In this way we have already made great progress. Compare, for instance, our present teaching of grammar with the ancient method; and our short and broken school-time with the old plan of keeping boys in for five consecutive hours twice a day. Our Conservatives and Reformers are not so much at variance as their predecessors. To convince ourselves of this we have only to consider the state of parties in the second half of the last century. On the one side we find the schoolmasters who turned out the courtiers of Louis XV.; on the other, the most extravagant, the most eloquent, the most reckless of innovators— J. J. Rousseau.

Rousseau has told us that he resolved on having fixed principles by the time he was forty years old. Among the principles of which he accordingly laid in a stock, were these: 1st, Man, as he might be, is perfectly good; 2d, Man, as he is, is utterly bad. To maintain these opinions, Rousseau undertook to show, not only the rotten state of the existing society, which he did with notable success, but also the proper method of rearing children so as to make them all that they ought to be an attempt at construction which was far more difficult and hazardous than his philippics.

This was the origin of the "Emile," perhaps the most influential book ever written on the subject of education. The school to which Rousseau belonged may be said, indeed, to have been founded by Montaigne, and to have met with a champion, though not a very enthusiastic champion, in Locke. But it was reserved for Rousseau to give this theory of education its complete development, and to expound it in the

clearest and most eloquent language. In the form in which Rousseau left it, the theory greatly influenced Basedow and Pestalozzi, and still influences many educational reformers who differ from Rousseau as much as our schoolmasters differ from those of Louis XV.

Of course as man was corrupted by ordinary education, the ideal education must differ from it in every respect. "Take the road directly opposite to that which is in use, and you will almost always do right."* This was the fundamental maxim. So thorough a radical was Rousseau, that he scorned the idea of half"I had rather follow the established practice entirely," says he, "than adopt a good one by halves."†

measures.

In the society of that time, everything was artificial; Rousseau therefore demanded a return to Nature. Parents should do their duty in rearing their own offspring. "Where there is no mother, there can be no child." The father should find time to bring up the child whom the mother has suckled. No duty can be more important than this. But although Rousseau seems conscious that family life is the natural state, he makes his model child an orphan, and hands him over tc a governor, to be brought up in the country without companions.

This governor is to devote himself, for some years, entirely to imparting to his pupil these difficult arts

* Prenez le contre-pied de l'usage, et vous ferez presque toujours bien.

† J'aimerais mieux suivre en tout la pratique établie, que d'en prendre une bonne à demi.

Point de mère, point d'enfant.

CHILDREN SHOULD BE KEPT IGNORANT.

99

the art of being ignorant and of losing time. Till he is twelve years old, Emile is to have no direct instruction whatever. "At that age he shall not know what a book is," says Rousseau; though elsewhere we are told that he will learn to read of his own accord by the time he is ten, if no attempt is made to teach him. He is to be under no restraint, and is to do nothing but what he sees to be useful.

Freedom from restraint is, however, to be apparent, not real. As in ordinary education the child employs all its faculties in duping the master, so in education "according to Nature," the master is to devote himself to duping the child. "Let him always be his

own master in appearance, and do you take care to be so in reality. There is no subjection so complete as that which preserves the appearance of liberty; it is by this means even the will is led captive."

"The most critical interval of human nature is that between the hour of our birth and twelve years of age. This is the time, wherein vice and error take root without our being possessed of any instrument to destroy them."

Throughout this season, the governor is to be at work inculcating the art of being ignorant and losing time. "This first part of education ought to be purely negative. It consists neither in teaching virtue nor truth, but in guarding the heart from vice and the mind from error. If you could do nothing and let nothing be done; if you could bring up your pupil healthy and robust to the age of twelve years, without his being able to distinguish his right hand from his left, the eyes of his understanding would be open to reason at your first lesson; void both of habit

and prejudice, he would have nothing in him to operate against your endeavors; soon under your instructions he would become the wisest of men. Thus, by setting out with doing nothing, you would produce a prodigy of education."*

"Exercise his body, his sense's, faculties, powers, but keep his mind inactive as long as possible. Distrust all the sentiments he acquires, previous to the judgment which should enable him to scrutinize them. Prevent or restrain all foreign impressions; and in order to hinder the rise of evil, be not in too great a hurry to instill good; for it is only such when the mind is enlightened by reason. Look upon every delay as an advantage: it is gaining a great deal to advance without losing anything. Let childhood ripen in children. In short, whatever lesson becomes necessary for them take care not to give them to-day, if it may be deferred without danger till to-morrow."†

66

'Do not, then, alarm yourself much about this apparent idleness. What would you say of the man,

* 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.

† Exercez son corps, ses organes, ses sens, ses forces, mais tenez son àme 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 avan

THE MODEL BOY.

ΙΟΙ

who, in order to make the most of life, should determine never to go to sleep? You would say, The man is mad he is not enjoying the time; he is depriving himself of it to avoid sleep he is hurrying toward death. Consider, then, that it is the same here, and that childhood is the sleep of reason."

Such is the groundwork of Rousseau's educational scheme. His ideal boy, of twelve years old, is to be a thoroughly well-developed animal, with every bodily sense trained to its highest perfection. "His ideas," says Rousseau, "are confined, but clear; he knows nothing by rote, but a great deal by experience. If he reads less well than another child in our books, he reads better in the book of nature. His understanding does not lie in his tongue, but in his brain; he has less memory than judgment; he can speak only one language, but then he understands what he says; and although he may not talk of things so well as others, he will do them much better. He knows nothing at all of custom, fashion, or habit; what he did yesterday has no influence on what he is to do to-day; he follows no formula, is influenced by no authority or example, but acts and speaks just as it suits him. Do not, then, expect from him set discourses or studied manners,

tages: c'est gagner beaucoup que d'avancer vers le terme sans rien perdre; laissez mûrir l'enfance dans les enfants. Enfin que que leçon leur devient-elle nécessaire, gardez-vous de la donner aujourd'hui, si vous pouvez différer jusqu'à demain sans danger.

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