THOMAS FULLER 1608-1661 THOMAS FULLER, a distinguished clergyman and a voluminous writer, was born in 1608, at Aldwinkle, in Northamptonshire, England-which was, later, the birthplace of Dryden. Fuller was precocious in youth, and entered Queen's College, Cambridge, at the age of twelve years. He was a chaplain in the royal army and, after the Restoration, was appointed chaplain extraordinary to the king. Among his most valuable works are church histories and biographical sketches. Characterization There was in Thomas Fuller a combination of those qualities which minister to our entertainment, such as few have ever possessed in an equal degree. He was, first of all, a man of multifarious reading, of great and digested knowledge, which an extraordinary retentiveness of memory preserved ever ready for use, and considerable accuracy of judgment enabled him successfully to apply. So well does he vary his treasures of memory and observation, so judiciously does he interweave his anecdotes, quotations, and remarks, that it is impossible to conceive a more delightful checker-work of acute thought and apposite illustration of original and extracted sentiment than is presented in his works. There is scarce any profession in the commonwealth more necessary, which is so slightly performed. The reasons whereof I conceive to be these: First, young scholars make this calling their refuge; yea, perchance, before they have taken any degree in the university, commence schoolmasters in the country, as if nothing else were required to set up this profession but only a 74 rod and a ferula. Secondly, others who are able use it only as a passage to better preferment, to patch the rents in their present fortune, till they can provide a new one, and betake themselves to some more gainful calling. Thirdly, they are disheartened from doing their best with the miserable reward which in some places they receive, being masters to their children and slaves to their parents. Fourthly, being grown rich they grow negligent, and scorn to touch the school but by the proxy of the usher. But see how well our schoolmaster behaves himself. His genius inclines him with delight to his profession. God of his goodness hath fitted several men for several callings, that the necessity of church and state, in all conditions, may be provided for. And thus God mouldeth some for a schoolmaster's life, undertaking it with desire and delight, and discharging it with dexterity and happy success. He studieth his scholars' natures as carefully as they their books; and ranks their dispositions into several forms. And though it may seem difficult for him in a great school to descend to all particulars, yet experienced schoolmasters may quickly make a grammar of boys' natures. He is able, diligent, and methodical in his teaching; not leading them rather in a circle than forwards. He minces his precepts for children to swallow, hanging clogs on the nimbleness of his own soul, that his scholars may go along with him. He is moderate in inflicting deserved correction. Many a schoolmaster better answereth the name paidotribes' than paidagogos, rather tearing his scholars' flesh with whipping than giving them good education. No wonder if his scholars hate the muses, being presented unto them in the shapes of fiends and furies. 3 Such an Orbilius mars more scholars than he makes. Their 1 boy-beater "He means "boy-teacher;" but the paidagogos (7αidαy wy o5), “pedagogue," of the Greeks, was the servant who conducted the children from their homes to the schools, and not the instructor. 3 a reference to the teacher of the Latin poet Horace, satirized by the latter as "Orbilius plagosus”—“ Orbilius of the birch." tyranny hath caused many tongues to stammer which spake plain by nature, and whose stuttering at first was nothing else but fears quavering on their speech at their master's presence; and whose mauling them about their heads hath dulled those who in quickness exceeded their master. To conclude, let this, amongst other motives, make schoolmasters careful in their place that the eminences of their scholars have commended the memories of their schoolmasters to posterity. 2. OF MEMORY It is the treasure-house of the mind, wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved. Plato makes it the mother of the muses. Aristotle sets it in one degree further, making experience the mother of arts, memory the parent of experience. Philosophers place it in the rear of the head; and it seems the mine of memory lies there, because there men naturally dig for it, scratching it when they are at a loss. This again is two-fold: one, the simple retention of things; the other, a regaining them when forgotten. Artificial memory is rather a trick than an art, and more for the gain of the teacher than profit of the learners. Like the tossing of a pike, which is no part of the postures and motions thereof, and is rather for ostentation than use, to show the strength and nimbleness of the arm, and is often used by wandering soldiers, as an introduction to beg. Understand it of the artificial rules which at this day are delivered by memory mountebanks; for sure an art thereof may be made (wherein as yet the world is defective), and that no more destructive to natural memory than spectacles are to eyes, which girls in Holland wear from twelve years of age. But till this be found out, let us observe these plain rules. First, soundly infix in thy mind what thou desirest to remember. What wonder is it if agitation of business jog that out of thy head which was there rather tacked than fastened? It is best knocking in the nail over night, and clinching it the next morning. Overburden not thy memory to make so faithful a servant a slave. Remember, Atlas was weary. Have as much reason as a camel, to rise when thou hast thy full load. Memory, like a if it be over full that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it; take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof. purse, Marshal thy notions into a handsome method. One will carry twice more weight trussed and packed up in bundles, than when it lies untoward, flapping and hanging about his shoulders. Things orderly fardled up under heads are most portable. Adventure not all thy learning in one bottom, but divide it betwixt thy memory and thy note-books. He that with Bias carries all his learning about him in his head, will utterly be beggared and bankrupt, if a violent disease, a merciless thief, should rob and strip him. I know some have a commonplace' against commonplace books, and yet perchance will privately make use of what they publicly declaim against. A commonplace book contains many notions in garrison, whence the owner may draw out an army into the field on competent warning. 1 a trite or customary remark. 2 It is an excellent plan for every teacher to keep a commonplace book of considerable size, different portions of it being set apart for the different subjects upon which he is to give instruction. On the first twenty pages "Geography' may be the head; the next twenty pages may be set apart for "History;" twenty more may be assigned to "Reading," and a like number to "Arithmetic," "Grammar," "Spelling," "Writing," etc., reserving quite a space for “Miscellaneous Matter." This would make a large book; but when it is remembered that it is to be used for several years, it is well to have it large enough to contain a large amount of matter. Now, whenever a teacher hears a lecture on a peculiar method of teaching either of these branches, let him note the prominent parts of it under the proper head, and especially the illustrations. When he reads or hears an anecdote illustrating geography, history, or grammar, let it be copied under the proper head. If it illustrates geography, let the name of the place stand at its head. When he visits a school, and listens to a new explanation or a new process, let him note it under its head. In this way he may collect a thousand valuable things to be used with judgment in his school.-Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching." 66 JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 1746-1827 JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI, the greatest of modern educational reformers, was born at Zurich, in German Switzerland, in 1746. His family was of Italian origin and of Protestant faith. He established at his beautiful villa of Neu Hof, in the canton Aargau, an industrial school for the poor-probably the first of its kind. It was a failure. Following the military events in the canton Unterwalden, he maintained in an old convent at Stanz a school for the starving and homeless victims of war. For a time he conducted a school at Burgdorf, and afterward he established a famous institute of learning in the old castle of Yverdon, in the canton Vaud. Besides contributing frequently to the periodical literature of his time, Pestalozzi wrote, at intervals, a number of books, the chief of which were Figures to my Spelling Book" (a collection of fables), “Leonard and Gertrude,” Christopher and Eliza,' 'How Gertrude Educated her Children," and "Hours of a Hermit." He died in 1827. The following estimate of the life of this wonderful man is from the pen of Professor Joseph Payne, of the College of Preceptors in London: 66 66 "At fifty-two years of age, we find Pestalozzi utterly unacquainted with the science and the art of education, and very scantily furnished even with elementary knowledge, undertaking at Stanz, in the canton Unterwalden, the charge of eighty children, whom the events of war have rendered homeless and destitute. Here he was at last in the position which, during years of sorrow and disappointment, he had eagerly desired to fill. He was now brought into immediate contact with ignorance, vice, and brutality, and had the opportunity for testing the power of his long-cherished theories. The man whose absorbing idea had been that the ennobling of the people, even of the lowest class, through education, was no mere dream, was now, in the midst of extraordinary difficulties, to struggle with the solution of the problem. And surely if any man, consciously possessing strength to fight, and only desiring to be brought face to face with his adversary, ever had his utmost wishes granted, it was Pestalozzi at Stanz. Let us try for a moment to realize the circumstances-the forces of the 78 |