BOOK FOURTH. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. Our passage over the earth is so swift, that life is almost gone The wish to destroy the passions is vain and impious, for they are the instruments of our conservation, and the source of our passions is the love of self. This passion is always good, for we must love ourselves in order to preserve ourselves. The first feeling of a child is to love himself, and his next to love those who come near him as his protectors. A child is thus naturally inclined to benevolence; but as his rela- tions to others become extended he comes to have a feeling of his duties and preferences, and then he becomes jealous and imperious-love of self, a benevolent passion, passes into self-love, a malevolent passion Up to this point Émile's study has been his relations with things, but henceforth his occupation must be the study of his re- lations with men. As soon as he has need of a companion he is no longer an isolated being, and his first passion calls him into relations with his species The instructions of Nature are slow and tardy, while those of men are almost always premature, the imagination giving a precocious activity to the senses; but as the age at which man becomes conscious of sex depends on education as much as on Nature, it follows that this period may be hast- ened or retarded by the manner of the child's training; the longer this critical period can be delayed, the greater PAGE . 200, 201 tation. Absolute ignorance of certain things is no doubt best for children; but they should learn at an early hour what can not always be concealed from them. Do not affect too great refinement in your language, but speak plainly, simply, and directly. The way to preserve the innocence of children is not to give them lessons in modesty, but to surround them with those who love and respect innocency. Children are often corrupted by the books they read, and by vile domestics and nurses 196-200 To subject to order and control the rising passions, prolong the time during which they are developed, so that they may gradually adjust themselves without danger. To feel our true relations both to the species and the individual, and to order all the affections of the soul according to these relations this is the sum of human wisdom in the use of the passions. In order to arouse the nascent sensibility and turn the character toward benevolence and goodness, do not excite the young man's pride, vanity, and envy by showing him the exterior of grand society; but show him what men really are by nature that they are neither kings nor millionaires, but that they are born naked and poor, are subject to chagrins, evils, and sorrows, and, finally, that all are condemned to death. 201 If your children are not capable of this humane culture you are to blame for it-you have either taught them not to feel or have caused them to counterfeit feeling; but my Émile has neither felt nor feigned, for, having reflected little on sentient beings, he will be late in knowing what it is to suffer and die. But complaints and cries will soon begin to agitate his feelings, and the convulsions of a dying animal will give him untold agony before he knows the source of these new emotions. Thus arises pity, the first related feeling that touches the human heart. We suffer only as much as we judge the animal suffers. In order to nourish this nascent sensibility and to guide it in its natural course, we must offer to the young man objects on which he may exert the expansive force of his feelings, and which will give extension to his sympathies. Do not let him look down on the afflictions of the unfortunate with feelings of superior PAGE 203, 204 ity, but teach him that their lot may one day be his own; PAGE . 208, 209 as he begins to see the value of your services; but beware of extolling them, lest they become insupportable to him. In order to make him docile, leave him in complete liberty, and conceal yourself in order that he may look for you. We now enter on the moral order, and come to the second stage of manly culture. I would have Émile feel that goodness and justice are not mere abstract terms, but real affections of the soul enlightened by reason. So far he has regarded only himself, but now that he comes to throw his first look over his fellows this comparison excites a desire to surpass them, and thus gives rise to the selfish passions. It now becomes important to determine to what place he shall aspire among men, and so it becomes necessary to show him what man really is. Society must be studied through men, and men through society 210, 211 Men must not be shown through their masks, but must be painted just as they are, to the end that the young may not hate them, but pity them and avoid resembling them. Let him know that man is naturally good, but that society depraves him; let him be induced to esteem the individual, but to despise the masses; let him see that nearly all men wear the same mask, but let him also know that there are faces more beautiful than the mask which covers them, 211, 212 This method of study has the disadvantage of tending to make the heart cynical and unfeeling, and a corrective must be found in the study of history; for in history we see men simply as spectators, without interest or passion-as their judge, and not as their accomplice or their accuser. But it is a vice of history to show us men by their bad qualities rather than by their good; to occupy itself with wars and revolutions, and to portray peoples in a state of decadence rather than during periods of growth. The worst historians are those who judge. But, wisely selected, a course in historical reading is a course in practical philosophy, better than all the vain speculations of the schools 212-217 But self-love is a dangerous instrument, and often wounds the hand that uses it. In considering his place in human society Émile will be tempted to give all the credit to his own PAGE wisdom, and if he were to remain in this condition we . . 219, 220 If your pupil falls into mistakes do not reproach him with them, |