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 Aspects of Education 
 
 A Study in the History of Pedagogy 
 
 BY 
 
 OSCAR BROWNING, M. A., 
 
 Kings College, Cambridge. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Ph.D., 
 
 President of the Industrial Education Association. 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 Industrial Education Association. 
 september, 1888. 
 
 Twenty Cents. 
 
 Monograph 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 The several chapters of this Monograph appeared as separate articles in 
 Science, during 1887 and 188S. After careful revision by the author, they are 
 now reproduced as a single treatise, and offered as a valuable contribution to the 
 critical history of educational doctrines. 
 
 Copyright, 1888, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Industrial Education Association. 
 
ASPECTS OF EDUCATION 
 
 HUMANISM. 
 I 
 
 Since the revival of learning, secondary education in 
 Europe has passed through three phases, which may be 
 conveniently called humanism, realism, and naturalism. 
 The first is grounded upon the study of language, and 
 especially of the two dead languages, Greek and Latin. 
 The second is based upon the study of things instead of 
 words, the education of the mind through the eye and the 
 hand. Closely connected with this, is the study of those 
 things which may be of direct influence upon and direct 
 importance to life. The third is not, in the first instance, 
 study at all. It is an attempt to build up the whole nature 
 of the man; to educate, first his body, then his character, 
 and lastly his mind. All theories of education which have 
 taken a practical form during the last three hundred years 
 may be ranged under one or other of these three heads. 
 Modern education, as we know it, is an unconscious, but 
 not the less a real, compromise between the three ends. 
 If we consider each separately, we shall be in the best 
 position to understand the system to which they have 
 given rise. 
 
 It is important to remember that the reformation in 
 Europe happened at the time when the best European 
 intellects were directed towards the study of the classics. 
 This was not a mere coincidence. The revival of learn- 
 
132 Aspects of Education. [4 
 
 ing, as it is called, that is, the closer and more intimate 
 acquaintance with Greek and Latin texts, which had 
 before been known through translations and paraphrases, 
 was in itself the principal cause of a reformation. The 
 critical spirit thus engendered, the dissatisfaction aroused 
 with the teaching of the old religion, the revolt against 
 the schoolmen, were also efficient in bringing about 
 the reformation. The education of the middle ages was 
 encyclopaedic, in aim if not in reality. The seven-years 
 course of study — triviutn and quadrivium — was intended 
 to comprise every thing that a man need know. Grammar 
 taught the whole science of words, dialectics furnished a 
 scholar with the whole armor of argument, rhetoric in- 
 vested him not only with eloquence in speech but with 
 the more graceful gifts of poetry and imagination. The 
 science of music, the science of numbers, the power of 
 measuring the earth and the heavens, furnished out the 
 completely educated man. Hand-books of the middle 
 ages intended for students cover the whole ground of 
 human knowledge. The ' Tresor' of Brunetto Latini, the 
 master of Dante, is divided into three books ; the first 
 book into five parts, the last two into two parts each. The 
 first book speaks of the origin of all things. After this 
 comes philosophy, divided into its two component parts 
 of theory and practice. Theory has three great divisions, 
 — theology, the knowledge of God ; physics, the knowl- 
 edge of the world ; and mathematics, the knowledge of 
 the four sciences which form the quadrivium. Practice 
 has also three divisions, — ethics, to teach us how to govern 
 ourselves ; economics, to teach us how to govern our 
 family and our belongings ; and politics, the highest of 
 all sciences and the most noble of human occupations, 
 which teaches us to govern towns, kingdoms, and nations, 
 in both peace and war. As a prelude to these nobler 
 sciences stand the preliminary arts of grammar, dialectics, 
 and rhetoric. 
 
5 ] A spects of Educatio n. 133 
 
 It is true that before the reformation this noble plan of 
 education had become narrowed and formalized. The 
 church had pressed all knowledge into its service, and 
 no form of knowledge was highly valued which did not 
 contribute to the service of the church. The methods of 
 teaching became corrupted : memory was substituted for 
 thought. There was a striking contrast between the high 
 aims of the best part of the middle ages and the scanty 
 attainments of its decadence ; but the shell was still there, 
 and as long as that remained, life might be poured into it. 
 
 The renaissance swept away this effort as a dream. 
 Scholars brought face to face with Virgil and Horace, 
 with Cicero and Plato, were so won by the charm of a 
 new and marvellous language, that all their strength was 
 spent in explaining and appreciating it. The literary 
 results of the renaissance were twofold. On the one hand, 
 it aroused the pure enjoyment of literary form and expres- 
 sion ; on the other, by stimulating a more exact scholar- 
 ship and a more minute philosophy, it urged on the human 
 mind to inquiry and to rebellion. 
 
 Just as the stream of this revival was in full flood, the 
 reformation came, and separated the culture of Protestants 
 from that of the old church. We do not sufficiently 
 realize what a wrench this was. We are so accustomed 
 to regard Protestantism as a stimulus to independence 
 and originality of thought, that we do not consider what 
 a loss was at first suffered by the breach with the old 
 religion. The whole culture of the middle ages was 
 intimately connected with the church. If we take Dante 
 as an example, who was steeped in all the knowledge of 
 his time, we find that, in every thing he wrote, the ecclesi- 
 astical aspect is as prominent as the poetical. There is 
 no moment when he has not an equal right to stand 
 among the doctors of theology and with the poets of 
 Parnassus. Those who broke with the church of Rome 
 had to create a culture of their own, and the culture which 
 
134 Aspects of Education. ' [6 
 
 they created was naturally that which then prevailed in 
 the church which they were leaving. 
 
 It was this that gave Melanchthon his importance in the 
 reformation, and that earned for him the name of the 
 'teacher of Germany.' He was by nature an exact scholar. 
 He was well read in both Greek and Latin. He may 
 have intended to fill up the other divisions of learning, 
 but both his taste and his powers led him to confine 
 himself to those departments in which he excelled. He 
 said to his school-boys, 'Whatever you wish to learn, 
 learn grammar first.' He recommended the study of 
 Cicero, Livy, Virgil, Ovid, and Quintilian, and among 
 Greek writers, Homer, Herodotus, Demosthenes, and 
 Lucian. He recommended the writing of Latin letters 
 and Latin verses, with Latin speeches and themes for 
 the more advanced students. 
 
 Melanchthon might have intended, if life lasted, to deal 
 successively with other branches of the mediaeval curric- 
 ulum, but his own tastes and the success of his first efforts 
 determined his whole career. He made the study of 
 language in all its branches current coin for Protestants, 
 but here he stopped. 
 
 Whatever may have been the influence of Melanchthon 
 on Protestant schools, there is no doubt that they received 
 their form from John Sturm of Strasburg, who was rector 
 of Strasburg high school for forty-five years, from 1538 to 
 1583. We find his name in the pages of Ascham, and 
 it is very probable that his plan of study formed the model 
 on which the new college of Westminster was organized, 
 but his influence extended not only to England but to all 
 Protestant countries. He was a politician as well as a 
 school-master; and was in constant correspondence with 
 the leaders of the Protestant party all over Europe. His 
 great powers were devoted to an elaborate plan for teach- 
 ing the Latin language, in all its extent and in its fullest 
 elegance, to school-boys. We have a complete account of 
 
y] Aspects of Education. 135 
 
 the organization of his school, and there is this remarkable 
 fact about it, — the boys were not only made to proceed 
 from step to step towards final excellence, but they were 
 strictly prohibited from taking more than one step at a 
 time. In the examinations which were held at the close of 
 each year, it was not only a crime to have omitted to 
 learn the set subjects for that period, but it was as great 
 a crime to have learned more than had been set. Not 
 only was the human mind tied and bound within the 
 limits of a curriculum, but individual minds were prohibited 
 from outstepping the limits of that curriculum in any par- 
 ticular. Sturm must be regarded, more than any one else, 
 as the creator for Protestants of the classical system of 
 English public-school education as it is remembered by 
 many who are still living. In this system, boys began 
 to learn the Latin grammar before they learned English 
 grammar ; they were set to do Latin verses before they 
 could write Latin prose. The Latin taught was not the 
 masculine language of Lucretius and Caesar, but the ornate 
 and artificial diction of Horace and Virgil, and, above all, 
 of Cicero. There is no doubt that this system, narrow and 
 faulty as it was, gave a good education, so long as people 
 believed in it. To know Horace and Virgil by heart 
 became the first duty of an English gentleman. Speeches 
 in parliament were considered incomplete if they did not 
 contain at least one Latin quotation. A false quantity 
 was held to be a greater crime than a slip in logical 
 argument. Cicero not only influenced the education of 
 English statesmen, but had no inconsiderable effect upon 
 their conduct. The vanity of self-inspection, the continual 
 reference to what is dignified and becoming, coupled with 
 a high-minded devotion to duty and a strong if somewhat 
 romantic patriotism, distinguished English statesmen in 
 the eighteenth century as much as they distinguished the 
 great orator of Rome. 
 
136 Aspects of Edtication. [8 
 
 There is, indeed, much to be said for humanistic training 
 as a discipline of the mind. It is true that it deals only 
 with words, and its highest efforts are, to decide what 
 expression is absolutely best under certain circumstances. 
 It is no light thing to render an English sentence, ornate 
 and idiomatic, into a Latin sentence which exactly repre- 
 sents its meaning and which is equally ornate and idio- 
 matic. It is difficult to analyze the subtle tact by which a 
 scholar decides a particular reading in a particular passage 
 to be right and all other readings to be wrong, or by 
 which he determines one Latin or Greek verse to be so 
 decidedly superior to another, that their comparative merit 
 admits of no argument or hesitation. Any number of 
 competently trained scholars would agree together in a 
 matter of this kind, and yet it is entirely beyond argument 
 that not one of them, if cross-examined in a witness-box, 
 could give reasons for his judgment which would satisfy a 
 jury. The question is determined by the most delicate 
 weighing of probabilities, by a subtle tact similar to that 
 by which the most complicated operation of an artificer is 
 carried on. Is not this the very process which we have to 
 apply to the most difficult problems of life ? The organon 
 of mathematical reasoning is a far clumsier and blunter 
 instrument than the organon by which humanistic difficul- 
 ties are decided, while the organon of scientific reasoning 
 is clumsier and blunter still. Mathematics deals for the 
 most part with things which can be accurately appre- 
 hended by the mind. It aims, more than anything else, at 
 exactness, and although in its higher branches it admits 
 hypotheses of probability, yet its principal object is cer- 
 tainty. Science goes farther than this ; it not only admits 
 certainty of apprehension, but it claims that it should 
 touch, see, and handle the matters with which it deals. 
 Few results can stand this coarse analysis. If biology 
 and chemistry refuse to acknowledge any truth which 
 cannot be demonstrated to the senses, they put out of their 
 
g] Aspects of Education. 137 
 
 reach those truths which are the most important to know, 
 and which can be arrived at by probability alone. If 
 mathematics admits of demonstration which shall give 
 a clear proof to anyone who asks it, it removes from 
 its sphere those judgments which rest upon the trained 
 instinct of experts, and which can only be made clear to 
 one who has undergone a similar training. 
 
 Regarded from this point of view, humanism was no 
 bad preparation for active life or for devotion to any other 
 study. It had the advantage of being small in compass, 
 and of limits which were easily ascertained. Devotion to 
 humanistic studies, properly understood, did not exclude 
 application to other studies which might be considered 
 more grave and important. William Pitt, chancellor of the 
 exchequer at twenty-two, prime minister at twenty-four, 
 was a first rate humanist, as he was an excellent mathe- 
 matician ; but this did not prevent him from being an 
 admirable orator, a close reasoner, a profound student of 
 history and politics, and a political economist far in ad- 
 vance of his time. Much as we may regret that education 
 in Protestant countries, especially in England, Holland, 
 and Sweden, was narrowed by the humanistic tendency, 
 we must not refuse to give that training all the credit 
 which it deserves. 
 
 II 
 
 Humanism, in the hands of Sturm and his followers, 
 was at least intelligible and masculine. Although it was 
 founded upon a narrow basis, its aims were clear and 
 honest. In the next two hundred years, humanistic teach- 
 ing was to undergo an influence of a very different charac- 
 ter, which, maintaining the outward show, changed the 
 substance and turned what was a modified blessing into a 
 decided curse. The Jesuit schools founded in the sixteenth 
 century obtained so much vogue in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth, that they influenced the whole of European 
 education, Protestant as well as Catholic. They had one 
 
138 Aspects of Education. [10 
 
 title to respect, and one only. They were the first to 
 bring the individual teacher face to tace with the individual 
 pupil. Whatever their objects may have been, and what- 
 ever were the ends for which they intended to use their 
 influence, there can be no doubt that they did from the 
 first what they still do, — attempt to study the workings 
 of each individual mind and the beat of each single heart. 
 Here their merit ends. They desired that the hearts of 
 their pupils should be devoted to them, and not to human- 
 ity, and that their minds should never move out of the 
 limits which they themselves should fix. Humanism lay 
 ready to their hands. Here was a subject on which infinite 
 ingenuity might be expended and endless time wasted. 
 To become a complete master of the style of Cicero, 
 Horace, or Ovid, might take a lifetime ; yet the result 
 was showy: few could understand its merits or the pro- 
 cesses by which it was reached. To declaim on speech- 
 day a long alcaic ode on the immaculate Virgin, or to turn 
 the Song of Solomon into the language of Ovid's 'Art of 
 love,' was an achievement which all might admire. The 
 Jesuits were the inventors of that bane of humanistic edu- 
 cation, the exaggerated reverence paid to Latin verse 
 composition. What can be a worse training for the human 
 mind? A mind is called well trained in language when 
 it can conceive accurately the idea which it wishes to 
 express, and can express that idea in language which no 
 one can misunderstand. The whole theory of original Latin 
 verse composition is opposed to this. The pupil is set to 
 write a copy of verses on a set subject, be it spring or 
 winter, autumn or summer. His notion of what he should 
 say is very hazy, but under pressure he will write down 
 twenty so-called ideas for twenty lines of Latin verse. 
 To expand these he will have recourse to his gracilis, a 
 book which the Jesuits have the credit of inventing. He 
 will there find so-called synonyms of the Latin words he 
 has chosen, which cannot really express the same sense, 
 
ii] Aspects of Education. 139 
 
 for in any language very few pairs of words are to be found 
 with precisely the same meaning. If his synonyms are 
 insufficient for the purpose, he will fill up the line with 
 epithets chosen from the gradus, not because they are just, 
 or appropriate, or needful, but because they scan. If these 
 are not enough, his handbook will furnish him with phrases 
 of greater length, bearing more or less upon the subject, 
 and even with entire verses which he may introduce, so far 
 as he can do so without fear of detection. To spend much 
 time on this process is to play and juggle with the human 
 mind, to make pretence at thought when there is no 
 thought at all, to mark time instead of marching, to work a 
 treadmill that grinds no corn, to weave a web which must 
 be perpetually unravelled ; yet in the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century we see original Latin verses the chosen 
 task of school-boys and a too frequent pastime for 
 statesmen. 
 
 Let us not condemn all composition in dead languages. 
 To turn the masterpieces of modern poetry into an exact 
 Greek or Latin equivalent may be the worthy occupation 
 of the best-trained scholars. It has more than once hap- 
 pened that the copy has been more poetical, more musical 
 more worthy, than the original itself. Nor is imitation of 
 any literature which we are studying to be despised. The 
 Italian sonnets of Arthur Hallam, the French lyrics of 
 Swinburne, if not genuine poetry, are at least precious 
 fruits of the poetical mind. But if these fruits are to 
 be produced at all, it is necessary that they should be 
 produced without compulsion. Train your scholar in the 
 best examples of Greek and Latin, let him study Virgil, 
 Homer, and the Greek tragedians night and day, show 
 him all the poetry they contain, let him compare them 
 with the best productions of his native tongue, and the 
 probability is, that, if he has any creative faculty, he will 
 begin to imitate and will write Greek and Latin verses 
 without coercion. But set him down on a form with fifty 
 
140 Aspects of Education. [12 
 
 other boys, and bid him write poetry on a subject for 
 which he does not care, in a language which he does not 
 understand and which is often unfitted to the thoughts 
 which he has to express, guide him by mechanical rules, 
 and assist him with mechanical handbooks : you will then 
 find that what ought to have been a pleasure has been a 
 barren toil, and that his mind is dulled by the effort. 
 Even at the present day, after all that has been written 
 against Latin verses by those who are most fit to judge, 
 they hold an inordinate place in English classical edu- 
 cation, and give us good reason to pass the strongest 
 condemnation on the sect which introduced them. 
 
 The falseness of Jesuit principles of education goes fur- 
 ther than this. They can best be judged on the great 
 annual festival when the parents are invited to see the 
 triumphs of their children. Speeches in different languages 
 are delivered by children of various ages, often with a 
 pathos that draws tears from those who hear them : this is 
 a good part of their training. The head boy reads out the 
 list of those who have gained prizes. After reciting a 
 string of names, he suddenly pauses thus attracting the 
 attention of all present. The prefect of studies, who stands 
 behind him, comes to his rescue, and utters the boy's own 
 name, which he has been too modest to pronounce himself. 
 Had he repeated it among the others, it would have at- 
 tracted no attention, but the modesty which avoided the 
 appearance of self-laudation was used to extort the ap- 
 plause of the multitude. 
 
 The boys are examined viva voce. Nothing can be 
 more fair. Any one at random is asked to take a Virgil or 
 Sophocles, to submit any passage for translation, and to 
 ask any questions he pleases. If the examiner does his 
 work honestly, he soon finds what a mistake he has made. 
 Ke submits a passage for translation. The boy makes a 
 mistake ; the examiner stops him. The boy blunders ; 
 the examiner insists upon a correct translation, which 
 
13] Aspects of Education. 141 
 
 takes a long time in coming. There s general discomfort 
 and confusion. The whole sympathy of the audience is 
 with the good-looking ingenuous youth on the platform, 
 and not with the bald-headed pedant who is examining 
 him. The examiner asks a question ; the boy answers it 
 wrong. As often as the examiner rejects the answer given 
 to him, so often does the impatience of the audience arise 
 against the stupid man who does not know how to ask 
 questions that the boys can answer. 
 
 If the Jesuits had no faults of their own, they at least 
 deserve the condemnation of posterity for suppressing 
 their rivals the Jansenists, who offered to France the best 
 opportunity of receiving a humanistic education devoted 
 to the noblest ends. The object of the distinguished men 
 who founded the little schools of Port Royal was exactly 
 the opposite to that of their Jesuit rivals. They desired to 
 make the moral character of their pupils strong and inde- 
 pendent, and to train their intellects from the first in the 
 severe studies of close and logical reasoning. In the 
 individual attention they gave to their pupils, they were 
 superior even to the Jesuits. The whole number of children 
 that passed through their schools was small ; and no teach- 
 er was allowed to have charge of more than five or six, 
 while the masters were thus able to study the characters 
 and capacities of their pupils in the minutest details. Pains 
 were always taken to avoid undue familiarity. Between 
 the pupils themselves, as between their professors, there 
 was to reign a dignified and temperate courtesy, removed 
 equally from sickly sentimentality and from rough and 
 boisterous good-fellowship. The grammar of Port Royal 
 was not a collection of rules to be learned by heart, but a 
 treatise on logic, which forms the basis of all grammar. 
 Where rules or examples had, of necessity, to be learned, 
 they were, in disregard of precedent, placed in such a form 
 as to be most easily remembered. The Jansenists were guil- 
 ty of another innovation which gave a great handle to their 
 
142 Aspects of Education. [14 
 
 opponents. They taught the dead languages of antiquity 
 from the living tongue of their own France. What impie- 
 ty, said the Jesuits, thus to vulgarize studies which ought 
 never to be presented to us without solemn and even 
 sacred associations ! We hear little or nothing in the Port 
 Royal schools of the cultivation of Latin verses. The air 
 which they breathed was too bracing for that trivial exer- 
 cise. On the other hand, they did great service to the 
 study of Greek. It is true that the Jesuits maintained 
 Greek as a prominent study in their schools, which the 
 University of Paris had been compelled to surrender by 
 the clamor of parents. Yet the 'Garden of Greek roots,' an 
 attempt to popularize the study by imparting the most 
 necessary knowledge of Greek in French verses, remained 
 for a long time a standard school-book, and was used 
 for that purpose by so careful and exact a scholar as the 
 historian Gibbon. If the Jansenist schools had been suf- 
 fered to exist, they might have profoundly affected not 
 only the course of study in France, but the minds and 
 characters of Frenchmen. European nations, in following 
 the French models of excellence which reigned without 
 dispute before the French revolution, might have had a 
 more masculine type held up for their admiration. This, 
 however, was not to be ; and French literature, impregnated 
 with Ciceronianism, had been but slightly touched with 
 the chastening influences of Hellenic studies or of logical 
 precision. 
 
 Humanism has undergone many changes in the last 
 generation, and it is difficult to forecast its future. The 
 position which it held in education after the revival of 
 learning was due to two opinions about it, which were 
 believed very generally, but not always very consistently. 
 On the one hand, it was thought to be the best gymnastic 
 for the mind, the best mechanical exercise which the 
 human faculties could be put through. On the other hand, 
 the literatures of Greece and Rome, which were the sub- 
 
15] Aspects of Education. 143 
 
 ject-matter of humanism, were regarded as absolutely the 
 tilings best worth study, not only from their intrinsic 
 merit, but from their forming the best introduction to all 
 modern studies. Not many years ago modern geography 
 was taught in the most distinguished of English schools 
 by what was called a comparative atlas and a comparative 
 geography-book. Ancient geography was taught first as 
 the thing most needful, and modern names were only dealt 
 with as the correlatives of ancient ones. A good English 
 style was supposed to be acquired from the study of 
 classics. Latin verses formed the best introduction to 
 English poetry ; Latin themes were the best method of 
 learning all general information. Even now at our uni- 
 versities many people would maintain that the science of 
 modern statesmanship could not be better learned than 
 from Aristotle's 'Politics.' Both these points of view have 
 suffered rude shocks. Undoubtedly from considerations 
 which were indicated above, Greek and Latin, and Greek 
 especially, do form an admirable training for the mind. 
 Latin grammar is more precise, more logical, and in these 
 respects harder, than the grammars of modern languages. 
 The Greeks were probably the most gifted people who 
 ever lived, and their language was adapted in a wonder- 
 ful manner to express most perfectly their most subtle 
 thoughts. To a mature scholar, who recognizes every 
 shade of his meaning, Thucydides will appear untrans- 
 latable. The words as he puts them down, whether 
 grammatical or not, express precisely what he intends to 
 say, with a vividness and a directness which cannot be 
 surpassed. To express all that he would tell us in English 
 would require long clumsy paraphrases, and even these 
 would not express it altogether. The effort made by a 
 modern mind to follow in its subtlest folds every sinuosity 
 of the thought of Plato or Aristotle is in itself a very valu- 
 able training ; but to profit by this training, a considerable 
 standard in the languages must have been reached, and as 
 
144 Aspects of Education. [16 
 
 years go on, the number who reach this standard is fewer 
 and fewer. The foundations have been undermined, boys 
 and parents avoid the trouble of learning dead languages, 
 and teachers are ready to escape the trouble of teaching 
 them. The result is, that only the chosen minority are in 
 the position of profiting by a training which was once 
 universal ; and these have such distinguished and appre- 
 hensive intellects that they would almost always make a 
 training for themselves. 
 
 If humanism has suffered by the growth of a disbelief in 
 its powers as a gymnastic, there is no sign that its intrinsic 
 worth is rated less highly than it was Indeed, as we 
 begin to appreciate more exactly the necessary elements 
 of culture, our respect for humanism grows greater. We 
 are told that there are two great elements in modern 
 civilization, — Hebraism and Hellenism. There is no fear 
 at present that the first will not be well looked after. No 
 Christian country is without an efficient church establish- 
 ment ; and the training of the clergy in all their several 
 degrees, who are the chosen guardians of Hebraism, is 
 more extensive and more satisfactory than in previous 
 generations. Take away Hebraism, and the most valuable 
 part of our intellectual furniture which remains is Hellen- 
 ism. That can only be preserved by the combined efforts 
 of all those who are indebted to it, and who have learned 
 its value. This is the special function of schools and 
 universities. It is remarkable that each attack made on 
 the study of Greek has produced some new effort to make 
 the study of Hellenism more general. The establishment 
 of the English Hellenic society was the direct result of an 
 attempt to exclude Greek from the entrance examinations 
 of the university. The growth of science has been coin- 
 cident with the revival of acted Greek plays, both in 
 England and America. The dead languages which were 
 once reverenced as a training are now valued for what 
 they can teach us ; and scholarship is defined, not as the 
 
ly] Aspects of Education. 145 
 
 art of interchanging in the most ingenious manner the 
 idioms of the Greek, Latin, and English languages, but as 
 the calling-back to life of the Hellenic world in all its 
 branches. Hellenism need not always mean the study 
 of Greek life and thought. Egyptian culture preceded 
 Hellenic culture. The Greeks went to study in the schools 
 of Egypt, as the Romans frequented the universities of 
 Greece, and as the English visit those of Germany. As 
 the learning of the Egyptians, whatever it may have been, 
 has been absorbed for our purposes partly by Hellenism 
 and partly by Hebraism, so Hellenism itself may be 
 absorbed, so far as it deserves to be, by modern literature. 
 One who knew Milton by heart would be no poor Hebraist, 
 and he who possessed the whole of Goethe would be no 
 mean Hellenist. But this time has not yet arrived, if 
 humanism suffers now from a slight obscuration, due to its 
 unfortunate attempt to claim too much mastery over the 
 human mind ; yet there is no fear of its being materially 
 obscured, and the assistance which it may yet render the 
 human race, in her search after the good, the beautiful, 
 and the true, should command the sympathy, and stimu- 
 late the efforts, of every man to whom those objects are 
 dear. 
 
 REALISM. 
 
 Shelley, once writing to Godwin, expressed his surprise 
 that so much time and thought had been given to the 
 teaching of words, and so little to the teaching of things. 
 Under the influence of Sturm and the Jesuits, humanism, 
 or classical education, degenerated into a mere study of 
 words. Little attention was paid to what was said : the 
 chief point was how it was said. Cambridge undergradua- 
 tes thirty years ago, taught by the most distinguished 
 scholar in the university, when they read a Greek play or 
 a Latin poem, heard little about the plot, or the allusions 
 or their relations to modern writings of the same kind. 
 
146 Aspects of Education. [18 
 
 Attention was exclusively paid to readings, to the delicate 
 variations in the meanings of words, to grammatical forms, 
 to letters and accents ; yet the teacher was a man full of 
 love of English and other literatures, and steeped in the 
 knowledge of them. The best scholars turned out of 
 the university were surprised to find, as a result of their 
 training, how little they knew of the literary masterpieces, 
 which they had spent a great portion of their lives in 
 learning to construe. The main aspects of ancient life 
 were entirely unknown to them, unless accident had led 
 them to learn them. Yet the teaching of things rather 
 than words had been advocated by great educationalists, 
 both abroad and in England. 
 
 The typical realist in education is Comenius. His whole 
 life was devoted to the improvement of educational meth- 
 ods. He was one of the first to appeal to the eye as an 
 instrument of instruction ; but his most important work 
 was the ' Great didactics,' a complete treatise on the art of 
 education. The central idea of this book was that the 
 education of every man should follow his natural growth. 
 Take the whole circle of sciences with which the mature 
 man can be acquainted, — arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, 
 ethics, politics, and many others, — what are these but 
 names for departments of knowledge, which the human 
 mind creates for itself ? If we take away from them their 
 repulsive appellations, and consider them in their simplest 
 elements, we find that they are nothing but what the child 
 learns from its earliest infancy. 'Metaphysics' is a hard 
 word, yet what is it except the science of ideas as appre- 
 hended by the mind ? A child four years old was once 
 lying in bed, recovering from an illness, when its father 
 and mother came to the bedside. The child described the 
 feeling it had in its leg. The father said, "That is pins 
 and needles." The child thought to itself, " How can 
 my father make so rash a statement ? What he means, 
 expressed in accurate language, is, that what I am describ- 
 
19] Aspects of Education. 147 
 
 ing sounds to him as the sensation which, if he felt, he 
 would call pins and needles ; yet how can he tell that the 
 sensation which I am now feeling is the same as that 
 which he denotes by that name?" There was present to 
 the child's mind the whole problem of the relativity of 
 knowledge, yet that has sometimes been found hard even 
 for men to grasp. In the same way, what is the knowledge 
 of natural phenomena, such as fire, rain, and snow, but the 
 knowledge of physics? What is the ability to find his way 
 about his own village but the rudiments of v geography ? 
 What are his family annals but the beginnings of his- 
 tory ? The government of the household would teach him 
 domestic economy, the administration of his native town 
 would teach him politics, the rules of simple behavior 
 would teach him ethics : take away the bugbear of repul- 
 sive nomenclature, and you will find every science can be 
 studied in its simplest elements from the beginning of life. 
 Comenius regarded the sciences which were accessible 
 to human knowledge as an ever-widening circle, to be 
 learned by child, boy, and man in the measure for which 
 their strength is adapted. When it is possible in this 
 way, by following the course of nature itself, to arrive at 
 the knowledge of every thing that is worth knowing, why 
 should we confine the growing mind in the trammel of 
 mere language ? From the mother's school the child would 
 pass to the national school ; one existing in every house, 
 the other in every parish. From this he will go, as years 
 advance, to the gymnasium, which is to be found in every 
 large town ; and thence, if strength admits, to the univer- 
 sity, which exists in every province. 
 
 The didactic theories of Comenius met with a strange 
 fate. His manhood was nearly coincident with the thirty- 
 years' war, which made educational experiments impos- 
 sible in Germany. He came to England just as the civil 
 war was breaking out. That did not prevent his proposals 
 from attracting the attention of the parliament ; and they 
 
148 Aspects of Education. [20 
 
 would have given him for his experiments some large 
 college, either in town or country, had not political 
 troubles made it impossible to do so. He was taken up by 
 the Protestant powers of Europe, partly because they rep- 
 resented the greater spirit of progress, and partly because 
 they were opposed to the exaggerated humanism of the 
 Catholics. Had he lived a hundred years earlier, the effect 
 of his teaching would have been far more powerful. Had 
 Comenius, instead of Melanchthon, been the preceptor 
 of Germany, Catholics and Protestants might have been 
 divided in education, as they were in religion, but the 
 world would have been enriched by a training of wider 
 scope and greater possibilities. Thwarted by the political' 
 troubles of his time, his teaching never arrived at its full 
 development, and had little effect upon the world until it 
 received a new shape at the hands of Pestalozzi and 
 Froebel. 
 
 The learning of things instead of words found a powerful 
 advocate in England in the person of John Milton. His. 
 'Tractate on education' is one of the most gorgeous 
 dreams of a complete training ever conceived and elabora- 
 ted by an educational theorist. He admits that it is right 
 to learn the languages of those people who have at any 
 time been most industrious after wisdom, but he asserts 
 that language is only the instrument which conveys to 
 us things useful to be known. " Though a linguist," he 
 says, " should pride himself to have all the tongues that 
 Babel cleft the world into, yet, if he have not studied the 
 solid things in them as well as the words in lexicons, 
 he were not so much to be esteemed a learned man 
 as any yeoman or tradesman, competently wise in his 
 mother dialect only." He defines a complete and generous 
 education as that which fits a man to perform justly,, 
 skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private 
 and public, of peace and war. The Latin language, taught 
 with the Italian pronunciation, is to lay the foundation of 
 
2i] Aspects of Education. 149 
 
 good morality, "infusing into their young breasts such an 
 ingenuous and noble ardor as would not fail to make 
 many of them renowned and matchless men." Varro and 
 Columella are to teach, not only Latin, but agriculture, — 
 how to recover the bad soil and to know the waste that is 
 made of good. Aristotle and Pliny are to give instruction 
 in science. Mathematics, comprising arithmetic, geom- 
 etry, astronomy, and trigonometry, have a separate course 
 of their own, from which progress is to be made to 
 fortification, architecture, engineering, and navigation. 
 Theoretical studies in these and other similar branches 
 are to be supplemented by practical training given by 
 experts in the several pursuits. Not until this broad foun- 
 dation of theory and practice has been laid are the pupils 
 to read the works of those poets who treat of country lore. 
 The next stage is to lay the foundations of philosophy and 
 ethics, the knowledge of virtue and the hatred of vice. 
 Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Plutarch, are to be read, not for 
 their language only, but for the ethical teaching which 
 they contain. After ethics succeeds rhetoric, to form the 
 tongue and the imagination of the future orator. Italian is 
 used to give a soft and melodious pronunciation ; Greek 
 and Latin tragedies, with the humanists the food of school- 
 boys, are reserved for the completion of the rhetorician's 
 art. To this succeeds the study of politics, learned from 
 the great masters of law from Moses to Justinian, con- 
 tinued down to the laws of our own constitution. Sundays 
 are now to be spent in the higher branches of theology, 
 and the scriptures are to be read in their original tongues. 
 Not till now comes the study of history and poetry, mixed 
 with a certain amount of logic ; and then, and not till 
 then, are the scholars permitted to write for themselves. 
 Original composition, instead of being, as among the 
 Jesuits, the principal mental discipline even of young 
 children, is to be reserved until the mind has been thor- 
 oughly penetrated both with matter and with manner. 
 
150 Aspects of Education. [22 
 
 A large portion of the proposed training is devoted to 
 exercise. "In those vernal seasons of the year," says the 
 poet, "when the air is calm and bracing, it were an injury 
 and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her 
 riches and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth. 
 At this time the pupils might ride out with prudent and 
 staid guides to all places of strength and commodities of 
 building, and of soil for towns and tillage, harbors and 
 ports for trade." Milton, in this vision of the future, does 
 not intend to sketch a scheme of popular education, but 
 one suited for select pupils and select teachers. It is 
 strange that the advice of one who was himself a school- 
 master should have been so much neglected by the brothers 
 of his profession. This may be explained by the fact that 
 Milton wrote for an age in which Latin was the universal 
 language, the common means of communication between 
 scholars. The troubles of the seventeeth century left little 
 room for the application of his theories ; and, when society 
 had become sufficiently settled to adopt them, Latin had 
 lost its place in the world of learning, and the standard of 
 humanism had been raised aloft by the Jesuits. 
 
 The establishment of realism as an integral part of 
 education is due to the French revolution, and it is insep- 
 able from the name of Pestalozzi. There could not be 
 a greater contrast than between Milton and Pestalozzi. 
 Milton's educational scheme was derived, on the one hand 
 from his poetical imagination, and on the other from his 
 scorn for the shallowness and frivolity of some of the 
 statesmen with whom he lived. Pestalozzi learned the 
 principles of his art in the care of poor orphans and in 
 the hard experience of his own checkered life. Milton's 
 plan, like that of Plato, was adapted for a select number 
 of rulers. Pestalozzi's plan was framed for the benefit 
 of very little children, and has only been gradually 
 seen to be applicable to all departments of education. 
 In the year 1798, the village of Stanz, near the lake 
 
23I Aspects of Education. 151 
 
 of Lucerne in Switzerland, was burned by the French, 
 and a great part of the inhabitants murdered, because 
 they would not receive the constitution offered to them 
 by the directory of Paris. The children who escaped 
 the slaughter were left homeless and orphans, and 
 Pestalozzi was asked to take care of them. He estab- 
 lished himself in a large deserted convent, deprived of all 
 means of sustenance. He lived with the children by day, 
 and slept with them by night, sharing the poor food which 
 could be got together for their common support. It was 
 by this close contact with the child-mind that Pestalozzi, 
 almost himself a child, learned some of the deepest secrets 
 of education. No traveller should look down from the 
 Rhigi upon the valley where Stanz lies, without reveren- 
 cing it as the birthplace of educational ideas which are 
 destined to revolutionize our system of training. Yet when 
 I rang, a few years ago, at the convent-gate, the good 
 sister of charity who opened the door for me had never 
 heard of the name of Pestalozzi, and knew nothing of the 
 great Christian work which had been carried on within her 
 walls. The central idea of Pestalozzi was to train the 
 mind through the senses. Humanism, dealing with words 
 alone, had depended mainly upon the memory. Children 
 learned long lists of Latin and Greek nouns, long rules of 
 Latin and Greek construction. Pestalozzi had no books. 
 One of his best materials for instruction was an old piece 
 of tapestry embroidered with animals. The children were 
 taught to see, to touch, to taste, to smell, and to report 
 exactly what their senses had taught them. By ingenious 
 methods the first simple operations of the senses were 
 made to lead insensibly to the higher operations of the 
 mind. Milton had recommended that the rudiments of 
 mathematics should be taught playing, as the old manner 
 was. Pestalozzi made this plan a reality. Pestalozzi 
 taught us to make the fullest use of a keen observation 
 of young children, of their quick apprehension of what 
 
152 Aspects of Education. [24 
 
 immediately surrounds them, and of their surprising power 
 of retaining what really interests them. He also taught 
 us to follow, in the most loving and even servile manner, 
 the growth of each child's mind, and of the child-mind 
 as a whole. Yet it cannot be said that he was very 
 successful as a practical teacher, and many who have 
 posed as his disciples have been great failures. To force 
 children by compulsion to learn many things by heart 
 is the easiest, and it is also the most stupid and the most 
 unfruitful, method of education. To follow the growth 
 of their minds, and to adapt the training of each instant 
 to their needs, require the patience of a saint and the 
 insight of a philosopher, and these qualities are seldom 
 found. 
 
 Froebel may be regarded as one who has worked out 
 with great minuteness and success a particular part of 
 Pestalozzi's teaching. The kindergarten system, as it is 
 called, rests upon the assumption that the senses of a 
 child are to be first dealt with, and that it is by their 
 means that the intelligence can be best aroused. Froebel 
 starting with the care of very young children, was able 
 to reduce their education to something like a system. 
 They are taught by degrees to see clearly form and color ; 
 to imitate them in various ways ; to distinguish by the 
 touch hard and soft, cold and hot ; to train their ears to 
 delicate sounds, and their mouths to refined and expressive 
 speech. Their restlessness is utilized for social drill and 
 dances. A child is encouraged to imitate just what he 
 understands, and no more. It is impossible to see a 
 kindergarten class, even when composed of the youngest 
 gutter children, without feeling that this must in time 
 be recognized as the only fit education for the infant-mind. 
 
 But it is a mistake to suppose that the principles of 
 Froebel are applicable only to the training of very young 
 children. It is as natural for the brain to grow and to 
 exert itself as it is for the arms rind leirs to stretch them- 
 
25] Aspects of Education. 153 
 
 selves. Our inherited traditional methods of education 
 are too often the swaddling-clothes of the mind, which 
 impede its growth rather than assist its development. In 
 schools higher than the kindergarten we have yet to learn 
 that pleasure is a far more potent instrument of training 
 than pain. Many teachers value lessons for their very 
 harshness and repulsiveness, and take no pains that the 
 mind should pass easily from the known to the unknown 
 with ever-growing delight and satisfaction. Far too much 
 stress is laid on mere memory. Memory depends on 
 interest. Children will recollect accurately whatever has 
 deeply roused them at any time. If we secure interest, 
 memory will follow of itself. Again : schools spend far 
 too much time on a set course of study. Pestalozzi and 
 Froebel learned all they knew by the slavish following 
 of the growing mind. It is probable that in no two 
 minds do the faculties develop in precisely the same order. 
 That curriculum is best which is adapted to the greatest 
 number of minds, but no curriculum could be adapted to 
 all minds. Just in proportion as the course of study laid 
 down in school is rigid and unalterable, so far will it fail 
 to reach a large number of those for whom it is intended. 
 Just as, in elementary education, payment by results is 
 opposed to the whole spirit of Pestalozzi's and Froebel's 
 teaching, so in our higher education we cannot obtain the 
 highest level of instruction unless we assign a lower place 
 to examinations. 
 
 There is no fear that in the present day realistic edu- 
 cation — the learning of things instead of words — will be 
 neglected. There may, indeed, be a danger lest we should 
 teach things which are not the best worth learning, lest 
 we should waste on mechanical arts or on the lower 
 branches of science, powers which ought to be applied to 
 the highest products of the human mind. Goethe tells us 
 that Wilhelm Meister, a dreamy enthusiast, took his son 
 Felix to be taught in the Paedagogic Province. On re- 
 
154 Aspects of Education. [26 
 
 turning a year afterwards to see how he was getting on, 
 he could not at first find him ; but, as he was in an open 
 field, he saw in the distance a cloud of dust. The dust 
 developed into a troop of horses ; and out of this troop 
 galloped the young Felix, riding a white bare-backed 
 steed, from which he threw himself and fell at his father's 
 feet. The rulers of the Province explained, that, having 
 tried Felix at every thing else, they found that he was 
 most fit for breaking horses, and therefore set him that 
 task. We now see Goethe's dream realized, not only in 
 technical education, but in the schools which are growing 
 up over England for the training of young colonists. A 
 boy is taken at fourteen, and taught how to build a house, 
 to make his furniture, to manage a farm, to navigate a 
 boat. This is realistic education with a vengeance ; and 
 the same might be said of mere technical training, where 
 it does not rest upon the basis of general culture. Yet the 
 extravagances to which this side of education may run are 
 slight, compared with those which have for so many years 
 formed the bane of humanism. Some exaggeration is 
 required to redress the balance. It is difficult to secure 
 improvements in education, and it is almost impossible 
 to revolutionize an educational system. Educational theo- 
 rists write as if a single child, willing to be taught every 
 thing were dealt with by a teacher able to impart every 
 thing. The reality is very different. Children are taught, 
 not singly, but in masses ; and in a crowd the standard of 
 conduct is generally that of the worst rather than that of 
 the best. To secure all the attention of a large number of 
 children needs considerable gifts, and to force a large 
 class into active co-operation with the instructor is what 
 few teachers can do. Again : a small proportion only of 
 teachers have any special gifts of insight, liveliness, or 
 imagination. They can only carry out the methods in 
 which they have been trained. Once more : every tradi- 
 tional system is protected by a large number of means and 
 
27] Aspects of Education. 155 
 
 appliances for study which have grown up under its reign. 
 The very perfection of the school-books makes it easier to 
 study classical literatures and Greek and Roman history 
 than any similar department of more modern date. The 
 passive resistance of pupils, the absence of useful aids, 
 the want of enterprise in teachers, — all militate against 
 the substitution of a rational education, such as Comenius 
 would have given, for the complete and elaborate drill in 
 the arts of expression which we owe to Sturm and the 
 Jesuits. America has been less spoiled than Europe by 
 the influence of petty traditions ; and it is there, perhaps, 
 that we may look for the rise of a training which will 
 begin with the kindergarten, will be inspired in its higher 
 branches by the enthusiasm of Milton, will always pierce 
 through the veil of words to the substance which the 
 words are intended to convey, and, while training to the 
 full the senses of the individual and his mechanical powers, 
 will not fail to set the highest value on the best products 
 of the human mind, and will never, in the pursuit of 
 material science, undervalue the far dearer treasures of 
 poetry and philosophy. 
 
 NATURALISM. 
 The two aspects of education which we have already 
 discussed, have reference to the different ways of training 
 the intellect. They are, however, both liable to degenerate 
 into pedantry. With regard to the study of language, 
 this statement needs little proof. It is difficult, under any 
 circumstances, to reconcile an education which is merely 
 linguistic with the preparation of the active business of 
 life. Perhaps the best example of a such a training was 
 the rhetoric of the Romans. Quintilian's famous treatise 
 on education described the training of the orator, and it 
 requires some reflection to discover how so narrow and 
 restricted a course can be co-extensive with all that is 
 demanded by the public service. It might, however, be 
 so in imperial Rome. The business of Rome was to 
 
156 Aspects of Education. [28 
 
 govern subject populations. A Roman statesman would 
 have occasion for oratory in the senate, at the bar, in the 
 governing of the province. Given the traditional inspira- 
 tion which would be imbibed from a race of rulers, and the 
 practice of public affairs, with which every Roman patrician 
 would be familiar from his childood, the training of the 
 ■orator in its widest acceptation might be the only addition 
 which was considered necessary. Humanism, however, 
 lay but little stress on the public use of knowledge which it 
 gave. It taught dead, not living languages. The greatest 
 scholar might live secluded from the world, and, as his 
 -erudition deepened, might become less fit either to influ- 
 ence or to understand it. 
 
 Realism was by its nature more closely connected with 
 actual life; but that, too, might content itself with books, 
 and the study of books produces book-worms. The 
 rebellion against received opinions which followed the 
 Reformation brought every thing into question, and the 
 groundwork of education with the rest. As feudalism 
 disappeared, there was more need of such an inquiry. In 
 the middle ages the education of the castle had ex- 
 isted side by side was the education of the cloister. The 
 knightly arts of shooting, hawking, swimming, riding and 
 other bodily accomplishments, were taught to the young 
 page, as the seven studies of the trivium and quadrivium 
 were taught to the young monk. As years went on, the 
 idle governing classes were gradually subdued by aggres- 
 sive instruction. The schools of the Jesuits were eminently 
 fashionable, and it became necessary to appeal once more 
 to nature. Men of the world and philosophers said, in 
 giving what we call a training to the mind, "Let us not 
 forget that nature has determined the quality, and a large 
 part of the development, of the mind which we aspire 
 to train. If we do our utmost, we can effect but little: 
 let us be quite sure, that, in attempting to produce this 
 small amount of good, we do not cause real harm. Let 
 
29] Aspects of Education. i^t 
 
 us educate, not for the school, but for life. Let us see 
 what inherent force will effect for the mind and character 
 of which we think ourselves master." There is some trace 
 of this reasoning in Rabelais ; but, although he is certainly 
 an anti-humanist, he should be classed as a realist rather 
 than as a naturalist. The three great naturalists in edu- 
 cation are Montaigne, Locke, and Rousseau. Although 
 their characters were very different, there is a strong 
 similarity in their teaching. We will give a short account 
 of the views of each. This is the more necessary, as. 
 naturalism is now rampant in our public schools, but. 
 its advocates and supporters have little notion to what 
 philosophers they owe the principles which they enthusias- 
 tically support. 
 
 The contrast between monkish erudition and the train- 
 ing for the world given in the castle of a wise noble is 
 shown by Rabelais in the contrast between the clownish 
 awkwardness of young Gargantua, and the modest self- 
 possession of the page Eudaemon, who, "although not. 
 twelve years old, first asking leave of his master so to 
 do, with his cap in his hand, a clear open countenance, 
 beautiful and ruddy lips, his eyes steady and his looks- 
 fixed on Gargantua, standing up straight, on his feet, 
 began to commend him with proper gesture, distinct pro- 
 nunciation, and a pleasing delivery, in choice Latin," 
 whereas all Gargantua did was to cry like a cow, and 
 hide his face with his cap. Rabelais also lays great 
 stress on bodily exercises, and shows that he considers 
 the training of the body quite as important as that of 
 the mind. 
 
 The educational ideas of Montaigne are principally con- 
 tained in two essays, — one on pedantry, the other on the 
 instruction of children. The one deals with the objects, 
 of education, the other with its methods. Montaigne says 
 that the end of education is not to fill the head with, 
 a mass of knowledge, but to form the understanding and 
 
158 Aspects of Education. [30 
 
 the heart ; not to burden the memory of the pupil, but 
 to make him better and more intelligent. Antiquity pre- 
 sents us with well-educated statesmen and commanders, 
 with philosophers fit for practical life. On the other 
 hand, learning, which is only for show, is of no use to its 
 possessor. If we only know what Cicero or Plato thought 
 about a matter, we are merely the guardians of some 
 one else's property instead of making it a possession 
 of our own. We warm ourselves at our neighbor's fire in- 
 stead of making one on our own hearth. We fill ourselves 
 with food which we cannot digest. The most important 
 object of education is independence. The scholar must 
 be able to consider and to employ what he has learned 
 in a hundred different ways. He must be taught to prove 
 every opinion, submit to no authority as such. Learning 
 by heart is no learning at all. Just as we cannot dance, 
 ride, or fence without moving the body, so we cannot 
 speak or judge with advantage without acting for our- 
 selves. The mind must be supported by a healthy body. 
 There must be no coddling or spoiling by foolish parents : 
 the boy must be hardened to endurance and to pain. We 
 are educating, not a mind and a body, but a man, who 
 is compounded of the two. The pupil must be taught 
 to mix with the world, to observe carefully every thing 
 he sees. He must learn more from experience than from 
 books. The character of great men is more important 
 for him to know than the dates of their actions. The 
 greater number of sciences which we are taught are of 
 no use. The pupil must not become a bookworm, but 
 all the conditions of his life — his walks, his meals, solitude, 
 and society — must be made serviceable for his training. 
 He must be taught to speak naturally, with strength and 
 emphasis ; not by erudition, but by force of character 
 and clearness of thought. For discipline we must use 
 a kind severity, not punishment and compulsion. The 
 school-life must be full of joy and cheerfulness. The 
 
31] Aspects of Education. 159 
 
 most important thing is to excite a desire for study. 
 Fathers should stimulate their children by their own 
 example, and not keep them morosely at a distance. 
 Montaigne says that he was first taught Latin by conver- 
 sation, and he recommends the same course for imitation. 
 He tells us that when seven years old he was entirely 
 ignorant of French, but he was well acquainted with 
 pure Latinity, and that without books and without tears. 
 From this sketch we find that Montaigne's object was to 
 educate the man of the world. He wished to bridge 
 over the gulf between the gentleman and the scholar, 
 which existed in his time ; but he would produce a gentle- 
 man at any price, a scholar if possible. 
 
 We cannot tell whether Montaigne had a direct in- 
 fluence upon Locke, but there is no doubt that they agreed 
 very materially in their views. The keynote of Locke's 
 thoughts concerning education is a sound mind in a sound 
 body. This, he says, 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 any thing else. The first thirty 
 sections of his treatise are occupied with the training of 
 the body. His maxims are summed up in the words, 
 "plenty of open air, exercise, and sleep; plain diet, no 
 wine or strong drink, and very little or no physic ; not too 
 warm and strait clothing ; especially the head and feet 
 kept cold, and the feet often used to cold water and ex- 
 posed to wet." The next hundred sections are devoted to 
 methods of education, but there is nothing in them about 
 books. Virtue, wisdom, and breeding are to come before 
 learning. These are to be taught more by precept than 
 by example. We are to guard our children against {he 
 evil influence of servants, and to rely particularly on the 
 persistent effect of the home. Above all, we are to teach 
 knowledge of the world. Much of the danger which 
 surrounds young men arises from ignorance of the world. 
 
160 Aspect* of Education. [32 
 
 A man forewarned is fore-armed. Breeding- must come 
 before book-learning'. Teaching is for the purposes of life, 
 and not for the school : Non scJiolce sed vitce discimits. 
 The tutor you choose for your son should be a man of the 
 world. Locke puts learning last, because he considers it 
 as the least important learning. He says it must be 
 had in the second place, as subservient only to greater 
 qualities. Seek out somebody that may know how dis- 
 creetly to frame his manners ; place him in his hands, 
 where you may as much as possible secure his innocence ; 
 cherish and nurse up the good, and, generally, correct and 
 weed out any bad inclinations, and settle in him good 
 habits. This is the main point, and, this being provided 
 for, learning may be had into the bargain, and that, as I 
 think, at a very easy rate. 
 
 The subjects which Locke selects for learning are very 
 characteristic. He begins with reading, writing, and draw- 
 ing. He then goes on to French and Latin ; the latter to 
 be taught in the same way as French, by conversation 
 and without grammar. He then passes to geography, 
 arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, chronology, and history. 
 Then follows ethics, a certain amount of law, — chiefly civil 
 and constitutional law, — rhetoric and logic, and natural 
 philosophy. Great importance is attached to acquiring a 
 good English style. Greek is omitted ; for Locke says 
 that he is not considering the education of a professed 
 scholar, but of a gentleman, to whom Latin and French, 
 as the world now goes, is by every one acknowledged 
 necessary. " When he comes to be a man, he can learn 
 Greek for himself. What a small percentage there is, 
 even among scholars, who retain the Greek they learned 
 at school!" The education thus commenced is completed 
 by dancing, music, riding, and fencing. Every one should 
 learn one trade at least, if not two or three. Gardening 
 and carpentering are especially recommended, but not 
 painting. The pupil is to be well skilled in accounts and 
 
33] Aspects of Education. 161 
 
 book-keeping, and his education is to be completed by 
 foreign travel, which is to be deferred to an age when he 
 can profit by it most completely. 
 
 Locke is a great enemy of those specious and spurious 
 studies which were so much affected by' the Jesuits. He 
 is a declared enemy to Latin verses. "Do not," he says, 
 ' k let your child make verses of any sort ; for, if he has no 
 genius for poetry, it is the most unreasonable thing in the 
 world to torment a child, and waste his time, about that 
 which can never succeed, and, if he has a poetical vein, 
 it is to me the strangest thing in the world that a father 
 should desire or suffer it to be improved. Poetry and 
 gaming, which usually go together, are alike in this too, 
 — that they seldom bring any advantage but to those who 
 have nothing else to live upon." He does not care any 
 more for music, " which wastes so much of a young man's 
 time to gain but a moderate skill in it, and engages 
 often in such odd company that many think it better 
 spared." Locke here would differ much from Milton, who 
 gave music a more dignified place in his programme. In 
 conclusion, Locke tells us that what he has written is 
 designed for the breeding of a young gentleman, but that 
 he is fully aware that every one cannot be educated in the 
 same manner ; that each man's mind has some peculiarity, 
 as well as his face, which distinguishes him from all 
 others ; and that there are possibly scarcely two children 
 who can be brought up by exactly the same method. 
 
 Although public schools in England educate their pupils 
 very much according to the precepts of Locke, they 
 probably do so unconsciously, and are very little aware 
 whose example they are following. Many have heard 
 of Locke's treatise on education, but few have read it or 
 tried to understand it. Whatever effect he has had has 
 been confined to his own country, and he cannot be 
 reckoned as a great influence in Europe. Rousseau, on 
 the other hand, burst upon the world with tremendous 
 
1 62 Aspects of Education. [34 
 
 force. ' Emile,' although its teaching about education 
 is so little precise and systematic, has made an epoch 
 in educational systems, and is the parent of Pestalozzi, 
 Froebel, and the most modern educators of the present 
 day. The keynote of Rousseau's system is to educate in 
 accordance with nature : he may therefore be regarded as 
 the chief of the naturalists. It is true that his conception 
 of nature was warped by the principles of his philosophy. 
 He considered that man in his natural state, as he came 
 from the hands of his Maker, was perfect, and that he has 
 been spoilt by civilization. This idea was present to the 
 mind of Rousseau in his very earliest writings. By what 
 means, he asks, are we to bring back the child of nature ? 
 How are we to form that strange character, natural man ? 
 Our particular care must be to provide that he is not 
 prevented from being natural ; we must not educate him 
 for any particular function, but merely for the art of living. 
 A man must be taught, above every thing, to lead the life 
 of a man, and that must be done not so much by precept 
 as by exercise. In the time of Rousseau children of the 
 upper classes were brought up entirely in an artificial 
 atmosphere. This, he says, we must do away with : great 
 social changes may be before us, and we must prepare our 
 children to meet them. The reformation must date from 
 the very birth : mothers must take to nursing their own 
 children. He says, speaking of the unnatural society of 
 his own time, "Once let women become mothers again, 
 and men will then become fathers and husbands." As the 
 child grows, the advice of Milton corresponds with that of 
 Locke. He is to be brought up in the fresh air of the 
 country, set free from bands and swaddling-clothes, taught 
 to endure pain and hardship and change of temperature, 
 he is to be fed on very simple food. The father has duties 
 as well as the mother. As soon as the child is old enough 
 to be influenced by the father's education, it is wicked 
 of him to hand him over to another. Rousseau passes 
 
35] Aspects of Education. 163 
 
 the strongest condemnation on fathers who neglect their 
 children, whereas he sets them the worst example by 
 depositing all his children, as they were born, in the turn- 
 ing-box of the foundling-hospital. Unfortunately many 
 fathers are so occupied that they cannot give their children 
 the minute attention which is necessary for their education, 
 so that there is no remedy but to find a tutor who will as 
 nearly as possible supply the place of the father. The tie 
 between tutor and pupil is to be of the closest character. 
 The second book of 'Emile' is concerned with the educa- 
 tion of a child up to twelve years of age. The principal 
 object of this education is courage. The child must learn 
 to bear suffering, and to put up with tumbles and knocks, 
 without uttering a cry. Strength, health, and a good 
 conscience are the objects to be aimed at. Do not reason 
 too much with children at this age : they must be made 
 obedient by authority, and reason will come later. The 
 great object of this early education is to lose time. The 
 child is not old enough for good impressions to be firmly 
 fixed : we must be content with averting bad ones. A 
 child is to learn the elements of property, that some things 
 do and some do not belong to him ; but of erudition he is 
 to learn very little. At twelve years, Emile is scarcely to 
 know what a book is. You have educated his character 
 by strengthening his body: if he has the vigor of a man, 
 he will soon have the reason of a man. During this age 
 the process of hardening is to go on : he is to wear loose 
 clothing, to go with his head uncovered, to lie on the 
 damp grass when hot with exercise, sleep all night, to rise 
 with the dawn, to know nothing but a hard bed, to fear no 
 danger, to be accustomed to toil, unpleasantness, and pain, 
 and to defend the soul with the breastplate of a strong 
 body. Thus armed, he will not even be afraid of death. 
 He is to be as much at home in the water as on dry 
 land. He is to acquire arts which are found in the natural 
 savage, the instinct of finding his way in dark places, of 
 
164 Aspects of Education. [36 
 
 measuring distances with eyes and feet, and of beating all 
 those of his age by swiftness of foot. He is to learn the 
 piano rather than the violin. He is to draw from nature, 
 to learn geometry rather by observation than by definition, 
 to learn singing by the ear rather than by the notes. His 
 appetite is to be the measure of his food. The sense of 
 smell is to be educated with all his other senses. At 
 twelve years old, he ceases to be a child : we are now to 
 prepare him for manhood. We find that he is fresh, lively, 
 open, and simple ; his thoughts are limited but elear ; he 
 knows nothing by heart, but much by experience ; he has 
 read more in the book of nature than in any other book ; 
 his wit is not on his tongue, but in his head ; his judgment 
 is better than his memory ; he only speaks one language, 
 but that sensibly. Others may speak better: Emile will 
 act better. He does not follow formulas and authorities, 
 but in every thing which he says and does he is inspired 
 by his own good sense. There is nothing artificial in his 
 manner and bearing, but they are the true expression 
 of his ideas, and the result of his disposition. In this 
 language, and much of the same kind, Rousseau sketches 
 the child of nature. One would think again, that, like 
 Locke, he is depicting the English public-school boy ; 
 but he could not have known any such, and the country 
 gentleman who favors such institutions would rather follow 
 any counsel than that of a dreamy revolutionist. 
 
 The intellectual education which Emile receives be- 
 tween the ages of twelve and fifteen is not less remarkable 
 than his social training. Nothing is learned from books, 
 everything from observation. The pupil is not asked to 
 understand what he has taught, but to discover things for 
 himself: for instance, as he takes his morning and evening 
 walk, he is led to observe the course of the sun, how it 
 rises and sets in different places according to the time of 
 the year. In this manner he is lead to ask questions about 
 the course of the heavenly bodies, the form of the earth, 
 
3/] Aspects of Education. 165 
 
 and the calculation of eclipses. For the study of geog- 
 raphy, no maps are placed before him. Starting from his 
 home, he is led to make maps for himself. In this manner 
 the natural desire of the child for knowledge is taken as 
 the starting-place for learning, which in itself is never 
 allowed to be a burden or trouble. Just as growing plants 
 require not only light, but heat, so the growing man needs 
 not only instruction, but amusement. Emile finds out 
 by himself the existence of the meridian line and the 
 peculiarity of the magnetic needle. He observes that by 
 rubbing amber, glass, or sealing-wax, he is able to attract 
 pieces of straw. In this way he learns the properties of 
 positive and negative electricity, and connects them with 
 the magnet. Going to the fair, he finds a conjurer who 
 draws a waxen duck in different directions over a basin of 
 water by presenting to it a piece of bread : he soon guesses 
 that the bread contains a magnet, and is able to imitate 
 the trick to the astonishment of the conjurer. The con- 
 jurer takes his revenge by placing a stronger magnet 
 under the table, so that the duck resists all Emile's efforts. 
 The revelation of this trick is an avenue to still further 
 knowledge. We see here that education is made not to 
 depend on words, but on things. No formal instruction is 
 given. Certain things are observed to take place, and the 
 instruction lies in the conclusions which are to be drawn 
 from them. In a similar way great importance is attached 
 to what would now be called technical education. Emile 
 is to have no books except ' Robinson Crusoe,' from whose 
 example he is to learn how to supply all his needs. In- 
 stead of reading, he is to visit workshops and practise 
 handicrafts : he will learn more in an hour's work than he 
 would in a whole day's explanation. Even trades are 
 to be estimated by their usefulness. The blacksmith is 
 placed higher than the goldsmith : the baker is worth the 
 whole academy of sciences. Emile must learn a trade. 
 What trade is best for him ? /Agriculture is exposed to 
 
166 Aspects of Education. [38 
 
 too many casual losses. Many trades are merely the 
 handmaids of luxury, and produce nothing worth having : 
 others are unwholesome either from confinement or from 
 the attitude in which they are practised. There are 
 objections to the more violent trades, such as masons 
 and smiths. The best of all is to be a cabinet-maker, 
 which is useful, cleanly, and instructive. The modern 
 development of technical education seems to have fol- 
 lowed on Rousseau's lines, and to have placed working 
 in wood in the first rank. 
 
 Thus, when his boy's years come to an end, he posses- 
 ses, not a great number of opinions and accomplishments, 
 but the capacity for acquiring them. Such learning as 
 he has, is thoroughly natural. He does not know even 
 the names of history, metaphysics, morals, but he is accus- 
 tomed unconsciously to reason about all of them. He is 
 industrious, moderate, patient, and courageous. He does 
 not know what death is, but, if necessary, he would die 
 without a sigh. He demands nothing from others, and is 
 under no obligation to them, but stands alone and inde- 
 pendent in human society. He has no errors but those 
 which are avoidable, and no faults except those from which 
 no man is free. He has a healthy body, active limbs, a 
 mind free from prejudices, a heart without passion. He 
 has been scarcely affected by self-love, the first and the 
 most natural passion : he has lived contented and happy, 
 and free, so far as his nature allows. Do you think, asks 
 Rousseau, that a child who has thus reached his fifteen 
 years can have lost the years which have preceded? 
 
 Rousseau's book produced a great effect throughout Eu- 
 rope. It is said that Kant, the philosopher of Konigsberg, 
 whose habits were more regular than the town-clock, 
 suspended even his daily walk in order to read him, yet 
 the practical teacher will learn but little from him. His 
 principal effect lay in the strength by which he combated 
 existing prejudices. When Rousseau wrote, education had 
 
39] Aspects of Education. 167 
 
 become not only formal and artificial, but hollow and 
 frivolous. The French revolution might have altered this 
 by its unaided force, but 'Emile' still remains the book 
 in which the ideas of the revolution about education were 
 expressed with the greatest eloquence and vigor. 
 
 What shall we say about naturalism in the present 
 day? It is largely practised unintentionally. While dif- 
 ferent studies are struggling for the mastery, the natural 
 desire for games and open-air activity occupies the field, 
 and claims more and more of the pupil's life. In the 
 vast development of modern industries requiring capacities 
 of all kinds, some educationalists have seen an indication 
 that special courses of teaching are unnecessary or useless. 
 Nature, they say, and the pressure of the world's business, 
 arc the best teachers. How much skilled labor is de- 
 manded by a railway? Who trained the pointsman, the 
 engine-driver? Who directed the complicated lines of 
 trains, following and meeting each other with lightning 
 rapidity, yet never colliding except by a terrible catas- 
 trophe? The teacher who follows the methods, either 
 of humanism or realism, strives to make the best of the 
 human mind intrusted to him. He wishes to develop its 
 faculties to their highest point, to stimulate its natural 
 capacity to its furthest limit. But when this is done, 
 what guaranty have we that nature has any place for 
 the instrument we have so carefully finished ? If every 
 mind were developed to the fullest extent which its powers 
 admit of yet a large proportion of such minds might re- 
 main useless and barren, because they fitted into no place 
 which human society supplies. Leave every thing to 
 Nature, she will fashion the material better than you can, 
 into the form in which she most requires it. This state- 
 ment is a paradox ; and, indeed, natural education is in 
 its essence paradoxical. It will always have advocates 
 and apostles, especially in times when there appears to 
 be a danger of over-refinement or over-pressure ; but the 
 
1 68 Aspects of Education. [40 
 
 wise educationalist will turn to it as a repository of cautions 
 
 and warnings rather than as an armory of weapons fit for 
 
 fighting against the ever-present enemies of ignorance and 
 
 sloth. 
 
 THE ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOL. 
 
 The term 'public school' is difficult to define. In Eng- 
 land it has a meaning different from what it has in America. 
 The American public school is a school supported by 
 the community, and open to all the world. When it is 
 said that public schools are the back-bone of the American 
 system of education, it is implied that there exists all over 
 America a number of schools affording a liberal education, 
 either free or very inexpensive, accessible to all classes of 
 the community alike. An English public school implies 
 something exclusive and privileged. A public-school man 
 lifferent from other men. The question as to whether 
 a particular school is a public school or not, depends 
 not upon its size or its efficiency, but upon its social 
 rank. The American public schools are day schools : the 
 English public school in the strict sense is essentially a 
 boarding-school. Our public schools are few in number, 
 confined to particular districts, costly, and very diverse in 
 individual character ; yet it is said that they represent 
 more completely than any other English institution the 
 chief peculiarities of our national life. It is the public 
 school that forms the typical Englishman : it is the ordin- 
 al'}- boy of the upper classes who gives his character to 
 the public school. We have to inquire, first, what are 
 the English public schools? second, how did they come 
 to be what they are ? third, what are their principal 
 characteristics, and what relation do they bear to trie 
 educational system of England ? 
 
 When the English Government undertook, some twenty- 
 five years ago, to inquire into the condition of our second- 
 ary education, nine schools were singled out from the rest 
 as pre-eminent. These were Winchester, Eton, Westmin- 
 
41 ] Aspects of Education. 169 
 
 stcr, Charter House, Harrow, Rugby, Merchant Taylor's, 
 St. Paul's, and Shrewsbury. Captain de Carteret Bisson, 
 in his valuable work ' Our Schools and Colleges,' appar- 
 ently disputes the right of the last three, and reckons our 
 public schools at six. These six, between them, do not 
 educate much more than four thousand boys ; and yet 
 they are so typical of all schools which may have a claim 
 to the title of public, that we may conveniently confine 
 our consideration to them. Of these, Winchester dates 
 from the fourteenth century ; Eton from the fifteenth ; 
 Westminster, Harrow, and Rugby from the sixteenth, 
 these three having all been founded within eleven years of 
 each other ; and Charter House from the seventeenth. 
 Winchester, the oldest of the schools, has probably kept 
 its character most unchanged. It has never been a fash- 
 ionable or a court school. It has maintained unimpaired 
 its close connection with New College at Oxford. Nothing 
 can show more clearly the strength and unity of English 
 traditions than the fact, that, five hundred years after 
 the establishment of the two foundations of William of 
 Wykeham. they should stand in the face of England, 
 holding the highest place, one as a college, and the other 
 as a school. Eton, the next on our list, is confessedly the 
 first of public schools, but it was not always so. During 
 the first eighty years of the seventeenth century, West- 
 minster undoubtedly held the position of pre-eminence. 
 Dr. Busby, who read the prayer for the King on the 
 morning of Charles I.'s execution, and who refused to take 
 off his cap in the presence of Charles II., was the first 
 schoolmaster of his time in England. But Westminster 
 was faithful to the Stuarts : Eton supported the cause of 
 the Whigs. Its supremacy, beginning in the reign of 
 William III., continued in that of Anne, reached its height 
 under the Hanoverian kings. George III., took a strong 
 personal interest in the school. Eton boys walked on the 
 terrace of Windsor Castle in court dress, and the King 
 
17° Aspects of Education. [42 
 
 often stopped to ask their names and to speak to them. 
 William IV., with boisterous good humor, continued the 
 favor of his dynasty. He took the part of the boys in their 
 rebellion against the masters, and he used to invite the 
 boys to entertainments, at which the masters stood by and 
 got nothing. During this period Eton became a political 
 power in England. The upper school at Eton is decorated 
 with the busts of statesmen who swayed the destinies 
 of England, and who were the more closely connected 
 together from having been educated at the same school. 
 Chatham, North, Fox, Grenville, and Grey are among 
 the ornaments of that historical room. Eton and Christ 
 Church had the monopoly of education for public life, and 
 the claim of the school to this distinction received its 
 fullest recognition when Lord Wellesley, after a career 
 spent in the most important offices of the state, desired 
 that he might be laid to his last rest in the bosom of that 
 mother from whom he had learned every thing which 
 had made him famous, successful, and a patriot. Better 
 known, perhaps, is the boast of his brother, the Duke of 
 Wellington, that the battle of Waterloo was won in the 
 playing-fields of Eton. 
 
 Charter House, established in London, has held since 
 its foundation a position very similar to that of Winchester, 
 not of great importance in politics or fashion, but highly 
 influential and respected. These four schools were pro- 
 bably founded for the purposes which they have since 
 succeeded in carrying out. Eton was always a school for 
 the governing classes. Winchester and Charter House 
 have received the uninterrupted support of the gentry 
 and clergy of England. The history of Harrow and 
 Rugby has been different. They have been lifted by 
 circumstances into a position for which they were not 
 originally intended. They were founded as local schools, 
 — one in the neighborhood of London, the other in the 
 heart of the midlands, — for the instruction, first of the 
 
43] Aspects of Education. 171 
 
 village lads, and then of such strangers as came to be 
 taught. But they have reached, owing to special circum- 
 stances, a position equal to that of any of their rivals. 
 Harrow emerged from obscurity in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, owing, as it is said, her success to 
 head masters who were sent to her from Eton. Rugby is 
 known throughout the world as the school of Arnold, who 
 was head master from 1827 to 1841. Even before his time 
 it had attained a high rank among English schools ; but 
 he, followed by a line of distinguished successors, left it in 
 scholarship and energy of thought at their head. Rugby 
 and Baliol are to English education after the reform bill, 
 what Eton and Christ Church were before it. This sketch 
 will show how different the genesis of our public schools 
 has been, and what various courses they have pursued to 
 arrive at the same conclusion. 
 
 We will now briefly trace the history of the education 
 they aim at. Their curriculum is essentially classical : 
 indeed, a public school man means, in common parlance, 
 one who has been educated mainly in Greek and Latin. 
 The two oldest schools, Winchester and Eton, founded 
 before the Reformation, naturally began with monkish 
 learning. There was a great deal of grammar and a great 
 deal of church-going. The pupils were children, and were 
 treated as such. Westminster was founded after, and in 
 consequence of, the Reformation, and the breach with the 
 old learning necessitated new arrangements. 
 
 The author of the Protestant curriculum of public educa- 
 tion was John Sturm, the friend of Roger Ascham, the 
 head master of the great school of Strasburg during a 
 large portion of the sixteenth century. A complete ac- 
 count of Sturm's methods and organization is preserved, 
 and we may be sure that its main outlines were adopted 
 at Westminster and at Eton. Latin grammar and Latin 
 style were made the principal subjects of education. The 
 school was launched upon the full flood of humanism. 
 
172 Aspects of Education. [44 
 
 The connection between a scholar in the narrow sense, 
 that is, a man not of erudition but of finished taste and 
 polished style, and the gentleman, was now fully estab- 
 lished. Sturm was so despotic in the arrangements of his 
 school, that he not only laid down what boys were to 
 learn at each epoch of their career, but he forbade them 
 to learn any thing else. It was as great a fault to begin a 
 subject prematurely as to neglect it in its due time. 
 
 Many of Sturm's arrangements are familiar to public- 
 school men who are now living, but in the following 
 century they underwent a further change. This was due 
 to the Jesuits, who obtained their reputation partly by 
 their devotion to the study of Greek, and partly by the 
 pains they took to understand the individual character of 
 their pupils. The Jesuits have probably done more harm 
 to sound education than any prominent body of men who 
 ever undertook the task. They had two objects in view, — 
 to gain the favor of the rich and powerful, and to prevent 
 the human mind from thinking. Humanistic education 
 skilfully employed was an admirable instrument to this 
 end. It flattered the pride of parents, while it cheated the 
 ambition of scholars. The pre-eminence given in educa- 
 tion to original Latin verses is typical of the whole system 
 of the Jesuits. No exercise could be more pretty and 
 attractive, or bear more clearly the outward semblance 
 of culture and learning, yet no employment could more 
 effectually delude the mind by an unsubstantial phantom 
 of serious thought. The sturdy humanism of Sturm be- 
 came corrupted by the graceful frivolity of the Jesuits, and 
 in this condition public-school education remained until 
 the efforts of a few obscure reformers, the genius and 
 energy of Arnold and the growth of the new spirit in 
 England, forced it into other channels. 
 
 Arnold is typical of the new public school, but we must 
 distinguish between Arnold and the Arnoldian legend. 
 Like other great reformers, his name has become a nucleus 
 
45] Aspects of Education. 173 
 
 round which the reputations of all other reformers, good 
 as well as bad, have coalesced. The most prominent fact 
 about Arnold is, that he was the first Englishman of quite 
 first-rate ability who devoted himself to school-education. 
 The traditions of Sturm and the Jesuits shrivelled up be- 
 fore the manly touch of a teacher who was fit to be prime 
 minister. After his career no one could despise the profes- 
 sion of a school-master. What did Arnold actually effect ? 
 He taught boys to govern themselves. He substituted 
 for a system in which the governors were allowed any 
 license on condition that they denied it to everyone else, 
 one in which the responsibility of the ruler was rated 
 even more highly than the obligation of the ruled. He 
 also taught boys to think for themselves, to pierce beyond 
 the veil of words into the substance of things, to see 
 realities, to touch and taste and handle the matter of 
 which thay had before only talked. Thus he produced a 
 vigorous character and a manly mind. Rugby boys, on 
 passing to the university, thought and acted for them- 
 selves. They might be pardoned if in the first flush of 
 enthusiasm they acted priggishly and thought wildly. But 
 Arnold's teaching contained within it germs of much which 
 he had never contemplated, and of which he would have 
 disapproved. It contained the germs of the modern civil- 
 ized life in schools, of which Rugby knew nothing in 
 1840. Far, indeed, is the cry from that dim and crowded 
 dining-room where boys, sitting at a bare table, wiped 
 their knives on the iron band which surrounded it, and 
 ate their meat and pudding off the same plate, to the 
 luxurious arrangements of a modern preparatory school. 
 It contained the germ of modern-side education. Arnold 
 did not know that he was passing from Melanchthon to 
 Comenius, and that the study of things once set rolling 
 would soon displace the study of words. It contained the 
 germs of a new confidence and friendship between boy 
 and master quite as different from the sly sentimentality 
 
174 Aspects of Education. [46 
 
 of the Jesuits as it was from the pompous neglect of the 
 old-fashioned courtly don. It contained, alas ! in germ 
 the subjection of the master to the boy in standard, tastes, 
 and habits, which threatens to be the ruin of our public 
 schools. It crystallized also the idea, which otherwise 
 might have disappeared, that a head master must be 
 of necessity a clergyman, and that no school could be 
 properly conducted unless its chief sums up in the pulpit 
 every Sunday afternoon what are supposed to be the 
 spiritual results of the week's emotions. It stamped also 
 with permanence, by a natural misunderstanding, that 
 conviction of a head master's autocracy which prevents 
 the formation in England of a profession of education. 
 The history of English public schools since Arnold is 
 merely the carrying-out under varying circumstances of 
 the teaching of his example, and the development, some- 
 times to disastrous ends, of abuses to which that example 
 may seem to lend currency. 
 
 A few words only are needed in conclusion as to 
 the present and future of our public boarding-schools. 
 Nothing has altered their character more than their growth 
 in numbers, which has been the result of popularity. In 
 Arnold's time no public school except Eton exceeded 
 three hundred boys. Arnold and his contemporary head 
 masters might boast with truth that they knew every boy 
 in the school by sight, his habits, his capacity, his friends. 
 A school thus governed by one man, and penetrated by 
 his influence, differed not only in degree, but in kind, from 
 a school which has of necessity become a confederation. 
 In a public school of Arnold's date games were still 
 amusements. Formerly neglected and ignored by peda- 
 gogues, they became the nurse of every manly virtue 
 when a more sympathetic eye was turned upon them. 
 Tom Brown's School-days represents the heroism of the 
 forties, — the high-water mark where boyish enterprise and 
 independence reached their height under the influence of 
 
47] Aspects of Education. 175 
 
 manly recognition. During the last quarter of a century, 
 games have become a serious business, instead of the 
 wholesome distraction of public-school life. They are 
 organized as elaborately as the work. Masters are ap- 
 pointed to teach them like any other branch of study: 
 they form the basis of admiration and imitation between 
 boy and boy, and the foundation of respect and obedience 
 between boy and master. It is difficult to keep large 
 numbers of boys, with only five years difference in their 
 ages, quiet and wholesome without a large development 
 of games They have been admitted to their full share 
 in the school curriculum. A public boarding-school is no 
 longer a place where, amidst much liberty and idleness, 
 there reigns a high respect for character and intellect, and 
 where the ablest boys are left ample room to fashion each 
 other and themselves. It is a place where the whole 
 life is tabulated and arranged, where leisure, meditation, 
 and individual study are discouraged, and where boys are 
 driven in a ceaseless round from school to play-room, from 
 play-room to school, regarding each as of equal impor- 
 tance, and bringing into the most delicate operations of 
 intellectual growth the spirit of coarse competition which 
 dominates in athletics. 
 
 It is difficult to say what changes public boarding- 
 schools are destined to undergo, or whether in an age 
 in which education is so much extended a system so 
 expensive and so exclusive can continue to flourish. The 
 last few years have witnessed the growth of large public 
 day-schools, and any development of national education 
 would be certain to increase their number. Although the 
 Arnoldian system is little applicable to them on its best 
 side, yet they are of necessity free from most of the abuses 
 to which that system has given rise. An idea may grow 
 up that the home is, after all, the best place for child- 
 ren, and that children are the best safeguard of a pure 
 and happy home. Should English society in its new 
 
176 Aspects of Edncatio7i. [48 
 
 development prefer a kind of education which is the 
 normal type of all countries but our own, which improved 
 communication makes it easier to adopt, we shall still 
 have public schools of which we should be proud : they 
 will continue to represent our best national qualities, but 
 they will be very different from the public boarding- 
 schools of the past. 
 
MANUAL TRAINING 
 
 First Lessons in Wood Working 
 
 By ALFRED G. COMPTON, 
 
 Professor of Applied Mathematics in the College of the City of New York, and 
 Instructor in charge of the Workshops of the College. 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Less 
 
 ON. 
 
 Lesson 
 
 I. 
 
 Cutting Tools ; Knife and Hatchet ; 
 Cross-cutting. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 II. 
 
 Knife and Hatchet continued ; Split- 
 ting, Whittling and Hewing. 
 
 XV. 
 
 III. 
 
 Strength of Wood. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Cross-cut Saw. 
 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 
 V. 
 VI. 
 
 Shrinking, Cracking and Warping of 
 
 Timber. 
 
 Working-sketches. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Working-drawings. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Making a Nailed Box ; Laying out the 
 work. 
 
 XX. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Hammer and Nails ; Putting a Box 
 together. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 X. 
 
 The same continued ; Taking apart. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Jack-plane. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Smoothing-plane. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XIII. Back-Baw and Bench-dog. 
 
 The Chisel ; Paring and Chamfer- 
 ing ; Characters of different Woods. 
 The Chisel continued; Through 
 Mortise ; Brace and Bit. 
 The Chisel continued ; End Dove- 
 tail. 
 
 Dove-tailed Box ; Laying out the 
 work ; Cutting the Dove-tails. 
 Glueing ; Hand-screws ; Putting the 
 Box together. 
 
 Finishing a Dove-tailed Box ; Plan- 
 ing End-wood. 
 Fitting Hinges. 
 
 Making a Paneled Door , Isometric 
 Drawing. 
 
 Paneled Door continued ; Mortise. 
 Fitting a Panel ; The Plow. 
 Chamfering a Frame ; Finishing 
 with Sand-paper and Shellac. 
 
 12nio, Cloth, 188 pp. Price for Examination or Introduction, 30 cts. 
 
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 BOSTON. 
 
3 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 Institute of Technology, 
 
 BOSTOIT, IMI.A.SS- 
 
 FRANCIS A. WALKER, President. 
 
 The Institute of Technology offers courses, each of four years' duration, in 
 Civil, Mechanical, Mining, Electrical and Chemical Engineering, in Architec- 
 ture, Chemistry, Physics, Natural History and General Studies. 
 
 THE COURSE IN NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 is intended (1) for those preparing for medical studies who desire a thorough 
 grounding in physics, chemistry, (including general, qualitative and sanitary 
 chemistry,) the modern languages, and biology (including general biology, 
 botany, zoology, physiology, comparative anatomy, embryology and bacterio- 
 logy) ; (2) for those who wish to become naturalists (geologists, botanists or 
 zoologists) or specialists in sanitary science, and desire at the same time 
 to secure a liberal scientific education; and (3) for those who desire a general 
 education in natural science, or who intend to fit tl emselves to become 
 teachers in the natural sciences. 
 
 The two main divisions of the course are Biology, treating of plants, the 
 lower animals, and man (living things) ; and Geology, dealing with the his- 
 tory of the earth, rocks, minerals, fossils, etc. (lifeless things). To one of 
 these, chosen as a major subject, the student chiefly devotes his attention, al- 
 though in any case much time must still be given to the other, minor, sub- 
 ject. Beginning with a substantial foundation of chemistry, physics, 
 drawing, and the modern languages, the subjects peculiar to the course are 
 gradually introduced, although history, political economy, and literature 
 receive much attention as essentials, or as auxiliaries to the scientific studies. 
 
 The intimate relations existing between physics, chemistry, and biology on 
 the one hand, and the medical sciences — patbology, hygiene, etc. — on the 
 other, make a course like this peculiarly valuable as a preparation for the 
 professional study of medicine. To this end the student of biology is made 
 familiar not only with the essentials of physics and chemistry, but also with 
 the comparative anatomy and physiology of the lower animals, especially 
 the vertebrates. 
 
 Opportunities are offered for extensive and practical laboratory studies in 
 the biological, geological, and mineralogical laboratories, while unusual 
 advantages are offered by the proximity of the library and museum of the 
 Boston Society of Natural History. 
 
 For field-work in zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology, the vicinity of 
 Boston affords rich opportunities in its long and accessible shore-line, varied 
 geological features, and well-explored botanical fields. 
 
 The tuition fee, including everything except breakage, is $200 a year. For 
 catalogues and information, address, 
 
 JAMES P. MUNROE, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
AND ) J - w - 
 
 KINDERGARTEN g ™ . ( s < f?SF 
 
 GTJSTAV E. STECHERT, 
 
 IMPOKTEK OF 
 
 Foreign Books and Periodicals, 
 
 828 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
 Catalogues of Second-hand Books will I English, French and German Monthly 
 
 be sent gratis on application. Bulletins of New Books. 
 
 nDAwrwjrc /Leipzig, Hospital Strasse 10. 
 
 BKAWLHUS. \London, 26, King "William St., Strand, W. C. 
 
 WOMAN'S EXCHANGE. 
 
 TEACHERS' BUREAU (For both Sexes). 
 
 Supplies Professors, Teachers, Governesses, Muslclats, etc., to Colleges, Schools, 
 Families and Churches, also Bookkeepers, Stenographers, 
 Copyists and Cashiers 10 Business Firms. 
 Address, MRS. A. D. CULVER, 329 Fifth Avenue, New York. 
 
 COLLEGE for the TRAINING of TEACHERS 
 
 9 University Place, New York City. 
 
 The Circular of Information for 1888-89 contains the 
 list of Professors and Students, Course of Study, information 
 concerning the requirements for Admission, Scholarships, 
 etc. 
 
 SEND FOR A CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE . 
 
 Only Professional School for Teachers 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Address, A. W. Tyler, Dean, 
 
 9 University Place, New York City. 
 
OF THE 
 
 9 
 
 Industrial Education Association 
 
 _ ,, _ , Entered at the Post Office at New York ) Pb1C e, |1.00 i «*». 
 VOL. I. NO. 5. City as second class matter. ) •» 
 
 Aspects of Education 
 
 A Study in the History of Pedagogy 
 
 BY 
 
 OSCAR BROWNING, M. A. 
 
 Kings College, Cambridge. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Ph.D., 
 
 President of the Industrial Education Association. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 • Industrial Education Association. 
 september, 1888. 
 
 Twenty Cents. 
 
College for the Training of Teachers. 
 
 9 UNIVERSITY PLACE, NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 school, but a tmnatg co lei "sh?^ I 8 7!?5* Jt i8 not a «>mi 
 passing the requireS^fat^ 
 
 struetion of^pSluMtoS^f^'r' fi^i'? 1 8ClenCe aud the co » ! 
 the philosopL Sh tor, t^K*^' thetmt °ry «' civilization and 
 the model Ihlol, ^^r^M^T^?' obser f ^ and practice in 
 trial art, domestic ««,£ , 7^ t0 tminin ^ iu indus - 
 In all these depTrtments S ESSE? 1 * rawm Z> and wood-working, 
 the supply, aufSet an L.lXnf J" tamed teachers far exceeds 
 Entrance HnfflSffJtefl^ii?*^ l° r f°?! peteQt teachers. 
 
 l6 fni£^^ ^ ° n SePt6mber 18 ' 
 
 to aid deserving students ° C ° lar8hipS have been established 
 
 FACULTY. 
 eKST. m '" w b »"». »■»■. "™^< „, ProIe .. or of lh , Hlgior , „„ lMtlta(- of 
 
 LECTURERS, 1887-8 
 
 £rof h. M. Leipz lg e r> New York. 
 
 Prof li "? U1 ^- ¥ aUj , uloml - Now Yf "k- 
 
 Principal W. M. Giffi'/Tw^N J a " d N0m81 8chool8 > Person, N. J 
 
 Br' D # , 5S B,U S', 0rtl,,mbta Oou4S 
 
 i>r. l). k Dodge, Columbia College. 
 
 ARTHUR W. TYLER, A M 
 Dean of the College for the Training of Teachers 
 9 University Place, New York City. 
 
EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS 
 
 dent of Johns Hopkins Univer 8it ? n M'> D ,-S- GlLMAN > ^L.D., P re si- 
 School, by H. H. B ELFJE ^ phV T. U f Ttainin S and the Public 
 Training School. 24 pp. ' ^ h - D '' Director of the Chicago ManuS 
 
 II. Education in Bavaria bv <5 r> 8 ™Ject. 
 
 III 'S2 G ? ai 5 8ofLo ndonIn8titate HILn> MAGNU8 ' Erector of the City 
 «*. fnysical and Industrial Train- r 
 
 IV M^^^^^tory, Elmi», T?* ° f Criminal *. by D B . H. D. W E v 
 av. wane Hopkins, Teacher h„ r> , 
 
 v. £230* Aspws of ; d r Pw - Im - w - s —' - ™- 
 
 Mao Kin g^ College, Cambridge. UCatlon - b y Osoab BBowKmo, M. A. of 
 
 3'ir- * -a * *- a. ^ of the NormaI Sohoo 
 
 The Function of the Pnhti,. «... . . "*-"uoi, 
 
 versityof Michigan. SCh0Ol > b * P *>*- W. H. P ArM! , of the „„, 
 
 P* 8 °' Hi5 ' M - * ^ E — C— , of H.,™, D ni Pe , 
 
 Jf? ft™" M**** °- — w. P 1BTO , of Cook 
 
 extent of the M an ,i,i t> • • v,w Ua . 
 
 -^a^ls? by PM " a M - w — 
 
 Eje tauqua T. C. C. g ' by Cables Baenabd, Esq., of Chau- 
 
 Thr/ewS The"" S ItSt'^ L* P™^ ^ CaB —' of London 
 D^^.^KA^ HENEYM - Le — . Dire°ct: 
 Th University CnCe M the Schools . by Mas. E MMA P. E wi NG , of Purdue 
 
 ^?n„S -J n?-^sr^Hi?^ 2 cent Btamp - 
 
 ™™. one and twi^ent stamps 
 ARTHUR W. TYLER, A. M 
 
 Dean of the College for tke Training of Teackers, 
 
 9 University Place, New York City. 
 
CROSBY'S V ITALIZED PHOSPHITES 
 
 From the Nervs-giving Principles of the Ox-brain and 
 the Embryo of the Wheat and Oat* 
 
 For twenty years has been the standard remedy with 
 physicians who best treat nervous and mental diseases. 
 
 It aids in the bodily, and wonderfully in the mental, 
 growth of children. There is nothing that so well de- 
 velops the growth and regularity of the teeth and assures 
 sound and wholesome teeth for after life. For the cure 
 of nervousness and brain-fatigue, nervous dyspepsia and 
 sleeplessness, it has been used and recommended by 
 Bishop Potter, Bishop Stevens, President Mark Hopkins, 
 President Roswell D. Hitchcock, Sinclair Tousey, Bis- 
 marck, Gladstone, and thousands of the world's best 
 brain-workers. 
 
 It is a Vital Phosphite and not a Laboratory Phosphrtlc. 
 
 56 W. 25th St , M. Y, For sals ty Druggists, or sent by mail, $1. 
 
 Bmfaib 
 
 ACID PHOSPHATE, 
 
 (LIQUID.) 
 A preparation of the phosphates that is readily assimilated by the system. 
 Especially recommended for Dyspepsia, Mental and Physi- 
 cal Exhaustion, Indigestion, Headache, Nervousness, Wake- 
 fulness, Impaired Vitality, etc. 
 
 Prescribed and endorsed by Physicians of all schools. It combines well with 
 
 such stimulants as are necessary to take. 
 
 It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only. 
 
 For sale by all druggists. Pamphlet Free. 
 
 RUMFORD CHEMICAL WORKS, - - PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
 
 {©-BEWARE OF IMITATIONS.,^ 
 

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