Memory without books.

23. If it be objected that, according to Rousseau's plan, there would be a neglect of memory, he replies: "Without the study of books the kind of memory that a child should have will not remain inactive; all he sees, all he hears, strikes him, and he remembers it; he keeps a record in himself of people's actions and people's talk; and all around him makes the book by which without thinking of it he is constantly enriching his memory against the time. that his judgment may benefit by it: Sans étudier dans les livres, l'espèce de mémoire que peut avoir un enfant ne reste pas pour cela oisive; tout ce qu'il voit, tout ce qu'il entend le frappe, et il s'en souvient; il tient registre en luimême des actions, des discours des hommes; et tout ce qui l'environne est le livre, dans lequel, sans y songer, il enrichit continuellement sa mémoire, en attendant que son jugement puisse en profiter." (Ém. ij., 106.) We should be most careful not to commit to our memory anything we do not understand, for if we do, we can never tell what part of our stores really belong to us. (Ém. iij., 236.)

§ 24. On the positive side the most striking part of Rousseau's advice relates to the training of the senses. "The first faculties which become strong in us," says he,

are our senses. These then are the first that should be cultivated; they are in fact the only faculties we forget or

the entrée does not withdraw them too much from the actual world in which they live. The elders find it very convenient when the child can always be depended on to amuse himself with a book; but noise and motion contribute more to health of body and perhaps of mind also. While children of well-to-do parents often read too much, the children of our schools "under government" hardly get a notion what reading is. In these schools "reading" always stands for vocal reading, and the power and the habit of using books for pleasure or for knowledge (other than verbal) are little cultivated.

Use of the senses in childhood.

66

at least those which we neglect most completely." We find that the young child wants to touch and handle everything. By no means check this restlessness; it points to a very necessary apprenticeship. Thus it is that the child gets to be conscious of the hotness or coldness, the hardne ́s or softness, the heaviness or lightness of bodies, to judge of their size and shape and all their sensible properties by looking, feeling, listening, especially by comparing sight and touch, and combining the sensations of the eye with those of the fingers.”* "See a cat enter a room for the first time; she examines round and stares and sniffs about without a moment's rest, she is satisfied with nothing before she has tried it and made it out. This is just what a child does when he begins to walk, and enters, so to say, the chamber of the world. The only difference is that to the sight which is common to the child and the cat the first joins in his observations the hands which nature has given him, and the other animal that subtle sense of smell which has been bestowed upon her. It is this tendency, according as it is well cultivated or the reverse, that makes children either sharp or dull, active or slow, giddy or thoughtful.

"The first natural movements of the child being then to measure himself with his surroundings and to test in everything he sees all its sensible properties which may concern him, his first study is a kind of experimental

"Il veut tout toucher, tout manier; ne vous opposez point à cette inquiétude; elle lui suggère un apprentissage très-nécessaire. C'est ainsi qu'il apprend à sentir la chaleur, le froid, la dureté, la mollesse, la pesanteur, la légèreté des corps; à juger de leur grandeur, de leur figure et de toutes leurs qualités sensibles, en regardant, palpant, écoutant, surtout en comparant la vue au toucher, en estimant à l'œil la sensation qu'ils feraient sous ses doigts." Em. j., 43.

Intellect based on the senses.

physics relating to his own preservation; and from this we divert him to speculative studies before he feels himself at home here below. So long as his delicate and flexible organs can adjust themselves to the bodies on which they ought to act, so long as his senses as yet uncorrupted are free from illusion, this is the time to exercise them all in their proper functions; this is the time to learn to understand the sensuous relations which things have with us. As everything that enters the mind finds its way through the senses, the first reason of a human being is a reason of sensations; this it is which forms the basis of the intellectual reason; our first masters in philosophy are our feet, our hands, our eyes. Substituting books for all this is not teaching us to reason, but simply to use the reason of other people; it teaches us to take a great deal on trust and never to know anything.

"In order to practise an art we must begin by getting the proper implements; and that we may have good use of these implements they must be made strong enough to stand wear and tear. That we may learn to think we must then exercise our members, our senses, our organs, as these are the implements of our intelligence; and that we may make the most of these implements the body which supplies them must be strong and healthy. We see then that far from man's true reason forming itself independently of his body, it is the sound constitution of the body that makes the operations of the mind easy and certain."*

"Voyez un chat entrer pour la première fois dans une chambre: il visite, il regarde, il flaire, il ne reste pas un moment en repos, il ne se fie à rien qu'après avoir tout examiné, tout connu. Ainsi fait un enfant commençant à marcher, et entrant pour ainsi dire dans l'espace du monde. Toute la différence est qu'à la vue, commune à l'enfant et au

Cultivation of the senses.

§ 25. Rousseau does not confine himself to advising that the senses should be cultivated; he also gives some hints of the way in which they should be cultivated, and many modern experiments, such as "object lessons" and the use of actual weights and measures, may be directly traced to him. "As soon as a child begins to distinguish objects, a proper choice should be made in those which are presented to him." Elsewhere he says, "To exercise the senses is not simply to make use of them; it is to learn to judge aright by means of them; it is to learn, so to say, to perceive; for we can only touch and see and hear according as we have learnt how. There is a kind of exercise perfectly natural and mechanical which serves to make the body strong without giving anything for the judgment to lay hold of swimming, running, jumping, whip-top, stone. throwing; all this is capital; but have we nothing but arms and legs? have we not also eyes and ears? and are these organs not needed in our use of the others ? Do not then merely exercise the strength but exercise all the senses

chat, le premier joint, pour observer, les mains que lui donna la nature, et l'autre l'odorat subtil dont elle l'a doué. Cette disposition, bien ou mal cultivée, est ce qui rend les enfants adroits ou lourds, pesants ou dispos, étourdis ou prudents. Les premiers mouvements naturels de l'homme étant donc de se mesurer avec tout ce qui l'environne, et d'éprouver dans chaque objet qu'il aperçoit toutes les qualités sensibles qui peuvent se rapporter à lui, sa première étude est une sorte de physique expérimentale relative à sa propre conservation, et dont on le détourne par des études spéculatives avant qu'il ait reconnu sa place ici-bas. Tandis que ses organes délicats et flexibles peuvent s'ajuster aux corps sur lesquels ils doivent agir, tandis que ses sens encore purs sont exempts d'illusion, c'est le temps d'exercer les uns et les autres aux fonctions qui leur sont propres ; c'est le temps d'apprendre à connaître les rapports sensibles que les choses ont avec nous. Comme tout ce qui entre dans l'entendement humain y vient par les sens, la

Music and drawing.

which direct it; get all you can out of each of them, and then check the impressions of one by the impressions of another. Measure, reckon, weigh, compare."*

§ 26. Two subjects there were in which Émile was to receive instruction, viz.: music and drawing. Rousseau's advice about drawing is well worth considering. He says: "Children who are great imitators all try to draw. I should wish my child to cultivate this art, not exactly for the art itself, but to make his eye correct and his hand supple:

première raison de l'homme est une raison sensitive; c'elle qui sert de base à la raison intellectuelle: nos premiers maîtres de philosophie sont nos pieds, nos mains, nos yeux. Substituer des livres à tout cela, ce n'est pas nous apprendre à raisonner, c'est nous apprendre à nous servir de la raison d'autrui; c'est nous apprendre à beaucoup croire, et à ne jamais rien savoir. Pour exercer un art, il faut commencer par s'en procurer les instruments; et, pour pouvoir employer utilement ces instruments, il faut les faire assez solides pour résister à leur usage. Pour apprendre à penser, il faut donc exercer nos membres, nos sens, nos organes, qui sont les instruments de notre intelligence; et pour tirer tout le parti possible de ces instruments, il faut que le corps, qui les fournit, soit robuste et sain. Ainsi, loin que la véritable raison de l'homme se forme indépendamment du corps, c'est la bonne constitution du corps qui rend les opérations de l'esprit faciles et sûres." Em. ij.,

123.

*

"Exercer les sens n'est pas seulement en faire usage, c'est apprendre à bien juger par eux, c'est apprendre, pour ainsi dire, à sentir; car nous ne savons ni toucher, ni voir, ni entendre, que comme nous avons appris. Il y a un exercice purement naturel et mécanique, qui sert à rendre le corps robuste sans donner aucune prise au jugement: nager, courir, sauter, fouetter un sabot, lancer des pierres; tout cela est fort bien : mais n'avons-nous que des bras et des jambes ? n'avons-nous pas aussi des yeux, des oreilles? et ces organes sont-ils superflus à l'usage des premiers? N'exercez donc pas seulement les forces, exercez tous les sens qui les dirigent; tirez de chacun d'eux tout le parti possible, puis vérifiez l'impression de l'un par l'autre. Mesurez, comptez, pesez, comparez." Em. ij., 133.