380. Secularization of Education. ВЂ” As a matter of

fact, the whole pedagogy of the eighteenth century is domi-

nated by the idea of the necessary secularization of instruc-

tion. Thorough-going Gallicans like La Chalotais or Rolland,

dauntless free-thinkers like Diderot or Helvetius, all believe

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 345

and assert that public instruction is a civil affair, a " govern-

ment undertaking," as Voltaire expressed it. All wish to

substitute lay teachers for religious teachers, and to open

civil schools upon the ruins of monastic schools.

"Who will be persuaded," says Rolland in his report of

1708, " That fathers who feel an emotion that an ecclesiastic

never should have known, will be less capable than he of

educating children ? "

La Chalotais also demands these citizen teachers. He

objects to those instructors who, from interest as well as

from principle, give the preference in their affections to the

supernatural world over one's native land.

"I do not presume to exclude ecclesiastics," he said,

" but T protest against the exclusion of laymen. I dare claim

for the nation an education which depends only on the State,

because it belongs essentially to the State ; because every

State has an inalienable and indefeasible right to instruct its

members ; because, finally, the children of the State ought to

be educated by the members of the State." This does not

mean that La Chalotais is irreligious ; but he desires a national

religion which does not subordinate the interests of the

country to a foreign power. What he wants especially is,

that the Church, reserving to herself the teaching of divine

truth, abandon to the State the teaching of morals, and the

control of purely human studies. He is of the same opinion

as his friend Duclos, who said : —

"It is certain that in the education which was given at

Sparta, the prime purpose was to train Spartans. Jt is thus

that in every Stale the purpose should be to enkindle the

spirit of citizenship; and, in our case, to train Frenchmen,

and in order to make Frenchmen, to labor to make men of

them." 1

1 Duclos, Considerations sur les mceitrs dcce siecle. Ch. II. Sur fain,,!.

lion et les prtfiigte.

346 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

381. Practical Purpose of Instruction. — The partic-

ular charge brought by La Chalotais against the education of

his time, against that of the University as well as against

that of .the Jesuits, is, that it does not prepare children for

real life, for life in the State. "A stranger who should visit

our colleges might conclude that in France we think only of

peopling the seminaries, the cloisters, and the Latin col-

onies." How are we to imagine that the study of a dead

language, and a monastic discipline, are the appointed means

for training soldiers, magistrates, and heads of families?

"The greatest vice of education, and perhaps the most

Inevitable, while it shall be entrusted to persons who have

renounced the world, is the absolute lack of instruction on

the moral and political virtues. Our education does not

affect our habits, like that of the ancients. After having

endured all the fatigues and irksomeness of the college, the

young find themselves in the need of learning in what consist

the duties common to all men. They have learned no prin-

ciple for judging actions, evils, opinions, customs. They

have everything to learn on matters that are so important.

They are inspired with a devotion which is but an imitation

of religion, and with practices which take the place of virtue,

and are but the shadow of it."