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the knowledge of the understanding, we expose ourselves to the inconvenience of never drawing out anything which belongs to us.'*

Again he writes: "We acquire, without doubt, notions more clear and certain of things we thus learn of ourselves, than of those we are taught by others. Another advantage also resulting from this method is, that we do not accustom ourselves to a servile submission to the authority of others; but, by exercising our reason, grow every day more ingenious in the discovery of the relations of things, in connecting our ideas and in the contrivance of machines; whereas, by adopting those which are put into our hands, our invention grows dull and indifferent, as the man who never dresses himself, but is served in everything by his servants, and drawn about everywhere by his horses, loses by degrees the activity and use of his limbs. Boileau boasted that he had taught Racine to rhyme with difficulty. Among the many admirable methods taken to abridge the study of the sciences, we are in great want of one to make us learn them with effort.' +

* Forcé d'apprendre de lui-même, il use de sa raison et non de celle d'autrui; car, pour ne rien donner à l'opinion, il ne faut rien donner à l'autorité; et la plupart de nos erreurs nous viennent bien moins de nous que des autres. De cet exercice continuel il doit résulter une vigueur d'esprit semblable à celle qu'on donne au corps par le travail et par la fatigue. Un autre avantage est qu'on n'avance qu'à proportion de ses forces. L'esprit, non plus que le corps, ne porte que ce qu'il peut porter. Quand l'entendement s'approprie les choses avant de les déposer dans la mémoire, ce qu'il en tire ensuite est à lui: au lieu qu'en surchargeant la mémoire à son insu, on s'expose à n'en jamais rien tirer qui lui soit propre.

+ Sans contredit on prend des notions bien plus claires et bien plus sûres des choses qu'on apprend ainsi de soi-même, que de celles qu'on

Following in the steps of Locke, Rousseau required his model pupil to learn a trade. But this was not to be acquired as a mere amusement. First, Rousseau required it to secure the self-dependance of his pupil, and secondly, to improve his head, as well as his hands. If, instead of keeping a boy poring over books, I employ him in a workshop, his hands will be busied to the improvement of his understanding; he will become a philosopher, while he thinks himself only an artisan.'*

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I hope the quotations I have now given, will suffice to convey to the reader some of Rousseau's main ideas on the subject of education. The 'Emile' was once a popular book in this country. In David Williams's Lectures (dated 1789) we read, Rousseau is in full possession of public attention. . . To be heard on the subject of education it is expedient to direct our observations to his works.' But now the case is different. In the words of Mr. Herman Merivale, Rousseau was dethroned with the fall of his extravagant child the Republic.' Perhaps we

tient des enseignements d'autrui; et, outre qu'on n'accoutume point sa raison à se soumettre servilement à l'autorité, l'on se rend plus ingénieux à trouver des rapports, à lier des idées, à inventer des instruments, que quand, adoptant tout cela tel qu'on nous le donne, nous laissons affaisser notre esprit dans la nonchalance, comme le corps d'un homme qui, toujours habillé, chaussé, servi par ses gens et traîné par ses chevaux, perd à la fin la force et l'usage de ses membres. Boileau se vantait d'avoir appris à Racine à rimer difficilement. Parmi tant d'admirables méthodes pour abréger l'étude des sciences, nous aurions grand besoin que quelqu'un nous en donnât une pour les apprendre avec effort.

* Au lieu de coller un enfant sur des livres, si je l'occupe dans un atelier, ses mains travaillent au profit de son esprit: il devient philosophe, et croit n'être qu'un ouvrier.

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THE ÉMILE' NOT READ IN ENGLAND.

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have been less influenced by both father and child than any nation of Europe; and if so, we owe this to our horror of extravagance. The English intellect is eminently decorous,* and Rousseau's disregard for 'appearances,' or rather his evident purpose of making an impression by defying appearances' and saying just the opposite of what is expected, simply distresses it. Hence the Émile' has long ceased to be read in this country, and the only English translation I have met with was published in the last century, and has not been reprinted.† So Rousseau now works upon us only through his disciples, especially Pestalozzi; but the reader will see from the passages I have selected, that we have often listened to Rousseau unawares.

The truths of the 'Émile' will survive the fantastic forms which are there forced upon them. Of these truths, one of the most important, to my mind, is the distinction drawn between childhood and youth. I do not, of course, insist, with Rousseau, that a child should be taught nothing till the day on which he is twelve years old, and then that instruction should begin all at once. There is no hard and fast line that can be drawn between the two stages of development: the change from one to the other is gradual, and in point of time differs greatly with the indivi

* How is it that we have so many of us taken to making observations on the English mind, as if we were as external to it as the Japanese jugglers? Do we owe this to Matthew Arnold?

†The above quotations are from this translation, but in correcting the proofs I have discovered that it will not stand the test of being brought into such close contact with the French. I have altered it in many places, and am by no means satisfied with what I have left.

dual. But as I have elsewhere said, I believe the difference between the child and the youth to be greater than the difference between the youth and the man; and I believe further, that this is far too much overlooked in our ordinary education. Rousseau, by drawing attention to the sleep of reason and to the activity and vigour of the senses in childhood, became one of the most important educational reformers, and a benefactor of mankind.*

This teaching of Rousseau's seems especially deserving of our consideration now that it has been proposed to elect boys of thirteen to Christ's Hospital, and to scholarships in other schools, by competitive examination. Whatever advantages may have resulted from such competition in the case of older pupils, we cannot fairly assume that the system ought to be extended to children. Examinations cannot test the proper development of children, or mark out the cleverest. Indeed, what they would really decide for us would be, not which were the cleverest children, but which had been intrusted to the cleverest 'crammers.' Thus the masters would be stimulated to 'ply the memory and load the brain' for their livelihood; and a race of precocious children terminating their intellectual career at the point where it ought to begin, would convince us of the wisdom of Rousseau, and drive us back to the neglected arts of being ignorant and losing time. See Mr. Arnold's vigorous protest against examinations of children.Schools and Universities of the Continent, chap. v. pp. 60, 61.

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VI.

BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPIN.

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 professions-the clerical. Basedow, however, was not a man to follow the beaten tracks. After an irregular

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