Introduction. XlH

of what has been accomplished, and make an actual study

of the educational establishments which have been founded

at different periods by those who have organized instruction.

Pedagogy is a complex affair, and there are many ways

of writing its history. One of these which has been too

little considered, and which would surely be neither the

least interesting nor the least fruitful, would consist in

studying, not the great writers on education and their

doctrines, not the great teachers and their methods, but

pupils themselves. If it were possible to relate in minute

detail, supposing that history would furnish us the neces-

sary information on this point, the manner in which a great

or a good man has been educated ; if an analysis could be

made of the different influences which have been involved

in the formation of talent or in the development of virtue

in the case of remarkable individuals ; if it were possible,

in a word, to reproduce through exact and personal biogra-

phies the toil, the slow elaboration whence have issued at

different periods solidity of character, rectitude of purpose,

and minds endowed with judicial fairness ; the result would

be a useful and eminently practical work, something analo-

gous to what a history of logic would be, in which there

should be set forth not the abstract rules and the formal

laws for the search after truth, but the successful experi-

ments and the brilliant discoveries which have little by

little constituted the patrimony of science. This perhaps

would be the best of logics because it is real and in action ;

and also the best of treatises on pedagogy, since there

XIV INTRODUCTION.

might be learned from it, not general truths, which are

often of difficult application and of uncertain utility, but

practical means and living methods whose happ}' and effi-

cient applications would be seen in actual use.

We have just traced the imaginary plan of a history of

pedagogy rather than the exact outline of the series of

lessons which this book contains. However, we have

approached this ideal as nearly as we have been able, by

attempting to group about the principal philosophical and

moral ideas the systems of education which they have

inspired ; by endeavoring to retain whatever is essential ;

by adding to the first rapid sketches studied and elaborate

portraits ; by ever mingling with the expositions of doc-

trines and the analysis of important works the study of

practical methods and the examination of actual institu-

tions ; and, finally, by penetrating the thought of the

great educators, to learn from them how they became such,

and by following them, as they have united practice with

theory, in the particular systems of education which they

have directed with success. 1

Division of the History of Pedagogy. — The abun-

dance and the variety of pedagogical questions, the great

number of thinkers who have written upon education, in

a word, the complexit}' of the subject, might inspire the

1 The book now offered to the public was taught before it was written.

It is the result of the lectures given for three years past, either at the

higher normal school of Fontenay-aux-Roses, or in the normal courses for

men at Sevres and at Saint Cloud.

INTRODUCTION. XV

historian of pedagogy with the idea of dividing his work,

and of distributing his studies into several series. For

example, it would be possible to write the history of educa-

tion in general by itself, and then the history of instruction,

which is but an element of education. As education itself

comprises three parts, physical education, intellectual edu-

cation, and moral education, there would be an opportu-

nity for three series of distinct studies on these different

subjects. But these divisions would present grave incon-

veniences. In general, the opinions of an educator are

not susceptible of division ; there is a connection between

his manner of regarding the matter of instruction and the

solution he gives to educational questions proper. One

mode of thinking pervades his theories or his practice in

the matter of moral discipline, and his ideas on intellectual

education. It is, then, necessary to consider each of the

different systems of education as a whole.

Perhaps a better order of division would be that which,

without regard to chronological order, should distinguish

all pedagogical doctrines and applications into a certain

number of schools, and connect all educators with certain

general tendencies : as the ascetic tendency, that of the

fathers of the church, for example, and of the middle

ages ; the utilitarian tendency of Locke, and of a great

number of moderns ; the pessimism of Port Royal, the

optimism of Ftmelon ; the literary school of the humanists

of the Renaissance, and the scientific school of Diderot

and of Condorcet. Such a mode of procedure would have

XVI INTRODUCTION.

its interest, because in the manifestations of educational

thought so apparently different it would sharply distin-

guish certain uniform principles which reappear at all

periods of history ; but this would be rather a philosopiry

of the history of education than a simple history of

pedagogy.

The best we can do, then, is to follow the chronological

order and to study in turn the educators of antiquity,

those of the middle ages, of the Renaissance, and of

modern times. We shall interrogate in succession those

who have become eminent as teachers and educators, and

ask of each how he has solved for himself the various

portions of the problems of education. Besides being

more simple and more natural, this order has the advan-

tage of showing us the progress of education .as it has

gradually risen from instinct to reflection, from nature to

art, and after long periods of groping and many halts,

ascending from humble beginnings to a complete and defi-

nite organization. This plan also exhibits to us the beau-

tiful spectacle of a humanity in a state of ceaseless growth.

At first, instruction comprised but few subjects, at the

same time that only a select few participated in it. Then

there was a simultaneous though gradual extension of the

domain of knowledge which must be acquired, of the

moral qualities demanded by the struggle for existence,

and of the number of men who are called to be instructed

and educated, — the ideal being, as Comenius has said,

that all may learn and that everything may be taught.

INTRODUCTION. Xvii

Utility of the History of Pedagogy. — The history of

pedagogy is henceforth to form a part of the course of

study for the primary normal schools of France. It has

been included in the prescribed list of subjects for the third

year, under this title : History of Pedagogy, — Principal

educators and their doctrines; Analysis of the most important

works. 1

Is argument necessary to justify the place which has

been assigned to this study? In the first place, the history

of pedagogy possesses great interest from the fact that

it is closely connected with the general history of thought

and also with the philosophic explication of human actions.

Certainly, pedagogical doctrines are neither fortuitous

opinions nor events without significance. On the one hand,

they have their causes and their principles in moral, reli-

gious, and political beliefs, of which they are the faithful

image ; on the other, they are instrumental in the train-

ing of mind and in the formation of maimers. Back of

the Patio Studiorum of the Jesuits, back of the Emile

of Rousseau, there distinctly appears a complete religion,

a complete philosophy. In the classical studies organ-

ized bv the humanists of the Renaissance we see the

dawn of that literary brilliancy which distinguished the

century of Louis XIV., and so in the scientific studies

preached a hundred years ago by Diderot and by Condorcet

there was a preparation for the positive spirit of our time.

The education of the people is :it once the consequence

1 Resolution of Aug. 3, 1881,

XVlll INTRODUCTION.

of all that it believes and the source of all that it is

destined to be.

But there are othei reasons which recommend the study

of educators and the reading of their works. The his-

tory of pedagogy is a necessary introduction to pedagogy

itself. It should be studied, not for purposes of erudi-

tion or for mere curiosity, but with a practical purpose

for the sake of finding in it the permanent truths which

are the essentials of a definite theory of education.

The desirable thing just now is not perhaps so much

to find new ideas, as properly to comprehend those which

are already current ; to choose from among them, and,

a choice once having been made, to make a resolute effort

to apply them to use. When we consider with impar-

tiality all that has been conceived or practised previous

to the nineteenth century, or when we see clearly what

our predecessors have left us to do in the way of con-

sequences to deduce, of incomplete or obscure ideas to

generalize or to illustrate, and especially of opposing

tendencies to reconcile, we may well inquire what they

have really left us to discover.

It is profitable to study even the chimeras and the

educational errors of our predecessors. In fact, these

are so many marked experiments which contribute to the

progress of our methods by warning us of the rocks

which we should shun. A thorough analysis of the

paradoxes of Rousseau, and of the absurd consequences

to which the abuse of the principle of nature leads us,

INTRODUCTION. . xbt

is no loss instructive than meditation on the wisest

precepts of Montaigne or of Port Royal.

In truth, for him who has an exact knowledge of the

educators of past centuries, the work of constructing a

system of education is more than half done. It remains

only to co-ordinate the scattered truths which have been

collected from their works by assimilating them through

personal reflection, and by making them fruitful through

psychological analysis and moral faith.

Let it be observed that as studied by the men who

first conceived and practised them, pedagogical methods

present themselves to our examination with a sharpness

of outline that is surprising. Innovators lend to what-

ever they invent a personal emphasis, something life-like

and occasionally extravagant ; but it is exactly this which

permits us the better to comprehend their thought, and

the more completely to discover its truth or its falsity.

However, it is not alone the intellectual advantage

which recommends the history of pedagogy ; it is also

the moral stimulus which will be derived from the study.

For the sake of encourag-ins; to noble efforts the men

and women who are our teachers, is it of no moment

to present to them the names of Comenius, Rollin, and

Pestalozzi as men who have attained such high excellence

in their profession? AVill not the teacher who each day

resumes his heavy burden be revived and sustained?

Will he not enter his class-room, where so many diffi-

culties and toils await him, a better and a stronger man

xx INTRODUCTION.

if his imagination teems with articulate memories of those

who, in the past, have opened for him the way, and

shown him by their example how to walk in it? By

the marvellous agency of electricity we are now able to

transport material and mechanical power, and to cause

its transfer across space without regard to distance. But

by reading and by meditation we are able to do some-

thing analogous to this in the moral world ; we are able

to borrow from the ancients, across the centuries, some-

thing of the moral energy that inspired them, and to

make live again in our own hearts some of their virtues

of devotion and faith. Doubtless a brief history of

pedagogy could not, from this point of view, serve as

a substitute for the actual reading of the authors in

question ; but it is a preparation for this work and

inspires a taste for it.

We are warranted in saying, then, that the utility of

the history of pedagogy blends with the utility of ped-

agogy itself. To-day it is no longer necessary for us to

offer any proof on this point. Pedagogy, long neglected

even in our country, has regained its standing ; naj-

more, it has become the fashion. "France is becoming

addicted to pedagog}-" was a remark recently made by

one of the men who, of our clay, will have contributed

most to excite and also to direct the taste for peda-

gogical studies. 1 The words pedagogue, xiedagogy, have

1 See the Article of M. Pe'caut iu the Revue Pe'dagogique, No. 2, 1882.

INTRODUCTION. XXI

encountered dangers in the history of our language.

Littre" tells us that the word pedagogue " is most often

used in a bad sense." On the other hand, we shall

see, if we consult his dictionary, that several years ago

the sense of the word pedagogy was not yet fixed,

since it is there defined as " the moral education of

children." To-day, not only in language, but in facts and

in institutions, the fate of pedagogy is settled. Of course

we must neither underrate it nor attribute to it a sovereign

and omnipotent efficiency that it does not have. We

might freely say of pedagogy what Sainte-Beuve said

of logic : The best is that which does not argue in its

own favor ; which is not enamoured of itself, but which

modestly recognizes the limits of its power. The best

is that which we make for ourselves, not that which we

learn from books.

Even with this reserve, the teaching of pedagogy is

destined to render important services to the cause of

education, and education, let us be assured, is in the

way of acquiring a fresh importance day by day. This

is due to the fact, first, that under a liberal govern-

ment, and in a republican society, it is more and

more necessary that the citizens shall be instructed and

enlightened. Liberty is a dangerous thing unless it has

instruction for a counterpoise. Moreover, we must rec-

ollect that in our day, among those occult coadjutors of

which we have spoken, and which at all times add their

action to that of education proper, some have lost their

XX1 * INTRODUCTION.

influence, while others, so far from co-operating in this

movement, oppose it and compromise it. On the one

hand, religion has seen her influence curtailed. She is

no longer, as she once was, the tutelary power under

whose shadow the rising generations peacefully matured.

It is necessary that education, through the progress of

the reason and through the reflective development of

morality, should compensate for the waning influence of

religion.

On the other hand, social conditions, the very progress

of civil and political liberty, the growing independence

accorded the child in the family, the multiplication of

books, good and bad, all these collateral agents of educa-

tion are not always compliant and useful aids. They

would prove the accomplices of a moral decadence did

not our teachers make an effort as much more vigorous

to affect the will and the heart, as well as the mind,

in order to establish character, and thus assure the re-

cuperation of our country.

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GABRIEL

COMPAYRE. 1

Gabriel Compayre was bora Jan. 2, 1843, at Albi, a

city of Southern France, containing about fifteen thousand

inhabitants, and the capital of the province of Tarn. His

early education was received from his father, a man of

sterling character, and the author of a book entitled, His-

torical Studies Concerning the Albigenses.

He passed from his father's care to the college of Castres,

then to the lycee of Toulouse, and finally to the lycee Louis-

le-Grand at Paris. His fellow-pupils recall with pleasure

his triumphs at these institutions of learning. His brilliant

intellectual powers, his vivid imagination, his well-stored

memory, and his unwearied industry, marked him as des-

tined to render signal services to his race.

He entered the Ecole Normale Saperieure in 1862. His

tastes led him to philosophical studies ; indeed, he had

already manifested a strong tendency to moral and intel-

lectual science. Yet his intensely practical nature could

not long remain satisfied with metaphysical subtleties where

he found no sure foot-hold. He became a warm advocate

of experimental methods, and of the Baconian philosophy.

He set himself to a study of man as he appears in society

1 Furnished by Mr. Geo. E. Gay, Principal of the Maiden High School.

XXIV LIFE OF GABRIEL COMPAYRE.

and in the family ; to the analysis of his emotions and his

acts, and to the deduction, from these analyses, of those

rules which ought to preside over his conduct and his intel-

lectual and moral development.

He graduated from the normal school in 1865, and was

immediately appointed professor of philosophy at the lycee

of Pau. A lecture upon Rousseau, which he delivered here,

brought upon him the severe condemnation of the ultra-

montane party, and involved him in a controversy which

has continued to the present time.

In 1868, having been made a fellow of the University, he

was sent to the lycee of Poitiers. At this place he mani-

fested his sympathy for the common people by a course of

lectures to workmen on moral subjects. About this time

he received honorable mention from the Academy for an

eloquent eulogy upon Rousseau, in which he carefully por-

trayed the influence of Rousseau upon the government of

his country and upon methods of school instruction, giving

him full credit for the reform in both.

From this time forward Compayr^'s life has been filled

with labors and with honors. In addition to his pro-

fessional duties and philosophical writings, he has made

careful study of the social and political questions of his

country.

Promoted from one post of honor to another, on the

14th of July, 1880, he was appointed Chevalier of the

Legion of Honor.

In 1874 he presented his theme for his doctor's degree

upon the Philosophy of David Hume, a work of the highest

.LIFE OF GABRIEL COMPAYRE. XXV

philosophical thought and language, which received a prize

from the Academy.

Between 1874 and 1880 his lectures were largely devoted

to the subjects most closely connected with modern thought.

A Study of Darwinism, The Psychology of a Child, Educa-

tional Principles, are subjects that indicate the sweep of

his investigations. The brilliancy of his style, the liber-

ality of his opinions, and the extent of his learning have

exposed him to bitter attacks from those who envy his

powers and disbelieve his doctrines ; yet his popularity has

continually increased, and the young professor has become

a great power in the party of the republic, to whose cause

he early devoted himself.

The works which he published during this period were

numerous. He translated with great care, adding valua-

ble matter of his own : Bain's Inductive and Deductive

Logic, Huxley's Hume, His Life and Philosophy, and

Locke's Thoughts on Education. His most considerable

work is his History of the Doctrine of Education in France

since the Sixteenth Century, a work of two volumes, pub-

lished in 1879, which reached its fourth edition in France

in 1883, has been translated entire into German, and

from which numerous extracts have been made for the

educational journals of England and America. If we add

to these labors his work upon the Revue Philosojyhique,

and the Dictionnaire de Pidagogie, we shall understand

why he was called to Paris in 1881, by the Minister of

Public Instruction, to aid in founding the prole Xomude

Superieure des Institutrices, de Fonlenay-aux-JRoses. He

XXVI LIFE OF GABRIEL COMPAYRE.

successfully arranged the course of instruction for this

school. In the same year he assisted in the organization

of a new school at Sevres, which prepares young teachers

for the course of instruction in the normal schools.

In 1880 he published his Manual of Civil and Moral

Instruction, in two courses, or parts. This book has had

a remarkable career. In less than three 3-ears more than

three hundred thousand copies of the first part, and over

five hundred thousand of the second part, were sold.

In 1882, in conjunction with a friend, M. A. Delplan,

an author of merit, he published his Civil and Moral Lec-

tures. In 1883 he published a Course of Civil Instruction

for normal schools.

Compayre" entered political life in 1881, having been

elected deputy froru the arrondissement of Lavaur in Tarn.

He occupies a distinguished position among the men of

to-day ; his character, his talents, his popularity, and his

devotion to the cause of civil and intellectual freedom,

give him the assurance of a place no less important among

the men of the future.

In his personal appearance Compayre* combines the

scholar and the man of the world. His dark hair, parted

in the middle, is combed back from a forehead very high

and very broad. His eye is bright and piercing, and his

face, clean shaven except upon the upper lip, bears the

impress of both his ingenuousness and his indomitable

perseverance.

THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY,

THE

HISTOEY OF PEDAGOGY.

CHAPTER I.

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS J EDUCATION AMONG THE HINDOOS ;

POLITICAL CASTE AND RELIGIOUS PANTHEISM J EFFECTS ON EDUCA-

TION J BUDDHISTIC REFORM; CONVERSATION OF BUDDHA AND

PURNA ; EDUCATIONAL USAGES J EDUCATION AMONG THE ISRAEL-

ITES J PRIMITIVE PERIOD; RELIGIOUS AND NATIONAL EDUCATION;

PROGRESS OF POPULAR INSTRUCTION; ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS J

RESPECT FOR TEACHERS; METHODS AND DISCIPLINE; EXCLUSIVE

AND JEALOUS SPIRIT; EDUCATION AMONG THE CHINESE; FORMAL-

ISM; LAO-TSZE AND KHUNG-TSZE (CONFUCIUS) ; EDUCATION AMONG

OTHER PEOPLE OF THE EAST; THE EGYPTIANS AND THE PERSIANS;

ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.

1 . Preliminary Considerations. — A German historian of

philosophy begins his work by asking this question: " Was

Adam a philosopher?" In the same way certain historians

of pedagogy begin by learned researches upon the education

of savages. AVe shall not carry our investigations so far

back. Doubtless from the day when a human family began

its existence, from the day when' a father and a mother began

to love their children, education had an existence. But there

is very little practical interest in studying these obscure be-

ginnings of pedagogy. It is a matter of erudition and curi-

Z THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

osity. 1 Besides the difficulty of gathering up the faint traces

of primitive education, there would be but little profit in

painfully following the slow gropings of primeval man. In

truth, the history of pedagogy dates but from the period

relatively recent, when human thought, in the matter of edu-

cation, substituted reflection for instinct, art for blind nature.

So we shall hasten to begin the study of pedagogy among

the classical peoples, the Greeks and the Romans, after hav-

ing thrown a rapid glance over some Eastern nations consid-

ered either in their birthplace and remote origin, or in their

more recent development.

2. The Pedagogy of the Hindoos. — It would not be

worth our while to enter into details respecting a civilization

so different from our own as that of the Hindoos. But we

should not forget that we are in part the descendants of that

people, and that we belong to the same ethnic group, and

that the European languages are derived from theirs.

3. Political Caste and Religious Pantheism. — The

spirit of caste, from the social point of view, and pantheism,

from the religious point of view, are the characteristics of

Hindoo society. The Indian castes constituted hereditary

1 A knowledge of the mental and moral condition of savages serves the

invaluable purpose of showing what education has accomplished for the

human race. There would he much less grumbling at the tax-gatherer if

men could clearly conceive the condition of societies where no taxes are

levied. To know what education has actually done we need to know the

condition of societies unaffected by systematic education. Such a book as

Lubbock's Origin of Civilization is a helpful introduction to the history of

education. Whoever reads such a book carefully will be confronted with

this problem: How is it that intellectual inertness, amounting almost to

stupidity, is frequently the concomitant of an acute and persistent sense-

training? Besides, savage tribes are historical illustrations of what has

been produced on a large scale by " following Nature." (P.)

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 3

classes where social rank and special vocation were deter-

mined, not by free choice, but by the accident of birth. The

consequence of this was an endless routine, with no care

either for the individuality, or the personal talents, or the

inclination of children, and without the possibility of rising

by personal effort above one's rank in life. 1 On the other

hand, religious ideas came to restrict, within the limits where

it was already imprisoned, the activity of the young Hindoo.

God is everywhere present ; he manifests himself in all the

phenomena of heaven and earth, in the sun and in the stars,

in the Himalayas and in the Ganges ; he penetrates and ani-

mates everything ; the things of sense are but the changing

and ephemeral vestments of the unchangeable being. " With

this pantheistic conception of the world and of life, the

thought and the will of the Hindoo perished in the mystic

contemplation of the soul. To become master of one's in-

clinations ; to abandon every terrestrial thought ; after this

life to lose one's identity, and to be annihilated by absorp-

tion in the divine nature ; to prepare one's self b}' macera-

tions and expiations for complete submersion in the original

principle of all being, — this is the highest wisdom, the true

happiness of the Hindoo, the ideal of all serious education." 2

1 There is an argument for caste in the modern fiction of a " beautiful

economy of Nature," which plants human beings in society as it does trees

in the earth, and thus makes education consist in tin; action of environment

upon man and in the reaction of man upon his environment. To support

existence, man needs certain endowments; but the force of circumstances

creates these very endowments. One man is predestined to be a Red

Indian, another a Bushman, and still another an accountant; and in each

case the function of education is to adapt the man to the place where

Nature has fixed him. This modern justification of caste is adroitly

worked out by Mr. Spencer in the first chapter of his Education. (1\)

2 Dittes, Hisloirc del' Education et <!• I' instruction, translated byRedolfi,

1880, p. 38.

4 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

4. Effects on Education. — It is easy to predict what

education would become under the weight of these double

chains, social and religious. While the ideal in our modern

societies is more and more to enfranchise the individual, and

to create for him personal freedom and self-consciousness,

the effort of the Hindoo Brahmins consisted above all in

crushing out all spontaneity, in abolishing individual predi-

lections, by preaching the doctrine of absolute self-renuncia-

tion, of voluntary abasement, and of contempt for life.

Man was thus born doubly a slave, — by his social condition,

which predestinated him to the routine apprenticeship of his

ancestral caste, and by his mysterious dependence on the

divine being who absorbed in himself all real activity, and

left to human beings ouby the deceptive and frail appearance

of it.

5. Buddhist Reform. — The Buddhist reform, which so

profoundly affected Brahmanism at about the sixth century

B.C., did not sensibly modify, from the educational point of

view, the ideas of the Hindoos. Buddha also taught that

the cause of evil resides in the passions of men, and that in

order to attain moral peace, there is no other means to be

employed than that of self-abnegation and of the renounce-

ment of everything selfish and personal.

G. Conversation of Buddha and Purna. — One of the

traditions which permit us the better to appreciate the origi-

nal character, at once affecting and ingenuous, of Indian

thought, is the conversation of Buddha with his disciple

Purna about a journey the latter was going to undertake to

the barbarians for the purpose of teaching them the new

religion : —

" They are men," said Buddha, " who are fiery in temper,

passionate, cruel, furious, insolent. If they openly address

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 5

you iii words which are malicious and coarse, and become

angry with you, what will you think?"

"If they address me to my face in coarse and insolent

terms, this is what I shall think : they are certainly good

men who openly address me in malicious terms, but they will

neither strike me with their hands nor stone me."

"But should they strike you with their hands and stone

you, what will you think?"

" I shall think that they are good men, gentle men, who

strike me with their hands and stone me, but do not beat me

with a club nor with a sword."

" But if they boat you with a club and with a sword?"

" They are good men, gentle men, who beat me with a

club and with a sword, but they do not completely kill me."

" But if they were really to kill you? "

" They are good men, gentle men, who deliver me with so

iittle pain from this body encumbered with defilements."

"Very good, Puma! You may live in the country of

those barbarians. Go, Puma ! Being liberated, liberate ;

being consoled, console ; having reached Nirvana thus made

perfect, cause others to go there." 1

Whatever there is to admire in such a strange system of

morals should not blind us to the vices which resulted from

its practical consequences : such as the abuse of passive

resignation, the complete absence of the idea of right and of

justice, and no active virtues.

7. Effects ox Education. — Little is known of the

actual statt' of educational practice among the Hindoos. It

may be said, however, that the Brahmins, the priests, had

the exclusive charge of education. Woman, in absolute

subjection to man, had no share whatever in instruction.

iBurncraf, Introduction a I'histoire du Bouddhisme, p. 252.

6 THE HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY.

As to boys, it seems that in India there were always

schools for their benefit; schools which were held in the

open country under the shade of trees, or, in case of bad

weather, under sheds. Mutual instruction has been prac-

tised in India from the remotest antiquity ; it is from here,

in fact, that Andrew Bell, at the close of the eighteenth

century, borrowed the idea of this mode of instruction.

Exercises in writing were performed first upon the sand with

a stick, then upon palm leaves with an iron style, and

finally upon the dry leaves of the plane-tree with ink. In

discipline there was a resort to corporal punishment; besides

the rod the teacher employed other original means of correc-

tion ; for example, he threw cold water on the offender.

The teacher, moreover, was treated with a religious respect ;

the child must respect him as he would Buddha himself.

The higher studies were reserved for the priestly class,

who, long before the Christian era, successfully cultivated

rhetoric and logic, astronomy and the mathematics.

8. Education among the Iskaelites. — "If ever a peo-

ple has demonstrated the power of education, it is the people

of Israel." 1 In fact, what a singular spectacle is offered us

by that people, which, dispossessed of its own country for

eighteen hundred years, has been dispersed among the

nations without losing its identity, and has maintained its

existence without a country, without a government, and

without a ruler, preserving with perennial energy its habits,

its manners, and its faith ! Without losing sight of the part

of that extraordinary vitality of the Jewish people, which is

due to the natural endowments of the race, its tenacity of

temperament, and its wonderful activity of intelligence, it is

just to attribute another part of it to the sound education,

i Dittes, p. 49.

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 7

at once religious and national, which the ancient Hebrews

have transmitted by tradition to their descendants.

9. Education, Religious and National, during the

Primitive Period. — The c-hief characteristic of the educa-

tion of the Hebrews in the earliest period of their history is

that it was essentially domestic. During the whole Biblical

period there is no trace of public schools, at least for young

children. Family life is the origin of that primitive society

where the notion of the state is almost unknown, and where

God is the real king.

The child was to become the faithful servant of Jehovah.

To this end it was not needful that he should be learned.

It was only necessary that he should learn through language

and the instructive example of his parents the moral precepts

and the religious beliefs of the nation. It has been very

justly said 1 that " among all nations the direction impressed

on education depends on the idea which they form of the

perfect man. Among the Romans it is the brave soldier,

inured to fatigue, and readily yielding to discipline ; among

the Athenians it is the man who unites in himself the happy

harmony of moral and physical perfection ; among the

Hebrews the perfect man is the pious, virtuous man, who is

capable of attaining the ideal traced by God himself in these

terms : ' Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am

holy ! ' " 2

The discipline was harsh, as is proved by many passages

in the Bible : " He that spareth his rod, hateth his son," say

the Proverbs; '-but he that loveth him chasteneth him

betimes." 3 " Withhold not correction from the child, for if

1 L'ddvcation et V 'instruction chezles anciens .tint's, by J. Simon, Paris,

1879, p. 1<>.

2 Levit. xix. 2. 3 Prow xiii. 24.

8 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt

beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." 1

And still more significant: " Chasten thy son while there is

hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." 2

Only boys, it seems, learned to read and write. As to

girls, they were taught to spin, to weave, to prepare food for

the table, to superintend the work of the household, and

also to sing and to dance.

In a word, intellectual culture was but an incident in the

primitive education of the Hebrews ; the great thing, in their

eyes, was moral and religious instruction, and education in

love of country. Fathers taught their children the nation's

history, and the great events that had marked the destiny

of the people of God. That series of events celebrated

by the great feasts which were often renewed, -and in which

the children participated, served at once to fill their hearts

with gratitude to God and with love for their country.

10. Progress of Popular Instruction. — It is not easy

to conceive to what extent the zeal for instruction was devel-

oped among the ancient Jews in the years that followed the

advent of Christianity. From being domestic, as it had been

up to that time, Jewish education became public. Besides,

it was no longer sufficient to indoctrinate children with good

principles and wholesome moral habits ; they must also be

instructed. From the first centuries of the Christian era,

the Israelites approached our modern ideal, with respect to

making education obligatory and universal. Like every

brave nation that has been vanquished, whose energy has

survived defeat, like the Prussians after Jena, or the

French after 1870, the Jews sought to defend themselves

against the effects of conquest by a great intellectual effort,

i Prov. xxiii. 13, 14. 2 Prov. xix. 18.

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 9

and to regain their lost ground by the development of popu-

lar instruction.

11. Organization of Schools. -- In the year G4, the

high priest, Joshua Ben Gamala, imposed on each town,

under pain of excommunication, the obligation to support a

school. If the town is cut in two by a river, and there is

no means of transit by a safe bridge, a school must be estab-

lished on each side. Even to-dav we are far from having

realized, as regards the number of schools and of teachers,

this rule stated in the Talmud: If the number of children

does not exceed twenty-five, the school shall be conducted

by a single teacher ; for more than twenty -five, the town

shall employ an assistant ; if the number exceeds forty,

there shall be two masters.

12. Respect for Teachers. — In that ancient time, what

an exalted and noble conception men had of teachers.

" those true guardians of the city " ! Even then, how exact-

ing were the requirements made of them! But, on the other

hand, how they were esteemed and respected ! The Rabbins

required that the schoolmaster should be married; they

mistrusted teachers who were not at the same time heads of

families. Is it possible to enforce the advantages of matu-

rity and experience more delicately than in this beautiful

language? "lie who learns of a young master is like a man

who eats green grapes, and drinks wine fresh from the

press; but he who lias a master of mature years is like a

man who eats ripe and delicious grapes, and drinks old

wine." Mildness, patience, and unselfishness were recom-

mended as the ruling virtues of the teacher. " If your

teacher and your father." says the Talmud, "have need of

your assistance, help your teacher before helping your

father, for the latter has given you only the life of this

10 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

world, while the former has secured for you the life of the

world to come." 1

13. Method and Discipline. — The child entered school

at the age of six. "If a child below the age of six is

brought to your school," says the Talmud, "you need not

receive him " ; and to indicate that after that age it is proper

to regain the lost time, the Talmud acids, " After the age of

six, receive the child, and load him like an ox." On the

contrary, other authorities of the same period, more judicious

and far-seeing, recommend moderation in tasks, and say

that it is necessary to treat ' ' the }'oung according to their

strength, and the grown-up according to theirs."

There was taught in the Jewish schools, along with reading

and writing, 2 a little of natural history, and a great deal of

geometry and astronomy. Naturally, the Bible was the first

book put in the hands of children. The master interspersed

moral lessons with the teaching of reading. He made a

special effort to secure a correct pronunciation, and multi-

plied his explanations in order to make sure of being under-

stood, repeating his comments even to the four-hundredth

time if it were necessary. It seems that the methods were

suggestive and attractive, and the discipline relatively mild.

There were but few marks of the proverbial severity of the

ancient times. "Children," says the Talmud, "should be

punished with one hand, and caressed with two." The

Christian spirit, the spirit of him who had said " suffer the

1 On similar grounds, Alexander declared that he owed more to Aristotle

his teacher, than to Philip his father. ( P.)

2 What were the methods followed in teaching reading and writing?

We are told by Renan in his Vie de Jtsus that " Jesus doubtless learned to

read and write according to the method of the East, which consists in

putting into the hands of the child a book which he repeats in concert with

his comrades till he knows it by heart."

EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. 11

little children to come unto me," had affected the Jews them-

selves. However, corporal punishment was tolerated to a

certain extent, but, strange to say, only for children above

the age of eleven. In case of disobedience, a pupil above

that age might be deprived of food, and even struck with a

strap of shoe-leather.