66 nizing the force of this objection, I am yet disposed to agree with Mr Browning when he says', One of the main hopes of the improvement of education lies in adopting the truth that manly and serious studies are capable of being handled and mastered by intelligent schoolboys." Because of the obvious defects of Milton's scheme, it has been the habit of schoolmasters to treat his Tractate with something like contempt, or, at least, to ignore it. Drop the mere externalities of the scheme however and contemplate the ideas inherent in it, and we find much that is valuable: (1) A condemnation of exclusive Latin and Greek instruction with which all thinking men now agree. (2) A condemnation of the verbalism and formalism of school teaching, which also now meets with universal acceptance. (3) An advocacy of natureinstruction and of practical handwork: who is there among thinking educationalists now to question this? (4) An earnest plea for direct moral instruction: still awaiting response from our schools. (5) A denunciation of attempts at composition without material to write about. (6) Generally, the putting of the study of the real of sense and the real of the Humanities before the study of the organic arts-Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric: "Matter before Form," as Comenius was then preaching and which all intelligent teachers (at least theoretically) now accept. (7) The recommendation of technical instruction in its widest sense. (8) The advocacy of gymnastic and physical drill, now accepted elements in all properly organized education. (9) The teaching of Latin Grammar by means of the English tongue and not in Latin as was then, and till quite recently, universal". Even his encyclopaedism may be defended as a necessary protest against the meagre intellectual life of the schools of his time. And greater than all was the profound conviction, which 1 Educational Theories, p. 97. 2 Milton's first publication after Paradise Lost was a Latin Grammar for Beginners within the compass of 65 pages and written in English. It is entitled Accedence Commenc't Grammar, 1669. he has handed down to all worthy to inherit it, of the efficacy of education to mould the youth of a country to virtue, generosity and sacrifice. Professor Masson well says,-"The noble moral glow that pervades the Tract, the mood of magnanimity in which it is conceived and the faith it inculcates in the power of the young spirit are merits everlasting'." Milton himself, remember, recognizes the ideal character of his scheme of education. For he tells us that "this is not a bow for every man to shoot in that counts himself a teacher; but will require sinews almost equal to those which Homer gave Ulysses." And in truth this is what every man is driven to say who seriously thinks about national education--its nature and its possibilities, viz. where are we to find the Educators? Few are born in the purple: how can we make the average man worthy to assume it? Some writers would class Milton among the Realists in education, but this is only a partial truth. It is true that Milton was of opinion that the books read by boys, both in the primary and secondary stages, should treat of things, but his whole scheme of higher education is, as we have seen, literary and oratorical and musical-essentially Humanistic. The distinctive note of the earlier Humanists is that while "real" subjects should be taught, the governing studies of youth should be Language and Literature with History; the strict Realist, on the other hand, would make the Real or Naturalistic along with Arithmetic and Mathematics dominant. Even language should be taught, as a subordinate though necessary study, mainly through things, according to the Realist, while in the case of foreign tongues it is the utilities of life that govern instruction in them—not language and literature as such. This being so, to class Milton among sense-realists is incorrect. He stands by himself. I have called him a Classical Encyclopaedist. Note. The quotations in the above Lecture are printed verbatim from Mr Browning's edition of the Tractate (Pitt Press). 1 Professor Masson in Life of Milton, CHAPTER XIII. JOHN LOCKE, THE ENGLISH RATIONALIST. Introduction.-Value of Education.-Aim of Education.-Vigour of body.-Virtue or Morality and Good Breeding.-Habit.-Fundamental Principle of Locke,-Authority.-Enforcing of Authority, -(a) Punishment in relation to Moral Training,—(6) Punishment in relation to Instruction,--(c) Rewards.-Substance and Method of Moral Training. JOHN LOCKE was born in 1632 and died in 1704. His Thoughts on Education were published in 1693. Locke is the most important English writer on education next to Ascham. I devote considerable space to him because no writer on education surpasses him in my opinion. His personal experience, however, was limited. As tutor of Lord Shaftesbury's son, and thereafter as adviser and guide of the education of that son's children, he had his attention directed to the subject practically; but his knowledge of school work was restricted to his own experience as a boy at Westminster and as a lecturer in Oxford. Hence many defects in his book and many merits; defects arising from his ignorance of the routine of the school and the difficulties which a master has to encounter; merits arising from the close and paternal relation in which he stood to his pupils. This close and paternal relation led him to see that the daily moral training had far more effect in producing the ultimate result at which all wise educationalists aim-cultured, virtuous, and generally well informed and capable men—than instruction in the narrower scholastic sense. He was led however to underrate both the importance and difficulties of instruction; and valuable as were his thoughts on moral training, much significance cannot be attached to his treatment of Method as applied to those subjects which all must learn, and which he says "may be had into the bargain, at a very easy rate, by methods that may be thought upon." While residing in Holland he had corresponded with his friend Mr Clark, member for Taunton in King William's Parliament, on the bringing up of that gentleman's children; and yielding to the solicitations of many of his friends, especially of William Molyneux, his Dublin correspondent, he reduced his letters to shape and published them in 1693 under the title Some Thoughts concerning Education. The form in which the Thoughts were originally cast explains the want of method and the frequent repetitions. The admirable, but loosely constructed book on The Conduct of the Human Understanding, though not professedly written as an educational treatise, ought to be read with the Thoughts, and as the complement of them, if we would understand fully Locke's real views and adequately exhibit them; for what is the conduct of the understanding, or in Spinoza's phrase Emendatio Intellectus, but education? In my exposition I of course follow Locke closely, but I endeavour to give a more articulate shape to what he has somewhat loosely set down; and it is because I do so, that I think my exposition will be of service to the student or teacher. Locke seems to have been ignorant of Comenius and Ascham, but he must have known Milton's Tractate, and the influence of Montaigne is everywhere conspicuous. Had it not, indeed, been for the influence of Montaigne and the circumstances in which his Thoughts were written, he could not have, I think, so entirely parted company with his philosophical system when he came to write on education. It is true we find a treatment which is generally in perfect consonance with the doctrine of the Essay on the Human Understanding, but there is no purposed or conscious connexion; nor could this have been expected in a book which he himself says is rather of the nature of "a private conversation" between two friends than "a discourse designed for public view1." Value of Education. To begin with, we must note carefully that Locke does not think of the education of the people any more than Milton does. He considers the education of a young gentleman only. And as he presumes that the education is domestic, his remarks are not always very applicable to schools. Still substantially, mutatis mutandis, many of his principles are of universal application. By way of introduction he points to the effects of education in a well-known passage, in the first part of which he somewhat exaggerates the influence of education. § 1, pp. 1, 2. "A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world. He that has these two has little more to wish for: and he that wants either of them will be but little the better for anything else. Men's happiness or misery is most part of their own making. He whose mind directs not wisely will never take the right way, and he whose body is crazy and feeble will never be able to advance in it. I confess there are some men's constitutions of body and mind so vigorous and well framed by nature, that they need not much assistance from others, but by the strength of their natural genius they are from their cradles carried towards what is excellent and by the privilege of their happy constitution are able to do wonders"." "But examples of this kind are but few, and I think I may say that of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are 1 Letter addressed to Mr Clark when sending the book to him. |