne conçois pas que celui qui n’aime rien puisse être heureux.”Ém.iv., 252.

[145]This part of Rousseau’s scheme is well discussed by Saint-Marc Girardin (J. J. Rousseau, vol. ij.). The following passage is striking: “How is it that Madame Necker-Saussure understood the child better than Rousseau did? She saw in the child two things, a creation and a ground-plan, something finished and something begun, a perfection which prepares the way for another perfection, a child and a man. God, Who has put together human life in several pieces, has willed, it is true, that all these pieces should be related to each other; but He has also willed that each of them should be complete in itself, so that every stage of life has what it needs as the object of that period, and also what it needs to bring in the period that comes next. Wonderful union of aims and means which shews itself at every step in creation! In everything there is aim and also means, everything exists for itself and also for that which lies beyond it! (Tout est but et tout est moyen; tout est absolu et tout est relatif.)”J. J. R., ij., 151.

[146]“Je n’aime point les explications en discours; les jeunes gens y font peu d’attention et ne les retiennent guère. Les choses! les choses! Je ne répéterai jamais assez que nous donnons trop de pouvoir aux mots: avec notre éducation babillarde nous ne faisons que des babillards.”Ém.iij., 198.

[147]“Forcé d’apprendre de lui-même, il use de sa raison et non de celle d’autrui; car, pour ne rien donner à l’opinion, il ne faut rien donner à l’autorité; et la plupart de nos erreurs nous viennent bien moins de nous que des autres. De cet exercice continuel il doit résulter une vigueur d’esprit semblable à celle qu’on donne au corps par le travail et par la fatigue. Un autre avantage est qu’on n’avance qu’à proportion de ses forces. L’esprit, non plus que le corps, ne porte que ce qu’il peut porter. Quand l’entendement s’approprie les choses avant de les déposer dans la mémoire, ce qu’il en tire ensuite est à lui: au lieu qu’en surchargeant la mémoire, à son insu, on s’expose à n’en jamais rien tirer qui lui soit propre.”Ém.iij., 235.

[148]“Sans contredit on prend des notions bien plus claires et bien plus sûres des choses qu’on apprend ainsi de soi-même, que de celles qu’on tient des enseignements d’autrui; et, outre qu’on n’accoutume point sa raison à se soumettre servilement à l’autorité, l’on se rend plus ingénieux à trouver des rapports, à lier des idées, à inventer des instruments, que quand, adoptant tout cela tel qu’on nous le donne, nous laissons affaisser notre esprit dans la nonchalance, comme le corps d’un homme qui, toujours habillé, chaussé, servi par ses gens et traîné par ses chevaux, perd à la fin la force et l’usage de ses membres. Boileau se vantait d’avoir appris à Racine à rimer difficilement. Parmi tant d’admirables méthodes pour abréger l’étude des sciences, nous aurions grand besoin que quelqu’un nous en donnât une pour les apprendre avec effort.”Ém.iij., 193.

[149]I avail myself of the old substantival use of the wordelementaryto express its German equivalentElementarbuch.

[150]“Who has not met with some experience such asthis? A child with an active and inquiring mind accustomed to chatter about everything that interests him is sent to school. In a few weeks his vivacity is extinguished, his abundance of talk has dried up. If you ask him about his studies, if you desire him to give you a specimen of what he has learnt, he repeals to you in a sing-song voice some rule for the formation of tenses or some recipe for spelling words. Such are the results of the teaching which should be of all teaching the most fruitful and the most attractive!” Translated fromQuelques Mots, &c., by M. Bréal.

[151]In these visits he observed how the children suffered from working in factories. These observations influenced him in after years.

[152]In these aphorisms Pestalozzi states the main principles at work in his own mind; but this bare statement is not well suited to communicate these principles to the minds of others. For most readers the aphorisms have as little attraction as the enunciations, say, of a book of Euclid would have for those who knew no geometry. But as his future life was guided by the principles he has formulated in this paper it seems necessary for us to bear some of these in mind.What he mainly insists upon is that all wise guidance must proceed from a knowledge of the nature of the creature to be guided; further that there is a simple wisdom which must direct the course of all men. “The path of Nature,” says he, “which brings out the powers of men must be open and plain; and human education to true peace-giving wisdom must be simple and available for all. Nature brings out all men’s powers by practice, and their increase springs fromuse.” The powers of children should be strengthened by exercise on what is close at hand; and this should be done without hardness or pressure. A forced and rigid sequence in instruction is not Nature’s method, says he: this would make men one-sided, and truth would not penetrate freely and softly into their whole being. The pure feeling for truth grows in a small area; and human wisdom must be grounded on a perception of our closest relationships, and must show itself in skilled management of our nearest concerns. Everything we do against our consciousness of right weakens our perception of truth and disturbs the purity of our fundamental conceptions and experiences. On this account all wisdom of man rests in the strength of a good heart that follows after truth, and all the blessing of man in the sense of simplicity and innocence. Peace of mind must be the outcome of right training. To get out of his surroundings all he needs for life and enjoyment, to be patient, painstaking, and in every difficulty trustful in the love of the Heavenly Father, this comes of a man’s true education to wisdom. Nothing concerns the human race so closely and intimately as—God. “God as Father of thy household, as source of thy blessing—God as thy Father; in this belief thou findest rest and strength and wisdom, which no violence nor the grave itself can overthrow.” Belief in God which is a part of our nature, like the sense of right and wrong and the feeling we can never quench of what is just and unjust, must be made the foundation in educating the human race. The subject of that belief is that God is the Father of men, men are the children of God. To this divine relationship Pestalozzi refers all human relationships as those of parent and child, of ruler and subject. The priest is appointed to declare the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men.The only text I have seen is that reprinted by Raumer (Gesch. d. Päd.). From Otto Fischer (Wichtigste Pädagogen), I learn that this is the edition of 1807, which differs, at least by omission, from the original of 1780.

What he mainly insists upon is that all wise guidance must proceed from a knowledge of the nature of the creature to be guided; further that there is a simple wisdom which must direct the course of all men. “The path of Nature,” says he, “which brings out the powers of men must be open and plain; and human education to true peace-giving wisdom must be simple and available for all. Nature brings out all men’s powers by practice, and their increase springs fromuse.” The powers of children should be strengthened by exercise on what is close at hand; and this should be done without hardness or pressure. A forced and rigid sequence in instruction is not Nature’s method, says he: this would make men one-sided, and truth would not penetrate freely and softly into their whole being. The pure feeling for truth grows in a small area; and human wisdom must be grounded on a perception of our closest relationships, and must show itself in skilled management of our nearest concerns. Everything we do against our consciousness of right weakens our perception of truth and disturbs the purity of our fundamental conceptions and experiences. On this account all wisdom of man rests in the strength of a good heart that follows after truth, and all the blessing of man in the sense of simplicity and innocence. Peace of mind must be the outcome of right training. To get out of his surroundings all he needs for life and enjoyment, to be patient, painstaking, and in every difficulty trustful in the love of the Heavenly Father, this comes of a man’s true education to wisdom. Nothing concerns the human race so closely and intimately as—God. “God as Father of thy household, as source of thy blessing—God as thy Father; in this belief thou findest rest and strength and wisdom, which no violence nor the grave itself can overthrow.” Belief in God which is a part of our nature, like the sense of right and wrong and the feeling we can never quench of what is just and unjust, must be made the foundation in educating the human race. The subject of that belief is that God is the Father of men, men are the children of God. To this divine relationship Pestalozzi refers all human relationships as those of parent and child, of ruler and subject. The priest is appointed to declare the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men.

The only text I have seen is that reprinted by Raumer (Gesch. d. Päd.). From Otto Fischer (Wichtigste Pädagogen), I learn that this is the edition of 1807, which differs, at least by omission, from the original of 1780.

[153]There are now four parts, first published respectively in 1781, 1783, 1785, and 1787 (O. Fischer). The English translation in two small vols. (1825) ends with the First Part, but Miss Eva Channing has recently sought to weld the four parts into one (Boston, U.S.—D.C. Heath & Co.), and in this form the book seems to me not only very instructive but very entertaining also. Not many readers who look into it will fail to reach the end, and few are the books connected with education of which this could prudently be asserted. “All good teachers should read it with care,” says Stanley Hall in his Introduction, and if they thus read it and catch anything of the spirit of Pestalozzi both they and their pupils will have reason to rejoice.

[154]In the pages of this Journal Pestalozzi taught that it was “the domestic virtues which determine the happiness of a nation.” Again he says: “On the throne and in the cottage man has equal need of religion, and becomes the most wretched being on the earth if he forget his God.” “The child at his mother’s breast is weaker and more dependent than any creature on earth, and yet he already feels the first moral impressions of love and gratitude.” “Morality is nothing but a result of the development of the first sentiments of love and gratitude felt by the infant.The first development of the child’s powers should come from his participation in the work of his home; for this work is what his parents understand best, what most absorbs their attention, and what they can best teach. But even if this were not so, work undertaken to supply real needs would be just as truly the surest foundation of a good education.To engage the attention of the child, to exercise his judgment, to raise his heart to noble sentiments, these I think the chief ends of education: and how can these ends be reached so surely as by training the child as early as possible in the various daily duties of domestic life?” It would seem then that at this time Pestalozzi was for basing education on domestic labour and would teach the child to be useful. But it is hard to see how this principle could always be applied.

[155]One of these I have already given (suprap. 292). I will give another, not as by any means one of the best, but as a fit companion to Rousseau’s “two dogs.”“26.The two colts.“Two colts as like as two eggs, fell into different hands. One was bought by a peasant whose only thought was to harness it to his plough as soon as possible: this one turned out a bad horse. The other fell to the lot of a man who by looking after it well and training it carefully, made a noble steed of it, strong and mettlesome. Fathers and mothers, if your children’s faculties are not carefully trained and directed right, they will become not only useless, but hurtful; and the greater the faculties the greater the danger.”Compare Rousseau: “Just look at those two dogs; they are of the same litter, they have been brought up and treated precisely alike, they have never been separated; and yet one of them is sharp, lively, affectionate, and very intelligent: the other is dull, lumpish, surly, and nobody could ever teach him anything. Simply a difference of temperament has produced in them a difference of character, just as a simple difference of our interior organisation produces in us a difference of mind.”N. Héloise.5me P. Lettre iii.

[155]One of these I have already given (suprap. 292). I will give another, not as by any means one of the best, but as a fit companion to Rousseau’s “two dogs.”

“26.The two colts.

“Two colts as like as two eggs, fell into different hands. One was bought by a peasant whose only thought was to harness it to his plough as soon as possible: this one turned out a bad horse. The other fell to the lot of a man who by looking after it well and training it carefully, made a noble steed of it, strong and mettlesome. Fathers and mothers, if your children’s faculties are not carefully trained and directed right, they will become not only useless, but hurtful; and the greater the faculties the greater the danger.”

Compare Rousseau: “Just look at those two dogs; they are of the same litter, they have been brought up and treated precisely alike, they have never been separated; and yet one of them is sharp, lively, affectionate, and very intelligent: the other is dull, lumpish, surly, and nobody could ever teach him anything. Simply a difference of temperament has produced in them a difference of character, just as a simple difference of our interior organisation produces in us a difference of mind.”N. Héloise.5me P. Lettre iii.

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