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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, anıl 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.” Ém. 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.

Drawing from objects. Morals.

Les enfants, grands mitateurs, essayent tous de dessiner: je voudrais que le mien cultivât cet art, non précisément pour l'art même, mais pour se rendre l'œil juste et la main flexible." (Ém. ij., 149). But Émile is to be kept clear of the ordinary drawing-master who would put him to imitate imitations; and there is a striking contrast between Rousseau's suggestions and those of the authorities at South Kensington. Technical skill he cares for less than the training of the eye; so Émile is always to draw from the object, and, says Rousseau, "my intention is not so much that he should get to imitate the objects, as get to know them: mon intention n'est pas tant qu'il sache imiter les objets que les connaître." (Ém. ij., 150).

§ 27. Before we pass the age of twelve years, at which point, as someone says, Rousseau substitutes another Émile for the one he has hitherto spoken of, let us look at his proposals for moral training. Rousseau is right, beyond question, in desiring that children should be treated as children. But what are children? What can they understand? What is the world in which they live? Is it the material world only, or is the moral world also open to them? (Girardin's R., vol. ij., 136). On the subject of morals Rousseau seems to have admirable instincts,* but

* E.g.—What can be better than this about family life? "L'attrait de la vie domestique est le meilleur contrepoison des mauvaises mœurs. Le tracas des enfants qu'on croit importun devient agréable; il rend le père et la mère plus nécessaires, plus chers l'un à l'autre ; il resserre entre eux le lien conjugal. Quand la famille est vivante et animée, les soins domestiques font la plus chère occupation de la femme et le plus doux amusement du mari. Ainsi de ce seul abus corrigé résulterait bientôt une réforme générale; bientôt la nature aurait repris tous ses droits. Qu'une fois les femmes redeviennent mères bientôt les hommes redeviendront pères et maris." Em. j., 17. Again he says in a letter

Contradictory statements on morals.

no principles, and moral as he is "on instinct," there is always some confusion in what he says. At one time he asserts that "there is only one knowledge to give children, and that is a knowledge of duty: "Il n'y a qu'une science à enseigner aux enfants: c'est celle des devoirs de l'homme." Ém. j., 26). Elsewhere he says: "To know right from wrong, to be conscious of the reason of duty is not the business of a child: Connaître le bien et le mal, sentir la raison des devoirs de l'homme, n'est pas l'affaire d'un enfant." (Ém. ij., 75). In another place he mounts his hobby that "the most sublime virtues are negative" (Ém. ij., 95), and that about the best man who ever lived (till he found Friday?) was Robinson Crusoe. The outcome of all Rousseau's teaching on this subject seems that we should in quoted by Saint-Marc Girardin (ij., 121)—“L'habitude la plus douce qui puisse exister est celle de la vie domestique qui nous tient plus près de nous qu'aucune autre." We may say of Rousseau what Émile says of the Corsair :-" Il savait à fond toute la morale; il n'y avait que la pratique qui lui manquât." (Em. et S. 636). And yet he himself testifies :-"Nurses and mothers become attached to children by the cares they devote to them; it is the exercise of the social virtues that carries the love of humanity to the bottom of our hearts; it is in doing good that one becomes good; I know no experience more certain than this: Les nourrices, les mères, s'attachent aux enfants par les soins qu'elles leur rendent; l'exercice des vertus sociales porte au fond des cœurs l'amour de l'humanité ; c'est en faisant le bien qu'on devient bon; je ne connais point de pratique plus sure." Em. iv, 291.

* Elsewhere he asserts in his fitful way that there is inborn in the heart of man a feeling of what is just and unjust. Again, after all his praise of negation he contradicts himself, and says: "I do not suppose that he who does not need anything can love anything; and I do not suppose that he who does not love anything can be happy: Je ne conçois pas que celui qui n'a besoin de rien puisse aimer quelque chose ; je ne conçois pas que celui qui n'aime rien puisse être heureux" Em. iv, 252.

The material world and the moral.

every way develop the child's animal or physical life, retard his intellectual life, and ignore his life as a spiritual and moral being.

§ 28. A variety of influences had combined, as they combine still, to draw attention away from the importance of physical training; and by placing the child's bodily organs and senses as the first things to be thought of in education, Rousseau did much to save us from the bad tradition of the Renascence. But there were more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in his philosophy, and whatever Rousseau might say, Émile could never be restrained from inquiring after them. Every boy will think; i.e., he will think for himself, however unable he may seem to think in the direction in which his instructors try to urge him. The wise elders who have charge of him must take this into account, and must endeavour to guide him into thinking modestly and thinking right. Then again, as soon as the child can speak, or before, the world of sensation becomes for him a world, not of sensations only, but also of sentiments, of sympathies, of affections, of consciousness of right and wrong, good and evil. All these feelings, it is true, may be affected by traditional prejudices. The air the child breathes may also contain much that is noxious; but we have no more power to exclude the atmosphere of the moral world than of the physical. All we can do is to take thought for fresh air in both cases. As for Rousseau's notion that we can withdraw the child from the moral atmosphere, we see in it nothing but a proof how little he understood the problems he professed to solve.*

* This part of Rousseau's scheme is well discussed by Saint-Marc Girardin (J. J. Rousseau, vol. ij.). The following passage is striking

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