Is, in fact, but another name for duty, and the ordinary

synonym of virtue, — honor may assuredly be the guide of

an adult and already trained conscience ; but is it not chi-

merical to hope that the child, from his earliest years, will be

sensible to the esteem or the contempt of those who surround

him? If it were possible to inspire a child with a regard for

his reputation, I grant with Locke that we might henceforth

" make of him whatever we will, and teach him to love all

the forms of virtue " ; but the question is to know whether

we can succeed in this, and I doubt it, notwithstanding the

assurances of Locke.

Kant has very justly said : —

" It is labor lost to speak of duty to children. They com-

prehend it only as a thing whose transgression is followed by

the ferule. ... So one ought not to try to call into play with

children the feeling of shame, but to wait for this till the

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUET, 201

period of youth comes. In fact, it cannot be developed in

them till the idea of honor has already taken root there."

Locke is the dupe of the same illusion, both when he

expects of the child enough moral power so that the sense of

honor suffices to govern him, and when he counts enough on

his intellectual forces to desire to reason with him from the

moment he knows how to speak. For forming good habits

in the child, and preparing him for a life of virtue, there is

full need of all the resources that nature and art put at the

disposal of the educator, — sensibility under all its forms,

the calculations of self-interest, the lights of the intelligence.

It is only little by little, and with the progress of age, that

an exalted principle, like the sentiment of honor or the senti-

ment of duty, will be able to emerge from out the mobile

humors of the child, and dominate his actions like a sovereign

law. The moral pedagogy of Locke is certainly faulty in that

it is not sufficiently addressed to the heart, and to the

potency of loving, which is already so great in the child. I

add, that in his haste to emancipate the child, to treat him as

a reasonable creature, and to develop in him the principles

of self-government, Locke was wrong in proscribing almost

absolutely the fear of punishment. It is good to respect the

liberty and the dignity of the man that is in the child, but it

is not necessary that this respect degenerate into supersti-

tion ; and it is not sure that to train firm and robust wills, it

is necessary to have them early affranchised from all fear

and all constraint.

214. Condemnation of Corporal Punishment. — It is

undeniable that Locke has not sufficiently enlarged the liases

of his theory of moral discipline ; but if he has rested incom-

plete in the positive part of his task, if he has not advised

all that should be done, he has been more successful in the

202 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

negative part, that which consists in eliminating all that

ought not to be done. The chapters devoted to punishments

in general, and in particular to corporal punishments, count

among the best in the Thoughts. Rollin and Rousseau have

often copied from them. It is true that Locke himself has

borrowed the suggestion of them from Montaigne. The

"severe mildness" which is the pedagogical rule of the

author of the Essays, is also the rule of Locke. It is in

accordance with this that Locke has brought to bear on the

rod the final judgment of good sense : " The rod is a slavish

discipline, which makes a slavish temper." He has yielded

to the ideas of his time on only one point, when he admits

one exception to the absolute interdiction of the rod, and

tolerates its use in extreme cases to overcome the obstinate

and rebellious resistance of the child. This is going too far

without any doubt ; but to do justice to the boldness of

Locke's views, we must consider how powerful the custom

then was, and still is, in England, in a country where the

heads of institutions think themselves obliged to notify the

public, in the advertisements published in the journals, that

the interdiction of corporal punishment counts among the

advantages of their schools. "It is difficult to conceive

the perseverance with which English teachers cling to the old

and degrading customs of corrections by the rod. ... A

more astonishing thing is that the scholars seem to hold to it

as much as the teachers." "In 1818," relates one of the

former pupils of Charterhouse, " our head master, Doctor

Russell, who had ideas of his own, resolved to abolish

corporal punishment and substitute for it a fine. Everybody

resisted the innovation. The rod seemed to us perfectly

consistent with the dignity of a gentleman ; but a fine, for

shame ! The school rose to the cry : ' Down with the fine !

Long live the rod ! ' The revolt triumphed, and the rod was

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 203

solemnly restored. Then we were glad-hearted over the

affair. On the next day after the fine was abolished, we

found, on entering the class-room, a superb forest of birches,

and the two hours of the session were conscientiously em-

ployed in making use of them." 1 ' 2

215. Intellectual Education. — In what concerns intel-

lectual education, Locke manifestly belongs to the school,

small in his time, but more and more numerous to-day, of

utilitarian teachers. He would train, not men of letters, or

of science, but practical men, armed for the battle of life, pro-

vided with all the knowledge they will need in order to keep

their accounts, administer their fortune, satisf\' the require-

ments of their profession, and, finally, to fulfill their duties as

men and citizens. In a word, he wrote for a nation of trades-

men and citizens.

216. Utilitarian Studies. — An undeniable merit of

Locke is that of having reacted against a purely formal in-

struction, which substitutes for the acquisition of positive

and real knowledge a superfluous culture, so to speak, a

training in a superficial rhetoric and au elegant verbiage.

Locke disdains and condemns studies that do not contribute

directly to a preparation for life. Doubtless he goes a little

1 Demogeot et Montucci, de l'Kneeigneme?it secondaire en Angleterr< .

p. 41.

2 On the question of corporal punishment in school, is not M. Compayre

too absolute in his assumptions? On what principle does he base his

absolute condemnation of the rod ? What is to be done in those cases of

revolt against order and decency that occur from time to time in most

schools? There is no doubt that the very best teachers can govern without

resorting to this hateful expedient ; but what shall be done in extreme rases

by the multitude who are not, and never can be, teachers of this ideal

type? Nor does this question stand alone. Below, it is related to family

discipline; and above, to civil administration. If corporal punishment is

interdicted in the school, should it not be interdicted in the State ? (P.)

204 THE HISTOBY OF PEDAGOGY.

too far in his reaction against the current formalism and in

his predilection for realism. He is too forgetful of the fact

that the old classical studies, if not useful in the positive

sense of the term, and not satisfying the ordinary needs of

existence, have yet a higher utility, in the sense that they

may become, in skillful and discreet hands, an excellent

instrument for intellectual discipline and the education of the

judgment. But Locke spoke to fanatics and pedants, for

whom Latin and Greek were the whole of instruction, and

who, turning letters from their true purpose, wrongly made

a knowledge of the dead languages the sole end, and not, as

should be the case, one of the means of instruction. Locke

is by no means a blind utilitarian, a coarse positivist, who

dreams of absolutely abolishing disinterested studies. He

wishes merely to put them in their place, and to guard against

investing them with a sort of exclusive privilege, and against

sacrificing to them other branches of instruction that are

more essential and more immediately useful.

217. Programme of Studies. — As soon as the child

knows how to read and write, he should be taught to draw.

Very disdainful of painting and of the fine arts in general,

whose benign and profound influence on the souls of children

his colder nature has not sufficiently recognized, Locke, by

way of compensation, recommends drawing, because drawing-

may be practically useful, and he puts it on almost the same

footing as reading and writing.

These elements once acquired, the child should be drilled

in the mother tongue, first in reading, and afterwards in

exercises in composition, in brief narratives, in familiar

letters, etc. The study of a living language (Locke recom-

mends French to his countrymen) should immediately follow ;

and it is only after this has been acquired that the child shall

be put to the study of Latin. Save the omission of the

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 205

sciences, Locke's plan is singularly like that which for ten

years has been in use in the French lycВЈes.

As to Latin, which follows the living language, Locke

requires that it shall be learned above all through use,

through conversation if a master can be found who speaks