XV. BASEDOW AND THE PHILAN- § 1. ONE of the most famous movements ever made in educational reform was started in the last century by John Bernard Basedow. Basedow was born at Hamburg in 1723, the son of a wigmaker. His early years were not spent in the ordinary happiness of childhood. His mother he describes as melancholy, almost to madness, and his father was severe almost to brutality. It was the father's intention to bring up his son to his own business, but the lad ran away, and engaged himself as servant to a gentleman in Holstein. The master soon perceived what had never occurred to the father, viz., that the youth had very extraordinary abilities. Sent home with a letter from his master pointing out this notable discovery, Basedow was allowed to renounce the paternal calling, and to go to the Hamburg Grammar School (Gymnasium), where he was under Reimarus, the author of the "Wolfenbüttel Fragment." In due course his friends managed to send him to the University of Leipzig to prepare himself for the least expensive of the learned professionsthe clerical. Basedow, however, was not a man to follow the beaten tracks. After an irregular life he left the university too unorthodox to think of being ordained, and in 1749 became private tutor to the children of Herr von Quaalen B. tries to mend religion and teaching. in Holstein. In this situation his talent for inventing new methods of teaching first showed itself. He knew how to adapt himself to the capacity of the children, and he taught them much by conversation, and in the way of play, connecting his instruction with surrounding objects in the house, garden, and fields. Through Quaalen's influence, he next obtained a professorship at Soroe, in Denmark, where he lectured for eight years, but his unorthodox writings raised a storm of opposition, and the Government finally removed him to the Gymnasium at Altona. Here he still continued his efforts to change the prevailing opinions in religious matters; and so great a stir was made by the publication or his "Philalethia," and his "Methodical Instruction in both Natural and Biblical Religion," that he and his family were refused the Communion at Altona, and his books were excluded, under a heavy penalty, from Lübeck. § 2. About this time Basedow, incited by Rousseau's Émile," turned his attention to a fresh field of activity, in which he was to make as many friends as in theology he had found enemies. A very general dissatisfaction was then felt with the condition of the schools. Physical education was not attempted in them. The mother-tongue was neglected. Instruction in Latin and Greek, which was the only instruction given, was carried on in a mechanical way, without any thought of improvement. The education of the poor and of the middle classes received but little attention. Youth," says Raumer, was in those days, for most children, a sadly harassed period. Instruction was hard and heartlessly severe. Grammar was caned into the memory, so were portions of Scripture and poetry. A common school punishment was to learn by heart Psalm cxix. Schoolfooms were dismally dark. No one conceived it possible 66 66 Reform needed. Subscription for "Elementary." that the young could find pleasure in any kind of work, or that they had eyes for aught besides reading and writing. The pernicious age of Louis XIV. had inflicted on the poor children of the upper class, hair curled by the barber and messed with powder and pomade, braided coats, knee breeches, silk stockings, and a dagger by the side-for active, lively children a perfect torture" (Gesch. d. Pädagogik, ii. 297). Kant gave expression to a very wide-spread feeling when he said that what was wanted in education was no longer a reform but a revolution. Here, then, was a good scope offered for innovators, and Basedow was a prince of innovators. § 3. Having succeeded in interesting the Danish minister, Bernstorff, in his plans, he was permitted to devote himself entirely to a work on the subject of education whilst retaining his income from the Altona Gymnasium. The result was his "Address to Philanthropists and Men of Property on Schools and Studies and their Influence on the Public Weal" (1766), in which he announces the plan of his "Elementary." In this address he calls upon princes, governments, town-councils, dignitaries of the Church, freemasons' lodges, &c., &c., if they loved their fellowcreatures, to come to his assistance in bringing out his book. Nor did he call in vain. When the " When the "Elementary" at length appeared (in 1774), he had to acknowledge contributions from the Emperor Joseph II., from Catherine II. of Russia, from Christian VII. of Denmark, from the Grand Prince Paul, and many other celebrities, the total sum received being over 2,000l. * I avail myself of the old substantival use of the word elementary to express its German equivalent Elementarbuch. A journey with Goethe. § 4. While Basedow was travelling about (in 1774) to get subscriptions, he spent some time in Frankfurt, and thence made an excursion to Ems with two distinguished comparions, one of them Lavater, and the other a young man of fiveand-twenty, already celebrated as the author of "Götz von Berlichingen," and the "Sorrows of Werther." Of Basedow's personal peculiarities at this time Goethe has left us an amusing description in the "Wahrheit und Dichtung;" but we must accept the portrait with caution: the sketch was thrown in as an artistic contrast with that of Lavater, and no doubt exaggerates those features in which the antithesis could be brought out with best effect. "One could not see," writes Goethe, 66 a more marked contrast than between Lavater and Basedow. As the lines of Lavater's countenance were free and open to the beholder, so were Basedow's contracted, and as it were drawn inwards, Lavater's eye, clear and benign, under a very wide eye-lid; Basedow's, on the other hand, deep in his head, small, black, sharp, gleaming out from under shaggy eyebrows, whilst Lavater's frontal bone seemed bounded by two arches of the softest brown hair. Basedow's impetuous rough voice, his rapid and sharp utterances, a certain derisive laugh, an abrupt changing of the topic of conversation, and whatever else distinguished him, all were opposed to the peculiarities and the behaviour by which Lavater had been making us over-fastidious." § 5. Goethe approved of Basedow's desire to make all instruction lively and natural, and thought that his system would promote mental activity and give the young a fresher view of the world: but he finds fault with the "Elementary," and prefers the "Orbis Pictus" of Comenius, in which subjects are presented in their natural connection. Base Goethe on Basedow. dow himself, says Goethe, was not a man either to edify or to lead other people. Although the object of his journey was to interest the public in his philanthropic enterprise, and to open not only hearts but purses, and he was able to speak eloquently and convincingly on the subject of education, he spoilt everything by his tirades against prevalent religious belief, especially on the subject of the Trinity. 6. Goethe found in Basedow's society an opportunity of "exercising, if not enlightening," his mind, so he bore with his personal peculiarities, though apparently with great difficulty. Basedow seems to have delighted in worrying his associates. "He would never see anyone quiet but he provoked him with mocking irony, in a hoarse voice, or put him to confusion by an unexpected question, and laughed bitterly when he had gained his end; yet he was pleased when the object of his jests was quick enough to collect himself, and answer in the same strain." So far Goethe was his match; but he was nearly routed by Basedow's use of bad tobacco, and of some tinder still worse with which he was constantly lighting his pipe and poisoning the air insufferably. He soon discovered Goethe's dislike to this preparation of his, so he took a malicious pleasure in using it and dilating upon its merits. § 7. Here is an odd account of their intercourse. During their stay at Ems Goethe went a great deal into fashionable society. "To make up for these dissipations," he writes, "I always passed a part of the night with Basedow. He never went to bed, but dictated without cessation. Occasionally he cast himself on the couch and slumbered, while his amanuensis sat quietly, pen in hand, ready to continue his work when the half-awakened author |