THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES (Etacatioiral MEMOIRS OF AND PROMOTERS AND BENEFACTORS DF EDUCATION, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE, Reprinted from, the American Journal of Education. EDITED BY HENRY; 'BARNARD, LL.D, Chancellor of the TJnivrsTEy of "Wisconsin. PART I. TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS SECOND EDITION. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY F. C. BROWNELL, (jformaa Ctotcattonal Informers. MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PACKERS AND EDUCATORS GERMANY- CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION FOURTEENTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. REFUBLI8HED FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, EDITED BY HENRYJ BARNARD, LL.D. FOR SALE BY J. B. LIPPIXCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. F. C. BROWNELL, NEW YORK. TICKNOR & FIELD, BOSTON. UC '905 ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 186'>, BY HENRY BARNARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut Education Library U A PREFACE, THE following pages, devoted to the biographies, and pedagogical labors of eminent teachers and educators in Germany, with historical summaries of the progress of educational development in Europe, from the fourteenth to the nine- teenth century embrace the entire contents of the first two volumes of Prof. Karl von Raumer's "History of Pedagogy ," except the chapters devoted to Pesta- lozzi. For these chapters we have substituted an able, but briefer article by Dr. Diesterweg, on the Life and Influence of the great Swiss educator on the popular schools of Germany, and we may add, of the world. The elaborate and valuable memoir of Pestalozzi the great central figure in the history of modern popular education, is omitted here, because that memoir, with other matter cognate and illustrative of Pestalozzi, and his educational labors, has been issued by the present editor, in a separate publication, entitled "Pestalozzi and Pestalozzianism, or the Life, Educational Principles, and Methods of John Henry Pestalozzi, with Biographical Sketches of several of his Assist- ants and Disciples." Of this volume Prof. Raumer writes from Erlangen in April, 1860: ' ; In your PESTALOZZI AND PESTALOZZIAXISJI, you have collected with the greatest diligence all that relates to Pestalozzi and his school. I can hardly understand how you could have made such collection in America, or out of it either, even by the aid of well informed correspondents. I know how great is the difficulty of collecting authorities, by my own experience during the com- position of my History of Pedagogy, where I had to obtain them with much pains from German libraries and even from France.'' We have retained the chapters on Bacon, Locke, Montaigne, and Rousseau, although the former belong to English, and the latter to French Pedagogy, be- cause the pedagogical views of these writers have greatly influenced the direc- tion and methods of German education, and because the German author claims that his work exhibits the progress of educational development in Europe generally. In a few instances the biographies have been abridged to suit the convenience of the American editor in their original appearance in the "American Journal of Education,' 1 ' 1 for which they were specially translated, without any thought of their separate publication as a reproduction of the German work in an English dress. The translations from page 9 to 330, were made by Mr. Lucius \V. FITCH, of of New Haven, and those which follow by FREDERICK B. PERKINS, of Hartford. HENRY BARNARD, Editor of American Journal of Education. HARTFORD, Coxx., June, 1863. CONTENTS. PACE. Preface, 7 Memoir of Karl von Runnier, 9 I. INTRODUCTION. Revival of Classical Literature in Italy, 1764 1. The Middle Ages Condition of Studies, Teaching and the Arts, 17 2. Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, 28 3. Greek Scholars from Constantinople, John of Ravenna, Chrysolorus, 35 4. Italian Teachers Guarino, Philelphus, Poggius, Valla, Landinus, Politianus, Picus, 49 5. Transition to Germany, 62 II. DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS AND NORTHERN GERMANY,. 65 130 1. Gerard of Daventer Rude win Gerard of Zutphen The Hiergjjymjans, 65 2. Wessel Rudolph Agrico'm Hegius Lunge Busch, 72 3. Erasmus, 89 4. School of Schlettstadt Dringenberg Wimpheling Reuchlin, 101 APPENDIX. Condition of Schools and Teachers in the Sixteenth Century, 113 Autobiography of John Platter ; A-B-C-shooters and Bacchants 125 III. THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION, 131266 1. Martin Luther 131 2. Philip Melancthon .' 161 3. Valentine Friedland Trolzendorf, 185 4. John Stumi 193 5. Michael Neunder, 193 . 6. Ignatius Loyola and the Schools of the Jesuits, 229 K^ 7. -The Early School Codes of Germany 351 1. Dutchy of Wirtemberg; 2. Electorate of Saxony, 257 8. The Universities of the Sixteenth Century, 261 IV. REALISM, 267334 1. Verbal Realism Erasmus Melancthon, 267 2. Real Realism Influence of Lord Bacon's Philosophy, 273 3. Real Schools. Meeker, Halm, Semler ; Modern Development of Realistic Instruction, 302 4. Michael Montaigne 317 V. THE RENOVATORS, OR PROGRESSIVES, 335 520 1. New Ideas and Methods of Education, 335 2. Wolfgang Ratich 343 3. John Amos Comenius, :lish this object. If wo had not this first object of life, what else were there for us to do 'I Our constitutions will be made for us, tho alliances which we arc to form, and the direction in which our military re- sources Hhull be applied, will bo indicated to us, a statute-book will be lent to JH, even the administration of justice will sometimes be taken out of our hands; we shall be relieved of all these cares for the next years to come. Education RAUMERS HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. ]j alone has not been tliought of; if we are seeking for an occupation, let us seize this! We may expect that in this occupation we shall be left undisturbed. 1 hope, (perhaps I deceive myself, but as J have ouly this hope still to live for, I can not cease to hope,) that I convince some Germans, and that I shall bring them to see that it is education alone which can save us from all the evils by which we are oppressed. I count especially on this, as a favorable circumstance, that our need will have rendered us more disposed to attentive observation and serious reflection than we were in the day of our prosperity. Foreign lands have other consolations and other remedies ; it is not to be expected that they would pay any attention, or give any credit to this idea, should it ever reach them ; I will much rather hope that it will be a rich source of amusement to the readers of their journals, if they ever learn that any one promises himself so great things from education.' It may easily be imagined how deep an impression such words made on me, as I read them in Paris, the imperial seat of tyranny, at a time when I was in a state of profound melancholy, caused by the ignominious slavery of my poor beloved country. There also I was absorbed in the perusal of Pestalozzi's work, ' How Gertrude teaches her children. 1 The passages of deep pathos in the book took powerful hold of my mind, the new and great ideas excited strong hopes in me ; at that time I was carried away on the wings of those hopes over Pestalozzi's errors and failures, and I had not the experience which would have enabled me to detect these easily, and to examine them critically. About the same time I read the 'Report to the Parents on the state of the Pestalozzian Institution ;' it removed every doubt in my mind as to the possi- bility of seeing my boldest hopes realized. Hereupon, I immediately resolved to go to Yverdun, which appeared to me a green oasis, full of fresh and living springs, in the midst of the great desert of my native land, on which rested the curse of Napoleon." At an age when most men, of his acknowledged ability and schol- arship, are only thinking of securing a civil employment, which shall bring both riches and honor, Von Kaumer hastened to Pestalozzi at Yverden, where he devoted the months from October 1 809, to May 1810, to a thorough study of the principles and methods of elemen- tary instruction, as illustrated by the great Swiss educator. After returning from Switzerland, he was first appointed, in 1810, to an office in the higher grades of the mining department ; and in the autumn of 1811, to the professorship of mineralogy in the Uni- versity of Breslau, and at the same time, to the office of Mining Counselor in the higher mining board there. In the latter year he married the daughter of Chapel-master Reichardt, with whom, in 1861, he celebrated the anniversary of his golden wedding. In 1819, he was transferred to Halle, and in 1823, taking a dismissal from the Prussian public service, he went to Nuremberg, where he was at the head of an educational institution until the year 1827. In that year he became professor of Natural History and Mineralogy, at the University of Erlangen. In addition to his regular duties, both at Halle, and at Erlangen, Prof. Raumer delivered courses of lectures on Pedagogy, which he afterwards published in four parts, the first of which, was issued 1843. " This work luns grown out of a series of fcetures, upon the history of education 12 RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. which I delivered, in 1822, at Halle, and several years later, from 1838 to 1842, at Erlangeh. The reader may inquire, how it was that my attention was directed to this subject? If he should, it will perhaps be sufficient to say in reply, that during the thirty -one years of my professorship, I have not merely interested myself in Ihe science to which my time was devoted, but also in its corresponding art, and this the more, because much of the instruction which I gave was additional to my regular lectures, and imparted in the way of dialogue. This method stimu- .ated my own thoughts too, to that degree, that I was induced as early as the year 1819 to publish many didactical essays, and subsequently, a manual for in* struction in Natural History. But were I called upon for a more particular ex- planation, it would be necessary for me to relate the many experiences of my somewhat eventful life, both from my passive years of training and instruction, and from my active years of educating and instructing others. This, however, is a theme, to which I can not do justice within the brief compass of a preface; S hereafter an opportunity shall offer, I may treat it in another place. And yet after all, the book itself must bear testimony to the fitness of the author for his task. Of what avail is it to me, to say that I have been taught by Meierotto, Buttman, Frederick Augustus, Wolf, Steffens, Werner. Pestalozzi, and other distinguished men ? When I have said all this, have I done any more than to show that the author of this book has had the very best oppor- tunity to learn what is just and true? My book begins with the revival of classical learning. And Germany I aave had preeminently in view. Why, by way of introduction, I have given a orief history of the growth of learning in Italy from Dante to the age of Leo X., the reader will ascertain from the book itself. He will be convinced, if not at the outset, yet as he reads further, that this introduction is absolutely necessary to a correct understanding of German didactics. A history of didactics must present the various standards of mental culture, which a nation proposes to itself during its successive eras of intellectual devel- opment, and then the modes of instruction which are adopted in each era, in order to realize its peculiar standard in the rising generation. In distinguished men that standard of culture manifests itself to us in person, so to speak, and hence they exert a controlling influence upon didactics, though they may not themselves be teachers. ' A lofty example stirs up a spirit of emulation, and discloses deeper principles to guide the judgment.' But their action upon the intellectual culture of their countrymen has a re- doubled power, when at the same time they labor directly at the work of teach- ing, as both Luther and Melancthon did for years. This consideration has induced me to select my characters for this history among distinguished teachers, those who were held in the highest respect by their contemporaries, and whose example was a pattern for multitudes. Such an one was John Sturm at Stras- burg, a rector, who with steady gaze pursued a definite educational aim, organ- izing his gymnasium with the utmost skill and discernment, and carrying out what lie had conceived to be the true method, with the most scrupulous care. An accurate sketch of the educational, efficiency of this pattern rector, based upon original authorities, in my opinion conveys far more insight and instruction than I could hope to afford, were I to entangle myself amid fragmentary sketches of numberless ordinary schools, framed upon Sturm's plan. Thus much in explanation of the fact that this history has taken the form of a series of biographies. And in view of the surprising differences among the characters treated of, it can not appear singular, if my sketches should be widely different in their form. There was one thought, which I will own occasioned me abundant perplexi- ty during my labors. If I was about to describe a man, who, I had reason to suppose, was more or less unknown to most of my readers, I went about the t;isk with a light heart, and depicted his life and labors in their full proportions, i o.innunicating every thing which could, by any possibility, render his image dearer and more lifelike to the reader. But how different the case, when the educational efficiency of Luther is to be set forth. 'My readers,' I say to my- self, 'have long been acquainted with the man, and they will .not thank me for the information that lie was born at Kisleben, on the 10th of November, 1483; ns if they had not known this from their j-outh up.' I am, therefore, compelled RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. ]3 to omit ali such particulars, and to confine myself exclusively to his educational efficiency. And yet this did not stand alone ; but was for the most part united, with its entire influence, both to the church and the state. As with Luther, so also was it with Melancthon and others. Considerate readers will, hence, pardon me, I hope, when, in cases of this kind, they are not fully satisfied with my sketches. In another respect, too, I ought perhaps to solicit pardon, though I am reluct- ant to do so. We demand of historians au objective portraiture, especially such as shall reveal none of the personal sympathies or antipathies of the writer. Now it is proper to insist upon that truth and justice which will recognize the pood qualities of an enemy, and acknowledge the faults of a friend. But free from likes and dislikes I neither am, nor do I desire to be, but, according to the dictates of my conscience and the best of my knowledge, I will signify my ab- horrence of evil and my delight in good, nor will I ever put bitter for sweet or sweet for bitter. It may be, too, that a strict objectivity requires the historian never to come forward himself upon the stage, and never to express his own opinion in respect to the facts which he is called upon to chronicle. Herein he is. not allowed so much freedom of action as the dramatist, who, by means either of the prologue and epilogue, or of the chorus between each of the acts, comes forward and converses with the public upon the merits of his play. Such an ob- jectivity, likewise, I can not boast myself of; for I record my own sentiments freely where I deem it necessary. And surely will not the objectivity of history gain more by an unrestricted personal interview with the historian, at proper intervals, than by compelling him to a perpetual masquerade behind the facts and the nar- rative ? Certainly it will, for in that case the reader discovers the character of the writer in his opinions, and knows what he himself is to expect from the nar- ration. He likewise observes with the more readiness, where the writer, though conscientiously aiming at truth and impartiality, nevertheless betrays symptoms of human infirmity and party zeal. From a church historian, for instance, who should express his puritanical views without reserve, no intelligent reader would expect an impartial estimate of the middle ages. Another motive also urges me to a free expression of my opinions, and that is. in order thereby to allure my readers to that close familiarity with many im- portant educational subjects which the bare recital of facts seldom creates. If, in this history, the ideal and the methods of such different teachers are depicted, these diverse views can not but have the effect, especially those practically en- gaged in training the young, to induce a comparison of their own aims and pro- cedure therewith. Sentiments that harmonize with our own give us joy, and inspire us with the pleasant consciousness that our course is the right one : differing or opposing opinions lead us to scrutinize our own course, even as were it another's; and from such scrutiny there results either perseverance based upon deeper conviction, or a change of course. I am happy to acknowl- edge, that this practical aim has bee my chief motive in undertaking the present work, and has been uppermost in my thoughts during its prosecution. As far as possible, I have depended on contemporaneous sources, and in part from exceedingly rare works, and such, as, for aught that I know to the contrary, in the present age, have fallen into almost total oblivion. And, for this reason, I was the more influenced to render a service to the reader, by bringing widely to his view the men and the manners of earlier centuries, through the medium of contemporaneous and characteristic quotations." We append the Contents of the three volumes of Raumer's great work, from the edition of 1847, and also the preface and contents of the fourth volume, which appeared in 1854. Since the publication of the fourth volume, a new edition of the entire work has been issued in four large octavo volumes, fora copy of which, we are under obligations to the author. In the third volume there are numerous additional paragraphs, and several important chapters, viz., a section of ten pages on "the Church and School," a chapter, (III) on " Schools of Science and Art," another, (IV) of nearly ninety pages on the " Education of Girls," and an essay on " Instruction in Ger- man," of eighty pages, by his son, Prof. Rudolph von Raumer. 14 RAUMER S HISTORY OP PEDAGOGICS. GESCHICHTE DER PADAGOGIK vom wiederaufbliihen klassischor studicn bis unsere zeit. [History of Pedagogies, or of the Science and Art of Education, from the revived of classical studies down to our time.] By Karl von Rauiner. 3 vols. Stuttgard, 2d edition, 1847. VOLUME I. PREFACE. 1. Middle Ages. 2. Italy, from birth of Dante to death of Petrarca and Boccaccio. 1. Dante. 2. Boccaccio. 3. Petrarca. Review of the period. 3. Development of classical studies in Italy, from death of Petrarca and Boccaccio until Leo X. 1. John of Ravenna and Emanuel Chrysoloras. 2. The educators, Guarino and Vittorino de Feltre. 3. Collection of MSS. Cosmo de Medici. Nicho- las V. First printing. 4. Platonic Academy. Greek philologists. 5. Italians. Phila ielphus. Poggius. Laurentius. 0. Lorenzo de Medici. Ficinus. Argyropulus Landinus. Politianus. Picus de Mirandola. 4. Leo X. and his time; its lights and shadows. 5. Retrospect of Italy. Transition to Germany. 6. German* and Dutch, from Gerhardus Magnus to Luther, 1340-1483. 1. The Hieronymians. 2. John Wessel. 3. Rudolf Agricola. 4. Alexander Flegius. 5, 6. Rudolf von Lange and Herman von den Busch 7. Erasmus. 8. School at Schlett- utadt. Ludwig Dringenberg. Wimpheling. Crato. Lapidus. Platter. 9. John Reuchlin. 10. Retrospect. Reformation. Jesuits. Realism. From Luther to the death of Bacon, 1483-1626. 1. Luther. 2. Molanethon. 3. Valentin Friedland. Trot/endorf. 4. Michael Neander. 5. John Stiirm. 6. Wur- temberg. 7. Saxony. 8. Jesuits. 9. Universities. 10. Verbal Realism. 11. Fran- cis Bacon. 12. Montaigne. Appendix. I. Thomas Platter. II. Melancthon's Latin grammar. III. John Sturm. VOLUME II. New ideas and methods of education. Struggle, mutual influence, and gradual con- nection add exchange between the old and the new. From Bacon's death to that of Pettalozzi. 1. The Renovators. 2. Wolfgang Ratich. 3. The Thirty Years' War. 4. Comenius. 5. The Century after the Thirty Years' War. 6. Locke. 7. A. H. Franke. 8. Real Schools. 9. Reformatory Philologists. J. M. Gesner. J. A. Ernesti. 10. J. J. Rousseau. 11. Philanthropists. 12. Ha- mann. 13. Herder. 14. F. A. Wolf. 15. Pestalozzi. Appendix. I. Wolfgang Ratich and his literature. II. Pedagogical works of Come- nins. III. Intcriorof the Philanlhropinum. IV. Pestalozzi and his literature. V. Pes- tiilo/./.i's Evening Hour of a Hermit. VI. Pestalozxi on Niederer and Schmid. VII. Stranneis who remained some time at Pestalozzi's institution. VIII. Rousseau and Pcstaloiszi. VOLUME III. Early childhood. Schools for small children. School and home. Educational in- stitutions. Tutors in families. Instruction. 1. Religion. 2 Latin. Preface. I. History of Latin in Christian times. Speaking Latin. Writing Latin. II. Methods of reading Latin. 1. These methods changed within the last three centuries. 2. Adversaries of the old grammatical method. 3. New methods. A. Learning Latin like the mother tongue. B. Latin and real instruction in connection. Comcnius. C. Combination of A and B. D. Ratich and similar teachers, a. Ratich. b. Locke, c. Hamilton, d. Jacotot. e. Ruthardt. f. Meierotto. g. Jacobs. Con- cluding remarks. Aphorisms on the teaching of history. Geography. Natural history and philosophy. Preface. I. Difficulties. 2. Objections against this instruction in gymnasia answered. 3. Grades of natural knowledge. 4. Begin- nings. 5. Science and art. 6. Mathematical instruction and elementary instruction in the knowledge of nature. 7. Instruction in mineralogy. 8. Characteristics of scholars. 9. Instruction in Iwlany. 10. Unavoidable inconsistency. 11. " Mysteri ously clear," (Goethe.) 12. Law and liberty. Concluding remarks. Geometry. Arithmetic. Physical training. 1. Hygiene. 2. Hardening the body to toil and want 3. Gymnastics. 4. Cultivation of the senses. Concluding observations. Appendix. I. Ruthardt's new Lori Mentoriales. II Teachers of nvneralogy *1I. Use of coiinterx in the elementary instruction in arithmetic. IV. Exp'anntion of 'he common abbreviated counting with cyphers. The entire Contents of this work, including the fourth volume, and the addi- tions referred to fcn the preceding page, have been translated expressly for, and oublished in the ' ' American Journal of Education." RAUMER'3 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. jg Since the foregoing sketch of Prof. Raumer's own educational life and labors was published, we have received a fourth and concluding volume of his " History, een conceded to no one within the memory of man. Nor could it well be said of any one, in any former age, that during his lifetime he had enjoyed so much reputation in such a wide circle, and had been so highly honored both by kings, emperors, and people, as had Petrarch. Hence in his old age he became surfeited with renown. Petrarch, in common with many of his countrymen, cherished the memory of the ancient glories of Rome, and longed to see those glories restored. For the power of the hierarchy, that, under Gregory VII., Innocent III., and others, had made the nations of Christian Europe mere dependencies of Rome, had since the division of the church greatly declined. Every movement that tended to the restoration of Rome, Avas hailed by Petrarch with delight. Hence, when Rienzi, in the year 1346, during the Pontificate of Clement VI., attempted the sublime scheme of reinaugurating the Roman Republic, Petrarch wrote enthusiastic letters to the Romans, in which he compared Rienzi to the elder Brutus. But this man, who, in the delirium of his pride, had sum- moned emperors and kings before his throne, and who had arrogated to himself the possession of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, was in the following year driven from the city. Petrarch then turned his eyes upon Charles IV., and invited him as the descendant of Charles the Great to come to Italy and recon- struct the Roman Empire. He came finally in 1354, but played a cowardly part at Milan and at Rome, and made all haste back again to Germany. At this Petrarch was incensed, and wrote him a letter full of bitter reproaches. " Thou," he said, u thou, lord of the Ro- man Empire ! Thou hast no aspirations which reach beyond Bo- hemia. When had thy grandfather or thy father acted thus ignobly ? But virtue, I perceive, is no inheritance." The retreat of Charles he stigmatized as " inglorious, not to say infamous." But he used still stronger language of the hierarchy. The Papal See, at Avignon, he called the second Babylon ; and he laid bare its corruptions both in prose and in verse. " Here thou mayest behold a people," thus he wrote to a friend, " that is not only at variance with Christ, but that arrays itself against his cause while marching under his banner; a people that serves Satan, and thirsting for the blood of Christ, taunts him with the words, 'Our lips are our own : who is Lord over us ? ' They are a froward, godless, smooth-tongued, and avaricious generation, and, like Judas, they betray their master. They have the name of Christ in their mouths by day and by night, but yet they are ever ready to sell him for silver." In another let- ter he says, " In this stronghold of avarice, nothing is deemed iniqui- 32 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. tous, provided only that the pay is secure. The hope of life everlast- ing, and all the terrors of the second death, have become to them as n fable ; the resurrection of the flesh, the end of the world, and tho coming of Christ in judgment, they look upon as the devices of a juggler. Truth they call folly, moderation weakness, and modesty a disgrace. In fine, a life of open sin they make their highest wisdom and their truest liberty ; the more scandalous the conduct the more worthy they think it, and the greater the crime the greater the glory." In still another place he says, " Shall I choose Babylon (Avignon) for my residence, where I shall be compelled to see the good abused and the vile exalted, eagles creep and asses soar aloft, where wolves roam at large but lambs are led to the slaughter, where Christ is persecuted and Anti-Christ is Lord, while Beelzebub sits in the seat of judgment ? " Such is the picture which he gives of the pope and the clergy, not upon hearsay evidence, but as he himself had seen them ; and of the cardinals he relates deeds that are absolutely too shameless to repeat. Petrarch's attainments belonged wholly to a subsequent age ; he was the precursor of the philological poets. Hence it was that he apparently had no sympathy with Dante, that gigantic spirit of the Middle Ages, prophetic not of one age alone but of all coming time. Cicero was his delight, even from boyhood. "At an age," he writes, " when I could not understand him in any degree, I was at- tracted to him purely by the sweetness and the rhythmic flow of his words." So likewise was he enthusiastic in his love for Virgil. And the study of the law tended in his opinion to diminish this enthusi- asm. " Nothing," he writes to Thomas of Messina, "nothing suc- ceeds that is undertaken against nature. She has formed me for solitude and not for the forum. I do not venture to say that I acted with a wise forecast, but only that I happened upon the right course, when I threw off the fetters of Bologna." Petrarch had a most ardent desire to learn the Greek. His earlier teacher, Bai laam, a Calabrian of the Order of St. Basil, first met him at Avignon, in 1342. "With glowing hopes and eager desire," he writes, "did I apply myself to the Greek; but the complete foreign- ness of the language, and the sudden decease of my teacher, put an end to rny project." Nicholas Sigeros subsequently sent him a Homer from Constantinople. He acknowledged the gift in these terms : " You have sent me a great, a priceless treasure ; I only wish that you yourself had come with it ; then could I learn this difficult lan- guage under your direction, and so enjoy your gift. But, alas ! what shall 1 do ? For you live in a distant land, and Barlaam has been snatched from me by death. To me Homer is dumb, or, much more, HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. 33 I am deaf for him. Yet I delight myself in gazing on him, and often do I embrace him, and exclaim with a sigh, ' O thou great man, how joyfully would I listen to thy numbers, but my ears are sealed, the one by death, the other by long distance.' " Petrarch added, notwithstanding, the request to Sigeros to send him a Hesiod and a Euripides. His enthusiasm for the Roman classics was that of an Italian who honored in them the genius of his ancestors, and who longed for the restoration of the olden power and glory of Rome. He must have had, moreover, as his poems show, a most delicate ear for the sweetness of the language. The charming periods of Cicero, and the stately hexameters of Virgil, exercised a magical influence upon him. His absorbing devotion to the ancient classics, his daily and constant communion with them, and withal his endeavors to im- itate them, are every where evidenced ; in his letters especially. So much the more must we honor him, in that he was not warped from Christianity by his attachment to the ancients. M It is permitted to us," he writes to John Colonna, " to admire and to esteem the philos- ophers, provided that they do not turn us aside from truth, nor blind our eyes to the chief end of our existence. Should any of them tempt us to this, even were it Plato, Aristotle, Varro, or Cicero, then must he with an unyielding steadfastness be despised and trodden under foot. No acuteness of argumentation, no seducing array of words, no authority of great names, should be allowed to have any weight with us. For they were but men, their learning was no deeper than human penetration and experience could go ; and, though their elo- quence was surpassing, and their intellectual gifts of the highest order, yet we should compassionate them, because they lacked that good which is unspeakable and above all price. Inasmuch as they trusted to their own strength, and turned away from the true light, they have stumbled and fallen, after the manner of the blind. We may admire their talents, but at the same time we should not forget to give the glory to Him who bestowed those talents upon them. We may feel compassion for the errors of these men, but we should not forget to be grateful for our lot, and to acknowledge that we have been more highly favored than our ancestors, and that, without any merit of our own, but purely through the grace of Him who conceals his myster- ies from the wise but reveals them unto babes. Let us so philosophize as to abide by the true wisdom. But the true wisdom of God is in Christ. To philosophize then in the true spirit, we must love and honor Christ first of all. Let us be Christians, 6rst and foremost. Let us so read philosophy, poetry, and history, that Christ's gospel shall ever sound in the ears of our heart, that gospel through which alone we can become sufficiently learned and blessed, but without c 34 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. which our highest accomplishments will but render us more ignorant and wretched. Upon the gospel alone, as upon the only immovable basis of all true knowledge, can human diligence build with safety." But clearly as Petrarch beheld the relation which the classics sus- tained to the gospel, and just as was the opinion which he pronounced upon them, yet lie was equally free from the narrow-mindedness of those who foolishly deem themselves the more acceptable to God the more they clip the wings of their own spirits. "You tell me," PQ- trarch wrote to James Colonna, " that I only feign a love for Angus- tin and his works, while in truth I can not divorce myself from the poets and philosophers. But why should I tear myself away from those studies in which Augustin himself took so much delight? Had it not been so with him, he had never put together those sub- lime books ' of the City of God ' to say nothing of his other works with so much cement borrowed from the poets and philosophers, nor adorned them with so many colors drawn from the orators and his- torians. And he himself moreover freely testifies that he found much of the Christian element in the works of the Platonists, and that the Hortensius of Cicero made a wonderful change in his views, so that lie was diverted thereby from vain expectations, and the profitless controversies of sects, and attracted to the unmingled study of truth. Thus was this great teacher of the church not ashamed to put him- self under the guidance of Cicero, although Cicero's ideal was in the main so widely different from his. And why should he have been ashamed ? We ought not to refuse the aid of any leader, who points to us the way of the soul's safety. I do not deny that much is to be found in the classics that we ought to avoid ; so too in Christian writers there are often many things which will mislead an incautious reader. Yea, Augustin himself has given us a laborious work, in which, with his own hand, he has rooted out the tares from the rich wheat-field of his writings. In short, the books are very few that we can read without danger, unless the light of divine truth shall shine into our minds, and discover to us what to choose and what to shnn. And if we have this light to guide us, we shall walk every where in a sure place." But the men of that day did not all share Petrarch's opinions. He lamented, as Augustin had done before him, " that so many, in their enthusiasm for study, neglected to strive after holiness, and thought in ire highly of eloquence and renown than of a blameless lite and of virtue. Poets were more willing to be faulty in their conduct than in their verse : historians cared more to trace the annals of the world than to render an account of their own short lives; and orators shrank with far more disgust from deformity in style than from HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. 35 crooked dealings with their fellow-men. Theologians had degenerated into logicians, nay, into sophists ; they did not seek to love, only to know God, nor this except for appearance' sake and to deceive others, while in secret they cherished their unholy passions." The preceding paragraph discloses Petrarch's aversion to the logi- cians, that is, the scholastics. In two letters to Thomas of Messina he holds up to ridicule an old, contentious logician, depicts his bloodless, lanthorn-jawed visage, his sunken eyes, his ragged attire, and his rough, austere manner. Accusations and slanders form the staple of his dis- course. With hoarse yelping he has given utterance to the dictum that Petrarch's art, i. e., the art of poetry, was the least useful of all the arts. Petrarch admits, in passing, that it ministers to the desire for delight and for beauty, not to mere utility. But the logician argues, that, if the poetic art is the least useful, it is therefore the least elevated. According to such an irrational conclusion, the barest hand- icraft is to be held in the highest honor. " Out upon this new and barbarous doctrine," Petrarch continues, " a doctrine unknown even to Aristotle, whose name they sully by the imputation." The hatred of the scholastics toward Petrarch was subsequently displayed in the most violent manner. At Venice they sat in judg- ment upon him, and decreed that he was devoid of learning ; upon which he wrote the treatise "On his own ignorance and that of others." In another quarter he was cried down as a disciple of the " black art," because he read Virgil so constantly, a poet regarded in the Mid- dle Ages as a sorcerer, and also because he wrote poems himself. The chief and most rancorous enemy of the poets at that period was Solipodio, a Dominican and a Grand Inquisitor. In his youth, Petrarch was accounted beautiful : in a letter to his brother he alludes jocosely to their mutual pride of personal appear- , ance. " Yet would that I could say with truth," he writes, " that I had ever remained entirely free from the dominion of pleasure ! But I thank God that, while I was yet in the flower of youth, He rescued me from this debasing and detested yoke." He owed his safety to his pure, poetical love for Laura, who remained to the end true to her marriage-vow. In the year 1348, that terrible pestilence, the Black Plague, raged throughout Asia and Europe, from China to Iceland. During that period, Petrarch wrote to his brother as follows : " My brother, ah ! my dearest brother, what shall I tell you ? Where shall I begin, or what shall I speak of first ? All is anguish and terror. Oh ! my brother, would that I had never been born, or at least that I had not lived to witness these horrors ! " " Was it ever heard, does history any where show the record, of houses emptied, and cities depopulated, of 36 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY fields piled with the dead, in short, of the whole globe being changed into a waste, howling wilderness? Ask the historians, they are dumb ; ask the physicians, they are struck with amazement ; ask the philosophers, they shrug their shoulders, draw down their eyebrows, and, with their finger on their mouth, they bid you be silent. Will posterity credit this, when we ourselves, who are eye-witnesses, can scarce believe it ? " In a tone of despairing sadness he mourns over the loss of numbers of his friends. In these dark days his thoughts were continually with his absent Laura. On the 6th of April, he tells us, she appeared to him in a morning-dream, fair as an angel. " Dost thou not know me ? " she said; " I am she who led thee aside from the beaten paths of worldliness, when first thy young heart inclined itself to me." To his question whether she yet lived, she replied : '' I am living, but thou art dead, and so thou wilt remain, until thou hast left the earth behind thee. Thou wilt never find true happiness, so long as thou courtest the favor, or art awed by the displeasure, of the populace. Thou wouldst rejoice at my death rather than mourn over it, couldst thou realize but a tithe of the bliss which is now my portion." On the 19th of May, next following, Petrarch received the news that Laura had died upon that dream-night, the 6th of April ; it was on the 6th of April, twenty-one years before, that he had first seen her. At such a trying period, and with such experiences, it is not to be wondered at that Petrarch, as he advanced in years, became mel- ancholy and austere, withdrawing himself more and more from the vanities of the world. He had from the first, however, cherished an especial reverence and love for the austere Augustin above all the church fathers; the " Confessions" chiefly had exercised a marked influence upon him. This book he had with him as he once ascended to the summit of the lofty Veutoux, and from thence enjoyed the glorious prospect over the Alps of Dauphiny, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Oevennes while the Rhone flowed at his feet. He there opened the book, and the first passage upon which his eye alighted was the fol- lowing : " Men go on long journeys to admire lofty mountains and mighty oceans, but meanwhile they forget themselves/' This thought made a profound impression upon him, and "was the occasion of his afterward writing the " Conversations with Augustin.' 1 ' 1 In his last years he resided at Arqua, in the neighborhood of Padua. On the 18th of July, 1374, he was found dead, his head resting upon a book. Sixteen doctors bore his coffin to the grave ; nobles, clergy, and multitudes of the common people joined in the funeral -procession. The following epitaph, which he had himself composed, is upon his tombstone : HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. 37 " Frigida Francisci tegit hie lapis ossa Petrarchse ; Suscipe Virgo parens animam ; Sate Virgiiie parce, Fessaque jam terris Coeli reqniescat in arce."* In his will he bequeathed, amongst other things, money to Boccaccio to buy himself a winter-robe to wear whilst studying at night. His choice library he had before his death given to the Venetians, and it formed the nucleus of the afterward so celebrated Library of St. Mark. He had spent an extraordinary amount of labor in collecting manuscripts, and many he had copied with his own hand, .while others he had employed his scholar, John of Ravenna, subsequently renowned as a teacher, to copy. III. RETROSPECT. DANTE, BOCCACCIO, AND PETRARCH. Looking back for a moment at these three men, let us ask ourselves what they had in common, and wherein they differed from one an- other. All three, sons of Florentine citizens, they first fashioned a common national and written language for the whole of Italy. This they did, not so much by means of convincing philological demon- strations, based upon established principles, as by recognizing and authenticating the language, in the works of their genius. " Poets and authors, in the lofty moods of their inspiration, feel the invisible sway of the untiringly creative spirit of language."! All three of them moreover paved the way for the study of the classics, and in them first we behold an awakening feeling of classical beauty, and an enthusiastic love for the ancients ; nevertheless Dante and Petrarch were familiar with Roman writers only, though Boccac- cio read the Greek also. This enthusiastic love for the classics was destined sooner or later to come into conflict with the Christian faith. In Dante however this faith ruled in a sublime and undisputed tranquillity. Petrarch's passion for the classics was likewise uncon- ditionally subordinate to the doctrines of the church. And it is only later, and chiefly among the Italians, that we find the Pagan element frequently victorious over the Christian. Side by side with this conflict we behold an extremely singular intermingling of Pagan and Christian words, metaphors, and senti- ments. Thus we find in Dante the following : " Forgive, O highest Jove, enthroned in light, Thou who on earth wast crucified for mortals." * The above epitaph, a compact rhyming triplet, in dactylic hexameter, 1 have reproduced in trochaic heptameter, as follows, viz : " Cold the bones of Francis Petrarch here beneath this marble lie : Take his soul. O Virgin parent ; Virgin's eon in grace draw nigh From the weary earth to bear it to thy peaceful courts on high." [ Translator. I t Jacob Grimm, in the preface to his German Grammar. No. 18. [Voi. VI., No. 3.J 28. 38 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. We have seen that Boccaccio calls Christ " the son of Jupiter, who ravished the realms of Pluto." It was of a piece too with this mode of representation that, at the coronation of Petrarch, satyrs, fauns, and nymphs were made to dance before the poet, when lie was about to offer his prayers at the altar of St. Peter, and to devote his crown as a sacrifice to the apostle. This Christian-Pagan intermixture was carried by the later Italians into the grossest caricature. Tfce mediaeval method of writing Latin, and heedlessly corrupting it without any knowledge of the Roman writers of the golden age, now began to die out ; the classics were sought for and read, and all possible efforts were made to imitate them. Although these three men thus prepared the way for the Italian writer whether of prose or verse to express his thoughts in his own living vernacular, yet more than a century passed before any new works meriting attention were composed in the Italian language. On the contrary, so absorbing was the enthusiasm for the classics during the 15th century, that the Italian scholars of that period treated their native tongue with contempt. In the Latin Dialogues of Leonardo Aretino we find that well-known statesman and scholar, Nicolo Nicoli, speaking in the following manner of Dante : " I can not conceive how any one can place this man, who wrote such poor Latin, among poets and scholars, or, as some do, prefer him even to Virgil : he ought rather, I think, to be classed with belt-makers and bakers, and people of that kidney." Even up to the time of Lorenzo di Medici, Florentine fathers and teachers forbade their boys to read books written in Italian, which language they contemptuously styled a vulgar tongue. But when, toward the close of the 15th and in the 16th centuries, the vernacular was again brought into repute through the efforts of master writers both of proso and poetry, then the Academy delta Crusca constituted itself a supreme tribunal to decide between good and bad Italian. By it, Petrarch's poems, and of Boccaccio's prose the "Decameron" were pronounced the highest authority in Italian, in the same manner as Cicero was in Latin. Men had indeed been so long accustomed to imitation, that they did not even deem it possible to be original. That Dante, the inimitable, must necessarily have been neglected by the Academy, is hence quite natural. It is worthy of remark that both Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, were unanimous in condemning the gross corruption of the clergy. They did not even spare the pope ; Dante's sharp rebuke of indulgences was em- inently a prelude to the contests of the Reformation. In the succeed- ing centuries, the advancement and upbuilding of classical culture HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. 39 in Germany especially was most closely leagued with the cause of reformation in the church ; so closely in fact, that Erasmus, for exam- ple, was often unable to determine precisely what he was advocating, whether the claims of sound learning or of ecclesiastical purity. Dante's powerful imagination and most delicate appreciation of beauty were made tributary to an intellect flashing with the keenest subtleties of scholasticism. Petrarch, on the other hand, belonged rather to the coming time, as his antipathy to the repulsive and de- generate logic of most of the schoolmen indicates. They too on their part regarded his poetry as altogether useless, and solemnly stigmatized the poet as an unenlightened dunce. It was a Grand Inquisitor, and a Dominican, who in that age testified the greatest degree of hatred toward all the poets. What an apt introduction is this to the battles which, in the loth and the 16th centuries, raged 7 ' O between the well-meaning, though often superficial, champions of an- tiquity and the last representatives of an unlearned and misshapen scholasticism, with the Dominicans at their head ! With these preliminary hints, we resume our history, in the course of which it will become more and more apparent that the influence of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio upon the learning of Germany, if not direct, was nevertheless immense. IV. GROWTH OF CLASSICAL LEARNING IN ITALY, FROM THE DEATH OF PETRARCH AND BOCCACCIO TO THE AGE OF LEO X. 1. John of Ravenna and Emanuel Chrysoloras Three sons of Florentine citizens, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccac- cio, had thus laid the foundation of a new style of culture. Within a century and a half after the death of the latter, the passion for clas- sical studies ran high. Florence fostered these studies above all other cities, and chiefly through the influence of Cosmo and Lorenzo di Medici. Next to Florence, Rome, Venice, Milan, and Ferrara were conspicuous; in fact no city of note in Italy remained entirely aloof; all desired to see one or another philologist, if only for a time, as a teacher within their walls. Hence the most distinguished men were constantly called from one city to another. Among the earliest teachers there were two who formed many illustrious scholars. One of these was John Malpaghino, commonly called, after the place of his birth, John of Ravenna. He was born in 1352. He spent several years with Petrarch, who treated him with the fondness of a father, and gave him instruction. Having superior talents, and a wonderful memory, he made rapid progress. Nevertheless he left Petrarch sud- denly, from a disgust for transcribing, joined to a desire to see the world. Some time after, he taught at Padua, and was there distin- guished as well for his blameless life as for his learning. In the year 40 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ITALY. 1397 he was appointed by the city of Florence to a professorship of the Roman language and eloquence. In the year 1412 he obtained the further honor of lecturing upon and explaining the "Divina Corn- media " of Dante, upon feast-days in the cathedral. He died some- where between 1412 and 1420. As John promoted the study of the Roman classics, so did Einan- uel Chrysoloras the like for the Greek. At first a teacher in Constan- tinople, he was, after the year 1391, sent by the Emperor John Palaeologus repeatedly into the West, to secure help against the in- roads of the Turks. In the year 1396 he was invited, upon a salary of 100 gulden, to Florence to teach Greek literature. He was the first native Greek who taught in Italy. " For 700 years," thus wrote his scholar, Leonardo Aretino, " no Italian has known any thing of Greek literature, and yet we acknowledge that all our learning is derived from the Greeks." Afterward Chrysoloras taught in Pavia, Venice, etc. He was sent in 1415, by Pope John XXIII., to the Council of Constance, in which city he died. John of Ravenna and Chrysoloras were succeeded by a host of teachers, both of Latin and Greek; for the new style of culture de- manded a knowledge of both these languages. Latin was the chief language in vogue among the higher orders in Italy; for it had been the language of their great Roman forefathers, and they were there- fore too proud of it to regard it as dead. Greek too had been taught by Chrysoloras as his own living, native tongue, not as a dead book- language ; and as he had done, so did other Greeks, who afterward came to Italy. 2. The Teachers Guarino and Vittorino di Fellre. Of the many philologists who now came into notice, I will, agreeably to the plan that I have marked out for myself, give a sketch of two who became eminent both as public instructors and as private tutors, viz., Guarino ami Vittorino di Feltre. Guarino was born in 1370, at Ferrara, and as early as 1388 he betook himself to Constantinople to Chrysoloras. On his return home, he taught in Verona, Padua, and Bologna, in Ferrara superintended the education of Prince Lionello, translated Strabo and other classics, gave comments on Cicero, Persius, Juvenal, Martial, Aristotle, JOHN WESSEL. JOHN WESSEL was a baker's son, and was born in 1420, at Groningen. Here he received his early education, after which he went to Zwoll, to the school of the Hieronymians, where Thomas-a-Kempis exerted a powerful influence upon him. He then studied in Cologne, and about the year 1452 went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance \ of Bessarion and Francis de Novera, afterward Pope Sixtus IV. In Vl 470 he made a journey to Italy. Already won over to Platonism by Bessarion, his stay in Florence wedded him more closely to it. When in Rome, Pope Sixtus IV. bade him ask a favor of him, and Wessel accordingly besought him for a Greek and a Hebrew Bible from the Vatican Library. Returning to Paris in 1473, Reuchlin, then 18 years old, made his acquaintance, and he appears to have given a great impetus to the philosophical and humanistic studies of Reuchlin. His fellow-countryman, Agricola, was likewise with him at Paris; and was persuaded by Wessel to the study of the Hebrew. In his later years he returned to his native country, and lived at times in the Mount St. Agnes Monastery, at Zwoll, where Thomas-a- Kempis also passed his long and peaceful life. He spent likewise much time in the monastery Edward, or Edouard, two hours distance from Groningen, and in a convent at Groningen. He died a peaceful death on the 4th of October, 1489, in his 69th year, and was buried in that Groningen convent. His contemporaries called him " Lux mundi" also " Magister con- trover star um ;" the last epithet he owed to his many philosophical and theological discussions. His philosophy was originally realism ; but later he became a nominalist, as were all the reformers with the exception of Huss. His theological abilities were recognized by Luther. " Had I known Wessel or read his books earlier," says Luther, "my adversaries would have fancied that I had obtained this thing or that from Wes- sel ; so much do our sentiments harmonize. It gives me peculiar joy and strength, and removes every doubt that I might have had of the soundness of my doctrine, to find that he agrees everywhere with me, JOHN WES8EL. 73 both in thought and opinion, expressing himself frequently even in the same words, though at a different era, when another air was over us, and another wind blew, and he too was accustomed to another fashion and to other junctures." In another place Luther says : "Wessel manages matters with great moderation and truth." On this account it was that Erasmus, who so dearly loved and prized peace, thus writes : " Wessel has much in common with Luther ; but in how much more modest and Christian a manner he conducts himself than do they, or most of them !" Besides Latin, Wessel understood both Greek and Hebrew. The nar- row limits of learning, as we find them laid down by the earlier Hierony- mians, Wessel far exceeded. His long residence at Paris, and the journey to Italy, had widened his intellectual horizon ; for it was only after a busy, active life in foreign lands, that a longing was created in his breast for his own land, and for the contemplative quiet that could be alone secured by a return among his kindred. Greek he learned from Bessarion and other Greek scholars in Italy ; but who taught him Hebrew we are nowhere informed. His clearness of thought especially qualified him to teach. " The scholar," he says, " is known by his ability to teach." His instructive intercourse appears to have had a very marked in- fluence on many, as we have seen that it did on Reuchlin and Agri- cola. Especially must the frequent converse of many distinguished men with the aged Wessel, as in the monastery of Edward, have been very edifying, both in a literary and in a religious aspect. Goswin of Halen, earlier, Wessel's scholar, and, at the close of the 15th and the commencement of the 16th century, head of the broth- erly union at Groningen, writes of this converse to a friend as follows : " I have known Edward for more than forty years ; but then it was less a monastery than a college. Of this, could Rudolph Agricola and Wessel bear me witness, if they were now living, as also Rudolph Lange, of Munster, Alexander Hegius, and others, who all have passed whole weeks, yea, whole mouths at Edward, to hear and to learn, and to become daily more learned and better." " To become better," says Goswin, for the earnestness of a Christian morality animated all the studies of Wessel, a depth of thought which was radically opposed to the zesthetic pleasurableness of so many Italians. And this was why he studied, as well as he was able to do, the Old Testament in the original. We can not better present to our view the love and the well-directed labors of Wessel, than in these words of his own : " Knowledge is not our highest aim, for he who only knows how to know, is a fool ; 74 JOHN WESSEL. for he has no taste of ihe fruit of knowledge, nor does he understand how to order his knowledge with wisdom. The knowledge of truth is its own glorious fruit, when it meets with a wise husbandman ; for by this truth he may, out of his clear knowledge, come to God, and become God's friend ; since through knowledge he unites himself to God, and progresses step by step in this union, until lie tastes how gracious the Lord is, and through this taste becomes more desirous, yea, burns with desire, and amid this glow God loves him and lives in him, until he becomes wholly one with God. This is the true, pure, earnest fruit of an earnest knowledge, which in very truth all men by nature do rather desire to possess than mere memory, that is to say, than knowledge, in and for itself. For, as unsettled and wavering opinions are empty without knowledge, so knowledge is unfruitful without love." To this brief sketch of Wessel I add a passage from Goswin. It gives us a view of the nature of the studies that men and youth in Wessel's vicinity were accustomed to pursue at Zvvoll, Edward, and other famous schools of that period, and likewise what writings people, molded by such influences, would chiefly read and prize. " You may read Ovid," Goswin remarks, " and writers of that stamp through, once ; but Virgil, Horace, and Terence are to be studied with more attention, and oftener, because in our profession we need to bestow especial study upon the poets. But, above all, I will that you read the Bible constantly. And, since one ought not to remain in ignorance of his- tory, I counsel you to take up Josephus, and for church history to read the Tripartite.* Of the profane writers, Plutarch, Sallust, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Justin, will especially profit you. Then it will do you no harm to go through with the writings of Plato and Aristotle. But with Cicero we must remain longer, in order that we may acquire a truly Roman style. Next to our Bible it is well to give thorough and earnest study to Augustine. Him you may follow up by Jerome, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Gregory, Bernard, and Hugo St. Victor, a man full of rich instruction." This passage shows how much the circle of study of the Hierony- mians had become enlarged during the 15th century. This we owe to the influence which the Italians had over Wessel, Agricola, lludolph Lange, and others, who again in their turn shaped with such power both German and Netherland culture. But the Bible remained to these thoughtful men the Book of books ; neither were the Fathers thrust aside. ThU was a sketch of the history of the church taken from Socrates, Theodore!, and Bozemenes, translated into Latin by Caasiodore. RUDOLF AGRICOLA. 75 RUDOLF AGRICOLA. RUDOLF AGRICOLA was born at Baflo, near Groningen, in W*>st Friesland, in 1443. His proper name was Husmann. It is not known, where he received his earliest instruction. He studied at the University of Louvain, where he read Cicero and Quintilian chiefly, and after an honorable career, became a Magister artium. His inter- course with Frenchmen while at Louvain, was the means of teaching him the French language. From Louvain, he proceeded to Paris, where he had John Wessel, among others, for a teacher. In 1576, he went to Ferrara. There he studied the ancients under Theodore Gaza and Guarini, copied with great diligence manuscripts, Qumtilian among the rest, and won the applause of the Italians by his Latin speeches and poems, as well as by his accomplished singing to the guitar. He delivered an ora- tion there in the praise of philosophy, before Hercules de'Este. There too commenced his friendship for Dalberg, afterward Bishop of Worms, and Diedrich Plenningen, whom he was wont to call his Pliny. Returning to Germany, he tarried six months of the year 1481 in Brussels, at the court of the then arch-duke, afterward emperor, Maxi- milian I., on the behalf of the city Groningen. But it was in vain that he was urged to remain at Maximilian's court ; for his repug- nance to all manner of constraint was too great to admit of his accepting the proposal. In the following year, 1482, his friend Barbirianus, invited him to Antwerp, to superintend a school, and^ likewise to give lectures to amateurs. Agricola replied ; " that his friend Plenningen, had, in Dalberg's name, urged him in a most polite letter to go to Heidelberg, and he had accordingly made the long journey from Holland thither. Dalberg, who was soon after chosen bishop of Worms, and other friends, had pressed him to stay at Heidelberg, saying, that he would exercise an advantageous influence upon the studies there, and would have many hearers. Philip, the count Palatine, had also overloaded him with kindness. And Dal- berg had offered him his house, to regard as his own, to come and go at his pleasure. In view of all this, he had as good as pledged him- self, but had taken a journey home first to make the needful arrange- ments. And now on his return he had received this invitation (of Barbarianus) at Bacharach ; and it had caused him much perplexity, to relieve which, he had consulted with friends at Cologne. The re- sult of their joint deliberations was, that he could not go to Antwerp, 76 RDDOLF AGRICOLA. ^ because he was already as good as pledged to Heidelberg." In refer- ence to the nature of the Antwerp offer, he expresses himself thus : f A school to be given to him ? That would be a hard and an irksome office. A school was like a prison, where scourging, weeping and howling alternated with each other forever. If there is any thing in the world, whose name is directly opposite to its nature, it is a school. The Greeks willed it cAo/a, leisure; the Latins, Indus literariut, the game of letters ; when nothing is further from leisure, nothing harsher and more antagonistic to all playfulness. A far more appropriate name was given to it by Aristophanes ; viz., " $povTiorfiptoi>," the place of cares, /conduct a school ? What time would be left me for study ; what repose, for invention and production ? Where should I find one or two hours daily for the interpretation of an author ? The boys would claim the larger portion of my time, besides wearing my patience to that degree, that whatever leisure time I could secure would be required, not for study, but rather to catch my breath and to compose my thoughts. You say " that with a less rigid discharge of my duties, I might lead a more agreeable life." I might indeed ; but, were I neglectful, which of my colleagues would be assiduous, which of them would not rather, after my example, take his ease ? I think, that a wise man should first carefully consider, whether he should undertake a thing or no ; but when once he does undertake it, then he ought to exert every effort to perform it conscientiously. You say, that I can devote one or two hours a day to lecturing on some classical author before the nobility ; but I would have no leisure for this, since the freshest and best part of every day must be given to the boys, even to weariness. And such lectures meet with discouragements and drawbacks, as I know from experi- ence. In the first glow of zeal many take hold of them ; later, when the zeal is cold, some plead off on the pretext of business, others from the re-action of en- thusiasm become disgusted, and others again are led to stay away, if for no other reason, because their neighbors do. One finds it too much trouble, another, too great an expense. So it comes about, that of a large audience, scarce four or five shall remain with you through the course. It might appear, that a man who had not the smallest inclination to teach either old or young, would not deserve mention in a history of education. But it would be appearance merely. For if Agricola took no pleasure in teaching, himself, yet the prosperity of schools was a matter of deep interest to him. This is evident from parts of this very letter to Barbirianus. He begs him, to persuade the Antwerpers to subject the man, with whom they purposed to intrust the schools, to a conscientious examination beforehand. They should not select a theologian, neither any one of those hair splitting doctors, who imagine that they are competent to speak upon any subject what- ever, while they know nothing, in the first place, of the very art of speaking itself. Such people are as much out of their element in schools, as, according to the Greek proverb, a dog would be in a bath. Much rather ought they to choose a man after the style of Phoenix, the preceptor of Achilles, who should be able both to teach, to speak and to act ; if they could find such an one, they should make sure of him at any price. For their decision was no unim- portant matter, since the destiny of their children depended on it. It was no small thing that they were about to do ; for it pertained to their children, for whose future welfare they themselves in other respects were now toiling and struggling. Their utmost care should be bestowed on that tender age, which, even with the best talents, takes the stamp of good or evil indifferently, accord- ing to the influence brought to bear upon it. In a subsequent letter to Barbirianus, Agricola praises the friendly reception that Dalberg had given him. But on the other hand ho RUDOLF AORICOLA. 77 writes to his brother of his complete unhappitiess in the midst of all the prosperity that he enjoyed at Heidelberg. It ia hard for me, in advancing age, to learn to serve. And though no aer- vice ia required of me, yet I know not whether I am not more greatly burdened, in feeling constrained to impose those duties on myself, which othera have re- leased me from. Thus freedom itself exacta a heavy service of me. His love of freedom dissuaded him from wedlock ; or, as he wrote to Reuchlin, it was a shrinking from care, and a dislike to be tied down to an establishment. Of great importance to us are Agricola's letters to his friend, Al- exander Hegius, the famous Rector of Deventer, of whom also we are soon to speak. One of these letters dates from Worms, whither Agricola had gone in the retinue of the Bishop Dalberg. He commences by commend- ing Hegius ; for, as he perceives by his writing, he has improved in his Latinity, (politiorem te, limatioremque fieri.) He showed his let- ter to Dalberg, who joined with himself in wishing Germany joy of such a teacher, exclaiming, " Macte virtute, sic itur ad astro" Far- ther on, he laments that studying with the bishop, and public lectures, consume too much of his time. His pupils, with the best inclination, shewed scarce any capacity for study : they were mostly masters, or " Scholastici artium" so called, who squandered all their time upon the sophistical nonsense of the schools, (cavillationes,) and hence found no room for attention to classical studies. " For this reason,"* he adds, " I have undertaken the Hebrew, which is a new and a very difficult labor to me, and which (I could scarce have believed it) gives me much more trouble than did Greek, earlier in life. Yet I am determined to persevere. I have assigned the study of the Holy Scriptures to my later years, provided that my life is spared.'' In a previous letter to Hegius, in 1480, he accuses himself for in- termitting his studies, and mentions, as the chief cause of his neglect, the fact, that he has no one in Groningen, with whom he can labor in common. Among other matters, he answers some philological questions, which Hegius had submitted to him. He defines the words, mimus, hintrio, persona, scurra, parasilus, nebulo, nepos, ves- per, aurora, lignum, trabs, asser, contignatio. He expresses a doubt whether bonum sero is as good Latin as bonum mane. "As it regards the derivation and formation of new words after the analogies of the language ? " he says, "I should hardly venture to form a word for which I could not shew classical authority ; yet I might haply have said, 'SocratitasJ 'PlatonitasJ and ' entitas, 1 although our Laurentius Valla disapproves of such words." Farther on Agricola explains * For lack of encouragement. 78 RUDOLF AGRICOLA. , marks the precise difference between *j t. But we-jought rather to read farther, trusting that afterwards, l)ugli th explana- tions of a friend or otherwise, the difficulty will \nleleared jp. One day teaches another. He__then gives directions for strengthening the memory. ' We must, with unpreoccupied, attentive spirit, grasp the object, ancl again from time to time call it up before the mind.' Then follow rules for composition. "If we create nothing," says Agricola, "all our learning remains dead within us, and will not be like the living seed, which, when cast into the ground, springs up and bears rich fruit. But there are two things indispensable to us : one, that we should not merely store up that which we have learned, in our memory, but should rather always have it at hand, and be able to bring it forth ; then, in addition to what we have derived from others, we should invent some- thing ourselves. It will materially aid us in invention, if we arrange a set of general notions, capita, under which we may sketch what we already know ; some such heads for instance, as virtue, vice, life, death, etc. Then it will prove a great help, should we analyze every thought thoroughly and contemplate it under many different lights." This point he had discused more at length in his six books, " de inventione dialectical " Whoever conforms to both the above pre- cepts, will at last attain to the readiness of the Greek sophists, who could speak at will, and without preparation, upon any theme that should be given to them.'' After this methodology, Agricola comes in the same letter to his Hebrew studies. "Think of my presumption, or rather of my folly; I have decided to learn He- brew, as if I had not already wasted time and trouble enough hitherto on my Greek. I have hunted up a teacher, a Jew, who was some years since convert- ed, and who, previously, on account of his learning and knowledge of the doc- trines of the Jews, had been chosen" as their champion, when they contended for their faith with Christians. The bishop has, for my sake, taken this man into his house, and is providing for his maintenance. I will try what I can do ; I hope to bring something to pass; and perhaps I shall succeed, because I hope."* He translated the Psalms. Melancthon, in his preface, to Agrlcola's ' dialectics,' relates what Pallas, professor of theology at Heidelberg, and Reuchlin, related to him from their personal acquaintance with Agricola. Said Pjillas : " at Heidelberg, as earlier at Louvain, he led an exemplary life. From his extensive learning, Agricola has often thrown a definite light * Erhard has given a short extract from this work, in his history of the revival of Class- ical Learning. Melancthon in his preface to Agricola's dialectics, says : ' There are no mod- ern works on the Topics and on the use of Logic, so good and so rich as these books of Ru- dolf." Agricola himself is very pointed in bis condemnation of the scholastic logic. Ko. 12. [VOL. IV., So. 3.] 16. 80 RUDOLF AGRICOLA. upon subjects under dispute, not alone in the department of philoso- phy, but in laW and theology ; and has displayed herein no conten- tious and dogmatical spirit, but friendliness and a spirit of peace. For the elector Philip, who always took delight in listening to him, Agri- cola wrote a compend of history." In the year 1485, Dalberg was sent by the Elector just named, to Rome to present his congratulations to Pope Innocent VIII, on his coronation, and Agricola accompanied him on this journey.* Re- turning to Heidelberg, he was attacked by a fever. But before the physician arrived, he had tranquilly breathed his last. lie died on the 28th Oct. 1485, aged only forty-two years. Erasmus testifies of him as follows : Agricola has surpassed in culture every one on this side the Alps. There was no scientific attainment in which he did not compete with the greatest mas- ters. Among the Grecians, he was a pattern Greek, (graecissimus,) among the Latins, a pattern Latinist ; as a poet, he was a second Maro, as an orator, he re- called Politian's grace, but he excelled him in majesty. Also when he spoke extempore, his speech was so pure and unadulterated, that you would have deemed yourself listening, not to a Frieslander, but to a Roman. To his per- fect eloquence he united an equal degree of learning; all the mysteries of phi- losophy he had fully investigated. Nor was there any part of music, which he did not fully understand. In the last years of his life he applied himself with his whole soul to the study of Hebrew and the Holy Scriptures. He thought little of fame.f C. Agricola broke a path for classical philology in Germany. Saxo,in his eulogy on Agricola, says : At an epoch when the most corrupt Latin prevailed in Germany, together with that uncertainty that no one knew what good Latin was, and when admi- ration was lavished on insipidity, it was Agricola, and he alone, who first with ear and mind detected our blunders, and reached out after better forms of speech. Yet he did not undervalue the mother tongue, but regarded it as nat- ural to every one, as the native vehicle of thought. Thence, as we have seen, he gave his counsel that whatever we would write in Latin, we should first compose in the vernacular, transferring it into Latin afterwards. He himself wrote songs in the mother tongue, and sang them to the guitar. He under- stood both French and Italian. Wessel appears to have had much influence upon Agricola. It was Wessel. as we have seen, who directed his attention when at Paris to the study of Hebrew ; and they both subsequently enjoyed much mutual intercourse in the monastery of Edouard. "There," Goswin von Halen tells us, " he listened, when a boy. to the conversations of AgricoLi and * Dalberg'g speech is given in Agricola's works, as the production of the latter. It was de- livered on the 6th of July, 1485. I think,' so the speech reads, ' that grace of oratory and excellence and cplendor of diction are not much to be expected from a German, nor indeed ought they to be.' t That this panegyric might not be accounted partial, Cis- Alpine, or patriotic merely, Erasmus quotes the welMoio wn epitaph, which Hermolaus Barbarus wrote. " The envious fates have enclosed within this marble tomb, Rudolf Agricola, the hope and the glory of Priesland. While he lived, Germany, without doubt, deserved all the renown that eithet lAtium or Greece ever obtained." Invlda Ctauserunt hoc marmore fata Rudolphum Agricolam, Prisii spemque decusque soli, Scilicet hoc vivo meruit Germania laudis, Quidquid habet l.ntium, Griecia quidquid habet. ALEXANDER HEGIT9 81 "Wessel, when they bewailed the obscuration of the church, the desecration of the mass, and the abuses of celibacy ; also when they spoke of the apostle Paul's doctrine of "justification by faith without the deeds of the law." Such conversations, the earnestness with which Agricola, in his 41st year, applied himself to the study of the Hebrew, his expressed determination to devote his old age to the study of the Holy Scrip- tures ;* all this indicates that he was not merely, through his classical learning, a forerunner of the dawn of classical culture in Germany, but that he also, in this holy earnestness in the study of the sacred writings, heralded the coming Reformation. At his death Luther was two years old.f ALEXANDER HEOIUfl. ALEXANDER HEGIUS, so beloved and honored by his contempora- ries, was born in 1420, or, according to some, in 1433, at Heek, in Westphalia. He was frequently, as we have seen, in the society of Wessel, Agricola, and others in the monastery of Edouard ; and from letters of the latter, we may perceive how the modest Hegius suffered himself to learn from Agricola, his junior. Boitzbach, one of his later scholars, informs us, that he died in advanced age at Deventer in 1498, and was buried on the day of St. John the Evangelist, (Dec. 27,) in the Church of St. Lebuin. There too sleeps Florentius Radewin. At first Hegius was gymnasiarchj in Wessel, then in Emmerich, but later and for a much longer period at Deventer. Agricola writes to him at the opening of the school at ^ Deventer, wishing him all manner of success, and the more cordially as the place had been recently decimated by a frightful pestilence. Since he remained at the head .of this school for thirty years, and until his death, as we gather from three several authorities, he must / have entered upon his office in the year 1468. Erasmus entered tbe adventu nobilis nuiicii gaudete, Villam quam inlraverit, in ea manete, Et hora cum fuerit,cum ip'so prandete, Mero delt ctabili calices implete ; Teinpus cum sit frigidum, ad prunas sedete Viiiiiin meracissimum innnibus tenete ; Calices si fueriut vacui, replete, lit b bat et retxbat sa:pe suidtte. Mo. linn si exctsseril, blundc sustinete ; Quod fit in consortio pandere c ivete. Nunc. fratres carissimi, scribere studete. Ordo vester qualis est, modusque dicetae ; Si fas est comedere coctas in lebele Carnas vel pisciculos fugatos ad rete ; De Lya?o b'.bere vc I de uuda Tlita; ; Utrum frui liceat Rosa vel Ajriifte ; Cum Ibrmosa domina ludere secrete, Coutincnter vivere nullatenus jubete. Qualiter me debeam gerere docete ; Ne magis in ordine vivam indiscrete Donee ad vos veniani, sum sine quiete : Quid vobis dicam amplius? In Domino valete. Siimma salus omnium, filius Maria;, Pascal, potet, vesliat filios (Jolya?, Et conserve! socios sancta; confrarri;e Ad dies usque ultimo* Enoch et lldy.-c. Amen. One of the ''Cirmina Burana," in the second named collect'on, contains a sort of rule of the ordtr ; beginning, De Vagorum ordine Dlco vobis jura. Quorum vita- nobllis Dulcis est natura. In this Goliard poetry, which contains some very beautiful portions, as for instance in their poems on Spring, we find the rich source of the students' songs and Oommtrs/ieder. For instance, the "Af/Ai rst proposition in taberna mori," is a Goliard poem of the last ten year* of the twelfth century. 128 BACCHANTS AND A B C-SHOOTERS. tirely give up poetry and song, but composed now not in Latin but in German. It seems from Hoffmann von Fallersleben, "History of Ecclesiastical Poetry to the Time of Luther? 2d ed., p. 371, that they were accustomed to commit the outrageous impropriety of entering the churches and singing absurd parodies oh the hymns of the church. 4. The wandering scholars appear in. a new phase at the end of the fourteenth century, from which time they are first known by the term Bacchants. We find them also called trutani ceretani ;* and the number of popular nicknames given them was infinite, while in this period they still held fast to their vagrancy and their swindling. " They have been in the Venusberg ; have seen all future things ; can secure against pains and wounds ; they know a prayer of St. Gregorius, which has so much virtue that as often as they say it a soul is freed from hell ; but a crown must be given them first."f They no longer appear as students and poets, but in the double character of old school-boys and wandering knaves. They no longer frequent courts and universities, but the town schools ; and, where they could get an engagement, they hired themselves out as assistant' teachers. It seems, however, that little of their pedagogical efforts were bestowed upon the small boys or A B C-Shooters, whom they carried about with them, ostensibly to place them in good schools and instruct them themselves, but in truth only to make them beg for them.J The praiseworthy zeal of the cities in the support and oversight of their schools, led to the establishment of many institutions for poor scholars, which, after the fashion of that age, in which the begging monks rilled so important a place among the people, attracted the Bacchants, and furnished accommodation to them. In Breslau alone there were at once as many as a thousand Bacchants and scholars, all supported by alms. The school-houses, like the cloisters, were furnished with a multitude of cells for the accommodation of these wandering scholars, and the towns furnished to the lodgers in them both firewood and charity. There were, for example, some hundreds of these chambers in the school -house of St. Elizabeth, at Breslau. Elsewhere, these lodging-rooms were not in the school-houses, but formed a sort of hospital for poor scholars ; and, although these were deficient in the first requisite, cleanliness (" In Dresden," says Plater, "the chambers in the school were full of lice;" and the school hos- * J. U. Mayer's " Dissertation ml the Wandnring Scholars," Leipzig, 1C75. t Moytr. And M. Crusius, later, in his "Annales Suetiect," Vol. 2, p. 653, describes them an cheating at play. : The name A B C-8hooters is made up from the obvious reference tn their studies, and from the emit phrase "to shoot," applied to fheir half-authorized mode of stealing for their master's support. BACCHANTS AND A B C-SHOOTERS. 129 pital, in Breslau, was all full of " great lice as large as hempseeds,") still provision was made even for the requisite medicinal assistance. Even private persons received these wandering scholars, out of be- nevolence, or as a kind of tutors ; Zingg, for instance, says : " Also, I came to a gentleman, who was a native of a town belonging to the city (Memmingen.) whose two boys I put in the school, and with whom I staid a year and taught his boys for him." How little study- ing was done by these scholars, however, appears from Zingg, who, after ten years' wandering among the schools of Reiswitz, Biberach, Ehingen, Balingen, and Ulm, had learned nothing except how to write ; and from Plater, who, after nine years' school wandering, con- fesses, " had my life depended on it, I could not have declined a noun of the first declension." And how small were their efforts for speed, we may see, for instance, from the fact that, after Plater had been taken by his Bacchant, Paul Sommermatter, on a journey into Ger- many, they remained in Zurich some eight or nine weeks, waiting for certain others who had traveled into Saxony. During this time they lived entirely by begging. There was no discipline maintained by these teachers, except that their " Shooters " were much cudgeled and otherwise maltreated. 5. Luther here and there speaks of the Bacchants, whom he de- scribes as " stupid blockheads and asses ; " and there is a well-known anecdote of Melancthon, that he once, when a little boy, completely vanquished an old fellow of a Bacchant by the extent of his learning. The Reformation, in newly organizing school systems, must of course put an end to the Bacchants and their vices ; yet we find traces of them even after that period. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- ries, we find the name of Bacchant universally used to describe those scholars who, as beani or " foxes," at making their entrance into the universities, were obliged to submit to the scurrilous festivities of the so-called " Deposition," in which even the professors took part. Among other things, an ox-hide was thrown over them; and, as a symbol of their putting off the Philistine " Old Adam," the horns were taken off it ; whence the name, from deponere. They were also deluged with wine ; their mental hearing was opened by rubbing their ears with the end of a stick ; an examination was held upon them ; and, in conclusion, they received a kind of absolution, and were declared worthy to become votaries of academical wisdom. Thus, we read in "Luther's Table Talk"* how he once held such a " deposition," and absolved some students just entering from "Bean und Baclianten? " Table TaUc," Vol. 2, Ch. 44, Sec. 6, 7. I 130 BACCHANTS AND A B C-SJIOOTERR According to a description given by Thohick,* from an old Strasbtirg publication, of 1671, called " Ritun Depositionis" the ceremony began with the summons, "Come, ye Bacchants, come forward; I Avill, at your festival, depose you in the best manner." Elsewhere it appears that the name Bacchant was used as a general term of reproach for the literary class. In the year 1630, Balthasar Schuppius, we are told, "following the universal custom of students of wandering about, went a hundred and fifty miles on foot, to see towns and univers- ities." This sort of student wandering is entirely distinct from the ancient vagabondizing; but Schuppius himself was obliged, after- ward, to oppose " the vicious old students or vaganten." That there existed such a class, and that thus the ancient Bacchants are the rightful lineal predecessors of the modern begging students, appears from Mayer's dissertation, already quoted. He says : "Indeed, there are the like now (i. e., scholastics vagantea^) who keep up their title to the name of students by singing or by gabbling a sort of Latin, such as it is, on the road, but who otherwise are exactly like ordinary beggars." An edict for the circle of Suabia, in 1720, names in the same list of all possible sorts of disreputable and vagrant persons, " wandering scholars, and displaced clergymen and monks ; " and enacts that "they shall not be admitted into the circle without a cer- tificate, upon which, when found correct, they may be forwarded to their friends ; but, if it is false, they are to be punished." In such company the " wandering scholars" were not far from the gallows. Even in this nineteenth century this class seems not to be entirely extinct. In the year 1844, there came to the writer of this article, two persons claiming to be students of the university of M , who, except the singing, had all the exact marks of Mayer's silhouette of two hundred years old. Giesebrecht refers to another account of a surviving trace of the ancient Bacchants, from Willkomm's " Two Years in Spain and Portugal" [Vol. 3, p. 206.] "In the university of Salamanca there prevails this custom : that the poorer students, during the summer vacations, wander all over the country, and, by singing ballads to the ladies, and vulgar songs to the common people, gain a scanty remuneration, which enables them to continue their studies." * "Academical Life of the Seventeenth Century," Halle, 1863, p. 303. LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. FROM THE GERMAN OF KARL TON RAUMER. IF Melancthon obtained the name " Prseceptor Germanise," inasmuch as he was a most consummate scholar, and, at the same time, the intellect-* ual leader, especially of the literary class of his countrymen, then Luther should be called the pastor of his people, who, with a strong faith and an active love, watched, labored, and prayed that all his beloved Ger- mans, small and great, might be led, by means of pious discipline and sound learning, to walk humbly before God. In Luther's writings, we find much on the subject of education, both in sermons, expositions of scripture, letters, and the table-talk; and some of his works treat of this theme exclusively. He appeals, now to parents, now to magistrates, and now to teachers, urges them, each and all, in the most pressing manner, to interest themselves in children, while, at the same time, he lays before them blessings and curses, blessings on right training, and curses on neglect. And with- al, he presents the most admirable doctrines, on the nature of disci- pline, the knowledge suitable for children, the best manner of impart- ing it, etc. The following extracts from Luther's works, express his views, both upon the training and the instruction of the young. I. HOME GOVERNMENT. TRAINING OF CHILDREN. Luther saw that good family government was the sole foundation of good civil government and of continued national prosperity. In his exposition of Exodus 20 : 12., he says: "We have now explained, at sufficient length, how father and mother are to be honored, and what this commandment includes and teaches, and have shown of what vast consequence it is in the sight of God, that this obedience toward father and mother should become universal. Where this is not the case, you will find neither good manners nor a good government. For, where obedience") is not maintained at the fire-side, no power on earth can insure to the city, terri- tory, principality, or kingdom the blessings of a good government ; and it is there j that all governments and dominions originate. If now the root is corrupt, it is in vain that you look for a sound tree, or for good fruit. For what is a city, but an assemblage of households? How then is a whole city to be wisely governed, when there is no subordination in its several house- holds, yea, when neither child, maid-servant, nor man-servant submit to author- ity ? Again, a territory : what is it, other than an assemblage of cities, market- towns and villages ? Where, now, the households are lawless or mis-governed, how can the whole territory be well-governed ? yea, nothing else will appear, from one end of it to the other, but tyranny, witchcraft, murders, robberies and disobedience to every law. Now, a principality is a group of territories, or counties; a kingdom, a group of principalities; and an empire, a groap of 132 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. kingdoms. ] Thus, the whole wide organization of an empire is all woven out of single households. Wherever, then, fathers and mothers slacken the reins of family government, and leave children to follow their own headstrong courses, there it is impossible for either city, market-town or village, either territory, principality, kingdom or empire, to enjoy the fruits of a wise and peaceful gov- ernment. For the son, when grown up, becomes a father, a judge, a mayor, a prince, a king, an emperor, a preacher, a schoolmaster, etc. And, if he has been brought up without restraint, then will the subjects become like their ruler, the members like their head. For this cause, God has established it as a matter of irrevocable necessity, that men should by all means rule over their own households. For where fam- ily government is well-ordered and judicious, all other forms of government go on prosperously. And the reason is, as wo have seen, that the whole human race proceeds from the family. For it has pleased God so to ordain, from the beginning, that from father and mother, all mankind should forever derive their .-- being. The duties of parents to their children Luther dwells upon, in his exposition of the 6fth commandment. Now let us see what parents owe to their children, if they would be pa- rents in the truest sense. St. Paul in Eph. 6 : 1, when commanding children to honor their parents, and setting forth the excellence of this commandment, and its reasonableness, says, "children, obey your parents in the Lord." Here he intimates that parents should not be such after the flesh merely, as it is with the heathen, but in the Lord. And, that children may be obedient to their pa- rents in the Lord, he adds this caution to parents, directly afterward in the fourth verse: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath," lest they be discouraged; "but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The first and foremost care that he here enjoins upon parents with ref- erence to their children, in what pertains to the mind and heart, (for of the nurture of the body ho does not speak here at all,) is, that they provoke them not to wrath and discouragement. This is a rebuke to such as display a violent and impetuous temper in the management of their children. For, under such an evil discipline, their disposition, while yet tender and impressible, becomes perma- nently clouded with fear and diffidence ; and so there grows up in their breasts a hatred toward their parents, in so far that they run away from them, and pur- sue a course that otherwise they never would have entered upon. And, in truth, what hope is there of a child, who exercises hatred and mistrust toward his pa- rents, and is ever downcast in their presence? Nevertheless St. Paul in this passage does not intend to forbid parents altogether from being angry with their children and chastening themjjbut rather, that they punish them in love, when punishment is necessary ; not, as some do, in a passionate spirit, and without be- stowing a thought upon their improvement. A child, who has once become timid, sullen and dejected in spirit, loses all his self-reliance, and becomes utterly unfitted for the duties of life ; and fears rise up in his path, so often as any thing comes up for him to do, or to undertake. But this is not all ; for, where such a spirit of fear obtains the mastery over a man in his childhood, he will hardly be able to rid himself of it to the end of his days. For, if children are accustomed to tremble at every word spoken by their lather or mother, they will start and quake forever after, even at the rustl- ing of a loaf. Neither should those women, who are employed to attend upon children, ever be allowed to frighten them with their tricks and mummeries, and, above all, never in the night-time. But parents ought much rather to aim at that sort of education for their children, that would inspire them with a wholesome fear: a fear of those things that they ought to fear, and not of those ... which only make them cowardly, and so inflict a lasting injury upon them. Thus parents go too far to the kft. Now let UB consider how they are led too far to the rifjht. 8t Paul teaches, further, that children should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; that is, that they should bo instructed respecting that which they ought to know, and should be chastised when they do not hold to the doctrine. For instance, they need both that you teach them that which they do not know of God, and alo that you punish them when they will not LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 133 retain this knowledge. Wherefore, see to it, that you cause your children first to be instructed in spiritual things, that you point them first to God, and, after that, to the world. But in these days, this order, sad to say, is inverted. And it is not to be wondered at ; for parents themselves have not learned by their own experience what is this admonition of the Lord, nor do they know much about it from hearsay. Still we had hoped that schoolmasters would remedy this evil that in school, at least, children would larn something good, and there have the fear of God implanted in their hearts. But this hope, too. has come to nought. All nations, the Jews especially, keep their children at school more faithfully than Christians. And this is one reason why Christianity is so fallen. For all its hopes of strength and potency are ever committed to the generation that is coming on to the stage ; and, if this is neglected in its youth, it fares with Christianity as with a garden that is neglected in the spring time. , For this reason children must be taught the doctrine of God- But this is the doctrine of God, which you must teach your children, namely, to know our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep ever fresh in their remembrance how he has suffered for our sakes, what he has done, and what commanded. So the children of Israel were commanded of God to show to their children, and to the generation to come, the marvelous things which he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt. Psalm 78 ; 4, 12. And when they have learned all this, but nevertheless do not love God, nor acknowledge their obligations to him in grate- ful prayer, nor imitate Christ, then you should lay before them the admonition of the Lord ; that is, present to their view the terrible judgments of God, and his anger at the wicked. If a child, from his youth up, learns these things, namely, God's mercies and promises, which will lead him to love God, and his judgments and warnings, which will lead him to fear God, then, hereafter, when he shall be old, this knowledge will not depart from him. For God calls upon men to honor him in two ways; namely, to love him as a father, for the benefits which he has rendered, is now rendering, and ever will render toward us; and to fear him as a judge, for the punishments which he has inflicted, and which he will inflict upon the wicked. Hear what he speaks by the mouth of the prophet Malachi, 1 : 6. " If then I be a father, where is mine honor ? And if I be a master, where is my fear ? " Therefore, the children of God should learn to sing of mercy and judgment. Ps. 101 : 1. And St. Paul intends to convey this two-fold meaning, when he says that children should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It belongs to nurture, to tell your children how God hascieated all things, and how he has given them their senses, their life, and then* soul, and is daily providing them with the good things of his creation. Again, how he has suffered for us all, worked miracles, preached to us, and how he has promised yet greater things. And with all this you should exhort them to be grateful to God, to acknowledge his providence, and to love him as a father. It belongs to admonition, that you tell them how God, aforetime, smote with great plagues the Egyptians, the heathen, the inhabit- ants of Sodoin, the children of Israel, yea, all men in Adam ; again, how he is now daily smiting many with pestilence, the sword, the gallows, water, tire, wild beasts, and all manner of diseases, and how he menaces the wicked with future punishment This admonition God requires us to make much more prominent to our child- ren than that of men, or human penalties. And this, not without reason ; for thus they will be taught always to look out of themselves, and up to God, and to fear not men, but God. For, should they be accustomed to fear their parents alone, it will finally come to pass that, even in respect to things which are pleasing to God, that they will fear the opinions of men, and so will become vacillating and cowardly. On this account children should be educated not only to fear their parents, but to feel that God will be angry with them if they do not fear their parents. So will they not be iaint-hearted, but courageous, and, should they be deprived of their parents, they will not depart from God, either while good betides them, or when evil days come upon them ; for they have learned with the fear of God to fear their parents, and not through then* fear of their parents to stand in awe of God. But what an acceptable sacrifice it is to God. to bring up children thus, we perceive in Genesis, 18 : 19, where it is said that God could not hide from Abra- ham what he was about to do, and that, for this reason; "for I know him," God 134 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. said, " that he will command his children, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Do you not see that God herein indicates that the knowledge of the doom, which was to come upon Sodom, would prove to the pious Abraham a strong motive to lead him to bring up his children in the fear of the Lord? So Jonadab, a father among the Rechabites, was gloriously extolled and blessed in his children ; and that, because he had brought them up in a pious and godly manner, in the fear of the Lord. In such a manner were Tobias, Joachim and Susanna brought up. On the other hand, the judgment pronounced against Eli, because he restrained not his sons, stands forever to warn us in 1 Sam., 3 : 13. II. BAD TRAINING. Luther points out the consequences of the bad training of children in the following paragraphs : Are we not fools ? See, we have the power to place heaven or hell within reach of our children, and yet we give ourselves no concern about the matter ! For what does it profit you, if you are ever so pious for yourself, and yet neglect / the education of your children ?/ Some there are, who serve God with an extreme intensity of devotion, they fast, they wear coarse garments, and are assiduous in such like exercises for themselves; but the true service of God in their fami- lies, namely, the training up their children aright, this they pass blindly by, even as the Jews of old forsook God's temple, and offered sacrifice upon the , high places. Whence, it becomes you first to ponder upon what God requires ^^"of you, and upon the office that he has laid upon you ; as St. Paul spake in 1 Cor., 7 : 20. " Let every man abide in the same calling, wherein he was called." Believe me, it is much more necessary for you to take diligent heed how you may train up your children well, than to purchase indulgences, to make long prayers, to go on pilgrimages to distant shrines, or to impose numerous vows upon yourselves. Thus, fathers and mothers, ye see, what course it is your duty to adopt toward your children, so that you may be parents indeed, and worthy of the name ; wherefore, be circumspect, lest you destroy yourselves, and your children with you. But those destroy their children, who knowingly neglect them, and suffer them to grow up without the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; and though they do not themselves set them a bad example, yet they indulge them overmuch, out of an excess of natural affection, and so destroy them. " But " they say, " these are mere children; they neither know nor understand !" That may be; but look at the dog, the horse, or the ass ; they have neither reason nor judgment, and yet we train them to follow our bidding, to come or go, to do or to leave undone, at our pleasure. Neither does a block of wood or of stone know whether it will or will not fit into the building, but the master-workman brings it to . shape ; how much more then a man ! Or will you have it that other people's children may be able to learn what is right, but that yours are not ? They who are so exceedingly scrupulous and tender, will have their children's sins to bear, precisely as if these sins were their own. f There are others who destroy their children by using foul language and oaths in their presence, or by a corrupt demeanor and example.-/ I have even known some, and, would God there were no more of them, who have sold their daughters or their wives for hire, and made their living thus out of the wages of unchastit}'. And truly, murderers, beyond all question, do better for their daughters than such parents. \ There are some who are exceedingly well pleased if their sons betray a fierce and warlike spirit, and are ever ready to give blows, as though it were a great merit in them to show no fear of any one. Such parents are quite likely in the end to pay dear for their folly, and to experience Borrow and anguish, when their sons, as often happens in such cases, are sud- denly cut off; nor, in this event, can they justly complain. Again, children are Kuflieiently inclined to give way to anger and evil passions, and hence it behooves parents to remove temptation from them, as far as poasible, by a well-guarded example in themselves, both in words and in actions. For what can the child of a man, whose language is habitually vile and profane, bo expected to learn, unless it be the like vileness and profanity? Others again destroy their children by inducing them to set their affections on the world, by taking no thought for them further than to see that they LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 135 cultivate graceful manners, dress finely, dance and sing, and all this, to be admired, and to make conquests ; for this is the way of the world. In our day, there are but few who are chiefly solicitous to procure their children an abundant supply of those things that pertain to God, and to the interests of the soul ; for, the most f strive to insure them wealth and splendor, honor and pleasure. Thus Luther censures a rough, passionate severity in parents, as well as a spirit of indulgence ; and wisely commends to them to inspire their children with a dread, rather of God's displeasure than of human penalties, to chasten them betimes, etc. Of the like import are his reflections when commenting on 1 John, 2: 14. There is that in the nature of young children, which exults, when the reins of discipline are slackened. Nor is the case otherwise with youth, and if they are held in, even with so firm a hand that they can not break away, nevertheless they will murmur. The right of fathers over their children is derived from God; he is. in truth, the Father of all, "of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph. 3: 15. "Wherefore, the authority of earthly fathers over their children should not be exercised in a hard and unfriendly manner. He who gov- erns in anger only adds fuel to the fire. And, if fathers and masters on earth do not acknowledge God, he so orders it that both children and servants shall dis- appoint their hopes. Experience, too, shows us abundantly, that far more can be accomplished by love, than by slavish fear and constraint. But it is the duty of children to learn the fear of God first of all ; then, to love those who labor for their improvement. The fear of God should never depart from them ; for, if they put it away, they become totally unfit to serve God or man. Correction, too, which includes both reproof and chastisement, saves the soul of the child from the endless punishment of hell. Let not the father spare the rod, but let him remember that the work of training up children is an honor which comes from God; yea, if they turn out well, let him give God the glory. Whoso does not know to do this, hates his children and his household, and walks in darkness. For parents, who love their children blindly, and leave them to their own courses, do no better in the end than if they had hated them. And the ruin of children almost invariably lies at the door of parents, and it commonly ensues from one of these two causes ; namely, either from undue lenity and foolish fondness, or from unbending severity, and an irritable spirit Both these extremes are attended with great hazard, and both should be shunned alike. Against indulging children Luther likewise inveighs, in a sermon on the married state. There is no greater obstacle in the way of Christianity than neglect in the training of the young. If we would re-instate Christianity in its former glory, we must improve and elevate the children, as it was done in the days of old. But, alas ! parents are blinded by the delusiveness of natural affection, so that they have come to regard the bodies of their children more than their souls. On this point hear the words of the wise man ; Prov. 13 : 24. " He that spareth the rod, hateth his son; but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes." Again. 22: 15. " Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." Again, Prov. 23 : 14. " Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from helL" " Wherefore it is the chief duty of the father of a family, to bestow more, greater, and more constant care upon the soul of his child than upon his body ; for, this is his own flesh, but the soul is a precious immortal jewel, which God has intrusted to his keeping, and which he must not suffer either the world, the flesh or the devil to steal or to destroy. And a strict account of his charge will be required of him at death and the judgment. For whence, think you, shall come the 136 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. terrible wailing and anguish of those, who shall there cry out, ' Blessed are the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck ?' Luke 23 : 29. Doubtless, from the bitter thought that they have not brought their children back to God, from whom they had only received them in trust." III. MONKISH TRAINING OP THE YOUNG. Luther disapproves of isolating children from the world, after the usage of the monks. " Solomon," says he, " was a right royal school- master. He does not forbid children from mingling with the world, or from enjoying themselves, as the monks do their scholars; for they will thus become mere clods and blockheads, as Anselm likewise per- ceived. Said this one ; ' a young man, thus hedged about, and cut off from society, is like a young tree, whose nature it is to grow and bear fruit, planted in a small and narrow pot.' i For the monks have imprisoned the youth whom they have had in charge, as men put birds in dark cages, so that they could neither see nor converse with any one. - But it is dangerous for youth to be thus alone, thus de- barred from social intercourse. Wherefore, we ought to permit young people to see, and hear, and know what is taking place around them in the world, yet so that you hold them under discipline, and teach them self-respect. " Your monkish strictness is never productive of any good fruit. It is an excellent thing for a young man to be fre- quently in the society of others ; yet he must be honorably trained to adhere to the principles of integrity, and to virtue, and to shun the contamination of vice. This monkish tyranny is moreover an absolute injury to the young ; for they stand in quite as much need of pleas- ure and recreation as of eating and drinking; their health, too, will be firmer and the more vigorous by the means." IV. OFFENSE GIVEN TO CHILDREN. In Luther's exposition of the sixth commandment, he pointedly condemns the offense which is given to the young by the use of foul language. f-J' It is a great sin to use such infamous language in the presence of innocent boys and girls. Those who do it are guilty of all the sins which their inconsiderate words beget. For the tender and inexperienced minds of children are very quick to receive an im- pression from such words; and, what is far worse, this filthy language clings to their memory, and long abides with them, even as a stain on a fine white cloth is much harder to efface than if it came on one that is rough and course. ( This the pagans, too, learned from experience : Horace, for example, who says that a new vase long retains the odor of that substance that happened first to have been put into it ! ' Quo timid eat imbuta recent seitubit odorem Testa diu.' LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 137 And Juvenal, ' you should pay the utmost regard to your boy ; and, if you meditate any thing base, think not that his age is too tender to remain unsullied.' 'Maxima debeter puero reverentia, si quid Turpe paras, hujus tu nf. contemseris annos. 1 " We will now inquire more particularly what these people do, who thus offend children? Since it is a good thing to pay regard to their tender years, and to keep them in the observance of propriety and decorum, (for it is an acceptable sacrifice to God, to seek the welfare of souls,) we should, therefore, with all diligence, watch over young boys and girls, and prevent them either from seeing or hearing any thing infamous; for their evil tendencies are strong enough by nature. If you seek to quench fire, not with water, but by adding fuel to it, what good do you think you will do ? But, alas! how many wicked people there are, who make themselves the tools of the devil, and destroy innocent souls with their poisonous and corrupt language. The devil is truly called a destroyer of souls, but he does not do his work, unless with the help of the infamous tongues of such as are on his side, and take pattern by his example. "Can a child root out of his soul the vile word, that has once passed in at his ear ? The seed is sown, and it germinates in his heart, even against his will. And it branches out into strange and peculiar fan- cies, which he dares not utter, and can not rid himself of. But, woe to thee! whoever thou art, who hast conveyed into an artless mind, that had otherwise been free from the guile, such troubles, perils and poison ! Thou hast not. indeed, marred the body ; but, as much as in thee lay, thou hast disfigured that much nobler part, the soul. Thou hast poured, through the ear of a fellow-being, a deadly bane into his life-blood ; yea, thou hast slain his soul. Such people are of the race of Herod, who slew the innocents in Bethlehem. You would not suffer your own children to be murdered before your eyes; why then will you destroy souls that are not yours, but God's. St. Louis, king of France, said that his mother would rather have seen her children die by violence than commit a deadly sin. And what a terrible con- demnation does our Lord pronounce upon such corruption of child- ren. ' But whoever shall offend one of these little ones, which be- lieve in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.' Matt., 18 : 6. See what care Christ bestows on innocent little child- ren, in that he affixes a Hew and peculiar penalty upon the sin of those who offend and injure them ; a penalty that is denounced upon no other sin. By this he would doubtless indicate, that such persons 138 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. shall undergo an aggravated punishment in the world of woe. And hear him further, in the 7th verse, ' Woe unto the world, because of offenses ! for it must needs be that offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the offense comcth !' And, in the 10th, ' Take heed> that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.' "If any one should be disposed to judge these persons mildly, and say their words may raise a blush, but they themselves are clean, as Ovid falsely alledges of himself, My manners differ widely from my verse ; The muse may dally, I am none the worse. let him hear what Christ says, and keep silence. ' Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' ' A tree is known by its fruits.' " And hence it is, too, that the Christian faith is at so low an ebb, because the children have been led out of the way ; and, if the Chris- tian church is again to rise from the dust, we must begin with a care- ful instruction of the young." V. DEGENERATE CHILDREN. W-hen, despite the conscientious efforts of parents and teachers, children turn out ill, Luther casts a consoling view upon the case. " What is greater and more glorious than this your labor, ye faithful taskmasters ? You are, in all truthfulness, to instruct, to teach, to chasten and admonish the youth committed to your care, in the hope that some will keep in the way of wisdom, though some too may turn aside. For whoever will do any good, must bear in mind, that this effort may prove all in vain, and his benevolence be thrown away ; for there are always many who scorn and reject good counsel, and but few who follow it. We should be satisfied, if our good deeds are not wholly fruitless ; and if, among ten lepers, one returns and gives thanks, it is well. Luke, 17 : 17. So, if among ten scholars, there is but one who bends to discipline and learns with zeal, it is well ; for our kindness is not wholly lost; and Christ himself bids us, after the example of his Heavenly Father, do good to the thankful and the unthankful alike. TlhT.-t'iiv, stand in your lot, and labor with all diligence; and, if God does not crown you with success, yet ascribe to him glory and dominion in the highest, and faint not, neither be impatient. Think what an admirable example Solomon has set us ; for Solomon him- self, or any other king, may train up his son from infancy in the best, most pains-taking, and most godly manner, thinking and hoping, LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 139 he shall succeed, and may fail, notwithstanding all. Have you a pious son ; then say, ' thanks be to God, who has made him and given him to me;' but, if your son has grown up to evil courses, you can but say, ' such is this poor human life ; I have toiled to train up my son aright ; but it was not the Lord's will he should prosper ; yet. blessed be the name of the Lord.' "Nor must parents ever cease to seek their children's good, however degenerate and ungrateful they may be." VI. ALLOWED DISOBEDIENCE. But should parents, in the training of their children, trangress God's commandments, then, Luther thinks, they can not justly claim their obedience. If parents act with such thoughtless folly, as to bring up their children to worldly pleasure and dissipation, then the children may cease to obey them. For we see by the first three commandments that God will be honored before earthly parents. By bringing them up to the world, I mean, pointing them to nothing higher than pleasure, honor and wordly good. J, VII. SCHOOLS. The establishment of institutions of learning by magistrates, as a means of providing a constant succession of well-educated and able men for the church, the school and the government, and a defense of study, especially the study of the languages, and the found'fng of libraries, are treated of in "Dr. Martin Luther's Address to the Councilmen of all the towns of Germany, calling upon them to establish and sustain Christian schools. A. D., 1524." To the Mayors and Councilmen of all the towns of Germany : Grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved rulers, wise and sagacious men, ye all do know that I have been under ban and outlawry for well nigh three years ; and I surely would keep silence now, if I feared the commandments of men more than I fear God ; for which cause also, many in this our German land, both high and low, are even now denouncing my words and deeds, and shedding much blood over them. But, for all this, I can not refrain from speaking ; for God has opened my mouth, and commanded me to speak, yea, to cry aloud, and to spare not, while at the same time he has ever been giv- ing strength and increase to my cause, and that too without any device or act of mine : for the more " they rage and set themselves, the more he laughs and has them in derision." 2nd Psalm. And by this one thing alone, whosoever is not hardened in unbelief may see that this cause is of God. For this is ever the way with God's word and work here on the earth ; they manifest the greatest power precisely when men are the most eager to overthrow and destroy them. Therefore, I will speak, and, as Isaiah saith, "I will not hold my peace, till the righteousness of Christ go forth as brightness, and his salvation as a lamp that burneth." And I beseech you all, my beloved rulers and friends, receive this my writing and exhortation with joy, and lay it to heart. For whatever I am in my- self, yet in this matter I can say of a truth, with a pure conscience in the sight of God, that I have not sought mine own good, (which I could the more e.-isily have secured by silence ;) but, out of n true heart, I speak to you and to the whole of Germany, even as God has ordained me to do, whether ye hear, or whether ye forbear. And I would have you freely, cheerfully and in a spirit of love, give me your attention ; since, doubtless, if ye obey me herein, ye obey not me, but Christ, and whoever does not follow my precepts, despises Christ, and not me. |40 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. Wherefore I beseech you all, beloved rulers and friends, for the sake of God and of poor neglected youth, do not count this a small matter, as some do, who, in their blindness, overlook the wiles of the adversary. For it is a great and solemn duty that is laid upon us, a duty of immense moment to Christ and to the world, to give aid and counsel to the young. And in so doing we likewise promote our own best interests. And remember, that the silent, hidden and malicious assaults of the devil can be withstood only by manly Christian effort. Beloved rulers, if we find it necessary to expend such large sums, as we do yearly, upon artillery, roads, bridges, dykes, and a thousand other things of the sort, hi order that a city may be assured of continued order, peace, and tranquillity, ought we not to expend on the poor suffering youth therein, at least enough to provide them with a schoolmaster or two? God the Almighty, has, in very deed, visited us Ger- mans with the snrnll rain of his grace, and vouchsafed to us a right golden har- vest. For we have now among us many excellent and learned young men, richly furnished with knowledge, both of the languages and of the arts, who could do great good, if we would only set them to the task of teaching our little folks. Do we not see before our very eyes, that a boy may now be so thoroughly drilled in three years, that, at fifteen or eighteen, he shall know more than hitherto all the high schools and cloisters put together have ever been able to impart ? Yea, what other thing have the high schools and cloisters ever achieved, but to make asses and blockheads ? Twenty, forty years would they teach you, and after all you would know nothing of Latin, or of German either ; and then, too, there is their shameful profligacy, by which how many ingenuous youths have been led astray ! But, now that God has so richly favored us, in giving us snch a number of per- sons competent to teach these young folks, and to mould their powers in the best manner, truly it behooves us not to throw his grace to the wind, and not to suffer him to knock at our door in vain. lie is even now waiting for admittance ; good betide us if we open to him, happy the man who responds to his greeting. If we slight him until he shall have passed by, who may prevail with him to return? Let us bethink ourselves of our former sorrow, and of the darkness wherein once we groped. I do not suppose that Germany has ever heard so much of God's word as now ; certainly we may search our history in vain for the like state of things. If we let all this slip away, without gratitude and praise, it is to be feared that worse calamities and a deeper darkness will come upon us. My dear Ger- man brothers, buy, while the market is at your door ; gather in, while the sun shines, and the weather is fair ; apply the word and the grace of God to your hearts, while they are here. For this you should always bear in mind, that God's word and grace are a passing shower, that goes, never to return. And do not, my German brothers, indulge in the delusive dream that it will abide with you forever. For an ungrateful and a scornful spirit will drive it away. ~-*AV here- fore, lay hold of it, and keep it, ye, who may ; idle hands reap never a harvest. God's command, so often communicated through Moses, to the effect that parents should teach their children, is thus taken up and enforced in the 78th Psalm, 3rd verse, et scq., " which our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children, showing to the generations to come the praise of the Lord." And the 5th commandment God deemed of such vast importance, that the punishment of death was decreed upon stubborn and disobedient children. And why is it, that we, the elder, are spared to the world, except to train up and instruct the young ? It is impossible that the gay little folks should guide and teach themselves ; and accordingly God has committed to us, who are old and experienced, the knowl- edge which is needful for them, and he will require of us a strict account of what we have done with it. Listen to Moses, in Deuteronomy, 32 : 7. " Ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thine elders, and they will tell thee." But with us, to our sin and our shame be it spoken, it has come to this, that we must drive and be driven, before we can bring up our children aright, and seek their good ; and yet, nature itself would seem to prompt us what to do, and manifold exam- ples among pagan nations, to incite us to do it. There is not a brute animal that does not direct and instruct its young to act (is befits its nature ; unless we except the ostrich, of which God saith, in Job, 39 : 14, 16 ; u which leavcth her eggs in the earth," " she is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers.'' And what would it profit us, if we were faithful in the discharge of every other duty, and should become well-nigh perfect, if. withal, we failed to do LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 141 precisely the thing for which our lives arc lengthened out, namely, to cherish and watch over the young ? I truly think that, of outward sins, there is none, for whieh the world is so culpable, and for which it merits such severe condemnation, as this which we are guilty of with regard to our children, in not giving them u right training. Woe to the world, ever and forever ! Children are daily born, and are suffered to grow up among us, and there is, alas ! no one to take the poor young people to himself, and show them the way in whieh they should go ; but we all leave them to go whither they will. But, you say, "all this is addressed to parents ; what have councilmen and magistrates to do with it ?" This is very true, I grant you ; but how if parents should not do it, what then? Who, I ask, will ? Shall it be left undone, and the children be neglected ? Will magis- trates and councilmen then plead that they have nothing to do in the matter 7 There are many reasons why parents do not deal as they should by their children. And, first, there are some who are not so pious and well-meaning as to do this, even when they have the ability j but, like the ostrich, which leaveth her eggs in the dust, and is hardened against her young ones, BO they bring children into being, and there is an end of their care. But these children are to live among"^ us, and to be of us in one common city. And bow can you reconcile it with reason, and especially with Christian love, to permit them to grow up uncared for and untaught, to poison and to blast the morals of other children, so that at last these too will become utterly corrupt ; as it happened to Sodom, Gomorrah, Gaba and many other cities? And again, the majority of parents are, alas ! entirely unfit to educate their children, knowing neither what to teach them, nor how to teach it. For they have learned nothing themselves, save how to provide for the body ; and they must look to a special class, set apart for the purpose, to take their children and bring them up in the right way. In the third place, there are quite a number of parents who, though both willing and capable, yet, by reason of their business or the situation of their families, have neither the time nor the place, convenient; so that necessity compels them to get teachers for their children. And eaeh would be glad to have one entirely to himself. This, however, is out of the question, for it would be too great a burden for men of ordinary means to bear ; and thus, many a fine boy would be neglected, because of poverty. Add, that so many parents die, and leave orphans behind them ; and what care guardians commonly give to them, if observation did not teach us, yet we could judge from what God calls himself, in Psalm 68 : 6, "a father of the father- less,'' whieh is as much as to say that they are forsaken by all others. There are some, again, who have no children themselves, and who, on this account, take no interest at all in the welfare of the young. In view of all this, it becomes councilmen and magistrates to watch over youth with unremitting care and diligence. For since their city, in all its interests, life, honor, ami possessions, is committed to their faithful keeping, they do not deal justly by their trust, before God and the world, unless they strive to their utmost, night and day, to promote the city's increase and prosperity. Now, a city's in- crease consist* not alone in heaping up great treasures, in building solid walls or lately houses, or in multiplying artillery and monitions of war ; nay, where there is great store of this, and yet fools with it, it is all the. worse, and all the greater loss for the city. But this is the best and the richest increase, prosperity and strength of a city, that it shall contain a great number of polished, learned, intelligent, honorable, and well-bred citizens ; who, when they have become ail this, may then get wealth and put it to a good use. Since, then, a city must have citizens, and on all accounts its saddest lack and destitution were a lack of citizens, we are not to wait until they are grown up. We can neither hew them out of stones, nor carve them out of wood ; for God does not work miracles, so long as the ordinary gifta of his bounty are able to subserve the use of man. Hence, we must use the appointed means, and, with cost and care, rear up and mould our citizens. Whose fault is it, that now in every city there is such a dearth of intel- ligent and capable men, but that of the magistrates, who have left the young to grow up like the trees of the forest, and have not given a thought to their instruc- tion and training? You see how wild the trees grow; they are only good for fency or for fire-wood, and are by no means fit for the use of the builder. Yet, we must have governments here upon the earth. And how wild and aenaelew 142 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. is the hope, if clods and addle-brains rule us, that somehow they will get wis- dom, and all will go well with us. Rather let us elect so many swine or wolves for rulers, and place them over such as know not what it is to be ruled by men. And besides, it is brutish recklessness, to act merely for the present time, and to say, " as for us, we will rule now ; but, we care not how it shall be with those who come after us." Such men as these, who use their power only for their own individual honor and profit, ought not to rule over men, but over dogs or swine. For even when we exert our utmost diligence to train shrewd, learned, and competent men for rulers, we do not find it a very easy matter to reach our aim. What then can we expect, when we do " absolutely nothing? " This may be so," you reply ; " but, though we ought to have schools, and must have them, still what will it profit us to have Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and your other liberal arts taught in them ? Will not German suffice to teach us all of the Bible and the Word of God that is essential to salvation ?'' Alas, I fear me, that we Germans must ever be and continue to be mere brutes and wild beasts, as our neighbors with such good reason style us. I wonder that you do not say, " what have we to do with silks, wine, spices, and other pro- ductions of foreign lands ; inasmuch as we have wine, corn, wool, flax, wood, and stone here in Germany, not only to supply our wants, but enough and in variety enough to minister either to comfort, dignity or luxury?''. And yet, these languages and these arts, which do us no harm, but are agreeable and useful alike, sources both of honor and profit, throwing light upon the Scriptures, and imparting sound wisdom to rulers, these we despise ; while the productions of other lands, which do us no good whatever, we fret and worry ourselves after to that degree that even success ofttimes proves no better to us than failure. Of a truth, we are rightly called German fools and beasts! Surely, were there no other good to be got from the languages, the bare thought that they are a noble and a glorious gitl from God, wherewith he has visited and enriched us, almost beyond all other nations, this thought, I say, ought to be a powerful motive, yea, an allurement to cultivate them. The cases are rare, indeed, where the devil has suffered the languages to be in repute in the universities and the cloisters ; nay, these have almost always raised a hue and cry against them in the past ages, as likewise they do now. For the prince of darkness is shrewd enough to know that, where the languages flourish, there his power will soon be so rent and torn that he can not readily repair it. But now, since he can not keep them from expanding into a vigorous growth, and from bearing fruit, he is at work, devising how he may render them dwarfed and sickly, if so be that they may decay and die of themselves. If an unwelcome guest comes to his house, he sets before him so meagre an entertainment, that he is forced to shorten his visit. Few of us, my good friends, perceive this craft and snare of the devil. Wherefore, my beloved countrymen, let us open our eyes, and, thanking God for this precious jewel, let us keep fast hold of it, lest it be filched away from us, and the devil see his malicious purposes accomplished"}" for, though the gospel came in former times as now, day by day, it comes to us, by the Holy Spirit alone, yet we can not deny that at the first it was received through the languages, that its blessings are now spread abroad by their means, and by their means that it is to be kept in the world. For when God, by the apostles, sent the gospel to men, he sent the gift of tongues with it; and, before that time, he had used the Roman power as an instrument to diffuse the Latin and Greek languages far and wide over the whole world, in order that the gospel might spread rapidly through all the nations. And, in the same manner, he has worked at the present day. No man understood the reason why God caused the languages again to put on bloom and vigor, until now, at last, we see that it was for th sake of the gospel, which he purposed to bring to light and thereby make manifest, and overthrow the king- dom of Anti-Christ. For that c.-iuse it was that he gave Greece into the hands of the Turks, in order that the Greeks, hunted out of their own land and scat- tered over the face of the earth, might curry with them out amongst the nations the knowledge of the Greek language, and thereby cause a beginning to be made of learning the other languages also. Now, since the gospel is so dear to us, let us hold fast to the languages. Nor should it be in vain to us that God has caused bin Scripture* to be written in two languages only, the Old Testament iiFthe LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 143 Hebrew, and the New Testament in the Greek. These languages God has not despised, but has chosen them for his word, to the exclusion of all others ; and j we too ought therefore to honor them above all others. And St. Paul glories in tliis, as a special honor and advantage of the Hebrew, namely, that ( Jod's word was written therein. '' What advantage then hath the Jew ? Much every way ; chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God." Romans, 3 : 1,2. King David, too, bestows a like praise upon it, in Psalm, 147 : 19. " He shcweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation," il nor to any nation revealed his judgments ;" as though he would say, " God hath, in this, consecrated and set apart the He- brew tongue." And St. Paul, in Romans, 1 : 2, calls the Scriptures holy ; doubtless, because the Holy AVord of God is contained therein. In like manner, also, may the Greek be called a sacred language, in that it was chosen before all other languages as that one in which the New Testament should be written, and out of which it should flow, as out of a fountain, into other languages by the means of translations, thus consecrating these too. And let us bethink our- selves, that haply we may not be able to retain the gospel without the knowledge of the languages in which it was written. For they are the scabbard, in which this sword of the spirit is sheathed ; they are the casket, in which this jewel is enshrined ; the vessel, in which this drink is kept; the room, where this meat is stored. And, as we are taught in the gospel itself, they are the baskets, in which were gathered this bread, these fishes, and these fragments. Yea, should we overlook all this, and (which God forbid ! ) let go our hold on the languages, then we would not only lose the gospel, but would finally fall away to that degree, that we should be able neither to speak nor to write either German or Latin. And in this, let us take a lesson and a warning by the sad example of the universi- ties and cloisters, where they have not only let the gospel slip away from their grasp, but have also either lost or corrupted both Latin and German, so that the creatures have become but little better than brute beasts, knowing neither how to read nor write, and, more than this, have well-nigh lost even their native intellect too. For this reason, the apostles themselves felt constrained to enclose and bind up, as it were, the New Testament in the Greek language ; without doubt, to preserve it for us safe and intact, as in a holy ark. For they saw all that, which was to come to pass, and which even now has been fulfilled ; name- ly, if it were committed to tradition alone, that, amid many a wild, disorderly, and tumultuous clash and commingling of opinions, Christianity would become ob- scured; which event it would ba impossible to guard against, and equally impos- sible to preserve the plain and simple truth, unless the New Testament were made sure and immutable by writing and by language. Hence, we may conclude that,, where the languages do not abide, there, in the end, the gospel must perish. That this is true, is manifest, moreover, from history ; for soon after the apos- tles' time, when the gift of tongues ceased, the knowledge of the gospel, faith in Christ, and the whole system of Christianity, fell away more and more ; and later, since the time that the languages went into disrepute, there has very little transpired in Christendom that has been worthy of note ; but a vast number of frightful enormities have, on the other hand, been engendered, in consequence of ignorance of the languages. And now, that the languages have again dawned" upon us, they have brought such light with them, and they have accomplished such mighty results, that all the world is lost in amazement, and is forced to confess that we have the gospel in as great purity almost as did the apostles-, nay, that it has come again in its pristine purity, and is, beyond all comparison, purer than it was in the time of St. Jerome or St. Augustine. And, in fine, the Holy Spirit understands this matter: he does not employ any light or need- less means for his work ; and he hus deemed the languages of such importance, that he has often brought them with him from heaven. Which fact alone ought to be a sufficient inducement to us to cultivate them with diligenee and to pay them due honor ; and not, by any means, to despise them, now that he is again breathing into them the breath of life throughout the world. " But," yon will say, " many of the Fathers have died without the languages, and they nevertheless have been saved." Very true. But what do you say to this, that they so often missed wide of the true sense of the Scriptures ? How often is St. Augustine at fault in his commentaries on the Psalter, and elsewhere ; and No. 11. [VOL. IV., No. 2.] 28. 144 LUTHER'S VIEWS OP EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. Hilary, too ; yea. and all who, without the aid of the languages, have undertaken to expound the Scriptures ? And, though they perhaps may have spoken the right thing, yet have they not betrayed an uncertainty, whether the passage in hand would bear the construe; ion that they have put upon it? But, if we thus, with our own doubtful arguments and our stumbling references, approach to the de- fense of the faith, will not Christians be contemned and derided by such of their antagonists as are well-versed in the languages? And will not these become more stubborn in their unbelief, inasmuch as they will -have good reason to con- clude our faith a delusion ? To what is it owing, that religion is now so generally scandalized ? To the fact alone, tht we are ignorant of the languages ; and there is no help for it, but to learn them. Was not St. Jerome constrained to translate the Psalms anew from the Hebrew, solely because when there came up nnv controversy with the Jews, they silenced their opponents with the sneering remark, that the passage cited did not read thus and so in the Hebrew. Now, all the expositions of the ancient fathers, who treated the Scriptures without the aid of the languages, (though perhaps they advocated no unsound doctrines,) are nevertheless quite often based upon doubtful, inaccurate or inappropriate render- ings. And they groped about, like a blind man at a wall, quite often failing alto- gether of the right text, and stupidly overlooking it in their enthusiasm, so that even St. Augustine himself was obliged to confess, in his treatise on the Christian doctrines, that a Christian teacher, who would interpret the Scriptures, must understand not only Latin and Greek, but Hebrew likewise ; " for otherwise, it is impossible but that he will stumble on all hands." And truly, there is need of labor enough, even when we do know the languages. For this reason, it is one thing with the unlettered preacher of the faith, and quite another with the inter- preter of the Scriptures, or the prophet, as St. Paul calls the latter. The unlet- tered preacher has at his command such a number of clear and intelligible texts and paragraphs in the vernacular, that he can understand Christ and his doctrine, lead a holy life himself, and preach all this to others ; but, to set forth the sense of the Scriptures, to put one's self in the van, and to do battle against heretics and errorists, this can never come about, except with the help of the languages. And, accordingly, we must ever, in the Christian church, have such prophets, who shall study and expound the Scriptures, and, besides, shall be stalwart champions of the faith ; for all which, a holy life and sound precepts are not enough. Hence, the languages are of the first necessity to a pure Christianity, as they are the source of the power that resides in prophets or commentators; although, we ought not to require every Christian or preacher to be such a prophet, as also St. Paul admits, in 1st Cor., 12 : 8, 9. and Eph., 4:11. We thus see how it is that, since the apostles' time, the Scriptures have re- mained so obscure ; for, nowhere have any sure and reliable commentaries been written upon them. Even the holy fathers, as we said before, have often fallen into error, and, because they were ignorant of the languages, they very seldom agree, but one says one thing, and another another. St. Bernard was a man of great genius ; so much so, that I would place him above all the eminent doctrin- ist*, both ancient and modern. But yet, how often does he play upon the lan- guage of the Scriptures, (albeit in a spiritual sense.) thus turning it aside from its true meaning. Hence, the sophists averred that the Scriptures were obscure, and that the word of our God was couched in perplexing and contradictory trrms. But they did not see that all that was wanted, was a knowledge of the laniTUMges in which it was recorded. For nothing is more plain-spoken than God's word, when we have become thorough masters of its language. A Turk might well seem obscure to me, because I do not understand his speech, when u Turkish child of seven shall easily discern his meaning. Hence, it is a rash undertaking, to attempt to learn the Scriptures through the expositions of the Fathers, and through reading their numerous treatises and glosses. For thia purpose you ought to go direct to the language yourself. For the beloved Fathers, because they were without the languages, have at times descanted at great length upon a single verse, and yet cast such a feeble glimmer of light upon it, that their interpretation was, at last, but half right, and half wrong. And yet you will persist in painfully running after them, when, with the languages, you might be yourself in a position rather to lead than to follow. For, as the light < f the sun dispel* the shadows of the night, to do the languages render LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLR 145 useless all the glosses of the Fathers. Since now, it becomes Christians to re- gard the Scriptures as the one only book, which is all their own, and since it is a sin and a shame for us not to be familiar with our own book, and with the lan- guage and the word of our God ; so it is a still greater sin and shame, for us not to learn the languages, especially now that God is bringing to us and freely offering us learned men, and suitable books, and every thing which we need for this purpose, and is, so to speak, urging us to the task, so desirous is he to have his book open to us. O, how joyful would those beloved Fathers have been, if they could have come to the knowledge of the Scriptures, and have learned the languages so easily as we now may do it ! How great was their labor, how constant their diligence in picking up but a few of the crumbs, while we may secure half, yea, even the whole of tJu; loaf, with scarce any trouble at all. And how does their diligence put our inactivity to the blush ? Yea, how severely will God punish this our apathy and neglect ! Again, in order to follow Paul's precept, in 1 Cor., 14 : 29, to the effect that we must judge of every doctrine of Christianity, we must, of necessity, first learn the languages. For it may chance that the teacher or preacher shall go through with the whole of the Bible, ex- plaining it as seemeth to him good, whether that be right or wrong, and none of his hearers can dispute him, if none of them is competent to judge of his truth or error. But, to judge, we must know the languages, else we shall have nothing to guide us. Hence, though the faith of the gospel may be set forth in a certain measure by the unlettered preacher ; yet such preaching is weak at the best, and we soon become wearied and discouraged, and we faint fur lack of nu- triment. But, where the languages are well understood, there all is freshness and strength, the Scriptures are thoroughly winnowed, and faith is renewed day by day. Nor should we suffer ourselves to be led astray, because some magnify the spirit, while they despise the letter. So, too, some, like the Waldensian breth- ren, deem the languages of no account whatever. But, my good friends, the spirit is here, the spirit is there. I too have been in the spirit; and, I too have seen spirits, (if I may glory of myself.) And my spirit has proved some things, while your spirit has been quietly sitting in a corner, and doing little more than making a vain-glorious boast of its existence. I know, as well as another, that it is the spirit alone which does almost every thing. Had I passed my days in obscu- rity, and had I received no aid from the languages toward a sure and exact un- derstanding of the Scriptures, I might yet have led a holy life, and in my retire- ment have preached sound doctrine ; but then I should have left the pope and the sophists, together with the whole body of Anti-Christ, just where I found them. The devil does not regard my spirit of near so much account as my thoughts, and my writings upon the Scriptures. For my spirit takes nothing from him, save myself alone ; but the Holy Scriptures, and the sayings therein contained, make the world too narrow for him, and strip him of his power. Therefore, I can not accord my praise at all to my Waldensian brothers, for the low esteem in which they hold the languages. For, though their precepts square with the truth, yet they can not but fail often of the right text, and they must necessarily ever be unprepared and unequipped for the defense of the faith, and the uproot- ing of false doctrines. And for this reason are they so obscure ; and their speech is so warped from the standard of the Scriptures, that I greatly fear they are not or else will not abide in a pure faith. For it is very dangerous to speak of the things of God otherwise, or in other words, than God himself employs. In a word, it may be that they have the witness of a holy life and sound doctrine among themselves ; but, while they remain without the languages, they will fail precisely where others have failed, namely, in not searching the Scriptures with thoroughness and care, in order thereby to render themselves useful to others. But, since they now have the opportunity to do this, and yet will not do it, let them consider how they will answer for themselves before God. Thus far I have spoken of the usefulness and the necessity of the languages in their bearing on spiritual concerns and on the welfare of the soul. Now let us look to the body and ask, were there no soul, no heaven, nor hell, and were temporal affairs to be administered solely with a view to this world, whether these would not stand in need of good schools and learned teachers much more even than do our spiritual interests ? Nor hitherto have the sophists interested them- selves in this matter at all, but have adapted their schools to the spiritual order 146 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDLCA1ION AND SCHOOLS. nlone; so that it was counted a reproach to a learned man, if he was married; and such an one was told, *'. you are of the world, for you have severed yourself jfrom our order entirely ;" as if the spiritual order alone were pleasing in the sight of God, while the temporal, (as they style it,) was given over to the devil and Anti-Christ. It is needless for me here to argue, that all temporal government is of Divine origin and authority ; for on this point I have spoken elsewhere, and that so fully, that no one, I hope, will venture to deny it ; but, the question now is, how to provide able and competent men to govern us. And in this the heathen might justly put us to shame and confusion of face ; for they, the Greeks and Romans especially, gave diligent heed to the teaching and training of boys and girls, to fit them for all the various stations of temporal trust and authority, and yet they were entirely ignorant whether this was pleasing in the sight of God or not ; so that I blush for our Christians, when I think of it, and for our Germans, above all, who are clowns; yea, brute beasts, one might call them. For they say, " of what use are schools, unless you intend to enter the service of the church ?" But surely we know, or ought to know, how necessary, how proper, and how pleasing in the sight of God it is, for a prince, a lord, a magistrate, or any one in authority, to excel in learning and in wisdom, so that he may discharge the duties of his office in a Christian manner. If now, as for argument's sake I have supposed, there were no soul, and if we had no need at all of schools or of the languages for the sake of the Scriptures, or of God, yet it would be a suffi- cient reason for establishing in every place the very best of schools, both for boys and girls, that the world, merely to maintain its outward prosperity, has need of shrewd and accomplished men and women. Men to pilot state and people safely, and to good issues ; women to train up well and to confirm in good courses both children and servants. Now, such men must first be boys, and such women, girls. Hence, it is our duty to give a right training and suitable instruc- tion to these boys and girls. " Yes," you will say, " but every one can do this for himself, and can teach his sons and daughters, and bring them up under a good discipline." I answer, verily we sec but too well, what sort of teaching and discipline this is. For where it is carried to the farthest extent, and turns out well besides, it does not go any further than this, to impart an easy air, and respectful carriage; otherwise, the children appear to no more advantage than so many machines, who do not know how to converse well upon a variety of topics, and who are the very farthest from being able to give aid and counsel to others. But, if they were taught and trained in schools or elsewhere, where the masters and mistresses were learned and discreet, and could instruct them in the lan- guages, arts, and histories, they would thus become familiar with the great deeds and the famous sayings of all times ; would see how it fared with such a city, kingdom, province, man, or woman, and would bring before their eyes, as it were in a mirror, the whole world from the beginning, with all its character and life, its plans and achievements, its successes and failures : by all this they would shape their sentiments, and to all this conform the course of their life in the fear of God. From the same histories, too, they would gain wit and wisdom, and learn what to pursue and what to avoid in life, and so, by and by, be able to counsel or to govern others. But, the instruction which is imparted at home, without such schools, will make us wise only through our own experience. And before we get wisdom thus, we shall be an hundred times dead, and shall have passed our lives in folly ; for, to perfect our experience, we need a long series of years. Since, then, young people are always full of frolic and life, and always seeking something to do, and finding their pleasure in action ; and since you can not curb their spirits, nor would it be a good thing even if you could ; why should we not establish such schools, and unfold before them such arts ? For now, by God's grace, matters have taken such a turn, that children are enabled to learn by means of pleasure, and, in sport, as it were, every thing, whether it be lan- guages, arts, or histories. And our schools are no longer hells and purgatories, as they once were, where a boy was forever tormented with their cases and their tenses, and where he learned nothing, absolutely nothing, by reason of ceaseless flogging, trembling, woe and anguish. If,now, we take so much time and trouble to teach children to play at cards, to sing and to dance, why shall we not also spend time enough to teach reading and the other arts, while they have youth and leisure, and while they show both an aptness and a fondness for such things ? I.CTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 147 As for myself, if I had children and were able, I would teach them not only the languages and history, but singing likewise; and with music I would combine a full course of mathematics. For what would it all require but a mere child's play, as the Greeks brought up their children of old ? And what a wonderful people they were, and how well-fitted for all manner of occupations. And alas ! how often do I lament my own case, in that I read so few of the poets and historians when I was young, and that there was no one to direct me to them. But, in their place, I was compelled to flounder in all manner of vain philoso- phies and scholastic trash, true Serbonian bogs of the devil, and with much cost and care, and vast detriment besides, so that 1 have had enough to do ever since, in undoing the harm they did me. But, you say, " we can not bring all our children up to bs students ; we can not spare them ; we need them at home to work for us." I answer, " I do not ask for the establishment of such schools, as we have had hitherto, where our young men have spent twenty or thirty years over Donatus or Alexander, and yet have not learned any thing at all. We have now another world, and things are done after a different pattern. And I ask no more than this, namely, that boys shall attend upon such schools as I have in view, an hour or two a day. and none the less; spend the rest of their time at home, or in learning some trade, or doing whatever else you will ; thus both these matters will be cared for together, while they are young and opportunities are favorable. For else, they would haply spend tenfold this time in gunning and ball-playing. So, too, your little girls may easily find time enough to go to school an hour a day, and yet do all their household duties; for they now devote more than that to over-much play, dancing, and sleep. It is very plain that all we need, is a cordial and earnest determination to train up our youth aright, and by this means furnish the world with wise and efficient men. For the devil is better pleased with coarse blockheads and with folks who are useful to nobody ; because where such characters abound, then things do not go on prosperously here on the earth. Now, as for the most promising children, those who we may hope will become fitted for the position of teachers, either male or female, or of preachers, or whom we shall look to to fill other offices in the world and in the church ; these we should leave more and longer at schools, or perhaps keep them there altogether : as we read concerning the blessed martyrs, who educated St. Agnes, Agatha, Lucia, and the like. For this purpose, too, were cloisters and monasteries first founded ; but now, they have been turned aside to subserve other and most un- holy uses. And perhaps it must needs have bsen so ; for the shorn flock are well-nigh fleeced altogether : they have become for the most part wholly unfit either to teach or to guide, for they know nothing except how to pamper their bodies ; and this is no wonder, for no one thing besides have they ever learned. But, verily, we must have men of another sort ; men who shall dispense to us God's word and his ordinances, and who shall watch for the souls of the peo- ple. Such men, however, it will be in vain for us to look for, if we suffer out- present schools to decay, without establishing other and Christian schools in their place. And though the schools, as hitherto kept, may be still in existence, yet they can only furnish us with blind guides, perverse and corrupt in all their ways. Hence, there is great need, not for the sake of the young alone, but also for the welfare and the stability of all our institutions, temporal and spiritual alike, that we should b.?gin at once, and in good earnest, to attend to this matter. For, if we delay too long, we may haply find no place for effort, however much we shall desire it, and our most poignant regrets will then be unavailing forever. Con- sider, for example, the great diligence that King Solomon exercised in this mat- ter, and the interest that he shewed in the young, in that, amid all his royal occu- 4 pations, he found time to compose a book for their special instruction, viz : the Book of Proverbs. Consider Christ himself: how he called little children to him ; with what care he commended them to us, telling us withal that angels wait upon them. Matt. 18: 2. And in this, he shews us how great a service it is to bring them up well, and, on the other hand, that he is ever exceedingly angry when we offend or pervert them. Wherefore, dearly beloved rulers, bend yourselves to the work which God BO strictly enjoins upon you, which your office involves, which our youth stand 148 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. so much in need of, and which neither the world nor the spirit can afford to do without. Wo have lain, alas ! too long iu the darkness of corruption and death ; too long have we been German beasts. Let us now act as becomes reasonable beings, so that God may mark our gratitude for the good things he has given us. and that other lands may see that we, too, are men ; nay, more, that we are men who can either learn somewhat from them, or impart somewhat to them : so, through us, the world shall be made better. I have done my part; and with longing have I desired to bring aid and counsel to this German land. That some, who ought to know better, detest me for it, and throw my faithful counsel to the wind, all this I must let pass. I well know that others might have done better than I ; but, since these have remained silent, I have spoken out, as well as it lay in me to do. __ Poorly though it has been said, it were better thus, than had I held my peace. "And I am in hopes that God will awaken some of you, so that my true admonitions shall not be spilt upon the ground ; and that, taking no thought of him who speaks, you may be moved, by the things spoken of, to bestir yourselves. Finally, it is well for all those who eagerly desire to see such schools and studies established and sustained over Germany, to bear in mind the importance of sparing neither trouble nor expense, to the end that good libraries may be founded, espe- .cially in the large cities ; since in them both means and opportunities are greater than elsewhere. For if the gospel, together with all the arts and sciences, are to be perpetuated, they must be enclosed and bound up in books and writings. And the prophets and apostles themselves, as I said before, did this very thing. And this was not only that those who minister to us both in temporal and in spiritual things might have wherewithal to read and to study ; but also that good books themselves should be preserved and not be lost, so that we might have that knowledge of the languages, which now, by God's grace, we possess. We see, too, the importance that St. Paul attaches to this matter, where he commands Timothy, (1st. Ep. 4: 13,) "to give attendance to reading;" and also where he bids him, (2nd Ep. 4:13,) bring with him when he came the parchments that he left at Troas. Yea, all nations eminent in history have paid attention to this matter ; the Israelites more than all. Moses, who made their first record, commanded the book of the law to be preserved in the ark of God, and committed it to the keeping of the Le- vites. And, whoever desired it, could there have a copy made for himself; Moses, also, laid his prophetic injunction on the king that was to come, to obtain such copy from the Levites. Thus we see clearly that God ordained the Levitical priest- hood, that they might, in connection with their other duties, keep and guard the books of the law. Afterward, the collection was enriched and rendered more complete by Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, and other kings and proph- ets. Hence, arose the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, which would never have been brought together or preserved, had not God so solemnly and repeatedly commanded it to be done. With this example in view, the monaste- ries and cloisters in former times founded libraries, albeit they contained but few good books. And what a pity it was, that more pains had not been taken to collect good books, and form good libraries, at the proper time, when good books and able men were in abundance ; but, alas, we know too well that, in the gradual lapse of time, all the arts and the languages went to decay, and, instead of books having the ring of the true metal, the devil brought in upon us a flood of un- couth, useless, and pernicious monkish legends ; the " Florista," " Grzecista," " Labyrinthus," " Dormi Secure," and the like ; by the means of which the Latin tongue has become corrupt, and there are nowhere any good schools, doctrines, or systems of study remaining. But now, in these latter times, as it has been told us, and as we ourselves may see, there have arisen men who have re- stored, though as yet in a very imperfect manner, the languages and arts ; having picked them out of a few pieces and fragments of old books, that had long been given over to the dust and worms ; nor have they yet ceased from their labors, but ore renewing them daily. So we search for gold or jewels amid the ashes of some ruined city. In this matter it would be right, and God would justly punish our ingratitude, in not acknowledging his bounty, and taking means in time, and while we can, to keep gixxl books and learned men among us, (but letting them pass by. as though they did not concern us;) it would be right, I say, if he should suffer all this to leave us, and instead of the Holy Scriptures and good books, should bring us Aristotle back again, together with other pernicious books, which LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. J4Q erve only to lead us ever further away from the Bible, that so we might be deliv- ered over again to the monks, those minions of the devil, and to the vain mum- meries of the scholastics. Was it not a burning shnme that formerly n boy must needs study twenty years or longer, only to learn a jargon of bad Latin, and then to turn priest and say mass ? And he, who finally arrived at this pinnac-le of his hopes, was accounted happy ; and happy was the mother who had borne such a son. But, for all this, he remained a poor illiterate man all his days, and was neither good to cluck nor to lay eggs. Such are the teachers and guides that we have had to put up with, who knew nothing themselves, and accordingly were unable to teach any thing that was either good or true. Yea ! they did not even know how to learn, any more than they did how to teach. And, why was this so ? It was because there were no other books accessible, save the barbar- ous productions of the monks and sophists. Of course, in such a state of things, we could not look for any thing else than scholars and teachers as barbarous as the books which taught them. A jackdaw hatches never a dove ; neither will a fool make a wise man. Such is the reward of our ingratitude, in not using dili- gence in the establishment of libraries, and in leaving good books to perish, while we have cherished and preserved useless ones. But, my advice is, that you do not carry home all sorts of books, without distinction, thinking of numbers only. I would have a choice exercised in this matter, so that we should not heap to- gether the commentaries of all the jurists, the writings of all the theologians, the researches of all the philosophers, nor the sermons of all the monks. Nay, I would banish all such muck and mire, and provide me a library that should con- tain sterling books, books commended to me by learned men. In the first place, the Holy Scriptures should be there, both in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German ; also in all other languages in which they might be contained. Next, I would have those books which are useful in learning the languages ; as, for instance, the poets and orators, and that without inquiring whether they are Pagan or Christian, Greek or Latin. For. from all such are we to learn gram- mar and style. Next, there should be books pertaining to the liberal arts ; and likewise treatises on all the other arts, and on the sciences. And lastly, books on jurisprudence and medicine; though here, too, a wary choice is to be exercised. But, foremost of all, should be chronicles and histories, in whatever languages we could procure them ; for these are of singular usefulness, to instruct us in the course of the world, and in the art of government ; and, in these, too, we may see the manifestation of God's wonderful works. Oh ! how many a worthy say- ing, how many a noble deed, said and done here in Germany, might we now have hiid, if they had not, alas ! passed clean out of the memory of man ! And this, for the reason that there was no one to record them ; or, if they were re- corded, that no one has preserved the record. This, too, is the reason that they know nothing of us in other lands; and all the world must fain call us German beasts, who only know how to get substance, and then consume it in gluttony and riotous living. But the Greeks and the Romans, and, for the matter of that, the Hebrews, too, have described the events that took place in their midst so minutely and faithfully, that, if but a woman or a child said or did any thing worthy of note, forthwith it was chronicled, so that all the world should read it and know of it ; and yet, we Germans remain bound up in ourselves, having neither a thought nor a wish that looks beyond our own interests. But since, now in these days. God has so graciously come to our aid with all fullness both of art, learned men and books, it is time that we should reap and gather in of the choicest that we can find, and lay up great store of treasure, that we may have wherewith to maintain ourselves in the future out of these golden years, by reason of having improved the opportunity of this rich harvest. For there is danger that it may finally come to this, (and already things are tend- ing that way,) that, through the agency of the devil, good books, which have b j en restored to us by the art of printing, shall be submerged under a flood of disso- lute and pernicious works, in which there is neither s?nse nor reason ; a flood that shall pour in again, as aforetime, and fill every nook and corner of the land. For the devil is surely plotting to bring back the former state of thinss, so that men shall again painfully stagger under a load of " catholicons," "floristas,"' 4 * modernistas," and all the vile and abominable trash of the monks and sophists ; so we shall again be ever learning, and never coining to the knowledge of the truth. 150 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. Wherefore, I beseech you, my beloved rulers and friends, let this my faithfulness and diligence bear fruit in you. And, though there be some who deem me of too little consequence to give heed to my counsel, and despise me no one under the ban of tyrants, yet, I hope that one day they will see that I did not seek my own, but only the welfare and the happiness of the entire German nation. And though I were a fool, and yet should light upon some good path, it would be no disgrace to a wise man to follow me. And though I were a Turk and a heathen, yet, should Christians perceive that what I had said was not to my own profit but to that of others, even thus, they could not justly despise my efforts to serve them. There are times, too, when a fool may give better advice than a whole army of counselors. Moses suffered himself to be taught by Jethro. Exodus, 18: 17. Now, I commend you all to the grace of God, and I pray him to soften your hearts, so that you may right earnestly espouse the cause of poor, needy, for- saken youth, and through Divine help assisting you, and for the sake of a good and a Christian government here in our Germany, that you may aid and counsel them, in body and -in soul, with all fullness and superfluity, to the praise and glory of God the Father, through our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen." Vlll. DUTY OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF CHILDREN. In his sermon, " On keeping children at school," Luther says : God has given you children and the means of their support, not that you should idolize them, or lead them into the vanities of the world. But he has laid his most solemn injunctions upon you, to train them up for his service. He speaks in terms of praise of the learned classes, especially the clerical, and presses conviction upon consciences of parents, when, out of avarice, they withhold from study a boy who is strongly bent upon learning. Cheerfully let thy son study, and should he the while even be compelled to earn his bread, yet remember that you are offering to our Lord God a fine little block of marble out of which he can hew for yon a master-piece. And do not regard the fact that in these days the lust for gain is everywhere throwing learning into contempt ; nor say, in your haste, " If my son can write and read German and keep accounts, it is enough ; I will make a merchant of him ," for they will soon be brought to such a pass, that they would gladly dig ten ells deep in the ground with their fingers, if, by so doing, they could find a learned man ; for a merchant, methinks, would not be a merchant long, should law and theology perish. Of this I am full sure, we theologians and jurists must remain with yon, or the whole world will go to ruin together, and that without remedy. If theologians turn aside, then the word of God will come to naught, and we shall all become heathen, yea, very devils; if jurists turn aside, then law will fly away, bearing peace with it; and, amid robbery, murder, outrage, and all manner of violence, we shall sink below the beasts of the forest. But, how much the merchant will make and heap together, when peace shall have fled from the earth, his ledger will lell him better than I; and how much good his possessions will do him, when preaching shall be no more, this let his conscience declare. Luther did not mean, however, to insist that all boys should go through a complete course of study, as we may perceive from the "Letter to the German nobles." He expresses himself in the most decided terms, on the duty of magistrates to compel the attendance of children at school. M I hold it to be incumbent on those in authority to command their subjects to keep their children at school ; for it is, beyond doubt, their duty to insure the permanence of the above-named offices and positions, so that preachers, jurists, curates, scribes, physicians, schoolmasters, and the like, may not fail from among LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 15 1 us ; for we can not do without them. If they have the right to command their subjects, ihe able-bodied among them, in time of war, to handle musket and pike, to mount the walls, or to do whatever else the exigency may require ; with how much the more reason ought they to compel the people to keep their children at school, inasmuch as here upon earth the most terrible of contests, wherein there is never a truce, is ever going on. and that with the devil himself, who is lying in wait, by stealth and unawares, if so bu that he may drain city and kingdom, and empty quite out of them all the brave and good, even until he has removed the kernel utterly, and naught shall be left but a mere shell, full of idle mischief- makers, to be mere puppets in his hands to do his pleasure. Then will your city or your country suffer a true famine, and, without the smoke of conflict, will be silently destroyed from within, and that without warning. Even the Turk manages in another way ; for he takes every third child throughout his empire, and trains him to some calling perforce. How much more, then, ought our rul- ers to put at least some children to school not that I would have a boy taken away from his parents, only that he should be educated, for his own good and the general welfare, to some calling that shall yield him abundant fruits of his industry. Wherefore, let magistrates lay these things to heart, and let them keep a vigilant look-out ; and, wherever they see a promising lad, have him placed at school. Those fathers, who feared that learning would be pernicious to their children, Luther pacified by using their own arguments. But, you say, " how if it turn out ill, and my son become a heretic or a vil- lain ? For the proverb says, the scholar's skill turns oft to ill ?" Well, and what of it ? Venture, nevertheless. Your diligence and toil will not be thrown away. God will reward you according to your faithfulness, whether your work pros- per or fail. Besides, you must act on uncertainties in respect to any pursuit whatever, that you may train him for. How was it with good Abraham, when his son Ishmael disappointed his hopes? How with Isaac and Esau? Or with Adam and Cain? Was Abraham on that account to neglect training Isaac up for the service of God ? Or Isaac, Jacob ? Or Adam, Abel 1 IK. THE DIGNITV AND DIFFICULTY OF THE WORK OF TEACHING. In the same sermon, Luther takes especial pains to magnify the office of the school-teacher. Where were your supply of preachers, jurists, and physicians, if the arts of grammar and rhetoric had no existence ? These are the fountain, out of which they all flow. I tell you, in a word, that a diligent, devoted school-teacher, precep- tor, or any person, no matter what is his title, who faithfully trains and teaches boys, can never receive an adequate reward, and no money is sufficient to pay the debt you owe him ; so, too, said the pagan, Aristotle. Yet we treat them with contempt, as if they were of no account whatever ; and, all the time, we profess to be Christians. For my part, if I were, or were compelled, to leave off preaehing and to enter some other vocation, I know not an office that would please me better than that of schoolmaster, or teacher of boys. For I am con- vinced that, next to preaching, this is the most useful, and greatly the best labor in all the world, and, in fact, I am sometimes in doubt which of the positions is the more honorable. For you can not teach an old dog new tricks, and it is hard to reform old sinners, but this is what by preaching we undertake to do, and our labor is often spent in vain ; but it is easy to bend and to train young trees, though haply in the process some may be broken. My friend, nowhere on earth can you find a higher virtue than is displayed by the stranger, who takes your child- ren and gives them a faithful training, a labor which parents very seldom per- form, even for their own offspring. To the like effect, does Luther speak of school-teachers in the Table Talk. I would have no one enter the ministry, who has not first been a schoolmaster. Our young men, now-a-days, do not think so ; they shrink from the toil of teaching, 152 LUTHER'S VIEWS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. and rush at once for the sacred office. But, after one has taught school for ten years or thereabouts, he may, with a good conscience, break oft'; for the labor is great, and the reputation small. Still, as much depends in a city on a school- master as on the preacher. And, if I were not a preacher, I know not the posi- tion on earth which I had rather fill. You must not be swayed in this matter by the opinions or the rewards of the world, but consider how God regards the work, and how he will exalt it at the last day. Though Luther thought so very highly of the. office of the teacher, yet he remarks, in his commentary on Galatians, that this office is for the most part in ill-repute with children, and that severe teachers, particularly when their severity is habitual, are any thing but loved by their pupils. It is impossible that a disciple, or a scholar, can love the teacher who is harsh and severe ; for, how can he prevail on himself to love one who immures him, as it were, in a dungeon ; that is, who constrains him to do that which he will not, and holds him back from doing that which he will ; and who, when he does any- thing that has been forbidden him, straightway flogs him, and, not content with this, compels him to kiss the rod too. A most gracious and excellent obedience and affection this in the scholar, that comes from an enforced compliance with the harsh orders of a hateful taskmaster ! My friend, do you suppose that he obeys with joy and gladness ? But, what does he do when the teacher's back is turned ? Does he not snatch up the rod, break it into a thousand pieces, or else throw it into the fire ? And, if he had the power, he would not suffer his teacher to whip him again ; nay, he would turn the tables on him, and not simply take the rod to him, but cudgel him soundly with a club. Nevertheless, the child needs the discipline of the rod ; but it must be tempered with admonition, and directed to his improvement; for, without this, he will never come to any good, but will be ruined, soul and body. A miserable teacher, indeed, would that man be, who should only know how to beat and torment his scholars, without ever being able to teach them any thing. Such schoolmasters there have been, whose schools were nothing but so many dungeons and hells, and themselves tyrants and gaolers; where the poor children were beaten beyond endurance and with- out cessation, and applied themselves to their task laboriously and with over-pushed diligence, but yet with very small profit. A well-informed and faithful teacher, on the other hand, mingles gentle admonition with punishment, and incites his pupils to diligence in their studies, and to a laudable emulation among themselves ; and so they become rooted and grounded in all kinds of desirable knowledge, as well as in the proprieties and the virtues of life, and they now do that spontane- ously and with delight, which formerly, and under the old discipline, they ap- proached with reluctance and dread. X. PLAN FOR SCHOOL ORGANIZATION. Luther writes, in 1524, to Spalatin : I send you my sketch of the school as it should be, that yon may lay it before the Elector; and though I do not expect that much heed will be given to it, yet 1 must venture, and leave the issue with God. Four years later, (1528,) Melancthon's " Manual of Visitation," made its appearance, in which he communicated a full and complete plan for the organization of schools, which had received the sanction of the elector, and which was, undoubtedly, based upon the sketch that Ltither had sent to Spalatin.* * Luther's plan, nbove referred to, I have never seen, nor is it, to far as I am aware, on record. That Melancthon's. however, essentially agrees with it we have abundant cause to conclude. Especially does this appear from a letter that Melancthon wrote to Camerarius nn the subject of the Manual. He says in this, "you vr ill see that I have written nothing mort than what Luther hae propounded pattim.'' LUTHER'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 153 XI. UNIVERSITIES. In the letter to the Christian nobles of 4he German nation on the elevation of the Christian order, Luther takes occasion to express him- self on German universities as follows. Our universities need a good thorough purging; I must say it, let whoever will be offended. For, what are they, save a few recently instituted, but li places of exercise for the chief young men," as the 2nd Book of Maccabees, 4 : 12, hath it ; where a free life is le i, after " the glory of the Grecians ;" where the Holy Scriptures and faith in Christ are lightly accounted of ; and where that blind pagan, Aristotle, reigns solitary and alone, even to the dethroning of Christ 1 Now this is my counsel, that Aristotle's books on physics, metaphysics, the soul, and ethics, which have been ever esteemed his best, should be thrown away, with all the host of those which pretend to treat of natural science, while in reality nothing can be learned from them, of things natural or things spiritual either : add, that what he does advance not a soul has hitherto understood, and yet so many noble intellects have been weighed down and paralyzed under the cost, toil, time and study that they have been forced to devote to him. But I would, neverthelessjbe willing to retain his logic, rhetoric and poetics abridged, I would prefer them, for they are useful to direct the young to a good style of speaking, either for the bar or the pulpit ; but the commentaries and glosses are useless. Cicero's rhetoric, likewise, may be read, but only the pure and simple text, unencumbered with your unwieldy and interminable commenta- ries. \ But now, they teach neither how to plead nor how to preach, but all the result they shew is mere wrangling and stupidity. And we ought, moreover, to adopt the languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, the mathematics and history, all which I commend to the more intelligent. But, the claims of these studies will need no urging, as soon as there is a right earnest desire for a reformation. And truly, this is a matter of the utmost consequence. For, here our Christian youth, and our nobles, in whom rest the hopes of Christianity, are to be taught, and to be fitted for action. And, accordingly, it is my firm belief that a reforma- tion and a renovation of our universities would be a work of greater magnitude than pope or emperor ever undertook, since there is not a more crafty, or a more devjjish device on the face of the earth than a university overgrown with the thorns and the briars of godless ignorance. XII. THE STUDY OF TIIR BIBLE. We have given, in the preceding pages, Luther's opinion of many of the university studies. It is not desirable, he says, to read a multi- tude of books ; among such as are read, however, the Holy Scrip- tures demand our chief care. Books should be fnver, and we must choose out the best. For many books do not impart knowledge, nor much reading either; but, that which is goixl, if it be read often, no matter how small its compass, that it is which throws light upon the Word, and inspires piety besides. Yea, even the works of the holy Fathers are to be read only as a means by which we may the better come at the sense of the Word ; but now we read them for themselves and abide in them, without ever coming to the Scriptures ; in this, we are like men who look at the guide- posts, but who never follow the road. The dear Fathers would have their writ- ings lead us into the Scriptures ; let us, then, carry out their intention. For the Scriptures, and they alone, are our vineyard, in which we are to exercise ourselves, and to labor. Above all things, let the Scriptures be the chief and the most frequently used reading-book, both in primary and in high schools : and the very young should be kept in the gospels. Is it not proper and rijrht that every human being, by the time he has reached his tenth year, should be familiar with the holy gospels, in which the very core and marrow of his life is bound ? Even the spinner and the seamstress impart the mysteries of their craft to their daughters, while these are yet in girlhood. And, again, when the high schools shall huve become grounded 154 LUTHER'S VIEWS OX EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. in tlic Scripturos, we then are not all of us to send our sons there, as is die practice now, when numbers alone are regarded, and each will have his boy a doctor; but \ve ought to admit only those who are best fitted, and who have pre- viously been well trained in the preparatory schools; to which matter, princes of magistrates ought to pay special attention, not allowing any to be sent to the high schools but the most capable. But, where the Holy Scriptures do not bear sway, there I would counsel none to send his child. For every institution will degener- ate, where God's word is not in daily exercise ; in proof of this, we need but look at those who have been moulded by, or who are now in the high schools. The high schools ought to send forth men thoroughly versed in the Scriptures, to become bishops and pastors, and to stand in the van, against heretics, the devil, and, if need be, the whole world. But, what do we find them ? I greatly fear they are no better than broad gates to hell, wherever they do not busily exercise and practice our youth in the Holy Scriptures. XIII. STUDY OF THE LANGUAGES. In what high esteem Luther held the languages, we have already had occasion to remark. To Hebrew, in particular, he frequently recurs in terms of praise. The Hebrew tongue surpasses all others; it is the richest in words of any, and it is pure; it borrows nothing, but has its own independent hue. The Greek, the Latin, and the Germans .nil borrow; they have, moreover, man}' compound words, whereas the Hebrew has none. From a simple word the Germans make twenty compounds, which all proceed from it, and are pieced together out of it; as, from /di//**f!m the 17th of December. 1538, while Dr. M. Luther was entertaining some musicians at his house, who sang many sweet tunes and lofty cantatas, he ex- claimed, in his rapture : " If in this life our Lord God has scattered around and heaped upon us such noble gifts, what will it be in that immortal life, where all is perfection and fullness of delight? But here we have only the beginning, the materia prima. I have always loved music. He who knows this art is in the right frame, and fitted for every good pursuit, I We can not do without music in our schools. A schoolmaster must know how'to sing, or I would not allow him to teach. Nor ought we to ordain young tlu-ologians to the sacred office, unless they have first been well-tried and practiced in the art in the school." As they sang a cantata of Senffel's, Luther was filled with emotion and wonder, praising it highly. He thon said : " Such a cantata it is not in my power to compost-, even though I should try to my utmost ; nor, on the other hand, could Senffel expound a psalm as well an I. For the gifts of the Holy Spirit are of divers kinds ; so in one body there are different members. But no one is contented with his own gift, no one rests satisfied with what (Jod has bestowed upon him, for all wish to be, not members merely, but the whole body. Music is a fair, glorious gift of God ; and it lies very near to theology. I would not part with my small faculty of music, for vast possessions. We should practice the young continually in this art. for it will make able and polished men of them. Singing is the best art and exercise. It has nothing in common with the LUTHER'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 159 world ; it is far-removed from the jar and wrangling of the court and the lawsuit. Singers, too, are never overwhelmed with care, but are joyful ; and, with their singing, they drive care out and away." And he said further : ''How comes it to pass that, in carnal things, we have so many a fine poem, and so many a sweet song, while, in spiritual things, all is so cold and listless ?" He then recited some German odes, The Tournament, by Bollen, etc. "I hold this to be the reason, as St. Paul has expressed it, in Romans, 7 : 23 ; 'I see another law warring in my members,' a law that will net be overcome, and that does not yield up its power so readily as does the law in the soul. If any one despises music, as all the fanatics do, I can not confide in him. For music is a gift and bestowment of God ; it does not proceed from man. And it drives away the devil, and makes men happy: in it, we forget all anger, lasciviousness, pride, and every vice. Next to theology I rank music, and hold it in almost equal honor. For look how David and all holy men have uttered their heavenly meditations in verse, rhyme and song. Quia pads tempore regnal musica." I am convinced that my readers would feel aggrieved, were I to offer them an apology for dwelling so long upon Luther. In fact, were any apology in place, it would be for my having omitted so much ; and this I have done because I feared lest I might communi- cate some passages that we were all perfectly well acquainted with. Among such I would place the admirable preface to the little book, the book which he composed at the same time with the writings above cited, the shorter catechism. Who will not be delighted to recognize this great man as a reformer of German education also? His admonitions have reached the hearts of myriads of our countrymen, awakened many sleeping consciences, and strengthened many feeble hands ; his utterances have been to both princes and people as the voice of God. And he has deserved such confidence in the fullest measure, because he also received into his own heart, so abundantly, that faith which worketh by love. What could not such a divinely-governed, and un- tiring love accomplish, seconded as it was by such great gifts ; so clear an eye, so sound an understanding, such aptness for the languages, such creative skill in speech, such a soaring imagination, and such profound speculation ? Who among all of Luther's contemporaries can compare with him in genuine, comprehensive culture ? Only let as not guage culture with the measuring-rod of the Latinized school pedant, neither with that of the Mephistophelian scoffer ; for we have to do with large spiritual gifts, which were brought into the service of a consecrated, determined, irresisiible will, a will made free by the Son, a will that governed itself, inasmuch as it purposed to servo God, and God's will alone. On this head, also compare Luther's letter to Louis Senfft 1, musician to ihe Duke of Dava. ria. De Wette, 4, 180. No. 11. [VoL. IV., No. 2.]_29. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SERVICES OF PHILIP MELANCTHON. FROM THE GERMAN OF KARL VON RAUMER. i. MELANCTHON'S CHILDHOOD. HISTORIANS called Melanclhon the fellow-soldier ( of Luther. " God joined together these two instruments of his purpose," said Winshemius, in his Eulogy upon Melancthon, " these two great men, whose dispositions were so admirably blended, that if to Erasmus and others Luther appeared to be too harsh a physician for the disease that had infected the church, Philip, on the contrary, though pursuing the same course without deflection, seemed too tender and mild." In this we may perceive the secret counsels of Him, who calls men by name, while as yet they have not come into being. Both these men were fully sensible that they were, so to speak, the complements one of the other, and that in the labors of their life they could not be separated. Hence the uncontrollable delight of Luther at Melancthon's first entrance into Wittenberg ; hence too his agonizing and answered prayer for the recovery of his fellow-laborer, when, in 1540, the latter lay dangerously sick at Weimar.* How forlorn too was Melancthon's condition while Luther was on the Wartburg; how consolatory and cheering must Luther's letters to him from Coburg have been during the Augsburg Diet ; and how unhappy was he in the closing years of his life after the death of Luther ! PHILIP MELANCTHON was born the 16th of February, 1497, fourteen years after Luther; he likewise survived him fourteen years, and they both died at the age of sixty-three. They yet show in Bretten, a small town in the Duchy of Baden, the humble mansion where he first saw the light. His father was a skillful armorer, and a devout and upright man. His maternal grandfather, John Reuther, took charge of the boy, and put him under the instruction of John Hungarus. Of the latter Melancthon wrote : " I had a teacher, who was an excel- lent grammarian, and who kept me constantly at the grammar.f Melancthon thus write* of his convalescence: -Ego fuisseni ejctinctun, nisi adtentu. Lutheri wr media morte rezoealus cssem." 1 "lllc adegit me ad Grammaticam, et ita adegit, ut constructions fcxerem : cogebar red- dere regvlas construct 'ionis per rertus Mantuani." 162 PHILIP MELANCTHON. Whenever I made a slip, he whipped me, but with mildness and forbearance. Thus he made me a grammarian too. He was a good- hearted man ; he loved me as a son, I him as a father." His grandfather died in the year 1507, and, eleven days afterward, his father. The latter, on his death-bed, exhorted his son to the fear of God: "I have witnessed many commotions, but there are far greater to come. I pray God that he would guide you safely through them. Fear God and do right.'' Melancthon was now taken, with his brother, into the family of his grandmother, who was Reuchlin's sister, and lived in Pforzheim. George Simler, of Wimpfen, whom we have met with as a pupil of Dringenberg's, instructed him there in Greek. Reuchlin, who was a frequent visitant at his sister's, in Pforzheim, was delighted with the progress of the boy, and gave him books, among the rest a Greek grammar and a Greek dictionary. He brought him also, for sport's sake, a little red doctor's-cap. And after the fashion, then so preva- lent, he translated his original name, "Schwarzerd" (black earth,) into the Greek, Melancthon. II. MELANCTHON AT IIKIDKLBKKO. After remaining toward two years at Pforzheim, he was sent in 1509, at the age of twelve,* to the university of Heidelberg. This institution, at the close of the 15th century and the commencement of the 16th, was the rallying ground of the most eminent men of Germany, those especially who were laboring in the cause of a reformation in the church as well as in the schools. The Elector- Palatine Philip, who entered upon his government in 1476, shewed the utmost concern for the prosperity of this university. He confided the execution of his generous plans principally to John Kammerer, of Worms, the Baron of Dalberg, who invited learned men to Heidel- berg, and accorded them his favor and protection. Dalberg was born in 1445, at Oppenheim. He studied at Erfurt, and then went to Italy, where in 1476 he lived in Ferrara with his friend Plenninger, and with Agricola. In 1482 he was appointed by the Elector Philip his chancellor, and shortly afterward obtained the rank of Prince Bishop of Worms. Dalberg, as we have before seen, induced Rudolf Agricola to come to Heidelberg; he it was too who, when John Reuchlin suffered persecution in his own country, threw around him his most cordial protection ; and he moreover secured the In view of M. l.-uici In Hi's extreme youth, this event would surprise us, did we not consider that at that time much was tauirht in She universities, which at tlie present day is assigned to the upper Classen in the gymnasia; no ih.it then the school-curriculum was completed at the uuivertily. PHILIP MEI.ANCTHON. 163 installation of Reuchlin's brother, Dionysius, as professor of the Greek language at the university. About the same time Wimpheling, that ardent scholar of Dringenberg's, taught at Heidelberg. Conrad Celtes too, the first German poet who was honored with a crown,* came thither while on his travels through Germany and Italy ; and at his suggestion Dalberg founded the Rhenish literary association.! But, when Melancthon came to Heidelberg, most of these above- named excellent men had, it is true, either removed or died. Agricola died in 1485, Dalberg in 1503, Celtes in 1508, while professor of the art of poetry at Vienna: in 1498 John Reuchlin had returned to Wurtemberg, and Wimpheling too had left Heidelberg nearly at the same time. Melancthon was received into the family of the aged theological professor, Pallas Spangel, who had taught here for thirty-three years ; and he recounted to the young lad many incidents of the past, in which Agricola and others were actors. "At the university," says Melancthon, " nothing was placed before us but their babbling dialectics and meagre physics. As I, however, had learned the art of versifying, I applied myself to the poets, and likewise to history and mythology. I read, too, all the moderns of Politian's school whom I could lay hands on; and this was not without its influence upon my style." In his 14th year, (loll,) the university gave Melancthon the Baccalaureate degree. He then took charge of the studies of two sons of Count Lowenstein, and sketched, for their use probably, the first outlines of a grammar of the Greek language. By reason of his extreme youth, the degree of Master was not con- ferred upon him ; this fact, taken in connection with an attack of fever, determined him in 1512 to leave Heidelberg and go to Tubingen. III. MELANCTHON AT TUBINGEN. At that time the Tubingen university had been in existence for thirty-five years only, since it was founded in 1477 by the excellent Eberhard the Elder, the first Duke of Wurtemberg. The early history of this university reminds one of the Middle Ages ; for nomi- nalism and realism here renewed their old battles, and it often hap- pened that of two students occupying the same room one was a nominalist and the other a realist. Gabriel Biel, who was the last He wts crowned for his Latin poems upon the Emperor Frederick III. The coronation took place in 1191, at Nuremberg. T Societas literaria RJienana. Dalberg was its president, and it numbered among its mem- ber! Pirkheiiner, Stbastian Brandt, and many other distinguished men. 164 PHILIP MELANCTHON. of the distinguished scholastics, and a nominalist, was a professor here. But it was not long before the elements of the new era began to bestir themselves. Paul Scriptoris, a Franciscan, though he read lectures upon Scotus, nevertheless deviated here and there from the teachings of the church, and Summenhart sought to base theology upon the Bible. Both of these men had learned Hebrew ; Hikle- brand too, full of pious zeal, taught Hebrew and Greek for the sake exclusively of the Old and New Testaments. While these men, led by their earnest religious tendencies, were thus advancing in the right direction, there came to Tubingen in 1496 a man who was enthusiastically devoted to the classics. This man was Henry Bebel, professor of poetry and eloquence. Polite litera- ture, (politiores literae,) as it was called, was first represented at the university in him ; for before his coining there had not been even a place assigned to it. He opened a path for classical studies in a bold and fearless manner, doing battle with the monks, who regarded these studies as anti-Christian. Brassicanus, of Constance, co-operated with him also. Among the professors of law were George Simler, already mentioned as Melancthon's teacher, and Naucler, who was the author of a history of the world. John Stoffler, a noteworthy man, became professor of mathematics and astronomy in 1616. When the youthful Melancthon came to Tubingen, he was involved in the struggle between the old and the new eras. Bebel, Brassica- nus, and others, whose courses he attended, were decided Reuchlin- ists; and to these he united himself, since he was akin to Reuchlin in two senses, as well by mental affinities as by the ties of nature. He now strove with the energy and ardor of youth to compass all branches of knowledge, both by learning and teaching. When, in 1514, in his 17th year, he was made a Master, he lectured on Virgil and Terence. Two years later, in 1516, he published an edition of Terence, in which the verses were disposed according to the metre.* In the dedication of the same, (to Geraeander,) be commends the poet to youth particularly as a teacher both of morals and of style. At the same time he went eagerly into Greek, read Hesiod with Oecolampadius, and translated much of Plutarch and Lucian, and the whole of Aratus. In 1518 ho brought out his Greek grammar: thus early, in his 21st year, did he give indications that he was marked out to be the u Pr -acceptor Germaniae" as he was afterward familiarly called. On the death of Bebel, which took place in 1516, Comoediae P. TtTcntii metro numtrisyie rettitutae. Tub., 1516. It passed through everal edition*. PHILIP MELAXCTHON. 165 Melancthon, the mere stripling of nineteen, was invited to fill his chair and teach rhetoric; whereupon, he read lectures on some works of Cicero and six books of Livy. During this period the logic of Rudolf Agricola made its appearance, and Melancthon was incited by it to undertake a critical examination into the course of argument in the speeches of Demosthenes and Cicero. He likewise cultivated the acquaintance of Francis Stadian, professor of logic. At the close of his Greek grammar, he announced " that he intended, in conjunction with a number of his friends, Stadian especially, to edit the works of Aristotle." " If Aristotle, even in the original, is somewhat obscure,'' said Melancthon in one of his orations, " in the Latin versions he has become horribly mutilated and wholly unintelligible." We have seen that the Italians likewise, Politian, for example, went back to the original text of Aristotle, and were thus enabled to lay the axe at the root of the pseudo-Aristotelism of the scholastics. Heyd, a clear- sighted author, thus justly observes in this connection : " Melancthon and Stadian, in editing and translating Aristotle, sought to bring about a reformation in the sphere of philosophy, similar to that which Luther's translation of the Bible was designed to effect in the sphere of theology. Men had become sick of turbid streams, and longed to quench their thirst at the pure fountains. The Bible truly was a perennial fountain, but a century later Francis Bacon directed inquiry from Aristotle, the teacher of physics back to nature, (^jtfig-,) the true original and source of physics." Melancthon attended the mathematical lectures of Stoffler for three years, and entertained the highest respect for his character. lie dedicated to him an oration, " de artibus liberalibus^ that he delivered in 1517, in Tubingen; and it was at Stoffler's request that he translated Aratus. He cultivated the science of law likewise, and it would appear that he gave private instruction in jurisprudence. He also heard medical lectures, and studied Galen quite as much with reference to the matter as to the style. And he was moreover led into close historical researches, by remodeling Naucler's history of the world for a new edition. In theology there was not much to be learned from the professors at Tubingen ; and for that reason Melancthon soon applied his own linguistic attainments to Biblical exegesis ; and he was much rejoiced at the appearance of the New Testament of Erasmus. Thus were his studies, yet in his early youth, throughout uni- versal, no branch of knowledge remaining wholly unfamiliar to him ; and by virtue of this universality, for which his remarkable talents fitted him, he won for himself the appellation "Praeceptor Germaniae." 166 PHILIP MELANCTHON. IV. MKLANCTIION CALLED TO WITTENBERG. Melancthon had spent six years at Tubingen, when Frederick the "Wise, in the year 1518, applied to Reuchlin to provide him a teacher of Greek, and one of Hebrew also, for the university of Wittenberg. Reuchlin, in his reply to the Elector, assured him that Germany, hitherto called, and not without reason, in other countries, " barbarian " and " brutish," needed these studies. For Hebrew he named, by way of eminence, Oecolampadius ; " where baptized Jews are not well- versed in Latin they are not fit persons to teach Hebrew, as their knowledge has been derived more from use than from study.'' For Greek, Reuchlin recommended in the most decided terms " Master Philip Schwarzerd," whom "from his youth up he himself had indoctrinated in this language." On the 12th of July, Melancthon wrote an impatient letter to Reuchlin, signifying his longing to be delivered from his " house of bondage," where, occupied in unimportant labors with boys, lie himself was fast becoming a boy again himself. He was willing to go whither Reuchlin should send him. Reuchlin was not long in answering the letter. The Elector had written him to have Melancthon come to Wittenberg. " Not figura- tively," Reuchlin continued, " but in their literal sense I address you in the words of the command of God to the faithful Abraham : 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing.' Thus my spirit prophecies to thee, and I hope that these things will be fulfilled in thee, my Philip, my pupil, and my consolation." To the Elector, Reuchlin wrote : " Melancthon will come, and he will be an honor to the university. For I know no one among the Germans who excels him, save Erasmus, of Rotterdam, and he is more properly a Hollander. He, (Erasmus,) surpasses all of us in Latin." Melancthon now left Tubingen. Simler, his old teacher, thus spoke of his departure : "As many learned men as the university can boast of, they are nevertheless none of them learned enough to form a suitable estimate of the learning of him who is about to leave us." From Augsburg and Nuremberg, where Melancthon made friends of Pirkheimer and Scheurl, he went to Leipzic. Hero he spent much time in the society of the excellent Peter Mosellanus. On the 25th of August, 1518, he entered Wittenberg, there to remain until the close of his life. There, for eight and twenty years, he labored in connection with Luther. And his labors bore fruit in an abundan PHILIP MELANCTIION. 167 harvest of blessings ; for the ecclesiastical movement set on foot by these two men in a small German university assumed an ever wider sphere, till at last it encircled the globe, and thus Reuchlin's presentiments were realized. Luther could not find words to depict the joy that he felt at Melancthon's coming. In a letter to Spalatin, he expresses his admiration of the inaugural speech which Melancthon delivered four days after his arrival. He only fears that Melancthon's delicate con- stitution may not bear the North-German climate and mode of life. In another letter of this period, he styles him " profoundly learned, thoroughly grounded in Greek, (Graecanicissimus,) and not unfamiliar with Hebrew." To Reuchlin he writes: "Our Melancthon is a wonderful man ; yea, in every quality of mind almost above humanity, and, withal, very confiding and friendly in his demeanor toward me." Thus did Luther, on his first acquaintance with Melancthon, recog- nize him as the man who was to prove the complement of his own being, and to make possible the realization of the great purpose of his life. v. MELANCTHON'S ACTIVITY IN WITTENBERG. The activity of Melancthon from this time on was extraordinary. What he did directly for the church I omit, as not coming within the scope of this work. The universality displayed in his youthful studies accompanied him throughout the whole of his life, as we see in the wide range of subjects which he taught, or on which he wrote. a. His Lectures, His lectures embraced the most diverse subjects. He read on the exegesis of the New Testament ; a while also on that of the Old, besides dogmatics. At the same time he gave critical interpretations of many of the Greek and Latin classics. To these were added lectures on ethics, logic, and physics. From his writings we may perceive what a union of depth and clearness he displayed in the treatment of his subjects; and this accounts for the homage and the admiration of his hearers. Their number reached at times as high as two thousand. They were composed of all ranks, and not Germans alone, but also Frenchmen, Englishmen, Poles, Hungarians, Danes, yea, even Italians and Greeks flocked to hear him. And what distinguished men too were formed under bis teachings! Among them we may include those highly renowned schoolmasters, Joachim Camerarius, Valentine Trotzendorf, and Michael Neander. All three loved him to their dying day with a depth of devotedness that they could not express ; and his doctrines they held sacred and worthy of lasting remembrance. 168 PHILIP MELANCTHON. b. His Personal Relations to the Students. But that devotedness was not merely the fruit of Melancthon's lectures ; it proceeded rather from the affectionate manner that he displayed toward the students individually. "It was a part," so Camerarius tells us, "of Melancthon's household arrangements, never to deny himself to any one. Many came to him for letters of recom- mendation; many for him to revise their essays. Some sought his counsel in their embarrassments ; others told him of incidents that had befallen them, either in private or in public, provided they were such as merited his attention ; others again brought this or that complaint before him." "I can assure you, of a truth,'' said Melanc- thon in an academical oration, " that I embrace all the students with the love and the interest of a father, and am deeply affected by every thing that menaces them with danger." c. What he did for the School-System. Another phase of Melancthon's educational activity may be seen in his relation to schools. For he was often and in various ways appealed to for counsel in school matters. Especially noteworthy in this connection is his correspondence with Hieronymus Baumgartner, of Nuremberg. The occasion was as follows: The Nurembergers had resolved to establish a gymnasium, induced thereto chiefly by the solicitations of the excellent Lazarus Spengler. And Melancthon was formally invited through Baumgartner to become its rector. In his reply to Baumgartner he declines, because in the first place he can not leave Wittenberg without being ungrateful to the Elector ; and again, he is not adapted by his previous training for such a position. It requires a man who is a practiced rhetorician, and therefore able with a master's hand to mold the young to rhetorical perfection. To this he is in no wise adapted, for his style is bare and dry, with no elegance in it, in fact altogether scant and devoid of sap ; whereas the diction of a teacher of a gymnasium should be rich and full of grace. Reuchlin had sent him, when on the threshold of man- hood, to Saxony, where he first set about a thorough cultivation of many branches, self-impelled and self-directed thereto, for his previous school-education had been but poor. The Nurembergers, as might have been anticipated, did not take Melancthon's estimate of himself in earnest, but, believing it to be the result of an overweening modesty, repeated their invitation through Baumgartner again. Melancthon now replied decidedly that he could not come. But, on his suggestion, Hessus and Camerarius were applied to. Sigismund Gelenius likewise, a learned Bohemian, then living at Basle, was invited by Melancthon himself to become one of PHILIP MELANCTHON. 169 the teachers. lu the letter of invitation Melancthon tells him "that the new institution was designed to furnish a full course of instruction from the elements up to rhetoric. Mathematics too was to receive attention." Subsequently Melancthon was urged by the civic authorities of Nuremberg to take part in the inauguration of the gymnasium. (His letter of acceptance was dated on the 10th of March, 1526, and he went to Nuremberg on the 6th of May.) He there delivered a speech, in which he praised the Nurembergers for the spirit they displayed in providing means of education for the young, and he compared their city to Florence. In the year 1826, on the third centennial anniversary of the opening of the gymnasium, a statue of Melancthon was erected in front of the buildinf. X And as by the Nurembergers, so from many other quarters was \ Melancthon's advice solicited, in the affairs both of schools and uni- versities. But the event of his life that was attended with the most important consequences upon the school-system was his visitation, in i 1527, of churches and schools, undertaken by order of the Elector, John the Constant, and through the influence of Luther. The field assigned him was Thuringia, and, in company with Myconius and Justus Jonas, he traveled over the whole of it; and, in 1528, likewise by order of the Elector, he published his " Report," or " Book of Visitation," a work of great significance alike to church and to schools. Through its means an evangelical church-system was established for the first time independent of the Pope, and asserting its own authority both in the matter of doctrine and of government. Soon other states followed the example of Saxony. From the " Book of Visitation " we extract the following SCHOOL-PLAN.* Preachers also should exhort the people of their charge to send their children to school, so that they may be trained up to teach sound doctrine in the church, and to serve the state in a wise and able manner. Some imagine that it is enough for a teacher to understand German. But this is a misguided fancy. For he, who is to teach others, must have great practice and special aptitude ; to gain this, he must have studied much, and from his youth up. For St. Paul tells us, in 1 Tim., 3 : 2, that a bishop must be "apt to teach." And herein he would have us infer that bishops must possess this quality in greater measure than laymen. So also he commends Timothy, (1 Tim., 4: 6,) in that he has learned from his youth up, having been " nourished up in the words of faith, and of good doctrine." For this is no small art, namely, to teach and direct others in a clear and correct manner, and it is impossible that unlearned men should attain to it. Nor do we need able and skillful persons for the church alone, but for the government of the world too; and God requires it at our hands. Hence parents should place their children at school, in order there to arm and equip them for God's service, so that God can use them for the good of others. But in our day there are many abuses in children's schools. And it is that these abuses may be corrected, and that the young may have good instruction, that we have prepared this plan. In the first place, the teachers must be careful * This plan appears likewise in Luther's works. 170 PHILIP MELANCTIION. to teach the children Latin only, not German, nor Greek, nor Hebrew, as some have heretofore done, burdening the poor children with such a multiplicity of pursuits, that arc not only unproductive, but positively injurious. Such school- masters, xve plainly see, do not think of the improvement of the children at all, but undertake so many languages, solely to increase their own reputation. In the second place, teachers should not burden the children with too many books, but should rather avoid a needless variety. Thirdly, it is indispensable that the children be classified into distinct groups. THE FIRST GROUP. The first group should consist of those children who are learning to read. With these the following method is to be adopted : They are first to be taught the child's-manual, containing the alphabet, the creed, the Lord's prayer, and other prayers. When they have learned this, Donatus and Cato may both be given them ; Donatus for a reading-book, and Cato they may explain after the following manner : the schoolmaster must give them the explanation of a verse or two, and then in a few hours call upon them to repeat what he has thus said ; and in this way they will learn a great number of Latin words, and lay up a full store of phrases to use in speech. In this they should be exercised until they can read well. Neither do we consider it time lost, if the feebler children, who are not especially quick-witted, should read Cato and Donatus not once only, but a second time. With this they should be taught to write, and be required to shew their writing to the schoolmaster every day. Another mode of enlarging their knowledge of Latin words is to give them every afternoon some words to commit to memory, as has been the custom in schools hitherto. These children must likewise be kept at music, and be made to sing with the others, as we shall show, God willing, further on. THE SECOND GROUP. The second group consists of children who have learned V to read, and are now ready to go into grammar. With these the following regu- lations should be observed : The first hour after noon every day all the children, large and small, should be practiced in music. Then the schoolmaster must interpret to the second group the fables of JEanp. After vespers, he should ^explain to them the Paedology of Mosellanus ; and, when this is finished, he should select from the Colloquies of Erasmus some that may conduce to their improvement and discipline. This should be repeated on the next evening also. When the children are about to go home for the night, some short sentence may be given them, taken perhaps from a poet, which they are to repeat the next morning; such as "Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur." A true friend becomes manifest in adversity. Or "Fortuna, quern tiimium fovet, sliiltnm /oci<." Fortune, if she fondles a man too much, makes him a fool. Or this from Ovid : "Vulgug amicitias utilitate probat." The rabble value friendships by the profit they yield. In the morning the children are again to explain Jfisop's fables. With this the teacher should decline some nouns or verbs, many or few, easy or difficult, according to the progress of the children, and then ask them the rules and the reasons for such inflection. And at the same time when they shall have learned the rules of construction, they should be required to construe, (parse,) as it is called ; this is a very useful exercise, and yet there are not many who employ it. After the children have thus learned ^Esop, Terence is to be given to them ; and this they must commit to memory, for they will now be older, and able to work harder. Still the master must be cautious, lest he overtask them. Next after Terence, the children may take hold of such of the comedies of Plautus as are harmless in their tendency, as the Anlitlurui. the Trinummtif, the Pseudolus, etc. The hour before mid-day must be invariably and exclusively devoted to instruc- tion in grammar : first etymology, then syntax, and lastly prosody. And when the teacher has gone thus far through with the grammar, hu should begin it again, and so on continually, that the children may understand it to perfection. For if there is negligence here, there is neither certainty nor stability in whatever is learned beside. And the children should learn by heart and repeat all the rules, so that they may be driven and forced, as it were, to learn the grammar well. If such labor is irksome to the schoolmaster, as we often see, then we should dismiss him, and get another in his place, one who will not shrink from the duty of keeping his pupils constantly in the grammar. For no greater injury can befall learning and the arts, than for youth to grow up in ignorance of grammar. PHILIP MEIANCTHOM. 1"71 Tliis course should be repeated daily, by the week together ; nor should we by any means give children a different book to study each day. However, one day, for instance, Sunday or Wednesday, should be set apart, in which the children may receive Christian instruction. For some are suffered to learn nothing in the Holy Scriptures ; and some masters there are who teach children nothing but tho Scriptures; both of which extremes must be avoided. For it is essential that children be taught the rudiments of the Christian and divine life. So likewise there are many reasons why, with the Scriptures, other books too should be laid before them, out of which they may learn to read. And in this matter we propose the following method : Let the schoolmaster hear the whole group, making them, one after the other, repeat the Lord's prayer, the creed, and the ten commandments. But if the group is too large, it may be divided, so that one week one part may recite, and the remaining part the next. After one recitation, the master should explain in a simple and correct manner the Lord's prayer, after the next the creed, and at another time the ten com- mandments. And he should impress upon the children the essentials, such as the , fear of God, faith, and good works. He must not touch upon polemics, nor must he accustom the children to scoff at monks or any other persons, as many unskillful teachers use to do. With this the schoolmaster may give the boys some plain psalms to commit to memory, which comprehend the sum and substance of the Christian life, which inculcate the fear of the Lord, faith, and good works. As the 112th Psalm, " Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord ;" the 34th, " I will bless the Lord at all times ;" the 128th, " Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways;" the 125th, "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which can not be removed, but abideth forever;" the 127th, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it;" the 133d, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity !" or other such plain and intelligible psalms, which likewise should be expounded in the briefest and most correct manner possible, so that the children may know, both the substance of what they have learned and where -to find it. On this day too the teacher should give a grammatical exposition of Matthew ; and, when he has gone through with it, he should commence it anew. But, when the boys are somewhat more advanced, he may comment upon the two epistles of Paul to Timothy, or the 1st Epistle of John, or the Proverbs of Solomon. But teachers must not undertake any other books. For it is not profitable to burden the young with deep and difficult books as some do. who, to add to their own reputation, read Isaiah, Paul's Epistle to the Romans, St. John's Gospel, and others of a like nature. THE Tumi) GROUP. Now, when these children have been well trained in grammar, those among them who have made the greatest proficiency should be taken out, and formed into the third group. The hour after mid-day they, together with the rest, are to devote to music. After this the teacher is to give an explana- tion of Virgil. When he has finished this, he may take up Ovid's Metamorphoses, and in the latter part of the afternoon Cicero's " Offices," or " Letters to Friends." In the morning Virgil may be reviewed, and the teacher, to keep up practice in the grammar, may call for constructions and inflections, and point out the prominent figures of speech. The hour before mid-day, grammar should still be kept up, that the scholars may be thoroughly versed therein. And when they are perfectly familiar with ety- mology and syntax, then prosody (metrica) should be opened to them, so that they can thereby become accustomed to make verses. For this exercise is a very great help toward understanding the writings of others ; and it likewise gives the boys a rich fund of words, and renders them accomplished many ways. In course of time, after they have been sufficiently practiced in the grammar, this same hour is to be given to logic and rhetoric. The boys in the second and third groups are to be required every week to write compositions, either in the form of letters or of verses. They should also be rigidly confined to Latin conversation, and to this end the teachers themselves must, as far as possible, speak nothing but Latin with the boys ; thus they will acquire the practice by use, and the more rapidly for the incentives held out to them. Thus much for schools. We have here the yet crude beginnings 172 PHILIP MELANCTHON. of a high-school system, without any thorough organization or well- regulated activity. These, it remained for Trotzendorf and Sturm to develop. d. Melancthon'a Manuals. / His influence upon schools was very widely diffused by means of his manuals, which were universally introduced into use, and were perpetuated through many editions. He wrote a Greek and a Latin grammar, two manuals of logic, one of rhetoric, one of ethics, and one of physics. These manuals are characterized by great clearness of expression : it was a matter of great moment with Melancthon, by means of concise and clear definitions and a well-ordered arrangement, to make himself as intelligible as possible. Confused sentiments, and obscure language, whose sense we vainly perplex ourselves to get at, these were Melancthon's abhorrence. The Greek Grammar. An edition of the year 1542 lies before me.* In the preface Melancthon says : " He has often wished that his little work on Greek grammar had perished, because he wrote it while yet scarcely out of boyhood, for the use of the boys whom he had under his charge. And indeed it Avould have perished had not the bookseller constrained him to repeat the foolish action, (dcnuo ineptire^ and to rebuild the old ruins. He has accordingly critically revised the whole, altering it and improving it." The grammar is simple and clear, but it does not include syntax ; it ends with the paradigms of the verbs in jw.f The Latin Grammar. Melancthon wrote this originally for his pupil, Erasmus Ebner, of Nuremberg. Goldstein, afterward recorder of the town of Halle, issued it, as he tells us himself in the preface, against Melancthon's wish, in 1525. In the edition of 1542 there is a letter of Melancthon to the Frankfort bookseller, Egenolph. " In the first edition of my grammar," he writes, "there were various omissions. These may be supplied ; yet there should not be too many rules, lest their number prove discouraging to the learner." He then expresses his confidence that Micyllus, whom he has prevailed upon to prepare an improved edition, will, in virtue of his learning and good judgment, adopt the right method. Next, he launches into a panegyric of grammar, especially of its usefulness to the theologian. " How important it is," he says, " to the church, that boys be thoroughly disciplined in the languages! Inasmuch as the purity of " Grammaticagraf.cn Ph. Mclancthonit jam novissime recognifa atque multis in loci lo- ctijtletata. Prancofurti , XMI. t The commentaries on syntax lie Bent in manuscript lo Count Nuenar, but they were not printed. PHILIP MELANCTHON. 173 the divine teachings can not be maintained without learning, and weighty controversies can only be settled by a determination of the meaning of words, and a wide range of well-chosen expressions is indispensable to a correct construction ; therefore what will a teacher in the church be, if he does not, understand grammar, other than a silent mask, or a shameless bawler ? He who does not understand the mode of speech of God's word can not love it either. Ignoti nulla cupido is a true maxim. But how can he be a good teacher in the church who neither loves the heavenly doctrine, nor yet under- stands it, nor is able to explain it ? Neglect of grammar lias recoiled upon our own heads, in that through the means the monks have palmed oft' upon the church and the schools spurious wares for genu- ine. Hence princes should have a care to maintain learning ; we observe, however, that a very few do it. And cities too should strive to uphold and protect these studies, that embellish not only the church but the whole of life." In conclusion he exhorts youth to a diligent study of grammar. This letter of Melancthon's is dated in 1540. It was also printed with the edition of the grammar which Camerarius brought out in 1550. To the second part of this grammar, or the syntax, there is prefixed a preface addressed to the son of Justus Jonas. It is written against those who think to become philologists merely through the perusal of the classics, without grammatical studies. Such persons will never be rooted and grounded. Their false view proceeds from a repugnance to the restraint of rules, a repugnance that by and by will degenerate into a dangerous contempt of all law and order. The following is the history of this edition of Melancthon 'g grammar : Camerarius requested Melancthon, on behalf of the book- seller, Papst, in Leipzic, that he would authorize the latter to bring out a new edition. Melancthon acceded to the request in the most friendly manner, and signified his approval, in advance, of all the emendations and additions which Camerarius should make. In his preface, Camerarius thus speaks of the additions: "They will not merely profit the scholar, but they will likewise assist the teacher." The opinion that Schenk, who lectured on Latin grammar at Leip/.ic, expressed of this work, will doubtless appear to most of us somewhat exaggerated. " This little book has now attained to that perfection that there appears to be nothing deficient in it, nor can there here- after be any thing added to it ; and accordingly it will ever continue to be, as it now is, the sum of all perfection, neither to be altered nor remodeled." The distinguished Ilefeld. rector, Michael Neander, did not assent No. 12. [VoL. IV., No. 3.] 48. 174 PHILIP MELANCTHON. to this view, as far as it referred to the utility of Camerarius' book as a school-grammar. He published an edition himself, with this title, namely, "The Latin grammar of Ph. Melancthon, delivered with brevity, ease, and clearness, in the compass of a few pages, yet in such a manner as not only to give Melancthon's language, but his method in the smaller grammar and smaller syntax, that first and oldest manual, which is most admirably adapted to the learner, and which more than any other has been used in all our German schools." He moreover assures us on the title-page that boys can learn every thing that is necessary to the understanding of Latin, out of this grammar, in a few months. In the preface, Neander explains the object of his work more distinctly. He says, since he has observed that boys are burdened by a multitude of rules and examples, and since this diffuse- ness is moreover unsuitable to teachers, therefore he has made this abridgment of Melancthon's grammar. It is so concise that the scholar should be required to learn it all thoroughly ; then he can read, compare, and exercise himself in Melancthon's own admirable grammars, both the smaller and the larger ; nay, he may then read and digest the remarks and illustrations which have been incorporated into the larger grammar of Melancthon by a very learned man,* and which swell the book to twice or three times its original size. Camerarius' edition of Melancthon's grammar contains 507 pages, Neander's but 130. It is evident that both Camerarius and Micyllus before him neglected Melancthon's warning against discouraging the pupil by too great diffuseness. While they designed their grammars not for scholars alone, but also for teachers, as Camerarius claims in so many words in the title of his book, and thus aimed at complete- ness and perfection, it happened that their labor was lost as far as school-instruction was concerned. Neander's simplification, on the other hand, is sure to meet with the general approval of school- teachers ; for they must needs feel ever more deeply that there is a heaven-wide difference between a grammar for beginners and one for learned philologists, a difference as great as that between the cate- chism and a learned and profound treatise on doctrinal theology. Every intermingling of these distinct and different objects results in hybrid grammars, which are too advanced for the learner and too simple for the teacher. It is evident from Neander's preface that Melancthon's grammar held the chief place in the schools of Germany in the last half of the 16th century. Yet the precise and critical Strobel enumerates, between the years 1525 and 1727, no fewer than fifty-one editions, more or less altered from the original. But * Camerariui. PHILIP MELANCTHOJI. j 75 notwithstanding, its influence can be traced even to our time. For example, that very useful book, the larger " grammutica Marchica" strikingly coincides with Melancthon's, both in the general arrange- ment and in the treatment of the parts ; and the phraseology of the two is often alike, in definitions, rules of syntax and the like. Again, Otto Schulz, in the preface to his complete Latin grammar, which appeared in 1825, says: "In respect to my method, I have designed to follow as closely as possible the larger Mark grammar, whose main features all teachers concur in approving." A history of grammars, from Donatus to Zumpt and Schulz, would be a most interesting book. How characteristic even are the various definitions of the word "grammar," which have been given in different periods ! Melancthon defines it thus : " Grammar is an exact method of speaking and writing.'' The Mark grammar of 1728, in essential agreement with this definition, says : "Grammar is the art of speaking and writing correctly." Otto Schulz, on the other hand, has it thus : " Latin grammar is a guide to the knowledge of the Latin tongue ; it shows how the universal laws of language should be applied in the special instance of Latin." Lastly, Kiihner thus defines it : " Grammar is the guide to a correct understanding of a language, through its words and forms of speech." In these definitions we may perceive what progress has been made since 1728, from a practical treatment of the ancient languages, according to the art of speaking and writing, to a theoreti- cal, whose aim is by means of science to attain to a perfect under- standing of the same. But let us return to Melancthon and his manuals. The Manual of Logic. The first edition of this work appeared in 1520, an enlarged and improved edition in 1527, a third in 1529; this latter is dedicated to William Reiffenstein. The book, Melanc- thon says, is designed to assist in a better understanding of Aristotle. It was followed by a second treatise upon the same subject, the "Erotemata Dialeclices" the principal portion of which he composed in the unfortunate year 1547. The dedication, addressed to John, son of Joachim Camerarius, bears date, September 1st, 1547 ; by the 18th of October, the same year, three thousand copies were disposed of. This dedication touches upon the point above adverted to as having been discussed in the preface to the "Syntax," namely, "Whether logic is indispensable to every one, inasmuch as we find its absence atoned for in many instances by a strong, native common sense ?" The reply is that it is a necessary art, since it teaches men of mod- erate capacities, and is a help to them, while on the other hand the more gifted are controlled by it, and kept within bounds, and are led 176 PHILIP MELANCTHON. to seek after truth and to prize truth alone. Then he pronounces judgment against those who decry logic. " Even as there are many men of unbridled passions who hate the restraints of moral law, so there are those who can not abide the rules of art. Dialectics, as hitherto taught by the school-men, had, to be sure, fallen into contempt ; however, this was because it was not veritable art, but only the shadow of an art, and entangled men amid endless labyrinthine mazes. But," he continues, "I present here a true, pure and unsophisticated logic, just as we have received it from Aristotle and some of his judicious commentators." He then proceeds to show the necessity of logic in order to a correct statement and determination of the doctrines of the church ; its abuse by heretical teachers ought not to deter us from its right use. He urges those, who have the capacity, to read Aristotle himself, and that in the Greek ; but adds, that it will be of service first to acquire a knowledge of the elements, in order to understand him the more readily. Manual of Rhetoric. The first edition appeared in 1619, under the title "De Rketorica .Libri tres. Wittenberg, lo. Grunenberg." The dedication to Bernard Maurus was written in January, 1519; and treats, among other things, of the relation of rhetoric to logic. The later edition was dedicated in the year 1531 to the brothers Reiffen- stein. Says Melancthon in this dedication, 'whereas he had been compelled to speak against corrupt logicians, the case was far different with rhetoric. Upon rhetoric no one had written but eminent men, as for instance Cicero and Quintilian. And his rhetoric was designed to be an elementary guide to the understanding of their writings. In those they (the brothers Reiffenstein) might perceive the length and breadth of the art of eloquence, and not fall into the delusion that many self-conceited blockheads indulge, namely, that those have reached the very pitch and perfection of eloquence who have learned how to indite a letter. But eloquence is rather to be ranked among the highest accomplishments, and involves extensive learning, great talents, long practice, and a keen judgment. Rhetoric is closely allied to logic, and one can not be comprehended without the other.' Manual of Physios. I shall speak at greater length of this book, when I come to describe the pre-Baconian realism.* Melancthon's pious and sensible manner of contemplating nature will be clearly set forth, as well from passages in this manual as from his preface to Saerobusto's work on the Sphere. Manual of Ethics. 'As early as the year 1529, he issued his * Knowledge oftkingi aa contra-distinguished from knowledge of icorrf*. PHILIP MELAXCTHOK. 177 commentary on the ethics of Aristotle, and in the year 1538 his "Philosophiae moralis epitome." With these manuals we should rank one upon history, namely, the " Chronicon" of his pupil Cario, which Melancthon improved and enlarged in 1532 in the German, and in 1538 rewrote entire and published in Latin. e. Declamationeg. Melancthon's universal learning, his eminent skill as a teacher, and his practical exercise in teaching, for well-nigh half a century, lead us to infer the existence of many excellent hints to instructors in his manuals. Nor are we disappointed. We find in these manuals an educational wisdom of enduring value for all time. Much, it is true, betokens the 16th century. In Melancthon, the preceptor of Germany, (Praeceptor Germaniae,) both the ideal and the modes of culture that prevailed among his contemporaries, appear as it were personified before our eyes. Not merely in his manuals, however, but in other works of his, the orations especially, there is contained a treasure of educational wisdom. Under the title "Declamationes," we have a collection of Melancthon's academical orations, delivered some by himself and some by others.* In these orations we perceive his love of science, and are made familiar with his views upon mental culture and upon study in general, as well as its single branches. Repeatedly does he express himself on these topics, above all on the relation of science to the church. 1. His Love of Science. In the year 1535, Melancthon delivered an oration on love of truth. " It is a matter of inexpressible moment," he here says, " that a man from his youth up should cherish a burning hatred toward all sophis- try, especially toward that which wears the garb of wisdom." Among the abettors of this latter species of sophistry, he includes both Stoics and Epicureans, as well as the Anabaptists, who were wholly wrapped in the mists and delusions of this false wisdom ; and adds : There are others who have misapplied their talents, not seeking to bring the trutli to light, but only to prove or to disprove in perpetual rotation whatever they have happened to conjecture possible. And this legerdemain they have taken to be the true element of genius. Such men were those universal doubters, the academics and sophists of Plato's time. These undisciplined, lawless spirits were very dangerous ; whatever pleased their fancy, this they never ceased to magnify, but every thing disagreeable to them they rejected as of no account; that which looked plausible they insisted upon as true; they united things which did not oelong together, and things which were manifestly related to each other they put * Strobel, in the " Literary Miscellany," Nuremberg, <781, in speaking of Melancthon's ora- tions, says that the most eminent of Melancthon's colleagues, men like Major, Reiuholt, and Winshemius, were not ashamed to deliver orations prepared by him. 178 PHILIP MELANCTHON. asunder ; they employed clear and well-defined terms to express nothing, and threw around sober realities an air of irony. Against this kind of sophistry all well-meaning persons must wage an implacable warfare. Plato was very earnest to exnort men in their speech to seek not the applause of men but the approbation of God. And accordingly we ought with our whole soul to aim at this one point, namely, to find the truth, and to set it forth with as much simplicity and clearness as possible. Men who, in matters of science, sport with truth, are blind guides likewise where revelation is concerned. Sophistry has by means of its false precepts occasioned religious dissensions and religious wars. The dispositions of men are easily warped, and it needs great wisdom to keep them in the right way ; and Christ calls down the severest judgments upon those by whom offenses come. Studies. The Old time and the New. Science and the Church. In the oration, which Melancthon delivered in 1518, at his induc- tion into his preceptorial office, he marks the contrast between the old and barbarous studies, that had hitherto been in vogue, and those excellent and new objects of inquiry that were beginning to receive attention. " The advocates of the old method," he says, " decry the new. ' The study of the restored classical literature,' they say, ' with great labor, yields but small profit. Idle men have betaken them- selves to Greek in order to make a vain boast of their knowledge ; the Hebrew promises but little with the moderns ; all true studies have fallen away, and philosophy is utterly neglected.' " Against such accusers Melancthon entered the lists, first attack- ing with vigor the old methods of study. Those scholastics had planted themselves upon Aristotle, who was hard to understand even for the Greeks, but had become in the scholastic Latin versions abso- lutely unintelligible. Better things fell into disrepute, Greek was forgotten, a jargon of useless learning forced upon the mind, and the classics were thrown aside altogether. He himself had been almost ruined by being six long years under the teachings of the pseudo- Aristotelian sophists, men who bore not the least trace of resemblance to Socrates. For this one had said " that one thing only did he know, namely, that he knew nothing, while they knew every thing, save this one, namely, that they did not know any thing." Then he goes on to indicate briefly what the students at the Wit- tenberg university were expected, after the new method, to take hold of, viz., Aristotle as he is in the original, Quintilian and Pliny, the mathematics, poets, orators, historians, and a sound philosophy. These were studies which the clergy and jurists equally needed ; and the former in addition to Greek should understand Hebrew. For with the downfall of these studies the church had sunk into ruins, naving become marred and disfigured by ordinances of man's device. Of a similar purport is a speech which Melancthon delivered eighteen years later, (in 1536.) In this he commends not merely the study of the languages, but also of philosophy and the other arts, PHILIP MELANCTHON. 179 since they all serve to enrich and adorn the church. Ignorance obscures religion, and leads to frightful divisions, and to barbarism, in short to the entire destruction of all social order. An unenlightened theology is one of the greatest of evils, confounding all doctrines, having no clear conception of vital truths, uniting things that should be divided, and tearing asunder things that are joined together. It is contradictory and inconsistent, and there is neither beginning, progress, nor result in it. Such teachings are prolific of unnumbered errors and endless disagreements, because in the general confusion one and the same thing is understood thus by one rnan and quite differently by another. And, since every one defends his own view, there arises strife and discord. Meanwhile consciences are racked with doubt, and doubt not resolved ends in disbelief. But an enlight- ened theology should not rest content with grammar and logic ; it also has need of physics, moral philosophy, and history, for which latter too a knowledge of the mathematics, for their bearing on chronology, is indispensable. And with great justice does Melancthon remark in this speech : " Learning is at this day of the utmost consequence to the church, because ignorant priests are growing ever bolder and more careless in their office. Learned men, who have accustomed themselves to thorough investigation in every thing they undertake, know but too well how liable they are to fall into error, and thus diligence itself teaches them modesty. But what great disasters ever befall the church, from the recklessness of ignorance, this, the present condition of things will teach us." The theme, " Learning is a blessing to the church and ignorance its curse," was frequently taken up by Melancthon. So, in the already cited preface to his Latin Grammar, and again in the introduction to a treatise on the art of poetry, "Cuidam libcllo de arte poetica." " Hand in hand with diligent study," he here says, " we ever find modesty and a prayerful spirit." A disciple of Schwenkfeld had written a book against him and Paul Eber, in which he attacked the liberal arts, and undertook to prove that the church is not built up and established by means of reading, hearing, and reflecting upon the doctrines of the Bible, but that a certain enthusiasm first over- masters the spirit, and reading the Scriptures and meditation comes afterward. " Thus." he adds, " these fanatics invert the order indi- cated by Paul, namely, ' how shall they believe who have not heard ?' " In the oration entitled "Encomium eloquentiac" he takes a survey of the studies essential to a complete education. Here he again censures the unintelligible style of Scotus and the school-men. Picus, 180 PHILIP MELANCTHON. lie thinks, was but in jest when he took up the gauntlet for them, and maintained the proposition that it mattered not whether a man spoke with elegance or not, provided only that he expressed his thoughts clearly. The earlier theological bunglers were of a piece, as well in style as in sentiments, barbarians in both. He then advo- cates the reading of the ancient poets, historians, and orators, and at the same time a diligent practice in style, both in prose and poetry. In the close he recurs again to the importance of a knowledge of the languages to the theologian to assist him in understanding the Scriptures. A godless spirit goes hand in hand with ignorance. The classical studies had again dawned upon the world in order that theology, which had become corrupt, might again be purified. The deeper meaning of the word, it is true, is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit ; but we must first come to a knowledge of the language, for it is in this that the divine mysteries are embodied. He then gives an example of the mistakes which continually occur, where the knowledge of language is inadequate to convey the true meaning of the words. One of their masters of arts rendered the words "Melchisedec rex Salem panem et vinum obtulit" thus : Melchisedec set before (Abraham) salt, bread, and wine ; and he then proceeded at great length to remark upon the nature of salt. From his oration upon the study of Hebrew it would appear that the Wittenberg university ranked the original language of the Old Testament among the chief objects of attention. The opinion of Politian that this was an unpolished language, and that it formed a hindrance both to the study of the classics and the attainment of Latin eloquence, this opinion was there opposed with the utmost earnestness. In this connection, Melancthon's preface to Terence, written in 1525, is worthy of note. " There is scarcely any book," he says, " which is more worthy of daily perusal than this poet. In point of fitness of expression he surpasses perhaps every other author. Chrysostom took such pleasure in Aristophanes that he laid him under his pillow at night ; and without doubt he perused this poet with such assiduity, in order by the means to perfect himself in eloquence. How much more highly," he continues, " is Terence to be esteemed, whose plays are both free from obscenity, and likewise, if I mistake not, models of rhetoric. I therefore advise all teachers urgently to commend this author to the study of youth. For he appears to me to present a theory of human life that far surpasses that set forth in most philosophical works. And no other author teaches a purer diction, none other accustoms boys so well to those forms of speech in which they need to be drilled for future use." PHILIP MEI.ANCTHON. 181 vi. REVIEW OP MELANCTHO.N'S LIFE FROM 1518 TO 1560. Agreeably to the scope of this work, I have kept in view the edu- cational labors of Melancthon, and have accordingly dwelt but little upon the part he played in the reformation of the church. This too was the less called for, inasmuch as so many histories of the Reforma- tion and recent biographies have rendered us familiar with his efficiency in this field. Repeated expressions in his letters prove that he was drawn into the wide arena of the Reformation almost against his will, and, amid the dust of the conflict, that he often yearned to devote himself wholly to philology and philosophy. Even his theo- logical lectures were undertaken contrary to the dictates of his own inclination, and only in compliance with the desire of Luther. "Thou knowest^" he wrote to Spalatin, "the circumstance that occasioned me to give a theological course. I first began it in order, as Baccalaureus ad biblia, to conform to established usage, nor had I then the most distant presentiment of the turn that matters were destined to take. My exegesis was not finished when Dr. Martin went to Worms ; and, so long as he continued absent, it was not possible for me to give up these lectures. Thus it has come to pass that I have dangled from that cliff for more than two years. I yes- terday finished John's gospel, and this appears to me to be an appropri- ate time to make a change in respect to the lectures. I can not hesi- tate to follow whither thou leadest, even to become a keeper of cattle. Nevertheless, I could wish in this one respect to be free." Note- worthy too is the fact that he did not take the degree of Doctor of Theology, while Luther, in virtue of his theological doctorate, felt constrained in his conscience to go into the lists against emperor and Pope ; nor did Melancthon ever preach, notwithstanding that Luther frequently urged him to do so, "Nolentem trahunt fata ;" and, whether he would or not, he was forced to remain his life long in the field as a soldier of Christ, and ever to fight in the fore-front of the battle, while he yearned forever after a life of literary retirement and quiet. Luther, so long as he lived, hurried Melancthon along with him ; and, when he died, it was too late for Melancthon to withdraw, for the powerful current and commotion of the reorganizing church was bearing him resistlessly on. Whatsover opinion we may any of us have formed of those doctrinal controversies, yet we can not but feel a deep sympathy for Melancthon when we read of the unhappy feuds in which the excellent man was involved in the closing years of his life, and what rudeness and indignity he suffered at the hands of his adversaries. Let us now turn back again for a few moments to his younger 182 PHILIP MELANCTHON. days. In 1520 he married Catherine, daughter of Herr Krapp, Mayor of Wittenberg. Camerarius said of her: "She was pious, very affectionate toward her husband, careful and diligent in matters pertaining to the household, and kind and benevolent to all." She bore her husband two sons and two daughters. Anna, the eldest of these children, who was her father's idol, was married in 1536 to George Sabinus, a man of learning indeed, but of a restless, ambitious spirit; she died in 1547. The second child was a son named Philip, whose talents were quite inferior. He was born in 1525, and died in 1603. At the time of his death he was secretary of the consistory. George, the second son, did not survive quite two years; Magdalena, the second daughter, was married in 1550 to the physician Casper Peucer, who afterward suffered many years' imprisonment on account of his clandestine adherence to Calvinism. Through her grief at this calamity she died in the year 1576. Of Melancthon's domestic life, Camerarius, who was an intimate friend .of his, tells us much that is worthy of our admiration ; as that he loved his children most dearly, was unstinted in his charity toward the needy, and kindly and cheerful, true and single-minded in his in- tercourse with his friends. Almost too thoughtless with respect to the goods of this life, he amassed nothing to bequeath to his family. We might hence conclude that he was perpetually serene and happy in his disposition ; but his life and many of his letters undeceive us in this respect. He suffered from bodily afflictions ; sleeplessness in his earlier years, and later the sharp pains of the gravel. He was also weighed down by many family troubles ; the death of two of his children, and of his wife, and, in addition to all, the perverse behavior of his son-in-law, Sabinus. Yet all this, as his letters evince, receded into the back-ground, compared with the overshadowing unrest which grew out of his relations to the church. A conscientious man will pass sleepless nights, if his soul is weighed down with anxiety for the welfare of a few children or pupils. Is it then to be wondered at if Melancthon, with his so tender conscience, at the Diet of Augsburg, for instance, where his words were to decide the temporal and eternal welfare of countless souls among those who were then living, as well as of those who should come after him, is it to be wondered at if he there was overwhelmed, like Moses and Jeremiah, by the fearful responsibilities which devolved upon him ? To this too was afterward added a deeper sorrow, namely, to be forsaken by his own familiar friends, and to be most bitterly persecuted. We may behold depicted before us, as it were, the trials which he was called to endure, if we compare the admirable likeness, engraved PHILIP MELANCTHON. 183 upon copper by Albert Durer, of Melnncthon, the young man of twenty-nine, with that portrait of Melancthon, the gray-haired old man, which Luke Cranach has bequeathed to us. The one is a fair and a very striking head, with a high forehead, and eyes out of which the liveliest expression of kindness and grace beams toward you. But, on the other hand, the countenance of the old man is deeply scored with the furrows of many sorrowful years, toiled through amid heavy trials, and the ceaseless and bitter whirl of controversy. Melancthon was at Heidelberg in 1557, when Camerarius brought him the news of the death of his wife. Without betraying the least token of sorrow, although every one felt that his heart was sore and sad almost to bursting, he only said, " I shall soon follow her." The depth of his grief may be estimated, however, from a letter which he wrote two years after the death of his wife, and one year before the final summons came to him also. "Passionate and sor- rowful yearning for a deceased wife is not effaced in the old man as it may be with those who are younger. When day by day I gaze upon my grandchildren, I recall not without a sigh their grandmother, and thus at the sight of the bereaved little ones my sorrow is renewed. She cared for the whole family, she cherished the infants, she nursed the sick ; by her consoling words she lessened my griefs ; she taught the children to pray. And so it is that I miss her everywhere. I bethink me how almost daily she repeated these words of the psalm, ' Forsake me not in my old age ;' and thus I also continually pray." After the departure of his wife Melancthon repeatedly spoke of his own approaching death. The increasing violence which marked the theological controversies of the day embittered his life more and more. He himself came in danger thereby of banishment. " If they drive me out," he wrote to Hardenberg, " I have made up my mind to go to Palestine, and there in the seclusion of the cloister of Hieronymus, at the call of the Son of God, to record my unclouded testimony to the doctrine, and dying to commend my soul to God." In a subsequent letter he wrote : " My troubles and sorrows are waxing greater, but the far journey to the church in heaven will soon liberate me from them all." The 19th of April, 1560, was the day of his death. When he was dying he found consolation from passages in the Bible, this especially, "As many as received him, to these gave he power to become sons of God." Then he repeated in an undertone these words from the last prayer of Christ, " that they may all be one, even as we are one." Attacked and maligned in his closing years, and tired of the unholy war, the old man felt a longing desire for an assured and peaceful 184 PHILIP MEI.ANCTHON. rest, and for a union with his Lord and Master, whom with truest love he had served all his days. Paul Eber and other godly men kneeled around his death-bed. To Peucer's question " whether he desired any thing," he replied " nothing but heaven ; let me rest and pray. My time has almost come." In the evening, before seven o'clock, he passed away to his heavenly rest, on the 21st of April. He was buried in the Wittenberg castle church, by the side of Luther. 01 me i.aun grammar. The first, brought out under the auspices of Goldstein, is of the year 1525. The fourth, ac- cording to Strobe), is that of 1529. as follows : " Gram. lat. P. Melancthonis ab authore nuper et aucta et recognita. Norembergae apud I. Pelreium, 1529." lime. This letter was afterward repeatedly reprinted in various editions of the grammar, and likewise of the Declamations of Melancthon, and always under the date of 1540. It is some- what singular that the letter of 1540 should nut have appeared until 1542, and moreover that it should have appeared first in the edition ofPetreius, while it is addressed to the bookseller pirated by piraieu oy retreius. After Miry I Ins. Camerarius, aided by Bechiusand Schengius, undertook the work of editing Mela net lion's book. dales. Lipsiae, Id. April. 1552. While preparing the first edition of my history. I had only a copy of Camerarius before me, but none of Micyllus. And the expressions used by (Camerarius in reference tu his addition!! it." But the rector Schoenborn. of Breslau, after comparing the grammar of Micyllus with that of Camerarius, remarked, as the result of his comparison, that the latter agreed word for wonl with the former, save that passages from the old grammarians referred to by Micyllus or Melancthon were given in full, quoted for the use of teachers. I have since compared Camerarius' book with the editions of 1542 and 1546 of Miryllns, and have thereby been able to confirm this remark of Schoenborn : hut as regards another which Melancthon in this letter to Egenolph bestows upon the enlargement of the grammar, shews conclusively that he was not dissatisfied with the editor, though he deprecates at the KIIM. time any future increase in it." Had Melanclhon really the completed grammar of Micyllus before him, and if so. wonld he have prais-ed the work, but said nothing in commendation of the workman! In that letter he says t hat he requested Micyllus to undertake the grammar; then he continues, "though I myself had sufficient time, yl I would prefer the criticism of Micyllus to my own.' 1 And further: "I am rejoiced that Micyllus has undertaken this task." Much, he implies, had been omitted in the first edition. 'Although," he says, " it is desirable to add murh, still ;i certain limit should be observed in the selection of examples, lest the young be intimidated by their extent. But I intrust this whole matter to the judgment and the faithfulness of Micyllus, nii'l mny God accept his earnest and devout labors. Thew passages appear to me rather to prove that Mioyllug was yet engaged upon the grammar, when Melancthon wrote to Egenolph Perhaps he feared lest Micyllus. carried nway by his love of learning, should overstep I he limits of a school-grammar, and accordingly wrote mil letter to serve indirectly as a caution to him. VALENTINE FRIEDLAND TROTZENDORF. I Translated for the Arrfcrican Journal of Education, from the German of Karl von Raumer. VALENTINE TROTZENDORF was the son of a farmer, Bernard Fried- l.ind by name, who lived in the village of Trotzendorf, near Gorlitz. He assumed the surname Trotzendorf, in remembrance of the place of his birth. Born in 1490, he was seven years younger than Luther, and seven older than Melancthon. The monks induced his father to send him in 1506 to the school at Gorlitz; but he soon took him away, to help him at his work in the field. His mother, who greatly desired to see him a priest or a monk, persuaded the village pastor to instruct him in writing and reading. And after two years' time he went back to the Gorlitz school. At his departure, his mother ex- horted him to be true to the duties of the school ; and in after life he considered himself bound by this exhortation, as if it were his mother's vow, to assume the office of teacher. When in 1513 Trotzendorf 's father died of the plague, he sold his paternal inheritance and moved to Leipzic, where, during two years he perfected himself in Latin under Peter Mosellanus, and learned Greek from Richard Crocus. In 1516 he became a teacher in the Gorlitz school ; here his fellow teachers as well as the scholars learned from him, and even the Rector took lessons in Greek from him. Luther's appearance induced him, in 1518 to surrender his post as teacher, and to go to Wittenburg, where he remained for five years. Here he took lessons in Hebrew from a converted Jew, named Adrian. And he here formed a most intimate acquaintance with Melancthon, for whom throughout his life he continued to testify the greatest respect. In the year 1523, Helmrich, a university friend of Trotzendorf 's, was chosen Rector of the Goldberg school, and through his influence Trotzendorf was invited to become his colleague. And when, in the following year, Helrarich obtained another post, Trotzendorf was made Rector in his stead. Affairs of church the reformatory dis- cussion of Dr. J. Hess at Breslau, in which Trotzendorf took an active part, and Schwenkfeld's evil influence in Liegnitz, against which he made a vigorous defense would appear at that time to have stood in the way of an active prosecution of his legitimate calling. 186 VALENTINE FR1EDI.AND TROTZENDORP. In the year 1527 he was called to Liegnitz to a Professorship In a new university, which institution was then rather an unformed project than a perfect organization ; but he left the place in 1529 and re- turned to Wittenburg. And now in a short time the Goldberg school was completely broken up ; but, at the pressing solicitation of Helmrich, who had risen to be Mayor of Goldberg, Trotzendorf, in 1531, resumed the post of Rector there, which office he filled with honor and dignity for five and twenty years. His school soon acquired an extraordinary renown. Scholars poured in upon him, not merely from Silesia, but from Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Hungary and Poland : to have had him for a teacher, was the best of recom- mendations. Trotzendorf adopted quite a peculiar organization. His school was divided into six classes, and each class into tribes. The scholars too, he associated in the government with himself, by appointing some to be Oeconomi, others Ephori, and others again, Quaestors. TheOecono- mi were to oversee the household arrangements, as, for example, that all should rise in the morning or retire at night at the set time, that the rooms, clothes, etc., should be kept in good order, etc. It was the duty of the Ephori to see that order was observed at the table. Finally, each tribe had its Quaestor, and all these Quaestors were made subject to one supreme Quaestor. Those were chosen weekly, this one monthly; on laying down their office they delivered Latin orations. The Quaestors were expected to secure a punctual attend- ance on lessons, to report the indolent, to give out subjects for the Latin debates customary during the half-hour after meal time. Trotzendorf moreover established a school magistracy. This con- sisted of a consul chosen monthly by himself, twelve senators and two censors. Had a scholar committed any fault, he was obliged to justify himself before this Senate, and in order to do it the better, he was allowed eight days in which to prepare his plea. At the trial Trot- Zendojf presided as perpetual dictator. If the accused party cleared himself from the charge, he was acquitted, especially when he de- livered a well framed plea; but if his speech was good for nothing in point of style, he was condemned even for a trivial misdemeanor. And Trotzendorf repeated the decree of the Senate in such cases with great solemnity, and insisted strongly on its fulfillment. These singular regulations had the good effect of accustoming the boys early in life to have respect to the civil government. A similar tendency may be observed in the laws which Trotzendorf established in his school. In the introduction to these laws, he says : " Those men will rule conformably to the laws, who, when boys learn to obey VALENTINE FRIEDLAND TOOTZENDORF. J87 the laws." These school-laws are characteristic of the man. lie first lays down these five principles : 1. Tros Tyriusque miki nullo discrimine agetur. Here, where scholars are assembled from all countries, all must be governed equally and alike. 2. Faclus tribulus servo, legem, was a Lacedaemonian proverb. And here too must those favored by fortune as well as the base-born, so long as they are scholars, conform to the laws. The pupil is no longer the nobleman. 3. According to the degree of their demerit,-the scholars are to be punished with the rod, the lyre,* or imprisonment. Those who, either on account of noble descent, or years, shrink from the disgrace of these punishments, must either do right and thus not come under sentence, or leave our school, and seek freedom to do as they please elsewhere. Fines are never to be imposed in any case, since they affect parents rather than children. 4. Every new comer, before being enrolled among the scholars, must first promise to obey the laws of the school. 5. The members of our school must be members likewise of our faith and our church. The first chapter of the school-laws treats of piety. "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom " this is the opening sentence. A clear knowledge of Christian doctrine is required, together with prayer, church-going, confession, taking the communion, diligence and obe- dience ; while swearing, cursing, foul language, the practice of magic, with every superstition, are forbidden. In regard to instruction, Trotzendorf's school agreed in the main with other schools of that period. It was based upon the customary trivium, grammar, logic and rhetoric. In Trotzendorf's German School Regulations of 1548, it is laid down as the aim of his school " to prepare boys to enter upon the study of the higher faculties, as theology, medicine, philosophy, and jurisprudence." To accomplish this aim, " in the first place, grammar, inasmuch as it is the mother and nurse of all other arts, must be pursued with the most thorough-going diligence. There- with should be combined useful readings from good authors, such as Terence or Plautus, and Cicero, the epistles and offices chiefly. Thus boys, being guided into the Latin tongue both by rule and by exam- ple, will learn to speak Latin and to write it with equal propriety. The lyre, !yra orjidicula, was made of wood in the shape of a violin, and furnished with string?. Trillers were disgraced by being made to stand with this about their ueck, and their hand* passed through it and fastened. 188 VALENTINE FRIEDLAND TROTZENDORF. Next should come reading from the poets, as Virgil, and some books of Ovid, so that the boj r s may comprehend metre, and learn to con- struct verses." " Every week there should be a common exercise in writing letters in Latin, and every week, likewise, a common theme should be versified by the whole school." The Latin school-code pro- vides that the scholars, in these exercises, "should use no phrase be- fore ascertaining in what author it occurs, and whether it is sufficiently elegant and appropriate; 1 ' also that "they should never use the mother tongue; but -with teachers, fellow-scholars or other learned persons, speak in Latin alone." In a poetical eulogium on the Gold- berg school, cited by Piuzger, we are told that " none were permitted to speak German there, so that the boys came gradually to regard their mother tongue as a foreign language." Still stronger expres- sions occur in a eulogium on Trotzendorf : " He had so thoroughly infused the Roman tongue into all the neighborhood, that it was deemed a disgrace to utter even a word of German ; and. could you have heard the Latin accents that poured from the tongues even of plough-boys and dairy- maids, you would have thought 'surely Gold- berg is within the borders of Latium.' "* To speak and to write Latin was the universal ideal of that era, and hence, among the authors to be read, Terence and Plautus were deemed the most important. In addition to Latin, Greek grammar and readings from Greek authors were prescribed. Logic and rhet- oric were likewise classed among regular studies, as we learn from the German School Plan above cited. " Trotzendorf exercised his schol- ars in the art of speaking, and that of thinking likewise. Logic was never intermitted by him, and he prepared his scholars for excellence in rhetoric, by a frequent study of the speeches in Livy, and those of Cicero." Music and arithmetic are likewise named in the School Plan, though without being enlarged upon. Lectures were read, on the Sphere of Sacro Bosco, by a " Sphaerista" and on the principles of moral and natural philosophy, by a " Magister." Religious in- struction was given by Trotzendorf himself, with faithfulness and so- lemnity, and he read with his scholars the epistles of Paul, as well as portions of the Old Testament in the original. The instruction of the upper classes he at first took entirely upon himself, nor did he employ assistant teachers until many years had elapsed ; but the lower classes he committed to the charge of older scholars. * Atque ita Rnmanam linguam transfudit in nmnei, Turpe ut haberetur, Teutonico ore loqui. Audisaes famulus famulasque I.alina sonare, Goldbergam in l,;iiic> crederei esfc n'tnm. VALENTINE FR1EDLAND TROTZENDORP. 189 And here we can not fail to be struck with the quite peculiar char- acter of Trotzendorfs educational system. Schools, in general, will be found to consist of two sharply defined and distinct bodies, teach- ers on the one hand, and pupils on the other. The teachers are learned, the pupils ignorant ; the former impart knowledge, the latter receive it ; those dictate and these obey. This sharp division, Trot- zendorf rendered impossible, both in discipline and instruction. In instruction, for while he himself taught the older scholars in the high- er classes, he appointed these same scholars teachers of the lower classes, that they, too, might learn by teaching. This reminds us of the monitorial system of the present day, and perhaps Trotzendorf, like Lancaster, was first led to adopt this plan from the impossibility of giving his personal attention to a large number. He found the need of scholars to aid him, both in oversight and instruction, as the resources of the school were too slender to admit of his hiring an ad- equate body of sub-teachers.* But if we look more closely into this plan, it will appear not mere- ly to have been adopted from the necessities of the case, but, at the same time to have been the organic outgrowth of a principle. Trot- zendorf's school appears to have been a republic, where all the schol- ars, noble and obscure, were alike and unconditionally subject to the laws : he himself was Dictator in perpetuo over this republic. And his authority was rendered secure and universally effective by the fact that he delegated to the scholars themselves, though ever under his supreme direction, a share in the government, and made them more- over responsible for law and order. He thus rendered impossible that absolute hostility which is so often cherished by a firmly united band of scholars toward a too often divided corps of teachers. The many scholars, who, as teachers, ephori, oeconomi, quaestors, senators, censors and consuls, assisted in the government, formed an intermedi- ate body between the teachers and the scholars, and by their mutual relations to each disarmed that hostility, and paralyzed its power. Whatever judgment we may pass upon Trotzendorfs regulations, still we are warranted, from what we know of his character, in con- cluding, that he would not permit those regulations to degenerate into a mere round of lifeless observances. He was a genuine dictator, and, as Melancthon says of him, born to the government of a school, as truly as was the elder Scipio Africanus to the command of an About the year 1&47, at the death of Frederick II., Duke of Liegnilz, there were but six teachers employed, quite an inadequate number for the size of the school. Trotzendorf was wont to say : " If he should muster all his scholars together, he could present the emperor with quite a respectable army to fight the Turks." Still, strange to say, we have no mor precise information on the subject. 190 VALENTINE FRIEDLAND TROTZENDORF. army. Yea, he was more than a dictator, since by the exercise of a Christian faith, and a warm and active love, he secured the affections of his pupils. With his views of study we are not disposed to quarrel, for. though he aimed to make Goldberg a second Latium, he did no more than his contemporaries were continually doing around him. Neither do we censure him for his sentiments respecting physical education, al- though we can not entirely agree with him therein. It is stated of him that he did not insist upon exercise, but simply permitted it. And yet he would look on while the boys were wrestling or running, praising the active and skillful, and rebuking the indolent and awk- ward. However, one of the laws of the school forbade the boys to bathe in cold water in the summer time, and to go upon the ice, or to throw snow-balls in the winter. Surely such a law as this would have been disregarded in ancient Rome, and in ancient Germany too ! In the closing years of his life, the worthy old man experienced many misfortunes. In 1552 there was a great famine in Goldberg, and in 1553 the place was swept by a pestilence. During this period he taught the few scholars who remained with him, in the upper gal- lery of the church, as he thought the air purer at that elevation. Al- ready earlier, in 1549, a crushing sorrow had cast its dark shadow across his path. Three of his pupils, Karl Promnitz, Jonas Talkwitz, and Wolfgang Keppel, were making merry over their wine in the Goldberg wine-cellar, when a drunken watchman staggered in upon them, and, without saying a word, took a full cup off from the table, and drank it down. Enraged at his impudence, Promnitz hurled an empty glass at him, and, without designing it, wounded him in the head. The watchman accused them before the court, and thereupon the three young men were imprisoned, and their case carried before Frederick III., Duke of Liegnitz. He summoned them to Liegnitz, and without listening to their defense, or entering into any examina- tion of the case, condemned them to death. Promnitz alone, at the intercession of the Bishop of Breslau, who was his cousin, was par- doned, but the two others, who had committed no crime at all, were beheaded upon the Monday next following the feast of the Three Martyr Kings. In 1554, the year after the pestilence, a great conflagration laid a large part of Goldberg in ashes, and Trotzendorfs school house among the rest. He then went with his scholars to Liegnitz, and while there took measures to rebuild his school upon the old site. But he was never permitted to return thither. On the 20th of April, 1556, he was expounding the 23d Psalm, and as he came to the VALENTINE FRIEDLAND TROTZENDORF. 1QJ words, " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me ;" he was suddenly seized with apoplexy. He sank back, gazed up to heaven, and spake these words, the last he ever uttered ;* " My friends, now am I called away to another school." He lingered speechless for five days, but retained his consciousness to the last. He died on the 25th of April, at the age of 66, and was buried on the 29th, in the church of St. John. His remains were followed to the tomb by high and low ; men of princely rank uniting with peasants in paying respect to his memory. Abraham Bock erected his monument. But it was destroyed in 1699, when, by order of the Emperor Leopold, the church of St. John was given to the Jesuits. Trotzendorf died unmarried. With a small income, and a benevo- lent disposition, he always remained poor. The few writings which we have from his pen, were first issued after his decease, and by some of his grateful pupils. The following is a list of the same : 1. Catachesis scholae Goltpergensis scripta a Valentino Trocedor- fio cum praefacione Phil. Melancth. Vitebergae, 1561. The preface is dated, 1558, two years after Trotzendorf 's death. 2. Precationes V. Trocedorfii recitatae in schola Goltbergensi, Lipsiae, 1581. 3. Rosarium scholae Trocedorfii. Viteb. 1568. 4. Method! doctrinae catacheticae. Gorlic, 1570. *Dr. Stevens, in his " History of the Public High School of Edinburg," makes the following record of the last illness and death of Dr. Adam, for forty years Rector of that institution. "On the 13th of December, 1809, Dr. Adam was seized, in the High School, with an apoplectic affection. He lingered five days under the disease. Amidst the wanderings of mind that accompanied it, he was continually reverting to the business of the class, and addressing the pupils ; and in the last hour of his life, as he fancied himself examining on the lesson of the day, he stopped short, and said: "But it grows dark, boys, you may go," and almost immediately ex pired." ED. No. 13, [Vol. V. No. I,) 8. I. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JOHN STURM. FROM THE GERMAN* OP KARL VON RATJMER.* JOHN STURM, or Sturmius, as his name was latinized, one of the best classical scholars and school teachers of his time, was born at Schleiden, in the Eiffel, near Cologne, in 1507. His father was stew- ard to Count Manderscheid, with whose sons the young John was educated until his fourteenth year, when he went to the school of the Hieronymiansf at Liege, and thence, in 1524, to the University of Louvain, where he spent three years in studying, and two more in teaching. Of his parents and early teachers he ever spoke with grati- tude and veneration, and his mother he characterizes as a "superior woman." Among his fellow-students was Sleidanus, the historian, and Andreas Bersalius, the anatomist. In connection with Rudiger Rescius, the professor of Greek at Louvain, Sturm established a printing press, from which Homer and other Greek and Roman classics were issued. With copies of these books for sale, and for use by students, he removed to Paris, in 1529, where he studied medicine, read public lectures on logic, and the Greek and Roman classics, was married, and had private scholars from Germany, England, and Italy. Here he established a high reputation as a scholar and teacher, and corresponded with Erasmus, Melancthon, Bucer, and others. Such was his reputation as a classical scholar and teacher that, when the magistrates of the city of StrasburgJ decided *Geeckichteder Pddagitgik. The biographical portion of Von Raumer's chapter is abridge.!, and that portion which treats of the theological controversies of the times, and particularly of the differences between the German, and the Swiss, and French reformers, with the for- mer of whom Sturm sympathized, and to some extent cooperated, is altogether omitted. Sturm was avowedly a Lutheran, and the Calvinists charged him with absenting himself from the communion table and from church for twenty years. , tThe flieronymians were a regular order of canons, or clergy, employed in teaching, founded by Gerhard Grovte, in 1373. They wore a white dress, with black scapula, and were most numerous and efficient in the Netherlands, where they originated. They were also known as Hieronymites, Hermits of St. Hieronymus, Collatiaa Brothers, Gregorians, or Brethren of Good Will. The instruction in their schools was partly elementary and partly classical. Their scholars learned to copy MSS., to read and write, were diligently drilled in speaking Latin, and in the study of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and a few of the classics, especially Ucero. See Rauntfr, Hist, of Ped., Vol. 1. p. 64: Cramer, Hist, of Ed. in the Ntthtrlands, p. 260, et seq. It was at Liege, from the Hieronymiaos, that Sturm received the educational principle which he afterward embodied in his own school at Strasburg, " Pietas sapiens et eloquens est finis studiorum." ' A theological school was proposed in 1C01. but not established till 1531. In lo'-M. a number M 194 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. to establish a gymnasium, he was earnestly solicited to organize and conduct it as Rector. He accordingly, in 1537, removed to that city where he labored for forty-five years as a teacher, and, by his example, correspondence and publications, was greatly influential in introducing a better organization and methods of instruction into the schools of Europe. His plan of organizing a gymnasium or classical school was drawn up in 1538, and published under the title of " The best mode of opening institutions of learning" The development of this plan was exhibited in Letters which he addressed to the teachers of the various classes of his Gymnasium, in 1565, and in an account of the examination of the school, published in 1578. On the 7th of December, 1581, by a decree of the city council, Sturm was deposed from the Rectorate, " on account of his advanced age, and for other reasons," viz. : publishing a pamphlet, in which he opposed the dominant religious majority in some of the theological disputes of the day. He was soon after attacked with blindness, and, worn out by the labors of a toilsome life, and weakened by age, and pinched by poverty incurred by his generosity to those who fled to him from persecution, he died in 1589, in the eighty-second year of his age, and was buried in the church-yard of St. Gallus, in Strasburg. Sturm was a man of medium size, dark and ruddy complexion, firm features, long beard, clear and well-modulated voice, honorable presence, and a somewhat slow gait. He was amiable and dignified, in conversation earnest and courteous, in action decided and prompt, and industrious both in his public and private relations. He was ever keeping pace with those about him, learning Hebrew, for instance, in his fifty-ninth year, and inspiring his teachers with his own enthusiasm. He enjoyed the respect of the emperors Charles V., Ferdinand I., and Maximilian II., as well as of Queen Elizabeth, of England. His fame as a teacher and educator was European, and his school was a Normal School of classical instruction. His pupils were among the "men of mark " throughout Germany. At one time there were two hundred noblemen, twenty-four counts and barons, and three princes under his instruction ; and, besides organizing directly many classical schools, his pupils rose to be head-masters of many more, and his principles were embodied in the School Code of Wurtemberg in 1559, and in that of Saxony in 1580, and in the educational system of the Jesuits. of elementary schools were instituted, which were placed under the direction of school in- tprc'an, of whom the preacher, James Sturm, was one, and through whose influence John S 1 MI-HI was induced to remove to St raslm rir. The gymnasium organi/ed in 1537 was endowed with t'if privileges of a College, in I5C7, hy Emperor Maximilian II., and John Sturm was appointed itt Rector in perpttuo. STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. JQ5 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. Whoever clearly conceives a distinct object of pursuit, and brings perseverance, intelligence and tact to bear upon its attainment, will ba sure, at least, to do something worthy of note ; and especially so, when, at the same time, he falls in with the tendency and the senti- ments of the age in which he lives. This is, above all, true of school reformers. If they know not what they would have, if they have no definite aim in view, it is impossible for us to speak with any pro- priety of the methods which they may have taken to reach their aim. Their course is wavering and uncertain, and they inspire distrust instead of confidence. But Sturm was no wavering, undecided, pur- poseless man. With firm step he advanced toward the realization of a definitely conceived ideal ; an ideal, too, which, in greater or less distinctness, floated before the minds of most of his contemporaries, and which was regarded by them as the highest aim of mental cul- ture. Hence, he enjoyed a widely extended and an unquestioning confidence. This, his ideal, Sturm has defined for us in numerous passages ; and it is our first duty to examine it, if we wish to judge of his method. " The end to be accomplished by teaching," says he, " is three-fold ; embracing piety, knowledge and the art of speaking.'' In another place, he expresses himself thus ; "A wise and persuasive piety should be the aim of our studies. But, were all pious, then the student should be distinguished from him who is unlettered, by scientific cul- ture and by eloquence, (ratione et oratione.) Hence, knowledge, and purity and elegance of diction, should become the aim of scholarship, and toward its attainment both teachers and pupils should sedulously bend their every effort." What description of knowledge, and what species of eloquence Sturm had in view, we shall now proceed to inquire. The boy should be sent to school, so he insists, in his sixth or seventh year. His school education proper should occupy nine years, or until he is sixteen ; it should then be succeeded by a more inde- pendent style of culture. Lectures should be substituted for recita- tion, and that for five years, or until he is in his twenty -first year. The Gymnasium included nine classes, corresponding with the nine years that the pupil was to spend there. Seven of these years Sturm assigned to a thorough mastery of pure, idiomatic Latin ; the two that remained were devoted to the acquisition of an elegant style ; and to learn to speak with the utmost readiness and propriety, was the problem of the five collegiate years. During the first seven years 196 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. of the child's life, he was to be left in the care of his mother. Every year the scholars in the lower classes were to be promoted, each into the next higher class, and premiums were to be awarded to the two best scholars in each class. Thus, Sturm expressed himself, in 1537, in the "Plan," on which he organized his school, in which he gives a full sketch of the course of study to be pursued by each class. And, the arrangement, thus previously indicated, was essentially the same after the lapse of twenty- seven years, save that the Gymnasium then embraced ten classes, instead of nine. This appears from the "Classic Letters" which, in 1565, Sturm wrote to the teachers of the various classes. Forty years after the foundation of the Gymnasium, in 1578, a general ex- amination took place, the particulars of which were recorded with the faithful minuteness of a protocol. And this, again, as well as the "Classic Letters," harmonizes, in the main, with Sturm's original plan of instruction. And, in all this, the observation forces itself upon us that, as he proposed to himself a well-marked and distinct aim at the outset of his career, so he advanced toward that aim through all those long years with an iron will and a steady step. I will now give Sturm's course of instruction in detail, on the authority chiefly of the report above mentioned of the examination of the school, and of the "Classic Letters." We will commence, following the order of the " Letters," with the exercises of the tenth or lowest class, and so proceed to the first. TENTH CLASS. To Frisius, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, " That he is to lay the foundation ; to teach tl e children the form and the correct pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet, and, after that, reading; which will be better expedited by learning Latin de- clensions and conjugations than by the use of the catechism. The German catechism must be committed to memory, for the Latin would bo a mere matter of rote. The love of the children will re- ward Win for his pains ; as he himself (Sturm) can testify from his own grateful recollections of his earliest teachers. At the examination, (in 1578,) the first scholar in the ninth class put the following ques- tions to the first scholar in the tenth. Q. What have you learned in the tenth class ? Jj. Ijetten, Spelling, reading and writing, all tic wradigms of nouni and verbs, and the German catechism likewise. Q. Read me something from the AVnnixr/ of our Rector. Jl. .In tu non c l.uciu* lacing stiiitiorum mrvrtim, qui modo a me tfort discesterat 1 Q. What is the meaning of socitts 1 Jl. A companion. Q. Decline nodus. Jl. Social, tocii, tocio, etc. <}. What i th* meaning otditfdal STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. jgf A . \ go away. Q. Conjugate diseedo. A. Diseedo, diicedere, etc. Q. To what conjugation does diseedo belong 1 .1. That I have not learned. NINTH CLASS. To Schirner, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, " That he is to ground the scholar more thoroughly in declining and conjugating, adding all the anomalous and irregular forms. Then, too, he must see that the scholars learn a great number of Latin words, particularly the appellations of common and familiar objects. Of such words, he must every day give a few to one scholar, a few to another, and so on, to commit to memory ; only taking care not to select words at random, but in their natural groups, as organic sys- tems, each formed upon a distinct and independent idea. Thus, too, each boy, by listening to the words which the others repeat, will him- self the more readily fasten them in his own mind. This method of enriching the memory with words, Sturm says, he should have introduced twenty-seven years before, had it been appre- ciated. How was it that Roman youths, at so early an age, learned to express themselves with ease and propriety ? They prattled in Latin on their mother's breast ; the nurses, in whose care they were placed, talked to them in infantile dialect in broken Latin; and this, as they grew older, was gradually corrected. And then the children were continually learning new words from the household servants, who played with them, not simply to amuse them, but likewise to exercise them in speaking Latin. To this we must add their daily intercourse with their companions, in which the older boys derived an ever increasing knowledge, both of words and things. All this the youth of the present day lack entirely, as neither parents, domestics, nor comrades speak Latin. " This evil," continues Sturm, " must be removed by the diligent efforts of the teacher, and in the way which I have indicated." In another place he repeats the same complaint. " Cicero," he says, " was but twenty years old when he delivered his speeches in behalf of P. Quintius and Sextius Roscius; but, in these latter days, where is the man, of fourscore even, who could bequeath to the world such masterpieces of eloquence ? And yet, there are books enough, and there is intellect enough. What, then, do we need further ! I reply, the Latin language, and a correct method of teaching. Both these we must have, before we can arrive at the summit of eloquence." In conclusion, Sturm implores Schirner not to undervalue, for a moment, his labors with the elementary class ; but, to stand up as a champion against those gladiators of barbarism who from indolence have corrupted, or from envy have withstood, the purity of the Latin tongue. 103 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. At the examination, the first in the eighth class asked the first in the ninth, as follows. Q. To what conjugation does discedo belong 7 .1. To the third, because it makes e short before re in the infinitive. Q. To what class does discedo belong 7 .-I. It is a neuter verb. Q. What is a neuter verb 7 -1. A neuter verb is, &.c. Q. Decline the imperative of diseedo. A. DiKcede, discedito, etc. Q. What else have you learned in the ninth class? .4. Besides the German catechism, I have committed to memory the Second Onomasticon, and translated the AVam.vri of our Rector into German. Q. Translate the dialogue that has just been rehearsed. A. An tit nan es Lucius, Are you not Lucius ; socius studiorum meoriim, my school-fellow ; gut, who ; disccsseras, went ; a me, from me ; modo, just now ; e foro, at the market place. Q. To which of the parts of speech does modo belong | .}. I do not know ; for the indeclinables are not taught in my class. EIGHTH CLASS. To Matthias Huebner, teacher of this class, Sturm writes, "That it must be his especial care that the boys forget noth- ing they have learned in the lower classes. And what they have there learned he can best ascertain by consulting their prescribed school-books, which in all the classes are most faithfully conformed to. The boys, who have been promoted from the ninth into the eighth class, must be able to inflect all the nouns and verbs. This they will have learned more by practice than in a scientific manner, just as the Roman and Greek boys were exercised in language before the gram- marians gave them the reasons why they ought to speak as they did. Moreover, the boys in the next lower class had learned by heart many short sayings and sentences ; but, since in these no very wide range of words occurred, they were enjoined to compile dictionaries, and to enter therein all the common and necessary words under distinct heads, such heads for instance as the following, the whole and its parts, friendship and enmity, cause and effect, etc. These dictionaries must now, in the eighth class, be increased and enlarged ; if the boys have before fixed in their minds the definition of epistola, they will now learn what is meant by the phrase epistolam reddere, etc. As the boys in the lower classes have learned by practice how to decline and conjugate, so now they must be thoroughly grounded in all the eight parts of speech, and each declension and conjugation must be fully and distinctly characterized, and illustrated by examples drawn from that which they have already learned. Besides this, they are to read the select letters of Cicero with con- stant reference to the grammatical construction of the language ; and, in such reading, different letters are to be assigned to the different decuriae* The classes were subdivided into decuriae, or tens ; the fir.t in each ten was called the decurion. STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 199 During the last months of their school-year, the boys of this class are to commence a series of exercises in style, which will take the place of their previous oral practice in the formation of new, or the alteration of given Latin phrases. At the examination, the first scholar in the seventh class put to the first scholar in the eighth class the following questions, beginning as before with the last of the preceding series. Q. Tell me, to which of the parts of speech modo belongs. A. It is an adverb of time. Q. What is an adverb 1 .*}. It is an indeclinable part of speech, &c. Q. How many indeclinable parts of speech are there 1 A. Four, &c., &.c. Q. What else have you learned in your class 7 A. Besides a fuller etymology, we have read the first book of the select letters of Cicero, the fourth dialogue in the Neanisci, the last part of the Second Onomaslicon, and the German Catechism. Q. Read a letter from Cicero. A. Cicero JUius Tironi S. P. D. Etsi justa et idonea usus es ezcusatione intermissionis, etc., etc. Q. Translate what you have read. .-?. F.tsi u.tus es, although you have offered ; ezcusatione justa, a just apology, etc. Q. To what part of speech do you refer idonea ? A. It is an adjective ; in the ablative case, and singular number. Q. How do you form its comparative ? A. By prefixing magi* ; magis idoneug. Q. By what rule do we say uti ezcusatione 1 A. Syntax is not taught in my class. SEVENTH CLASS. Sturm writes to Lingelsheim, the teacher of this class, " It must be his care that the scholars do not lose any thing of that which they have learned in the three preceding classes ; and then that they should add to what they have already learned ; in the first place, Latin syntax. This must contain but few rules, must be clear, and set forth by examples, and that chiefly from Cicero. In the daily reading of Cicero's letters, the rules of syntax, through constant use, must be more and more impressed OH the memory. Pliny says that we must read much, but not many things ; in this class, however, many things must be read, in order to arrive at much. Subjects must be assigned to the scholars for their exercises in style ; but, in the treatment of such subjects, conciseness must be aimed at. The teacher should render assistance in this matter, either orally or by writing, (on the blackboard,) constructing sentences beforehand, as music-teachers sing first what they wish their pupils to learn. The subjects are to be drawn from what the scholars have learned in this or the previous classes, so that the exercise in style shall involve a repetition, and thus refresh the memory. And, for such an exercise on Sundays, the German Catechism is to be translated. This transla- tion must be made in classical Latin, such words alone excepted as 200 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. have been authorized by the church, as Trinitas, sacramentum, bap- tismus, etc. The scholars in this class should, by no means, use any other catechism than that which they have had before in the lower classes. At the examination, the first in the sixth class, asked the first in the seventh : Q. By what rule do we say idunea vti excusatione J .-:< / : A. Utor, fruor, fuitffor, etc. Q. Excusatione idonea 1 ./. Adjectives, pronouns and participles, etc. Q. Excutatione intermissionis? Jl. One substantive governs another, etc. Q. What else do you learn in your class ? Jl. We rend two dialogues in the Neanisci of our Rector, the second book of the select letters of Cicero, the " Precepts " of Cato, the catechism, and the " Sunday Sermon* ;" and, in the first book of music, we learn the scale and intervals. Also, in my class, exercises in style are commenced. Q. Read a sentence from Cato. Jl. Disce nl it] a id, nam quit-in subito fortuna recedit. .Irs remanet vitamque hominis non deserit unquam. Q. Translate this distich. Jl. Disce ali quid, learn something ; nam, for ; cum fortuna recedit, when fortune fails, et, Q. Visce aliquid; what is the rule for this construction? A. A verb signifying actively, etc. Q. For cum subito recedit 7 Jl. Adverbs qualify verbs, etc. Q. Read something in Greek. -/. I have not read any Greek in my class. SIXTH CLASS. To Malleolus, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, " That, from the examination of the scholars of the seventh class for their promotion, he has learned their progress. He is to consider that to keep what has been acquired is no less an art than the first acquisition of it. The longer letters of Cicero may now be translated into German, and in such an order that different letters shall be assigned to different decuriae. And, in a similar manner, he is to proceed with poetical selections. The first decurion, for example, may repeat the " Veni redemptor gentium' 1 ' 1 of Bishop Ambrose ; the second, Martial's epigram, "Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem;" the third, the ode of Horace, commencing with "Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum" for tlie teacher to translate and explain. Then each of the three may require a similar translation and explanation of the other scholars. In the writing exercises, pains is to be taken to arrive at a greater elega^c of style. Saturdays and Sundays are to be devoted to the translation of the catechism, and to the reading of some letters of Hieronymus. Greek, moreover, is to be commenced in this class. At the examination, the first in the fifth class asked the first in the sixth as follows: Q. Read a fable from the Greek of STURM S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 201 .1. "KXa^oj xai \iwv. "E\tKJ>os Kvvriyovs tvyowra, etc. Q. Decline tAa^oj. .4. 'O KO.I j i\aipos, etc. Q. What is Qcvfovoa ? jj. A participle, from^itiyto; future, 0t>fo>. Q. What have you read in Latin ? .evytv\a. Q. Why do you not say itj>tv\a, as \i\t\a from \tyti> 1 .1. Because, when the verb begins with a rough mute, the reduplication takes the corresponding smooth. Q. What is the Second Aorist of cvyw ? .H. tvyov, formed from the imperfect, stycvyov, by rejecting the first vowel of the diphthong. Q. Conjugate itrrij/n. Jt. itrrir/it, etc. Q. Conjugate the anomalous verb \or\pi. Ji. The anomalous verbs and the Attic tenses, the teacher of the fifth class has not explained. FOURTH CLASS. To Laurence Engler, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, "That he receives the boys from the fifth class well grounded in Latin and Greek grammar, provided with a good store of choice words, and familiar with illustrations drawn from poets, and with a greater number still from orators. With all this in view, he must now see to it that the boys exert themselves to their utmost in listening, in interpreting, and in rehearsing from memory ; but he must be careful, at the same time, not to task them beyond their powers. The sixth oration against Verres, which includes nearly all kinds of narration, must be read ; further, the epistles and satires of Horace ; and, in Greek, together with the grammar, the " Book of Examples." That which has been learned, in the preceding classes, must be repeatedly recalled into the memory. Diligent practice must be bestowed on style ; and, on Saturdays and Sundays, the shorter Pauline epistles are to be read by the boys, who are to explain them as they read, but in the plain manner of paraphrase alone. At the examination, the first of the third class asked the first of the fourth as follows : Q. Conjugate UTIJ/K. Ji. iffni", r<7ij$, etc. (,'. How is it in the middle voice ? Ji. laafiat, and by epcnthesif, Horapai, from whence comei inicrajiai, \ know. STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 203 Q. What have you interpreted in Greek? .'/. .iEsop's fnbles, and, on Sundays, the first epistle to Timothy. Q. Repeat a Greek sentence to me. Ji. Tuv vidiv ol ni&lv iirtaTa^evui, ov utfivroi eiatv, orav airoij ol yovttf ooraij tytvtmt, which means, etc. Q. In what mood and tense is dyayuaiv ? A. In the second aorist, subjunctive, from ayu ; whose second aorist is rjyov, or, by Attic epen- thesis, fjyayov. Q. How many metaplasms occur in dyayoMTtv 1 .-i. Two ; epenthesis and paragoge. Q. What is paragoge ? A. The addition of a letter or a syllable to the end of a word, as TOVTOVI for TOVTUV, or lauda- rier for laudari. Q. What Latin have you studied ? A. The Eclogues of Virgil, some odes of Horace, the second book of Cicero*s " Letters to Friends," and his speech in behalf of Marcus Marcellus; also, a part of the Delphi of Terence. Q. Repeat something out of Horace. J). Integer vitae scelerisque purus Jfon eget Mauri jaculis neque area, Jtoe venenatis gravida sagiltig Fusee pharetra. Q. To what species of verse does this ode belong ? Ji. It is called dicolon tetrastrophon ; dicolon, because two kinds of verse unite in its formation, namely, the Sapphic, of five feet, in the first three lines, and the Adonic, of two feet in the last line : and tetrastrophon, because the ode recurs, after every fourth line, to the same kind of verse with which it commenced. Q. What figure is exemplified in egetl A. A zeugma of speech. Q. How does this differ from a zeugma of construction ? Ji. It is a zeugma of speech when the meaning of a verb or an adjective is applicable to every thing to which it is referred ; as, in this sentence from Horace, lAnquenda tellus et damns et p'ac- ens iirnr. But, if such meaning is not applicable to every thing, then a zeugma of syntax or con- struction is witnessed ; as, for example, in the following: Visendus ater flumine languido Cocytus errans et Danai genus Infame, damnatusque longi Sisyphus JEolides laboris. Q. Have you attended, also, to tropes ? JJ. No ; our teacher has not told us any thing of them. THIRD CLASS. To Boschius, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, "That he should not only give to the boys a firm hold on what they have already learned, but should extend the range of their studies ; should open to them the graces of rhetoric, such as tropes, figures, etc., illustrating all by examples. The treatise of Herennius on rhe- toric must be laid before them, and, with it, the speech for Cluentius must be read ; and, in Greek, the best efforts of Demosthenes must be studied, besides the first book of the Iliad, or that of the Odyssey. On Sundays, the Pauline epistles are to be read in the five upper classes, and, either entirely or in part, committed to memory. Style exercises are a matter of course ; for style must be always incessantly practiced and improved. Selections from orations in Greek must be translated by the boys into Latin, or from orations in Latin into Greek. The historians and poets, too, may be turned to account in a similar manner; the odes of Pindar and Horace changed into a different No. 10. [VOL. IV., No. 1.] 12. 204 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. meter, many poems composed, many letters written, and other like tasks constantly undertaken. The comedies of Terence and Plautus are, likewise, to be acted ; and, in this matter, the boys are to be encouraged to rival the classes above them. All the plays of these two poets are to be acted by the four highest classes; twenty decuriae can accomplish this within six months. He, Sturm, had himself, three years before the revolt of the peasants, acted at Liege the part of Geta in the Phormio of Terence, and, although he had had no one to direct his practice, he yet derived great benefit from it. At the examination, the first in the third class, a certain Baron von Sonneck, was catechised by the first in the second class, as follows : Q. Since, O. noble Baron, I understand that you are acquainted with figures, allow me to ask you wlutt a figure is ? . /. A figure, (in Greek cr,xi)/i,) it an ornament of speech, substituted for a. plainer and more direct mode of conveying thought. Q. What else have you learned in the third class 7 ,1. I have read the Menippus of Lucian, and the two Epistles of Paul to the Thefsaloniant. V- What have you read in Latin ? .J. The third book of Cicero's Letters to his Friends, his speech post rcditum, and the greater part of the sixth book of the ./Eneid. Q. Repeat some prominent passage from Luc-inn's dialogue, the Menipput. .1. Menippus says to I'hilonides, concerning the punishment of the proud in Hades: ftvaArrct & 'PaSdftavOof rfiv v\iyoxp6vioi> d\a$oi>tiav TWV dvOptoirw, Sri fifi t/it/ii/ijvro 01/ijroi TC SVTCS aiiToi KOI Ovqrdjv dyaOtav rervxiK^TCf. Q. What is the rule for the construction, rervxi^res r<3v dyadtav ? Jl. Participles are followed by the same cases as their verbs; but, verbs signifying "to obtain or to miss" govern the genitive in Greek; wherefore, rvxfin governs the genitive. Q. Give me a verse from Virgil. Jl. JEneas thus prays to Apollo: "Phoebe, graves Trojae semper miserate labores." Q. Can you show that these verses of the poet are constructed after the rules of art ? ./. The critics of poetry lay down seventeen demands, (accidentia,) which must lie conformed to in every verse. That Virgil has conformed to all these in the above verses, I will now attempt to shew. The measure is dactylic, as befits epic verse ; the feet, (the dactyle and the spondee,) which are appropriate to this measure, being employed. In the scansion, the caesura, etc., the passage harmonizes with all the rules of the art. Q. " You observe," continues the questioner, " that the noble Lord understands all these sub- jects, but I wish to know one thing further ; is the phrase 'Phoebe da Latio considere Teucros' a logically accurate proposition ? " Jl. To this point, with reference to the rules of logic, it is your part to respond. SECOND CLASS. To Renard, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, that he himself is not to give a literal interpretation of the Greek poets and orators, but rather to assign that labor to the scholars ; but he may, nevertheless, direct their attention to the relation which exists between oratorical and poetical usage, and may require them to copy striking passages from the classics in their commonplace-books. And the like course is to be taken with Latin authors, and a com- parison is to be instituted between these and the Greek. Logic, the instrument of wisdom, must be laid before the scholars, the analytical or introductory part first, and afterward the synthetical or syllogistic ; and rhetoric, too, must ever accompany logic, for which STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 205 study the "Institutes of Herennius" maybe taken as a text-book. The teacher may read, with reference to rhetorif, the Olynthiac and Philippic orations of Demosthenes, and also some of Cicero's. What ora- tions of Cicero shall he read ? Either he may decide himself, or he may allow the boys to choose ; for these should be often permitted to use their own judgment. Daily exercises in style are indispensable, and a higher point must be reached therein than in the previous classes.* The scholars may also write short dissertations, and deliver them either memoriter or from their notes. On Sundays, the Epistle to the Romans is to be read, learned by heart, and recited by all. The scholars of this class must act the comedies of Terence and Plautus to greater perfection than those below them can do ; and, later in their course, they may represent a play of Aristophanes, Euripides, or Sophocles, which the teacher has first expounded to them ; and, if they should wish to take up any others afterward, they may do so at their pleasure, as those who are self-instructed. At the examination, the first in the first class put to the first in the second the same question which the first in the third had left, unanswered. Q. Resolve me this question in dialectics, is ' Phoebe, da Latio ctmxidere Teucros" a completed or logicnlly accurate proposition 7 A. It is not, and I thus prove why it is not. A completed proposition is a perfect sentence, in which the noun is united to the verb, and wliich enunciates either a truth or a falsity. But, this phrnse embodies neither that which is true nor that which is false. Therefore, I conclude that it is not a completed proposition. such sentence. But the phrase in question does not conform to the definition of a completed proposition. Therefore, the term "completed proposition " is not applicable to this phrase. Q. But here is another rule of dialectics : From pure negations no conclusion can follow. Your propositions are pure negations; therefore, your conclusion is a nan sequitur. A. I deny the minor of your argument: for my second proposition is an indirect affirmation. Hence, my syllogism, since it is stated in the terms of the figure called Ferio. remains impregnable. Q. Allow me to nk you whether you would call your syllogism demonstrative, argumentative, or sophistical. . Jt. To judge by its purport, I would call it demonstrative. But, if you were to require more of me, as that I should answer with respect to the science of demonstration or to sophistical argu- ments, I could not satisfy you ; for the precepts of these are not taught in the second class. Upon this the questioner proceeds as follows : Q. What have you read in rhetoric! A, The first and second dialogue* of Dr. Sturm upon Cicero's divisions of the oration, in which is discussed the five-fold problem of the orator ; namely, invention, disposition, expression, action and memory. Q. Does not judgment belong here, too 1 .1. Orators chiss judgment uuder the lie-ill of invention ; for, invention supposes a selection of the best arguments, and certainly we must discriminate and judge when making such selection. * It is incredible, Sturm adds in this place, how much one can accomplish by effort, by imitation, by emulation, and by the belief that all obstacles yield to art and industry. 206 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. Q. What other authors have you read 1 Jt. The second Philippic > of the charges alledged. t " I am convinced that the rules of each S|iccie* of oratory, as well as the ornaments of each, can b shewn to exist in Homer ; to that, if the art of eloquence were extinct, it could be fully restored from this rich fountain." S't..rm. STURM'S SYSTEM OP INSTRUCTION. 207 Every cause is antecedent to its effect ; The rising of the sun is the cause of day ; Therefore, the rising of the sun is antecedent to the day. Q. Of what nature is this demonstration 1 A. It is a perfect demonstration, and is culled by Aristotle rSv it on, (of the Why.) It consist* of true propositions, primary, not secondary ; the more prominent, the antecedent, and those which are the causes of the conclusion, and which furnish us with demonstrative science. Q. Is there any other species of demonstration ? j9. There is; namely, the imperfect demonstration, which is called ro9 on, (of the Because;) when the conclusion does not flow from primary or direct, but from intermediate propositions, of from effects, or secondary and remote causes, as if I should say, Wherever it is dny, there the sun has arisen ; But, it is day with us; Therefore, with us the sun has arisen. This is the domonstration a posteriori. For the cause is demonstrated from its effect. The day is not the cause of the sun's appearance ; but, the rising of the sun is the necessary and efficient cause of the day. Q. Since, then, you assert that the rising of the sun is the cause of day, what would you say if I should prove to you that it is not yet day with us? .4. I would like to hear whether you can truly demonstrate what you thus advance. Q. Is not the state of things at Frankfort different from that which obtains here at Strasburg? A. Yes. Q. Is it not day now at Frankfort ? ./. So I imagine. Q. Then it is nut day with us at Strasburg. Jl. I deny your consequence. For you have stated a fallacy in the form of the seventh species of the ignoralie elencki. Your terms do not both refer to the same thing, (frpdj owrd,) but each to a different point, (irpdf uXXo.) The mnjor of your argument possesses nothing in common with the minor; therefore, your conclusion is a non sequitur. Q. Then, you have studied sophistics, if I may judge by your rejoinder. A. Yes ; I have learned the rules of that art as they have been delivered to us by our illustrious rector, Dr. Sturm, from the sophistical problems of Aristotle. Hereupon the respondent exposed the fallacy of the two following sophisms, (1.) He who is well versed in sophistical reasoning seeks to deceive others by his conclusions. You say that you are well versed in sophistical reasoning; you, therefore, seek to deceive me. (2.) He who has five fingers on one of his hands, also has three, and two, and has five, likewise. But, he who has three, two, and five, has ten. Whoever, therefore, has five fingers on one of hit hands, has ten on the same hand. In rhetoric there was no examination, but the questioning proceeded as follows : Q. What have you learned in your class, of mathematics? Jl. To that which we learned in the second class we have added astronomy, and some problemi from tlte first hook of Euclid. Q. In what manner do astronomers measure the primary movement (primum ntotum) of the heavens ? Q. By means of ten circles ; namely, the horizon, the meridian, the equator, the zodiac, 2 co- lures, 2 tropics, and 2 \xj\nr circles. Q. Are these circles visible ? Jl. No; they are imaginary, and conceived to result from the movements of certain celestial points and lines. Q. What is the name of the first circle? A. The Greeks called it lipiguv, (horizon,) from bplgcaSat, to limit; and the Romans, jtnitor. Q. How is it situated, with respect to the axis of the earth ? Jl. When it passes through tlie poles it is in n right position ; but, when one pole is above it, while th other is below it, it is oblique. Whence, the one sphere is called right, the other 6/ifKc.* As this definition is not sufficiently clear, I will ke as follows : ' Not to detain the audience longer, I feel satisfied Unit you are fiimiliar with all other things which have been given to your class to study, and I, therefore, willingly accord to you the palm of victory." The foregoing description will serve to denote the character of the Strasburg Gymnasium. We will now consider the College, with which it was connected. (To be continued.) Sacrobusto, whose treatise "on the Sphere" Sturm employed as a text-book. "There are two horizons ; the right and the oblique. Those have a right horizon and a right sphere whose zenith is in the equinoctial ; because their horizon is a circle passing through the poles, cutting the equi- noctial at right spherical angles ; whence, their horizon is called fight, and their sphere right. Those have an oblique horizon with whom the pole is situated above their horizon ; and, because their horizon intersects the equinoctial at oblique angles, their horizon is called oblique, and their sphere oblique. * We find this more intelligibly expressed in Sacrobusto, as follows: "It is called the equinoctial because, when the sun crosses it, as it does twice in the year, the days and nights are equal over the whole world ; whence, it is called the cyiiatvr of the day and the night. II. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JOHN STURM. FROM THE GERMAN OF KARL TON" RAUMER. (Continued from No. 10., page 182.) As EARLY as the year 1537 Sturm, in his treatise "On the correct mode of opening literary institutions" had designated courses of " Public and Free Lectures," which graduates from the first class of the gymnasium should attend upon during their five collegiate years. He also lays down therein the main branches thus to be taught, which are theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. Beside these, he enumer- ates five other departments of learning, (which we now associate in a distinct group, and assign to philosophical faculties,) namely, mathe- matics, history, logic with rhetoric, grammar, and reading of the poets. And he requires a more extended course of private study to be pursued by students at the college than had been provided for at the gymnasium. Lecturers as well as teachers are provided for, likewise, in his plan for a school organization at Lauingen. After he has here character- ized the duties of the various classes, he continues, " In these classes the boys must be kept under the discipline of the rod, nor should they learn according to their own choice, but after the good pleasure of the teacher. But, when they leave the classes, then they go as their inclination prompts them, some to theologians, for the sake of religion, some to naturalists," etc. It appears from the second book of Sturm's " Classic Letters," that even prior to the year 1565 many learned men were giving public lectures in Strasburg, while, at the same time, he was zealously engaged, by means of correspondence with many others, in efforts to increase the number of lecturers. But, it was not until 1567 that the Emperor Maximilian II. accorded permission to the Strasburgers to found a college, which, long afterward, (in 1621,) was invested by Ferdinand II. with all the rights and privileges of a university. In the year 1569, the Strasburg magistracy empowered Sturm to organize the college, whereupon he composed his " Collegiate Letters," which were addressed to the various instructors in the new institution. What was the actual course of instruction therein will best appear from the subjoined schedule of lectures for the summer term of the jear 1578, which I quote in the original Latin. No. 11. [VOL. IV., No. 2.] 26. N 210 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. Dtfignatio Lectionum publicarum pro hoc aestivo semcstri, in academia Jirgentoratcnsi ; Jnno 1578. J. Sturmius, Rector, docebit dialog. Cic. de Senectute. Melehior Junior, Decanus, libros III., Cic. de Oral, et orationem Cic. Philippicum secundara. TIIEOLOGI. D JUarbachiits perget in explicatione Psalmorum. ]>. .lull. Pappus explicabit Danielem prophetam et acta Apostolorum. M. JVYc. Floras epist. Paul! ad Gaiatns. Er. JVarbachius Lie. perget in lib. Judicum. JURECONSULTI. D. Laur. Tuppius perget in Pandectis. J). Obert. Giphanius interpret, libb. IV. Inslitutionem Justin. D. Georg. Obrcc/ttus perget in lib. II. Codicis. MEDICI KT PBYSICI. D. Jlndr. Planerus leget parvam artein Galeni. Deinde parva naturalia Aristotelis. E. l.ud. ffawenrcuterus perget in compendio Physices. HISTORICUS. J). JUirri. Beutcrus explic. C. Taciturn. ETUICCS. Jl/. Tcoph. Golius perget in libris Ethicis Aristotelis ad Nicomaclium. ORQANICUS. J\I. L. Hawenreuterus perget in Analyt. prioribus Aristotelis. MATHEMATICUS. Jl/. Conr. Dasypodius docebit sex libros priores Euclidis, item Theorias Solis et I, mine et doctrinam addet Eclipsium. LINGUARUM PROFESSORES. M. Henning. Oldendorpius docebit Grammaticara Iieliracam Clenardi et ndjunget aliquot Psalmorum Davidis explicationem. Jlf. J. fVilveshemius, graecanicae linguae Professor, interpretabitur ''Epya *aJ fipipa; Hesiodi. DISPUTATIONES ET DECLAMATiONES PcBLiCAE. Singulis mensibus singulae attributae sunt disputationes et decltimationes. quae publice a Professoribus haberi debent suo ordine, praeter exercitationes illas, quae privatim suscipiuntur cum Studiosis et honorum Candidatis. The Strasburg college created Baccalaureates and Masters of Phi- losophy, as we learn from the lists of Melchior Junius, of degrees conferred in the years 1574 and 1578. But, Doctorates in theology, law, and medicine, it did not create ; for this only universities could do. If then, as we see, the Strasburg college was neither a gymnasium nor a university, what, in reality, was it? Manifestly an unfortunate compound of both; a sort of philosophical faculty that laid claim to an isolated, independent existence, almost entirely ignoring the three other faculties. But, a philosophical faculty can not thrive unless it is a branch of a full-grown university, and unless, co-existing with the three other faculties, each sufficiently well represented in itself, it receives life froro them, and, in turn, imparts it to them. Those faculties, divorced from the philosophical, but too readily degenerate into mere instrumentalities for gaining a livelihood, while the philo- sophical, when standing alone and paying no attention to the urgent demands of life and to the future calling of the student, is devoid both of purpose and aim. Such a dubious position exerts a perni- cious influence on the character of the pupils of the college. School- boys they should not be, students they fain would be ; but, they are neither one thing nor the other. For philosophical lectures, which tend to refresh, strengthen, and improve the student in his own special department, appear to the scholars of the college but a mere wearisome continuation of their school studies, that they had hoped were at an end. And if, moreover, the instructors in logic, philology, rhetoric, etc., are altogether of that kind, that their discourses differ STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 211 in no respect from those which their hearers have before listened to in the gymnasium, then truly is such hearing fatiguing, and painful even to the most attentive. Sturm felt a deep interest in his Strasburg college, and used every means in his power to impress upon it the stamp of a university. From many of his "Classic" and "Collegiate " letters we see how he invited jurists, physicians, etc., to Strasburg, to deliver lectures upon law, medicine, natural philosophy, and other branches of learning. But, it is impossible thus to improvise a uni- versity, by persuading men, who are already filling other and widely different offices it may be, to become professors likewise. For, the appropriate duties of the professor call for the undivided energies of the whole man. That the lectures of theologians, jurists, and physicians in the Strasburg college were entirely unsuited to impart to the youth, within the Quinquennium from his sixteenth to his twenty-first year, an ade- quate preparation for his future 'calling, as Sturm originally designed that it should do, a single glance at the schedule of the college lectures inserted above will abundantly convince us. The theologians, for example, read only upon Old and New Testament exegesis, while one solitary physician confines his labors to the "lesser art of Galen,'' and "Aristotle's minor philosophy ! " And Sturm himself, with all his partiality for the college, most keenly felt its deficiencies. He laments, among other things, the lack of discipline that prevailed there, as well as the neglect of the prescribed lectures, and the. want of respect for the instructors. On this point, his letters to Erythraeus, teacher of rhetoric, is especially noteworthy. He has observed, he writes, that it is a difficult task to deliver lectures in their college upon poets, histo- rians, and orators, and he has also been astonished that such lectures have often been wholly unattended. The reason which he assigns for this state of things is this, " the scholars had already, at the gymna- sium, become familiar with the principal classic poets, historians, and orators, and, accordingly, if, in the college lectures, they heard nothing new, they would either go away altogether, or would else betake themselves to others, whether jurists, physicians, or mathema- ticians, who could teach them something that they did not know before. And these laid before the scholars subjects that possessed the freshness of novelty ; but the teachers of grammar and rhetoric, on the other hand, only such as they had already learned at school ; and, if these teachers could not be persuaded to undertake a better method, then the whole affair would fall through." But, enough of the Strasburg college : it, however, did not remain in its original form ; but, as has been stated, emerged from its chrysa- lis condition, in the year 1621, a full-fledged university. 212 STURM'S SYSTEM OP INSTRUCTION. We turn now to examine Sturm's educational method critically and to note its operation in the Strasburg gymnasium. His ideal of culture we have already spoken of as embracing the three- fold attainment of piety, knowledge, and eloquence. How clearly he knew what he wished, how clearly he recognized the means that were best adapted to procure him what he wished, and also with what decision, , circumspection, and admirable perseverance he labored to achieve his aim, all this appears from what I have already communicated, both from his own lips and from the authority of others. There was no discord- ant element in him ; he was a whole man, a man of character, in whom a strong will and a wise activity were united in perfect equi- \ poise. And, on this account, it is no marvel that, as I have before mentioned, he was appreciated among his contemporaries, and enjoyed their utmost confidence^ Even in the year 1578 the Strasburg school numbered many thousand scholars, among whom were two hundred noblemen, twenty-four counts and barons, and three princes. Not alone from Germany, but also from the remotest countries, from Portugal, and Poland, Denmark, France, and England, youths were sent to Sturm. But his educational efficiency was not limited to the Strasburg gymnasium ; he exerted, far and wide, by his counsel, his example, and through his pupils, a vast influence, as a second " Pre- ceptor of Germany." He himself organized schools at Lauingen on the Danube, Trasbach on the Moselle, and at Hornbach, in the Bipontinate ; his pupil, Schenk, planned the Augsburg, a second pupil, Crusius, the Meminger gymnasium. The school-code of Duke Christopher, of Wirtemberg, of the year 1559, as well as that of the Elector, Augustus I., of Saxony, of the year 1580, would certainly seem to have felt the influence of Sturm's system. The grammar of the lower classes, the logic and the rhetoric of the upper, Cicero in the ascendant, Terence and Plautus acted by the scholars, the rudiments of astronomy in the highest class, and arithmetic here much neglected, while, in the lower classes, it receives no attention at all, music, decurions for monitors, all these arrange- ments would appear to have been borrowed from Sturm, and so much the more as they are not to be found, at least, in the Saxon code of 1538. Even the school regulations of the Jesuits are, as we shall find, in many points of view, quite similar to Sturm's, and he himself was surprised at their correspondence. And, hand in hand with Sturm's method, his school-books also penetrated throughout the whole of Germany. In his letters to the teachers of the Strasburg gymnasium, Sturm appears the experienced teacher and the accomplished rector j clearly, STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 2 1 3 and in few words, marking out for all the teachers under him their own particular and appropriate duties ; and, in his advice, how best to undertake and to discharge those duties, he approves himself the sage and practiced counselor. For, with the kindest expressions, he cheers and strengthens them in their path of labor, and repeatedly calls their attention to the fact that they all have one common cause, since the teachers of the upper classes can do nothing unless those of the lower classes use care in laying the foundation ; and, on the other hand, that the latter will have been faithful to no purpose if the former are not as conscientious in building upon the foundation when laid. And he most earnestly insists that they must all instruct after one and the same method, and must keep the same end in view, if they would see the work prosper in their hands. Thus he shows himself to be a pattern rector, and the center and heart of the school. Yet, he is never overbearing, but is a dictator who scarce ever appears to command or to censure, content with requesting and encouraging. Moreover, by constant application, he is keeping pace with those about him ; learning Hebrew, for instance, when in his fifty-ninth year. Now, that I have given full credit to the praiseworthy efforts and achievements of Sturm, I must also pay homage to truth, and exhibit the reverse and unfavorable side of his educational activity. I have praised him, in that he clearly conceived his plan, and then, fixing his steady gaze upon the object before him, worked vigorously and skil- / fully to accomplish it But, shall I bestow unqualified praise upon Sturm's ideal ? On a nearer view, I can not do it. The Christian element of his educational system alone deserves entire recognition. But, the other two ele- ments, namely, knowledge and eloquence, or rather Sturm's concep- tion of the kind of knowledge and of eloquence to be inculcated at school ; this conception, judged not alone by our present standard, but considered in itself and under any circumstances, is, in many points, deserving of censure. Shall I be asked " How can this be ? To furnish the pupil with a rich store of scientific knowledge, and, at the same time, to cultivate in him that readiness of expression which will enable him to utter, either orally or by writing, whatever thoughts or fancies he may thus have accumulated ; do not these two objects, even at the present day, constitute together the highest aim of edu- cation ? '' They do, indeed ; but, let us consider more closely what kind of knowledge and what species of eloquence Sturm had in view, and then we shall be in a better position to see whether we agree with him throughout or not. And, first, as to the knowledge. The thoroughness with which both Greek and Latin grammar were taught 214 STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. in Sturm's school, our teachers now a-days will approve, although it may be that occasionally their standard of thoroughness does not precisely coincide with that of the old rector, which demanded, for instance, that the second aorist should be formed from the imperfect, or that a future form, " re poetica Graecornm, litiri quatuor. E notationibus M. Neandri praeceptoris sui collecti Opera ./. Vullandi." Editio secunda. 1592. (r.) 'Catechetis M. Lutheri Graeco-Latina." "Pat- rum Theologorttm Graecorum sententiae." "Apocrypha; hoc est. narrationes de Chritto, etc., extra Bihlia." Basileae, per Joh. Oporinum. 1563. (d.) " Compendium Dialtcticae ac Rhetorical:." 1581. (e.) "Or.Wa Terrae partitim succincta explicatio." 15?6. (/.) "Orfci'a Terrae dirisio compendaria, in iisum studiosaejurentutis in schola flfeldensi." 15S6. Nova edilio. (g.) "Compendium Chronicorum, conscripta in schola Jlfelden.it ." 1586. Havemann cites the following in addition: (A.) "Mankind's Mirror." Nuremburg. 1620. (i) "Theolngia mrgalandri Lutheri." Eisleben, 1587. (*.) * Advice to a gnod nobleman and friend; or, hou> to guidf and irmtruct a boy." Eisleben, 1590. Says Havemann, "this is an incomparable liltle book." 3. (a.) "Funeral Sermon at the burial of the venerable M. Neander. Delivered by Val- entine Mylius." Leipzig, 1595. (6.) Vollborth's "Panegyric upon M. Neander." 1777. O 226 MICHAEL NEANDER. for I often recall them with delight, in sorrow and affliction they are my consolation, and they aid me, moreover, in my labors both with old and young." In the year 1547, when, after the battle of Muhlberg, Neander, in common with all the professors and students at Wittenberg, deserted the place, he obtained, through the recommendation of Melancthon, the post of (colleague) assistant in the school of Nordhauscn. Short- ly after, he was chosen conrector and was employed also as tutor to the children of Herr Schmied, the Mayor. The rector of the school, whose name was Basilius Faber, imposed upon the youthful Neander, then fresh from the conceited air of Wittenberg, and regarding "gram- mar and syntax" as "insignificant trifles," the" humiliating task of teaching the older boys the "Advanced Syntax," (niajorem Syntaxin majoribus) a work which he had " never even seen, much less heard of or studied." In the year 1550, Neander was called to the rectorship of the cloister-school at Ilfeld, in the Harz. Here, in 1544, Thomas Stange had been chosen abbot of the monastery. But he afterward joined the Protestants, and then, under the patronage of the noble Count of Stolberg, founded the school, to which, at the recommendation of Melancthon and Schmied, he now called Neander. When, in the year 1559, the devout, conscientious abbot lay upon his death-bed, he commended the school most urgently to Count Stolberg's care, and to the faithfulness of its rector, Neander. This dying injunction Neander kept in view even to the close of his own life. The amount of labor that he accomplished would appear well-nigh incredible. When he entered upon his office, he found but twelve scholars in attendance ; nine years later, in 1559, this number had increased to forty. And until within a few days before his death, or during the space of forty-five years, he took the charge of the whole school entirely upon himself, never employing a col- league.* lie was, moreover, compelled to defend the very existence of the school itself against many who endeavored to wrest the cloistral domains into their own possession. At the same time he acomplished much literary labor giving to the press, during his life-time, thirty- nine books, and leaving behind him, in manuscript, fourteen more. Many of his contemporaries, Melancthon in particular, have borne testimony to the excellent results with which his teachings were at- terded. Melancthon deemed the school at Ilfeld, "by reason of the faithful labors of Neander," to be the best seminary in the country. * "Taiitnm praestilit linns vir, (jui nulliim in administratione scholae usque ad ullimum f.re wnii limen collegam haheret." Thus that eminent man, I.aurentius Rhodomannus, a pupil of his, and later a professor at Wittenberg, writes of Neander. MICHAEL NEANDER. 227 Said Rhodomannus: "Neander has proved himself an exceedingly skillful and successful teacher. He has carried scholars forward, within the space of three or four years, so far in the languages and the arts, and grounded them so thoroughly in catechetics, that, when he had done with them, they were fitted to enter at once upon important posts, whether in the school or in the church. Especially have they been so thoroughly drilled in the three languages, that they have not inele- gantly imitated the Greek classics." And the learned Caselius, a scholar of Neander's, in Nordhausen, said : " Neander's boys, on en- tering the university, have at once taken precedence of most others." Of his text-books, so far as I am acquainted with them, I have already, in part, spoken elsewhere. In his grammars, he constantly dwelt more upon the elementary than the abstruse, and placed general principles and rules, that were universally binding, before unimportant particulars and anomalous exceptions. Hence his text-books were brief; but, whatever he undertook, he intended should be fully and entirely comprehended by the learner. His instructor, Melancthon, whom he highly esteemed, undoubtedly urged him to give his attention to the physical sciences. It was said of Xeander, that " he was such an adept in medicine and chemistry, that he was enabled, by means of serviceable remedies, to extend a helping hand to his scholars when sick."* His "Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy" was in much repute. His "Compendium Chronicorum" gives, in the compass of forty pages, a survey of the history of the world, from Adam to the year 1575. The subjects of the various chapters are, "Jews," "^Egyptians," "Persians," "Greeks," and "Romans;" then "The Period of the Mi- gration of Races, ending with Charlemagne," "Mohammed and the Saracens," and " Argonautae, or the Crusades, Tartars, and Turks." And it ends with a glance at the prophecies of Daniel. In geography, he wrote a somewhat extended text-book, called "Orbis terrae parlium mccincla explicatio;" and a second, much shorter, with the title, "Orbis terrae divisio" The first mentioned compend is a singular book ; now proceeding methodically, and again branching off into the strangest of digressions. It begins by giving a list of the various authorities made use of. Then there follows a concise and clear treatise on the mathematics of geography, (in which the sun moves around the earth,) and a history of the science. Next are described Europe, Asia, Africa, and the oceans ; and lastly the islands, among which America is enumerated. Some of the stories interspersed in this book we have already cited. * A favorite scholar of his, Thalius, afterward a physician at Nordhnusen, " fathered 72 species of glasses in the neighborhood of life Id, and carefully pressed and dried them between the leaves of an oKi and huire monkish missal." (Orbis txpHcalia. article. Nonlhaufrn.l 228 MICHAEL NEANDER. In his description of Goldberg, Neander not only communicates much upon Trotzendorf, but also narrates that unsuccessful, first, and last attempt of his own to learn to ride. Under the article " Sagan," he gives a long story; how, after a fourteen years absence from his native land, he returned thither, and how he was every where received like a prince. Every where they made feasts in his honor, at which, too, vocal and instrumental music were heard, and often the wine flowed till midnight. The like, also, befell him in his native town, where he found his aged and honored mother still living; though, alas! his father had died but a short time before. In describing Nordhausen, he takes occasion to speak of a favorite scholar of his, who died there, the physician Thalius, tells of his botanical studies, and of his death, caused by being thrown from a carriage. Nor does he stop here, but gives a letter of Thalius's, and cites Latin and Greek poems composed upon his death. And still further he adds a list, many pages long, of the good scholars shaped in Ilfeld, but remarks that nevertheless he had some very bad ones, and gives the history of one of these, who was beheaded. He communicates this, that teachers may learn, from his example, not to be dispirited on account of some untoward ex- periences, but rather to keep up a courageous heart. Thus much in characterization of the larger geography. The lesser, but thirty pages long, is far more concise. Let us now turn back to his life. In the year 1562, he married Anna Winkler, of Nordhausen, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The daughter Maria married Valentin Mylius, the pastor at Ilfeld, who in after years pronounced the eulogy upon Neander. In this eulogy we find an exceedingly edifying sketch of the last days of the venerable man. His sickness began a few days previous to Easter, in the year 1595. But, before he took to his bed, he celebrated the Lord's supper at church, after full confession. Upon his death- bed he testified his hearty adhesion to the Lutheran confession of faith. When his pastor read to him from the 73d Psalm, he repeat- ed, with joyful emphasis, the words, " The strength of my heart, and my portion forever," and said, " I will give praise to God forever ; for he is the strength of my heart, and I shall not be afraid ; he is my portion and I am his, and all the powers of darkness can not sunder us forever." His last words were, " Ah, how long shall I linger here before I go to that blessed place ? There shall I meet and welcome my dear grand-parents, my parents, and so many dear, pious chris- tians, so many good and glorious friends ; God grant me a speedy entrance into that happy land ! Amen." Then, after waving a last farewell to all, he fell asleep in the Lord without a groan or a mur- mur. It was four in the afternoon of the 26th of April, 1595. THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS.* [Translated for the American Journal of Education, from the German of Karl von Raumer.] t IN 1491, eight years after Luther, and six before Melancthon, Ig- natius Loyola was born, the founder of that Order whose chief aim was to bring to nought the Reformation, and to reinstate the Popes iu their former absolute power. The Jesuits sought, by means of preaching, the confessional, and the education of youth, to gain pow- er and influence. And how great the influence, how complete the power which they thus obtained ! . This aim and method of the Order is universally acknowledged : we find it asserted equally by the Protestant Ranke, in his work, "The Popes of Rome," and by the Popes themselves, as well as by the most distinguished Catholic friends of the Jesuits. In Pope Gangan- elli's Bull, by which the Order was suppressed, it is described as hav- ing been founded for the " conversion of heretics ;" in the Bull of Pius the Seventh, which restored the Order, it is said, that the Jes- uits might, " after their former method, instruct youth in the first principles of the faith, and form them to good manners, might sus- tain the duties of the preacher's office, and be diligent in hearing con- fession ;" and it is especially enjoined upon them, " to devote them- selves, (as formerly,) to the education of Catholic youth, as well as to undertake the control of seminaries and colleges.'' A Catholic writer of the present day speaks of the calling of the Jesuits in the following extremely candid manner: "that it is to con- tend with heretics, chiefly with the weapons of education and knowl- edge." "The hateful task of checking heresy by means of fire and sword, this the Order' leaves to its antagonists, the Dominicans." This same Catholic author thus writes in the year 1833 : "We know both when and how the Order of the Jesuits originated ; we know the genesis of the Society of Jesus. At the commencement of the * Sources. 1. Ranke's Popes of Rome. " 2. Spittler on the History and Constitution of the Order of the Jesuits. " 3. Pascal's Provincial Letters. ' 4. Ratio et institutio studiorum societatis Jesu ; Superiorum permistu : Mo- guntiae, 1600. t; 6. Educational System of the Society of Jesus; Landshut, 1813. " 6. Lang's History of the Jesuits in Bavaria; Nuremberg. 1819. The above are some of the principal sources from which Von Raumer drew his views ol the Jesuit. 230 THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. sixteenth century a storm had gathered against the church of Jesus Christ. A new doctrine was proclaimed, another faith preached; a deadly heresy had exalted itself. The world was drifting toward the quicksands. And as every heresy contains some element of truth, sufficient to give it a specious appearance, and to insure its reception among men, so in this case we find such an element in the estimation it placed upon the study of the Scriptures, in the absolute homage and unqualified respect that it paid to the pure, unaltered word of God, as recorded in Holy Writ, in its faith in the written word alone, which it claimed was given to every man to examine for him- self; and this homage and respect culminated in the complete deifi- cation of the letter. But in whatever spot the earth yields a poison, there an antidote is sure to spring up by its side. So too, if at any time storms overspread the sky, God, in his providence, soon puts an ond to their fury. Does any foe to the Bride of Christ, the church of God, declare war against her, then, even in the very fiercest of the onset, when her defeat seems inevitable, God raises up a hero, who goes forth in the name of the Lord, single handed and alone, and, like a second David, overcomes the champion of error". Such a hero was Ignatius Loyola, who, in the year of grace, 1521, most fortunately for the world, lay wounded in the fortress of Pampeluna. The wounds which he had received in his body healed in a miraculous manner the hurt of his soul, and thereby healed the spiritual diseases of the greater portion of mankind. God created this man to be the founder of an Order, which was destined to become a strong wall of defense for his holy church against the new heresy. Examination of the letter of the word, as we said above, investigation, consequent- ly knowledge, characterized this false doctrine. Hence the Order which was to defend men from its allurements and to confirm them in the old faith, found itself compelled to put on the same armor of knowledge, that it might win the victory. If, with other Orders, con- templation and mortification of the flesh stood foremost in import- ance, while study was a minor concern, with the Jesuits, on the other hand, study and the pursuit of knowledge constituted the chief aim, though prayer, meditation and devotional exercises were not omitted. Fcr they felt that erudition and knowledge must be united with piety. And they turned their attention to those youth, who were eager to run in the ways of knowledge ; to studious youth, to pro tect them from the pestilent breath of false doctrine, presenting itself in the guise of science. Accordingly schools and the education of the young were their chief care and the main object of their efforts. And God blessed the Society, so that, in a very short time, it extend- THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. 231 ed its operations into all parts of the globe. And it was not long before the fathers of the Society of Jesus took possession of nearly every nation on the earth, as the apostles had done before them ; and wherever they established themselves, they undertook the man- agement of schools, and the direction of such as thirsted for knowl- edge, and their efforts were prospered and blessed. God grant that we may soon see such an Order arising in our midst, for we too live in an age full of all manner of heresies !" [We omit in this place, as well as toward the close of the article, several pages of Raumer's chapter on the Jesuits, in which he discus- ses, from the extreme Protestant stand-point, the influence of the con- fessional, and the principles of what he calls "Jesuitical morality." These topics, and especially, when handled in a partisan spirit, are more appropriate to a theological and controversial, than to an educa- tional journal. The past, as well as the present organization of the schools of the Jesuits, the course of instruction, methods of teaching, and discipline, are worthy of profound study by teachers and educa- tors who would profit by the experience of wise and learned men. Says Bacon ; "As it regards teaching, this is the sum of all direction ; ' take example by the schools of the Jesuits, for better do not exist.' " ED. AM. JOUR. OF ED.] The editor of the " System of Education" has adopted the above words of Bacon for his motto, and has cited, in addition, the following testi- mony from that philosopher. " When I look at the diligence and the activity of the Jesuits, both in imparting knowledge and in moulding the heart, I bethink me of the exclamation of Agesilaus concerning Pharnabazus ; 'since thou art so noble, I would thou wert on our side.' " The editor of the " System" boasts of this passage as a " splendid tribute extorted from an anti-Catholic and a heretic." I will now subjoin a second tribute, likewise from a " heretic," viz., John Sturm. "The name, Jesuits," says he, "is new, and of recent origin. They merit higher praise than do any other of the monks, if indeed we may praise monkery at all. For what neither the good and devout Reuchlin, nor the learned and eloquent Erasmus, nor, prior to these, Alexander Hegius and Rudolf Agricola could persuade the schoolmen and the monks to do, namely, that they should, if not dis- posed themselves to cultivate learning, at least train up others to do it; this the Jesuits have, without prompting, everywhere undertaken. They give instruction in the languages and in logic, and so far as they can, they impart to their scholars a knowledge of rhetoric. I rejoice at their appearance for two reasons. And first, because they promote our cause, by cultivating the sciences. For I have observed 232 THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. what authors they explain and what method they adopt ; it is a method so nearly like ours, that it appears as if they had copied from us. And secondly, they incite us to a greater watchfulness and zeal, lest they show themselves more diligent than we, and lest their schol- ars become more learned and accomplished than ours." If now we compare Sturm's mode of teaching with that of the Jesu- its, we shall find, at the first glance, scarce any difference between them. The internal structure of their institutions, their text-books, general curriculum, and ideal of culture, all are nearly identical, and yet a Jesuit college in respect to its inmost design and aim differed as widely from Sturm's college or his gymnasium, as a Jesuit from a Protestant. The u Ratio et institutio, (theory and method,) studiorum societatis Jem? is the oldest treatise on teaching that the Jesuits possess. It was originally projected in 1588 by six of the fathers, and, after un- dergoing a thorough revision, it was finally published in the year 1599. It appeared under the sanction of the renowned Claudius de Aquaviva, who was general of the Order at that period. This treat- ise has maintained, even to the present day, its original authority, and all subsequent writers have built upon its foundation ; we have an evidence of this fact in a later treatise, written in 1730, which, in its turn, has been, in the main, incorporated into the " Educational System" of the year 1833. So too, the Jesuit General Rootbaan, in the preface to the most recent official " Course of Instruction," published in 1832, remarks ; "we present herein nothing new, but the old original system, only modified to suit the times." For " this old system has been approved by the fortunate experience of almost two centuries, and it should not be altered, except for weighty rea- sons." Some alterations were made, as we see, in obedience to the demands of the age ; a nice adaptation of fixed principles to the va- riations of circumstance being characteristic of the Order. We turn now to consider the internal structure of a fully organized Jesuitic college. Such an institution embraced two distinct courses of study, each complete in itself. These were known as the higher and the preparatory branches, " studio. suj)eriora " and " studio, in- feriora" Each division of the college was under its separate prae- fect, but both praefects were alike subject to the rector, who had the general control of the whole establishment. PREPARATORY OR LOWER STUDIEI. The lower division, corresponding to the gymnasium, comprised the following five classes, each having its particular name : 1. The lower class in grammar; or the rudiments. THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. 233 2. The middle class in grammar ; or grammar proper. 3. The higher class in grammar ; or syntax. 4. The Humanities. 5. Rhetoric. These names lead us to infer at the outset a general resemblance to the course pursued at Sturm's gymnasium, wher grammar was the beginning, and rhetoric the end and aim of all education, and when the art of speaking Latin was the summit of all culture. Says the composer of " The Educational System of the Jesuits :" " not a mere knowledge of syntax, but a practical mastery of it, in other words, readiness and skill both in speaking and in writing; this is the aim of grammar." Pupils are " to make a living language of the Latin, hence they should be taught on the principle of the maxim 'lege, scribe, loquere. 1 ^ "Those alone possess a perfect knowledge 1 of a language, who not only read it, but who can likewise speak it ' and write it. And the course of study adopted by the Society of Jesus is designed to secure this result. The pupils of the Jesuits are enabled not only to' read and write Latin, but really to speak it." As the Jesuits and Sturm appear thus to have coincided in the pursuit of a common aim, it is but natural to suppose that their methods of indoctrinating their scholars with Latinity would have been the same or similar. To say nothing of the study of grammar, we find in both instances an absolute sacrifice of every thing to the single object of storing the mind with a multitude of Latin words and phrases. The " System " recommends the use of books in which such phrases are collected and methodically arranged ; such a book is the "Latin-German Promptuarium of Father Wolfgang Schoensle- der." Another, recommended for the three lower classes, is called "Amalthea ;" it is divided into six parts, each part containing a great variety of idiomatic forms and phrases. Part 6, for example, treats of the arts ; chapter 1, of medicine, 2, of surgery, 3, of arithmetic, 6, of printing, etc. " Through the number and variety of phrases thus rendered familiar to the mind," it is said, " style will assume color, grace and dignity." For the sake of a pure Latinity, the Jesuits 'crushed out the vernacu- lar, precisely as did Trotzendorf and Sturm. " The exercise of speak- ing Latin must be unintermitted and absolute, to the entire exclusion of the vernacular in all matters pertaining to the school." This rule extended even to the lower classes in grammar; "the lowest, it may be, being on some occasions excepted." In order to encourage ex- cellence in Latin speech, " the teacher should repeatedly appeal to the stately elegance of the language, and on the other hand should con- 234 THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. tinually dwell upon the disgrace which is sure to overtake pupils in Latinity if they can not carry on a conversation in Latin." The neg- ligent must be reprimanded, "and those who let fall a word in the vernacular must be compelled to wear some mark of disgrace, and in addition, to suffer a light chastisement, unless they can shift this two- fold burden, on the same day, upon the shoulders of some fellow- pupil, whom either in school or in the street they shall overhear talk- ing German, or whom they can convict of this offense by at least one credible witness." " This noble emulation should prevail as well among pupils of the same school as between one school and another." The noble emulation here insisted on I shall advert to again, further on. Of the study of the classics the " Educational System " says : *' For us the pagan writers of classical antiquity can have but a sub- ordinate aim, namely, the formation of style. * * * }}y means of the classics we are to become familiar with the language of the Greeks, but especially with that of the Romans, and thus to form our style ; further than this we can not go" As the Jesuits thus aimed only at the cultivation of style in reading the classics, they, like Sturm, prized Cicero above all the rest. On this point hear the " Educational System :" " Style should be drawn almost exclusively from Cicero, although the most approved of the historians need not on that account be overlooked." And again ; " What model is to be imitated and after what pattern we should fashion our style is briefly comprehended in the words of the rule, 'imitate Cicero.' As in the study of theology we follow the divine Thomas (Aquinas,) and in philosophy, Aristotle, so in the humanities Cicero must be regarded as our peculiar and preeminent leader. For he has been crowned with the palm of superior praise by the common consent of the world. But some, misguided by a willful and self-formed taste, have gone astray, preferring a style totally different from that of Cicero ; such an erratic course is quite at variance with the genius of our in- stitutions and hostile to that spirit of prompt obedience" etc. "An abrupt and clipped style was discountenanced by the venerable pre- cepts of those of our forefathers who gave their particular attention to this subject.'' Since Cicero was the highest model for imitation, he was read by all the classes ; the three lower classes especially, were drilled in the "Familiar Letters," as they are styled in the " System." Both in conversation and in writing, the scholars are to use no ex- pression "which they .can not justify by the authority or example of some approved writer." This precept, taken in connection with the THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. 235 foregoing quotations, proves that the pupils of the Jesuits were re- quired to reproduce, in speaking and in writing, almost universally, the phraseology of Cicero, carefully culled out and stored in the memory. Latin poems were in like manner pieced together out of lines or ex- pressions taken from Virgil. Latin dramas too were acted, not how- ever, the old plays of Terence and Plautus, but such as were com- posed for the purpose. "For it is not proper in every act to intro- duce demons, heartless knaves, tipplers, gamblers, and profane jesters, nor ought dancing or the shifting shows of gliding specters and ghosts to be often brought upon the stage." "These plays, pure as may be their style, and well adapted as they are to impart finish and grace to the pupil's knowledge, nevertheless ought not to receive so much attention in our eagerness for the favor of the people, that we shall meanwhile, neglect the true interests of the school." In one respect the Jesuits appear to have acted with more direct- ness of purpose and practical good sense than did John Sturm, with his like-minded Protestant compeers ; for the former knew why they wished to substitute Latin for the vernacular. The editor of the " Educa- tional System " says to this point ; " The schools of the Jesuits were ") so conducted throughout, as to bring youth completely under the dominion of the true church. To this end every regulation, from the least to the greatest has been uniformly directed." It was to serve the Romish hierarchy then, to further its schemes of universal aggrandizement by means of the powerful instrumentality of a com- mon language, extending to all the nations of the world ; it was, I repeat it, to serve this hierarchy, that the Jesuits banished the ver- nacular from their schools to make room for the Latin. With the aid of this language they hoped measurably to overcome every ob- stacle, that deep-seated national prejudices should oppose to their on- ward career, and to build up a spiritual kingdom whose dominion should embrace the whole world. Already the church had her au- thorized Vulgate version of the Scriptures in Latin ; already was her liturgy in Latin, so that in all Catholic churches founded anywhere in the world, the Roman Breviary was read, nor was any departure from its language in any case permitted. The Jesuits taught Greek also. That scholars as well as teachers, - were at least somewhat accomplished in this branch, is evident from the fact that they gloried in being able not only to speak Greek but to compose Greek poems. Frederick A. Wolf, the most eminent philologist of the present day is, like Luther and Ernesti, decidedly adverse to Greek composition. When, on the occasion of an exam- ination for degrees, a Greek thesis was called for, he said, " among a 236 TIIE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. hundred school teachers and school directors selected from the whole of Germany, we shall not find ten who could write such a thesis with even ordinary accuracy." Speaking, again, of a similar occasion, when many of the examiners required skill and elegance in Latin compo- sition of the pupils, he said : " Those who open their mouths the widest in these demands, can not themselves do what they require of others." How eagerly would the editor of the " Educational System " seize upon these admissions of the great Protestant philologist as proof of his own repeated allegations. "It were a difficult task," he says, "to determine the precise position which the study of Latin occupies at the present day. The teachers of the language are themselves with- out a perfect knowledge of it, and how then can they impart what they do not possess ? Verily, the Latin language has suffered a second death among us, and those old worthies, (the Jesuits,) who were gifted with the magical power to raise the dead, have all passed away. Boast not, O short-sighted present age, of thine erudition ; blush rather on account of thy shallowness, and mourn over thy dis- tance and estrangement from the spirit of the classics." In another place he says : " Tell me not that you have mastered the Latin or the Greek languages, when you are unable to speak them. The Jesuits and their pupils were able both to speak these languages and to write them. Many, very many of them wrote hymns and odes, yea, epics in Latin and Greek, as none but a Latin or Greek poet could have done ; so that their productions, if com- pared with the works of Greek and Roman poets, would not be found wanting. The libraries of the Society of Jesus contain works com- posed by Jesuits, such as speeches, histories, epic poems, (Christiads, for example,) both Latin and Greek, which bear the classical stamp, and whose authors rank, both in range and power of expression and in genuine artistic excellence, with Demosthenes and Cicero, with Thucydides, Livy or Tacitus, with Homer and Virgil." Truly, this advocate of the Jesuits, open his mouth wide as he may, to use Wolf's expression, can give us no stronger proof of his own utter lack of high classical culture, than by thus inviting all the world to seat themselves as disciples at the feet of the Jesuits, while ho him- self can not even write good German ! In addition to the languages I find but one other branch of in- struction particularized, and that is given under the name of "erudition.' 9 What this comprehended we can only know approximately by a com- parison of various passages in the " System." In one place we are told " that the pupils by diligence in writing will attain to those THE JESUITS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. 237 honorary grades, whose names, to savor of erudition, have been de- rived from the civil or military polities of Greece or Rome." In an- other, it is enjoined, " in the interval between the examination and the distribution of prizes to employ the pupils in agreeable exercises, such as those which pertain to polymathy or philology, to arithmetic, to orthography, and to every species of erudition.' 1 '' Or, " at this time some questions in polymathy or in the higher erudition should be discussed; or again an exercise in arithmetic may be taken up, com- bined however, with an explanation of the principles involved in the exercise." Further on we find the following : " Erudition is to be gathered by the scholars from the history and the manners of nations, from the opinions of authors, and, in short, from the entire teachings of the school." "At the examinations, the scholars are to be called upon for specimens of the erudition previously laid before them, viz., for fable?, historical incidents, antiquities, responses of oracles, sayings of wise men, examples of strategy, famous deeds, inventions of every sort, customs and institutions of various nations, eminent virtues," etc. But the most varied array of topics comprehended in erudition is the following : " in the holidays, attention may be given to some of the less familiar subjectsjas hieroglyphics, emblems, with questions bear- ing upon the art of poetry, (taken from the Poetics of Aristotle or of Father Jayi,) relating to the epigram, the epitaph, the ode, elegy, epic poetry, and tragedy; the Roman and Athenian senate, the art of war among the ancients, horticulture, dress, the banquet, the triumph, Sybils and other characters of a similar class : add to these, Pytha- gorean symbols, apothegms, proverbs, and parables, etc.; moreover, in- scriptions on shields, temples, and monuments, gardens, statues and the like ; also fables, Roman antiquities, remarkable events, oracles, military stratagems, brilliant achievements, descriptions," etc. From the foregoing quotations, we leave the reader to form his own idea of the nature of this erudition. How much the Jesuits left M7eeii con- victed of the crime of dueling, to pay a fine of three hundred gulden, hoping with the money to found a botanical garden, but (he project failed through the inability of the student to pay VERBAL REALISM. (Translated for the American Journal of Education, from the German of Karl von Raumer.] THUS we perceive that the circle of studies, both at the schools and universities of that period (the sixteenth century, and thereabouts,) was extremely limited, compared with that of the present day. It is abundantly evident, as I have repeatedly remarked, that all the time and energy of youth was devoted to the acquisition and the practice of Latin eloquence. A many-years' course in grammar was submitted to for the sake of correctness of speech, in logic for the sake of precision of thought ; and history was taught in order to fur- nish the material for the display of rhetoric, either in speaking or in writing. Nothing was thought of, but disputations, declamations, and the acting of the plays of Terence. The classics were read merely for the purpose of gleaning from them phrases to be used in constructing Latin sentences; and, provided that an agreeable fullness and cadence was thereby secured to the expression, but little heed was given to the contents. Such we find to have been the spirit of education among the Protestants, equally with the Jesuits ; Trotzen- dorf and Sturm, Wurtembergers and Saxons, agreeing herein with the Jesuit general, Claudius di Aquaviva. Nevertheless, in the more liberal-minded Erasmus, there appeared indications of a rebellion against this universal tendency: with him arose a new type of culture, which may be appropriately styled "verbal realism." This we will now endeavor to analyze, in order in the sequel to distinguish it more clearly from "real realism." Erasmus demanded of the grammarian or philologist (and it would really appear self-evident,) that he should learn many things, without which, he would be in no condition to understand the classics. For instance, he insisted upon a knowledge of geography, arithmetic, and natural science. He did not, however, exact that perfect and full ac- quaintance with these topics possessed by the adept, but only a gen- eral knowledge of them all, which, nevertheless, was a great advance on the profound ignorance which had hitherto been acquiesced in. As in so many other literary aspirations and achievements, Melane- thon, in this matter also, followed in the wake of Erasmus. We have seen that, even while at Tubingen, he did not rest contented with phi- lological pursuits alone, but used every endeavor to acquire universal No. 15. [VoL. V., No. 3.] 42. 268 VERBAL REALISM. knowledge, turning his attention to physics, mathematics, astronomy, history, and medicine, and all his life he remained true to this desire for universal culture. In what spirit he studied all these sciences, especially the natural, he intimates in many places. Thus, in the dedication to his physics, addressed to Meienburg, the Mayor of Nordhausen, he says : " Al- though the nature of things can not be absolutely known, nor the marvelous works of God be traced to their original, until in that future life we shall ourselves listen to the eternal counsel of the Fa- ther, Son, and Holy Spirit, nevertheless, even amid this bur present darkness, every gleam and every hint of the harmony of this fair crea- tion forms a step toward the knowledge of God and toward virtue, whereby we ourselves shall also learn to love and maintain order and moderation in all our own acts. Since it is evident that men are en- dowed by their Creator with faculties fitted for the contemplation of nature, they must, of necessity, take delight in investigating the ele- ments, the laws, the motions, and the qualities or forces of the vari- ous bodies, by which they are surrounded." " The uncertainty which obtains with regard to so much in nature," he says elsewhere, " should not deter us from our search, for it is none the less God's will that we trace out his footsteps in the creation." " Let us prepare ourselves," he continues, " for admission to that enduring and eternal Academy, where all the imperfections of our philosophy shall vanish in the im- mediate presence of the Master-Builder, who there shall Himself show us his own archetype of the world." " Many," he proceeds to say, " will smile at these Aristotelian be- ginnings ; but they are the rudiments of what is destined, one day, to become a perfected philosophy. Were the powers of men on a great- er scale than we find them, still their knowledge must, as now, pro- ceed from small beginnings. In such a plain and simple manner might Adam once have taught his son, Abel, philosophy ; pointing him to the heavens, the stars, the land, the water, teaching him of the times and seasons, and, in all his teachings, directing him up to God the Creator." Further on he admonishes the learner, with an intelligent choice to read the best authors on physics, to avoid all controversy, and to make use of a faultless Latin style. "For," he says, "he who takes pains to weigh his words will form a clear conception of the objects he is describing. Where, on the contrary, a person coins uncouth and strange words, his ideas will be sure to be crude and anomalous ; as in the writings of Scotus and his fellows, you will not merely find the language corrupt, but likewise that vague shadows of truth, or it VERBAL REALISM. 269 may be dreams, have been summoned up, and new words formed to express them." Then he relates how Paul Eber, in connection with himself, has projected the text-book in question, upon the basis of Aristotle. And he adds his caution against the course of those who deem it a mark of genius to make a parade of high-sounding sentiments ; for " the right spirit in the quest of truth consists in the love of truth." Sci- ence must be applied to life. " The church too is benefitted by these physical studies; as, for instance, we have often to speak of the harmony of the creation, so, likewise, of the derangement of this harmony, and the evils which God has visited upon man in conse- quence of the fall." While preparing his psychology, in which he treats of the entire nature of man, he sought an interview with the Nuremberg doctors of medicine, and requested the celebrated Leon- ard Fox to send him communications upon anatomy, temperaments, &c. His enthusiasm for astronomy, he expresses thus, in his preface to John Sacrobusto's book on the sphere. This book he thinks pecu- liarly adapted to schools, " because the author understood how, from the great mass of astronomical facts, to select the simplest and most essential." Then he praises the study of astronomy, and quotes, with commendation, Plato's saying, " that it was to gaze upon the stars that eyes were given to men. For to look at it, the eye itself would seem to bear an affinity to the stars." " And then too, the perdurable har- mony of the starry heavens bespeaks a God. Thus, philosophers, who despised astronomy, were atheists, denying our immortality. The in- terpretation of the Holy Scriptures, and the conduct of life, equally called for a knowledge of astronomy. What would become of men, had they no chronology for the past, no calendar for the present ? Neither the church nor the state could stand without it." And further on, he lauds the Germans, Purbach and Regiomontanus, through whose labors, astronomy, after being in disrepute for centuries, had been again brought into honor. Thus those Epicurean theologians, who scorned and rejected, not astrology alone, but a firmly-based scientific astronomy also, had more need of the physician than the geometer, to be cured of their madness. In the preface to his edition of Ara- tus, addressed to Hieronymus Baumgartner, he says, " the knowledge of nature we must learn from the Greeks ; Aratus throws light upon much in the Latin poets." And against the enemies of mathematics, he bears the following testimony, in a letter to Camerarius, " I can only laugh over your anger that my recommendation of mathematics has been condemned. In it I had no other aim, than to restore to the schools the right use of this science, and to allure vouth to the 270 VERBAL REALISM. study of it. This I have desired, and for this will I labor, so long as any opportunity is left to me to help forward the cause of sound learning." But how ill it must have fared with the mathematics, when, as we have elsewhere cited, the mathematical professor at Wit- temberg, lectured upon simple numbers, or the four primary elements of arithmetic ; this fact, of itself, forms a practical comment on the entire neglect into which arithmetic had fallen in the schools. But much as Melancthon's defense of astronomy and mathematics merits our approval, yet we must not close our eyes to the fact that, he, like so many of his contemporaries, was a firm believer in the su- perstitions of astrology.* In support of this belief, he cites the say- inp- of Aristotle, that "the world is under the dominion of the heav- O * ens." Neither the learned treatise of Picus di Mirandola against as- trology, nor Luther's hearty contempt for it, could ever wean him from this superstition, as is evinced by the practical use he made of it throughout his life. In common with many eminent astronomers of that day, he ad- hered to the Ptolemaic system, and this, although his friend and col- league, Erasmus Reinhold, was among the first to recognize the claims of Copernicus. And truly, what an entire change, both in modes of thought as well as in text-books, was called for by that great work of Copernicus, "On the revolutions of the heavenly bodies;" for it re- quired every work on astronomy to be rewritten, every opinion, and every method of instruction, to be reconsidered. Allusion has already been made, in another part of this work to Luther's earnest and lively recommendation of the study of the "real" sciences, such as history, mathematics, astronomy, and music. But, despite all the expostulations of Erasmus, Melancthon, and Lu- ther, these studies, as we have had occasion to observe, were sadly neglected, both at schools and universities ; nor did they begin to re- ceive a gradually increasing attention until the seventeenth century. But what are " reals," and what is "realism?" These questions are not easy to answer, even after all that we have said in elucidation of them. Our task, however, will be simplified, if we divest our- selves of the views and conceptions obtaining on this subject at the present day, and confine our thoughts to the sixteenth century. The philologist of that period aimed, in the study of the classics, at a two- fold object. In the first place, he applied himself merely to the lan- * He thus writes of his son-in-law, Sabinug : " Sabinus is of a head-strong nature, and will not listen to advice ; this is due to the conjunction of Mars and Saturn, at his nativity, a fact which I ought to have taken into account, when he asked the hand of my daughter." And, because the mathematician, Hassfurt, who cast his nativity when he was a boy, had predicted that peril would befall him front the North Sea, and the Baltic, he declined invitations h>th to Denmark and to England. VERBAL REALISM. 271 guage of ancient authors, grammatically, as be considered its ety- mological and syntactical forms; critically, as he scrutinized the accu- racy of the text; and aesthetically, while he weighed the expression and the rhythm of the prose writer or the meter of the poet. At the same time he read both prose and poetry, with constant reference to a more and more perfect imitation of them, both in speaking and in writing. And, secondly, he applied himself to the contents, whatever they might be, whether they related to war or to peace, to affairs of state, to nature, art, mythology, etc. This study of the contents of an author was afterward styled the study of " reals," to distinguish it from that of language alone. Such was that study upon which Eras- mus and Melancthon laid so much stress ; but it was nevertheless by no means conducted independently of the ancients, being based in great part upon their writings, and then, in turn, used as indispens- able aids in their interpretation. Let the reader imagine himself, on the one hand, regarding solely the language of the classics, and taking their subject into account only where this is required to throw light on the words ; and, on the other hand, penetrating to the subject-matter of an author, and giv- ing no more attention to the phraseology than is absolutely necessary to an understanding of that subject-matter. In this latter case, his ideal will be to convert the language into a perfectly transparent me- dium, and to read the classics without embarrassment, as though Greek or Latin were his mother tongue. Reading the classics out of pure regard for the language, belongs chiefly to the professional philologist. This study of language, in and for itself, might be called pure philology, after the analogy of the pure mathematics. These have to do, for instance, with unknown quantities, with numbers in the absolute, with algebraic formulae. And, as the pure mathematics are applied to astronomy, optics, acous- tics, etc., becoming the handmaid to these sciences, so pure philology ministers to the purposes of the historian, the archaeologist, etc. This contest between " reals " and " verbals," had presented itself, as we have seen, to the minds, both of Erasmus and Melancthon ; but the terms "reals" and "reali^" were not, so far as I can learn, employed by either of them. Nor is this strange, if we consider that they flourished near the period when the term " realism," intro- duced by the scholastics, as contrasted with "nominalism," had a meaning wholly unlike that of the same term in its present accepta- tion. When this term first began to change its original meaning, we may gather from a treatise by the well-known philologist, Taubmann, 272 VERBAL REALISM. which appeared in the year 1614. In this he says, "there is one thing which has often excited my surprise, and that is, if any one devotes unusual care to the acquisition of a graceful and elegant style, young men, and sometimes even the teachers of young men, will call him, by way of derision, philologist, critic, and grammarian, or, in one word, verbalist; but to themselves they arrogate the new name of realists, thereby intimating that their concern is with things alone, while those others, wholly absorbed in language, overlook the matter spoken of." It will be observed that realists are here contrasted, not with hu- manists, but with verbalists. Verba valent sicut nummi. Evidently, then, the realists to whom Taiibmanu alludes, found their advantage in fastening upon their opponents the epithet verbalists; for thereby they branded them as dealers in words, who pursued the shadow and lost the substance. In our day, however, the tables are turned, since the verbalists have assumed the new title of humanists, and, by so do- ing, have given the realists, in no vague manner, to understand that they count them for barbarians, and, as such, destitute of all enno- bling culture. " But," my readers may ask, " what is to be understood by the ex- pression ' verbal realism ? ' Is it not a contradiction in terms ? " Ap- parently it is ; yet we shall see, in the sequel, that besides the general distinction between " verbals " and " reals," there also subsists a two- fold division of realism itself; viz., into verbal and real. Some in- dications of this latter division we have already met, in the close of our sketch of the earlier universities. Here, for instance, astronomy was taught without an observatory, anatomy without dissections, bota- ny without herbals, natural philosophy without experiments, all from books, Aristotle, Pliny, Aratus, Galen, etc., and this knowledge was then made use of in turn for the elucidation of the same books from whence it was drawn. Such was " verbal realism " in those times, and such is it likewise in our day ! The meaning that we at- tach, on the other hand, to the phrase " real realism," will appear more clearly in the light of the succeeding chapter upon Lord Bacon. LORD BACON, HIS PHILOSOPHY, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON EDUCATION. (Translated from the German of Von Raumer, for the American Journal of Education.) FRANCIS BACON was born at London, on the 22d of January, 1561. His father, Nicholas Bacon, was Lord Keeper of the Seal, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; his mother, whose maiden name was Anna Cook, was a pious and highly intellectual lady, well versed both in the Greek and Latin classics. When quite young, Bacon displayed such a mature judgment, that Queen Elizabeth, who took great pleas- ure in conversing with him, addressed him as her little Keeper of the Seal. When not quite sixteen years of age, he was placed at Trinity College, Cambridge. His principal instructor there was John Whit- gift, a doctor of theology, and afterward Archbishop of Canterbury. While at Cambridge, he bestowed diligent study upon Aristotle, but with all his regard for him, he conceived a distaste for his doctrines ; and, even from this early period, we may date the commencement of his warfare against scholasticism. After he had completed his education at the university, his father, wishing to initiate him in politics, commended him to the charge of Paulett, English ambassador at the Court of France. During Ba- con's residence at Paris, his father died, leaving but a moderate prop- erty to be divided between himself and his four brothers. In after years, his brother Anthony bequeathed him an independent fortune. On his return to England, he applied himself with ardor to the study of law, and was soon chosen councilor by Elizabeth ; but she did not advance him to any higher post of honor. This was re- served for James I., who made him Lord High Chancellor, with the titles of Verulam and Vice-Count St. Albans. He married the daughter of a wealthy London alderman, whose name was Burnham, by whom, however, he had no issue. Six years before his death, he was deposed from his office. And that he had been guilty of misdemeanor therein, is, alas ! but too evident. He was convicted of having used his high judicial function in the service of bribery, and James I. could do no more than miti- gate the sentence that was pronounced against him, nor could he 2Y4 LORD BACON. ever afterward recover the influence that he had lost, though he sought it with the most fulsome flatteries. It is truly painful to see a man of such commanding talents sink into such depths of moral degradation. It would appear, in some instances, as if an over-exertion of the intellectual powers operated to the injury of the moral nature ; since constant mental labor leaves no time for self-consecration and self-conquest, yea, in the end, destroys all power and capacity therefor, so much does such labor engross the whole man. But the closing years of Bacon's life redounded to the inestimable advantage of science ; for he gave his undivided attention to it, after his removal from the service of the state. lie died on the 9th of April, 1626, in the 66th year of his age, having lived to be three years older than Shakspeare, whom he sur- vived ten years. Seldom have two such eminent men lived at the same time, and in the same place, men of such vast, and yet oppo- site endowments. It would almost appear that, in Bacon, the genius of prose, in Shakspeare, of poetry, came into the world in person : in one, an understanding, the highest, clearest, most searching, and me- thodical ; and, in the other, an imagination of unbounded creative capacity. The poet, it is true, manifested a keen intellectual insight, together with a wonderfully comprehensive knowledge of human na- ture ; but we can hardly concede to Bacon much of that sense of beauty which is so marked an attribute of the poet. Both of them, however, were alike in achieving superior fame by the exercise of their understanding, and in suffering the glory of that fame to be tarnished by the abuse of their imagination. How far justice was meted out to Bacon, we shall be better able to judge in the sequel. A third great genius, born in the same decade with Shakspeare and Bacon (1571,) deserves mention here, as ranking with the mightiest minds that the world ever produced ; I refer to Kepler. But what a remarkable contrast does the mutual non-intercourse of these three giant spirits present to the warm and living fellowship that subsisted between Luther and Melancthon. It is as though they had not known of each other's existence. Bacon, notwithstanding the uni- versality of his writings, has no where made mention of Shakspeare ; he treats of dramatic poetry, but utters not a syllable in regard to the greatest dramatist " that ever lived in the tide of times," although this one was even his fellow-citizen. So, likewise, Bacon treats often of astronomy, and introduces Copernicus and Galileo, but Kepler never. And yet, Kepler must have been known to him, for, in the year 1618, he dedicated his great work, "Hurmonice Mundi? to the LORD DACON. 075 self-same King James whom Bacon revered as his great patron, and, in many of his own dedications, had styled a second Solomon. Bacon's works have appeared in repeated editions, both in separate treatises and in a collected form. Many of them have no bearing upon our present inquiry ; such, for instance, as the "Political Speeches" the "Essays, Civil and Moral" the "History of the Reign of Henry VII" etc. On the contrary, his philosophical works proper are of the utmost value in their relation to the science of ed- ucation, although, on a cursory glance, it may not appear so. What Bacon advanced directly on this subject, is comparatively unimport- ant; but the indirect influence which, as the founder of the inductive method of philosophizing upon nature, or " real realism" as I have elsewhere styled it, he exerted upon education, this, though we are unable always to analyze it, is nevertheless invaluable. The reader will therefore follow me without surprise, if, in the succeeding pages, I shall appear to have lost sight for a time, of the purely educational element. Bacon has himself given us a sketch of the great philosophical work, which he designed to write, and parts of which he completed. The work was called "Instauratio Magna" and it was divided into six parts. The first part was an encyclopedia of all human learning, whether ancient or modern. In this he purposed, especially, to point out deficiencies, and suggest new subjects of inquiry. This part we have ; it is the "De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum,'" is in nine books, and is the best known of all his works. Some portions of it are completely elaborated ; others consist of a more or less thor- oughly meditated plan. The second part of the "Instauratio May- )ia," Bacon published under the title of "Novum Organum, Sive judicia vera de interpretation Naturae." He worked upon this part for many years; at his death, there were found twelve different elab- orations of it. It is a collection of great thoughts, remarkable for their depth, their freshness, and the extreme nicety with which they are adjusted, the one to the other, and all are intelligibly expressed in aphorisms, whose every word we feel has been carefully weighed. The third part of the "Instauratio Magna.^ was designed to pre- sent a collection of the facts of natural history, and experimental phi- losophy, or " Phenomena universi :" some portions of this were com- pleted. In the fourth part, or " Scala intellectus" Bacon gives special applications of his philosophy in examples of the correct method of investigating nature. The fifth, or " Anticipationes philosophies secun- c?," was to be a sketch of the preparations of preceding ages for the final introduction of the new philosophy ; while the sixth was to em- 276 LORD BACON. body the new philosophy, in all its completeness and grandeur. This crowning part of the whole work Bacon left wholly untouched. We shall confine our attention, at the present time, however, chiefly to the two first and completest divisions of this great work, viz., to the "De augmentis scientiarum" and the "Novum Organum" But, in order to judge Bacon aright, we must first east a glance at the in- tellectual character, not only of the age in which he lived, but of the centuries just preceding. We have seen that, in those centuries, supreme homage was paid to the word alone in all books, in disputations and declamations, and that thinking men displayed neither sense nor feeling for any thing but language, deriving from this, and basing upon this, all their knowledge. Every avenue to nature, to a direct and independent in- vestigation of the external world, was closed. That gifted monk, Roger Bacon, a most worthy predecessor of Lord Bacon, was, in the middle ages, regarded as a magician ; and, as a magician, suffered per- secution, because he was not content to view nature through the eyes of Aristotle, choosing rather to go himself to the fountain-head and converse with her, face to face. He maintained that men ought not to be satisfied with traditional and accepted knowledge. Reason and experience were the two sources of science ; but experience alone was the parent of a well-grounded certainty, and this true empiricism had hitherto been wholly neglected by most scholars. That Roger Bacon did not speak of experimental knowledge, as a blind man would dis- course of colors, is proved by some remarkable expressions of his, an- ticipatory and unambiguous, upon spectacles, telescopes, and gun- powder. But Roger stood alone in that age of the world, like a solitary preacher in the desert; and hence it was that he was re- garded with wonder, as a magician, and persecuted. But that which showed in Roger Bacon as mere anticipation, and obscure prophecy, appeared, after the' lapse of three hundred years, full-formed and clear in Francis Bacon. Even as Luther came forth to strip off the thick veil of human traditions, that had been woven over the revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures, distorting its fea- tures, concealing it, and even burying it in oblivion, for multitudes of his fellow men, so did Bacon make war upon the traditions and pos- tulates of men, which had quite darkened over the revelation of God, in the material world. He wished men no longer to put their faith in arbitrary and fanciful glosses upon this revelation, but to go them- selves directly to its living record. He saw, moreover, that the more sagacious intellects of his time were wholly divorced from nature, and wedded to books alone ; their LORD BACON. 277 energies all expended upon words, and belittled by the endless hair- splitting subtleties of logic. He perceived that the physical philoso- phy current among his contemporaries, was gathered from Aristotle, or his disciples ; and that it no where rested upon the solid basis of nature. Men read in books what authors said concerning stones, plants, animals, and the like; but to inspect these stones, plants, and animals, with their own eyes, was far enough from their thoughts. And hence were they compelled to defer to the authority of these authors, whether they would or no, because they cherished not the remotest idea of subjecting these descriptions and recitals to the test of actual experiment. Consider, too, that such test was the more needed, since these very authors had, mostly themselves, received their information even from third or fourth hands. We are amazed when we read the farrago of incredible and impossible stories, in which the books of natural history, especially those of the middle ages, abounded ; when we contemplate, for example, the monsters to which we are introduced in the zoologies of this period, or the marvelous virtues which were foolishly claimed for various stones, &c. And even if these books, thus treating of nature, did contain many things that were true, yet it was manifest, that progress in natural science was not to be hoped for, so long as men remained satisfied with their teachings. And how, I ask, could men have been otherwise than satisfied, when they appeared not even to realize the existence of na- ture, the mighty fountain-head of all authorities. Now, from this unworthy and slavish homage and deference to au- thors, authors too, mostly, with no title to confidence-, Bacon purposed to recall men, by inviting them to a direct communion with the crea- tion around them, and by pointing them to those eternal truths, whose obligation they were bound humbly to acknowledge, and yet whose claims would never tarnish their honor. For an implicit obedience to nature is attended with a double re- ward, viz., an understanding of her processes and dominion over her. " Forsooth," he says, " we suffer the penalty of our first parents' sin, and yet follow in their footsteps. They desired to be like God, and we, their posterity, would be so in a higher degree. For we create worlds, direct and control nature, and, in short, square all things by the measure of our own folly, not by the plummet of divine wisdom, nor as we find them in reality. I know not whether, for this result, we are forced to do violence to nature or to our own intelligence the most ; but it nevertheless remains true, that we stamp the seal of our own image upon the creatures and the works of God, instead of care- fully searching for, and acknowledging, the seal of the Creator, mani- 6 278 LORD BACON. fest in them. Therefore have we lost, the second time, and that de- servedly, our empire over the creature ; yea, when, after and notwith- standing the fall, there was left to us some title to dominion over the unwilling creatures, so that they could be subjected and controlled, even this we have lost, in great part, through .our pride, in that we have desired to be like God, and to follow the dictates of our own reason alone. Now then, if there be any humility in the presence of the Creator, if there be any reverence for, and exaltation of, his handiwork, if there be any charity toward men, any desire to relieve the woes and sufferings of humanity, any love for the light of truth, any hatred toward the darkness of error, I would beseech men, again and again, to dismiss altogether, or at least for a moment to put away, their absurd and intractable theories, which give to assump- tions the dignity of hypotheses, dispense with experiment, and turn them away from the works of God. Then let them with teachable spirit approach the great volume of the creation, patiently decipher its secret characters, and converse with its lofty truths ; so shall they leave behind the delusive echoes of prejudice, and dwell within the perpetual outgoings of divine wisdom. This is that speech, and lan- guage, whose lines have gone out into all the earth ; and no confu- sion of tongues has ever befallen it. This language we should all strive to understand ; first condescending, like little children, to master its alphabet.' "Our concern is not," he says in another place, "with the inward delights of contemplation alone, but with all human affairs and fortunes, yea, with the whole range of man's activity. For man, the servant and interpreter of nature, obtains an intelligent do- minion over her, only in so far as he learns her goings on by experi- ment or observation ; more than this, he neither knows, nor can he do. For his utmost power is inadequate to loosen or to break the established sequence of causes ; nor is it possible for him to subjugate nature, except as he submits to her bidding. Hence, the twin desires of man for knowledge, and for power, coincide in one ; and therefore the ill-success of his operations springs mainly from his ignorance of their essential causes." " This, then," he continues, " is the substance of the whole matter, that we should fix the eyes of our mind upon things themselves, and thereby form a true conception of them. And may God keep us from the great folly of counting the visions of our own fancy for the types of his creation ; nay, rather may he grant us the privilege of tracing the revelation and true vision of that seal and impress which he himself has stamped upon his creatures." In another place Bacon entreats men " for a little space to abjure all traditional and inherited LORD BACON. 279 views and notions, and to come as new-born children, with open and unworn sense, to the observation of nature. For it is no less true in this human kingdom of knowledge than in God's kingdom of heaven, that no man shall enter into it except be become first as a little child ! " Man must put himself again in direct, close, and personal contact with nature, and no longer trust to the confused, uncertain, and arbitrary accounts and descriptions of her historians and would-be interpreters. From a clear and correct observation and perception of objects, their qualities, powers, etc., the investigator must proceed, step by step, till he arrives at axioms, and at that degree of insight, that will enable him to interpret the laws, and analyze the processes of nature. To this end, Bacon proffers to us his new method, viz., the method of in- duction. With the aid of this method, we attain to an insight into the connection and mutual relation of the laws of matter, and thus, according to him, we are enabled, through this knowledge, to make nature subservient to our will. " Natural philosophy," he says in another place, " is either specula- tive or operative ; the one is concerned with the invention of causes, the other with the invention of new experiments. Again, speculative natural philosophy, or theory, is divided into Physic and Metaphysic. Natural history describes the variety of things; Physic, the causes, but variable or respective causes. As, for instance, it seeks to know why snow is white ; but Metaphysic inquires after the true nature of white- ness, not only as it finds this quality in snow, but also in chalk, silver, lilies, Fourth Class, B. II. J Sum of the hours in the seven upper classes. Fifth Class, A. K | S 5 8 3 3 2 2 4 | B '. m 10 2 6 2 2 6 i c i 10 2 6 8 Proportion of other studies to German in the CO H 71 1 5 if s . n* B !? il C ?* 12 il Lltin 4 4 2 3 2 6 3 2 2 3 2 2 1 4 S 3 2 6 2 2 2 3 2 4 4 4 2 3 2 5 2 2 2 3 2 3 5 S 4 2 6 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 6 3 3 2 7 3 2 2 2 2 5 4 4 2 6 3 2 2 2 2 6 4 4 2 4 3 2 2 2 S 28 22 6 20 12 35 9 8 8 9 15 12 4 15 4 s 2 4 2 2 4 1.4 1.1 0.3 1.0 0.6 1.7 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.7 0.6 0.2 0.7 2.9 0.7 0.8 0.6 1.1 O.lt 0.2f 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.6 3 0.9 1.0 0.8 1.6 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.7 0.4 0.3 0.6 French German Religion. Mathematics,* .... Natural History, . . Physics, Chemistry, GeoerraDhv. . History, Drawing . , Writing, Sin< r ino p . . . Total, 36 ;5c, 35 35 ::-,> 32 32 J -Jf, -,'r, 26 Pupils who enter this school between five and seven years of age, and go regu- larly through the elementary classes, are prepared at ten to pass to its higher classes, or to enter the lowest of the gymnasium. It is thus after the fifth class that a comparison of the two institutions must begin. The studies of the real sch(K)l proper, and of the gymnasium, have exactly the same elementary basis, and they remain so far parallel to each other that a pupil, by taking extra instruc- tion in Greek, may pass from the lower third class of the former to the lower third of the' latter. This fact alone is sufficient to show that the real schools must be institutions for secondary instruction, since the pupils have yet three classes to pass through after reaching the point just referred to. It serves also to separate the real schools from the higher burgher schools, since the extreme limit of the courses of the latter, with the same assistance in regard to Greek, only enables thj pupil to reach the lower third class of the gymnasium. In general, a pupil would terminate his studies in the real school at between sixteen and eighteen years of age. The difference between the subjects of instruction in the real school and the Frederick William gymnasium, consists in the omission in the former of Greek, Hebrew, and philosophy, and the introduction of English and chemistry. The relative proportions of time occupied in the same subjects in the two schools, will be seen by comparing the two columns next on the right of the niiiiiliiTs for the seventh class, in the table just given. The first of these columns contains the proportion of the number of hours per week devoted to the different subjects in the six classes of the real school above the elementary, the number of hours devoted to the German being taken as unity ; and the second, the same proportion for six classes of the gymnasium, beginning with the lowest, the same lumber of hours being taken as the unit, as in the preceding column. To bring the natural history and physics into comparison, I have taken the numbers for the Including arithmetic. Ri-omeiry. algebra, ami trigonometry, t TlieHf numbers include the t Wire course. ROYAL REAL SCHOOL OF BERLIN. 30? upper classes of the gymnasium in which these branches are taught. Of the courses common to the two schools, those to which nearly equal attention if paid in both institutions, are the religious instruction, the German, geography and history, writing, and vocal music. The French, mathematics, physics, and nat- ural history, predominate in the real school, the Latin in the gymnasium. The effect of reckoning the first, second, and upper third classes of the gymnasium, docs not materially change the proportionate numbers of the eours** which are common to the two schools, except as to Latin and mathematics. To show this, the column on the extreme right of the table is introduced, containing the pro- portions for all the nine classes of the Frederick William gymnasium. There were, in 1838, five hundred and ten pupils in this real school, under the charge of fourteen regular or class masters, teaching several subjects in the lower classes, and of six other teachers. Each of the eleven class divisions thus aver- ages about forty-six, who are under the cliarge of one teacher at a time. The elementary course in the real school is similar to that described in the burgher schools, beginning with the phonic method of reading, the explanations of all the words and sentences being required at the same time that the mechani- cal part of reading is learned. Written and mental arithmetic are taught together in the lowest class. The religious instruction consists of Bible stories adapted to their age ; and verses are committed to improve the memory of words. The ex- ercises of induction are practiced, but in a way not equal to that with objects, introduced by Dr. Mayo in England. Some of the pupils are able to enter the gymnasium after going through the two lowest classes. In regard to the real classes proper, as I propose to enter into the particulars of the course of study of the trade school, I shall here merely make a few remarks upon two of the branches studied in them, namely, French and drawing. The remarks in regard to the French will serve to show how great a latitude a teacher is allowed in the arrangement of his methods, the result of which is, that those who have talent are interested in improving their art by observation and experiment. The French teacher to whom I allude had been able to secure the speaking, as well as the reading, of French from his pupils. From the very beginning of the course this had been a point attended to, and translation from French into German had been accompanied by that from German into French : the conversation on the business of the class-room was in French. The pupils were exercised especially in the idioms of the language in short extempore sen- tences, and the differences of structure of the French and their own language were often brought before them, and the difficulties resulting from them antici- pated. Difficult words and sentences were noted by the pupils. Declamation was practiced to encourage a habit of distinct and deliberate speaking, and to secure a correct pronunciation. The chief burthen of the instruction was oral. Without the stimulus of change of places, the classes under this gentleman's in- struction were entirely alive to the instruction, and apparently earnestly engaged in the performance of a duty which interested them. If such methods should fail in communicating a greater amount of knowledge than less lively ones, which I belive can not be the case, they will serve, at least, to break down habits of in- tellectual sloth to promote mental activity, the great aim of intellectual education. The drawing department of this school is superintended by a teacher who has introduced a new method of instruction, particularly adapted to the purpose for which drawing is to be applied in common life and in the arts ; a method which is found to enable a much larger proportion of the pupils to make adequate pro- gress than the ordinary one of copying from drawings.* In this method the pupil begins by drawing from simple geometrical forms, those selected being obtained from models in wood or plaster, of a square pillar,t a niche, and a low cylinder, (the form of a mill-stone.) The square pillar separates in joints, affording a cube and parallelepipeds of different heights. The hemisphere which caps the niche may be removed, leaving the concave surface of its cylindrical part. The exer- cises of the pupil ran thus : First, to place upon a board, or upon his paper or * Mr. Peter Schmidt, who now. in his old age. lias received from the government a pension in n turn for the introduction of his method, and the instruction in it of a certain number of teachers. * Seven and a half inches high, and one inch and a hall in .... . _-re section. 308 CITY TRADE SCHOOL. slate, a point vertically nbove another, or so that the linos joining the two shall be parallel to the right or left hand edge of the board, paper, or slate. Second, to join them. Third, to place a point horizontally from the second, and at a dis- tance equal to that between the first and second points. Fourth, to place one vertically over the third, and at a distance equal to that below the first, and to join the "third and fourth. The first and fourth being then joined, a square is fornied. After practice in this, the simple elevation of the cube is drawn. Next, a perspective, by the use of a small frame and silk threads, such as is common in teaching the elements of this subject, and by means of which the pupil acquires readily a knowledge of the practice. The drawing of lines in various positions, and with various proportions, terminates this division of the subject. The niche and cylinder afford a similarly graduated series of lessons on the drawing of curved lines, and the drawing of lines of different degrees of strength and of shadows is introduced. This is accompanied with some of the more simple rules of shadow and shade. More difficult exercises of perspective follow from natural object* and from works of art or mechanism, according to the direction to the pupil's at- tainments and the amount of taste which he displays. This method of teaching has been introduced quite generally in Prussia, and with the best results as to the formation of accuracy of eye and of hand. C1TT TRADE SCHOOL. The City Trade School was founded to give a more appropriate education for the mechanic arts and higher trades than can be had through the courses of clas- sical schools. It is a great point gained, when the principal is admitted that dif- ferent kinds of education are suited to different objects in life ; and snch an ad- mission belongs to an advanced stage of education. As a consequence of a gen- eral sentiment of this kind, numerous schools for the appropriate instruction of those not intended for the learned professions grow up by the side of the others. The city of Berlin is the patron of the trade school which I am about to notice, as the king is of the real school already spoken of. Its stability is thus secured, but the means of furnishing it with the necessary materials for instruction are liberally provided.* The trade school is a day school, and consists of five classes, of which the lowest is on the same grade as to age and qualification at admission, as the fourth class of a gymnasium. It is assumed that at twelve years of age it will have been decided whether a youth is to enter one of the learned professions, or to follow a mechanical employment, or to engage in trade, but the higher classes are not closed against pupils.- Of the five classes, four are considered necessary for certain pursuits and the whole five for others ; the courses of all but the first class last one year, that of the first, two years, a youth leaving the school at from 1 6 to 17 or 18 years of age, according to circumstances. During the year 1836-7, the number of pupils in the several classes were, in the first class, eleven ; in the second, twenty-nine ; in the upper third, forty-three; in the lower third, fifty- two ; in the fourth, fifty ; total, one hundred and eighty-five ; from which num- bers it appears that a considerable proportion of the pupils leave the school without entering the first class. The numberof teachers is nineteen, five being regular or class teachers, and fourteen assistants. The director gives instruction. The following list of the callings to which pupils from this school have gone on leaving it, will show that it is really what it professes to be, a school for the in- struction of those who intend to follow occupations connected with " commerce, the useful arts, higher trades, building, mining, forestry, agriculture, and military life ;" and further, that its advantages are appreciated by the class for whom it is intended. The list includes the pupils who have left the school from the first and second classes, in the years 1830, 1832, 1833 and 1837. From the first class, two teachers, five architects, one chemist, twenty-six merchants, one machinest, two calico-printers, two glass-workers, one cloth manufacturer, one silk manufacturer, one miner, thirteen agriculturalists, eight apothecaries, two gardeners, one painter, one mason, one carpenter, one tanner, one miller, one baker, one potter, one addler, one soap-boiler, one cabinet-maker, two soldiers, one musician, five to The present director of r>'- ~-hool. Mr. Kloden, tras formryly director of the hither burgher school at Puisuam, ana i* one of the mod distinguished teachers in his line in Persia CITY TRADE SCHOOL IN BERLIN. 309 public offices, one to the trade institution, six to gymnasium. From the second class, forty-one merchants, one teacher, one chemist, ope machines!, one ship-car- penter, nine agriculturist, one sugar-refiner, three dyers, one tanner, one brewer, two distillers, one miner, two lithographers, one dye-sinker, three apothecaries, one dentist, two painters, two gardeners, three masons, five carpenters, one miller, four bakers, one butcher, one to the trade institution, three to public offices, two to a gymnasium, one musician, one veterinary surgeon, one soldier, being ninety from the first class, and ninety-seven from the second, in the period of four years. In the course of instruction, the sciences and kindred branches are mode the basis, and the modern languages are employed as auxiliaries, the ancient languages being entirely omitted. The subjects embraced in it are religious instruction, German, French, English, geography, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, technology, natural history, writing, drawing, and vocal music. The courses are fully laid down in the following list, beginning with the studies of the lowest or fourth class. FOURTH CLASS. Religious Instruction* The gospel according to St. Luke, and the Acts of the Apostle* explained, with a catechetical development of the truths of religion and ethical applications. Two hours per week. German. Grammatical exercises in writing. Recital of poetical pieces. French. Grammatical exercises. Regular ami irregular verbs. Reading from Lauren'* Reader. One hour of conversation. Four hours. Arithmetic. Mental and written, including proportions and fractions, with the theory of the operations. Four hours. Geometry. Introductory course of forms. Two hours. Geography. Elementary, mathematical, and physical geography. Two hours. Natural History. In the summer term, elements of botany, with excursions. In the win- ter. the external characters of animals. Two hours. Physic*. Introductory instruction. General properties of bodies. Forms of crystals, specific gravity. Ac. Two hours. Writing. Two hours. Drawing. Outline drawingand shadows, from models and copy-boards. Two hours. usic. Two hours. LOWER THIRD CLASS. Religiout Instruction. The Acts of the A post lee and the Epistles read and explained. Two hours. German. Grammar with special reference to orthography and etymology. Written exer- cises upon narrations made by the teacher. Delivery of poetical pieces. Four hours. French. Translation from French into German from Gredkrke's Chrertomathy. Grammar ; irregular verbs. Extemporalia, and translations from German into French. Fourhowrs. Arithmetic. Partly abstract, partly practical, from Diesterweg's Instructor. Four hours. Geometry. Determination of angles in triangles and polygons. Equality of triangles. Dependanre of angles and sides of triangles. Constructions. Three hours. Geography. Physical description of the parts of the earth, except Europe. Two hours. Natural Hittory. Mineralogy. In summer, botany, the class making excursions for prac- tical exercise. Man. Three hours. Physics. General properties of bodies and solids in particular. Doctrines of heat and their application to natural phenomena and the arts. Two hours. Chemistry. Introduction. Atmospheric air. Experimental illustrations of chemistry, applied to the arts. Two hours. Writing. Two hours. Architectural and topographical draining. Two hours. Drateing by hand lor those who do not take part in the other. Two hours. Vocal Music. Two hours. CPPER THIRD CLASS. Religiout Instruction. Christian morals, from Luther's Catechism. Two hours. German. Simple and complex sentences. Compositions on special subjects. Poems e- Attained and committed. Four hours. French. Translation from Gredicke's Chrestomathy, oral and in writing. Written trans- lations from Beauvais' Introduction, from German into French. Grammar, examples treated extempore. Four hours. Arithmetic. Properties of numbers. Powers. Roots. Decimal fractions Practical Arithmetic from Diesterweg. Four hours. Geometry. Similar figures. Geometrical proportion. Exercises. Mensuration of rectili- near figures. Three hours. Geography. Physical geography of Europe, and in particular of Germany and Prussia. Two hours. Natural Hittory. Continuation of the mineralogy of the lower third claw. Review in outline of znnlogy and the natural history of man in particular. Botany, with excursions ta summer. Three hours. * Roman Catholic pupils are not required to take part in this instruction, which is comnm- nicaltd by a Protestant clergyman. 310 CITY TRADE SCHOOL IN BERLIN. Phusict. Electricity and magnetism, w it n experiments. Two hours. Chemistry. Water and non-metallic bodies, with experiments. Two hours. Writing Two hours. Architectural and topographical drawing. Two hours. Some of the pupils during this time are engaged in ornamental drawing. Vocal Music. Two hours. SECOND CI.A8S. Rrligious Instruction. Explanation of the first three gospels. History of the Christian religion and church to the reformation. Two hours. Grrman. Correction of exercises written at home, upon subjects assigned by the teacher. Oral and written exercises. Introduction to the history of German poetry Three hours. French. Grammar; externporalia for the application of the rules. Written and oral translations from German into French, from Beauvais' Manual, and vice versa, from Ideler and Node's Manual. Four hours. English Exercises in reading and speaking. Translation into German, from Burkhardt. Dictation. Verbs. Two hours. Arithmetic. Commercial Arithmetic. Algebra, to include simple and quadratic equa- tions. Logarithms. Three hours. Geometry. Circles. Analytical and plane trigonometry. Three hours. Gtigraphy. The states of Europe, with special reference to their population, manufac- tures and commerce. Two hours. History. Principal events of the history of the middle ages and of later times, as an Intro- diiri jcni to recent history. One hour. Natural History. Mineralogy. Physiology of plants. Three hours. Chemistry. Metallic bodies and their compounds, with experiments. Three hours. Architectural, topographical, and plain drawing. Drawing with instruments. Introduc- tion to India ink drawing. Beginning of the science of constructions. Two hours. Druwing. From copies, and from plaster and other models. Two hours. This kind of drawing may be learned instead of the above. I'ucal Music. Two hours. FIRST CLASS. Religious Instruction. History of the Christian religion and church continued. Refer- ences to the bible. One nour. German. History of German literature to recent times. Essays. Exercises of delivery. Three hours. French. Reading from the manual of Bnchner and Hermunn, with abstracts. Classic authors read. Review of Grammar. Exercises at home, and externporalia. Free delivery. Correction of exercises. Four hours. English. Syntax, with written and extempore exercises from Burkhardt. Reading of classic authors. Writing of letters. Exercises in speaking. Arithmetic. Algebra. Simple and quadratic equations. Binomial and polynomial theo- rems Higher equations. Commercial arthmetic continued. Three hours. Geometry. Plane trigonometry and its applications. Conic sections. Descriptive Geome- try. Three hours. 'His'ory. History of the middle ages. Modern history, with special reference to the prog- ress of civilization, of inventions, discoveries, and of commerce and industry. Three hours. Natural History. In summer, botany, the principal families, according to the natural sys- tem. In winter, zoology. The pupils are taken, for the purpose of examining specimens to thf Royal Museum. Phi/tics. In summer, optics with experiments. In winter the system of the world. Three hours. Technology. Chemical and mechanical arts and trades, described and illustrated by mo- dels Excursions to visit the principal workshops. Four hours. Architectural and machine drawing. Two hours. Those pupils who do not take part in this, receive lessons in ornamental drawing from plaster models. Vocal Music. Two hours. The pupils of this class are, besides, engaged in manipulating in the laboratory of the insti- tion several hours each week. The courses require a good collection of apparatus and specimens to carry thorn out, and this school is, in fact, better furnished than any other of its grade which I saw in Prussia, besides which, its collections are on the increase. The facilities for the courses are furnished by a collection of mathematical and physical apparatus, a labratory, with a tolerably complete chemical apparatus and series of tests, a collection of specimens of the arts and manufactures (or technological col- lection,) a collection of dried plants, and of engravings for the botanical course, an J a small garden for the same use, a collection of minerals, a collection of insects, n collection in comparative anatomy, a series of engravings for the drawing course, and of plaster models, a set of maps, and other apparatus for geography, some as- tronomical instruments, and a library. The pupils are taken from time to time, to the admirable museum attached to the university of Berlin, for the examination of zoological speeimens especially. That this school is as a preparation for the higher occupations, and for profcK- rons not ranking among the learned, the equivalent of the gymnasium is clearly shown by the subject* and scope of its courses, and by the age of its pupils. CITY TRADE SCHOOL IN BERLIN 311 Some of these occupations require no higher instruction, others that the pupils shall pass to the special schools introductory to them. So also, many of the pupils of the gymnasia pass at once into active life, others enter the university. The class of schools to which the two last described belong, are most important in their influence. In many countries, an elementary education is the limit beyond which those intending to enter the lower grades of the occupations enumerated in connection with the City Trade School of Berlin, do not pass ; and if they are in- dined to have a better education, or if intending to embrace a higher occupation, they desire to be better instructed, they must seek instruction in the classical schools. The training of these schools is, however, essentially different from that required by the tradesman and mechanic, the verbal character of the instruction is not calculated to produce the habits of mind in which he should be brought up, and the knowledge which is made the basis of mental training is not that which lie lias chiefly occasion to use. Besides, were the course ever so well adapted to his object, the time at which he must leave school only permits him to follow a part of it, and he is exposed to the serious evils which must flow from being, as it were, but half taught. In fact, however, he requires a very different school, one in which the subjects of instruction are adapted to his destination, while they give him an adequate in- tellectual culture ; where the character of the instruction will train him to the habits which must, in a very considerable degree, determine his future usefulness ; and where the course which he pursues will be thorough, as far as it goes, and will have reached before he leaves the school the standard at which it aims. Such establishments are furnished by the real schools of Germany, and as the wants which gave rise to them there, are strongly felt every where, this class of institu- tions must spread extensively. In Germany they are, as has been seen, no new experiment, but have stood the test of experience, and with various modifications to adapt them to differences of circumstances or of views in education, they are spreading in that country. As they become more diffused, and have employed a greater number of minds in their organization t their plans will no doubt be more fully developed. It is certainly highly creditable to Germany that its " gymnasia." on the one hand, and its ''real schools" on the other, offer such excellent models of secondary instruction in its two departments. The toleration which allows these dissimilar establishments to grow up side by side, admitting that each, though good for its object, is not a substitute for the other, belongs to an enlightened state of senti- ment in regard to education, and is worthy of the highest commendation. DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES IX THE CITY TRADE SCHOOL OF BERLIN. xo. c F HOCKI PI WI tk. UBJICTS or ixrraccnox. Pint CUu. Second Clui. Upper ThW CllM. Lower Third CUM. Fourth CUss. ToUL Religion, 1 2 2 2 2 9 German, 3 3 4 4 4 18 4 4 4 4 4 20 2 2 4 Arithmetic 3 3 4 4 4 18 3 3 3 3 2 14 2 2 2 2 8 3 1 4 Xatural History, 2 3 3 3 2 13 3 2 2 2 9 3 2 2 7 Technology 4 4 2 2 o 6 4 4 2 2 2 14 2 2 2 2 2 10 Total, 34 32 32 32 28 gj2 INSTITUTE OF ARTS OF BERLIN. In Prussia, every trade in which a want of skill may jeopard human life, is regulated by law; and before its exercise can be commenced, a license is required, to obtain which an examination must, be passed. This requisition of the law is considered to involve a reciprocal obliga- tion on the part of the government to afford the opportunity of obtain- ing the necessary knowledge, and schools have accordingly been estab- lished for the purpose. Twenty of the regencies of the kingdom already have technical schools established in then), where instruction is. in gert- eral, given at the expense of the state, or province, or for a very trifling remuneration; and it is the intention that each regency shall have at least one such school within its limits. When there is a burgher school in the place intended as the locality for one of these technical schools, the two schools are connected as already described : at Potsdam, the special technical course alone being given in a separate department. In all cases the government supplies the apparatus for the courses ol mechanics, physics, and chemistry ; furnishes the requisite engravings for the courses of drawing; and supplies works for the library and for instruction. The most promising pupils from the provincial schools usually find places at the central Institute at Berlin, which is in fact the university of arts. There is a special school for ship-builders at Stettin, in Pomerania. INSTITUTE JPF ARTS OF BERLIN. Tliis institution is intended to impart the theoretical knowledge essential to im provement in the arts, and such practical knowledge as can be acquired to advan- tage in a school. It is supported by the government, and has also a legacy, to be expended in bursaries at the school, from Baron Von Seydlitz. The institution is under the charge of a director,* who has the entire control of the funds, of the admissions and dismissions, and the superintendence of the instruction. The pro- fessors and pupils do not reside in the establishment, so that the superintendence is confined to study hours. There are assistant professors, who prepare the lec- tures, and conduct a part of the exercises, in some cases reviewing the lessons of the professors with the pupils. Besides these officers there are others, who have charge of the admirable collections of the institution, and of the workshops, offices, &c. The number of professors is eight, and of repeaters, two. The dis- cipline is of the most simple character, for no pupil is allowed to remain in con- nection with the institution unless his conduct and progress are satisfactory. There is but one punishment recognized, namely, dismission ; and even a want of punc- tuality is visited thus severely. In the spring of every year the regencies advertise that applications will be re- ceived for admission into the institute, and the testimonials of the candidates who present the best claims are forwarded to the director at Berlin, who decides finally upon the several nominations. The pupils from the provincial schools have, in general, the preference over other applicants. At the same time notice is given by the president of the Society for the Promotion of National Industry, in rela- tion to the bursaries vacant upon the Seydlitz foundation. The qualifications es- sential to admission ore to read and write the German language with correctness and facility, and to be thoroughly acquainted with arithmetic in all its branches. The candidate must, besides, be at least seventeen years of age. Certain of the The director, M. Beuth. is aim president of the Royal Technical Commission of Prussia, nd ha* the distribution ( the fund* lor the. encouragement of industry, amounting to about seventy-five Ihoiixnud dollars annually. M. Heulh isalsoa privy counsellor, and is president of the Society for the Encouragement uf National Industry in 1'rujKia. INSTITUTE OF ARTS OF BERLIN. 313 pupils, as will be hereafter more fiilly stated, require to have served nn appren- ticeship to a trade. The Seydlitz bursar must, in addition, show 1st. That their parents were not artizans,* relatives of the founder having the preference over other applicants. 2d. That they have been apprenticed to a trade, if they intend to follow one not taught in the institution. 3d. They must enter into an engage- ment that if they leave the mechanical career they will pay back the amount of their bursaries. There are sixty or seventy gratuitous pupils in the school of whom eighteen are upon the Seydlitz foundation. Forty are admitted annually, this number having been adopted because it is found that, in the course of the first month, about a fourth of the newly admitted pupils fall away from the insti- tution. Each bursar receives two hundred and twenty-five dollars per annum for maintenance. The education is gratuitous. The regular pupils enter on the first of October, but the director is authorized to admit, at his pleasure, applicants who do not desire to become bursars, but who support themselves, receiving gra- tuitously, however, the instruction afforded by the institution. The education of the pupils is either solely theoretical, or combines theory and practice, according to the calling which they intend to follow. The first division is composed of students, who receive theoretical instruction only, and who are preparing to become masons, carpenters, and joiners. They are supposed to have become acquainted with the practice of their trade before entering the institution, being required to have served, previously, a part of their apprenticeship. An ex- cellent reason is assigned for this rule, namely, that on leaving the school such pupils are too old to begin their apprenticeship to these callings, and would, if they attempted to do so, find the first beginnings so irksome as to induce them to seek other employments, and thus their special education would be lost, and the object of the school defeated. The second division embraces both theoretical and prac- tical instruction, and consists of three classes. First, the stone-cutters, engravers, lapidaries, glass-cutters, carvers in wood and ivory, and brass-founders. Second, dyers and manufacturers of chemical products. Third, machine-makers and me- chanicians. The practical instruction is different for each of these three classes. The general course of studies last two years, and the pupils are divided into two corresponding classes. The first class is, besides, subdivided into two sections. The lower or second class is taught first ; mechanical drawing, subdivided into decorative drawing, including designs for architectural ornaments, utensils, vases, patterns for weaving, Lib. 1.] It is a good thing for him to let the pu- pil run before him, that he may become acquainted with his gait, and thereby may judge how much he himself must abate of his own speed, in order to accommodate himself to his pupil's powers. If we overlook this due proportion, we spoil every thing. To attain it, and to observe it carefully and closely, is the most urgent of all the duties, which I would enjoin upon the tutor ; and it is, moreover, a proof of a lofty and a strong intellect to be able thus to descend to a level with childhood, and thereby to direct and guide it. But since it is the custom now-a-days for teachers of a certain stamp, to attempt the ed- ucation of a multitude of children, all different in their dispositions and tlu-ir talents, all at the same time and by the same method, we can not wonder, when among them all, scarce two or three ever shew any good fruits from such discipline. The tutor must require of his pupil an understanding, not merely of the words of his lesson, but also of their meaning and their appropriateness. He must judge of the effect of his teachings, not on the testimony of his pupil's mem- ory, but on that of his conduct. He must exhibit whatever his pupil shall have learned in many different lights, and apply it to many dif- ferent subjects, in order to see whether he comprehends it, and has mastered it thoroughly. It is a mark of indigestion, when the MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHTS ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION. 310 stomach throws off the food which we take into it, unchanged. For it does not discharge it^ functions properly, unless it alters, either in nature or in form, that which we hafe given it to digest. We have been so long trammeled by leading-strings, that we can not walk alone ; both our freedom and our strength is gone. ' They are always in wardship, and never become their own mas- ters.' [Seneca, Epist. 33.] I was well acquainted with an honest man in Pisa, but who was so great an Aristotelian, that his most prominent tenet was this: 'The touchstone of all well-grounded opin- ions and of all truths, is their harmony with the doctrines of Aristotle ; every thing else is mere shadow and emptiness ; for Aristotle established every thing, and enunciated every thing.' The tutor must therefore lead his pupil to weigh every opinion, and to adopt nothing on mere authority. lie should not suffer him to take on trust a principle from Aristotle, any more than a dogma from Epicurus or the Stoics, lie should make known to him all the varieties of opinion upon any given subject, and if he chooses among them, so much the better ; but if not, why, let him doubt. ' There are times when doubting is better than believing.' [Dante Inf. c. 11.] As we shall see, this passage exerted a vast influence upon Rousseau, j Qj^ in whose Emile an ideal tutor is portrayed, who educates an ideal boy I after an ideal and Utopian system. Rousseau, likewise, requires his ' pupil to form opinions for himself, and, with a mature insight, to choose, not only his philosophy, but even his religion, from amid the various systems and forms, of which the world is so full. " If he can not choose," says Rousseau ," let him doubt." This radically cor- rupt sentiment, which is in direct opposition to Augustin's profound as well as true saying, "faith goes before understanding," is widely diffused at the present day. I shall examine it more closely further on. " The bees gather the sweets of every flower, but the honey they make is no longer that of thyme or marjoram, but purely their own. So should the pupil alter and transmute whatever he derives from others, in order to make it all his own." This beautiful and apt comparison we frequently meet with, in \ ^, Erasmus and Bacon. But nothing interferes with this instinctive ' process of intellectual assimilation in the minds of youth, so much as the practice of questioning and doubting, recommended by Montaigne. A blessing upon spiritual growth comes only through a believing, humble self-surrendery, and through this alone is a genial quickening of the receptive faculties possible. "Verily, we make our children timorous, and cowardly, by giving them no freedom to do any thing of themselves. Who of us ever 320 MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHTS ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION. asks his scholar, what he thinks of rhetoric or grammar ? of this or that passage in Cicero ? These things are only driven into the mem- ory, like oracles, whose whole essence consists in the letters and sylla- bles of which they are composed. But external knowledge is no knowledge at all ; it is nothing but the possession of that which has been intrusted to the memory. What, on the other hand we truly know, we can make available without an appeal to authority, and without first examining our book, to see whether it is thus or so." Thus he renders prominent the formation of independent opinions by children, in contrast with the slavish method, as hitherto practiced, of depending on external knowledge; a method, which is an endless source of innumerable evils. " t could only wish that those dancing masters, Paluel and Pompey, could have taught us their pirouettes, merely by looking at them, without our having had to bestir ourselves at all ; even as those teachers of ours, would develop our understandings into action without stimulating them into any sort of activity ; or, that we could be taught to manage a horse, to handle a pike, or to touch a lute, without the necessity of practicing, just as our tutors aim to make us good reasoners or good (speakers, without exercising us in speaking or in reasoning." An advocacy of self-activity, asjm important element in mental cul- ture, and produced by exercise, as opposed to entire passivity ; tliat education, which leads to solid art, not merely to flimsy, theoretical science is thus set forth. 'The opinion is universally received, that it is not good for a child to be educated at home ; for natural affection renders even the most judicious of parents too tender-hearted and yielding. They can not bear to punish their child, nor to see him hardened by frugal fare ; and yet he must be brought up thus. Nor can they bear to see him return home from his exercises, covered with sweat and dust, and then be allowed nothing but cold water, with which to quench his thirst ; nor can they suffer him to ride an unruly horse. And yet there is no help for all this; for whoever expects to educate a boy to be a brave man, most certainly should not render him effeminate in his youth, but must often, in his discipline, run counter to the precepts of physicians. ' Let him spend his days in the open air, and let him become familiar with danger.' [Horace, Carm. 1. 3. 2.] It is not enough to inspire him with fortitude ; his muscles also must be har- dened. For the mind, when not assisted by the body, has too much to do, and sinks under its superadded labors. I feel that my own is over-burdened by my weak and unstrung body, its companion, which MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHTS ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION. 321 is always leaning upon it and looking to it for aid. I have often ob- served in my reading, that my masters, in their writings, in many cases, attribute to magnanimity and strength of intellect, those actions, which proceed rather from the thickness of the skin or the hard- ness of the bones. The pupil must be practiced in severe bodily exercises, in order that he may become insensible to all sorts of pain. The authority of the tutor likewise, which should be unlimited, is in- terrupted and checked by the presence of the parents. Moreover the homage rendered to the young master by the servants, and the opin- ion which he imperceptibly imbibes at home of the wealth and the position of his family, these I think, are decidedly injurious to one of his years." This is in entire harmony with Rousseau, a contempt of parental training, and an over-estimate placed upon the tutor's functions. Nothing but the deep moral corruption and the depraved manners of the French nobility can excuse such unnatural sentiments in these two men. The noble prominence here given to the culture and the hardening of the body, is likewise in the spirit of Rousseau and his school, as well as in that of Fichte and Jahn. " The pupil should be taught, never to engage in any conversation or controversy, unless he has an antagonist, who is able to cope with him ; nor even then, to make use of all the arguments, which can serve his purpose. But let him be formed to a nice discrimination between different arguments, and to a desire to use those alone, which he absolutely needs ; and by consequence, to brevity. Especially let it be enjoined upon him, to lay down his weapons before the truth, and to surrender himself unconditionally to it, as soon as he perceives it, whether on the side of his opponent, or in his own consciousness." " Let the conscience and the virtue of the pupil shine forth in his discourse, but let them be ever under the dominion of his reason. Make it distinctly understood by him, that to acknowledge and correct any mistakes which he may have made in whatever he has advanced, though they should have been perceived by no one but himself, is a mark of good judgment and candor, those admirable qualities, for which he is striving ; and, on the contrary, that obstinacy and a spirit of wrangling are despicable traits, and to be found mostly in narrow minds ; while, to reconsider or to alter one's opinions, and even in the heat of debate, to give up a bad cause, betokens an eminently independent and a philosophical character." Worldly wisdom and the spirit of Christianity thus coincide in the No. 11. | VOL. IV., No. 2.] 30. u 322 MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHTS ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION. injunction to humble ourselves resolutely before the truth, and to avoid all contention for the mere sake of victory. "Let him endeavor to become acquainted with men in all the different spheres of life ; the cow-herd, the mason, the traveling merchant, every one, he must see at their various avocations, and must get some information from each one of them ; for he can turn every thing to account, and even from the stupidity or the weakness of others, can gather wisdom. For as he diligently considers so many different fashions and manners, he becomes ever more eager to appropriate the good and to reject the bad. He should also be in- spired with a discreet curiosity to examine into every thing of interest ; all that is rare or attractive in his immediate vicinity he should visit, be it a castle, a fountain, a remarkable man, or a memorable battle field : ' What lands are chained with frost, what ever green and fair, The swift-winged barks to Rome what fav'ring breeze will bear.' Prop. 1 : 4. He ought, moreover, to inform himself in respect to the manners, laws, and revenues of this or that Prince or Sovereign. These are things which are very pleasant to learn, and very useful to know. In recommending this acquaintance and intercourse with men, I refer also, and that chiefly, to those, whose memory has been handed down to us in books. By means of history the pupil will be enabled to converse with the great men of the most note-worthy ages. This is a study of inestimable value, and according to Plato, the only one to which the Lacedaemonians paid any attention. And what profit will he not derive, in this respect, from the perusal of Plutarch's lives ! But the tutor must never forget the appropriate functions of his office ; for instance, he must not impress upon the memory of his pu- pil the date of the overthrow of Carthage, and omit all consideration of the characters of Scipio and Hannibal. He must not dwell upon the narrative, and neglect to impart a just estimate of the events narrated." This requirement that the boy should take a survey both of the present and the past, and should form independent opinions in re- spect to each period, as well as the recommendation of Plutarch, we find repeated in Rousseau. "In my opinion, the first principles implanted in the understanding should be those, by which we shall be taught how to govern both our minds and our hearts, and how to obtain self-knowledge; in a word, how to live well, and how to die well. Among the liberal arts, let us first acquire the art which alone will make us free. They all, to be MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHTS ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION. 328 sure, in a certain measure, serve to fit us for life and its duties ; and the same purpose is furthered, in some degree, too, by every thing that occurs in our experience. But we ought to apply ourselves to those which have a direct influence this way, in virtue of their very nature. If we understood how to confine our wants and necessities within their true and natural limits, we should find that most of the sciences would be altogether useless to us, and that, even among those which are indispensable, that there are many breadths and depths, which we would do well to leave untouched ; and we should realize the truth of the saying of Socrates, ' that it is not worth our while to prosecute any studies but such as will directly promote our interests.' " Montaigne attaches the highest importance to instruction in self- knowledge, and in the art of living well and of dying well, the art which makes us free. But he has not a word to say about the only master of this art, that One, who can make us free indeed. And in dissuading us from speculative and unprofitable knowledge, he speaks more in the spirit of Rousseau than in that of Socrates. " After the pupil has been taught all that is necessary to make him wiser and better, he may apply himself to logic, natural philosophy, geometry, and rhetoric; and whatever science he may now take up, he will speedily master; because his judgment has been matured. He should be instructed sometimes by discourse, and sometimes by reading ; at times the tutor should place the works of judicious authors in his hands, and on other occasions he should give him only their pith and marrow. Who can doubt whether this way of teach- ing is more easy and natural than that of the Greek grammarian, Gaza, whose system is composed of thorny, repulsive rules, and of empty, unmeaning words, containing nothing to inspire a thirst for knowledge ? But in the system which we here advocate, the mind is directed to fresh, wholesome food ; and its fruits are without compari- son more abundant, and they also ripen much sooner." A decided attack upon the old, austere method of teaching, in which time, place and grammar were all in all ; here again he appears the prototype of Rousseau and Basedow. "It is not a little remarkable, that in our day, and even among sensible people, philosophy, both in theory and practice, has come to be regarded as an unmeaning word, representing nothing of any value. I imagine that the 'Ergo's' and the wire-drawing sub- tleties of Logic, which guard every avenue by which philosophy can be approached, are chiefly to be censured for the neglect into which she has fallen. It is very wrong to represent her as inaccessi- ble, or as having a sour, morose, forbidding aspect. Who has disguised 324 MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHTS ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION. her in this pale, hideous mask ? There is nothing more cheerful, sprightly, joyful, nay, I had almost said, more frolicsome than she. She preaches nothing but gaiety and good cheer. A crabbed and an austere countenance in a man, is a sure indication that she does not dwell with him. When Demetrius, the grammarian, saw a number of philosophers sitting together in the temple at Delphi, he addressed them thus : ' Either I misjudge, or your quiet, cheerful faces tell me that you are engaged in no very important conversation.' Where- upon one of them, Heracleon, the Megarean, replied : ' Let those who are undertaking to settle, whether the future of /310, p. 7. On the trecentennial jubilee of the Frankfurt Gymnasium, by Rector Viitnel. 1939, p. 5. T Gymnasium programme of Rector Kiihler. in Lieenitz, 1S37. V 338 THE PROGRESSIVES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. writers the Jesuits explain, and what method they follow ; and it differs so little from ours, that it seems as if they had drank from our fountains.'* Against this system of education, common to the Protestants and Jesuits of that day, adversaries now rose up. In the first decennium of the 17th century, commenced that contest of pedagogical principles, originating from Protestant sources, which, under varying forms, has lasted even to the present day. Those who sought to introduce these new principles and new ideals into pedagogy, I shall for that reason denominate Progressives. This term is to be understood as implying neither praise nor blame. It is to indicate not at all whether the new matter brought forward by these men was good, or bad, or mingled of both. Innovations were to be expected. When any mode of culture is exclusively adhered to, until it passes over into caricature ; whenever only this or that subject of instruction is regarded, to the exclusion of others ; and only the faculties employed about that subject developed, while others are neglected ; sooner or latter, this condition of affairs brings its own retribution, in the reaction which must follow. And this reaction, moreover, commonly in its turn overpasses the limits of moderation, becomes a radicalism, and seeks entirely to extirpate what had previously been made too prominent. Thus it happened in the pedagogical controversy which was now beginning. That the philological education had been pushed into caricature, Erasmus had already seen, and had satirized the imitators of Cicero. His "Ciceronianus " seems yet to have made no impression upon Sturm. The latter's ideal of attainment was, and remained, Ciceronian Latin eloquence ; and he would make every school-boy, as far as possible, a Ciceronian. We wonder at his method, at the pro- fessional and literary skill with which he pursued his object, and con- centrated all the mental powers upon it. But, if it be asked, Was his ideal of attainment the true one ? We can not escape the reply, that he himself, and his innumerable imitators, in their zeal to train their scholars to a Ciceronian eloquence, undervalued almost every thing else worth learning, and every intellectual gift of the pupil as well, except that of speaking. We have moreover seen that Bacon and Montaigne, directly or indirectly, opposed this purely philological training. But neither of these was an educator, and they were therefore not in a condition. But it was not long before there were teachers, also, contending actively against the cotemporary system of instruction. Two men appeared, who, for many years, made persevering and unintermitted THE PROGRESSIVES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTDRY. 339 efforts to develop, and put in practice, a new method of teaching. These were Wolfgang Katich and Johann Amos Comenius. With them commences a long series of educational methodologists, in which Locke, Rousseau, Basedow, and Pestalozzi, are most prominent. These men differed widely ; from personal character, the influences of country, religious belief, and the times and circumstances in which they lived ; yet we find something of a common character in the principles and tendencies of them all. I will preface, to the mono- graphs upon these men, a short discussion of these common elements, as composers introduce into the overture of an opera the principal themes which are afterward to be heard in the work itself. Sight was becoming clearer, views wider, and many new opinions and ideals of value had arisen. In truth, the horizon enlarged so rapidly, that the vision of the observers failed to command it. Fre- quently the Progressives were incompetent to work out the complete exemplification of their own ideals. It was with entire correctness that they recognized as indispensable, and as founded in human nature, and as demanded by the relations of actual life, elements of culture unthought of by preceding teachers. They were right in oppos- ing their narrow one-sidedness, and the manifold errors in their courses of instruction. But, again, even from the short characteriza- tions of the Progressives* which follow, it will appear, that they in their turn failed to recognize many valuable constituents of a perfected course of study ; and, in opposing one extreme, fell themselves into the other. Let us hope that we ourselves, taking warning by this error, may shun both extremes, thankfully recognize the good exist- ing in each of the two conflicting parties, and hold it fast ; and thus accomplish an actual and solid reconciliation of both. The traits common to the Progressives are these : 1. They all vigorously controverted the systems of education and instruction prevailing in their day. They called the common methods of instruction, which remained substantially the same, from the Ref- ormation nearly down to our own times that of the Grammatici (Philologists) a blind groping, without road or object. 2. They offered, not an improved method, but asserted that the teaching of the Grammatici was entirely unmethodical ; and offered simply a method ; as something entirely new. This was to conduct the student forward, from the simplest and most comprehensible ele- ments of each subject taught, by a plain, short, and easy way, to the attainment of his end. They said even, in substance, that, with the * In the course of the History. [ shall furnish the proofs of this description. 340 TOE PROGRESSIVES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. inner organic necessities of the pupil, the blossoms and fruits of learning would be developed. 3. They wrote manuals, adapted to their methods ; by the use of which, as they claimed, one as well as another, the intelligent and the stupid alike could learn well, if only he adhered to the text-book with diligent and even pedantic exactitude. This equalized talents ; indeed, it was questioned whether independent and untrammeled teachers were not inferior, in pedagogic efficiency, to those of more moderate endowments. 4. These views were carried into actual caricature by some, who ventured to maintain : That intelligence or dullness is a matter of indifference to the scholar. The teacher who adheres closely to the method, will accomplish every thing by that means. He can carve a Mercury, and make grass grow, out of the same timber. 5. They opposed, in particular, the current modes of instruction ; calling them vain, lifeless memory-cramming. (This was their usual term for it.)* This was especially the case with the usual methods of teaching the ancient languages ; which the Progressives promised to teach in a shorter time, and an easier manner ; one in one new way, and another in another. 0. They applied the term lifeless to the so-called memory-cram- ming, because by it the pupil was made to learn so many things which he did not understand. They aimed at imparting life to in- struction, by calling into action the understanding of the child, in proportion as they omitted the drilling of memory. Some of them seem indeed to have had no reverence for the mystery of the memory, and even to have known nothing of any intellectually living human memory, but only of a mere echo-like parrot's memory ; and not to have known how very common is the phenomenon of an under- standing stupefied by drilling. 7. While undervaluing the receptivity, so natural to youth, they endeavored, on the contrary, to stimulate the learner to an incessant and unnatural effort after precocious production. Estimating all com- municated knowledge at a low rate, they preached to the young gen- eration the doctrine that they were to take pride in shaping out and accomplishing every thing for themselves ; and that to them- selves, therefore, were they to be indebted for every thing. 8. Since our method is conformable to nature, said the Progressives, the children will learn, voluntarily, with ease and pleasure. And they gave assurances that, by their method, all punishments, corporeal * An exprewion tnmewhat appropriate for the military style in which the teachers put the children through their rote-exerciws. THE PROGRESSIVES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 341 ones especially, would cease of themselves ; being only the results of a course of instruction uncongenial, and stimulating to disobedience. 9. Some of the Progressives would have had each scholar taught according to his individual peculiarities and gifts ; not all alike. Others, on the contrary, regarded only the human character in general. As there is only one and the same nature, they said, common to all men, so there should be only one and the same method of education. The former of these was the more aristocratic view, the latter demo- cratic ; the former was entertained by those who looked to the edu- cation of some single normal pupil, the latter by those who aimed at common education. 10. The Progressives had a regard for the mother tongue; indeed, a special one ; and contended against the tyrannical dominion of the Latin, without altogether rejecting it. By this study of the mother tongue, by introducing it among subjects of instruction, they en- deavored, if not to break up the sharp distinction maintained by means of Latin between educated and non-educated classes, at least to narrow it as far as possible, and to promote at once an education independent of Latin, and democratic sentiments. 11. They set great value upon real studies, and endeavored to con- nect them with studies in language. 12. Connected with these traits are the progress of bodily exercise, and the controversy against dark and dim school rooms. 13. As the mother tongue and real studies became prominent, opposition arose to the education of uneducated persons in the Latin schools ; and separate real schools were demanded. Some, from true Christian love, turned their attention to the improvement of the com- mon schools, which were undervalued by most of the Latinist learned men, and labored extensively in their behalf. 14. These Progressives opposed themselves not only to the mem- ory, but the imagination more however in effect than in theory. Their unnatural and precocious stimulation of the reason of the children destroyed their imagination. Of the beautiful they said nothing. If they taught music, drawing, e a man of kind manners, who need know no language except German. His duty was to be, u by daily prayer, short Biblical texts, and questions in the manner of ordinary conversation, to form the tongues and language of the new scholars, according to the pure Misnian dialect, and by continued practice to correct the faults of the scholars, acquired outside the school.p We shall see, further on, the methods of teaching German and ' Niemeyer gives a French ler from Prince Christian, of 8h of September. 1613. He write* Kleratim as follows: * Puts donques qu'il voos tarde qae je me resolve? sir 1'affiire du Ratiehius. J'ajr mis delibere de n me vouloir pas mesler. Et ee a cause qoe nul de ceuU auxquels J'T parle depute. (vous aseeuraot en avoir parle avec divers penoDiiaces qui ont renommeV d' estre doctes.) ont voulu eroire qae les Effet* eeront conform** a ses preposi lions m' alleguanfs force Exemples an eoMraire en Hassie, en la Cotnte de Nassau, de Ha- nau. chez m*. le mar* de Bade, a Augusta et a Baste meme." Cotnp. Niemeyer. C. p. 13. t Xiemeyer. C. 10, 15. : Ib. 24. Niemeyer, C. 34. On comparing pp. 28 and 42, it doe* not appear whether there were five or six classes, and whether Greek was begun in the 5th or sixth. IJ.C.29. 346 WOLFGANG RATICH. Latin in Ratich'a schools. Here it must suffice to say, as to the in- struction at Kothen, that as soon as the children had learned their letters, in the first (lowest) class, they learned reading and writing together, in the second, using Genesis for a reading book. In the third class was studied " the grammar of the mother tongue, with examples both general and special; that is, to speak and write grammatically, and to understand the grammatical speaking and writ- ing of others.* In the fourth and fifth classes, Terence was studied, and the Latin grammar abstracted from it ; after this there followed an especial Greek class.f Besides these lessons in language, there was instruction in arithme- tic, singing, and religion. Ratich's labors at Kothen, however, as in other places, soon came to an end. There were various reasons for this. One was, that Ra- t I tich was a strong Lutheran, while the city of Kothen was of the "re- formed" persuasion^ The citizens also took offense at Ratich's having the ten commandments learned in his school, not after the reformed text and division, but after the Lutheran. Superintendent Streso charged him, for this reason, with being heterodox. Prince Ludwig tried to heal the difficulty by ordering both the Heidelberg catechism and Ratich's reading manual to be used in the schools; but this satis- fied neither party. In a report which StresoJ and some other men of eminence made upon Ratich's school, by the order of the prince, it was remarked that the catechism and music were studied too little ; that the discipline was bad ; that the hours of recreation were too many ; that the chil- dren were made to pass too quickly and abruptly from the letters to reading, without any intermediate study of syllables, and that they " wrote vitiosissime" It is true that the r^agUs^ did not answer, Ratich's reat promises. He laid the blame, for various reasons, upon his patrons and col- leagues ; and the consequence was that Prince Ludwig imprisoned him on the sixth of October, 1619, and only released him in the mid- dle of the year 1620, on his signing a declaration in which he says that he " had claimed and promised more than he knew or could bring to pass. Afterward, in 1620, Ratich went to Magdeburg, where he was well received by the magistrates, but in 1622 he got into a quarrel with Rector Evenius. Princess Anna Sophie, who had married Count Gunther von Schwar/.burg, now invited him to Rudolstadt, where she *J. C. 35. tlb.42. J Ib. 15-19. Sib. 7,19, 20. WOLFGANG RAT1CII. 347 studied Hebrew with him. About this time many opponents came out against Ratich, and among others the well known Dr. Hoe von Hoenegg, chief court chaplain at Dresden, who had been his strong partizan in 1014. In 1626, however, lie wrote a long communica- tion to the Countess Anna Sophie, opposing Ratich's views. "Your grace knows well," he writes, "that if one should give himself out for an architect, and especially for an uncommonly good architect, lie would not be at once received as such, but that special, thorough, clear and demonstrative tests, would be made use of, before men would employ him for important buildings, or put them under his charge. But we, here at court, know of no such public, thorough proof, whatever, which the Herr Ratichius has given, proportionate to his claims, even in any small place ; for the lack of which proof, people here will be the less willing to make any change in their sys- tem of teaching, and to adopt, instead of it, the Didactics of Ra- itich.''* The Dukes of Weimar and Gotha soon gave him up, but \Countess Anna_Sophie still adhered to him. She supported him at Kranichfeld and Erfurt, and recommended him to Chancellor Oxen- jstiern, who caused an examination to be made of his system. Doc- tors Hieronymus Bruckner, Johann Matthaeus Meyfart and Stephan Ziegler, made a favorable report upon it to the Chancellor, March 10, ]634.f This report discussed, 1. The purpose and design of the plan. 2. The mode of teaching. 3. The promises made. The reporters first take up Ratich's argu- ments against the existing mode of instruction ; as, that it is not really Christian; that the scholars have to learn too many things at the same time, rg in Transylvania. SThus, Comenius says that he copied his arrangement of school classes from Alsted. I Didact. works, 1, 3. Prerau is south from Olmiitx ; Fulneck about midway between Teschen and Olmiitz. " Raumer, Hist, of Europe. 3, 451. No. 13. [VOL. V., No. l.j 17. 372 JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. in the year 1627,* when he wrote the methodology above mentioned ; but he might have gone back much further, namely, to the year 1614, in which appeared the report of the professors of Jena and Giessen, upon Ratich's method. f Under the influence of these reports he had, while pastor in Prerau, worked out a milder method of teaching Latin, and, for the purpose, had written a short grammar, which was printed at Prague in 1616. In the unhappy year 1627, he had re- flected upon the means of helping the people, at the return of better times, by the erection of schools in which instruction should be given by good school books and clearer methods. In like manner, in the years of the French servitude, Fichte cast his eye upon Pestalozzi, with the hope that at Yverdun a new generation would grow up, for a future time of freedom in Germany. Comenius settled at Lissa in Bohemia, where he taught Latin, and in the year 1631 published 1m Janua linyuarum reseraia^ a new method of teaching languages, especially Latin. This book was the basis of his fame. He himself, in the dedication to his didactic works, says of it, " That happened which I could not have imagined ; namely, that this childish book, (puerile istud opusculum^ was received with universal approbation by the learned world. This was shown by the number of men, of different nations, who wished me heartily success with my new dis- covery, and by the number of translations into foreign languages. For not only was the book translated into twelve European languages, since I have myself seen these translations, that is, into Latin, Greek, Bohemian, Polish, German, Swedish, Dutch, English, French, Span- ish, Italian, and Hungarian, but into the Asiatic languages, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, and even into the Mongolian, which is under- stood by all the East Indies." In Lissa he planned, as early as 1629, his Didactica magna seu omnes omnia docendi arlificium. The great fame which his Janua had given him, brought him an invitation from the Swedish govern- ment, in 1638, to undertake the reformation of their schools. He did not accept it, but was induced by it to translate his Didactica, which had been written in German, into Latin. Some of his friends in England, to whom he had sent an extract from it, caused this to * Didaci. works, 1, 3. t Besides him, Comenius names Campanella, Bacon, Rhenias, Job. Valentin Andrea, Ac., whose methods he had studied. He repeatedly applied to Ration in rain by letter, during the year 1629, for information upon his method. Works, 2, 282. See Ratich. jDidact. work*, 1, 250. lMogolicam toti orientali Indiaefamiliarf.m." Bayle menlions the authors of several of these translations. The orientalist J. Golius, of Leyden, sent the Janua to his brother, 1*. Oolius, in Aleppo, and the latter translated it Into Arabic. It pleased the Mohammedans no much that they caused it to be translated into Turkish, Persian, and Mongolian. (?) J. Oo- lius related this to Comenius in 1642, and adds, " Vides Comeni guam felicittr t ; bi Janua lua ad gentet aperiat Januam. Opp. did., 2, 08. JOHN AMOS COMEMU8. 373 be printed. Upon receiving from England a like invitation, to un- dertake to reform their schools, he journeyed to London in 1641.* The matter was introduced into parliament ; but the Irish disturb- ances, and the outbreaking of the civil wars, hindered his plans so much that he left England, and, upon an invitation from Ludwig de Geer, went to Sweden in 1642. In Stockholm he conversed with Chancellor Oxenstiern, and with Johannes Skyte, chancellor of the university of Upsala. "Oxenstiern, the Northern nobleman," says Comenius, " examined me more severely than any learned man ever did."f " I observed, in my youth," said the chancellor, " that the usual method of teaching was too harsh ; but was unable to dis- cern wherein the fault lay. When, afterward, my king, of glorious memory, sent me as ambassador to Germany, I spoke upon this sub- ject with many persons. When I heard that Ratich had come out with a new method, I had no rest until I had seen the man himself; but, instead of a conversation, he gave me a thick quarto to read. I performed this tiresome work, and after I had read the whole book through, I found that he had well enough explained the defects of the schools ; but the remedy which he proposed seemed to me not adequate. What you bring forward is better founded." I replied, " that in this direction I had done as much as was possible, and that now I must go forward to something else." To this Oxenstiern an- swered ; " I know that you are contemplating a greater design, for I have read your Prodromus Pansophiae; we will speak of that to- morrow." " The next day," relates Comenius further, " Oxenstiern began to speak very plainly about the Prodromus, asking, to begin with, whether it would bear opposition ?" Comenius answering in the affirmative, he began to attack the great hopes expressed in the Prodromus, with profound political reasoning, urging, among other things, that the Holy Scriptures prophecy much more of unhappiness than happiness, toward the end of the world. Still, he recommend- ed Comenius to pursue his undertaking, but first to care for the needs of the schools, and to work out the easier way to learn Latin, which would be a step forward in the greater design which he was looking to. It seems as if the clear-headed, practical Oxenstiern desired to recall Comenius from his boundless undertaking, into one more re- stricted, but for that reason more sure of success. The Swedish government now established Comenius in Elbing, to compose a work upon his method. With this arrangement his Eng- * Opp. did. 2. introd. Congregatum interim Parlamentum, praesentiaque noetra cognita, jussit DOS e xpectare. tlb. Cotnp. above, under W. Ratich, where was given an extract from this conversation with Oxenstiern. 374 JOHN AMOS COMEN1US. lish friends were not pleased ; they wished that others might be left to busy themselves in writing for boys, but that he should labor upoc the greater work of the Pansophia. "Quo moriture ruis ? mino- raque viribus audes . ? " they wrote to him. He was pleased at this call to him to return into the "royal highway,"* and sent the Eng- lish letters to Sweden, in sure hopes they would be persuaded by them But the opposite happened ; for he was urged much more on the part of the Swedes, to first finish his didactics. Tilings more excellent are to be preferred, it is true, they said. But what must be done first, should be first done. And men do not proceed from the greater to the less, but from the less to the greater. So Comenius was obliged, whether he would or no, to return to making school books. After laboring four years he returned to Swe- den in 1646. Three commissioners examined the work, and declared it proper for printing, when Comenius should have put the last touches to it. He returned to Elbing to do this, and thence, in 1648, to Lissa, where, in the same year, he brought out his work, the No- vissima linguarum methodus.\ It was in this year that the peace of Westphalia put an end to the frightful thirty years' war. In allusion to this, Comenius thus addresses himself to the princes, in the book : "Ye have destroyed many things, O ye mighty ; now rebuild many ! In this matter, imitate him who has given you the power of deter- mining the fortunes of men ; of him who destroys that he may build up ; who roots up that he may plant." In 1650, upon an invitation from Prince Ragozki, he went to Hun- gary and Transylvania, and remained there four years, during which time he organized a school at Patak.J Here Comenius wrote, among others, his second celebrated work, the Orbis Pictus. He was not, however, able to finish it in Hungary, for want of a skillful engraver on copper. For such a one he carried it to Michael Endter, the book- seller at Nuremberg, but the engraving delayed the publication of the book for three years more. In 1657 Comenius expressed the hope that it would appear during the next autumn. With what great approbation the work was received at its first appearance is shown, by the fact that within two years, in 1659, Endter had pub- lished the second enlarged edition. In 1654 Comenius returned to Lissa, where he remained until 1656, in which year the Poles burnt the city, by which he lost his * Gavisus ego hac regiam in viam revocatione. t Didact. works, 2. The preface was written at Elbing, 1648. J Palak, i e., river ; also Saros Patak : according to Comenius, (Did. works, 3, 101,) from its muddiness. It is east of Bodrog, in long. 29 east, lat. 43 north. S Did. works, 3, 830. JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. 375 house, his books, and his manuscripts, the labor of many years. He fled into Siiesia, thence to Brandenburg, and thence to Hamburg and Amsterdam. Here he remained until the end of his life, chiefly supported by wealthy merchants, whose children he instructed. He printed his Opera Didactica at Amsterdam, in 1657, at the expense of Lorenzo de Geer, son of Ludwig de Geer, mentioned above. lie died Nov. loth, 1671, in his eightieth year. According to my promise, I have recorded especially the pedagog- ical labors of Comenius, although other writers* have made more prominent other facts in relation to this remarkable man, particularly his belief in several false prophets of the times, as Drabicius, Kotte- rus, and Poniatovia. Under the title Lux in tenebris, Comenius, in 1657, published their prophecies, which were chiefly directed against the Pope and the house of Austria, The Turks, they said, would make a successful invasion, take Vienna, and march thence, by way of Venice, against Rome, as against the new Babylon, and would destroy both cities. Afterward, it was hoped, Louis XIV., upon the destruction of the house of Austria, would become emperor, for the salvation of the world. The eyes of the prophets were also turned to Charles Gustavus of Sweden, Ragozki, and others; and they looked for the beginning of the reign of a thousand years, in 1672. Georg Miiller says with much truth, in relation to Comenius' Lux in tenebris, " Is he so much to be blamed, when he saw truth and reli- gious freedom, which lay so near his heart, everywhere put down by violence, for having insisted eagerly upon better hopes in the future, and, for having seen, in a lovely and hopeful dream, the time of sal- vation more nearly at hand than it was in the order of the providence of God ?" Similar hopes, remarks Miiller, were entertained by the most intelligent men of the day. An important object, besides pedagogy and prophecy, which Co- menius pursued with much eagerness, was the vain undertaking of reconciling the various Protestant confessions. We may obtain an insight into the great piety and heartfelt love of this valuable man, as well as into the varied direction of his rest- less activity, from the Confession, which he wrote in his seventy- seventh year, in expectation of death ; from which I quote the ox- tract at the end of this account Comenius left many pedagogical works.f The Opera Didactica alone fills more than a thousand folio pages, and is a most rich treas- ure of acute and profound thoughts. I hope I may be able to give a brief character of the pedagogy of this distinguished man, as dis- * See especially, Bayle, roc. Comenius. t See the list of them, appendix II. 376 J HN AM 8 COMENIUS. played in his writings, in such a manner as to present his most val- uable and permanent principles, labors, and efforts, unconfused with his more transitory and accidental ideas and endeavors. The first important work which Comenius wrote was his I. DIDACTICA MAGNA. He was, by no means, one of those pedagogues who take up one or another single subject of instruction, or who place all good in this or that method of teaching. He was, in the very best sense of the word, universal ; and, notwithstanding this universality, he always strove after the most thorough foundation. Of this his Didactica Magnet, the earliest and profoundest of his pedagogical works, is a proof. He had planned it as early as 1628, in his thirty-sixth year, in the full power of his manhood, and while unbroken by the mis- fortunes through which he afterward passed. He had pedagogical experience, while his views were not narrowed by the errors which afterward came upon him. He was sailing, before a prosperous breeze, and gave his thoughts free course, without asking whether they were practicable. In truth, how many of them were impracti- cable in his time, which have since been well realized ! "Man," says Comenius in the Didactica, " lives a threefold life; vegetable, animal, and intellectual or spiritual. He has a threefold home ; the mother's womb, earth, and heaven. By birth he has the second of these, and by death and resurrection, the third, which is eter- nal. As the child in his mother's womb is prepared for his earthly life, so is the soul, with the help of the body, prepared, in the earthly life, for eternity. Happy is he who brings into the world from his mother's womb, well formed limbs ; a thousand times happier he, who at death takes a well trained soul from it. Man is a reasoning creature, and the lord of all other creatures; the image of God ; and, therefore, was his mind, in the beginning, directed toward knowledge, virtue, and piety. We can not declare ourselves incapable of these three by reason of the fall, without shameful ingratitude to the grace of God in Christ, through which we are born again.* As made in the image of the all-knowing God, we strive after wis- dom. The capacity of our minds is immeasurable. The seeds of knowledge,, virtue and religion, are not themselves, in the beginning, given to men, but they must be developed by prayer, study, and practice ; by action does man first arrive at true existence. * Interioret nottrae virtt es lapvu primaevo infirrnatae sunt *cd non estinctae. Did. 56. JOHN AMOS COMEMU8. 37* All men need instruction. Instruction must begin early. In youth God has made man unfit for civil and other duties, that he may have an opportunity for learning. All children, rich or poor, high or low, boys or girls, must be in- structed in school ; in every thing God's image must be sought to be restored, and each must be prepared for his future calling. Each must learn every thing ; each man is a microcosm. Not that each should learn every science, but that all should be so instructed that they may understand the basis, relation and ptfrpose, of all the most important things relating to what they are, and are to become ; so much is necessary for all who are to be actors, and not mere lookers on, in this world.* We have no schools which fulfill their purpose. In many places they are entirely wanting; in others only the children of the rich are cared for ; the methods of instruction are repulsive, wearisome and obscure ; and morals are entirely neglected. No instruction is given about real things; fifteen or twenty years are spent upon Latin, and yet nothing is accomplished in it. " The best years of my own youth," says Comenius, "were wasted in useless school exercises. But how often since I have learned to know better, have I shed tears at the remembrance of lost hours ; how often have I cried out in my grief, mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos ! But grief is vain, and past days will not return. Only one thing remains, only one thing is possible ; to leave to posterity what advice I can, by show- ing the way in which our teachers have led us into errors, and the method of remedying those errors. May I do this in the name and under the guidance of Him who alone can number all our faults, and make our crooked things straight." Instruction will usually succeed, if the method follows the course of nature. Whatever is natural, goes forward of itself. Instruction should begin in early youth, when the mind is yet free ; and should proceed by steps, in proportion to the development of the powers. The schools are wrong, in first teaching languages, and then pro- ceeding to other things. And boys are kept for several years in studies which relate to languages, and only then are they put to real studies, such as mathematics, physics, etc. And yet the thing is the substance, and the word the accident ; the thing is the body, and the word the clothing. Things and words should be studied together, but things especially, as being the object both of the understanding and of language. Didact. 42-6. 378 JOHN AMOS COMEN1US. The practice is wrong of making grammar the beginning of instruc- tion in language, instead of beginning with an author, or a properly arranged word-book ; for the author or the word-book contain the material of the language, and the form should be afterward added to it from the grammar. Examples should precede abstract rules; and in general, matter should precede form, everywhere. Too many things should not be studied at the same time, but one after another. The scholar should'be introduced into a sort of encyclopedia of what he is learning, which should be gradually developed further and further. Each language, science, or art, should be first taught in its simplest rudiments, then more fully, with rules and examples ; and afterward systematically, with the addition of the anomalies. Instruction should be carefully given in successive classes, so that the lower class may have completely gone over the ground prepara- tory to the higher, and that the higher shall, on the other hand, con- firm what was learned in the lower. Nature proceeds by continual progress, but yet so that she usually does not give up any thing pre- ceding, at beginning something new, but rather continues what was begun before, increasing it and carrying it to completion. Each class should be finished in a fixed time. Youth should not be molested at first with controversies ; no one would ever be established in the truth, if his first instruction should consist in discussion. It is not good for a boy to have many teachers, since they would hardly follow the same method, and thus they would confuse him. All studies should be taught in a natural, uniform method, and from books of a uniform character. Even teachers of less ability will be enabled by such books to in- struct well, because the book will make a beginning for them. Friendly and loving parents and teachers, cheerful school rooms, play-grounds near the school houses, and systematic and natural in- struction, must all contribute to the success of teaching, and to coun- teract the usual dislike to the school. Most teachers sow plants instead of seeds of plants : instead of pro- ceeding from the simplest principles, they introduce the scholar at once into a chaos of books and miscellaneous studies. The grammar of a foreign tongue, for example the Latin, should be adapted to the mother tongue of each scholar ; since different mother tongues stand in different relations with the Latin. In learning a foreign tongue, the course of proceeding should be JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. g*g from the understanding of it to writing it, and afterward at the right time, further, to speaking it, when improvising will be neces- sary. Things near at hand should be learned first, and afterward those lying further and further off. The first education should be of the perceptions, then of the memory, then of the understanding, and then of the judgment. For knowledge begins with mental perceptions, which are fixed in the memory by the apprehension ; then the understanding, by inductions from single apprehensions, forms general truths, or ideas ; and lastly, certain knowledge proceeds from the operation of the judgment upon things before understanding. The scholar should not learn by rote what he does not understand. He should learn nothing which is not useful for one or another mode of life ;* he is preparing himself not only for knowledge, but also for virtue and piety. All studies must be as much as possible worked into one whole, and developed from one root. The relation of cause and effect must everywhere be shown.f We learn, not only in order to understand, but also to express and to use what we understand.^ As much as any one understands so much ought he to accustom himself to express, and on the other hand he should understand whatever he says. Speech and knowledge should proceed with equal steps. If the teacher is obliged to instruct a great number of scholars, he should divide his class into decuriae, and should set over each a de- curion, to assist him. Reading and writing should be learned together. Youth should be made to understand, not the appearances of the things which make impressions upon their minds, but the things themselves. Instruction must begin with actual inspection, not with verbal des- cription of things. From such inspection it is that certain knowl- edge comes. What is actually seen remains faster in the memory than description or enumeration, a hundred times as often repeated. For this reason, pictures, Biblical scenes for example, are strongly to be recommended. The eye should first be directed to an object in its totality, and * Ea siquidem discenda sunt in terris, monet Hieronymus, quorum scientia pcrsereret in coelos, 88. t Omnia doceantur per causas, 95. Scire est rem per causas (enere. 113. ; Quae quis iutellieere docetur, doceatur sitnul eloqui et operari. seu translerre ad usum, 96. This reminds us of Bacon. 380 JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. afterward to its parts. This is true not only of the mental, but of the bodily vision. All the parts, without exception, should be dealt with, and their various relations. The distinctions of things should be properly brought out. Qui bene distinguit, bene docet. Each study should be learned by practice ; writing by writing, singing by singing, etc. The master must first perform the thing be- fore the scholar, to be imitated by him, without tiresome theoretical explanation. For man is animal fj.ifj,7)osite meanings he has given opposite each other, " and has so arranged that each shall assist in the understanding of the others." At the same time he has so prepared the sentences that they are valuable jvs grammatical exercises. This preface is followed by the one hundred chapters which treat de omni scibili, in one thousand sentences. The first is an introduc- tion, in which the reader is saluted, and informed that learning con- sists in this : to know distinctions and names of things ; and that to at- tain this is not so very difficult. In this short little book, ^the reader will find explained, " the whole world and the Latin language." If the reader should learn four pages of it by rote, he would " rind that his eyes were opened to all the liberal arts." Then follows the second, which treats of the creation of the world, and so on to the ninety-ninth, which treats of the end of the world; the one hundredth is his fare- well advice to the reader. 384 JOHN AMOS COMENIC3. III. REALISM OF COMKMI-S. Such, substantially, is the little book which was translated into twelve European, and several Asiatic languages. I shall, hereafter, speak of the subsequent revision and enlargement of it. If it is asked how came about so great a success, I reply, it was partly from the pleasure found in the survey of the whole world, adapted both to young and old, and at a day when no great scientific requirements were made. Many were amused by the motley variety of the im- aginations and investigations of the book ; by its old fashioned gram- matical, didactic and rhetorical discussions, and its spiritual extrava- gances. The greatest influence was, however, exerted by the funda- mental maxim of the book; that the knowledge of a language, especially of Latin, should go hand in hand with knowledge of the things explained in it. By this principle, Comenius is distinguished from the earlier pedagogues ; and he sought to bring it into natural operation in many ways. From his Physics, which appeared in 1633,* we may see how thorough a pedagogical realist he was. He received his first impulse in this direction, as he himself relates, from the well known Spanish pedagogue, Ludovicus Vives, who came out against Aristotle, and de- manded a christian instead of the heathen mode of philosophizing. It is not disputation which leads to any result, said Vives, but the silent observation of nature. It is better for the scholars to ask ques- tions and to investigate, than to be disputing with each other. " Yet," says Comenius, " Vives understood better where the fault was, than what was the remedy. Comenius received a second impulse from Thomas Campanella,f who, however, did not satisfy him. "But when," he says "Bacon's Instaurativ Magna came into my hands, a wonderful work, which I consider the most instructive philosophical work of the century now beginning. I saw in it, that even Campanella's demonstration was want- ing in that thoroughness which is demanded by the nature of things.J * The preface was written at Lissa in 1633. The information following is from it. t Campanella was born in 1063, at Slilo in Calabria, and died in 1639 at Paris. He was a Dominican, Being accused of a state offense against the Spanish monarchy, he was iin- prisoned in 1599 and only released in 1G2G, at the request of Urban VIII. Of his works, those which had mott influence Upon Comenius. were his Prodromun philosophise rcntaurutidae, Realis philoaopkia epitogiatiea, and Liliri de rerum tensu. 1 1 may here be permitted, in order to a complete characterization ofCnmenlus, to repeat atimething of what I have already said of Bacon's influence on teaching. In this connection 1 shall quote the Opp. did., 1, 426, where he says, " ffon est nihll, qitod Vrrulamimi mirabili tuo organo rerum naturat inline scmtandi modum infallibilem detetit." And in another place, (p. 432,) he praises Bacon's "urtijlciosam inductiontm, quae rttera in naturae abdita penelrandi reclusa via est." Elsewhere, Comenius cites Bacon, or uses expressions (E. g., ' Infetit divortium rerum et tcrborum,") and states N'iews, which refer Us to Bacon. JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. 3g 5 Yet again, I was troubled, because the noble Verulam, while giving the true key of nature, did not unlock her secrets, but only showed^ by a few examples, how they should be unlocked, and left the rest to future observations to be extended through centuries." He goes on, in the preface to the Physics, from which these extracts are taken, to say that he is convinced that it ia not Aristotle who must be master in philosophy for Christians, but that philosophy must be studied freely by the indications of nature, reason and books. " For," he con- tinues, "are we not as well placed in the garden of Eden, as were our predecessors? Why can we not use our eyes, ears, and nose as well as they could ? And why did we need other teachers than these, in learning to know the works of nature? Why, say I, should we not, instead of these dead books, lay open the living book of na- ture ? In this there is much more to display than one person like myself can relate, and the display will bring much more, both of pleasure and profit." " Moreover," he adds, evidently following Ba- con, " we are so many centuries beyond Aristotle even in experience." From these extracts it is evident that Comenius, like Bacon, aimed at a real realism, not at a simply verbal one ; at one which should operate by the direct observation of things by the senses, not by the narratives and descriptions of others. This appears clearly also, from many portions of his other works. Thus, he says, in the Didactica Magna: ''To instruct youth well, is not to cram them with a mish- mash of words, phrases, sentences and opinions, gathered from read- ing various authors, but to open their understandings to the things themselves, so that from them, as from living springs, many streamlets may flow." Again : " Hitherto, the schools have done nothing with the view of developing children, like young trees, from the growing impulse of their own roots, but only with that of hanging them over with twigs broken oflf elsewhere.' 1 They teach youth to adorn them- selves with others' feathers, like the crow in ^Esop's fables. They do not show them things themselves, as they are, but tell them what one and another, and a third, and a tenth, has thought and written about them ; so that it is considered a mark of great wisdom for a man to know a great many opinions which contradict each other. Thus it has come to pass, that most scholars do nothing but gather phrases, sentences and opinions, and patch together their learning like a cento. It is of such that Horace says, '0 imitatorum servum pecusf' Of what use is it to vex one's self about others' opinions of things, when that which is needed is, the knowledge of the things themselves ? Is all the labor of our lives to be spent in nothing except in running after others who are employed in all sorts of directions ? Oh ye 386 JOHN AMOS COMEXIUS. mortals, let us hasten without circuit, toward our object. If our eyes are fast and clearly fixed upon this, why do we not together steer toward it ? why should we prefer to see with others' eyes, rather than with our own ? Almost no one teaches physics by actual observa- tion and experiment : all instruct by the oral explanation of the works of Aristotle or some body else. In short,, men must be led as much as possible, to gather their learning, not from books, but from the observations of the heavens and the earth, oak trees and books ; that is, he must know and investigate things themselves, not merely the observations and explanations of others about them. And thus we shall be again following in the footsteps of the ancients." Co- menius' meaning is too clear to need an explanation. Further on,* he goes more fully into the method of instruction. The object must be a real, true, useful thing, capable of making an impression upon the senses and the apprehension. This is necessary, that it may be brought into communication with the senses ; if visible, with the eyes, if audible, with the ears, if odorous, with the nose, if sapid, with the taste, if tangible, with the touch. The beginning of knowledge must be with the senses.f " Must not, therefore," he asks, " the beginning of teaching be, not at all with the verbal explanation of the things, but with the real intuition of them ? and then first, after the pre- sentation of the thing itself, may the oral explanation be added, for the further elucidation of it." What has thus been perceived by the senses, sinks deep into the memory, and can not be forgotten ; an event is better remembered, if one has lived through it, than if he has heard it related a hundred times. Thus says Plautus, " One showing to the eye is more than ten showings to the ear."J One who has, with his own eyes, seen a corpse dissected, better understands the anatomy of the human body, and gets more insight into it, than if he had read the greatest quantity of anatomical books, without having seen it. Hence the old proverb, "Demonstration must make up for intuition." If here and there a thing is wanting, one or another thing may make up for it. So, for example, pictures, such as are to be found in botanical, zoological, geographical, and other books. Such should be in every school ; for although they cost much, they are of much use. IV. COMENIUS' THREE SCHOOL BOOKS, THE VEBTIBULUM, THE REVISED JANUA KI.M it M A, AND THE ATRIUM. 1 Veatibulum. Boon after publishing the Janua reserata, Comenius wrote a small Didictica Magna, p. 115, etc. t Comenius repeatedly refers to his maxim, ffifiil eat in intellfctu, quod nonpri-us in aensu ; Comenius also quote* Horace's " Scgnius irritant animus," etc. JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. ggf school book called Januae reseratae Vestibulum* of only 42V short sentences. About 1648 he published a revisal of it,f and a second in 1650, while at Patak, employed in re-organizing the schools there.}; He intended this second revisal as a manual for the lower classes of this school ; I will briefly describe its form and contents. It begins with an Invitatio; the teacher promising to the scholar an introduction to wisdom, to the knowledge of all things, to the ability to do right always, and to speak correctly of every thing, especially in Latin, which, as a language common to all nations, is indispensable to a learned education. In the Vestibulum the founda- tions of language are laid, in the Janua the materials for building are furnished ; and in the Atrium, the decoration of the edifice is begun. After this the scholar may enter the palace of authors ; that is, their wise books ; by the perusal of which he may become learned, wise and eloquent. The second part treats of the classification of things ; that is, of substantives only, E. g. : Sidera sunt, sol, luna, stella. In sole sunt, lux, radius, lumen. Sine lumine est ; umbra, callgo, lenebrae. Apld uanionem; farcimen, perna, lardum, arvina, adeps, sebum, etc. In the third part, the modifications of things are brought forward, adjectives being the most prominent words, E. g. ; Sol est clarus vel obscurus. Luna plena vel dimidia. Stella fixa. vel vaga. The fourth part is headed mentiones rerum. E. g. ; Quis ibi est? Is quern vides. Quidfert? Id quod vides. It explains especially the pronouns. In the fifth section, headed motus rerum, verbs are introduced. E. g. ; Quaeque res potest aliquid esse, agere, pati. Dei aclio est creare, sustentare, beare. Sentire est, videre, audire, etc. After this comes the varieties of human action, e. g., per membra corporis, per animam, etc. The sixth section, headed Modi actionum et passionum, includes the adverbs. E. g.. Ubi est ? hie, illic, ibi, etc. The seventh, headed Circumstantiae rerum et actionum, brings in the prepositions. E. g., Quod movetur, movetur ab aliquo praeter aliquid, ad aliquid. The eighth, headed Cohaerentiae rerum et actionum, contains con- junctions. E. g., Ego et tu, illeque sunms homines, etc. * Opp. did., 1, 302. Preface dated 4th January, 1633. t Opp. did., 2, 293. Preface undated. This Vestihuhim immediately followed the Metfiodut Nvcissima, in which, (p. 163, 173,) it Is described. Only a fragment of it is in the Opp. did. J Opp. did., 3, 141. No. 13,-[Vol. V. Xo. T.] 18. 388 JOHN AMOS COMENIU9. The ninth, Compendia rerum et verborum, contains interjections. E. g., ffeus tu ! Ecce me ! etc. The tenth is entitled Multiplicatio rerum et verborum ; and con- tains some examples of the derivation and relation of words. E. g. ; Doctus, doctor, docet, dociles, doctrinam, etc. The Janua and the Atrium contain each 1,000 sentences, but the Vestibulum only half as many, 500. To the Vestibulum are subjoined the rudiments of grammar. Chap. 1 treats of the letters; chaps. 2 10 correspond with the same of the Vestibulum, e. g. ; chap. 2 treats of nouns, and gives briefly the declensions; chap. 5 of verbs, conjugation, etc.; chap. 10 explains the ideas of primitives, derivatives, compounds, etc., and chap. 11 gives fifteen simple rules of syntax. This grammar is followed by a Repertorium vestibuhre sive lexici Latini rudimentum, containing all the words in the Vestibulum, alphabetically arranged, with the number of that sentence of the five hundred where it is found. E. g.: Cano, (cecini, cantum,) 45 V. And sentence 457 is, Cantoris est canere. In a letter to Tolnai,* teacher of the first (lowest) class at Patak, Comenius writes of his duties as a teacher, and especially of the use of the Vestibulum, etc. He (Tolnai) receives scholars who can read and write their mother tongue; and he is to teach them the grounds of Latin and the rudiments of grammar and arithmetic. The arrangement of the Vestibulum might seem to be exclusively grammatical, as it begins with substantives, and proceeds to adjec- tives, etc. It is in fact, however, in the profoundest sense, an arrange- in the order of things ; for it began with the enumeration of the things themselves, and goes on to their principal qualities, (primaria rerum accidentia,) and so on. Comenius would have been glad to illustrate the Vestibulum with such cuts as the text requires, to amuse the boys and to enable them better to remember, but was prevented for want of competent artists. The want of such cuts must be supplied by the teacher, by explana- tions of the things, showing them, or by such delineations of them as may be accessible. If there be not some such reference to them, the instruction will be entirely lifeless. "This parallelism of the knowledge of words and things is the deepest secret of the method." In order that this may be more easily done, this nomenclature (of the Vestibulum) is to be translated into the mother tongue, and with this translation the scholars are to be first taken over the ground before any study of Latin. Thus their whole attention will be confined to * This latter reminds us strongly of Scurm's Epintolat daisicae. JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. 3gg the things ; they will not be required at the same time to attend to unknown things and unknown languages, but only to the first. B. Janua. I have already described the Janua reserata of 1631, the first edition. But the Janua which Comenius describes in the Methodus Novissima, is different from this. The latter consists of a text, simi- lar to that of the original Janua, but to whieh is added a lexicon, and to this a grammar ; there being thus three parts, as in the Vestibu- lum* Comenius brought out the third edition of the Janua, at the same time with the third of the Vestibulum, for the schools at Patak. It does not, however, like the latter, begin with the text and go on to the grammar and lexicon, but in a reversed order, with lexicon, grammar and text. The lexicon is entitled, Sylva Latinae linguae vocum deri- vatarum copiam explicans, sive lexicon januale.\ It is etymological, showing the derivation of each word. E. g. : fin-is-it omnia, et os- tendit rei-em k. e. - alem causam. De-ibus agrorum saepe sunt lites, quas-itor de-it distinguens agrum lam ab agris - itimis (sen af-et con-ibus) quam a con-its inde-itis. Si vero inter af-es (af-itate junc- tos) jurgia exoriuntur, judex prae-it diem prae-itum, quo ea-aliter de- itat ; nam-ita esse convenit ; non in-ita ; in-itas Dei est. In this manner are arranged some twenty-five hundred roots and their derivations and compounds, with the rules of derivation and composition. The teacher is to occupy some four months, in the beginning, in taking his scholars through this lexicon ; for they must first become acquainted with words, which are the simple elements of language. He calls the lexicon the forest, in which the radical words, with their derivations and compounds, are the trees and their branches. These form the material in which the second book, the Grammatica janua- lis continens residuum grammatical vestibularis, is to be used and prepared for the construction of speech. In the introduction to the grammar, Comenius laments the faults of the earlier teachers of language, quoting especially the valuable teacher Gerard Vossius. " Our grammars," says Vossius, " contain a ' According to Opp. did., 2, 299, this second edition contained only the Janu grammatiea. Camp. Melh. nor.; Opp. did., 2, 181. t Opp. did., 3, 219. T I. e., Fint'g Jinit omnia. et ottendit reijintm, h. e. finalem causam, eic. For Ihc sake of greater clearness, Comenius afterward, (Opp. 4, 60,) required the German equivalent to b added, as Am-are-or-ator, Lieb-m-e-tiaber. (Lor-e-e-tr .) 390 JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. mass of rules and exceptions which overwhelm the boys, who are obliged to learn much that is superfluous, only soon to forget it ; and besides, how many false rules do these grammars contain ! " " Lip- sius," continues Comenius, " calls them silly ; and Caselius, more than silly, and they agree that it would be better to learn Latin only from authors." Comenius, however, does not coincide with them in this ; mere practice, he says, is .blind ; it is only by rules that they attain to the sure comprehension. He says further, in speaking of the Grammatica Janualis, subjoined to the Vestibulum, that it follows especially G. Vossius. The succession of chapters in this grammar is :* De Litera, Syl- laba, Voce, Phrasi, Sententia, Periodo, Oratione. It proceeds from the simple beginnings of the Grammatica Vestibularis, leaving, how- ever, the subtilities and delicacies of the language for a higher class. From this grammar the scholar goes on to a third part, a Janualis rerum et verborum contextus, historiolam\ rerum continens. This is a revision of the earlier Janua reserata, but more extensive and com- plete, although, like it, containing a thousand paragraphs, in a hun- dred sections. In the first Janua each paragraph usually consisted of one short period ; but in the second the paragraphs are often much longer. C. Atrium. Comenius describes the Atrium^ in his Methodus novissima ; but lie first published it for the school at Patak. Like its predecessor, it is divided into three parts ; but its arrangement, like that of the Janua, varies from that of the Vestibulum ; a grammar coming first, then the text, and then the lexicon. Comenius calls the grammar of the Atrium, Ars ornatoria, cive grammatica eleyans. He defines it, " The art of speaking elegantly. To speak with elegance is, to express the thoughts otherwise than the laws of the mother tongue require, and yet to be understood with more pleasure than if we had spoken according to those laws.'' From this definition it follows, that Comenius was not speaking of what they called fine Latin, free from barbarisms, but of such Latin as was then used in rhetorical ex- ercises. After the grammar follows the Atrium itself; which, also, is an encyclopaedia of one thousand paragraphs, in one hundred sections, but more extensive and advanced than that in the preceding Janua. * Opp. did., 3, 428. t lb., 474. J Ib., 451. There it her* a great error in the paging ; p. 451 following 592. * Opp. did., 2, 163, 197, 453. David Bechner published before Comenius, in 1636, a frag- ment entitled Proplasma templi Latinitatia, (O.i; . did., 1, 318,) which, like the Atrium, was to follow the Janua. JOHN AMOS COMEMUS. 39! To this Comenius had intended to add a Lexicon Lalino-latlnum ; which, however, did not appear. V. THE CLASSICS. After the scholars had used, in their first year, the Vestibulum, in the second the Janua, and in the third the Atrium, as preparatory manuals, they were next, in a fourth class, to enter, from the Atrium, into the palace of authors. "For," says Comenius,* " if we should not, through the Vestibulum, the Janua, and the Atrium introduce the scholars into the palace of authors, we should be as foolish as one who, after with much pains, seeking, finding and pursuing his road to the very gates of a city, should refuse to enter." The scholars of this fourth class are, in their first quarter of a year, to practice the ordinary Latin style ; in the second, speeches from the Roman histories, and the Ciceronians, for the sake of the oratorical style ; in the third, to read Ovid, Horace and Virgil, to learn the poetical style ; and afterward to study the laconic authors, especially Seneca and Tacitus, and to begin studying the composition of letters, speeches and poetry. In his Methodus Novis$ima,\ he gives fuller directions what au- thors to read and how to read them. His three text-books, he says here, enable the scholar to understand Latin, and to write and read it not unlatinistically. He must then proceed to the authors, in order from them to gain a fuller knowledge of real things, a better style, and practical readiness. He must not restrict himself to Cicero, as he neither contains all Latinity, nor all subjects. Terence and Plau- tus must be read with caution, on account of the immoral character of some of their contents. For speaking Latin, however, they are the best ; as is Cicero for the construction of periods. For the laconic style, Seneca is the model, Virgil for the epic, Ovid for the elegiac, and Horace for the lyric. An acquaintance with real objects can be gathered from Pliny, Vitruvius, Cresar, and others. Authors must be read thoroughly, and extracts and imitations may be written ; this last in part by means of translations and re-translations; and then abridgments and continuations come, and finally the contents of the classics are to be transferred to other persons, relations, etc. For this purpose the scholar must adopt only a single model, Cicero for in- stance, and train himself to a style by daily and hourly exercises^ * This, he says in his treatise upon the school at Patak in three classes, the necessity of ad- ding a fourth, and its purpose. See below, Schola pansophica. t Opp. did., 2. 199. J " For he must feel himself so transferred into his author's spirit, that nothing will be grateful to h : s ears, which has not the sound of Cicero.' 1 lb., 203. 392 JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. upon that model. Yet he must be very careful lest he become a mere empty phraseologer.* Comenius expresses himself with greater rigor against the heathen books, in his earlier Didactica Magna.\ " Our schools," he says, " are Christian only in name ; Terence, Plautus, Cicero, rule over them. Therefore it is 'that our learned men, even our theologians, be- long to Christ only in externals, while Aristotle has the real authority over them. Day and night they study the classics, and neglect the Holy Scriptures. Shall our boys, for the sake of a style, study the indecency of Terence, Plautus and the like ? Shall we in this way cast oil upon the fire of men already lost? Although these authors have many good portions, still, the evil they contain sinks at once deep into the souls of the boys. Even the better of the classics, Cicero and Virgil for instance, have whole pages entirely unchristian. Yet, as Israel took the vessels of the Egyptians,^ so many learned men of confirmed Christian character, make collections of extracts from the classics, which may be read by youth without danger. Per- haps Seneca, Epictetus and Plato, only, may be put whole into the hands of youth already confirmed in Christianity." But to avoid any misunderstanding, as if he had forbidden without explanation, to read the classics, he refers to the promise of Christ, that believers shall be harmed neither by serpents nor by poison. Only boys who are yet weak in the faith, must not be exposed to such serpents, but fed with the pure milk of God's word. He expresses himself in the strongest manner upon the study of the ancients, in one of his latest pedagogical works, which he has named " The Winnowing-fan of Wisdom." Here he says, " We have seen in very recent times frightful examples of kings and queens,]] who, seduced by heathen books, have despised the simplicity of the gospel. If such learned men as Lipsius and others, who have become drunk with the classics, should be examined, there would be found in them nothing like David's pleasure in the law of God, but on the other hand a disgust with it." * "Not without reason did the wise Buchhottzer write, ' I dislike the Italian Ciceronians, because they speak only words ; not things. Their rhetoric, for the most part, is Ko\aictvTiicii. It is a glo*s without a text, a nut without meat, a cloud without rain. Their feathers are bet- ter than (he birds themselveu.' " Comenius was evidently acquainted with the Cicnronianus of Erasmus; and like him, he found especial fault with the paganism of Uembo and the other Italians. t Opp. did., 147. J Thi* same comparison occurs in Augustine's Confessions, (7, 9,) in relation to the read* ing of the heathen philosophers by Christians. J Ventilabrum sapientiae. Ojtp. did., 4, 47. A remarkable retractation. I Referring apparently to Christina of Sweden. JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. 393 As to the reading of the ancients, Comenius was in the same per- plexity with many other Christian teachers. He feared the influence of the heathen books upon youth ; but at the same time these samo Christian youth must learn thoroughly to speak and read Latin. Latin would be, without doubt, best learned by the repeated reading of Terence ; but then again Terence is so indecent ! How was this dilemma to be solved ? VI. ORBIS PICTUS. Besides the three school books with which we have become ac- quainted, the Vestibulum, the Janua and the Atrium, Comenius wrote a fourth. This is the Orbis Pictus, which, since its first ap- pearance in the year 1657, has been, during nearly two hundred years, down to the present time, and in the most various forms, the favorite book for children. Comenius had deeply felt the imperfec- tion of his school books in one respect. He desired that the begin- ning of teaching should be always made, by means of dealing with actual things ; and in the school-room, there was nothing which could be thus used. " It may be observed," he writes to the book- seller, Michael Endter, of Nuremburg,* " that many of our children grow weary of their books, because these are overfilled with things which have to be explained by the help of words ; things which the boys have never seen, and of which the teachers know nothing." By the publication of the Orbis Pictus, however, he says, this evil will be remedied. We have seen that Comenius was desirous that the text of his Vestibulum, long before, should contain pictures ; but he could find no artists capable of designing the pictures, and cutting them on wood under his supervision. In the letter above alluded to, he most earnestly thanked Endter for having undertaken the designs. " This work," he writes to him, " belongs to you ; it is entirely new in your profession. You have given a correct and clear edition of the Orbis Pictus, and furnished figures and cuts, by the help of which, the at- tention will be awakened and the imagination pleased. This will, it is true, increase the expense of the publication, but it will be cer- tainly returned to you." Comenius says further, that the book will be very welcome in schools, since it is entirely natural to look at pictures ; and still more welcome, since now instruction may progress without hindrance, and neither learning nor teaching need delay, since what is printed in words may be brought before the eyes by sight, and thus the mind may be instructed without error. The letter is dated at Lissa, 1655, and is printed before the edition of the Atrium issued by Endter in 1659. 394 JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. I have thought it scarcely necessary to give a detailed description of this celebrated school book, for, as I have said, it has been pub- lished in innumerable editions, down to the present day. The old Or- bis Pictus, varies little as to text, from the Janua reserata ; it is the Janua with illustrations. The cuts in the later editions are clearer than in the old ; but the variations of the texts are not successful. The comparison is especially strikingbetween the forty-second cut, en- titled "Of the soul of man," in the edition of 1659, and the same in the edition of 1755. In the first, the soul is very ingeniously repre- sented in a bodily shape, by uniform 'points, without light or shade, like a phantom. The artist evidently wished to indicate that the soul, so to speak, was present throughout the whole body. In the Orbis Pictus of 1755, on the other hand, the picture is an eye, and on a table the figures I.I. II. I.I.II. It is difficult to recognize in this an expressive psychological symbol, and to explain it. The Janua reserata of Comenius, notwithstanding its former great celebrity, is forgotten ; the Orbis Pictus, on the contrary, is known and liked by many, if not in its old form, at least in a new one. The principle that the knowledge of things and of words should go hand in hand, was, it is true, laid down by Comenius in the preface of the Janua, but was not realized in the book itself. Hence, very naturally, the complaints of teachers and scholars, of the incompleteness of the book. But in the Orbis Pictus this principle was found to be realized as far as possible ; and many persons* said that they did not need the Vestibulum and the Janua, fur that the shorter way in the Orbis Pictus, was enough. There was, it is true, a world-wide difference between what Comenius originally sought an acquaintance with things themselves, before any knowledge of words relating to those things and the actual use made of the scarcely recognizable pictures of these originals in the Orbis Pictus, in connection with the reading of the text. Yet this is at least a beginning ; and who can tell what may be, in the course of time, developed from it ? Basedow's elemen- tary book is the Orbis Pictus of the , eighteenth century. Chodo- wieck's pictures in this work, are much superior to the old wood-cuts of the Orbis; but in other respects, how far does the godless Elemen- tary Book, filled with false explanations and superficial and materialis- tic realism, fall behind the ancient earnest and religious Orbis Pictus ! A very valuable commendation of the Orbis Pictus is to be found in the luagoye of Joh. Matth. Gesner.f " For beginners in language," says Gesner, " books are proper, from which, at the same time, a Opp. did., 3, 830. 1 1,112. JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. 395 knowledge of things themselves may be gained. For the younger scholars, especially, the Orbis Pictus of Comenius, which T very much like. Not that the work of Comenius is complete ; but we have no better." I repeat, the Orbis Pictus was the forerunner of future develop- ment; and had for its object, not merely the introduction of an in- distinct painted world into the school, but, as much as possible, a knowledge of the original world itself, by actual intercourse with it. VII. COMENIUS' PLAN OF STUDY. A. Three schools. Academy. Comenius, in his Didactica Magna, gives a general plan of study, which, upon comparison with the school ordinances of Saxony and Wurtemberg, already mentioned, appears to have been generally similar to existing ones. He proposes the four following classes of institutions; A. Schola materna, (mother's school;) B. Schola ver- nacula, (vernacular school ;) C. Schola Latino, (Gymnasium ;) D. Ac- ademia, (University.) A mother's school, he says, should be in every house ; a vernacu- lar school in every municipality ; a Latin school in every city, and a university in each kingdom or large province. Pupils are to remain in the mother school until their sixth year, from the sixth to the twelfth in the German, and from the twelfth to the eighteenth in the Latin, and from the eighteenth to the twenty- fourth at the university. In the mother school the external senses especially are to be trained in the right apprehension of things; in the German school, the inner senses ; the imagination and the memory. Here, also, must the pictures of things which are impressed upon the mind through the external senses, be together brought out into expression, by the hand and the tongue, by reading, writing, drawing, singing, etc. In the gymnasium, the understanding and the judgment are to be trained by comparing, distinguishing, and the deeper investigation of things. In the university, the will is to be cultivated. After this Comenius proceeds to describe each of his four schools, A. The Mother School. \Ve should pray for the Menu sana in corpore sano, but should use means for it also. Even during pregnancy, the mother should pray for the well-being of the embryo, should live upon suitable diet, and should keep herself as quiet and comfortable as possible. She herself must nurse the new-born child ; it is a most injurious custom which prevails, especially among nolU ladies, of employing nurses; 396 JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. a custom harmful both to mothers and children, and contrary to God and to nature. Even the wolves and the swine suckle their own young.* From vanity or convenience, nurses are often employed who are weaker than the mothers themselves. No high-seasoned food should be given to children, and still less any heating drink ; the Spartans dared drink no wine until their twentieth year. Unnecessary medicine is poison to children. They should be aMowed to play as much as they wish. During the first six years, the foundation should be laid for all that they are to learn in all their lives. In physics, they should begin to learn to know stones, plants, beasts, etc. ; and the names and uses of the members of their own body. In optics, they should begin to distinguish light and darkness and colors ; and to delight their eyes with beautiful things. In astronomy, they should learn to know the sun, moon, and stars, and that the moon is sometimes full and sometimes sickle-shaped. They should begin geography with the knowledge of the cradle, the room, the farm, the streets, the fields ; chronology, with the knowledge of day and night, hours, weeks, and festivals ; history, with the knowledge of what happened to themselves yesterday and the day before ; politics, with the knowledge of domestic economy ; arithmetic, with counting, etc. ; geometry, with understanding the ideas of length and breadth, lines, circles, an inch, an ell, etc. ; music, with hearing singing, (in the third year they will be able to join in psalm singing;) grammar, with the pronunciation of syllables and easy words ; rhetoric, with the making of gestures, and the under- standing of the gestures of others. Thus we see the beginning of all the sciences and arts, in the earliest childhood. Even then the children will take pleasure in poetry, rhythm and rhyme.f Comenius now proceeds to the beginning of the first or ethical part of religious instruction ; he requires above all things, that the par- ents should set a good example ; and he inveighs strongly against the unjustifiable spoiling of children, and the want of a wholesome 4> Have you nourished with your own blood the child which you carried beneath your heart for so many months, to deny it milk now, when that very milk was given by God for the chUd. not for the mother 7 It is much more conducive to the health of the infant, to suckle its own mother than a nurse, because it has in the womb already become accustomed to nutriment from its mother's blood." t Comenius give* specimens of rhyme^o amuse the children, as: " O mi pulle, mi^ttllt. dormi belle ; Claude bellot tu ocellot, euros pelle." JOHN AMOS COMEMOS. 397 Strictness.* He also gives directions how to train them to modera- tion, purity, and obedience ; and to silence, as soon as they cau speak fluently, and not to speak merely in order to learn to speak. In baptism, children should be given back to their Creator and Saviour; and from that time they should be prayed for and taught to pray ; should learn the Lord's Prayer, the creed, , Ac. . lb., U3. 'Ib, I'-O. Saepe rogare ; rogata tenere ; retenta docere. Hacctria discipulum fnciunt *u- perare magistrum. *Ib.,251 406 JOHN AMOS COMENIUS. may look forward for a glance at his followers. Erasmus, Vives, Cam- panella, and especially Bacon, had, as we have seen, great influence upon him. A fifth stands in still closer relation to him, both in time and intellectual connection ; namely, Wolfgang Ratich.* Many of Comenius' principles seem to have been taken from Ratich. Among these are, the recommendation of the natural method instead of the prevailing unnatural one, the insisting upon the study of the mother tongue, the rejection of punishment in instruction, the preference of practice over theoretical rules, the acquisition of a knowledge of sub- stiinces before the analytical treatment of their accidents, &c. By a comparison of our descriptions of the characters of Ratich and Co- menius, the reader will find still other similarities, and also important differences. Although, for example, both were Christians; Ratich was a decided adherent of the Lutheran confession, while Comenius' highest ideal was a union of all confessions. Ratich's method of teaching Latin is entirely different from Comenius' ; for while the lat- ter requires every scholar to be continually taking an active part in the instruction, Ratich makes the teacher only read, and imposes up- on the scholar a Pythagorean silence. The influence of Comenius upon later pedagogues, and especially upon the Methodians, is immeasurable. It is often difficult to judge whether they knew him, or in their own way discover the same things. In Rousseau, Basedow, and Pestalozzi, we shall find much that is entirely in agreement with Comenius, of which, however, I will not here anticipate my description. In the course of this history I shall have frequent occasion to mention this extraordinary man, for the reason that his works contain the germs of so many later devel- opments. Comenius is a grand and venerable figure of sorrow. Wandering, persecuted and homeless, during the terrible, and desolating thirty years' war, he never despaired ; but with enduring and faithful truth, labored unweariedly to prepare youth, by a better education, for a better future. His undespairing aspirations seem to have lifted up, in a large part of Europe, many good men, prostrated by the terrors of the times, and to have inspired them with the hope, that by a pious and wise system of education, there would be reared up a race of men more pleasing to God. Adolph Tasse,f a learned professor at Hamburg, writes : " In all the countries of Europe, the study of a better art of teaching is pursued with enthusiasm. Had Comenius * Comenius. as we have related, applied to Ratich by letter, for information respecting the hitter's method, but received no answer. He, however, knew Helwig's Report; and proba- oly the Methodiu institutionia nota Ralichii et Jtatichianorvm, which appeared in H'26. t Tasse, author of many mathematical work*, died 1654. The letter seems to be dated, 1010. Opp. did., 1, 155. JOHN AMOS COMEMUS. 407 attempted nothing more than to sow such a seed of suggestions in the souls of all, he would have attempted enough." I have mentioned that Comenius wrote, in his 77th year, a Con- fession, from which we may become acquainted with his piety, his deep love, his unwearied aspirations to-do good in the most various ways. The title of this book is, " The one thing needful to know ; needful in life, in death, and after death, which the old man, Amos Comenius, weary with the uselessness of this world, and turning to the one thing needful for himself, in his 77th year, gives to the world to consider." I will conclude my description with an extract from this remarkable book.* "I have described the universal labyrinthf of the human race; shall I now record my own errors ? I would pass them over in silence, did I not know that there have been spectators of my deeds and of my sorrows ; did I not fear to cause scandal by errors not repaired. But since God gives me a heart desirous of serving the common good, and has caused me to play a public part ; and, since some of my ac- tions have been blamed, I have thought it necessary to make mention of it, to the end that, although some have thought me, or still think me, a model of forwardness and gratuitous pains, they may see, by my example, how a man may err with the best intentions, and may learn, by my recollections, either to avoid the same, or, like me, to repair them. The apostle says, ' For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.' This ought every true servant of God to apply to himself, so that if he has committed any error, he may confess it to God, and if lie has learned to amend it, he may, as soon as possible, make use of his knowledge. " I also thank God that I have, all my life, been a man of aspira- tions. And, although he has brought me into many labyrinths, yet he has so protected me that either I have soon worked my way out of them, or, he has brought me by his own hand, to the enjoyment of holy rest. For desire after good, if it is always in the heart, is a living stream that flows from God, the fountain of all good. The blame is ours if we do not follow the stream even to its source, or to its outflow into the sea, where is fullness and satiety of good. Yet, be- sides, by the goodness of God, who always brings us through the many errors of our labyrinths, by the sacred Ariadne's clue of his wisdom, in the end, back again into himself, the spring and ocean of all good. * The Latin title of the book, which lies before me, is: " Unum necessariuin in vita et morte et post mortem, quod non-necesaariis mundi fatigatus et ad unum necessarium e recipiens senex J. A. Couienius anno aetati suae 77 miintlo expendemlum oflVrt. Terent. Ad omnia aetate sapimus rectius. Edit Amstelodami 1668, nunc vero r ecu sum Lipsie I7W." t In the beginning of the book he explains the story of the labyrinth of Mino, a* an in- structive picture of the manifold errors of man ; hence the frequent refrrercw to It. 408 JOHN AMOS COMENIU8. To me, also, this lias happened ; and I rejoice, that after so innume- rable longings after better things, I have always been brought nearer to the end of all my wishes ; since I see that all my doings hitherto have been the mere running up and down of a busy Martha, (yet from love to the Lord and his children !) or a change from running to rest. But now, at last, I lie with Mary at the feet of Jesus, and say, with David, 'This is my delight, that I believe in God!' " One of my chief employments has been the improvement of schools ; which I undertook, and continued for many years, from the desire to deliver the youth in the schools, from the difficult labyrinth in which they are entangled. Some have held this business foreign to the office of theologians ; as if Christ had not connected together and given to his beloved disciple, Peter, at the same time, the two commands: 'Feedjny sheep,' and, 'Feed my lambs !' To him, my everlasting love, I give everlasting thanks that he has put into my heart, and blest, such a love to his lambs, that things have turned out as they have. I hope and confidently expect it from my God, that my plans will come into life, now that the winter of the church is over, the rain has been heard, and the flowers are springing in the land ; when God shall give to his flock shepherds after his own heart, who will feed not themselves, but the Lord's flock ; and when the enmity which is directed against the living, shall cease, after their death. " My second wearisome and difficult labyrinth was, my labors after peace ; or my desire to unite together, if it should please God, the parties of Christians who were contending together over various arti- cles of faith, in a most harmful manner ; which effort cost me much pains. Upon this subject, I have not committed any thing to print ; but may yet do it. That I have not published any thing, is by rea- son of the implacableness of certain people, whose furious hatred true friends thought it unadvisable for me to draw upon myself. But I will yet publish it, for, after all, we must fear God rather than men.* Our times have been like the experience of Elias upon Horeb, when be did not dare come forth from the cave, by reason of the storm- wind, the fire and the earthquake from before the Lord. But the time will come when Elias shall hear the still small voice, and shall recognize in it the voice of the Lord. To each one his own Babylon yet seems beautiful ; and he believes it the very Jerusalem, which must give precedence to none, but all to it. It is called insolence, if any one, trusting in God and his own good purposes, dares to address himself to the whole world, and to admonish it to amendment. We * This work remained unaccomplished, on account of his death. JOHN AMOS COMENID8. 409 are all assembled together upon the great theatre of the world, and what happens here or there concerns all. We are all one great family. By the same right by which one member of a family comes to another for help, ought we to be helpful to our fellow men. The whole of the Holy Scripture preaches love of our neighbor, and sound reason teaches the same. Socrates died, rather than not to teach goodness; and Seneca says, that if wisdom were to be given him for himself only, and he were not to communicate it to any other, he would rather not have it. " Besides this, I fell, but, according to the will of God, into another strange labyrinth : in that I published the divine prophecies which have been accomplished down to our times, under the title, Lux in tenebris, or e tenebris. This brought upon me much pains and labor, and also much fear, enmity, and hate ; and I was derided for my cre- dulity. Although some of these prophecies may not come to fulfill- ment, I shall avoid, being angry thereat, as Jonah was, to his sorrow. For perhaps God has cause to change his purposes, or, at least, the revelation of them ; perhaps he chooses thus to show that without him men know nothing; in order, at a future time to show what he can do without man, or by means of them, if he shall have brought them into accordance with his own will. " Where shall I now begin, after so many labyrinths and Sisyphian stones, with which I have been played all my life ? Shall I say with Elias : ' Now, Oh Lord, take away my life from me, since I am no bet- ter than my fathers;' or with David : 'Forsake me not, Oh Lord, in my age, until I shall have prophecied all that thine arm shall bring to pass.' Neither, that I may not be unhappy with painful longing for the one or the other ; but I will have my life and death, my rest, and my labor, according to the will of God ; and with closed eyes will follow wherever he leads me, full of confidence and humility, praying, with David : ' Lead me in thy wisdom, and at last receive me into glory.' And what I shall do hereafter, shall happen no oth- erwise than as if directed for me by Christ, so that the longer I live the more I may be contented with what is needful for me, and may burn up or cast away all that is unnecessary. Would that I were soon to depart to the heavenly country, and leave behind me all earthly things ! Yea, I will cast away all the earthly cares which I yet have, and will rather burn in the fire, than to encumber myself further with them. "To explain this, my last declaration, more clearly, I say that a little hut, wherever it be, shall serve me instead of a palace ; or if I have no place where to lay my head, I will be contented after the example 410 JOB N AMOS CQMENIUS. of my master, though none receive me under his roof. Or I will re- main under the roof of the sky, as did he during that last night upon the Mount of Olives, until, like the beggar Lazarus, the angels shall receive me into their company. Instead of a costly robe, I will be contented, like John, with a coarse garment. Bread and water shall be to me instead of a costly table, and if I have therewith a few vegetables, I will thank God for them. My library shall consist of the threefold book of God ; my philosophy shall be with David, to consider the heavens and the works of God, and to wonder that He, the Lord of so great a kingdom, should condescend to look upon a poor worm like me. My medicine shall be a little eating and frequent fasting. My jurisprudence, to do unto others as I would that they should do unto me. If any ask after my theology, I will, like the dying Thomas Aquinas for I, too, shall die soon take my Bible, and say with tongue and heart, ' I believe what is written in this book.' If he asks further about my creed, I will repeat to him the apostolical one, for I know none shorter, simpler, or more expressive, or that cuts off all controversy. If he ask for my form of prayer, I will show him the Lord's Prayer; since no one can give a better key to open the heart of the father than his only son, his own offspring. If any ask after my rule of life, there are the ten commandments ; for I believe no one can better tell what will please God than God himself. If any seek to know my system of casuistry, I will answer, every thing pertaining to myself is suspicious to me ; therefore I fear even when I do well, and say humbly, ' I am an unprofitable servant, have patience with me !' " But what will admirers of earthly wisdom say to this ? they will, no doubt, laugh at the old fool, who, from the highest pinnacle of his honors, falls to the lowest self-abasement. Let them laugh, if it pleases them ; my heart will also laugh, that it has escaped from error. ' I have found the harbor, farewell fate and accident !' says the poet. I say, I have found Christ ; depart, ye vain idols ! He is all to me. His footstool is more to me than all the thrones of the earth, and his lowliness more than all grandeur. It seems to me that I have found a heaven below the heavens, since I see more clearly than of old the footsteps of this guide toward heaven. To follow these footsteps without departing from them, will be my surest way to heaven. My life here was not my native country, but a pilgrimage ; my inn was ever changing, and I found nowhere an abiding resting place. But now I see my heavenly country near at hand, to whose gates my Leader, my Light, my Saviour, who has gone before, to prepare a place for me in his father's house, has brought me. He PEDAGOGICAL WORKS OF COMENIUS. 4 J j will soon come to take me to be where he is. Yea, Lord Jesus, I tharfk thee, thou beginner and finisher of my faith, who hast brought me, a foolish wanderer, straying a thousand ways from the direction of my journey, diverted and delayed in a thousand by-occupations, so far that now I see before me the bounds of the promised land, and have only to cross the Jordan of death, to attain even unto thy love- liness. I praise and glorify thy holy wisdom, O my Saviour, that thou hast given me on this earth no home ; but that it has been for me only a place of banishment and pilgrimage ; and I can say with David, 'I am thy pilgrim and thy citizen.' I can not say, like Ja- cob, 'My days are few, and they attain not unto the days of my fa- thers,' for thou hast caused it to come to pass that they surpass the days of my father and my grandfather, and many thousands who have passed with me through the desert of this life. "Why thou hast done this, thou knowest. I commit myself into thine hands. Thou hast always sent an angel unto me, as unto Elias in the desert, with a morsel of bread and a draught of water, that I should not die of hunger and thirst. Thou has preserved me from the universal foolish- ness of men, who always mistake pleasure for real good ; the road for the destination ; striving after rest; the inn for a home; and pil- grimage for their country ; but me hast thou led, and even forced, to thy Horeb. Blessed by thy holy name !" PEDAGOGICAL WORKS OF COMEMUB. 1. J.tNUA LlNGUARUM RE8ERATA AUREA 8IVE 8EMINAR1FM LINGCARUM ET 8CIENTIARUM OMNIUM, hoc est, compendiosa Latinam (ft quarnlibet aliam) linguam, una cum scientiarum artium que omnium fundamentis, perdiscendi meihodus, sub titnlis centum, periodis mille comprehensa. Kditio postrema, prioribus castiga- tior et mille eirciter vocabulis auctior, cum versions Germanics et Gallic*, abso- lutissimoque titulorum et vocum indice. Amstelodami apud Joannem Jansaoni- nm. 1642. I am not acquainted with the first edition. Comenius' preface is signed with ' Scribebam in exilio 4 Martii. 1631." 2. PHYSICAE AD LUMEN DIVINUM REFORMATAE SYNOPSIS. Lipsiae, 1633. 3. ORBIS SENSUALISM PICTUS, hoc est omnium fundamentalium in mundo re- rum et in vita actionum, picture et nomenclature. Kditio secunda, multo emacu- latior et emendatior. Noribergae typis et sutnptibus Michaelis Emlti-ri, 1639. The visible world ; that is, the representation and names of all the principal things of the world and occupations of life. I am unacquainted with the first edition. Of the later ones, I have an Orbis Pictus Quadrilinguis, in Latin, German. Italian, and French, which was edited by Coutelle and published by Endter, in 1755. 4. OPERA DIDACTICA OM.VIA, variis hucusque ocoasionibus scripta, diversis que locis edita, nunc antem non tantum in unum, nt simul sint, collect*, xed et ultimo conntu in systema unum mechanice constructum, redacta. Amsterdam) impen- sis D. Lanrentii de Geer excuderunt Christophorus Conradus et Gabriel a Roy. Anno, 1657. 4 vols., folio. Volume I. contains the following, written between 1627 and 1642 : 1. De primis occasionibus quibus hue studiorum delatus fuit author, brevissima relatio. 2. Didactics Magna. Omnes omnia docendi artificia exhibens. 3. Schola materni gremi, sive de provida juveiitutis primo sexennio education*. 412 PEDAGOGICAL WORKS OF COMENIUS. 4. Scholae vernaculae dclineatio. 5. Janua Latinae linguae pritnum edita. (The first edition of the Janua.) 6. Vestibulum ei pracstructa. 7. Proplasma tcmpli Latinitatis Dav. Vechneri. 8. I > M-ninitiis Latin! studio. 9. Prodromus Pansophiae. 10. Variorum de eo censurae, &c. Volume II. contains treatises written from 1642 to 1650; especially those of his Swedish engagement, viz. : 1. De novis didactica studia continuandi oceasionibus. 2. Methodus linguarum novissima. 3. Latinae linguae vestibulum, rerum et linguae cardines exhibens. 4. Januae liuguarum novissimae elavis, grammatica Latino-vernacula. Volume III. contains treatises written by Comenius in Hungary, from 1650 to 1654, viz. : 1. De vocatione in Hungarian* relatio. 2. Scholae pansophicae delineatio. 3. De repertis studii pansophici obicibus. 4. De ingeniorum cultura. 5. De ingenia colendi primario instrumento, libris. 6. De reperta ad authores Latinos prompte legendos et clare intelligendos faci- li, brevi, amoenaque via. 7. Eruditionis seholasticae pars 1. Vestibulum, rerum et linguae fundamenta ponens. 8. Eruditionis seholasticae pars II. Janua rerum et linguarum structuram ex- ternam exhibens. This includes a. Lexicon januale. b. Grammatica jaaualis. c. Janualis rerum et verborum contextus, historiolam rerum continens. This is a revision of the Janua reserata, in one hundred chapters and one thousand para- graphs, as in the first edition. 9. Eruditiones seholasticae pars III. Atrium, rerum et linguarum ornamenta exhibens. This is, like the Janua, in one hundred chapters and one thousand paragraphs, but one grade above it. 10. Fortius redivivus, sive de pellenda scholis ignavia. 11. Praecepta morum in usutn juventutis collecta. Anno 1653. 12. Leges bene ordinatae scholae. 13. Orbis Pictus. Merely a sort of announcement of the work. 14. Schola ludus ; hoc est, Januae linguarum praxis comica. This is, substan- tially the contents of the Janua linguarum in the form of a dialogue. 15. Laborum scholasticorum in Hungaria obitorum coronis. An educational address delivered at his departure from Patak, in 1654. Volume IV. includes the treatises written by Comeuius in Amsterdam, up to the year ] 657, viz. : 1. Vita gyms, sive de occasionibus vitae et quibus autorem in Belgium deferri, iterumque ad intermissa didactica studia redire contigit. 2. Parvulis parvulis, omnibus omnia, hoc est, Vestibuli Latinae linguae aucta- riuni. voces primitivns in sentontiolas redigens. 3. Apologia pro Latinitate Januae linguarum. 4. Ventilabrum sapientiae, sive sapienter sua retractandi ars. 5. E pcholasticis iabyrinthus exitus in planum, sive machina didactica mechau- ice constructa. 6. I.atium redivivum, hoc est, de forma erigendi Latinissimi collegii, seu novae Romanae civitatulae, ubi l.atiiia lingua usu et consuetudine addiscatur. 7. Typographeum vivum, hoc est ; arscom pendiose et tamen copiose ac ele- gantcr sapientiam non chartis sed ingeniis imprimendi. 8. Paradisus juventuti Christianae reducendus, sive optimus scholarum status, ad primae paradisiaeae seholae ideam delineatus. 9. Tr.-ulitio lampadis, hoc est studiorum sapientiae Christianaeque juventutis et Bcholarum, Deo et hominibus devota commendatio. 10. Piiralipomena didnctica. It may be added, that Comenius revised an edition which appeared in 1661, of the Theologia naturalis sive liber creaturarum of Raymundus de Sabunde. EDUCATION IN PERIODS OF WAR AND PEACE. [Translated from the German of Karl Von Raumer, for the American Journal of Education ) I. THE THIRTT YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. THE " Thirty Years' War/' which broke out in 1618-19, is the most dreadful period in the history of Germany. Its armies were great bands of murderers and robbers. The spirit of peace and holy order had entirely perished ; and murder, license, and robbery reigned without opposition. So fearful were the results of devastation and impious recklessness, that pious men began to doubt even of the gov- ernment of God. "The country was desolated, plundered, empty of men a desert for wolves and savage beasts. Of schools and teach- ers nothing was said."* The histories of those German institutions which date back to the thirty years' war confirm these statements. I shall quote a few of them. The Protestant school at Friedberg, in Hesse, suffered during that time "immeasurable evils." The pestilence and poverty which re- sulted from the war robbed it of many of its scholars. In 1630 it was almost destroyed by the Austrians and Bavarians; but was re- established f in 1631, when the Swedes entered Friedberg, after the siege of Leipzig by Gustavus Adolphus. The Protestant gymnasium flt Hersfeld was put in possession of Catholic priests and Jesuit teachers in 1829. Tilly was at hand to enforce the Edict of Restitu- tion by arms, and raved fearfully about it. In 1G32 the gymnasium received its Protestant teachers back again ; but was entirely destroyed in 1634 by the imperial general, Gotz the teachers fleeing to Kassel and elsewhere. In 1636 instruction was again commenced; and, in 1637, when the imperialist troops again came to Hersfeld, it had to be closed. It was soon reopened, and vegetated painfully through * Raumer's "History of Europe," HI , 506. Two religions hymns, of the time of the thirty years' war. afford the deepest glimpse into the melancholy feelings of upright men. One by Meder, a pastor in the Circle of Leipzig, begin?, " When, oh when will it appear, our much- longed-for day of peace?" The other, by Martin Rinckart, (15 < f> 1W9.) it a parorty upon the Lord's Prayer. It begins, " Our father will no longer be the father of the miserable : " and azain, "Shall thy name be entirely forgotten upon earth?" and, -'Shall thy will ncTer more be done upon earth ? " It ends, however, with a hopeful prayer for relief, ami wi;h the words, "Thou hast the kingdom, and the power, and the glory over hell and drain." t-' Account of the Augustine School at Friedberg," by Trof. Ditffrnbach. Programme, 1325, p. 12, ice. 414 EDUCATION IN PERIODS OF WAR AND PEACE. those troubled times, until its first accession of renewed vigor, after the Peace of Westphalia.* Gottingen was besieged for nearly two months in 1626, and terribly bombarded. Under the pressure of the extremest want, the then celebrated rector, Georg Andreas Fabricius, accepted a call to the gymnasium at Mulhausen ; and with him there departed the other teachers and the pupils from other places.f He was afterward invited back to Gottingen, but in 1641 was without income and five hundred thalers in arrear. Schulpforte suffered much by the war. The minister, Martin Caulbel,j came to Pforte, August 2d, 1632, through the midst of Wallenstein's army. In the same year the pupils were dispersed by hostilities, and returned next year. In 1636 they were twice dis- missed, on account of attacks by the enemy; in 1647, when Field- Marshal Leslie had his winter-quarters near Pforte, they were dis- missed for seventeen weeks ; there being no means of subsistence either for them or the teachers. On the 18th of February, 1639, both teachers and pupils were again dispersed by Bannier's cavalry. When the minister of Schulpforte returned, on the 23d of the same month, with five scholars, they were obliged by necessity to eat oaten bread until the next harvest. On the 16th of April, 1641, the boys, twelve in number, were hunted away again by Duke Bernhard's forces, under General Rose. " God will repay the general and his soldiers at the last day," writes Besold, then the minister ; " for they tortured two of the pupils by cords twisted round their heads." On the 21st of May, Besold and two scholars returned to Pforte. The centennial festival of the institution fell in the year 1643; but such was the devastation of the war that only eleven boys sorrowfully cele- brated the memory of the foundation of the school. It was only to the school at Schweinfurt that the war seemed to bring good fortune. After the battle of Leipzig, Gustavus Adolphus entered Schweinfurt, October 2d, 1631. The citizens treated his troops exceedingly well, and gave much assistance in fortifying th.e city. In return, the Swedish king presented them with seventeen valuable villages,! wil.h the express condition that the rents and in- comes should be in part devoted " to the erection of a gymnasium for the glory of God and the benefit of studious youth." After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, at Lutzen, and the evacuation of the * " Hertfeld Gymnasium Programme," by Director Dr. Mtlnscher. 1836, p. 8, &c. t " GSttingen Gymnasium Programme," by Director Dr. Hirsleu. 1829, p. 22, &c. } H. E. Schmiederi, " Commenturii dt ritis Pastorum ct Inttpectorum Porlensium." 1838, p. 31, AT. i " History of the Latin School and Gymnasium at Schieeirifurt," by Prof. Wuinich. Pro- gramme for 1831. p. 4, &c. I The letter of gift wa dated at Frankfort on the Main, March 3d, 1638. EDUCATION IN PERIODS OF WAR AND PEACE. 415 territories of Wurtzburg by the Swedes, the bishop resumed posses- sion of the villages, which had been his property before. Notwith- standing, the magistrates added to the already existing six classes of their Latin school a seventh, with the name of Gymnasium Gustavia- num. This was consecrated in 1634, and the burgomaster, (Dr. Bausch,) a senator, and several clergymen, undertook to give instruc- tion in it gratis. The honorable public spirit of the citizens maintained the school under the severest misfortunes of the war;* and it only ceased to exist, at the end of one hundred and seventy years, in 1804. A gymnasium was founded in Stargard by the legacy of Burgo- master Peter Groning, and was opened in September, 1633. But, in 1635, the city was besieged by the imperialists, and became a prey to the flames only the church of St. Peter and nineteen houses remain- ing. The gymnasium building itself was also burnt, and the teachers were dispersed. For some time there was no school held. Two teachers then gradually gathered the scholars again, and one of them, Conroctor Bindemann, was appointed rector, after there had been none for eleven years.f The gymnasium at Goldberg, once famous far and wide, by means of Trotzendorf, quite perished in 1621, as did that of Beuthen, in 1629. Thaftof Oels fell into great distress. In 1639 an imperial regiment was quartered in Oels; in 1640 the city was besieged, un- successfully, by the Swedes, taken and plundered by them in 1642, and afterward taken by the imperialists. Biebing, rector of the gym- nasium, wrote at that time, " Truly, among so many and so groat miseries, to live in Oels means to starve, to die before our time, and daily to have a foretaste of the torments of hell."J In 1648, the year of peace, Duke Georg Rudolph established a school for princes in the church of St. John, at Liegnitz. He be- stowed upon it the revenues of the late Goldberg gymnasium, as he says in his decree of establishment, dated 28th of April, 1646, "for the re-establishment, renovation, and improvement of all the praise- worthy institutions of our forefathers, for church and school, which it has been an impossibility to maintain, by reason of the thirty years' war." So much may suffice to show how destructive was the effect of the terrible desolation of the thirty years' war on the schools of our un- fortunate fatherland. * Octavio Piccolonlini bombarded Schweinfurt, after the battle of Norrtlinfen, with redliot balls, and took it ; and the Swedish general, Wangel, took it in 1647. The imperial fronpc alone had exacted from (he cily ransoms to the amount of 2SJ.610 ftilden. t " History of the Gymnasium of Stargard," by Director and School-Councilor Fltw. 1831, p. 6, &c. J ' Gymnasium Programme," by Director Dr. I-ange. 1841, p. 1C. Ac. $ " Gymnasium Programme of Li'gnitt," by Prorector M. K0hlr. 1837, p. 14. No. 19. iVou VII., No. 2.] 24. 416 EDUCATION IN PERIODS OP WAR AND PEACE. When, however, the war came to an end, this destruction was fol- lowed by a period of " re-establishment and renovation." We shall consider this more in detail, after we shall have become acquainted with the life and labors of Comenius, who lived and suffered through the whole of the thirty years' war. II. THR CKNTURY AFTER THE PKACE OF WESTPHALIA. After the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia, all good princes and magistrates of free cities took an interest in the re-establishment of schools. This was the more necessary since the generation which had grown up since and during the desolating thirty years' war had degenerated as well in morals and religion as in knowledge. The plans of school organization which appeared first after the war agree mostly with those of the sixteenth century. Latin continued the chief study ; and next was Greek. Programmes of a later date, in the end of the seventeenth and the first ten years of the next century, show a much altered character. The old studies were pursued no longer after the old methods ; and an increasing number of new ones were gradually introduced into the circle of learning. We will first consider the methods followed in teaching Latin. In the school-plan published in 1654, by the council of Frankfort on the Main, daily exercises in speaking Latin were required. "Any one," it says, " who shall speak otherwise than in Latin, or any thing indecent or blasphemous, shall be punished at the time of his trans- gression, but with good discretion. 1 ' Entirely in agreement with Trotzendorf, Sturm, and the Jesuits. Whether this kind of speaking Latin were judicious, Feuerlein, inspector of the Nuremberg Gymna- sium, doubts.* "Hitherto," he says, "our leges have required of the boys even in the lower classes, sub pocna, to speak nothing but Latin ; with the intention, besides the usu expeditiore kujus Zm7WC5,that they should not be able to chatter so much with each other." Others, on the other hand, were so "scrupulos" that they would not require any speaking whatever of Latin from the boys, in order that they might not become used to a vulgar Latin.f There should be a middle way between this excessive scrupulosity, " for the sake of preserving the language of the young by means of Latin, or rather the Latin by * " The Falet hitherto of the Nuremberg Gymnasium of St. jEgidius. rebuilt from the ground out of its ashes, in three completed periods; and the institution for instruction and discipline as renewed and improved in the fourth period, now passing," &<; By J. C. Feuer- lein. pastor of St. JSgidius and inspector of the gymnasium. 199, p. 95. > Feuerlein Cites here Wagenseil's " Prttcepta dt copia terborum " and " De stylo." (Joh. Chrirtoph Wagenseil, born at Nuremberg, 1633; died in 1706. while professor at Altorf; an eminent man of learning in his day. tie wrote, among oilier things, upon the education of a prince, who abhors study above all things.) He says, in the place quoted, ''Infants are forth- with taught to attempt I .at in expressions ; boys are forbidden, under severe penalties, from EDUCATION IN PERIODS OF WAR AND PEACE. 417 means of their tongue, and the fear that the boys would become ac- customed to mere sorry kitchen-Latin." They must not speak Latin among themselves, but only under the oversight of their teacher.* "As for the rest," says Feuerlein, "I do not believe it is necessary to forbid our youth from speaking Latin among themselves. Evidently speaking Latin began to be regarded with other eyes in the previous century, for it was required of all, even the youngest scholars. Having been regarded as a second mother-tongue for the boys, it had been taught like the mother-tongue. Just as the latter is at first spoken by infants in mere attempts, in a most disfigured manner, and only gradually with fewer faults, so the youngest scholars had been permitted to speak the most helpless, gibberish Latin. But now a different rule was established. The boys were rather to bo silent than to speak bad Latin ; and good Latin was to be learned by the continued reading of the classics. Was the Latin then no longer regarded as a second mother-tongue ? Such an altered state of af- fairs is indicated by the following facts. Previously, Latin had been learned from the Latin grammars; a practice which Ratich was the first to oppose.f He was followed by the school ordinances of the second half of the seventeenth century and the first decennium of the eighteenth. " In Quinta,' 1 ^ says the Frankfort school ordinance, "the new German grammar shall be used instead of the ' Compendium Grammaticce Giessensis? " Feuerlein, of Nuremberg,)] says that it is a question to be considered, " whether, in learning Latin, the use of a grammar written in Latin should be continued, or whether it would not be found best to introduce one written in German ? " Some made use of the German grammar of Seybold. The celebrated Mark grammar, prepared in 1728, by the rectors of Berlin, was in German. uttering a word except Latin at home, at school, or amongst their playfellows. Thus it hap- pens that, by saying whatever comes into their mouths, and many words which it would be better not to hear, they contract, unwisely, the habit, not of latin eloquence, but merely of Latin talk." * In like manner, it is said, in the " Ordinance of the Honorable Council of Hamburg for the Public St. John's School, 1732," that '-the youth shall speak Latin, especially in the two higher classes, and that there shall be examinations under the charge of the preceptor, to see that the boys speak Latin with each other." Page 15. t Anil after him Comenius and Balthazar Srhuppius (16101661.) The latter says : '-The first hindrance which makes the grammar difficult and unnatural is that (hey have to learn it in a language unknown to them ; that the pretcrpta grommaticti are laid before them in Latin ; and thus it is naught to teach them ignotum per tt'/ur ignolum, and to bring them, by means which they do not understand, to the attainment of a subject which they do not under- stand." B. Schuppius' Works, p. 161. J. M. Gesner's opinion was. that the une in German schools of grammars written in .Latin was not at all suitable for beginners, but only for Mich a* had, by other means, already obtained some knowledge of Latin. Qesner's " Minor Ger- man Writings," 302. I Sc. classi* ; 5lh c'ass. $ In Quarta, however, the Giessen grammar was used. I L. c , 64. 2 A 418 EDUCATION IN PERIODS OF WAR AND PEACE. A comparison of the earlier dramatic representations in the schools with the later ones is in place here.* Sturm required that, every week, a piece from Terence or Plautus should be acted ; his design being the attainment of facility in speaking Latin. Many schools followed his advice.f In Oels, Terence or the Colloquies of Erasmus were used; in Liegnitz,J in 1617, " Terentius Christianus" was rec- ommended. "Notwithstanding," the recommendation continue?, "let us adhere to the opinions of the renowned Herr Sturmius, whose counsel is to make use in the schools rather of recitations and scenic performances than of tedious readings and explanations of the come- dies and tragedies. In Gottingen, also, pieces from Plautus and Terence were represented. But this principle was not adhered to. At one time the teachers of gymnasiums themselves began to write pieces, sometimes very ex- traordinary, in Latin ; with the purpose of attaining the original end of practice in speaking Latin, and at the same time of avoiding the indecencies of Terence ; but after a time the use of German compo- sitions, which began as early as in the sixteenth century, seems to have altogether prevailed. There was no longer any pains taken about practice in speaking Latin. Among the Latin school -dram as, the "Behasar, Lutherus, and Jesulus comoedia sacra de nativitate" by Hirtzwig, rector at Frankfort, was celebrated. || Rector Tesmar caused to be exhibited, at Neustettin, in 1684, a comedy "De rustico ebrio qui princeps creabatur"^ At the gymnasium at Salzwedel, Alexander the Great, after Cur- tius, was exhibited.** It contained, besides the historical persons, the Angel Gabriel, Fame, a multitude of pages, a ghost, and a courier. Another piece was Epaminondas before the criminal court at Thebes. Between two Latin acts was introduced an entirely inappropriate Ger- man interlude, which represented the strife between choral and figural music ; in which Apollo and the muses appeared. In the drama of Hercules at the parting of the ways, there appeared the seven arts, three soldiers, three students who sang the students' song, whipping. "What is beaten into boy* excites their repu;rnanee for that very reason, and whipping makes them cowardly and slavish. As little should they be tempted to goodness by allurements or dainties, or rewarded by money, dress, &c. On the other hand, they should be influenced by praise, and blame. Esteem and disgrace are, of all others, the most powerful incentives to the mind, when once it is brought to relish them. If you can get into children a love of approbation, and an apprehension of shame and disgrace, you have put into them the true principles ; which will constantly work, and incline them to the right. . . . I This I look on as the great secret of education. Children are sufficiently sensible to praise or blame, when their father praises them if they are good, and when his behavior toward them is cold and careless whenever they are guilty of faults. Right conduct should be connected with praise, and wrong with blame ; children must learn how doing good will make them beloved by all, or how, in the opposite case, they will be despised and neg- lected. Thus the desire will grow up in them to gain the approbation of others, and to avoid that which will "make them contemptible. This seeking after approbation must be made the motive of their conduct until, at a riper age, they shall bi- fitter to be governed by a knowledge of their own duty, and that inward content which attends upon obedience to the Creator. What praise children deserve, they should receive in the presence of others. The reward is doubled when the praise is known. On the other hand, their faults should not be made known, for it makes them reckless. Like so many others of the methodologists, Locke here declares himself against corporeal punishment, except in a few cases, as we shall see. He also forbids allurements to the senses ; and, on the other hand, both here and elsewhere, he recommends the worst of allure- ments, that of ambition. Whoever, says Locke, knows how to awaken ambition in the child's soul, possesses the great secret of education. In this, he agrees entirely with his antipodes, the Jesuits. " In truth," says the Jesuits' plan of education, " he who knows how properly to awaken emulation, possesses the most valuable help in Pages 82106. t Compare Augustine, Conf., 1, 7. "It. is the weakness of the limbs of infants, which is innocent ; not their minds." ; Pages 106-149. JOHN LOCKE. 431 the profession of teaching, and that which is the only thorough means of instructing youth in the best manner." And when the boys have been allured to goodness by this most unchildlike and unchristlikc of all motives, then, says the philo.*opher, they will in their riper years adopt better principles without further trouble ! " Where there are no gods, phantoms reign." 4. PRECEPTS TO BE GIVEN TO THE CHILDREN.* Not too many should be laid down, of such rules as the children are scarcely able to obey. For, if the teacher holds them to the observance of such, he will be too strict; and, if they are laxly observed, his authority will perish. He should rather endeavor, by repeated friendly reminding, to accustom them to that in which they can learn well ; and thus he will avoid requiring too much at once, or what they are not able to comply with. Affectation is when the outward conduct of children does not conform to their inward impulses; or when these impulses are expressed in unsuitable ways. A plain, rude, spontaneous nature is better than one shaped by affectation. 5. MANNERS OF CHILDREN.! Children learn what are called manners, more by intercourse with well-man- nered men than by precept. A dancing-master will cure many awkwardnesses. And while nothing is so fitted to give children a proper confidence, and good car- riage, and to bring them into the company of their elders, as dancing, xtill I am of opinion that they should only learn to dance when their limbs are fit for it. For, though there is nothing more in its movements than outward grace, yet it awakens, I know not how, something of a man's ways of thinking, and a grave demeanor. Care must be taken not to find too much fault with the manners of young children ; many things will come of themselves, as they grow up. Above all things, parents should not give their .children into the care of serv- ants, but should keep them with themselves, as mucli as possible, yet without confining them. In justice to Locke's dancing-master, it should be remarked that no crazy waltzes were danced in his time, but polite and grave minu- ets ; and the instruction in dancing was a very torture for the feet ; now it is different ! Locke often speaks with disapprobation of .servants; yet mildly, in comparison with Rousseau, who calls them " the rabble of servants ; the lowest of men except their masters." 6. ADVANTAGES OK PRIVATE EDUCATIOS.J- Instruction away from home makes boys confident, and fit for intercourse with others ; and the consequent emulation has an effect upon their progress in learning. It, however, risks the innocence of the boys for a little Gre<--k and Latin. And the confidence acquired away from home usually ends in roughness and impu- dence : it is better that the boy should remain a little shy and awkward, for this will speedily wear off when he goes into the world. Among the motley army of wild boys, such as are usually gathered together at schools, children of pan-nts of nil conditions, it is difficult to guess what the boy will gain with which the fath r will be pleased. It is, therefore, better to employ a tutor at home, who will teach his pup 1 far better manners, and more manly ways of thinking: and a feeling for goodnew and propriety, will carry him much f;ister forward in all kinds of knowlrdg". ami will much sooner make him a ripe and established man, than is possible in the most extensive educational institution. Among so great a number f>f boy*, it i impossible to bestow proper care upon each one. It is not the foolish tricks and * Pages 149-161. t Pagea 161-172. I Paf 172 193. 432 JOHN LOCKE. deceits upon each other of school-boys, their rudeness to each other, their artful plans for robbing fruit orchards, which make an able and useful man ; it ia the virtues of uprightness, magnanimity, and moderation, together with observation and activity : noble attr.butcs, which school-boys can not communicate to each other. Home education under a tutor ia the best means of teaching virtue ; and that is the principal thing. Boys should be as early as possible brought into the company of their elders ; but the parents, especially, must not vex the boys. Maxima debetur pueris reverentia. Locke idolizes home education, and caricatures school life. Noth- ing would be easier than to reverse these praises ; to paint a good school, with a skillful rector, well-disposed scholars, loving each other and strengthening each other in every thing good ; and, on the other hand, to describe an incompetent or even wicked tutor, in an epicu- rean and unchristian, though noble, family ; a pupil exposed to cor- ruption from his parents and his teacher, abandoned to the care of servants, &c. 7, PARDONABLE AND PUNISHABLE FAULTS OF CHILDREN.* What the children are to do should not be laid before them as a task, for it then becomes a disgust to them. Even their play would be so, if they were forced to it. Children like an well to be free and independent as the proudest adults. A liking should be cultivated in them for what they are to learn, and they should usually be kept to work only when they feel inclined to it. The child will learn three times as fast, if he feel like it; and, on the other hand, he will need twice as much time and pains, if he is indisposed to the work. He should be made, if possible, himself to ask the teacher to teach him something. They must not, however, go idle ; and must learn to control themselves so far as to give up some favorite pursuit, if necessary, for one less agreeable. If it can be contrived that they will, themselves, perceive that what they see others do is a privilege of riper years, their ambition and desire to become equal with those whom they see to be beyond them will awaken their industry, and they will go to work with activity and pleasure that which they are to do being their own wish. The consciousness of freedom, which they love, will be found im small stimulus to them. The hope of gaining a good reputation, and the approbation of others, will be found to have great influence over them. It would be possible only under a private tutor, to attempt the plan of making the children study, only when they are so disposed. It is one of the prominent advantages of schools, that in them every thing goes by the stroke of the bell, and the boys quickly learn to conform themselves to strict regulations, independent of themselves. It is a disorder even of our times, that each one takes upon himself to demand his own, freedom ; and for himself to act in every thing according to his own views, wishes, or prejudices ; and thus it hap- pens that we have no more valuable public servants either in church or state. Impulse and conscience must work together in boys, or else, instead of them, the obscure, unloveable, and egotistical motive of ambition will act. Children should not be punished in anger, nor insulted. Blows are of service only against obstinacy and refractoriness; and, even then, shame and disgrace Pei 193-SM2. JOHN LOCKE. 433 17 be made to accomplish more than pain. Stripes arc to break the will ; and (hey must not be discontinued until this is done. And, even then, insignificant occasions should not be laid hold of 5 and patience should be used, except in case of malevolence. Children must be reasoned with. This they understand, as soon as they have a general understanding of any thing ; and they prefer, earlier than in thought, to be used like reasoning creatures. This is a pride which should be carefully cultivated, and made as influential an instrument as possible. It is evident of itself that they should be reasoned with, as far as their age will permit. Blows should not be given immediately after their cause, and while there may remain some anger from it; and it would be better to administer them by the hand of some intelligent servant, so that the pain may come more from the hand of another ; though at the command, and under the eyes, of the parents. Thus respect for them will be preserved, and the dislike which the pain awakens in the child will fall more upon the person by whom it is immediately occasioned. "Whipping in schools, hi the course of instruction in Latin and Greek, must be occasioned either by some thing unnatural and repulsive to the boys in those studies themselves, or by the method pursued in them. After a child gets so bad that all the whipping does not benefit it, there remains nothing for its father to do, except to pray for it. The tutor ought not to whip a child without the consent and advice of the father, until he shall have been well approved of. Blows given in holy anger make, perhaps, a deeper and stronger impression upon a child than those given by an entirely calm and reasoning teacher. More passionate anger is, of course, to be avoided. A child should never be punished by one whom*he does not love ; as, by a servant. Locke's recommendation reminds us of the Jesuits, and of the custom of the Spartans, who made their Helots drunk, to teach their children abhorrence for drunkenness. These are eminently unchristlike. We shall, hereafter, speak of reasoning with children. 8. THE REQUISITES OF A TUTOR. The father should treat the tutor with respect, that the child may follow his example. The tutor should present a good example to the child in every thing. Such a tutor it is hard to find ; as hard as to find a good wife for one's son. It is not enough that the tutor understands Latin and logic; his manners must have been trained in and to good society, or else his learning will be pedantry ; his simplicity and plainness, boorishness ; and his good nature, low hypocrisy. Elegant manners are not to be learned from books. In most eases, what a man accomplishes, depends more upon his manners than upon the affairs themselves ; and upon them only depends the pleasure or unpleasantness with which affairs are transacted. It is more the duty of the tutor than of any one else, to draw the attention of the pupil to every branch of good manners ; for one's faults are spoken of only behind his back. The instructor should have knowledge of the world, in order to communicate it to his pupil, especially that the latter may learn to observe men, and to estimate them as they are, neither as better nor worse. Without this instruction, the youth, when he goes out into the world, will be easily deceived. Of this he must be warned in time. Such knowledge as this is more important for him than Latin, and cramming his memory. The tutor needs not to be a man of finished learning, or to be a complete master of all the branches of knowledge into which the young man of the world is to be introduced only, and with which he is only to have a general systematic acquaint- ance. The pupil is to study, chiefly in order to use his powers to advantage, and to avoid idleness ; not to become a learned man. Seneca's expression is too true, among us : Non vitte ted scholtt discimus. The children ought to learn what they can use when men. 28 4.34 JOHN Parents should spare neither pains nor expense to procure the services of a good tutor. Locke, like Montaigne and Rousseau, describes an ideal tutor, whom to find, in reality, can only be expected by kings and princes ; and such men should have been educated not only in the schools, but in life, travel, Original ; " Gentleman." I,a Coste : " La. vertu la plus errellente de eft echoes, la plus ar>- antoffitrf d Vhommr. el en particular d une personne de bonne maison." Locke had said, previously, "A father should wish hie son lour things besides wealth : virtue, wisdom, knowl- edge of life, and learning." < La Coste : " Idte de dieu, telle qu'elle nous est sagement proposee dans le symbole del Apttres. " In the original, " as the creed wisely teaches." I Funk and Gedike remark here: "It would be difficult to avoid telling children some- thing about such thing*, for they can not easily go into the street without hearing a name which, together with the ideas connected with it, has, since before the Reformation, had mare currency with people of all ranks, and is therefore of more importance, in some respects, than the name or idea of the Highest and most worthy of love." It would delay me too long to consider here the ethics of Locke, his conception of virtue, his motives to it, &c. t Pages 418421. " Pages 421135. ertain care that out lemselves." I.a Br Pages 436-683. tf "The essence of politeness Is a certain care that our speech and our manners shall make others contented with us and with themselves." La Bruyt-re. JOHN LOCKE. 437 of teaching. The comparison of the man of great learning and the virtuous man, sounds very much like Montaigne, and more like Rousseau. 21. READING. As soon as the boy can speak, he must learn to read ; and this must be made not an affair of labor to him, but an amusement; for at this age all constraint is hateful. Toys may serve to teach him to read. For instance : a die with twen- ty-five faces, and the letters on them ; and a price set upon some letter which is to be shown. When the boy has learned the letters in this way, he may go on to spelling and reading. The fables of JEaop, with as many pictures as possible, offer a proper first read- ing-book. Children should receive their first impressions, not from words, but from things and the representations of things. "Reynard tke Fox " is also a good book for the purpose ! * The Lord's Prayer, the creed, and the commandments, should not be learned by rote by reading, but by having them repeated to the pupil.* The whole Bible is not a proper reading-book for children ; but only extracts from it should be used, for practice in reading and for instruction.; "Writing should be begun with directions for holding the pen correctly ; they may write red letters over again with black ink. Drawing should come in connection with writing ; especially learning to make sketches of neighborhoods, buildings, machines, &c., which may be of great ad- vantage in traveling. It would also be a good plan for the children to learn stenography. 22. LANGUAGES. The boy should learn French first, as this can be learned in the common way ; that is, by speaking. French should be learned early, as the true pronunciation will be learned with more difficulty at a later age. Latin, like French, should be learned by speaking it. But it should not be learned by all ; not by those who will not have any occasion for it during the rest of their lives; as, for example, by those who are to be merchants, or farmers, whose writing and arithmetic will be neglected while they are spending all their time in Latin. The boy should be spared the Latin grammar ; and should rather be put in cnarge of a man who shall always talk Latin with him. Thus he will soon learn the language like another mother tongue, as girls learn French from women. These Latin conversations may be made useful, by turning upon geometry, as- tronomy, chronology, anatomy, and some parts of history ; and upon things which lie within the sphere of the senses. The beginning should be made with things of this kind. * If no good speaker of Latin can be found, an entertaining book, like ^^Esop's fables should be taken, and a translation written of it in English, as literal as pos- sible, by writing in between the lines, over each Latin word, its English equiva- lent. This translation should be read and reread daily, until he quite under- stands the Latin, when he should take, in like manner, another fable ; reading over, however, that which he has already learned, to keep it in his memory. He should also write off the same fables, and learn the conjugation and declension by rote at the same time ; he will need to know no more than this of the gram- mar for the present. Locke here, and often afterward, follows Comenius, who would * This sounds much like Comenius. tUpon this. Campe remarks : " How, at this age 7 I can not *ee any (food reason for it." And Resewitz : "I do not understand it." In like manner Gedike : ' Lea*t of all should the ten commandment.-; be learned then, since they contain a morality only of the mont par- tial, incomplete, and indefinite kind. But they were not intended to be a manual of moral- ity ; and it is no reason for blaming Moses, that Christian teachers have made an elementary class-book of morals out of his criminal code ! " J Locke also recommends a catechism, by Worthington, in which all the answers are word for word from the Bible. 438 JOHN LOCKE. teach foreign languages and real things at the same time, by speak- ing those languages. The interlinear version of -m that the people had sent him money ; item, that he caught at the money of papists and all manner of visionaries." ' Footsteps," ch. 3, 94. t Franke's Institutions, 1, 382. 446 AUGUSTUS HERMANN FRANKE. study, forty-five in mechanic arts ; twenty-five girls, and seventeen per- sons in the household. 2. The seminary for teachers ; supporting seventy-five persons, whose board was free. 3. The extraordinary free table for sixty-four very poor students. 4. Eight school classes ; with eight hundred scholars, including one hundred and twenty-five orphan children; and sixty-seven teachers. 5. The Predagogium ; with seventy scholars, and seventeen teachers. 6. Bookstore and printing office ; fourteen persons. 7. Apothecary's shop ; eight persons. 8. Widows' house ; four widows. 9. Oriental college; eleven persons. In 1727, at Franke's death, the following return of the institution was made to King Fried rich Wilheltn I.* 1. The Paedagogium, eighty-two scholars, and seventy teachers and others. 2. The Latin school of the orphan-house ; with three inspectors, thirty-two teachers, four hundred scholars, and ten servants, tt t?/*." Part First, 45. t Niemeyer, 3. M6. Rector Mai, from FrankC's school, banished the Greek Classics from the gymnasium at Hersfeld, and substituted the reading of the New Testament, even to tl.e Apocalypse. (Programme of director Dr. Miiencher, 1837.) J By the subdivision of Srcunda, T^rtia, Quarln, and Quinta, the whole number of cls*e reached eleven. S Franke"'s Institution, 2, 14, &c. Further details upon the Pa?dagogium are given in Frank's book, " Complete order and method of teaching for the Piedagogium.' 1 1*01. 452 AUGUSTUS HERMANN FRANKE. " Besides the grounds of true Christianity, they will be instructed in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French languages, as well as in a good German style, and in writing a good hand ; also in arithmetic, geogra- phy, chronology, history, geometry, astronomy, music, botany, and anatomy, besides the chief principles of medicine, * * * and more- over, in the hours of diversion, they find opportunity to learn turning, glass-grinding, painting, writing, f our Jntellect, and for this reason the body must be sound and strong.) Gymnastics gave to the ancients that strength of body, in which they so remarkably excelled the moderns. Loose clothing should be given children, in which they may feel free and at ease. Even in winter they should wear summer clothing ; they should have no covering for the head, and should drink cold water even when they are hot. They should not sleep in a soft bed. It is more important to be able to swim than to ride. Rousseau praises Locke's method of hardening children's bodies, except that he rejects his cautions against drinking and lying on the damp ground, when the child is hot. His hatred of French cft'emi- nacy, and his admiration of the Carib mode of hardening the body, make him push every thing to exaggeration. 27. Education of the Senses. Feeling. The senses develop themselves earliest in children ; and therefore the attention should be first turned toward completing that development. But this is what most persons forget or neglect. Train not only the active powers of children, but all the senses which regulate those powers. Benefit each sense as much as pos- sible ; and prove the impression made upon one sense by that upon another. Let the pupil measure, count, weigh, and compare. The blind have the most acute touch ; seeing children could cultivate the same by practice and plays in the dark ; by which those fears which the activity of the imagination occasions in the dark, would be removed. The tips of the fingers should be fine skinned and susceptible ; many things can be known more clearly and certainly by the touch than by the eye. On the contrary the soles of the feet should be hardened by going barefoot. Rousseau is quite right in laying stress upon the training of the senses. But he does it in such a manner that he seems to be show- ing how to train a Carib child for the exact sciences of the French, or a French child for the life of a savage. Nothing is said of the edu- cation of the eyes for the beautiful ; as nothing is said anywhere of the beautiful, but only of the useful. 28. Seeing. Drawing and Geometry. The vision often errs by reason of its wide field of operations and the multitude of objects which it embraces ; which render it liable to hasty judgments. The illusions of perspective are indispensable for the measurement of distances ; without the gradations of size and light, we could measure no distances, or rather there would be none to us. If a large tree one hundred paces distant, seemed as large and distinct as another only ten paces distant, it would appear to us that they stood together. If two objects appeared to us of their actual size, we should have no knowledge of places. The size of the angle at the eye, at which we see objects, is determined by their size and distance. But how shall we distinguish, when one object appears small- er to us than another, whether this is by reason of its real size, or of its greater distance ? Children must be practiced in estimating sizes and distances, as architects, field surveyors, &c., are. Without feeling, without movement, with measuring, the best of eyes can give us no idea of room. For the oyster, the universe is a |xiut. With this exercise of children in estimating distances, is connected drawing, which depends entirely upon the laws of perspective. They should not however use copies, but should draw from nature ; and in this it is of more importance that they see and understand correctly, than that they should draw artistically. Geometry, like drawing, is for children an exercise of the eye, based upon see- 476 ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. ing. Make correct figures, put them together, place one upon the other, and prove their relations. By proceeding from observation to observation, you will go on through the whole of elementary geometry, without seeing any thing of defini- tions or problems, or of any other form of demonstration, except that of superim- position. Correctness in diagrams is usually neglected ; the figure is shown, and the demonstration given. But it would be of much more value to draw lines as straight, correct, and similar as possible, and squares and circles as true as possible. In Turin, they gave a boy cakes of the same size, but of the most various shapes ; he tried every possible means to determine which form held the most. Children's plays should exercise their eyes, and all their members. How much can be accomplished in this direction is shown by the feats of rope-dancers. Is there any children's diversion which the instructor can not make instructive to them ? What Rousseau here says of teaching geometry is worthy of spe- cial consideration. From real pure geometrical drawings there are de- veloped true and pure geometrical ideas. 29. Hearing. Speaking and Singing. The child should compare such impressions on the sight and hearing as belong together ; as, for instance, that the lightning is seen before the thunder is heard. The voice, as an active organ, corresponds with the passive one of the hearing; and they assist each other. The pupil should speak in a plain manner. He should not be permitted to de- claim ; he should have too much sound sense to express, with tones and feelings which he has not, things which he does not understand. Teach him to speak dis- tinctly, without hesitation, without affectation, and loud enough to be understood ; teach him to sing correctly and in tune, but no operatic music ; train his ear for time and harmony. Rousseau's musical faculty made him forget his Iroquois ideal ; and he does not ask the question, what is the use of music ? 30. The Taste. In the beginning, that nourishment was most healthful for simple men which tasted best. In children this primitive taste should be preserved as much as pos- sible ; their food should be common and simple, not high seasoned ; flesh is im- proper for them. Of the proper food they should be permitted to eat as much as they wish. Eating is the passion of children. Therefore they should be managed by means of their palate , this natural and appropriate motive is far prefer- able to those of vanity. Love of eating will decrease and vanity will increase with years. 31. The Smell. This is related to the taste, as sight is to feeling. In children it is not very ac- tive. 32. The Common Sense. Formation of Ideas* A sixth sense comes from a proper employment of the other senses ; namely : " the common sense." This is resident in the brain ; and its sensations are called perceptions, or ideas. (?) The number of these ideas indicates the extent of our knowledge ; and the power of comparing them with each other is called human reason. The sensitive, or child's reason, forms simple ideas, by bringing together several impressions upon the senses; the intellectual reason forms compound ideas from several simple ones. 33. Character of Emile, at Twelve Years Old. His exterior indicates self-possession and ease ; he speaks with simplicity, and does not talk unnecessarily. His ideas are confined and clear; he knows nothing by rote, but much by experience. If he does not read so well in books, he reads * Sec. 17, 42. ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. 477 better in the book of nature-, he has less memory than power of judgment; he speaks but one language, but understands what he says. If hu docs not speak so well as others, he is much more capable of doing. lie knows nothing of routine, custom, or habit ; and what he did yesterday does not indicate what he will do to- day. Neither authority nor example impose upon him ; he does and says only what seems good to him. He knows nothing of study, speech, or manners ; but his language corresponds with his ideas, and his behavior arises from his wishes. He has few moral ideas, but they are such as correspond to his age. Speak to him of duty or obedience, he does not know what you mean ; order him, he does not understand you ; but say to him, if you will do this to please me, 1 will some* time do something to please you, and he will instantly exert himself to comply with your wish ; for nothing will please him more than to add to his legitimate influence over you, which he holds inviolable. If he needs help himself, he makes use of the first that comes to hand, whether it be a king or a servant; for all men are alike to his sight. He shows to him whom he asks, that he does not consider any one bound to grant his request. He is simple and laconic in his expressions, and neither servile nor arrogant. Grant his request, and he does not thank you, but feels that he is your debtor; refuse it, and he does not complain nor urge you, but lets the matter drop. Lively, active, he undertakes nothing loo great for his powers, but which he has tried and understands. He has an observing and intelligent eye ; and asks no useless questions about what lie sees, but examines it himself. As his imagination is yet inactive, and nothing has been done to stimulate it, he sees only what really exists, does not over-estimate danger, and is always cool. Business and play are the same to him, his play is his business ; he finds no difference between them. Among city children, there is none more dexterous than he, and all are weaker; he is equal to country children in strength, and surpasses them in dexterity. He is fit to lead his companions, by his tali-lit and experience, without any other authority, without wishing to command ; he is at the head of the rest, and they obey him without knowing it. He is a mature child, and has lived a child's life ; his happiness has not been exchanged for bis education. If he dies young, his death is to be mourned, but not his life. Ordinary men would not understand a boy so trained ; they would see in him nothing but a scapegrace. A teacher could make no parade with him, could ask him no show questions ; and those are the chief of the education of the day. A healthy, strong, dexterous, corporeally well-trained boy, systematic- ally educated, for a purely earthly existence, and for cold independ- ence ; a Frenchified Carib, or Caribized French boy, without fancy, poetry, love, or God. THIRD BOOK. EMILE, FROM HIS TWELFTH TO HIS FIFTEENTH YEA. 34. Desire of Knowledge. Methods. Regard for Authority. Curiosity will now begin to operate, and will henceforth stimulate the boy. With natural curiosity is connected the vain endeavor to appear learned. Im- pressions upon the senses must be developed into ideas ; only, we should not pass too suddenly from material to intellectual objects. The world and things in books must be the teachers ; mere words should not be learned. "The pupil knowa nothing because you have said it to him, but because lie, has mprehended it; he does not learn his acquirements; he discovers them/ If ce you give him authority, instead of reason, he will no longer think for him- self, but will be the sport of strange opinions. One extreme introduces another. Because earlier, ignorant, and harsh teachers treated boys like empty vessels, which they were to fill up with Latin vocables, geometrical demonstrations, much stress upon words ; and our talking educa- tion trains up talkers. A boy who is lost will find out better how to set himself right by the sun, than he would by a long demonstration. Wherever possible, teach by things themselves.. What the boy learns only through an appeal to his vanity, he had better not learn at all. Very true. 40. Books. Robinson Crusoe. Workshops. From books men learn to talk about what they do not understand. But there is one book which may be considered as a most valuable treatise upon natural educa- tion ; a book which might, for a long time, constitute the entire library of the pu- pil ; namely, Robinson OUSon a Robinson 'a island. The teacher should frequent workshops, with his pupil, and should permit him to take hold of the work himself; and by this means he will learn to Dlidentand See 34. 480 ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. them better than by many explanations. He will learn at the same time to value more highly really useful artisans, than the so-called artists, who are so much esteemed by the world. He will esteem more highly a locksmith than a gold- smith; engravers and gi.ders will be, in his eyes, only idlers, busy in useless amusements ; even watchmakers will be of small account with him. He will re- spect all human labor, and in like manner all productions of nature, in proportion as they contribute more to his necessities, his knowledge, and his comfort. He will value iron more highly than gold, glass than diamonds. It is not meant that the pupil should become acquainted with every trade, but only that he should know the most necessary ones, and their connection with each other. Here it appears more clearly what Rousseau means by his ques- tion, What is the use ? He barbarously only values what is necessary for human subsistence, to a life as nearly as possible to that of a beast. Watchmakers would be of but little account with him ; he does not even mention the higher arts, the fine arts, so useless do they seem to him. 41. Equality. Revolution. Learning and Trade. Your education of men should be adapted to what they are in themselves; not to any thing external. By training him exclusively for one condition, you make him unfit for any other, and unfortunate, if his situation should ever change. How ridiculous is a great lord who has become a beggar, and who holds in his misery to the prejudices of his birth ; how contemptible the rich man become poor, who feels himself completely degraded 1 You acquiesce in the social order of the present, without considering that this order is subject to unavoidable changes; and that it is impossible for you to fore- see or to prevent the revolution which may come upon your children. The great will become small, the rich poor, the monarch a subject. We are approaching a crisis ; the century of revolutions. It is impossible that the great monarchies of Europe can last long. And who can say what shall then happen to you? What men have made, men can destroy ; only the character given by nature is indes- tructible ; and nature makes neither princes, nor rich men, nor great lords. What will the satrap do in his debasement, who has been educated only for his high po- sition ? What will the farmer- general do, in his poverty, who lives only upon his money ? Happy will he be, then, who shall understand how to leave the condition which has left him, and to remain a man in spite of fate. The cultivation of the earth is the best of all employments ; yet, when evil times come, the artisan is more independent. Make your son, therefore, learn some respectable trade, the carpenter's for example. This will also serve to cure him of the prejudices against trades. Only beware of nourishing one vanity while you are exerting yourself to oppose another. The great secret of education is, to manage it so that the training of the minaN and body shall serve to assist each other. - Here Rousseau foretells the revolution almost thirty years before its coming. As a gr;at architect outlines the church whose form stands before his mind, before even the corner-stone is laid, so the great master of destruction draws the picture of horrors and dissolution before the soul, before the multitude taught by him put hand to the work. 42. Impressions upon the Senses. Ideas. Opinions* After the body and senses of the pupil have first been educated, we should train his understanding and his judgment. Lastly, we should teach him to use his brains in the service of his faculties. We have made of him an acting, think- * Comp. 32, 17. ROUSSEAU'S EMII.E. 481 ing being; to make him a complete man, we must make him also a living and feeling being, that is, we must supplement reason with his feelings. As at first the pupil has only sensations, so now ho has idea* and forms judg- ments. By the comparison of several of those, following each other all at the ame time, and by a judgment upon them, there results a sort of compound im- pressions which 1 call ideas. In simple impressions upon the senses, the judg- ment is merely passive ; it only makes certain of the actuality of the sensations ; in perception, or the idea, it is active, placing together, comparing and determin- ing relations which the senses do not determine. The judgment leads to error, particularly in the case of learned men, whose vain desire to shine by giving opinions outruns their knowledge. Ignorance, which says " What have I to do with it 1 " is the only safety from error. Thus speak savages and wise men. Our pupil must not speak so 5 he is a savage, but destined to live in cities. We learn best to judge by laboring to simplify our experience, and, having acquired experience, by seeking rather to avoid error than a positive knowledge of the truth ; and by rather confessing ignorance, than by endeavoring to explain any thing insufficiently. 43. Emile in his Fifteenth Year. Being obliged to learn by means of himself, he uses his own understanding, not that of other men ; and yields nothing to authority. For most of our errors come less from ourselves than from others. By this continual practice, his mind has acquired a strength like that which is given to the body by labor and hard- ship. For the same reason his powers develop themselves only in proportion to his growth. He remembers only what has commended itself to his understand- ing. Thus he has little knowledge, but no half-knowledge. He knows that his knowledge is not great ; his mind is open, decided, and, if not instructed, nt least capable of instruction. Of all that he does he knows the use, and of all he be- lieves, the reason. He proceeds slowly, but thoroughly. He possesses only natural knowledge ; none of history, and none of mathematics and ethics. He knows little of generalizing and forming abstractions ; he observes properties common to many bodies, without reasoning upon the existence of these properties. What is strange to him he values only by its relations to himself, but this valua- tion is sufficient and certain. What is most useful to him he values most, and cares nothing for opinion. Emile is laborious, moderate, patient, persevering, and courageous. His fancy, not heated in any way, never magnifies danger ; he can endure sorrow with forti- tude, for he has not been trained to oppose himself to fate. What death is, ho does not rightly know, but, being a accustomed to submit without resistance to the laws of necessity, he will die, when he must, without sighing and without pre- tense. Nature does not require more of us, in that moment, so abhorred by all. To live free, to set the heart as little as possible upon human things, is the surest means of learning to die. Emile is destitute of the social virtues. He acts without respect to others ; and it is right in his eyes that others should have no regard to him. He makes no demands upon others, he thinks himself under no obligation to any one. Stand- ing alone in society, he counts only upon himself, and is capable of more than others at his age. He has no errors or vices, except such as are unavoidable. His body is healthy, his members are disciplined, his understanding correct and without prejudices, his heart free and without passions. Self-esteem, first and most natural of all the passions, has scarcely awakened in him. Without des- troying the peace of any one, he has lived as peacefully, happily, and freely m nature will permit. Do you find that the child, thus educated to his fifteenth year, has wasted his earliest years? Rousseau asks this question as if he were sure of his answer. What I have already said of Emile at twelve is still truer of him at fifteen. We freeze at the character of the cold boy, who has by the skill of his tutor been brought to such an independence that he asks neither about God or man, feels no need of love, has no feeling for No. 14. [VoL. V., No. 2.] 31. 482 ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. poetry. A superficial understanding of the material world, and the bodily activity of a savage, are the highest of his attainments. A real ethical idea is out of the question, where love, the heart of all the virtues, is wanting. Only the earthly being is considered ; death brings this pedagogical masterpiece to an end ; and Emile endures this with the resignation of a wild beast. FOURTH BOOK. EMILE FROM ins FIFTEENTH YEAR TO HIS MARRIAGE. 44. Puberty. Selfishness. Self-esteem. Innocence. The age of puberty now comes, and with it spring up passions whose source is selfishness. This impels every one to care for his own profit. What is useful to us we seek for that reason ; what desires to serve us, we love : what hurts us we flee from ; and what seeks to harm us, we hate. A child is benevolent at first, because all who are around him wait on him. But, as the circle of his ac- quaintance enlarges, the feeling of his relations to others grows up, he compares himself with them, and his selfishness changes into self-esteem, which lifts him above others, and requires them to hold him higher than themselves. Heat and anger spring from self-esteem. It is true that children, since they can never live alone, can live together only with difficulty. From selfishness, changed into self-esteem, comes, in simple souls, vanity, and in great ones, pride; which spring in the hearts of children only by our fault, and in our pupils even against our will. The age of puberty is unnaturally hastened ; it should be delayed as long as possible. In regard to the relations of the sexes, lies should not be told to chil- dren, but care should be taken not to awaken their curiosity upon such subjects ; silence should be observed in regard to them ; but what can not be hidden from them should be told them. A child who is not born with a bad nature, and who has kept his innocence to his twentieth year, is at this age the most magnanimous, best, most loving and lov- able of men. If you have never heard of this, I can easily believe it ; your phi- losophers, bred up in the deepest depravity of the schools, could not know it. Emile is now coming into the years when increasing freedom de- velopes his sinful tendencies more freely ; and the fig leaves of Rous- seau's sophistry are less and less able to cover them. Still he ad- heres to his principle, that every thing wicked comes, not from the heart, but into the head from others. 45. Happiness. Love. Sympathy. Gratitude. There now follow directions for ethical education ; for example, the pupil is to be taught not to take apparent happiness for real and de- sirable happiness, and not phrases of hypocritical pretenses of love and sympathy, but to exercise real sympathy. Ingratitude is not natural to men, but is caused by such benefactors as seek their own advantage. 46. Knowledge of Men. An self-esteem grows in Emile, he compares himself with his equals and en- deavors to hold the highest place among them. Now is the time to instruct him in the social relations, and in the natural and civic inequality of men. He should know men in and under the masks of society, should mourn over them, but not learn to aid them. Emile knows that men are by nature good, but understands that they have become bad and depraved by means of society ; in their prejudices lie sees the source of all their vices ; and feels himself impelled to value each ingle one of them, but to despise them collectively. ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. 483 47. The Study of History. It is now time to introduce Emile to history. Unfortunately, historical writer* relate only bad things, and the good remain unknown ; they misrepresent facte, do not follow the connection of cause and effect, and give their own judgment* instead of leaving this to the reader. Away with the modern historians ! Their works have no character ; and they look upon all the men of the present day as exactly alike. Especially useless are the systematic historians ; who will not seo things as they are, but only as they fit into their system. Others exhibit men only as they appear in the state ; and not at all as they appear at home. Of all the ancient historians, Plutarch is far the best for youth, in particular because he does not despise relating the apparently trifling traits of eminent men. 48. Emile upon the Theatre of the World. Presumption. Emile now for the first time appears upon the theatre of the world ; or rather he stands behind the scenes, sees the players dress and undress themselves; and by what -coarse means the spectators are deceived. It will elevate him to see how the human race makes sport of itself. Educated in entire freedom, he will sorrow over the misery of kings, those slaves of all those who obey them ; false wise men, in the chains of their vain honors ; rich fools, the martyrs to their own luxury. He will be in danger of thinking himself wise, and all others fools ; and only mortifying experience can protect him from such vanity. Pedagogy disappears more and more. The natural man, Emile, turns into the revolutionary misanthrope ; he is Rousseau himself, un- der the name of Emile. 49. Emile a Natural Man. I shall be thought a visionary, and Emile a phantasy, because he is so different from ordinary youths. It is overlooked that he is a natural man, but that other youths are brought up according to the notions of men. Others, at Emile's age, are already philosophers and theologians ; while he does not know yet what philosophy is, and even has not yet heard God spoken of. I am no visionary ; my pedagogy is based upon experience ; since without regard to rank, nation, &c., I have found what is proper to all men, and have educated Emile according to that; not as a savage for the woods, but as a man who will have to maintain himself independent in the whirlpool of society. 50. Religious Instruction. We are brought up in close connection with the natural world ; and for the abstract, the purely intellectual, we have scarcely any comprehension. God with- draws our senses from themselves ; the word mind has a meaning only for the philosophers. Monotheism has come, by a process of generalization, from ma- terial polytheism. In his fifteenth year, Emile does not yet know that he has a soul ; and perhaps he will find it out too early in his eighteenth. After this follows an argument against catechetical instruction. The faith of children and of many grown persons is a matter of geography ; it depends merely upon whether they were born in Rome or in Mecca. Does salvation depend upon that ? A child, it is said, must be brought up in the religion of his father; and he must be taught that this alone is true; and that others are absurd. But if the power of this instruction extends only so far as the country in which it is given, and depends only upon authority, for which Emile has been taught to have no regard, what then? In what religion shall we educate him? To this there is only the simple answer, in none ; we will only put him in a condition to choose for himself, that to which the best use of his own reason may bring him. 484 ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. In this connection, we will introduce an extract from one of the numerous episodes with which the book abounds, that of the Profes- sion of Faith of a Savoyard Curate, in which a comparison is made between Christ and Socrates : I confess to you that the majesty of the whole Scriptures puts me in astonish- ment. The sanctity of Gospel speaks to my heart. By its side, how little do the books of the philosophers appear, with all their magnificence 1 And is it possible that a book at once so lofty and simple can be the work of man ? Is it possible that he, whose history is contained in it, was only a man ? Are his words those of an enthusiast, or of the ambitious founder of a sect? What mildness, what purity in his morals! What elevation in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his language 1 What presence of mind) acuteness, and pertinence in his answers! What command of his passions! Where shall we find a man, a wise man even, who has known how to act, to suffer, and to die, without weakness or ostentation 1 When Plato paints his ideal of an upright man, who is covered with all the shame of guilt, and who deserves praise for every virtue, he draws Jesus Christ, line for line ; the similarity is so striking that all the fathers of the church have observed it. What prejudice, what blindness is it to compare the son of Sophroniscus with the son of Mary ! How wide a difference is there between them ! Socrates, dying without pain, without disgrace, bore his part, without difficulty, to his death ; and if this easy death had not given honor to his life, we might doubt whether, with all his intellect, he was any thing more than a sophist. It is said that he founded morals. Others had practiced morals, and his teachings were based upon their examples. Aristides was just before Socrates defined 1'ustice ; Leonidas died for his country, before Socrates defined patriotism to be a uty. Before he defined virtue, Greece had bad a multitude of virtuous men. But where had Jesus found, among his own people, that lofty and pure morality which he alone practiced and taught ? From the bosom of the most raging fanati- cism was this highest of all wisdom developed ; and the simplicity of the most heroic virtue reflected honor upon the most despised of all nations. The death of Socrates, who died peacefully philosophizing among his friends, is the easiest which could be desired ; but that of Christ, in tortures, reviled, despised, accursed by a whole people, is the most terrible and fearful. Socrates, as he took the cup of poison, blessed the weeping man who handed it to him ; Jesus, amidst the most horrible tortures, prayed for his enraged and hostile executioners. If the life and death of Socrates were those of a wise man, the life and deatli of Christ were those of a God. Shall we say that the history of evangelists is an arbitrary invention? No, it is not so; the actions of Socrates, of which no one doubts, are less authentic than those of Christ. If this extract were to be taken, apart from its connection, it could only be believed that one who loved and reverenced Christ from his heart, could have written it. But before and after this passage stands the most wanton mockery of Christianity, the very passages which subjected him and his book to the condemnation of the Parliament of Paris, which, on the 9th of June, 1762, sentenced the book to be torn to pieces and burned, the author to be imprisoned, and his property to be confiscated. The same fate awaited it in Geneva. In his fifth book, he describes Sophie, as the model of a maiden. The tutor contrives the marriage of Emile and Sophie. When Emile becomes a father, he dismisses the tutor with the words, "God forbid that I should permit you to educate my son after you have educated his father ; that a duty so holy and sweet should be performed by any other than myself." ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. 40 1 Locke says, in his pedagogical work, u When my pupil is at au age to marry, it is time to leave him to himself." "As for me," says Rousseau, "I should beware how I imitated Locke in this." So Emile is unnaturally betutored until he becomes a father. The mar- riage thus planned and brought about by the tutor has a miserable end. Sophie is untrue to Emile, who gives himself up to despair, and at last falls into slavery in Algiers.* According to Locke's recommendation I break off here, and the more willingly as the digressions become more and more numerous in the fourth book even, and the pedagogical design is more and more lost sight of.f The sketch which I have given of Emile will be made clearer by regarding it as a book at once instructive and corrupting. Sur- rounded by civilization, overwhelmed with corruption, the misanthrope fell upon many instructive notions, by merely reversing what was generally received. But hate will not bring truth into existence, even from the basis of the deepest degradation of a people. It is only love which can do this ; it is love alone which can cure it Rousseau is corrupting, because he mingles truth and falsehood, good and evil, in the most cunning manner; so that good and bad are to be dis- tinguished only by an exceedingly watchful and critical reader. I close with repeating my wish, that the preceding sketch, and the subjoined remarks, may assist the reader in such a critical separation. ROUSSEAU AND PESTALOZZI. A comparison between the two men repeatedly suggests itself. How noble, pure, and true is Pestalozzi's letterj to Anna Schulthess, and how completely is it the opposite of Rousseau's understanding with Therese Levasseur ! In 1819, I published a dialogue entitled "The Progressives," (Die Neuerer.) This also ended with a comparison of the French Swiss and the German Swiss. One of the speakers in this says : "Do not take me for so bigoted an admirer and repeater of Rousseau, as to have hoped for every thing good from him. Nothing is further from the truth. I can not, however, but wonder at him, when I compare him with his French and European cotemporaries, to observe how in him the force of na- ture, which had been choked by an elaborately unnatural system, burst forth, and awakened the degraded conscience of the day. In * In a fragment entitled "Emile el Sophie on let lolitairt*," this is related by Rousseau, who intends thus to show how a man educated upon his principle* will remain uoconqucred in the most miserable condition. t There are, however, some valuable remarks in this book; as upon the chastity of tlw Bible language, and unchastity of French ; upon the extravagant life of power, vanity, Ac. 4 Life of Pestalozzi. Am. Jour, of Ed. VoL HI., p. 407. 486 ROUSSEAU'S EMII.E. him, that age confessed itself; as a worn out and repentant harlot washes off her paint, lays aside her false hair, and shudderingly looks upon her naked hideousness in the glass. In full consciousness of his errors and sins, he stands burdened with the curse of the age, and powerless to renew his life in freshness and holiness." From the blinding fiery column of the French volcano, which served the German mariners as a beacon, but devastated its own country, we gladly turn to the mild star which rose over Germany, of Pestalozzi. Despairing misanthropy inspired Rousseau, and, in truth, such an age, and in such circumstances, he was little blamable for it. His leading idea was, that if he rejected every thing received by his age, and adopted its opposite, he would reach the truth. And so evil were the times, that, by following this malevolent impulse, ho produced many excellent ideas. Pestalozzi, however, was inspired by love of humanity, and by a desire to benefit the poor ; not by a war with the rich, but by educa- ting them. And, although he unostentatiously turned away from the overrefinement of his age, and, in evangelical imitation of Christ, went to the neglected poor, yet God blessed the purity of his aspira- tions, and granted him more than he asked ; the joyful expectation of a great future, and to plant, by his writings and his wisdom, the seeds of never-ending" development. JOHANN BERNHARD BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPIC, [Translated for the American Journal of Education, from the German of Karl von Banner.] mi THE Philanthropinum, founded at Dessau, in &**, by Basedow,'in which the views of Rousseau were strictly followed, and where those views were by every means sought to be introduced into actual life, gained a great reputation in Germany and Switzerland.* JOHANN BERNHARD BASEDOW was born in Hamburg, in 1723; and was the son of a wa^hmater. His mother was melancholy even to hypochondria. His father kept him so strictly that he ran away and became a servant with a country physician, hi Holstein. After a year he returned, upon the urgent entreaty of his father, and went to school at the Johanneum, where he made himself notorious for useless tricks. In 1741, he went to the gynasiura, where, among others, the well-known Reiinarus (the author of the "Wolfenbuttle Fragments") was his teacher. While there he composed many poems; . ff. t one of one hundred stanzas upon history. He earned money by occasional poems and teaching, and spent it in debauchery. His studies were without rule or perseverance. In 1744, at the age of } twenty-one years, he went to the university of Leipzig, with the in- / tention of studying theology. There he studied, as he tells us, almost altogether in his own room, but attended the lectures of Crusius. The Wolfian philosophy brought him "into a state halfway between Christianity and naturalism;" and he acquired, as he says, "ignorant opinions about philosophy." In 1746, he went to Hamburg as a theological candidate. In 1749, at the age of twenty-six, he took \ employment as private tutor with a Herr von Quaalen, in Holstein. J ;For his pupil, seven years old, he worked out a new method of teaching language, by which he himself learned to speak and write Latin.J He learned French from the governess of the family, whom he married. In l75e years old. was considered as the birth-day of the Philanthropinum. See Wolke, description of the plates to the "Elementary Book," p. 8 ; and " The PhilanthTOpinum," pmrt flnt, p. 101. 490 JOHANN BERNHARD BASEDOW. his great intellectuaVgifts were admired ; but he was not a man either to stimu- late others or to guide them. The only work for him was to improve the field whieh he had marked out for himself ; so that future generations should find their labors in it more easy and natural ; and toward this purpose he hastened with even too much zeal. I could not interest myself in his plans, nor even make hia views clear to myself. That he should require all instruction to be given in a liv- ing and natural way pleased me, of course ; that the ancient tongues should be practiced now seemed to me desirable ; and I willingly recognize whatever in hia plans tended to a promotion of activity and of a newer view of the world ; but I apprehended that the illustrations in his "Elementary Book " would confuse still more than objects themselves; because, in the natural world, only things possible exist together, and therefore they have, notwithstanding all their multitude and apparent confusion, always something regular in all their parts. But this "Ele- mentary Book" utterly disarranged them, because it placed together, for the sake of a relation of ideas, things which never go together in the real world ; so that it was destitute of that natural method which must be recognized in the corres- ponding work of Amos Comenius. Much stranger yet and harder to understand, than Basedow's theories, were his manners. His purpose in his present journey was to interest the public in his philanthropic undertaking, by his personal in- fluence ; and thus to secure for himself access, not only to their good will, but to their purses. He had the power of speaking in a lofty and convincing way of his plans ; and all men readily assented to whatever he argued. But he wounded, in the most incomprehensible manner, the feelings of the men from whom he was asking a contribution, and offended them with no reason, by not being silent upon his opinions and vagaries in regard to religious subjects. In this respect, also, Basedow was the precise opposite of Lavater. While the latter held the whole Bible, letter for letter, and with its whole contents, as true and applicable even to the present day, the former felt a most restless itching for remodeling every thing, and changing not only religious beliefs, but even the outer forms of church observances, according to his own whims. He would dispute in the most merci- less and extraordinary manner against all views not founded immediately upon the Bible, but upon the interpretation of it ; against those expressions, philosophi- cal technics, and material similitudes, with which the fathers of the church, and councils, have sought either to explain the inexpressible, or to convince heretics. He declared himself before every body, in the harshest and most indefensible manner, the bitterest enemy of the doctrine of the Trinity ; and could not be satisfied with arguing against this universally received mystery. I myself suf- fered much in private conversation from this subject; and had forever to let my- self be plagued with Hypostasis, and Ousia, and Prosopon. In opposition to these/ attacks, I betook myself to the weapons of paradox, surpassed his own opinions, and ventured to combat his daring notions with others still more daring. This gave my mind a new direction ; and, as Basedow was much better read than I, and readier at the tricks of disputation than a natural philosopher like myself could be, I was obliged to exert myself more and more, as the points discussed between us became more important. So excellent an opportunity, if not to in- struct myself, at least to exercise myself, I could not quickly resign ; I prevailed upon my father and friends to give up the most important business, and I left Frankfort again, with Basedow. What a difference was there between his in- fluence and presence, and that of Lavater ! Pure himself, the latter sought to surround himself with purity. By his side one became maidenly, for fear of an- noying him with any thing unpleasant. Basedow, on the other hand, far too much absorbed in himself, could not attend to any thing external. One of hia lull K that of smoking coarse, bad tobacco, was exceedingly disagreeable, and was much the more so because, whenever he had smoked out one pipe, he at once struck fire again with some dirtily prepared German tinder, which caught quickly, but smelled hatefully, and with his very first whiff defiled the atmosphere into] -rably. I named this preparation the "Basedow Stink -tinder," and proposed to introduce it under this name into natural history ; at whieh he made much sport, and explained to me circumstantially, and even to nauseation, the abominable stuff, and with great delight applied himself to my aversion. For it was one of the strongest peculiarities of this gifted man, that he loved too much to tease, and P'aliciously to vex, the most unprejudiced people. He could not bear to see any. *e at rest; he would attack him with grinning and jeers, with his hoarse voice, JOHANN BERNHARD BASEDOW. 4gl put them into a dilemma with some unexpected question, and laugh bitterly if ho accomplished his purpose ; but he would be well pleased if any one answt-n-d him promptly. I always spent part of the night with Basedow. He never laid down on the bed, but dictated incessantly. Sometimes he threw himself down on a couch and slept, while his secretary, pen in hand, sat quietly, all ready to write, when his half-awake master should again give free course to his thoughts. And' all this was done in a room closely shut, and full of the smoke of tobacco and tinder. Whenever I left off dancing I ran straight to Basedow, who was always ready to talk or discuss upon his problem ; and when, after a little while, I went out to dance again, he took up the thread of his treatise, even before I had shut the door, dictating as quietly as if nothing had happened. Basedow was pursu- ing an object of primary importance, the better education of youth ; and for this purpose he was seeking large contributions from the noble and the rich. But scarcely had he, by his reasoning or the force of his powerful eloquence, brought them, if not to the point where he wished, at least into the state of mind favora- ble to himself, when his vile anti-trinitarian notions would catch hold of him, and, without the least regard for the place where he might be, he would break out into the strangest speeches, exceeding religious in their intention, but, according to the beliefs of society, exceedingly abominable. We tried to find means of preventing the mischief Lavater by mild earnestness, I by evasive sport, the ladies by divert- ing walks ; but the trouble could not be removed. Christian conversation, such as was expected from Lavater, pedagogical, such as was looked for from Basedow, sentimental, such as I should have been ready for, all were alike broken up or changed.* Basedow had at first, at Dessau, only three assistants, "Wolke, Si- mon, and Schweighauser. The first of these was the most efficient in the work of teaching.f He was born in 1742, at Jever, and died at a great age, known especially for his remarkable labors for German orthography. He first began to study in his twentieth year, but had before learned, without a teacher, drawing and etching. In five half- years he finished the necessary studies in Latin, Greek, and French, entered the University of Gottingen in 1763, (where he studied chiefly mathematics, natural sciences, and French,) and in 1766 went to Leip- zig, where he taught Latin and mathematics. Through Biisch he came to Basedow, at Altona, in 1770, to assist him in working upon his "Elementary Book," Here Wolke made his first experiment of a new method of in- struction, upon Basedow's daughter, Emilie, who seems to have been named after Rousseau's "Emile? This experiment stands in such close connection with the Philanthropinum, and is so characteristic, that I shall give Wolke's own account of it. He says : When I came to Herr Professor Basedow, at Altona, at new year's of 1770, to take part in the labor upon his "Elementary Book." in the departments of natural history and mathematics, his little daughter, Emilie, was three-quarters of a year old. My inclination to be employing myself about children led me to help her mother, who was instructing her carefully, about an hour a day, in little exercises, which, if made as complete as possible, are much more important than would be supposed. I taught her, for example, after a certain order and selection, about things of all kinds and their qualities, by showing them to her, and by clear and accurate descriptions of them ; how to stand up, how to fall down judiciously, ' GiMhe's Works ; 22, 273 S, 279, 80, 91. Edition of 1*10. t See Wolke'i autobiography, in Basedow's work, "Tke PhHanthropinum t tttabliihtd in Dessau, 1774." 492 JOHANN OERNHARD BASEDOW. how to save a fall by catching hold of something and by other means. Both in sport and in earnest, we were very careful to avoid that confusion of ideas which is usual in such teaching. For example, she saw in a looking-glass not herself, but her image; in pictures, not men, trees, beasts, but only their representations ; she was not permitted to call the cooked meat and bones of a hen, a Inn, nor a doll a baby, a penny a ducat, &c. By such care, which I earnestly recommend to all in charge of children, and such a method as is now taught in the ^Element- ary Book," Emilie had in her third half-year learned to form opinions with a cor- rectness which was the admiration of all who saw her. When she was a year and a half old, she could not only speak much more clearly and correctly than is usual at her age, but, by means of our peculiar method of teaching spelling before the knowledge of the letters, to understand sentences if we only said over the letters of them to her. If, for example, any one said to her the letters you shall have a cake, she would say " you shall have a cake." The success of this practice, the facility of which had been foreseen by Herr Professor Base- dow, pleased him exceedingly, when Emilie, without further trouble or the weari- some spelling in a book, learned to read in a month, to her own pleasure and to mine. This was at the end of her third year. Three months after this, Herr Professor Basedow left home for ten weeks. To give him a pleasure at his re- turn for he had but little during his tabors upon the "Elementary Book " I exer- cised Emilie in that time in French, of which she had not before heard a word. In a month and a half, she could speak of her wants and of things about her, in French, so well that the mixing of German words in the instruction was no longer necessary. Since the Feast of St. John of the present year, I have done some- thing similar in Latin, with a boy of five years old ; of which I shall speak fur- ther. Emilie learned French as quickly as she did German. In this language I used a book called "Joujou de nouce/Je/afon;" for the elementary "Manuel d'ed- ucation " was not yet published. About a month and a half after the beginning of this learning to read, Emilie was with us for a few days with his very worthy grace, the Herr Canon von Roohow, where she excited the wonder of various gentlemen, masters, and officers from Brandenburg and Potsdam, by her facility in reading German and French. At this time she read, in writing and printing, German and Latin ; knew a large number of natural objects and tools, with their origin and use ; distinguished, with reference to the particular case, mathematical lines, surfaces, and bodies; counted forward or added to 100; backward or sub- tracted, by ones and by twos, from 20 or 21 to or 1 ; practiced drawing or writing by copying the copies in pencil which were set before her; sometimes dictated a letter to her father, &c. With all this knowledge, which Emilie ac- quired in play that is without exertion or harmful sitting still we avoided the fault, so common in such circumstances, of making her what is called a learned lady, who is lifted by her knowledge above her sex, and neglects her feminine employments. She was, on the contrary, in every way imbued with a love for feminine labors, and instructed in them. She was often, and with much pleasure, employed in preparing food in the kitchen, setting the table for the children, put- ting the table-furniture, &c., which they left in disorder, in its proper place, and had made a good beginning in learning to sew and to knit. I have taken every opportunity of drawing Emilie's attention to the goodness and wisdom of God, in her studies of nature. She often rejoices in God, as in a wise, powerful, and good father of herself and of all men. She takes pleasure in the lightning and thunder, recognizing them and the rain which follows them as indispensibly di- vine benefits, by means of which vegetation, for the nourishment of men and beasts, is supported, and the beautiful flowers are made to grow. She rejoices in the convenience and human form of her body, in the reasoning faculties of her soul ; in rain, wind, snow, and darkness, even when she suffers inconvenience from them, and at times when others complain of them. The sight of caterpillers, spiders, mice, snakes, and lizards, is neither disgusting nor frightful to her. She lias never had any trouble about witches, ghosts, or the devil, since they have never been named to her as things which do any injury to man. The silly rep- resentations of the devil are only ridiculous to her ; not frightful. Of the Christ- ian religion she knows many portions, but only such as will be useful at her age ; preparatives to virtue, to trust in God, and to peace. Although she speaks and judges upon many subjects, yet she has never made any misuse of what has been told her of the origin of the human race. Up to Michaelmas 1773, when she JOIIANN BERMIARD BAREDOW. 493 was four and one-half years old, she heard not a word of Latin. Her father having at that time to go to Berlin on business connected with the "Elementary Book,' 1 I was desirous of preparing for him at his return such a pleasure in his daughter's knowledge of Latin as I had the year before in that of Fretieh. I had, however, so many employments, that I could talk with Emilie only two hours a day. My instruction was still more interrupted by my absence at Herlin dur- ing November, Yet, Emilie now speaks Latin with a facility and correctness^ which is admired by many. For the sake of any who may doubt the truth of thw account, and who may be willing to believe it, if they or any one whom they can trust will visit us, to hear for themselves, I will have an examination, (which otherwise I am very willing to avoid,) in which they may hear that Emilie (who has never learned one word by rote, after the school fashion,) knows at least fifty words of any two leaves taken at random from ( Vll.-iriu*' Dictionary, (because most people take the number of words known for a measure ;) and that from the same book, of one hundred and twenty leaves, she knows at least three thousand words, and that, not after the fashion of a school-boy, but like the words of her own mother-tongue. And of these fifty words, I can vary each, by declensions and conjugation, so that no less than five hundred different questions can be made from them, which Emilie shall answer. Thus no one can doubt that, with all these words from Cellarius' dictionary, (besides which she knows many others,) more than thirty thousand questions can be asked, all differing from each other, which she can understand, and can either translate correctly into German, or answer them in Latin, whichever is preferred.* Basedow himself published an account of his daughter,! from which it appears clearly how far his instruction followed Rousseau's plans. He says that, when she was scarcely three and one-half years old, she began to observe " errors in correct reading, both in French and German." And in anticipation he says that, "before the end of her ninth year, she will fluently read in German out of Latin writers." If the question is asked, what is the purpose of all this ? Basedow answers, " I intend Emilie, God permitting, for the teacher of other girls." This remarkable child was repeatedly cited by her father and by Wolke, both in writing and speaking, as a standard by which it might be judged what was to be expected from the rhilanthropimim. These expectations were especially excited by the periodical which Basedow published, under the title "Philanthropic Archives; ad- dressed by the fraternity of friends of youth to the guardians of hu- manity, and to fathers and mothers, who may send children to the Dessau Philanthropinum. Dessau, 1776." The preface, Feb. 1st, 1776, is addressed "To guardians, intercessors, benefactors of hu- manity, intelligent cosmopolites." This singular address is surpassed in the second part of the "Ar- chives," which is dedicated, in the name of the Philanthropinum, to four kings. First, to Joseph the Second, the " Father of Germany." honor you," it says, "as the most eminent of all the inhabitants of the world, and as one of the best ; as my own indirect supreme lord and protector ; as the foundation of my hopes for better times in * lb., p. 44-52. t Quarterly Account, sixth part, 1773. 494 JOIIANN DERNHARD DASEUOW. Germany," &c. In the dedication to the king of Denmark, Base- dow calls himself a Cimbrian ; and, to the Empress Catharine, he promises to establish a Catharineum, for women from all the world. ( Weltburgerinnen.) The Philanthropinum had been in existence seventeen months, when the first part of the "Archives " appeared- Basedow gave an in- vitation to the great examination, on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of May, 1776. " Send children," he says, " to a happy, youthful life of studies cer- tainly successful. This affair is not Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed, but Christian. We are the philanthropists ; cosmopolitans. The free- dom of Switzerland, here, is not placed below the sovereignty of Rus- sia or Denmark, in our teaching or our opinions." He adds repeated appeals for contributions.* Furtherf he says, " The aim of education must be, to train a Euro- pean^ whose life shall be as harmless, as useful, and as peaceful, as it can be made by education. Care must also be taken, 1. That he may endure little trouble, grief, or sickness ; and, 2. That he may learn to take real pleasure in what is good." " The wisdom of all wisdoms is virtue and peace. Few exercises in virtue, as it should be taught, in our education, are found. Here, ye wise men, ye philanthropic writers, a plan for an orderly ar- rangement of exercises in virtue, for parents and schools, is one of the most important works for the good of all humanity. Were we rich, we would offer ten thousand thalers for the best book of this kind which should appear within two years." " For the paternal religion of each pupil," Basedow remarks, "the ministry of this place will care. Natural religion, however, and ethics, are the chief part of philosophy, of which we have charge. In the Philanthropinum the first beginning of instruction is, to have faith in God as the creator, upholder, and Lord of the world. As we have a universal, Christian, Philanthropinist liturgy, approved by persons of reputation in all the churches, we promise to give a general Christian instruction, which, by means of its omission of all points of distinction, shall offend neither Catholics, Protestants, nor Greeks; but which shall necessarily please all Christians, even if they are as different as Zinzendorf and Foster."! In this universal, private instruction in religion, he says further,^]" "Neither word nor deed will be introduced, which will not be approved ' Uoarders paid two hundred and fifty thalers. "Archives" p. 38. t Archives, p. 16. 5 By a European, "we understand a man of H civilized nation, who has such manners and dispositions as are almost universal in Europe." i Ib., p. 20, 21. lib., p. 39. Mb., p. 03. JOIUNN BERNHARD BASEDOW. 4 g 5 of by every one who fears God, by the Christian, Jew, Mohammedan, or Deist. And just as satisfactory shall we be to the friends of all systems of Christianity, from Zinzendorf to Foster." Afterward, clergymen of the different professions may " instruct, drill, and con- vince the children in their paternal religions."* All the Philanthropinist manuals are to be free from "theologizing distinctions in favor of Christianity as opposed to the Jews, Moham- medans, Deists, or the so-called Dissidents, who are in some places called heretics." " In the temple of the Universal Father, the Dissident brethren ap- pear like brethren with the rest. And until that time let us come like brethren, one (as long as the difference shall last,) to the holy mass ; another to pray with his fellows, after one form ; and a third to pray with his fellows, after another."* So much may suffice to describe Basedow's religious tendency ; his proceeding from the broadest deism is the most general idea, (leaving out the poor heathen, after Rousseau's example,) to the narrow idea of Christianity, the still narrower ideas illiberal ones as Basedow thinks them of the Christian professions, he leaves to be taught to the children by the clergy. The positive ideas which he lays down I shall consider hereafter. From what Basedow says in his invitation of the moral and relig- ious tendency^ the Philanthropinum, I proceed to what he prom- ises, and claims to have accomplished, in intellectual education, in Latin, German, French, knowledge of nature and of art, and mathe- matics. Of memorizing, he says, there will be but little with us. The students will not be forced to learn even by advice. Yet we promise, by the excellence of our method, and by means of the agreement of it with the whole of the Philan- thropist education and method of living, at least twice as much progress in study * "He who believes in one God, anil in the eternal existence of virtue, will not be a here- tic in the institution. Public religious exercises will be, as heretofore, merely the worship- ing of God, or Christian merely in general. The former, the chief Rabbi, or the Mufti, if they understood them, could not disapprove of: and by the latter, the Catholic, the Greek, the Protestant, the Bohemian brother, and the Socinian, would be edified. Any thing more is the province of the ministry." t The interest taken by the Jews and Freemasons in the Philanthropinum Is remarkable. Thus, four Hamburg lodges sent five hundred thalers, one at Leipzig one hundred, nne at Giittingen twenty-five One Meyer translated an "Erplanatioit of Freemasonry" from the English, and recommended the Philanthropinum to the support of the masons. " Basedow's Philanthropinum,'' he says, 'that quite masonic design for making poor humanity more fit for the purpose of its being, by a reasonable instruction of youth, for spreading virtue, re- ligion, and knowledge, and removing prejudices," &c. ("Pedagogical OmTertation* nf Bate- dote," part first, p. 101.) Had Basedow, without being a freemason, made application to this " honorable fraternity of architects of the council-house of universal citizenship, pupils of Solomon and Socrates," as he calls them l<"Phi:anthropinum," p. 8.) From the Jews, especially from those of Berlin, he received at one time five hundred and eif htecn thalers, ic. . Among others, Mendelssohn interested himself for him. 490 JOHANN BERNUARD BASEDOW. as is usual in the best schools, boarding institutions, or gymnasiums. And espe- cially we promise great development of the understanding, by the practice of a truly philosophical art of thinking. The results which have been already shown prove that what we promise is true. In the tolling, and when their means are not seen, they are incredible. Every thing is so pleasant with us, that no one wishes to be at home again. At the age of fifteen there is need of punishment but few times a year. The pupils learn without sitting too much, and more outside than in school-hours. Of our method we can say (and God knows it is with fairness and reflection,) as follows : when we have all our apparatus and arrangements all completed, a boy of twelre years old, who shall be sent to us, with his manners not too far destroyed, and of mode- rate capacity, if he knows only how to read and to write, will become with us, without constraint or discomfort, in four years, well fitted to study for either of the higher faculties in a university. For, whatever is valuable for all students in the philosophical faculty, he will have studied with us so thoroughly that, in order to arrive at a higher grade, he will need only himself and his books. From thia measure of our institution all other things in relation to it can be judged of. You wise cosmopolites, this is said, not by foolish project-makers, idle talkers, but by men who are worthy of friendship and of your assistance. One language requires, with us, unless it is to be brought by grammatical ex- ercises to the natural degree of accuracy, six months, in order to enable the students to understand whatever he hears or reads in it, as if it was his mother- tongue ; and to speak and write it, little by little, after rules, by himself. After this we require six months more of grammatical exercises, to make a Latin or a French scholar so<;omplete, or so little lacking of it, as it is not possible for him to be from the ordinary school, without uncommon good fortune, genius, and application. In May 1775, he says, two boys, of thirteen and seventeen years, were sent to the Pltilanthropinum. "They had minds of ordinary capacity. Neither of them had the least attainments in study, or the least rudiments of Latin. They can now, (Feb. 1st, 1776, nine months afterward,) understand a Latin address on any art which may be selected, if only the technical terms be explained to them, and the unusual words made clear by Latin synonyms, or by the connection. They read a classical author understand! ngly, if he is easy ; that is, if he is good. They can express themselves, either orally or in writing, upon any subject, so well that they would get on much better in ancient Rome than one could do in Leipzig now, who could write and speak only low Dutch." This is roguery. Further on Basedow praises himself for having found a way of making the work of learning " three times as short and three times as easy as it usually is." All studies must be arranged in a common plan, and be placed, by means of uniformity of text- books, in such a connection that one shall always shorten and assist the other. Only the useful part of each science is to be learned. To fill up the sketch here given from Basedow's invitation, I quote the following from a letter of his written to Campe, the same year ; which, as they say, lets us into the whole programme. Latin, he says in this, must be learned by speaking ; and, for this reason, Basedow requires his teachers to use every means to gain facility in speaking Latin. They must use all their leisure in reading the colloquies of Erasmus, Terence, o habet rostrum," they said, " Leones non habent rostrum." Then Herr Wolke drew the ears, but frightfully long. Then they cried out again that it was not right ; that they are asses' ears. In short, they told Ilerr Wolke ever}' thing that he was to draw, from the head to the tail ; and then they had not had enough of it. They told him to draw a boy on the lion. Then Herr Wolke drew it carefully, all wrong ; first an eye was wanting, then an ear, then the nose ; and the children saw it in a moment, and made him put it in. And that was not enough either. The beast must have a bridle in his mouth, and the boy mum hold the bridle in his hand ; it was a figure to laugh yourself speckled at. When that was through, Herr Wolke asked them what he should draw next ; and they all cried out, domum, domum .' "Good," said Ilerr Wolke ; " and now what is the first thing in a house ?" Fundamentum, Fundamentum ! Then in a twink- ling he drew the foundation. Then they told him to make the first story and then the second story, and then the roof; and he did it. " What next?" Jannam, januam .' " And where must the door be ?" In media, in media ! " Hut I will not put it in the middle this time," said Herr Wolke ; u it shall be here ;" and so he drew it pretty near one end. " Yes," said the children, " but then there must be one at the other end too." " But why ?" Propter tymmetrium. When that was done, he proceeded to the window. Herr Wolke did it, on pur- pose, wrongly ; but they told htm how it must be ; and which was too large or too small. Then came the chimneys ; and Emilie drew a chimney-sweep on one of them, with a broom. Then they played another game, called the judicial game. In this they threw dice, and he who lost had to explain a picture. These pictures represented all kinds of artisans. The first I did not know ; it was a turner. But I knew all the others. There was a sculptor, a painter, and a scribe. The sculptor had a chisel in his hand, and was chiseling a Minerva, and the whole room was full of statues. In the twelfth letter Fritz relates what happened on the last day of the examination. There had been on the first day a sort of celebra- tion, after the pattern of Basedow's universal religion ; but on the last day it said, " First there was divine service, and this time according to the Christian religion." Basedow has given the exercises performed on the three days of the examination.* The first was a " universal worship of God." There was a liturgy alternating with a " choir of experienced worshipers of God,"' and with the congregation. The whole is a deistical, ethical, prosaic patch-work ; Christ is not named in it. For example : Give the dark nations wholesome light ; Make every doubter see ; Belief by force continue not, Nor forced hypocrisy. May those with child have strength from thec, Their children strong be made ; And may the pain of bringing forth, With pleasure be repaid. May youth grow up with worth and strength Beneath thy training wise ; And give to all the wish to aid The schools' great enterprise. Philanthropinist Contribution*, p. 1, 4c. I 502 JOHANN BERNHARD BASEDOW. Give wisdom to all friends of youth, And tasks not too severe ; The seed we sow is still despised, The harvest is not here. The second divine worship held at the examination is entitled : "A foundation for youth, of instruction and education, in faith in God, from the study of nature and a sense of conscience, with the help of faith and the example of adults." Nothing is said here, either, of Christianity; but the matter is a stupid, poetical kind of prose, mostly about the creation ; for example : " Before the beginning of things whispered no soft brook, roared no falling cataract." And the liturgy says : " Hear, ye children, pleasant teachings, which you will cer- tainly believe, when you understand them and consider them." Lastly, Basedow gives the divine service held on the third day of the examination. It is entitled, " Foundation of a Christian instruc- tion and exercises of conscience for children, with the help of their elders ;" and begins with, " We all believe on Jesus Christ." The former line, " We all believe in one God," is considered as havino- 7 O been disposed of in the previous deistical service. The whole is orthodox, and agreeable to the apostolical confession of faith ; being universally Christian, it appears calculated for Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants, for all who believe in God and in him whom he has sent ; even for Jews.* On this same third day of the examination, Basedow delivered an address, whose burden was, "Support the institute!" He says: " Fathers, fathers ! Mothers, mothers ! Have patience ! Give a part of your superfluous manure for the garden where our happiness, (that of our children and our childrens' children,) is planted and waited for. Remember the defects of your own school lives." He asks over and over again for thirty thousand thalers, and uses all sorts of induce- ments to give. " Whoever gives not less than fifty thalers, but not more than five hundred, shall have his name, with a number showing how many times fifty thalers he has given, cut in capitals in the bark of a young tree, in a grove of lindens, consecrated to that pur- pose." After Basedow's speech, Simon examined the children in French. He explained to them a " picture of Spring." " First," says the letter- writer, " he asked them one and another question, and then brought out a model of a plough and of a harrow, and showed them every thing belonging to the plough, and how the farmer uses it when he After what has been said before upon Basedow's religious views, we might wonder at this orthodoxy. But in this, an in Latin, he knew how tocomply wilh the times. De Marges, wen known for hit Christian character, was then, as superintendent, at the head of the church in Dessau. JOIIANN BERMIARU BASEDOW. 503 ploughs. Now it was that I saw what it was to learn words after Herr Basedow's methods. I never, in my life, knew what was a har- row in French ; and now, while Herr Simon was showing the harrow, I heard it, for the first time, called la herse, and now I know that I can never forget it." Afterward a historical examination, upon Alexander's expedition to India, was held by Mangelsdorf, the same who translated the "Ele- mentary Book " into Latin. Basedow says that the answers were very well made ; Fritz says that Mangelsdorf asked his questions of one scholar especially. This scholar was one of the four who translated a passage from Curtius, and the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John from Castellio's Bible. Basedow repeated the passage from Curtius, by periods, and each of the four " translated it correctly and with facility. And none of them had heard a word of Latin a year before, nor during that year had they ever committed one word to memory, or learned any thing from Donatus or the grammar." After another year, he promised, these scholars should be able to translate into Latin, from any German book which they could understand, orally or in writing, " with grammatical correctness, and not bad rhetoric."* " The spectators," says Fritz, " were much pleased with the Latin, all except one couple, whom I heard reasoning doubtfully to each other by themselves. They said that this was all mere childishness ; that they ought to bring up Cicero, Livy, Horace, Virgil, and the like ; and that then only it would be seen whether the Philanthropists understood Latin." In geography and natural history, no examinations were made. Two of the elder Philanthropinists demonstrated the Pythagorean theorem, and proved a trigonometrical problem. After the examination came an exhibition of two plays, by thechild- dren ; one in French and the other in German. The prince took the most friendly care of the guests who came to Dessau to the examin- ation, both there and in Worlitz ; so that most of the strangers went away with high opinions of the examination itself, of Dessau, and especially of the beautiful prince and princess. Advantageous ac- counts of the result appeared, soon after, in the ''Deutsche Aferkur,'" and in the "Allgemeine Deutsche Biblioth(k. r> \ Among those who declared themselves in favor of the Philanthro- * Ib., p. 15. The younger scholars translated from the 'CoUoquirs " of Erasmus. t In the "3/erA-ur" for 1776, is the report of Canon Von Rochow. 8lrolh,ofQuedliiiburf. alo wrote upon the examination ; Prof. Eck.of Leipzig, chaplain Rambach.of Que.llinb.ir*. mnd others, wrote letters to Basedow in praise of it, which lie raused to be printed (-PHilanlHropi- num," part 2d, p. 107;) and provost Ri>tger,of Magdtburg, wrote, aUo on the same, "Letter! of an Impartial Cotmopolitan." 504 JOHANN BERNHARD BA8EDOW. pinum was Kant In 1777, he published, in the "Konigsberg Gazette? the following article : For the Common Good. There is no want, in the civilized countries of Europe, of educational institutions, or of teachers, ambitious to be useful in t licit- calling; and it is equally clear, that they are all, taken together, spoilt, by the fact that every thing in them operates against nature, and thus they are of very much less benefit to man than nature has made the latter capable of ; and it is clear that, inasmuch as by penly with you ; so many copies frightened me and my wife. And I could hardly restrain myself; and had to make an effort to keep from tears. Thanks, and pleasure, and shame, and sorrow at my inability to make a return to the institution and to you, were too strong for me. I can pay you for them, my friend, in nothing but wishes, ardent wishes to my dear God, who keeps me so poor, for you and for your and my care, the institution. Yes, my friend, I hold your vocation and your labor enviable. May God strengthen, bless, and encourage you, and which I always shall for myself give you a more tender love for Jesus and for the children, bought with his blood, and so dear to him. Adieu, my dear friend, and all my friends. I remain, even until death, and anew after that, your sincere, willing, and tender friend, OBERLIN. Waldersbach in the Steinthal, on the borders of Alsace and Lorraine, March 16, 1777. In 1776,* the same year in which the examination was held, Campe, then chaplain at Potsdam, took the curatorship of the Phil- anthropinum, but left it in the following year. After his departure, Basedow was again " director of instruction," and Wolke vice-curator. Trapp, from Altona, became a teacher, but was appointed professor of pedagogy in Halle, in I778.f Busse, "candidate in pedagogy," and known for his mathematical text-books, and who was afterward pro- fessor of mathematics in the mining academy at Freiberg, became a teacher in 1778. / In 1778 there were thirty-three boarders. The plan of instruction was nearly as in 1776, and extracts from Cicero, Terence, G / years, 10 months, and 14 days. His last words were characteristic: * "I desire to be dissected for the benefit of my fellow-men." He was buried in the church of the congregation of the Holy Ghost. He was twice married. His first wife died in Sortie; with the second, a Danish woman, he lived thirty-three years, until her death in 1788. She was of a very melancholy disposition, and was especially affected by the excommunication of her husband in Altona. Emilie, his daughter, whom we have so often mentioned, married, in 1789, a clergyman named Cautius, who lived near Bernburg. Let us return once more to the Philanthropinum. There is so much that is strange and remarkable in the informa- tion which I have given, that the whole seems almost a pedagogical caricature. Yet it would be, in the highest degree, unjust to * The authentic accounts in my possession, come down only to 1784 ; so that I am obliged to break off at that point. The "Pedagogical Contertationa " ended with their Oth year, 1784. In 1796, at the age of thirteen, I came to Dessau, and there saw several of the teachers of the Philantliropiuum ; Uutoit. the enthusiastic follower of Rousseau, liusse, Wiilke, and Neuen- dorf. I was especially often in the house of the honest, benevolent, and enthusiastic Olivier, of whose important method of reading I shall hereafter speak. JOHANX I1ERNIIARI) BASEOOW. ggg keep in the back-ground the good qualities of the institution, and of its managers. As it regards the teachers in the Philanthropinum, whatever dif- ferences there may be in estimates of them, we must recognize with honor their honest and unselfish purposes ; and even for that of Base* dow, in spite of his shameless begging for plans which his brain, which, says Gothe, would not let him rest day or night, incessantly brought forth. He died poor, and while dying requested to be dis- sected for the benefit of his fellow-men. Even his boasting habit of promising impossible things, and even asserting them to have been done, at the Philanthropinum, to the great after injury of the institu- tion, may well be ascribed in part to a rude enthusiasm for his plans. Most of the teachers gave themselves to their work with self-sacrificing love, and with their whole hearts. With what unwearied and vivid activity did Wolke labor! Olivier, to his death, felt a youth's enthusi- asm for his vocation as a teacher ; and the honest, conscientious, and persevering activity in teaching,of Salzmann and Carnpe, is well known. Was then all the labor of these men in vain, and even more than in vain ? Certainly not. To convince ourselves of this, however, we must, as in forming our estimate of the character of Rousseau, take into consideration the character of the pedagogy of that time ; not as it was exhibited in the single cases of eminent philologists, but as it prevailed upon an average taken through most of the schools. The time of youth was then, for most of them, a very miserable time; and the instruction was hard and heartlessly strict. The grammar was whipped into their memories, as were al^o texts from Scripture and hymns.* A common school punishment was the learning by rote of the 119th Psalm. The school rooms were miserably dark; it was a wonder that the children could work with pleasure at any thing ; and no less a wonder that they had any eyes left for any thing besides writ- ing and reading. The godJess age of Louis XIV also inflicted uj>on the poor children of the higher ranks hair frizzled with powder and smeared with pomade, embroidered coats, knee-breeches, silk stock I'edagog. Confers., Vol. 3, p. 467. In thi place ia the following item : About this tim died llauberle, Collega jubilaevs at a village in fluabia. During the 51 years 7 months of hit official life, he had, by a moderate computation, inflicted 911.327 blows with a cane, 124.010 blows with a rod, 20,889 blows and rapswiih a ruler, 136,715 blows with the ham!. 10.233 blows over the mouth, 7,905 boxes on the ear, 1,115330 raps on the head, and 22.763 notnbentt with the Bible, catechism, Binsritig-book, and grammar. He had 777 time* made boys kneel on peas, and 613 time* on a three-cornered piece of wood ; had made 3001 wear the jackass, and 1707 hold the rod up ; not to enumerate various more unusual punishments which he contrived on the spur of the occasion. Of the blows with a cane, about 800.000 were for Latin words ; and of those with the rod 76 000 were for i-x' frm the Bible and verses from (ho sining-b>ok. He had about 3,000 expressions to scold with ; of which he had found about two-thirds ready-made in his native language, and the re* he had invented himself. 1 ' 510 JOHANN BERNHARD BA8EDOW. ings, a sword at their sides ; all of which was the severest torture for young and active children.* Like Kant, F. II. Jacobi, Euler.f and others, conceived at first great hopes from the institution, and that gained great reputation and received assistance, in and from all parts of Europe. The unnat.ura.U- ness of much that was usual was so strongly felt, and there was so strong a desire after freedom, after what may be called natural in the best sense of the word, that, as Kant says, there was a powerful wish not only for a reformation, but for a revolution, for the freedom of youth. Rousseau's oratorical exhortations had caused much attention to be paid to the more intelligent management of little children; mothers nursed them themselves, and many effeminate habits were avoided. In the Philanthropinum, the same principles were followed in educating boys ; and bodily education was attended to in a manner which had never been any where seen before. J The preposterous and painful clothes of boys, embroidered coats, V breeches, curling, and hair-bags, were all done away with. It may be imagined how delightful it must have been to the boys, to be let out of their tormenting dress coats, breeches, and cravats permitted to wear the most convenient sailor's jackets and pantaloons of striped blue and white tick, to have their necks free and their collars turned down, to be quite rid of the smear of powder and pomade in their hair, and of their hair-bags. A report of the institution for 1779 says, "If parents insist upon it that the hair of their children shall be daily dressed and powdered by the usual barbers, the institution can not answer for the purity of their characters; for, by means of the barbers, they can easily establish a connection with immoral persons, &c." This appeal was efficient. Care was taken that the body should be disciplined and hardened. * Most of the children can be judged of by the cnls \nl\ie "Elementary Book." Of (he influence of the unnatural French manners upon the German girls, GOthe has given a vivid representa- tion in a scene of the earlier edition of "Ericinand Elmire." See his works, first edition, Vol. 34, p. 211. tThis great mathematician was the author of the favorable testimony which the Academy of St. Petersburg published, upon Basedow and the Philanthropinum. in 1773 Basedow had sent his book, "The. I'hilanthropinum," to St. Petersburg. They say, "The academy con- siders this work worthy of iis praises. It applauds in particular the cordial zeal with which the author is penetrated for the good of the human family ; and, us the plan of education and the method of instruction for the young, which is therein proposed, is in several respects preferable to those which have been followed hitherto, the academy has no doubt that if it hall be carried into execution, and imitated by other institutions, there will result a material advantage to the public." : What had been begun in the Philanthropinum wag carried further by Gutsmuth?, in the S:ilxm;mi] institution, at Schnepfenthal. Cuismuths indeed shows himself, in his gymnastics, the forerunner of Jahri. i This wai the custom of the children under the care of Olivier, when I saw them in 17%. JOHANN BERNHARD BA3EUOW. gj| The boys learned carpentering and turning, wrestled in the open air, ran foot races, ssible from actual seeing, the training of the eyes was not neglected. Here also should be mentioned the fact that the Philanthropinum, and the teachers who adhered to its principles, made special efforts for the prevention of certain frightful secret practices. As to instruction, the teachers of the Philanthropinum did many great services to it. It was one of their favorite principles, that the scholars should learn with love and not with repugnance. In this they were certainly right, although they made many mistakes in their method of inspiring this love of learning. They severely blamed the unloving indifference of so many teachers toward their pupils, and toward their pleasure or displeasure in learning. That teacher will accomplish most, whose work is adapted at once to the growing natural gifts of his scholars, and to their weak conscientiousness. To have regard only to the natural gifts of the children leads to a servile following of them ; to make demands upon their conscientiousness onlv, and to overlook and neglect their individual endowments, leads to the tyrannical prac- tice of requiring every thing from all alike. In the first of these cases, the wills of the children are left to themselves, and they are treated only as personified powers, vegetating and developing them- selves ; which the teacher must follow only, and to which he must subject himself entirely. In the second case, on the other hand, they are regarded as personified wills, and they are required to will and to do all things, even the impossible; as if one should require a blind man to become a painter by the power of his will. In the Philan- thropinum, the ethical element was comparatively neglected ; the pleasure and wishes of the children was too much consulted, and their conscience and wills too little called into activity; even a wrong vanity was put in requisition.* This may well have happened in opposition to the already mentioned caricaturized character of the ancient peda- gogy, and its extreme severity, which commanded and set lessons recklessly, in reliance upon punishment, had reference neither to the pleasure nor the consciences of the children, and would carry all things through by fear. I now proceed to consider the method followed in the Philanthro- pinum in giving instruction on different subjects. In teaching language, Comenius was followed in this respect, th;t * Inthe fourth collection of Worshiping Exrrcistt, holdeti in the chapel ofthe PhiUnlhro- pmuin," the exercivee are given, with which seven pupils were admitted to the Order of lu- dustry. 512 JOHAKN BERNHARD BASEDOW. the teaching of words of foreign languages was as .much as possible united with the inspection of the things designated by his words. At the examination in French, the teacher showed the picture of a harrow and called it kerse. The word was to be impressed upon the memory by seeing, and the sight by the memory. The "Elementary Book" like the "Orbis Pictus" before it, aimed at such a united knowledge of things and their names, in different languages. A second distinction between the instruction in languages at the Philanthropinum and that elsewhere was this, that foreign languages were taught, first by speaking them, and next by reading. The gram- mar, which in other schools was always made the beginning, was not brought in until a late period. But this is not entirely new. In this way, as we have seen; Montaigne learned Latin ; Ratich placed the reading of Terence before the grammar ; and Locke's principles were similar. Basedow and Wolke, however, were accustomed to cite, principally, various places in Gesner's " Isagogef in one of which it is said, that it is a hundred times easier to teach a language by use and practice, without grammar, than it is to teach it by grammar, without use and practice. To avoid repetition, I omit here the fall discussion of this pedagogi- cal controversy ; I shall hereafter have occasion to take it up in my account of the Hamiltonian method. I will only remark that, so far as I know, no philologist of eminence proceeded from the Philanthro- pinum. This is the less to be wondered at, since Basedow himself must have been entirely destitute of all susceptibility to the grandeur and beauty of the ancient classics ; and, by his own confession, studied the dead languages industriously himself, and caused them to be dili- gently studied by others, only because otherwise the Philanthropinum could not be kept in existence. The instruction in arithmetic seems to have been very good ; at least the manuals of Busse, the professor of mathematics, have had much reputation. In geometry, the views of Rousseau appear to have been followed ; who, as we have seen, insisted much upon draw- ing the geometrical figures as neatly and accurately as possible. This was entirely correct. Nowhere is the imposing principle of "Spirit- ualism " less appropriate, than in the instruction of youth. This spiritualism despises the form, and immediately requires the idea; whereas the young need the best and truest representations, as being the symbols of the clearest and truest ideas. I possess a collection of geometrical drawings on pasteboard, which were used for instruction in the Philanthropinum. In these, nothing is omitted which can make the representation more correct, or the JOIIANN BERNHARD BA8EDOW. 513 demonstration more easy. Even painting, in the names of the sepa- rate parts of the figures, is employed ; and some of the triangles can even be taken out of their places, to show how they may be placed upon other triangles. The great Euclid certainly would not have used the word "-cover," unless he had actually laid one figure upon the other. Upon the instruction in geography, natural history, and physics, we may give some particulars from the "Elementary Book" The geo- graphical instruction is arranged in two courses, but offers nothing special. But the strange political and religious remarks of the au- thor, repulsive to men, and wholly unintelligible to children, are worthy of attention. Of the method of procedure, he says, "It is a practical method to begin with a sketch of a room, a house, a town, and a well-known neighborhood ; and then to go on to the map of a country, and so on to a continent." This is after Comenius, and Rousseau ; but I do not know whether this method was actually fol- lowed. To the geography, in the "Elementary Book" is subjoined a some what confused universal history, which is mingled with all manner of inappropriate observations; and this is followed by portions of mythology, narrated in the most vulgar and disgusting manner. The natural history, in the "Elementary Hook" contains one thing and another from the three kingdoms ; and rather more from physics and astronomy. The structure of the human body is also considered. Many absurdities are attributable to the condition of natural science at that day. There is also a technology, containing a description of the most common trades and arts. All these things were subjects of instruction at the Philanthropi- num, where the "Elementary Book" indeed, was in its proper place. The numerous representatives from nature and art, which were placed before the children, like pictures passed before them in a magic lan- tern, must have been a great diverson to them ; but how wearisome, on the other hand, must have been the homilies which they had to endure on morals, politics, and religion ! Basedow had not bestowed any thought upon the questions, what was appropriate for boys in this country ; what stimulates them ; what they can understand ; what appeals to their hearts? Not less than sixty-one pages, in the "Ele- mentary Book" are occupied with "Fundamental Ideas of Politics," which tell about a certain Democratus, who lived in the country of Universalia ; of a great Count Aristocratus ; of actionable injuries, Linut, Itaeagt* in Erudition** Unitersnlem. Accedunt pruses and twenty Arions are all included in Bach atone, and in any one else like him, if there be any such." 524 JOHANN MATTHIAS GESNER. to us, and exceedingly beautiful."* In the next year, 1734, Gesner left Leipzig, having received an invitation to the new university at Gottingen. He was there professor of eloquence and poetry, and also librarian. He was also made director of the philological semi- nary, and inspector of all the Hanoverian schools; two important pedagogical offices, for which the experience which he had gathered in his three rectorates had well fitted him. The views which, under the influence of Buddeus, he had advanced in Jena, in 1715, he now, twenty-three years afterward, in 1738, introduced in the seminary of Gottingen. This was intended for giving to young theologians a theoretical and practical training for the business of teaching. For his lectures upon the whole of pedagogy, he took, as a basis, his "Institutiones rei Scholasticce" Besides their philological studies, the pupils of the seminary studied also pure and mixed mathematics, natural sciences, and geography. They practiced teaching in the city school of Gottingen. The most important of Gesner's lectures are in his "Isaffoge in Eruditionem Universalem ; " a scientific encyclopedia. We have these lectures in the form in which they were written down by a learned hearer, Niclas. When Niclas laid his manuscript before Gesner, the latter said: "I recognize myself in them; print them." In 1740, a German society was formed in Gottingen, of which Gesner was chosen president. Afterward, in 1751, was founded the Gottingen society of sciences ; at the head of the historical and philological section of which Gesner was placed. He afterward became president of the society. Notwithstanding the many offices which required so much of his activity, he wrote works extraordinary in number and value. Two of them I have already mentioned. To these must be added many excellent editions of the classics; as, for instance, Livy, Quintilian, Horace, the writers on agriculture, &c., and also his celebrated "Thesaurus."^ Many of his single Latin treatises, inscriptions, ad- dresses, prefaces, J9 too soon get the idea that that only is true which we understand from our natural senses ; and this has the evil consequence that they are willing to believe nothing, will not learn what is necessary, and are unwilling to obey their teachers. Man can not by himself gain the first elements of learning ; he must receive them from others, and what they teach him he must believe. If the boy should begin to dispute about why one letter is called A and another li, and especially if he demands reasons for it, he could ask questions for years without learning any thing; and, moreover, it would not be possible to answer him. Very often no account can be given of the first elements of things. For instance, let a pupil ask, why are such and such things called point, line, surface? And let him take nothing by belief until the reason of it is given, and he will learn nothing to eternity. I know this by experience. I have often seen, in good families, boys so precocious as to ask questions all day. But the German proverb was true of them that a fool can ask a thousand times more question* than a wise man can answer. I do not mean by this that the utter- ances of the teacher are to be considered as oracles, from whose sayings there is to be no variation; but only this, that as long as we are pupils, we must take things by belief. Afterward only, when our understanding is ripened, and we have become independent, may we prove what we have learned." In Gesner we have thus become acquainted with a man distin- guished for thorough learning, clear understanding, pedagogical wis- dom, and gifts for teaching; and unwearieclly active and conscientious in his official duties. Ernesti, who lived in close connection with him for many years, describes him as exceedingly religious, resigned to the will of God, and thus of like demeanor both in good and evil days, and as a loving father and friend. After a long and active life, his end drew near. When the physicians announced to him his ap- proaching death, he answered : *' What is to be settled between me and God, I have not put off to this time." He departed in a peace- ful and Christian manner, August 3rd, 1761. 2H JOHANN AUGUST ERNESTI. [Translated from the German of Von Raumer, for the American Journal of Education.] JOHANN AUGUST ERNESTI was born in 1707, at Tennstiidt, a small town of Thuringia, where his father was pastor. He received his first instruction in the school of Tennstadt, and, in his sixteenth year, he was placed in the princes' school of Schulpforte. Here he distin- guished himself by his important acquisitions, especially in Greek. In his twentieth year he entered the University of Wittemberg, where Wolf's philosophy was in the bight of fashion; and after- ward went to Leipzig, where he attended the lectures of Gottsched on German eloquence, and of Hausen upon mathematics. When twenty-three, he was, upon the recommendation of Gesner, employed as private tutor, by Counselor of Appeals Stiglitz, the same to whom the epistle upon the study of the ancients, prefixed to his edition of Cicero, is addressed. Stiglitz was superior (antistes) of the. Thomas School ; it was by his influence that Gesner had been ap- pointed rector, and it was he also who procured the appointment of Ernesti, when only twenty -four, as conrector, and afterward, at the departure of Gesner, in 1734, as rector. Ernesti, at the same time, read lectures at the university, upon polite learning. At a subsequent period, he gave up his rectorship, and devoted his whole time to the university, giving his attention especially to theology. He died in 1781, at Leipzig, aged seventy-four. From Ernesti's own expressions, he would seem to have taken Gesner for his model in teaching. The latter induced him to publish, in 1734, the "Initia Doctrince Solidioris" a work which passed through^ repeated editions, and was brought into use as a school-book in various countries, as Saxony and Hanover, for instance. In this book, Ern- esti aimed to give his instructions in as good Latin as possible ; although, as appears by comparing the earlier and later editions,* he continued to labor for the improvement of its style, and to approach nearer and nearer to his ideal of Ciceronian Latin. In the preface, he relates that, as a preparatory discipline for this work, he read the best Latin writers of the golden age, and, where this would not serve, The very first period of the hook will serve an au example. In the edition of 1734, it reads, "Cum ad libellum hunc scribendum adjiceremus animum, facile prrtvidebamus^furc ut /ioc conailium nostrum in miillaa multorum reprehcnsiones incurrere! ." Instead of facile prizvidebamng, the edition of 1750 has nun parun suipicaljamur. JOHANN AUGUST ERNESTI. ggj those of the silver age, repeatedly over. Thus, he says, he believes that he has succeeded in not admitting any thing into his book which was not heard in ancient Latium.* Only from necessity has he here and there used an unclassical expression. From this saying of Nihil veteri Latio inauditum, it might natu- rally be concluded that the book would contain nothing which had not been heard in ancient Latium. And this conclusion would be, for the greater part of the book, correct. It treats, first, of arith- metic and geometry ; then come the elements of philosophy, in this order: 1st, metaphysics, psychology, ontology, natural theology; 2nd, dialectics; 3rd, natural law, and ethics; 4th, politics; 5th, physics. In conclusion, come the elements of rhetoric. This table of contents reminds us of the cyclus of Melancthon's text-books; of his dialec- tics, rhetoric, physics, psychology, and ethics. All acquainted with the subject will readily believe that Ernesti's book would not be adapted to our present gymnasiums. The mathematical part may appear to us scanty; but when we consider that, by the Prussian school ordinances of the year 1735, one year after the appearance of the "Initia" no knowledge of mathematics whatever was required of those graduating from the gymnasiums, we shall retract that opinion. Philosophical subjects are handled at length in about four hundred and fifty pages. The fact that Christianity is here completely ignored, while, nevertheless, so many things must come up which have been known to the pupils by means of their catechetical studies, must be set down as an entire error. If, according to Picus of Mirandola, philosophy seeks truth, theology finds it, and religion possesses it, it could not but be strange, to such as had possessed it from an early age, to be set to searching for that of which they were already in possession. It would be quite otherwise if the manual should contain a comparative description of the Greek and Roman theology by the side of the Christian, although gymnasium pupils are not old enough even for such a treatise. It is quite mysterious how Ernesti should have inserted in his school-book such chapters as this: De conjugii felicitate consequent, and De euro subolis. Of this latter chapter we must say a little more. In it Ernesti expresses views upon education, which agree in part with the earlier ones of Locke, and in part with the later ones of Rousseau. He discusses procreation, and the management of pregnant women; urges that the mother should herself nurse her children, and not give them into the charge of untrustworthy nurses; and ho Still, Ernesti by no means belonged to those philologists who read Ihe ancients only with the design of patching together a Latin style, by picking scraps out of them. AJJIO* that kind of reading he declared himstlf most decidedly, in his letter to Stigliu. 532 JOHANN AUGUST ERNESTI. refers to Gellius, for the like advice. Mothers, he says further, must not give their own children to nurses, but must themselves educate them; and, if the? do this, they will be beloved by the children. If parents command or forbid any thing, they should give the reasons for it; for otherwise they are obeyed unwillingly, and would rather be led than driven. Parents should not require their children to be free from faults, and should not be alternately forgiving and un- reasonably strict. Instruction should be such, not that the children shall believe blindly in any thing, but only in what is given them as the foundation of their belief; and they should make inquiries for the reasons of things. Thus they will be kept from credulity, supersti- tion, and prejudices. Care should also be taken, not to fill their memories, like those of parrots, with empty or unintelligible words. Ernesti recommends care in the choice of teachers, and in deter- mining upon the future occupation of the children. They should early be taught a love of true honor, the right use of money, and truthfulness. Such pedagogical rules as these would hardly be expected from the strict philologist of the old school. It is certain that the profound, universally learned Gesner, who had pursued freely so many lines- of investigation, had the greatest influence upon Ernesti in this re- spect What I have given from the writings of both these men, will be sufficient to show the reader what they were, and that although in general philologists of conservative character, yet they were not blind to the faults of antiquity, and sought and followed new ways; and, therefore, that they are entitled to a place between the adherents of the old pedagogy and the new. They can be compared only to Trotzendprf and Sturm on the one side, and to Locke and Rousseau on the other. JOHANN GEORG HAMANN. [Trantlated for the American Journal of Education, from the German of Krl von Raoroet.] JOHANN GEORG HAMANN was born at Konigsberg, August 27, 1730. His father was a respectable man, and "a much beloved practitioner, who preferred the family name of an Altstadt surgeon, to all the titles of honor, then so cheap." * He was born in Lusa- tia, and his wife, Hamann's mother, in Lubeck ; they had another son, younger than Johann Georg. Hamann relates that both his parents were "enemies of idleness, and friends of divine and human order."f "They were not satisfied," he continues, " with the mere form of their duty and the ceremonial of education, which, to the shame of too many parents, suffices them in caring for their children; but they had our good for an object, and did as much for it as their circumstances and knowledge permitted. Our instructor had to give account to them of our industry and progress; and our home was a school, under the strict oversight, and with the example, of our parents. Lying, mischief, and stealing, were three capital offenses, which were not to be pardoned. We were rather educated at a pro- fuse expense, than parsimoniously. But it is good economy and management in this matter which is the best policy." Hamann received his first school instruction from a teacher who tried to teach him Latin without grammar.J From a second teacher he learned, as he relates, to translate a Latin author into German, without understanding either the language or the meaning of his author. "Thus," he says, "my Latin and Greek were mere collec- tions of words; compositors' work; conjuring tricks; in which my memory overworked itself, and by means of which the other mental faculties became weakened, proper and .healthful nourishment being wanting." By means of drilling, he made much progress in arithme tic ; but such a knowledge of it is useless to children who " are mado to acquire facility in it, without observation or understanding." " It is," continues Hamann, "as it is in music; where not the fingers only but chiefly the ear and the hearing, must be taught and exercised. One who has learned one piece, or a hundred, ever so fluently and correct!}*, without a feeling of the harmony, plays like a dancing Hamann's Works, 7, 76, 161. t Ib., 1, 153. : Ib , 156, Ac. 534 JOHANN GEORG HAMANN. bear in comparison even with the most miserable fiddler, who knows how to express his own ideas.'' Although in this species of study it was Hamann's memory which was mostly put in requisition, he still complains that it was weakened by it. This is an experience well worth remembering ; and warns us against pushing the exercises of single mental faculties to the point of wearing out.* "An edge too sharp gets notched." Hamann makes valuable pedagogical observations upon his state- ment; for the reason that education "is so important a work;" and because he "feels in his heart a plain call from God to feed his lambs." " An intelligent teacher," he says, " must enter his school in dependence upon God and himself, if he is to administer his office wisely. He must also imitate God, as he reveals himself iu nature and in the Holy Scriptures, and in our own souls, through them both. Almighty God, to whom nothing costs any thing, is a most economical and patient God. The law of economy of time, in accordance with which he waits patiently for fruit to ripen, should be our pattern. It is of importance, not what, or how much, children or men know ; but how they know it." " The means used for instructing children can not be simple enough. But they must, besides efficiency, possess the qualities of manifold and fruitful applica- bility and practicability." '' Learning foreign languages should be a help to the understanding of the mother tongue; and, although it may seem to be a mere exercise of memory, they should be made a preparation and training of all powers of the mind for higher, more important, more difficult, and even religious subjects." Such and other observations were made by Hamann, at the age of eight and twenty, upon the education which he had received. He remarks, in concluding them, " Complete accomplishment, in the usual acceptation of the term, consists in remoteness from nature. How unnatural have fashions and customs made us, and how difficult would it be for us to return from the present time to the sim- plicity and innocence of ancient manners? " Hamann was matriculated at Konigsberg, in his sixteenth year, in 1746. He very soon, however, at the age of twenty-two, connected the occupations of the teacher with those of the student. In 1752, he became tutor in the family of a Baroness B., in Livonia, twelve miles from Riga. He describes the family. Besides a boy nine years old, who looked very shy, awkward, and effeminate, there were a younger sister, and an orphan girl, whom the baroness was bring- ing up. My beginning in my new calling was difficult enough. I had to man- age myself, my pupils, and an uncouth, coarse, and ignorant mother. I harnessed myself to the plough like a spirited horse ; with great zeal, sincere intentions, lit- tle wisdom, and too much confidence in myself, and dependence upon human weaknesses, in consideration of the good which I was doing or was intending to do. We are naturally inclined to overestimate our own efforts, to expect their efficiency as an unavoidable matter of course, and to estimate the duties of others, and expect the performance of them, by the standard of our own opinions and pref- erences. The husbandman can not, from his careful husbandry alone, promise himself a hundred fold return. The land, the weather, the character of the seed, some small insect, all of which are things beyond the scope of his powers, have their part to piny ; and, above all, is the blessing of the divine oversight and gov- ernment. I expected that my labors would be recognized by men ; admired by '.hem ; and even that they would redound to their shnme. Such are impure de- * The fact reminds us of the unlimited memorizing of the schools of Jacotot and Ruthardt JOI1ANN GEORO HAMANN. 535 sires ; they pervert our efforts, and bring disgrace upon them. I wrote two let- ters to the baroness, upon the education of her son ; which were intended to awaken her conscience. One of these letters referred to Las been preserved. Its content* are as follows : As I am no longer able to say any thing which makes an impression upon the baron, I feel my resources exhausted, and am in despair of doing him any good. I find myself, in teaching him Latin, under the daily necessity of repealing over again what I said on the first day of my instruction. I see before me a human body, which has eyes and ears, without using them ; of whose mind we may well despair, since it is always occupied with childish and silly pursuit*, and is thus useless for the slightest serious occupation. I shall not blame your grace, if you shall think this statement calumnious and false. It has cost me enough to find out its truth by hourly experience ; and there have been occasions when I liave lamented the future fate of the baron, much more than my own present lot. I have no desire that time and sad experience shall prove the truth of my expecta- tions regarding him. I can pay attention neither to arithmetic, in which the baron is so little advanced that I have had to teach him to write and name the numerals, nor to French and other subordinate studies ; for the greater the num- ber of things which I undertake with him, the more inattentive does he become. One who can not read a language which is pronounced according to the sounds of its letters, is in no situation to learn another which is pronounced by rule*, like the French. I therefore take upon myself the freedom of requesting of your grace some assistance in my work. It will be necessary to apply some compulsion to the baron, since he has not the good sense, or the natural inclination, of his own free choice, to prefer what is for his own honor and happiness. Conscientious parents bear in mind the account which they must one day render of the educa- tion of their children, to God and to the world. These young creatures have hu- man souls ; and we are not at liberty to change them into dolls, apes, parrots, or something still worse. I have taken occasion to set before your grace the feel- ings and views of a reasonable and tender mother, for the reason that I am con- vinced of the profound interest which you feel in the education of your only son. You will not do too much credit to your tutor, if you consider him a man who loves his duty more than he seeks to please. " My letter was not understood," continues Ilamann in his narra- tive, " and I had poured oil upon the fire." lie gives a fuller account of this in the following letter to his father. "On the 14th of this month, on Friday, when the baroness fasts, I received, after dinner, the following autograph letter from her, by the footman, a quarter of an hour after the young baron had come down, as pale as a corpse. I had eaten below. HKRH HAMANN :* As you have shown yourself altogether unfit for the in- struction of children of condition, and as the low letter does not please me, in which you describe my son in so vulgar and disgraceful a manner, perhaps you could not judge of him otherwise than by your own pattern. I see in you only a statue huu round with a great many books, which by no means constitutes i good tutor and, as you have written to me that you have sold your freedom and peace of mind for a number of years at too dear a rate, I wdl neither have y supposed skill nor your time paid for in my house : I need you no longer nbo< children ; make ready to journey hence on Monday. " The young baron had been sent for up stair?, just as I rocei letter of dismission. The baroness was bathingjjnd^did not know " This note is. in the German, extremely mi 8S pellc,rmi.,.unctu..ed, .! ">>*" In eft of words. These characteristics could not well be accurately jiven in the Enjl.at 530 JOHANN GEORG IIAMANN. why the young baron did not come down. I therefore sent word to him to corne. He came to me, crying, and made excuses for himself; he had repeatedly asked the baroness to permit him to come down, but she had forbidden him to see me again. He fell upon my neck, crying, and his affectionate demeanor affected me. I made the best use possible of my quarter of an hour with him ; and explained to him all the sincerity and tenderness which I had used in teaching him. He embraced me closely, with tears. The baroness was told that her son was with me. She sent for him immediately, and forbid him anew to see me. He crept secretly through the garden to the window, knocked, and wished me good night, with a sorrow which was evidently sincere. On Saturday he wrote me two letters from his imprisonment, one of which I answered. On Monday I was about departing, and sent my servant to the baroness to request permission to take leave. He brought me back word that she desired to be ex- cused, being occupied ; and that she wished me all manner of good. I gave a nod to the baron, who was standing in one of the rooms above ; he ran up to me, and I embraced him. After I had taken my seat in the carriage, he came to me again, and again fell upon my neck." A few months afterward, Hamann obtained a second tutorship ; in relation to which he says :- In 1753, in the most beautiful season of the year, I went into Courland, to General W., whose wife was born Countess de K., and who had two sons. In this place I was the sueeessor of two tutors, who had been employed together ; of whom one was a windbag and vulgar, and the other a shallow-minded fellow. I found the two boys to be of a very different character from that of my baron. They needed much more discipline, watching, and keenness, and much more was to be hoped from them ; as the eldest had great capacity, although I was never able to take as much pleasure in his natural tendencies, as in those of my first pupil. God granted me many favors in this household, both from parents and children, and, indeed, from all in the family. I presumed too much, also, upon my position, and made too great requisitions in return for my services. I be- came restless, impatient, and ill-tempered, to an extreme ; and had much difficul- ty in staying out my year, at the end of which I went back to Riga, with much melancholy, ill-will, anger, and some disgrace. After a little time, he undertook the same appointment again ; but the last sickness of his mother called him back to Konigsberg, in 1756.* From that city he wont to Berlin, Lubeck, Amsterdam, and finally to London, where he remained from April 18th, 1757, to June 27th, 1758, as correspondent of a mercantile house at Riga. Here, by means of a foolish and dissipated course of life, he fell into a miserable and needy condition, both physical and mental. In these * His correspondence with his two pupils and their subsequent tutor, G. E. Lindner, are of educational value. Ilamanii himself was, however, afterward not altogether satisfied with Ink own letter*. JOHANN OEORO I1AMANN. 5 27 ircumstances he applied himself to the reading of the Bible, and found himself wonderfully attracted, enlightened, encouraged, and even converted, by it. How profound its influence was upon him ia shown by the deep feeling of the "Biblical Observations of a Chris- tian? which ho wrote in London at that time. From this time for- wird, the Holy Scriptures were, to him, an immovable foundation, the unconditional highest rule of his thoughts and actions, and of his whole life. <; God," he said, " has made me a man fortified by the Bible." Toward the end of his stay in London, he wrote the " Re- flections upon the Course of my Life ;" a confession, written in bit- ter earnest, and concealing nothing.* In 1758, Hamann's brother was appointed a teacher in the cathe- dral school at Riga, Hamann was concerned, and, as the sequel showed, with good reason, about his " indifference." " My brother," he wrote to his father, " has good reason to recognize his inefficiency, like Solomon ; to see in himself a child, who knows neither his com- ing in nor his going out; and to ask for an obedient and understand- ing heart, that he may be able to feed with faithfulness, and govern with industry, the flock intrusted to him." Subsequently, he repeat- edly encouraged, instructed, warned, and reproved his brother. When he was to deliver an address at an examination, he wrote to him as follows : " When it becomes your duty to speak at the examin?ition, speak so that the children can understand you; and have more re- gard for the impression which you can make upon them, than for the approval of learned and witty dilettanti. You call your work a yoke. It is an excellent thing for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.*' At another time he admonished him to perform, conscientiously, the duties of his office ; arid adds : " You are determined to be better than other people ; and will not use the summer for the purpose fur which it was given to men, to behold and enjoy God's friendliness to them. \Vhat folly to write that so doing would be to be more in- quisitive than God meant ; especially when you are capable of under- standing and applying that pleasure ! In this way, every thing in you remains dead and unfruitful." Hamann's admonitions were, however, little regarded by his brother. He wrote to him again : " You will not make use of what men put into your hand. Your scholars will always imitate you ; they will * From this work much of the above account i taken. It reff mb'rn Au*iitme' "Ckm- fessiom," in grade and in character ; ami is, to a corre*pondiog drjree, fundamentally dif- ferent from Rousseau's How entirely it was misunderstood by II. minim - mot intimate friends, is shown by a letter from Hamann to J. O. Lindner. Kminmt later wnfer*. who have misjudged Hamann, should consider what lie ta\a to Lindner: ' My -Count if my Life ' can not be read hastily and superficially. Herr B. must lire longer, and have ttifftreot experiences, from his previous ones, before he can understand larje portions of iL" 538 JOIIANN GEORG HAMANN. never learn correctly, if you do not teach them correctly. You are as silent with me about your school matters as if they were state secrets. If you were well aware of the importance of your station, would not your pleasure in it, and ideas springing from it, show themselves in a hundred different ways, in questions, remarks, observations?'' Fur- ther on, he says : " If it is painful to you to pass your time in teaching, go to your class a<< a scholar, and look upon your young people as so many actual coflaboratores, who are instructing you ; go among them with a multitude of questions, and you will feel such an impatience of curiosity in the beginning of the lesson, and will carry away home with you such a multitude of scholar's reflections, as if you were comparing and examining the teachings of a whole crowd of teach- ers at once. He who will not learn from the children, will be unin- telligent and mistaken in their conduct to them." Harnann had recommended to his brother a Greek grammar, by Wagner. His brother answered that "it was otherwise very good, but somewhat too short, and a mere skeleton." To this Ilamann re- plies : "A skeleton must necessarily be dry and uncomely to the eye, being deprived of blood, sinews, and muscles ; but otherwise it would be a carcass. The spirit of the teacher must clothe and inspire these dry bones. Such is the office, in instruction, of the viva vox ; which is the daughter of living knowledge, and not a mere vox humana, an organ-pipe. Profound views are not easy. They must be worked for and created." All Hamann's admonitions were, however, in vain ; in 1760 his brother gave up his place as teacher in Riga, and "from that time to 1778 lived at Konigsberg, in empty leisure and even in foolishness." From 1752 to 1787, Hamann lived almost entirely at Konigsberg. During four years, 1759-1763, he was occupied in waiting upon his aged and sickly father. In 1767, he received an appointment as sec- retary and translator in the excise department; in 1777, became a warehouse inspector; and, in 1787, was put on the retired list. From his marriage (a marriage of conscience,) he had four chil- dren ; one son, Johann Michel, born in 1769, and three daughters. His children were the occasion of a new pedagogical epoch for him. Clear-minded and conscientious, and deceived by no foolish parental partialities, he was often made unhappy by reflecting upon the pros- pects of his children. " What a wonderfully poor specimen I am of a father," he writes to Herder, " can not be imagined. A real hen, that has hatched ducks' eggs." In 1776, he writes quite discouraged about himself. "My three children have cost their mother, although she is a pretty tough daughter of Adam, and myself, much real sorrow. JOHANN GEORG HAMAKN. 39 Yesterday my eldest daughter foil down the whole flight of stain*. The holy angels in heaven themselves could not take care of chil- dren ; let alone educating them. God be praised, she was not in- jured. With my Hans Michel every thing goes crab fashion ; the boy is forgetting his good intentions and his good mannets. This i my greatest trouble ; which causes me anguish and gray hairs ; that I myself can do nothing for his education, and can devote so little means to it. I had, one Sunday, the horrid idea of packing him off, neck and heels, to the Pontifex Maximus, at Dessau.* That heat soon cooled; but the worm is still gnawing at my heart, in respect to what I shall do with the boy. I have little enough of family joys, though they are the only heaven upon earth ; but family sorrows are, also, a real hell ; at least they were so for David and the patriarchs. The Spirit of God and the Son of Man are the only schoolmasters for such things." Herder encouraged his despairing friend. " With regard to the education of your Hans Michel," he wrote, "do not distress your- self; nothing will be gained by doing so. Have yet a little patience. I have just come back from seeing tliePontifex Maximus, in Dessau; and my own boy is growing up. But, if God will, he shall never see him nor have him. His whole establishment is a frightful thing to me ; a hot-house, or rather a pen full of human geese. My brother- in-law, the forester, who was here lately, was telling me of a new method to raise oaks in ten years, as large as now grow in fifty or a hundred. By cutting oft' the tap-root of the young trees, it is said, the whole strength comes up above ground in stem and fruit. The whole secret of Basedow's plans, I believe, is such a one; and, since I know him personally, I would not give him a calf to instruct, much less a man. In short, my dear fellow, let your passion pass off; and wait, as a husbandman does, for the good fruits of the earth."f But Hamann's solicitude for his children did not leave him. In 1782, six years afterward, he wrote, by way of consolation, to Heich- ardt, who had lost a son : " What abundance of care, vexation, and solicitude, do you escape ! The greater the love of a father, the more mortal are his cares, and the more infernal his sorrows. The higher the endowments of our children, the greater the danger of their going astray and being * Oascdow, who was, in 1776, at the culmination of his fame. t This excellent letter of Herder's is worth comparing with the gr*l hope* which Kanl and Oberlin conceived of the Philanlhropimini. llamann himstlf wid of it, u Oawdow'* Philanthrnpinum is a most remarkable phenomenon. Hi* laushable Programme lo Cosmo- politans yesterday causf all vanity. A philosophical book for children must appear as simple, foolish, and insipid. a a divine book for men. Examine yourself, whether you have the heart U> be the author of a simple, foolish, insipid, Natural Philosophy. If you have, you arc a philosopher for children. The chief law of methods for children is this ; to let one's self down to their weakness ; to become their servant, where one would naturally chorwe to be their master; to follow them, where one would naturally lead them; to learn their language and their mind, where one would naturally constrain them to imitate 17 544 JOHANN GEOR6 II AMAN.V his own. Tliis practical principle, it is, however, possible neither to understand nor to act fully up to, unless one has become fully absorbed in affection for chil- dren. 7. Without the law of complete freedom, man would be fit for no imitation, which is the basis of all education and receptivity ; for, of all animals, man is the greatest pantomimist. 8. How much mental quickening have I enjoyed in the Swiss mason's hut of Leonard and Gertrude ! How skillfully, in this affecting drama, is the proton pseu- dos of the apostles, of the new philosophy, in respect to legislation, discovered ! In the hut of Leonard and Gertrude, I found indications of a stricter philo- sophieal and political system, than in Raynal's ten volumes of East and West Indian Tales. The author of Leonard and Gertrude adapted his style entirely to the tone of national feeling. In spite of this fault, as admirers of purity and lucidity of style must find it, it undeniably contains passages of beauty, strength, and power, which one can not become tired of reading. 9. I think of education as I do of all other human instrumentalities, whose suc- cess depends wholly upon a blessing from above ; I prefer a moderate use of it to a forced and excessive one.* To Reichardt, whose son was dead, Hamann wrote : 10. The giver of all pleasure is also the God of all consolation ; and both have their source on high, from this fatherly and motherly heart. Man knows not, but God only, the best way and the best time. The best of all educational institutions for our whole race is this dear death ; the best Philanthropinum is that spiritual world, full of innocent and perfect souls, that high institution of real virtuosos, and of the mothers of us all. In a letter to Bucholtz, who had also lost a son, he wrote : The natural disproportions appearing upon the census-lists may perhaps have their deepest foundation in the political arithmetic of heaven ; which is obliged to recruit itself from these innocent classes.! " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," said the founder of the covenant of baptism, the living God; therefore they all live with him. The dead boy lives, not only in the feelings and hearts of those who have loved him and seen him, but his life on high will act like a magnet on us, to draw us toward the place and condition in which he is ; whither he has gone as our fore- runner, perhaps, to fulfill the duties of the first-born toward his brothers and sis- ters, as a protecting spirit a l id good angel, better than can be done by flesh and blood. Which of us knows for what the Father of Spirits may destine his l 'animu- la. vagula, blandula?'" And are not his dispensations intended to cultivate in us some heavenly characteristics ; to wean us from earthly pleasures, which are only transient food, and do not endure until a better life; and to accustom us to higher enjoyments ? Having thus collected some of Hamann's scattered thoughts upon education, to facilitate a judgment upon them collectively, I return to his usually uniform life. The society of eminent men, whom he met in Konigsberg, especially Kant and Hippel, and a correspondence with others, Herder, F. II. Jacobi, Moser, Klopstock,