333. The Savoyard Vicar's Profession of Faith. ВЂ”

Rousseau has at least attempted to retrieve, by stately lan-

guage and an impassioned demonstration of the existence of

God, the delay which he has spontaneously imposed on his

pupil.

The Savoyard Vicar's Profession of Faith is an eloquent

catechism on natural religion, and the honest expression of a

sincere and profound deism. The religion of nature is evi-

dently the only one which, in Rousseau's system, can be

taught, and ought to be taught, to the child, since the child is

exactly the pupil of nature. If Emile wishes to go beyond

this, if he needs a positive religion, this shall be for himself

to choose.

334. Sophie and the Education of "Women. ВЂ” The weak-

est part of the Emile is that which treats of the education of

woman. This is not merely because Rousseau, with his

decided leaning towards the romantic, leads Emile and his

companion into odd and extraordinary adventures, but it is

especially because he misconceives the proper dignity of

woman. Sophie, the perfect woman, has been educated only

to complete the happiness of Emile. Her education is wholly

relative to her destiny as a wife.

"The whole education of women should be relative to men ;

to please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves

honored and loved by them, to educate the young, to care for

the older, to advise them, to console them, to make life agree-

able and sweet to them, — these are the duties of women in

every age."

1 Report of Villemain on the work of the Pere Girard (1844).

306 THE HISTOKY OF PEDAGOGY.

"Sophie," says Greard, " has but virtues of the second

order, virtues of conjugal education." It has been said that

marriage is a second birth for man, that he rises or falls

according to the choice which he makes. For woman, ac-

cording to the theory of Rousseau, it is the true advent into

life. According to the expressive formula of Michelet, who,

in a sentence, has given a marvellous summary of the doc-

trine, but in attaching to it a sense which poetizes it, " the

husband creates the wife." Sophie, up to the day of her

marriage, did not exist. She had learned nothing and read

nothing " except a Bareme and a Telemaque which have

chanced to fall into her hands." She has been definitely

admonished, "that were men sensible, every lettered girl

will remain a girl." It is Emile alone who is to instruct her,

and he will instruct her and mould her into his own ideal,

and in conformity to his individual interest.

While it was only in his youth that he received the first

principles of the religious feeling, Sophie must be penetrated

with it from infancy, in order that she may early form the

habit of submission. He commands and she obeys, the first

duty of the wife being meekness. If, during her youth, she

has freely attended banquets, amusements, balls, the theatre,

it is not so much to be initiated into the vain pleasures of

the world, under the tutelage of a vigilant mother, as to be-

long, once married, more fully to her home and to her

husband. She is nothing except as she is by his side, or as

dependent on him, or as acting through him. Strange and

brutal paradox, which Rousseau, it is true, corrects and

repairs in detail, at every moment by the most happy and

charming inconsistencies."

Sophie, briefly, is an incomplete person whom Rousseau is

not careful enough to educate for herself.

In her subordinate and inferior position, the cares of the

ROUSSEAU AND THE EMILE. 307

household occupy the largest place. She cuts aud makes

her own dresses : —

" What Sophie knows best, aud what was taught her with

most care, is the work of her sex. There is uo needle-work

which she does not know how to make."

It is not forbidden her, but is even recommended that she

introduce a certain coquetry into her employments : —

"The work she loves the best is lace-making, because

there is no other that gives her a more agreeable attitude,

and in which the fingers are used with more grace and

deftness."

She carries daintiness a little too far : —

tw She does not love cooking ; its details have some disgust

for her. She would sooner let the whole dinner go into the

fire than to soil her cnffs."

Truly this is fine housewifery ! We feel that we have here

to do with a character in a romance who has no need to dine.

Sophie would nut have been well received at Saint Cyr, where

Madame de Mainteuon so severely scolded the "iris who were

too fastidious, " fearing smoke, dust, and disagreeable odors,

even to making complaints and grimaces on their account as

though all were lost."

335. General Conclusion. — In order to form a just esti-

mate of the Emile, it is necessary to put aside the impressions

left by the reading of the last pages. We must consider as

a whole, and without taking details into account, that work,

which, notwithstanding all, is very admirable and profound.

It is injured by analysis. To esteem the Emile at its real

worth, it must be read entire. In reading it, in fact, we are

warmed by contact with the passion which Rousseau puts into

whatever he writes. We pardon his errors and chimeras by

reason of the grand sentiments and the grand truths which

we meet at even - step. We must also take into account the

308 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

time when Rousseau lived, aud the conditions under which he

wrote. We have not a doubt that had it been written thirty

years later, in the dawn of the Revolution, for a people who

were free, or who desired to be free, the Emile would have

been wholly different from what it is. Had he been working

for a republican society, or for a society that wished to become

such, Rousseau would not have thrown himself, out of

hatred for the realit}-, into the absurdities of an over-spe-

cialized and exceptional education. We can judge of what

he would have done as legislator of public instruction in the

time of the Revolution, by what he wrote in his Considerations

on the Government of Poland : —

" National education belongs only to people who are

free. ... It is education which is to give to men the national

mould, and so to direct their opinions and their tastes that

they will become patriots by inclination, by passion, and by

necessity" (we would only add, by duty). "A child, in

opening his eyes, ought to see his country and nothing but

his country. Every true republican, along with his mother's

milk, will imbibe love of country, that is, of law and liberty.

This love constitutes his whole existence. He sees but his

country, he lives but for her. So soon as he is alone, he is

nothing ; so soon as there is no more of country, he is no

more. . . . While learning to read, I would have a child of

Poland read what relates to his country ; at the age of ten, I

would have him know all its productions ; at twelve, all its

provinces, all its roads, all its cities ; at fifteen, the whole of

its history ; and at sixteen, all its laws ; and there should not

be in all Poland a notable deed or an illustrious man, of which

his memory and his heart were not full."

336. Influence of the Emile. — That which proves

better than any commentary can the high standing of the

Emile, is the success which it has obtained, the influence

ROUSSEAU AND THE EMILE. 309

which it has exerted, both in France and abroad, and the

durable renown attested by so many works designed, either

to contradict it, to correct it, or to approve it and to dis-

seminate its doctrines. During the twenty-five years that

followed the publication of the Emile, there appeared in the

French language twice as many books on education as dur-

ing the first sixty years of the century. Rousseau, besides

all that he said personally which was just and new, had the

merit of stimulating minds and of preparing through his

impulsion the rich educational harvest of this last one hun-

dred years.

To be convinced of this, it suffices to read this judgment

of Kant : —

" The first impression which a reader who does not read

for vanity or for killing time derives from the writings of

Rousseau, is that this writer unites to an admirable penetra-

tion of genius a noble inspiration and a soul full of sensi-

bility, such as has never been met with in any other writer,

in any other time, or in any other country. The impression

which immediately follows this, is that of astonishment

caused by the extraordinary and paradoxical thoughts which

he develops. ... 1 ought to read and re-read Rousseau,

till tin' beauty of his style no more affects me. It is only

then that I can adjust my reason to judge of him."

[337. Analytical Summary. — 1. The study of the Emile

exhibits, in a very striking manner, the contrast between the

respective agencies of art and nature in the work of educa-

tion, and also the power of sentiment as a motor to ideas.

2. What Monsieur Compayre has happily called Rous-

seau's " misuse of the principle of nature" marks a recoil

against the artificial and fictitious state of society and opinion

in France in the eighteenth century. In politics, in religion,

and in philosophy, there was the domination of authority, and

310 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

but a small mai'gin was left for the exercise of freedom,

versatility, and individual initiative ; while education was

administered rather as a process of manufacture, than of

regulated growth.

3. The conception that the child, by his very constitution,

is predetermined, like plants and animals, to a progressive

development quite independent of artificial aid, easily degen-

erates into the hypothesis that the typical education is a

process of spontaneous growth.

4. The error in this hypothesis is that of exaggeration or

of disproportion. Education is neither a work of nature

alone, nor of art alone, but is a natural process, supple-

mented, controlled, and perfected by human art. What

education would become when abandoned wholly to " nature "

may be seen in the state of a perfected fruit which has been

allowed to revert to its primitive or natural condition.

5. Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the

fact that he is not the victim of his environment, but is en-

dowed with the power to control his environment, almost to

re-create it, and so to rise superior to it. This ability gives

rise to human art, which is a coordinate factor with nature

in the work of education.

G. This convenient fiction of "Nature," conceived as an

infallible and incomparable guide in education, has intro-

duced countless errors into educational theory ; and Miss E. R.

Sill is amply justified in saying that "probably nine-tenths

of the popular sophistries on the subject of education, would

be cleared away by clarifying the word Nature." 1

7. In spite of its paradoxes, its exaggerations, its over-

wrought sentiment, and florid declamation, the Emile, in its

general spirit, is a work of incomparable power and of per-

ennial value.]

1 Atlantic Monthly, February, 1883, p. 178.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. —

CONDILLAC, DIDEROT, HELVETIUS, AND KANT.

THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; CONDILLAC (1715-

1780); ABUSE OF THE PHILOSOPHIC SPIRIT J MUST WE REASON

WITH CHILDREN? PRELIMINARY LESSONS; THE ART OF THINK-

ING ; OTHER PARTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY ; PERSONAL

REFLECTION ; EXCESSES OF DEVOTION CRITICISED J DIDEROT (1713-

1784); HIS PEDAGOGICAL WORKS J HIS QUALITIES AS AN EDUCA-

TOR J NECESSITY OF INSTRUCTION J IDEA OF A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC

INSTRUCTION; CRITICISM OF FRENCH colleges; proposed RE-

FORMS ; PREFERENCE FOR THE SCIENCES ; INCOMPLETE VIEWS

ON THE PROVINCE OF LETTERS J OPINION OF MARMONTEL J OTHER

NOVELTIES OF DIDEROT'S PLAN J HELVETIUS (1715-1771) J PARADOXES

OF THE TREATISE ON MAN ; REFUTATION OF HELVETIUS BY

DIDEROT; INSTRUCTION SECULARIZED; THE ENCYCLOPAEDISTS; KANT

(1724-1804); HIGH CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION; PSYCHOLOGICAL OP-

TIMISM; RESPECT FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE CHILD; CULTURE OF

THE FACULTIES; STORIES INTERDICTED J DIFFERENT KINDS OF

PUNISHMENT ; RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

338. The Philosophers of the Eighteenth Century. —

If there has been considerable progress made in education in

the eighteenth century, it is clue, in great part, to the efforts

of the philosophers of that age. It is no longer alone the

men who are actually engaged in the schools that are pre-

occupied with education ; but nearly all the illustrious

thinkers of the eighteenth century have discussed these great

questions with more or less thoroughness. The subject is

far from being exhausted by the study of Rousseau. Besides

the educational current set in movement by the Emile, the

other philosophers of that period, in their isolated and hide-

312 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

pendent march, left original routes which it remains to fol-

low. From out their errors and conceptions of systems there

emerge some new outlooks and some definite truths.

339. Condillac (1715-1780). — An acute and ingenious

psychologist, a competitor and rival of Locke in philosophy,

Condillac is far from having the same authority in matters

pertaining to education ; but still there is profit to be derived

from the reading of his Course of Study, which includes not

less than thirteen volumes. This important work is a collec-

tion of the lessons which he had composed for the education

of the infant Ferdinand, the grandson of Louis XV., and

heir of the dukedom of Parma, whose preceptor he became

in 1757.

340. Abuse of the Philosophic Spirit. — It is certainly

a matter of congratulation that the philosophical spirit is

entering more and more largely into the theories of educa-

tion, and there would be only words of commendation for

Condillac had he restricted himself to this excellent declara-

tion, that pedagogy is nothing if it is not a deduction from

psychology. But he does not stop there, but with an indis-

cretion that is to be regretted, he arbitrarily transports into

education certain philosophical principles which it is not

proper to apply to the art of educating men, whatever may

be their theoretical truth ; thus Condillac, having established

the natural order of the development of the sciences and the

arts in the histoiy of humanity, presumes to impose the same

law of progress upon the child.

" The method which I have followed does not resemble the

usual manner of teaching ; but it is the very way in which

men were led to create the arts and the sciences." l

1 Discours preliminaire sur la grammaire, in the (Euvres completes of

Condillac, Tome VI. p. 264.

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 313

In other terms, the child must do over again, on his own

account, " that which the race has done." He must be com-

pelled to follow, step by step, in its long gropings, the slow

progress made by the race. 1

There is, doubtless, an element of truth in the error of

Condillac. The sciences and the arts began with the obser-

vation of particulars, and thence slowly rose to general prin-

ciples ; and to-day no one thinks of denying the necessity of

proceeding in the same manner in education, so far as this is

possible. It is well at the first to present facts to the child,

and to lead him step by step, from observation to observation,

to the law which governs them and includes them ; but there is

a wide distance between the discreet use of the inductive and

experimental method, and the exaggerations of Condillac.

No one should seriously think of absolutely suppressing the

synthetic method of exposition, which, taking advantage of

the work accomplished through the centuries, teaches at the

outset the truths that have been already acquired. It would

be absurd to compel the child painfully to recommence the

toil of the race. 2

1 This is also the main principle in Mr. Spencer's educational philosophy.

"The education of the child must accord both in mode and arrangement

with the education of mankind as considered historically ; or, in other

words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same

course as the genesis of knowledge in the race." — Education, p. 122. (P.)

2 The general law of human progress is inheritance supplemented by

individual acquisition. Using the symbols i (inheritance) and В« (acqui-

sition), the progress of the race from its origin upwards, through successive

generations, may be exhibited by this series: i; i + a; i (2a) + a; i (3 a) +a;

i'(4a)+a. If the factor of inheritance could be eliminated, as Condillac

and Spencer recommend, the series would take this form: a'; a"; a'";

a iv : n v : the successive increments in acquisition being due to successive

increments in power gained through heredity. But, happily, the law of in-

heritance cannot be abrogated, and so philosophers write books in order to

save succeeding generations from the fate of Sisyphus. (P.)

314 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

Graver still, Condillac, led astray by his love for philoso-

phizing, presumes to initiate the child, from the very begin-

ning of his studies, into psychological anabasis.

" The first thing to be done is to make the child acquainted

with the faculties of his soul, and to make him feel the need

of making use of them."

In other terms, the analysis of the soul shall be the first

object proposed to the reflection of the child. It is not

proposed to make him attentive, but to teach him what

attention is.

How can one seriously think of making of the child a little

psychologist, and of choosing as the first element of his edu-

cation the very science that is the most difficult of all, the

one which can be but the coronation of his studies?

341. Must we reason with Children? — Rousseau had

sharply criticised the famous maxim of Locke : ' ' We must

reason with children." Condillac tries to restore it to credit,

and for this purpose he invokes the pretended demonstra-

tions of a superficial and inexact psychology.

"It has been proved," he says, "that the faculty of

reasoning begins as soon as the senses commence to de-

velop ; and we have the early use of our senses only because

we early began to reason." Strange assertions, which are

disproved by the most elementary observation of the facts in

the case. Condillac here allows himself to be imposed upon

by his sensational psychology, the tendency of which is to

efface the peculiar character of the different intellectual

faculties, to derive them all from the senses, and, conse-

quently, to suppress the distance which separates a simple

sensation from the subtile, reflective, and abstract process

which is called reasoning. It cannot be admitted for a

single instant that the faculties of the understanding are, as

he says, "the same in the child as in the mature man."

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 315

There is, doubtless, in the child a beginning of reasoning, a

sort of instinctive logic ; but this infantile reasoning can be

applied only to familiar objects, such as are sensible and

concrete. It were absurd to employ it on general and ab-

stract ideas.