
- •Introduction. XI
- •Introduction. XlH
- •14. Exclusive and Jealous Spirit. ВЂ” Some reservation
- •19. Greek Pedagogy. ВЂ” Upon that privileged soil of
- •21. The Schools of Athens. ВЂ” The Athenian legislator,
- •In the final passage of this cutting dialogue, observe the
- •Infirm constitution, — Plato does not go so far as ordering
- •In the Laws, Plato explains his conception of religion. He
- •Is above all an education in art. The soul rises to the good
- •Very skilful discipline which, by way of amusement, 2 leads the
- •41. Faults in the Pedagogy of Aristotle, and in
- •In a disinterested pursuit of a perfect physical and intellectual
- •Inspires respect. Coriolanus, who took up arms against his
- •45. Rome at School in Greece. ВЂ” The primitive state of
- •Is the fatal law of mysticism, is that Saint Jerome, after
- •Ing to the rules of our holy religion, but, in addition, to teach
- •1 The following quotation illustrates this servile dependence on authority:
- •83. Abelard (1079-1142). ВЂ” a genuine professor of
- •94. The Theory and the Practice of Education in
- •Ing the Bible, to reading, and writing. They proscribed, as
- •105. Intellectual Education. ВЂ” For the mind, as for
- •109. Religious Education. ВЂ” In respect of religion as of
- •Violence ! away with this compulsion ! than which, I certainly
- •127. Double Utility op Instruction. ВЂ” a remarkable
- •129. Criticism of the Schools of the Period. ВЂ” But
- •130. Organization of the New Schools. ВЂ” So Luther
- •128 The history of pedagogy.
- •143. Sense Intuitions. ВЂ” If Comenius has traced with a
- •It secured a footing in Paris, notwithstanding the resistance
- •Vigilance in order to keep guard over young souls, and there
- •Vigilance, patience, mildness, — these are the instruments
- •170. Faults in the Discipline oe Port Royal. ВЂ” The
- •183. All Activity must be Pleasurable. ВЂ” One of the
- •Important tone : " How dare you jeer the son of Jupiter?"
- •It must certainly be acknowledged that, notwithstanding
- •201. The Discourse of Method (1637). ВЂ” Every system
- •In other terms, Descartes ascertained that his studies,
- •190 The history of pedagogy.
- •203. Great Principles of Modern Pedagogy. ВЂ” With-
- •In a word, if I may be allowed the expression, some affect
- •205. Malebranche (1638-1715). ВЂ” We must not expect
- •209. Some Thoughts on Education (1693). ВЂ” The book
- •Is, in fact, but another name for duty, and the ordinary
- •It fluently, but if not, through the reading of authors. As
- •V themselves into that which others are whipped for."
- •Is like repose and a delicious unbending to the spirit to go
- •227. Education in the Convents. ВЂ” It is almost exclu-
- •1 Greard, Memoire sin- V ' enseiynement secondaire desfilles, p. 55.
- •254. Different Opinions. ВЂ” Rollin has always had warm
- •255. Division of the Treatise on Studies. ВЂ” Before
- •It may be thought that Rollin puts a little too much into
- •242 The history of pedagogy.
- •259. The Study of French. ВЂ” Rollin is chiefly preoccu-
- •1 Rollin does cot require it, however, of young men.
- •It is in the Treatise on Studies that we find for the first
- •261. Rollin the Historian. ВЂ” Rollin has made a reputa-
- •If the scholar is not ready, he shall return to his desk with-
- •Is it possible to have a higher misconception of human
- •Ideal, — from the pleasant, active, animated school, such as
- •302. The Pedagogy of the Eighteenth Century. ВЂ”
- •288 The history of pedagogy.
- •In its successive requirements to the progress of the faculties.
- •309. Romantic Character of the вЈmile. ВЂ” a final ob-
- •Institutions."
- •317. Proscription of Intellectual Exercises. ВЂ” Rous-
- •318. Education of the Senses. ВЂ” The grand preoccupa-
- •324. Excellent Precepts on Method. ВЂ” At least in the
- •300 The history of pedagogy.
- •333. The Savoyard Vicar's Profession of Faith. ВЂ”
- •334. Sophie and the Education of "Women. ВЂ” The weak-
- •342. Preliminary Lessons. ВЂ” We shall quote, without
- •Value of certain portions of them. The general characteris-
- •344. Othek Parts of the Course of Study. ВЂ” It
- •345. Personal Reflection. ВЂ” What we have said of Con-
- •346. Excessive Devotion Criticised. ВЂ” What beautiful
- •375. Expulsion of the Jesuits (1764). ВЂ” The causes of
- •It would be interesting to pursue this study, and to collect
- •380. Secularization of Education. ВЂ” As a matter of
- •1708, " That fathers who feel an emotion that an ecclesiastic
- •Inevitable, while it shall be entrusted to persons who have
- •382. Intuitive and Natural Instruction. ВЂ” a pupil of
- •395. Aristocratic Prejudices. ВЂ” That which we would
- •Ital?" And he adds that " the only means for attaining an
- •414. Mirabeau (1749-1791). ВЂ” From the first days of
- •430. The Legislative Assembly and Condorcet. ВЂ” Of
- •It is necessary that women should be instructed : 1 . In order
- •467. Pedagogical Methods. ВЂ” Lakanal had given much
- •Versational lessons.
- •498. How Gertrude teaches her Children. ВЂ” It is
- •509. The Institute at Yverdun (1805-1825).ВЂ” In 1803
143. Sense Intuitions. ВЂ” If Comenius has traced with a
master hand the general organization of the primary school,
he has no less merit in the matter of methods.
When thev recommend the observation of sensible things
as the first intellectual exercise, modern educators do but
repeat what Comenius said three centuries ago.
" In the place of dead books, why should we not open the
living Look of nature? . . . To instruct the young is not to
beat into them by repetition a mass of words, phrases, sen-
flatter, a Swiss teacher of the sixteenth century (1499-1582).
PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 13o
tences, aud opinions gathered ont of authors ; but it is to
open their understanding through things. . . .
" The foundation of all knowledge consists in correctly rep-
resenting sensible objects to our senses, so that they can be
comprehended with facility. I hold that this is the basis of all
our other activities, since we could neither act nor speak wisely
unless we adequately comprehended what we were to do and
say. Now it is certain that there is nothing in the under-
standing that was not first in the senses, and, consequently,
it is to lay the foundation of all wisdom, of all eloquence,
and of all good and prudent conduct, carefully to train the
senses to note with accurac}' the differences between natural
objects ; and as this point, important as it is, is ordinarily
neglected in the schools of to-day, and as objects are pro-
posed to scholars that they do not understand because they
have not been properly represented to their senses or to their
imagination, it is for this reason, on the one hand, that the
toil of teaching, and on the other, that the pain of learning,
have become so burdensome and so unfruitful. . . .
"We must offer to the }'Ouug, not the shadows of things,
but the things themselves, which impress the senses and
the imagination. Instruction should commence with a real
observation of things, and not with a verbal description of
them."
We see that Comenius accepts the doctrine of Bacon,
even to his absolute sensationalism. In his pre-occupation
with the importance of instruction through the senses, he
goes so far as to ignore that other source of knowledge and
intuitions, the inner consciousness.
144. Simplification of Grammatical Study. — The first
result of the experimental method applied to instruction, is
to simplify grammar and to relieve it from the abuse of ab-
134 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.
stract rules. " Children," says Comenius, " need examples
and things which they can see, and not abstract rules."
And in the Preface of the Janua linguamm, he dwells
upon the faults of the old method employed for the study
of languages.
' ' It is a thing self-evident, that the true and proper way of
teaching languages has not been recognized in the schools
up to the present time. The most of those who devoted
themselves to the study of letters grew old in the study of
words, and upwards of ten years was spent in the study of
Latin alone ; indeed, they even spent their whole life in the
study, with a very slow and very trifling profit, which did not
pay for the trouble devoted to it." 1 It is by use and by read-
ing that Comenius would abolish the abuse of rules. Rules
ought to intervene only to aid use and give it surety. The
pupil will thus learn language, either in speaking, or in read-
ing a book like the Orbis Pictus, in which he will find at the
same time all the words of which the language itself is com-
posed, and examples of all the constructions of its syntax.
145. Necessity of Drill and Practice. — Another
essential point in the new method, is the importance at-
tributed by Comenius to practical exercises : "Artisans," he
said, " understand this matter perfectly well. Not one of
them will give an apprentice a theoretical course on his trade.
He is allowed to notice what is done b}- his master, and then
the tool is put in his hands : it is in smiting that one becomes
a smith." 2
1 For this quotation, as for all those which we borrow from the preface
of the Janua linguarum, a French edition of which (in three languages:
Latin, German, and French) appeared in 1643, we copy from the authentic
text.
2 There is a misleading fallacy in all such illustrations. What analogy is
there between the" learning of history or geology and the learning of a trade
PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 135
It is no longer the thing to repeat mechanically a lesson
learned by heart. There must be a gradual habituation to
action, to productive work, to personal effort.
146. General Bearing of the Work of Comenius. —
How many other new and judicious ideas we shall have to
gather from Comenius ! The methods which we would be
tempted to consider as wholly recent, his imagination had
already suggested to him. For example, preceding the Orbis
Pictus, we find an alphabet, where to each letter corresponds
the cry of an animal, or else a sound familiar to the child.
Is not this already the very essence of the phononimic pro-
cesses l brought into fashion in these last years ? But what •
is of more consequence with Comenius than a few happy dis-
coveries in practical pedagogy, is the general inspiration of
his work. He gives to education a psychological basis in
demanding that the faculties shall be developed in their natu-
ral order : first, the senses, the memory, the imagination, and
lastly the judgment and the reason. He is mindful of physi-
cal exercises, of technical and practical instruction, without
forgetting that in the primary schools, which he calls the
"siudios of humanity," there must be trained, not only strong
and skilful artisans, but virtuous and religious men, imbued
with the principles of order and justice. If he has stepped
from theology to pedagogy, and if he permits himself some-
times to be borne along by his artless bursts of mysticism, at
least he does not forget the necessities of the real condition,
like carpentry? Should a physician and a blacksmith he educated on the
same plan? In every case knowledge should precede practice; and the
liberal arts are best learned by first learning their correlative sciences. (P.)
1 " A process of instruction which consists in placing beside the elements
of human speech thirty-three onomatopoetic gestures, which recall to the
sight the same ideas that the sounds and the articulations of the voice recall
to the ear." — Grossklin. (P.)
136 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.
and of the present life of men. " The child," he says, " shall
learn only what is to be useful to him in this life or in the
other." Finally, he does not allow himself to be absorbed in
the minute details of school management. He has higher
views, — he is working for the regeneration of humanit}'.
Like Leibnitz, he would freely say: "Give me for a few
years the direction of education, and I agree to transform the
world ! "
[147. Analytical Summary. — 1. Decisive changes in
human opinion, political, religious, or scientific, involve cor-
responding changes in the purposes and methods of educa-
tion.
2. The Reformation was a breaking with authority in mat-
ters of religion, as the Baconian philosophy was a breaking
with authority in matters of science ; and their joint effect on
education was to subject matters of opinion, belief, and
knowledge to the individual reason, experience, and observa-
tion.
3. In holding each human being responsible for his own
salvation, the Reformation made it necessary for every one
to read, and the logical consequence of this was to make
instruction universal ; and as schools were multiplied, the
number of teachers must be increased, and their grade of
competence raised.
4. The conception that ignorance is an evil, 'and a constant
menace to spiritual and temporal safety, led to the idea of
compulsory school-attendance.
5. In the recoil from the intuitions of the intellect sanc-
tioned by Socrates, to the intuitions of the senses sanctioned
by Bacon, education passed from an extreme dependence on
reflection and reason, to an extreme dependence on sense and
observation ; so that inference has been thrown into dis-
PROTESTANTISM AND PKDI A i:V INSTRUCTION. lo7
credit, and the verdict of the senses has been made the test
of knowledge.
6. In adapting the conception of universal education to
the social conditions of his time, Comenius was led to a gra-
dation of schools that underlies all modern systems of public
instruction.]
CHAPTER VII.
THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. — JESUITS AND
JANSENISTS.
the teaching congregations ; jesuits and jansenists ; founda-
tion of the society of jesus (1540) ; different judgments
on the. educational merits of the jesuits; authorities to
consult; primary instruction neglected; classical studies;
latin and the humanities j neglect of history, of philoso-
phy, and of the sciences in general j discipline; emula-
tion encouraged ; official disciplinarian ; general spirit
of the pedagogy of the jesuits; the oratorians j the
little schools; study, of the french language j new system
of spelling; THE MASTERS and the BOOKS OF port royal;
DISCIPLINE IN PERSONAL REFLECTION; GENERAL SPIRIT OF THE
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION AT PORT ROYAL ; NICOLE ; MORAL
PESSIMISM J EFFECTS ON DISCIPLINE ; FAULTS IN THE DISCIPLINE
OF PORT ROYAL; GENERAL JUDGMENT ON PORT ROYAL; ANA-
LYTICAL SUMMARY.
148. The Teaching Congregations. 1 — Up to the French
Revolution, up to the day when the conception of a public
and national education was embodied in the legislative acts
1 Religious congregations, as known in France, are associations of per-
sons who, consecrating themselves to the service of God, make a vow to
live in common under the same rule. Many of these congregations devote
themselves to the work of teaching, and these are of two classes, the
authorized and the unauthorized. For example, the "Brethren of the
Christian Schools," founded by La Salle, is an authorized, and the " Society
of Jesus" an unauthorized, congregation. From statistics published in
1878, it appears that there were then in France, 24 congregations of men
authorized to teach, and controlling 3096 establishments; and 528 similar
congregations of women, controlling 16,478 establishments. At the same
, time there were 85 unauthorized congregations of men, and 260 unauthorized
congregations of women, devoted to teaching. (P.)
THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 139
of our assembled rulers, education remained almost exclu-
sively an affair of the Church. The universities themselves
were dependent in part on religious authority. But especially
the great congregations assumed a monopoly of the work of
teaching:, the direction and control of which the State had
not yet claimed for her right.
Primary instruction, it is true, scarcely entered at first into
the settled plans of the religious orders. The only exception
to this statement that can properly be made, is the congrega-
tion of the Christian Doctrine, which a humble priest, Caesar
de Bus, founded at Avignon iu 1592, the avowed purpose of
which was the religious education of the children of the com-
pany.' But, on the other hand, secondary instruction pro-
voked the greatest educational event of the sixteenth century,
the foundiug of the company of Jesus, and this movement
was continued and extended in the seventeenth century,
either in the colleges of the Jesuits, ever growing in number,
or in other rival congregations.
149. Jesuits and Jansenists. — Among the religious
orders that have consecrated their efforts to the work of
teaching, the first place must be assigned to the Jesuits and
the Jansenists. Different in their statutes, their organiza-
tion, and their destinies, these two congregations are still
more different in their spirit. They represent, in fact, two
opposite, and, as it were, contrary phases of human nature
and of the Christian spirit. For the Jesuits, education is
reduced to a superficial culture of the brilliant faculties of
the intelligence ; while the Jansenists, on the contrary, aspire
to develop the solid faculties, the judgment, and the reason.
1 The congregation of the Doctrinaries founded at a later period estab-
lishments of secondary instruction. Maine de Biran, Laromiguiere, and
Lakanal were pupils of the Doctrinaries.
140 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.
In the colleges of the Jesuits, rhetoric is held in honor ;
while in the Little Schools of Port Royal, it is rather logic
and the exercise of thought. The shrewd disciples of Loyola
adapt themselves to the times, and are full of compassion for
human weakness ; the solitaries of Port Royal are exacting
of others and of themselves. In their suppleness and cheer-
ful optimism, the Jesuits are almost the Epicureans of Chris-
tianity ; with their austere and somewhat sombre doctrine,
the Jansenists would rather be the Stoics. The Jesuits and
the Jansenists, those great rivals of the seventeenth century,
are still face to face as enemies at the present moment.
While the inspiration of the Jesuits tries to maintain the old
worn-out exercises, like Latin verse, and the abuse of the
memory, the spirit of the Jansenists animates and inspires
the reformers, who, in the teaching of the classics, break
with tradition and routine, to substitute for exercises aimed
at elegance, and for a superficial instruction, studies of a
greater solidity and an education that is more complete.
The merit of institutions ought not always to be measured
by their apparent success. The colleges of the Jesuits, dur-
ing three centuries, have had a countless number of pupils ;
the Little Schools of Port Royal did not live twenty years,
and during their short existence they enrolled at most only
some hundreds of pupils. And yet the methods of the
Jansenists have survived the ruin of their colleges and the
dispersion of the teachers who had applied them. Although
the Jesuits have not ceased to rule in appearance, it is the
Jansenists who triumph in reality, and who to-day control
the secondary instruction of France.
150. Foundation of the Society of Jesus. — In organiz-
ing the Society of Jesus, Ignatius Loyola, that compound of
the mystic and the man of the world, purposed to establish,
THE TEACHING CONGREGATIONS. 141
not an order devoted to monastic contemplation, but a real
fighting corps, a Catholic army, whose double purpose was to
conquer new provinces to the faith through missions, and to
preserve the old through the control of education. Solemnly
consecrated by the Pope Paul III., in 1540, the congregation
had a rapid growth. As early as the middle of the sixteenth
century, it had several colleges in France, particularly those
of Billom, Mauriac, Rodez, Tournon, and Pamiers. In 1561