We shall now turn from the discussion of centralized governments as rivals to ecclesiastical control to a consideration of the fourth factor, namely, democracy.

Democracy furnished a nonreligious basis for universal education, The growth of political democracy was another important factor in undermining the ecclesiastical control of life and education. It also furnished a new basis for universal education. The developments in democratic government which we shall consider began in England and found expression in the American and French Revolutions.

English Revolution of 1688 justified by John Locke.— The increasing part played in the English government by Parliament representing the people is familiar to students of English and American history. As long as the theory of the divine right of kings prevailed, however, and it was possible for the king to consider himself above the law, and capable of ruling without Parliament, the existence of democratic control was in danger. The English Revolution of 1688 removed this danger in England, for Parliament thereby declared the throne vacant and invited William and Mary to rule, thus establishing the principle that the king was the representative of the people and not king by divine right. The theoretical justification for such a revolution and the elaboration of the social-contract" theory of government which it implied was formulated by John Locke in his "Treatises on Government," published in 1690. Locke wrote the second of these treatises

to establish the throne of our great restorer, our present King William, and to justify to the world the people of England, whose love of their just and natural rights saved the nation when it was on the very brink of slavery and ruin." Governments, Locke maintained, were established by the people for "the natural preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates, which I call by the general name property." A government which failed to secure these ends could be overthrown by the people and another substituted. Locke's views

as thus expressed became the dominant policy of the Whig or Liberal party, with such results that some authorities claim that the English government to-day is more democratic than the national government of the United States.

Rousseau the chief exponent of the French democratic Revolution. In France, Locke's theory of government was accepted and expounded by writers who were anxious for the destruction of the social abuses attendant upon the absolute monarchy and feudal customs which had caused so much suffering for the common people. Rousseau (1712-1778) was the chief exponent of this French democratic tendency and was a very important factor in causing the French Revolution. One incident in Rousseau's career will serve to represent the condition of oppression of the common people and his own reaction. When about nineteen years old (1731), while tramping through France, he lost his way as he was exploring a particularly beautiful bit of scenery and, after wandering for hours, came to the cottage of a peasant whom he implored for food. The man gave him some coarse barley bread and skimmed milk, claiming it was all he had. As he ate, however, said Rousseau :

...

The peasant, who examined me closely, judged of the truth of my story by that of my appetite. All of a sudden, after remarking that he saw clearly enough that I was a good honest young man, who had not come there to betray him, he opened a little trap door, near his kitchen, descended, and reappeared the next moment, with a brown loaf of fine wheat, a ham and a bottle of wine, the sight of which gladdened my heart more than all the rest; to this he added a thick omelette; and I made such a dinner as no pedestrian ever before sat down to. . . . [The peasant] gave me to understand that he hid his wine on account of the duties, and his bread on account of the tax; and that he would be a lost man if he did not lead people to suppose that he was dying of hunger. All that he told me about this subject. of which previously I had not the slightest idea · made an impression upon me which will never be effaced. There was the germ of the inextinguishable hatred which developed later in my heart against the vexations endured by the poor, and against their oppressors. (16: 29.)

Rousseau expressed Locke's political theories in popular form.-Rousseau's democratic reaction was most vigorously expressed in two essays published in 1750 and 1754, but his most important political treatise was the "Social Contract" (1762), which became the political handbook of the French revolutionists, or, even as Lecky says, "the Bible of their creed." This work contained little that was original.

Rousseau's chief source was Locke's second Treatise on Government, and, in his Letters from the Mountain, he frankly admitted that he had treated the same subjects on exactly the same principles as Locke... [But] Rousseau universalized and popularized Locke's teachings. By his matchless style he inspired with new life and vigor the doctrine of popular sovereignty, and he thoroughly assimilated the social-contract theory. Expressing Locke's cumbrous propositions with brevity, clearness and point, he gave them a ready portability. (17: 36.)

Said political equality should replace natural inequality. A single quotation may serve to express Rousseau's fundamental idea of equality as set forth in the "Social Contract" (Book I, chap. ix).

I shall close this chapter and this book with a remark which ought to serve as a basis for the whole social system; it is that instead of destroying natural equality, the fundamental pact, on the contrary, substitutes a moral and lawful equality for the physical inequality which nature imposed upon men, so that, although unequal in strength or intellect, they all become equal by convention and legal right.1

Spirit of American Revolution similar to English and French. One of the most concise statements of the democratic and social-contract theory of government is contained in the American Declaration of Independence (1776), which reiterated the ideas of Locke and Rousseau.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,

1 Italics not in original.

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute a new government. . .

The relation of democracy to education as furnishing a new basis for universal education in place of the Reformation religious basis was clearly expressed by Thomas Jefferson. He said:

There are two subjects, indeed, which I claim a right to further as long as I breathe, the public education and the subdivision of counties into wards. I consider the continuance of republican government as absolutely hanging on these two hooks.

James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth president, said:

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. . . . The best service that can be rendered to a country next to giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation and enjoyment of that blessing. (18: 714.)

Secularization of education followed other secular developments. - This will conclude our discussion of the development of secular interests which eventually overthrew the dominant religious conception of life and the reign of ecclesiastical despotism. Scientific discoveries destroyed the intellectual basis of this despotism. Religious toleration, being necessary for national prosperity, gradually won its way. Strong centralized governments became active rivals and opponents of the ecclesiastical power. And finally democracy, with its destruction of the theory of the divine right of kings and all other forms of despotism, completed the reform.

The secularization of educational theory and practice paralleled and followed the development of these other secular social interests. Some of the earlier steps in the theoretical development will be discussed in the next chapter, and the practical secularization of the schools of Prussia, England, and the United States in three later chapters.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Concerning the development of modern science. I. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. V, The Age of Louis XIV. (The Macmillan Company, 1908.) Chap. xxiii. A very good summary.

2. WHEWELL, W. History of the Inductive Sciences. (D. Appleton and Company, second edition, 1901.) The standard complete work. 3. HUXLEY, T. H. Methods and Results. (D. Appleton and Company, 1894.) Chap. ii is entitled Progress of Science.

4. DRAPER, J. W. Intellectual Development of Europe. (Harper & Brothers, revised edition, 1875.) Vol. II, chap. viii.

5. CHURCH, R. W. Bacon. (English Men of Letters Series, Harper & Brothers, 1884.) Particularly chap. viii on Bacon's philosophy.

6. FOWLER, T. John Locke. (English Men of Letters Series, Harper & Brothers, 1880.) Especially chaps. viii, ix, and x.

7. MORLEY, J. Voltaire. (The Macmillan Company, 1886.) Particularly chap. ii, entitled English Influences.

Concerning religious toleration.-8. Cambridge Modern History. Same as I above. Preface and chap. xi on Toleration in England. 9. International Encyclopædia under Liberty, Religious. Concerning the development of Prussia. - 10. SCHWILL, F. History of Modern Europe. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.) Pp. 230–248. II. PAULSEN, F. German Education. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908.)

12. PRIEST, G. M. History of German Literature. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909.)

Concerning democracy. 13. Same as I above. Chap. x on English

Revolution.

14. FOWLER, T. John Locke. See 6 above.

15. MORLEY, J. Rousseau. 2 vols. (The Macmillan Company, 1886.) See particularly Vol. II, chap. iii, on the Social Contract.

16. HUDSON, W. H. Rousseau and Naturalism in Thought and Life. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903.) See chapters on Rousseau's political theories.

17. TOZER, H. Rousseau's Social Contract. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902.)

18. MONROE, P. Textbook on the History of Education. (The Macmillan Company, 1905.)