19. Greek Pedagogy. ВЂ” Upon that privileged soil of

Greece, in that brilliant Athens abounding in artists, poets,

historians, and philosophers, in that rude Sparta celebrated

for its discipline and manly virtues, education was rather the

spontaneous fruit of nature, the natural product of diverse

manners, characters, and races, than the premeditated result

of a reflective movement of the human will. Greece, how-

ever, had its pedagogy, because it had its legislators and its

philosophers, the first directing education in its practical

details, the second making theoretical inquiries into the

essential principles underlying the development of the human

18 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

soul. In respect of education, as of everything else, the

higher spiritual life of modern nations has been developed

under the influence of Grecian antiquity. 1

20. Athenian and Spartan Education. — In the specta-

cle presented to us by ancient Greece, the first fact that

strikes us by its contrast with the immobility and unity of

the primitive societies of the East, is a freer unfolding of the

human faculties, and consequently a diversity in tendencies

and manners. Doubtless, in the Greek republics, the indi-

vidual is always subordinate to the State. Even in Athens,

little regard is paid to the essential dignity of the human

person. But the Athenian State differs profoundly from the

Spartan, and consequently the individual life is differently

understood and differentlv directed in these two great cities.

At Athens, while not neglecting the body, the chief preoccu-

pation is the training of the mind ; intellectual culture is

pushed to an extreme, even to over-refinement ; there is

such a taste for fine speaking that it develops an abuse of

language and reasoning which merits the disreputable name

of sophistry. At Sparta, mind is sacrificed to body ; physi-

cal strength and military skill are the qualities most desired ;

the sole care is the training of athletes and soldiers. Sobriety

and courage are the results of this one-sided education, but

so are ignorance and brutality. Montaigne has thrown into

relief, not without some partiality for Sparta, these two con-

trasted plans of education.

"Men went to the other cities of Greece," he says, "to

find rhetoricians, painters, and musicians, but to Lacedae-

mon for legislators, magistrates, and captains ; at Athens

fine speaking was taught ; but here, brave acting ; there, one

1 Upon this subject consult the excellent study of Alexander Martin, en-

titled Lcs Doctrines Pedacjogiqucs des Grecs. Paris, 1881.

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 19

learned to unravel a sophistical argument and to abate the

imposture of insidiously twisted words ; here, to extricate

one's self from the enticements of pleasure and to overcome

the menaces of fortune and death by a manly courage. The

Athenians busied themselves with words, but the Spartans

with tilings ; with the former, there was a continual activity of

the tongue ; with the latter, a continual activity of the soul." 1

The last remark is not just. The daily exercises of the

young Spartans, — jumping, running, wrestling, playing with

lances and at quoits, — could not be regarded as intellectual

occupations. On the other hand, in learning to talk, the

young Athenians learned also to feel and to think.