but always the faithful expression of his ideas, and the conduct which springs naturally from his inclinations."* Furthermore, this model child looks upon all men as equal, and will ask assistance from a king as readily as from a foot-boy. He does not understand what a command is, but will readily do anything for another person, in order to place that person under an obligation, and so increase his own rights. He knows also no distinction between work and play.. As a climax to this list of wonders, I may add that his imagination has remained inactive, and he only sees what is true in reality.

The reader will probably have concluded, by this time, that no child can possibly be so educated as to esemble Émile, and, perhaps, further, that no wise father would so educate his son, if it were possible. A child who does not understand what a command is, and who can be induced to do anything for another only by the prospect of laying that person under an obligation; who has no habits, and is guided merely by his inclinations-such a child as.this is, fortunately, nothing but a dream of Rousseau's.

* Ses idées sont bornêes, mais nettes; s'il ne sait rien par cœur, il sait beaucoup par expérience; s'il lit moins bien qu'un autre enfant dans nos livres, il lit mieux dans celui de la nature; son esprit n'est pas dans sa langue, mais dans sa tête; il a moins de mémoire qu de jugement; il ne sait parler qu'un langage, mais il entend ce qu'i dit; et s'il ne dit pas si bien que les autres disent, en revanche il fait mieux qu'ils ne font. Il ne sait ce que c'est que routine, usage habitude; ce qu'il fit hier n'influe point sur ce qu'il fait aujourd'hui il ne suit jamais de formule, ne cède point à l'autorité ni à l'exem ple, et n'agit ni ne parle que comme il lui convient. Ainsi, n'at tendez pas de lui des discours dictés ni des manières étudiées, mais toujours l'expression fidèle de ses idées et la conduite qui naît de ses penchants.

THREE KINDS OF EDUCATION.

103

But fantastical as Rousseau often is, the reader of his "Emile" is struck again and again, not more by the charm of his language than by his insight into child-nature, and the wisdom of his remarks upon it.

The Émile" is a large work, and the latter part is interesting rather from a literary and philosophical point of view, than as it is connected with education. I purpose, therefore, confining my attention to the earlier portion of the book, and giving some of the passages, of which a great deal since said and written on education has been a comparatively insipid decoction.

"All things are good, as their Creator made them, but everything degenerates in the hands of man."* These are the first words of the "Emile," and the keynote of Rousseau's philosophy.

"We are born weak, we have need of strength; we are born destitute of everything, we have need of assistance; we are born stupid, we have need of understanding. All that we are not possessed of at our birth, and which we require when grown up, is bestowed on us by education.

"This education we receive from nature, from men, or from things. The internal development of our organs and faculties is the education of nature: the use we are taught to make of that development is the education given us by men; and in the acquisitions made by our own experience on the objects that sur round us, consists our education from things."t "Since

*Tout est bien, sortant des mains de l'Auteur des choses; tout dégénère entre les mains de l'homme.

† Nous naissons faibles, nous avons besoin de forces; nous naissons dépourvus de tout, nous avons besoin d'assistance; nous nais

the concurrence of these three kinds of education is necessary to their perfection, it is by that one which is entirely independent of us, we must regulate the two others."*

Now to live is not merely to breathe; it is to act, it is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, and of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of our existence. The man who has lived most, is not he who has counted the greatest number of years, but he who has most thoroughly felt life."t

The aim of education, then, must be complete living.

But ordinary education (and here for a moment I am expressing my own conviction, and not simply reporting Rousseau), instead of seeking to develop the life of the child, sacrifices childhood to the acquirement of knowledge, or rather the semblance of knowledge, which it is thought will prove useful to the youth, or the man. Rousseau's great merit lies

sons 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.

*

* 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.

† 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-mêmnes 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'annes, mais celui qui a le plus senti lą vię.

CHILDHOOD NOT UNDERSTOOD BY ADULTS. 105

He

in his having exposed this fundamental error. says, very truly, "People do not understand childhood. With the false notions we have of it, the further we go the more we blunder. The wisest apply themselves to what it is important to men to know, without considering what children are in a condition to learn. They are always seeking the man in the child, without reflecting what he is before he can be a man. This is the study to which I have applied myself most; so that, should my practical scheme be found useless and chimerical, my observation will always turn to account. I may possibly have taken a very bad view of what ought to be done, but I conceive I have taken a good one of the subject to be wrought upon. Begin then by studying your pupils better; for most assuredly you do not at present understand them. So if So if you read my book with that view, I do not think it will be useless to you."* "Nature requires children to be children before they are men. If we will pervert this order, we shall produce forward fruits, having neither ripeness nor taste, and sure soon to become rotten; we shall have young professors and old children. Childhood

*On ne connait 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'étude 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 trés-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 trés-assurément vous ne les connaissez point: or, si vous lisez ce livre dans cette vue, je ne le crois pas sans utilité pour vous.

has its manner of seeing, perceiving, and thinking, peculiar to itself; nothing is more absurd than our being anxious to substitute our own in its stead."* "We never know how to put ourselves in the place of children; we do not enter into their ideas, we lend them our own: and following always our own train of thought, we fill their heads, even while we are discussing incontestible truths, with extravagance and error." "I wish some judicious hand would give us a treatise on the art of studying children; an art of the greatest importance to understand, though fathers and preceptors know not as yet even the elements of it."‡

The governor, then, must be able to sympathize with his pupil, and, on this account, Rousseau requires that he should be young. "The governor of a child should be young, even as young as possible, consistent with his having attained necessary discretion and sagacity. I would have him be himself a child, that he might become the companion of his pupil, and gain his confidence by partaking of his

* 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 maniéres de voir, de penser, de sentir, qui lui sont propres; rien n'est moins sensé que d'y vouloir substituer les nôtres.

† 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 chaines de vérités nous n'entassons qu'extravagances et qu'erreurs dans leur tête.

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.